The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 15

  “Damn, I forgot you were even there.” I chuckled a bit, and charged at Cynthia. Aside from her Strength, which was preoccupied with the shield, I still had better physical stats then her. I started out moving purposefully slow, allowing her enough time to react to my attacks. Since only one hand was taken with the shield, the sword was still able to intercept my staff and knock it off course.

  Cynthia has unlocked the Talent Hidden Strength.

  Hidden Strength? Is that like the Speed talent for Agility? Silently, I opened up her character sheet, and saw that thanks to that talent she had a bonus five points to her strength. That’s a good talent she received. With this, she’ll be able to use that shield in no time!

  After about half an hour of training, her Hidden Strength had gained two more levels, as did her Swordsmanship. If I had to guess, her Shield talent wouldn’t increase until she met the requirements to wield it. Looking again at her character information, I was surprised by what I saw.

  Name: Cynthia

  Race: Human

  Title: Hard Worker

  Fame: 40

  Gild: 4119

  Level: 50

  Health: 725

  Mana: 0

  Strength: 125+17

  Agility: 30

  Endurance: 135

  Wisdom: 20

  Intelligence: 20

  Luck: 40

  Attack: 10 + 115

  Defense: 10 + 118.75

  Talents: Swordsmanship 22, Shield 20, Heavy Armor 10, Hidden Strength 3

  Title Bonuses: +10 all stats, +20 Luck

  Hidden Strength had increased to level three, so I had expected the bonus to be fifteen points, not seventeen. Maybe it was increasing it by a percentage? In this half hour I had only managed to increase my Arcane Staff talent by one, but doing so raised Denise’s Archery to twenty-nine. Just one more and she would reach the master level!

  “Okay Denise, your turn.” Even though it would just take one more level before Denise mastered Archery, the deal was that once she was able to use that shield normally we’d swap. And, from what I could tell she was moving almost as well as she had been before we got her new gear. Well, there are other ways that I can level.

  “Alright~!” Denise hopped to her feet happily, moving over to stand where I was as I walked to sit by the tree. “I’ll try to match your level, okay?” She smiled to Cynthia, and really aside from her speed there wasn’t much difference between their stats anymore.

  “Oh… okay…” Cynthia nodded, watching me as I walked off, and then looked back to Denise.

  Once I sat down at the tree, I stopped paying attention to the sounds of clashing metal from their fight. If one of them needed a heal, they’d let me know. “Hey, Kirasami, got a minute?”

  The friendly neighborhood ninja dropped down beside me, landing cross-legged. “Sure, what’s up?”

  “How much do you know about Mana Stones?”

  “Well… I know that they are rare blacksmithing materials used to make weapons with special effects. One of my swords has a Night Stone in it.”

  “I see.. I picked up a couple stones from the blacksmith today, and I wanted to try making one.” I hadn’t practiced yet to see if I could create the ‘mana’ materials, but this seemed like a good chance.

  “Make them? You can do that?” Kirasami blinked at me, surprised.

  “One of my talents is Origin Magic, you saw. It’s a magic to create things. I’ve only gotten a couple spells, but I wanted to see if I could make materials like Mana Wood and Mana Stones.” Reaching into my pack, I pulled out the two stones I collected from the blacksmith. “In order to make them, I think I need to understand how they are created naturally, though.”

  “Alright, I think I follow. So, what do you want me for?”

  Holding one hand out, I passed him the black stone, which held darkness magic. “I want you to study this one while I work on the other one. I figure as a ninja, you should know a thing or two about darkness. Then we’ll assemble what we came up with, and see if I’m right.”

  Seeing the stone I handed to him, he nodded. “Alright. I’ve never actually seen one of these outside of a piece of equipment before.” Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a small magnifying glass, like an appraiser would use to measure the value of a gem.

  I didn’t use anything like that, and instead activated my Scan spell, gazing into the Water Stone I was holding. Even if the blacksmith hadn’t told me the spell that it contained, the runes that were written inside the diagram within were clearly a fog spell. But that wasn’t all, there were also various other runes, hidden away in the fabric of the stone. If I had to explain it, they were like leftover pieces from a puzzle.

  “Yeah, this one has a spell I recognize. It’s one I started using a while ago, to lower the light in an area.” Kirasami nodded as he looked over his stone.

  “Do you have any detection magic you can use on the stone? I’m getting something strange here. There are runes in the stone not part of the spell.”

  “Yeah, give me just a second.” Kirasami paused, likely flipping through his interface. “Ah, here it is. In my eyes, all things are as one.” Suddenly, his eyes began glowing just like mine had. “Yup, I’ve got them here too. I’m seeing fire, light, hell even a couple non-specific runes for targeting just floating in the stone.”

  Seeing the spell he used, I chuckled. “You should master the Scan spell. At its highest level, it gives you a form of astral projection. Would be perfect for you.”

  When I said that, Kirasami jerked his head up to look at me with a grin. “You don’t say? Thanks for the tip. So, what do you think of these stones?”

