The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (48 page)

“
I guess that makes
you the other one, huh? Fuck… I thought those bastards were
making it up.”

“
No, I am real. I’ve
just been doing my best to stay out of the spotlight. It would seem
you learned the hard way why.”

“
Yeah, I get it.
Those greedy shits all wanted me to teach them the secret to pass.
None of them bothered to work it out themselves.” I winced a
bit at his vulgar language, and considered not helping him after all.
In the end, I did just assert I was a nice guy.

“
Listen. You got a
book when you graduated, right? It should have been called something
like Xiao’s Grimoire?”

“
Guess you got one
too. They said it was the proof of passing, but it doesn’t look
like more than a normal spellbook.”

“
It’s actually
a lot more than that. Let me ask you, what abilities does your book
give you?”

“
What? Just a bonus
to some stats, an increase in magic talents if I study it daily, and
it lets me use a spell I write in it as if I said that lame chant.
Yours should be the same, right?”

I shook my head, and then
realized he couldn’t see me. “No. Each book is different.
Yours is from the Assailant series, while mine is the Guardian
series. But give me a second to explain, it took me a while to gather
this information.”

“
Just keep it brief,
will you? I’ve got somewhere to be.”

This guy is seriously
ungrateful… don’t you realize how much I am going out of
my way to help you?
“Make time. This is
important information that you won’t learn easily. The
grimoires are really artifacts belonging to a set called the Deific
Dictum.”

“
This shoddy book?
How is that anything so special..”

“
Just trust me. How
many spells have you written in it so far?”

He pulled out a book that
looked almost identical to my own grimoire, and counted through the
pages. “Just five, I only write the useful ones down for the
bonus. Why?”

“
When you get to
thirty spells, it unlocks another ability. Yours will probably be
some kind of attack, since mine was a defensive power. Also, you can
unlock more powers by receiving the blessings of different
magically-inclined races.”

“
Is that true? This
thing actually becomes useful?”

Lilith pursed her lips,
and then looked at me. “Please don’t send him to the
demons… I can’t trust someone like that…”
Dariel nodded in agreement, as did Denise. Seems it was unanimous.

“
Yeah. If you
perform some deed for them, they will give your book a racial
blessing that unlocks another power.” I made sure to leave out
any mention of the elves or demons in this summary.

“
So troublesome…
I take it you won’t be getting in my way?” He asked in a
somewhat aggressive tone, like he planned to take me out if I did.

“
No need to. We’re
on different sides of the continent. I’ll help out whoever I
can on my end regardless of what happens. Besides, from what I can
tell you are going down the elementalist’s path, and that
doesn’t interest me.”

“
Oh, and just what
is the Wordsmith’s path?” I could see a grin forming on
his face, and he likely didn’t realize I could see him.

“
You’ll have
to find that out for yourself, Frozen Flame. We’ll talk again
later.” I waved my hand over the pool and ended the message
spell at the same time, cancelling both and looking up to the others.
“I don’t like him.”

Dariel smiled a bit. “I
don’t think any of us do.”

Lilith nodded, a somewhat
wicked smile on her face. “Want me to make trouble for him~?”

“
No, no, we aren’t
the bad guys. Just keep an eye on him and let me know if he causes
trouble himself. Also, there’s a chance he could have a run-in
with the angels, so watch out for that too.”

Lilith laughed at my
warning, “Oh, I’d love to see those bastards try to get
along with him. He’d probably start attacking them as soon as
they showed the stick up their ass.”

I nodded, smiling. “Maybe,
but you can never be too sure. And he didn’t have any traveling
companions, so I don’t really feel like he’s a threat
yet. His unique magic is essentially just a modified ice spell.
That’s nowhere near the real potential of a frozen flame.”
I actually had given that spell a fair bit of thought when Dariel
told me his alias.

“
Oh? And what would
you have done with it?”

“
Hmm, I would have
mixed fire and ice magic. Do you know what happens when you quickly
freeze and then heat up an object?”

“
It breaks, right?”

“
Exactly. If you can
create a spell that rapidly changes its element from fire to ice fast
enough that the flame itself looks made of ice, it will destroy
anything in its path. That would be my ideal.”

“
Yeah.. but for
that, you’d need the ability to change the nature of the fire
itself..” Dariel starts talking, and then immediately shuts up
and looks at me wide-eyed.

