The Dive: Birth of a Hero Read online

  “So if it’s something simple then you can learn it right away, but the advanced spells you need to be taught personally?” Levy nodded, so I sighed. “Alright, but remember, you can’t teach the spells with that rune to anyone. I already taught one person, and found out soon after why it was such a bad idea. Lilith knows why as well, because I showed her. Maybe Dariel won’t figure out that use for it.”

  “That’s alright. I just want to be taught again~! The classes around here feel so slow now, and they cover stuff I already know”

  “Nobody’s been treating you poorly for looking like a Reborn, are they?” Demons come in evolutions rather than being born into their forms. They all start out as imps, but when they get stronger they evolve. A Reborn is sort of like a backwards evolution. I guess you could call them half-demons, because they are more human than others. The upside to this is that the Reborn get some of the best evolutions.

  “A few, but that’s alright. Thanks to the magic I learned from you, nobody has come to pick a fight a second time.” She had that wicked grin again, and laughed.

  “Well, that’s good. Alright, since I’ll be here for the next few days, I’ll teach you after the ritual. Fair?”

  You have invited Levy(Bonded Acolyte) to be your apprentice

  “Deal!” She nodded happily, especially after the window appeared. Don’t tell me, she can see through my eyes too? “No, I can’t do something like that. But I can see those weird message things. You foreigners get them all the time, right?”

  Levy(Bonded Acolyte) has become your apprentice. You are now in Mentor Mode

  “Right. And it’s good that you can see them. You’re probably the only person from this world that can without a spell.”

  Levy nodded again, and seemed to be thinking deeply about something. “Hey, Jin?” Her voice was troubled, so I was worried about what she wanted to talk about next. “I heard that. It’s alright, I just want to ask something. This world.. it’s not real, is it? You’ve thought a few times about things like NPC’s or that this is a game. It took a bit to figure out what that all meant… but were we just created by someone from your world..?” Her eyes had become watery, and I cursed myself for thinking about things like that.

  “Honestly? I don’t have the answer to that. There’s no point in lying to you, so I won’t. In my world, this place is indeed treated like a game. But I’ve never been in one that was so real. Sometimes, I entirely forget about that, and truly believe that this is a world in itself.” I was telling the truth, I had gone over a week without once thinking of this world as a game. But for Levy to hear those stray thoughts when I did think about it, and manage to piece the information together, she must be able to do more than just read surface thoughts.

  She nodded her head slightly, still looking to be on the verge of tears “Okay… I want this world to be real.. I want to be real..”

  I patted her head, and reached my arm around her to hug her close to me. She really was like a kid. “You’re as real as anyone I’ve ever met. But.. can you keep this from the others too? I don’t want them to get worried like this.” She nodded against my chest, and I felt it becoming damp from her tears.

  “You’ll stay, right? This world is your home now, too… I heard it in your thoughts… You won’t leave it?”

  “Nah, I won’t leave. Who would pester you and your mom if I wasn’t around?” That got a weak giggle from her, so I smiled. “Sorry for making you keep so many troublesome secrets.”

  “It’s alright.. I understand..” She muttered something under her breath, and I could have sworn that she called me papa. “You heard wrong!” She quickly called out after that thought. “I.. said thanks. Mom and I would hate if you left for good. She didn’t believe me when I told her you would be back. She just kept saying that she was being left alone again..”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t be going anywhere. You seem to be able to read more than just my thoughts, so you definitely know that I want to stay in this world now.”

  “Promise..?”

  “Promise. I’ll be relying on you and Lilith a lot in the future. Now, what do you say we go get our friend back?” She looked up to me and smiled, wiping at her eyes before nodding.

  “Okay…” The two of us got up off the bed and went out through the door. A few demons had gathered outside the room with anxious faces, but seemed to relax when we came out. They probably heard I was back from Lilith and didn’t believe it. I could recognize the succubus Kroa, a waitress I met during my last visit, among the crowd. When she caught me looking to her, she smiled and nodded.

  Levy, I’ll be counting on your help with this ritual. My stats are cut in half for the next few days, so I’ll need you to help me get everything working. Levy sent back an affirmative, happy to be able to help in the creation of such an important project.

  Chapter 2

  I showed Levy how to use my Sculpt Earth and Stone spell, so once we arrived on the site, the two of us immediately got to work. The area that Lilith found for us was a wide cavern, probably a kilometer in diameter. I had the feeling this wasn’t somewhere they used often, because there were hastily prepared torches lining the walls and ceiling to offer light.

  Levy, this will take pretty much every type of magic I know. If you can read my memories like I suspect, I need you to find the divination and conjuration spells.

  Got it, boss! You’ll be handling the inner rings, then? Levy and I began a mental conversation as we worked from opposite ends of the area, first creating the basic outer circle for the ritual.

  Yeah. Origin magic won’t work for this, since I’m not creating anything new. I’ll have to improvise something.