  “Honestly? I think the spell they ended up with is a coincidence… That’s the only way I can describe it. I know that Mana Wood and Mana Stones are created when magic seeps into the earth over long periods of time. With the stones, maybe the runes in that magic condense, and come together to form patterns. Hmm… I’ve got a theory. Do you have a regular gem on you? Like a ruby or something?”

  Kirasami looked at me questioningly, and then dug around in his pocket, tossing me an emerald. “What is it?”

  We both had our answer once we turned our Scan spells to the emerald. It wasn’t something you’d usually consider, since gems were naturally occurring in our world, but sure enough there were runes in this stone he handed me. “Okay… I think I’ve got it. The only difference between a Fire Stone and say… a ruby, would be that the runes in the Fire Stone lined up to form a spell.”

  “So… if someone could rearrange the runes in a regular gem, they could create their own Mana Stones?”

  “It’s possible, but you’d need some advanced magic for that. Now, I know I can make gems, because I’ve done it before. So, since I understand the process…” I grinned, pulling out my spellbook and opening it up.

  “Huh, really go all out, don’t you?”

  “Hmm?” I glanced over to him, and then down to my book. “Ah, sorry. They only give these to people who graduate. I use it out of habit now, it just feels more real to me.”

  “I understand. So, you were saying?”

  “Right, so, let’s see if this works.” I flipped to one of the newest pages, putting my hand a few inches above the ground. “I who understands the origins, have taken and written it anew. Become my light, become my shield, and become the blade that divides the world.”

  Focusing on the image of a ruby, I let the first stage of the spell do its thing. Kirasami was in the normal world yesterday, so he hadn’t seen this spell. Now, he was just staring at the blue strings of mana pouring from my arm into the diagram. Once they were all joined, they tinted red, forming into a ruby the size of my fist.

  As soon as the ruby was formed, the spell froze to wait for my changes. These spells left me with just a single percent of my magic, but that was enough to keep my Scan spell active. Looking into the ruby, I saw the various runes, pulling them towards the center and changing the ones I didn’t need. I didn’t
feel like creating a whole new spell, so I arranged them in the pattern of the only advanced fire magic I knew.

  After a couple of minutes, the runes fell into place like the pieces of a puzzle, the circles and lines of the diagram forming on their own and lighting up the core of the gem. “Okay… good. I was worried that wouldn’t work.” I smirked a bit, my mana having recovered during the fine tuning process.

  “Dude… you know you just made something worth at least a thousand gild, right? Probably more if you consider the size.”

  “Oh, just wait.” Grabbing the ruby as it fell to the ground, I held it up to face the sky. Pouring mana into the ruby, it began glowing before a pillar of fire shot into the air above me, about a foot and a half wide and ten feet long. “So they can be activated before being embedded. Good to know.”

  Magical Knowledge has increased to 26

  Origin Magic has increased to 11

  Cynthia has increased Hidden Strength to 4

  Denise has reached the master level of Archery!

  So it really was good to know. At the same time as I received those two levels, Denise reached the master level for archery, and Cynthia leveled enough to truly use her shield normally. Kirasami was still mesmerized by my Origin magic, though. “So… is there any limit to what you can make with that?”

  “Ah, for some reason I can’t make currency. I’ve got to use my unique magic for that. Also, typically, the items I make are of average quality or less. I was hoping there would be an exception if I learned a craft skill and understood how the objects were created, but I haven’t tried it yet.”

  “Well, what are you waiting for? You’ve got time now, right?”

  “Yeah, but first I want to make the Mana Stones for Cynthia’s armor. You can help yourself to these three, I don’t need them anymore. And as you know, I don’t need the money.” I chuckled a bit at that, and Kirasami laughed before grabbing up the three stones.

  “So, what kind of effect do you want to give her armor?”

  “Her shield carries a defense and heal, her sword carries flame. I’m not really sure what I should make to put in her armor. Why, you got any ideas?”

  Kirasami thought it over for a few minutes, and nodded. “She’s supposed to be your frontline fighter, right? So how about a Strength boost? You able to work up a spell like that?”

  Strength boost? That wouldn’t necessarily be Enchant Power, I want something a bit more, that will increase her physical performance in all areas. “I should be able to come up with something.” Putting my hand on the ground, I silently cast Sculpt Earth and Stone, the dirt shifting to form the outline of the circle.

  “Just one thing after another with you… I’ve got to learn that spell. It would do wonders for setting traps.”

  “Don’t bother, you’ve got to get it to the master level before it’s this fast.” Gradually, the circle began filling itself in for runes to boost strength, speed, stamina, and defense.

  Enchant Body has been added to your Spell List

  As soon as the spell was added to my list, I erased the diagram. “Okay, now for the hard part.”

  “What’s the hard part?”

  “I don’t know what kind of gem resonates with enchantment magic.” I knew all of the elemental stones, but beyond that it was a mystery.

  “Well, how about you just start with a clear diamond, and see if you can form the magic in that?”