  Alright. Is it alright if I look at the information about creating new runes? I’ve been wondering how you do it.

  If you can, then sure. Just be careful how you use it. I trusted Levy with that power. To be fair, I couldn’t really not trust her, since she was nice enough to ask rather than just dig the information out. Once we get the outer circle done, let’s get together and work on designing the spells we’ll need.

  To Lilith, it probably looked like the two of us were working with a single intent. She stood off to the side of the room, smiling. “You’re always so focused, Levy. You have been spending too much time with Jin.” She laughed lightly, unaware of the communication the two of us had. Levy wanted to keep it a secret that she could send me her thoughts as well, so I let her.

  “It’s okay, mom. I really want to help bring Denise back, too. I didn’t get much of a chance to meet her, but she was an important friend to both of you. So I’m going to do everything I can!”

  Lilith nodded her head slightly, her smile growing. “You sure grew up a bit, huh?”

  “Of course!” Levy slapped her chest with one hand proudly.

  She’s right, you know. Compared to when you were an imp, you seem a lot more mature.

  I’m not a kid anymore! Since imps were the child stage of demons, you were considered a kid no matter how long you lived, until your next evolution. Right now, Levy should be something like a teenager.

  Once we got the massive outer circle done, Levy and I came and sat down in the center, thinking and talking about how we were going to do the ritual. She had access to my knowledge, so she was able to put things into another perspective for me. Lilith stayed out of it, because although she knew a lot about magic, she had always lived with the belief that resurrection was impossible. Sometimes, I would catch her looking to us, her smile a bit sad.

  It was easy to figure out what types of magic we needed for this ritual. First, and most essentially, we needed divination to find Denise’s soul. That was Levy’s job on the outer circle, together with the conjuration circle that would summon her soul to the ritual. My job was to summon her body, repair it to a state that she can survive in it, and then bind her to it.

  The first of those three tasks was obviously another instance of conjuration. Since I had already made a summoning contract with
Denise, it wasn’t a problem to summon her body. Once I did, I was concerned with how I was going to repair it. She was riddled with holes from when the dragon ate us, and her body had already begun to rot.

  My first guess was to use my Customize spell, which allowed me to edit items and restore durability to them. However, it didn’t work on anything living--I may have tried to use it on myself to increase my strength. It seems it will work on a body, though, so I was able to restore Denise and her equipment to a condition that merely made it look like she was sleeping.

  How to bind her soul, though… There was one spell I had that gave me an idea. It was an infernal magic spell, one of the first I learned, called Possess. The problem was that it cost soul energy every minute to maintain the spell. I needed to create a permanent version that would allow a spirit to inhabit a body as if it were a living creature.

  Remembering what Lilith told me about Origin magic, I spent the day experimenting with that. If I can create life with it, then I should be able to combine it with the Possess spell to make a permanent resurrection. At least, that was the plan.

  I quickly found out why Origin magic was so different from my own creation ability. To make a simple sword, I would normally spend about a hundred mana. When I made that same sword with my Origin magic, it used over ten times that, almost entirely draining my magic. Even with my stats cut in half, that was rather ridiculous. I kept training that spell for a bit, until my Origin magic leveled up a couple times.

  Next, I began mixing my creation spell with my other magic, trying to create the resurrection spell I needed. That wasn’t as easy as I initially hoped, though. I deleted any failed spells simply out of frustration, disregarding the fact that having more spells will increase my grimoire’s ability. One time I came close, and almost thought I would succeed even, only to find out the result was a living puppet spell.

  The god of this world said that with the magic right now, there is no way to resurrect… That means no matter what combination I try, it’s useless right? So I need to focus on creating the right rune. My next goal was to build an incomplete spell. Have you ever tried to write a story where the protagonist didn’t have a name? It was kind of like that. I had to create something entirely dependant on an unknown rune, and then find out what rune I’d need to finish it.

  The process of creating the binding spell alone took another full day, and by the time I was done Levy had finished her two circles. Even though we only needed a few layers for this spell, we kept it huge. It didn’t help the spell much, but making sure it was as accurate as possible was my goal. Lilith would be personally supplying magic for this, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

  Finally, on the third day of my stay in Hell, I finished the spell. The rune I created was a variation of Inhabit. The normal Inhabit rune simply means ‘to dwell within’, but this one meant ‘to be home’. The difference was that Denise’s body was considered the ‘home’ of her soul. If she simply dwelled within it, it would be like somebody living in an apartment-- they are there but can’t do anything about the situation. With this, she should be able to fully regain control of her body.

  This ritual also had a second aspect to it that made it unique. We weren’t simply dealing with magic, we were dealing with souls as well. Thanks to that, a normal configuration wouldn’t work for our diagram. When dealing with another dimension of magic, another dimension of preparation was needed. In this case, literally.