  “Yeah… maybe.” I put my hand down to the ground again, making sure my Scan spell was active before I again chanted the spell for Create Intermediate Object. This time, like he said, I pictured a clear diamond, and I was not disappointed.

  After the diamond had been formed, and the spell was at the fine-tuning stage, I dove into it with my sight. As I expected, the runes I saw were mostly related to wind magic. That wasn’t a problem, though, since I could modify the runes during this stage of the process. I began changing them into what I needed, and at the same time the diamond itself changed. When I had gathered all the runes I need, the previously clear jewel became a deep blue lapis lazuli. At least, that’s what the information called it. Barely visible through its surface, the spell diagram for Enchant Body was forming at its core.

  “Very nice… Is that what it was supposed to turn into? A blue marble?” Kirasami was skeptical, looking over the jewel as the spell ended and it fell to the ground.

  “Trust me… it worked. I don’t know if it is very strong, but that might depend on the skill of the blacksmith rather than the gem. Either way, given the creation process I can guarantee there aren’t any impurities.”

  “That’s true. I guess you’ll see tomorrow.” Now that her Strength had risen about one hundred and fifty, Cynthia was fighting much more easily, and gaining levels faster and faster. She stopped gaining levels in her Hidden Strength talent, but that was likely because she wasn’t pushing her strength anymore.

  “Yeah, hopefully this combination should be good for her. After we leave here, I want to visit some friends of mine and introduce her before we travel around.”

  “Any idea where you’re going next?” Kirasami smiled, jumping back up to hang upside down from a branch.

  “I think I’ll visit the dwarves after I leave the Shattered Realm. Then the goblins if I get the chance. I want to save them for last, though, because there’s not as much I’d gain from them.” Now that I didn’t need my grimoire anymore, I closed it, letting it fade back into my bracelet.

  “Why visit the goblins at all? I understand that they are the last race a foreigner can choose to be, but there really isn’t anything you can get from them that you can’t get from another race.”

  “I know, but I’ve got to visit them anyways. Besides, there might be other hidden races I discover along the way, like the demons.”

  “What, you plan on meeting angels, too?”

  Grimacing at the thought, I shook my head. “They probably want me dead, so I’d rather avoid that.”

  “...Why would the angels want you dead?” Kirasami tilted his head to the side, a rather curious expression for one hanging upside down.

  “I may have fixed a loophole in the truce that they were exploiting to attack demons. Angels are real jerks, you know?”

  Kirasami let out another one of his drawn out laughs. “So demons are good and angels are bad, huh?”

  “Yeah. You should know about it, but when you learn a specialized branch of magic, you have to understand what that subject means.” When he nodded, I continued. “Well, the angels of this world set up religion based on that. If you are a devout follower, you will understand what it means to be a heavenly being enough to unlock holy magic. At the same time, they made sure that demons are ridiculed as the most evil existence ever.”

  “That does kind of make sense. I guess they were just better at propaganda than the demons.”

  “Well, there’s that. It doesn’t help that humans are naturally afraid of the dark. So they’d be less inclined to trust a creature born in the darkness anyways, despite their personality.” It was easier to explain this to Kirasami, since he had personally met a demon before, even if he didn’t know it at the time.

  “I guess. So, when are you going to let me meet the queen? We aren’t in the city anymore.” He grinned down to me, pointing out my complaint about being unable to call her before.

  “I… guess I could do it. Let me just let Cynthia know first. I’d rather not summon a demon in front of her and have her freak out.”

  When he agreed to that, I called Cynthia over. She was curious at first, but once I explained it seemed like she was more frightened than anything.

  “You.. you’re friends with demons…?”

  “They’re not as bad as everyone’s heard. Think about it, have I done anything wrong to anyone since we’ve met?” I pulled out the most logical argument I had. After all, I had already given Kirasami a small fortune on a whim. “Just give her a chance. I’m sure you’ll like her once you meet her.”

  �
�Yeah, she may seem odd, but she’s cool. Oh, and it helps that she’s a part of this guy’s harem too.” Denise grinned to Cynthia, who blushed a bit.

  “That is entirely almost not true. I swear I do not do this on purpose.” I sighed, shaking my head.

  “Okay.. I’ll meet her. Is there some kind of… ritual or something?”

  “Necessarily, no. However, she refuses to show up if I don’t give her a flashy entrance, so forgive me my theatrics. Hopefully this time a giant monster won’t show up when I call her.” I chuckled a bit, and Cynthia looked alarm. “Not her fault, I just grabbed the wrong thing’s attention.”

  She nodded slowly, so I pulled my book out. First step, I need darkness. “Queen of the darkness, she who rules the night, I ask thee for sanctuary in this time of need.” Gradually, my shadow spread out, merging with every other shadow and then rising from the ground to form a black sphere around us that blocked all light. “Oh, Mistress of Hell, caretaker of the underworld. There are those who wish to gaze upon your form. Appear before me, Lilith, Demon Queen of Hell.”