  Levy and I made another circle, this one underground using my Create Passage spell. The placement was important, so we lined it up exactly with the conjuration layer. Once that circle was formed, the two of us walked in a spiral pattern inwards, coming from opposite sides to make a mirrored shape. Finally, we met at the center of the ritual area, and created a small hole underground beneath it.

  Lilith told me once before that Magus Mercy was the ultimate Origin spell, on the same level as my biggest attack spell Magus Wrath. I had no doubt that this ritual was inferior to that, but it came from a different approach so I was confident it would work. Once I had finished the diagram and placed Denise’s body at the center, a new message appeared.

  You have created a new ritual. Please select a name for this ritual. As it possesses unique components, no chant is available for this ritual. A chant may be created by its user when first performed.

  I thought to myself for a bit, and then grinned, coming up with the perfect name for this.

  Devil’s Mercy has been created.

  And I get to create my own chant for this? Maybe if I make it a good chant, it will increase the likelihood of the spell succeeding!

  I was pumped up and ready to get this ritual underway. The only factor left was Lilith lending me her power. When I glanced over to her, she nodded with a smile and began walking over to me. Holding out her hand, she presented me with a small ruby, and I saw that she had a matching one hanging from her neck.

  “This is a magic item that allows two people to share their energies. They are really hard to come by, so I’ll be expecting it back when you’re done, alright?”

  I chuckled, wrapping my hand tightly around the jewel. “Of course.” I had considered going into my Demon Cloak form to use the powers of a Rune Devil, but that would only cause an unnecessary drain on Lilith’s energy. I already have the ritual set up, now I just need to perform it!

  Moving towards the center of the circle, I cast one last look down to Denise’s body. Just wait, I’ll definitely bring you back. I brought the magic ruby up towards my chest, closing my eyes and focusing to draw the energy from it. As I did, the outer circle of the ritual was lit up with a white light. “I am one who has traveled beyond the veils, and now I call to one who is lost on the other side.”

  With my words, the first ring--the divination aspect-- lit up as well. “Find the one dear to me so that she may be brought forth.” The second layer began lighting up as I continued. “From the abyss of souls, I call to you, your time in this world has yet to pass. Hear my voice and answer, return to the place you call home.”

  I could feel the lower spiral gaining energy as the soul was summoned into it, being funneled inwards to her body. “By will and word, I affix your soul. By bonds of magic, I sustain you. By name alone, I bid thee wake, Denise. I grant you that which all thought lost, and reject the laws of the world.”

  Suddenly, as the soul hit the center of the spiral below, Denise’s eyes shot open. White light shone like spotlights from her eyes and mouth while her soul was being poured back into her body. “I bestow upon you new life, the Devil’s Mercy.”

  All of the ritual components, including Denise’s body, stopped glowing all at once. For a few moments, I thought it had really failed, until Denise’s eyes shot open again and she took a deep breath. Immediately afterwards, I received a strange message.

  Denise has returned from the dead and earned a unique title: Undying.

  Due to the Devil’s Mercy ritual, Denise’s race has changed to ???. Unspent talent ranks allocated to racial traits, and existing talents and stats may have shifted.

  Origin Magic has increased to 4

  Divination has increased to 3

  Summoning Magic has increased to 12

  Worried that I might really have messed this all up, I hurriedly opened Denise’s character window.

  Name: Denise

  Race: ???

  Title: Innkeeper, Beastmaster, Undying

  Fame: 30

  Gild: ???

  Level: 158

  Health: 700

  Mana: 0

  Strength: 140

  Agility: 465 + 93

  Endurance: 195

  Wisdom: 20

  Intelligence: 30

  Luck: 7

  Attack: 30 + 329/108

  Defense: 15 + 368

  Talents: Archery 25, Reflex 20, Speed 10, Chef 3, Tracking 10, Light Armor 15, Taming 10(+4), Hawk Eyes 20, Swordsmanship 19, Sailing 10, Regeneration 10(+2), Shadow Walker 6(+2)

  Title Bo
nus: +4 Taming, +2 Regeneration/Shadow Walker

  Regeneration? Shadow Walker? Did I turn her into a vampire… Glancing down to Denise, I noticed that her skin was a shade lighter, her eyes tinged red instead of their normal yellow. Still concerned, I looked for the information on the Shadow Walker talent. It didn’t mention anything about taking damage in daylight.. but it did grant some absurd boost to stats, especially in darkness.

  Her breathing starting to stabilize, Denise glanced around at us. It seemed we had all been holding our breath for a bit. “Wha… what happened..?”

  Hearing her talk, everyone in the room exhaled a sigh of relief. Levy and Lilith immediately ran up to Denise and gave her a strong group hug. “It worked! You’re back!”

  “Back..? Did I go somewhere? Jin.. what’s wrong?” She glanced up to me with her red eyes, and I blinked.