“
Exactly. Unheard
of, right?” I grinned to her, and she laughed. I had the
feeling she just got a new pet project. Denise was smiling as well,
being aware of the rune I gave to the Vinehaven elves.

Lilith, of course, didn’t
know that rune so she was looking between us, realizing that she was
the only one left out. “What is it? What’s so funny?”
She started pouting to get our attention.

“
Oh, nothing.”
I smiled, patting Lilith’s head playfully.

“
Hey, stop that~!”
She laughed, swatting at my hand. “You know how to make that
kind of spell, don’t you?”

“
If I wanted to,
sure. But like I told him, being an elementalist isn’t my goal.
Being an Archmage is. I’ll let someone else figure out the
Frostfire spell.” That seemed to settle her down, and Dariel
gave the faintest nod.

Denise finally walked up
next to me, smiling slightly. “So, the Wordsmith, huh?”

“
Yeah, I thought it
fit. Why, you don’t like it?”

“
No, I think it
suits you just fine. Between your tendency to craft new runes to
overcome challenges and your silver tongue to overcome the ladies.”
She winked teasingly to me, and both Dariel and Lilith blushed,
looking away. Incidentally, they ended up looking at each other,
seeing each other’s blush, and worsening their own.

“
You make it sound
like I’m just a big flirt.” I laughed, seeing the
reaction of the other two women.

“
Not at all. You
don’t need to flirt. That’s just the kind of personality
you have. It’s not a bad thing, really.”

“
Sure, sure. Don’t
forget, we’re still looking to add someone else to our group
once we find a good warrior.”

Seeing a change of topic,
the others took it as the lifeline it was to get back into the
conversation, asking almost in unison, “You’re looking
for a warrior?”

I nodded to them, smiling
slightly. “Yeah. Eventually I want to make friends with a
strong warrior that can help fill in the gap Denise and I have in our
formation. Right now, neither of us can take a hit well. We’ve
only lasted this long because we haven’t run into any enemies
that were on us fast enough to get a hit in.”

Dariel nodded, thinking
something over. “What about your friend? The one you left at
the port city?”

“
No, he won’t
be good for them.” Surprisingly, it was Lilith who interjected.
“Even if he was strong enough, it can’t be a foreigner,
not with both of them fully in this world. They’d have to slow
down to half their regular speed. And even then, there aren’t
that many foreigners that make the effort to blend in.”

“
I see. So he
doesn’t just need a strong warrior, but one native to this
world. And one that isn’t after fame or anything like that.
Most warriors at that level are only after the glory.”

“
Right, right?”
Lilith turned to look at me. “Does it have to be a strong one?
You can’t train them up yourself?”

“
Well, I might be
able to. I honestly don’t know. Denise was at the same level as
I was when we joined together, and we have grown at the same rate
since. I figure that, if I team up with someone weaker than I am,
they’ll either experience a faster growth to reach my level
quickly, or else always stay weaker than I am.”

Dariel nodded to my
explanation. Denise was just happily standing beside me. We’ve
had this conversation before, so she was enjoying watching them work
through it. “It’d be good to test it. Do you know the
conditions to have someone join you like Denise did?”

“
It’s not
really something that can be easily tested… Denise joined me
when she was determined to accompany me on my adventures and help me
out no matter what. Our horse, Midnight, joined after Denise tamed
him and he wanted to travel with her. The kind of resolution needed
to join up would make it really bad if the person had to be dropped
because they were too weak.”

“
Yeah, that’s
a good point…” Dariel sighed, accepting my explanation.

Lilith, on the other hand,
seemed to have an idea, smiling suddenly. “What if you had one
of my demons join you? There are several around your level of power,
and your position as my Emissary would let you command them to join
you or leave. That way we could at least test it out and find what
method would be best.”

Dariel brightened up at
the suggestion, nodding quickly. “That could work. But oh.. he
can’t travel with a demon in broad daylight, can he? That would
make it impossible to keep a low profile..”

“
True.. But we can
just test it in Hell at least with a weaker demon. If it goes well,
then the demon will become stronger. If not, there is no loss. He’ll
just be able to come back and resume his adventure without the demon
either way.”

“
Yeah, I see.. that
might do it. It’d be good to know either way. Just think, if
foreigners have the ability to extend their training potential to
others, they could become great generals in various armies.”

“
I know, right? But
only if they devote themselves enough to receive the respect to have
their soldiers follow him. Jin easily did that with the demons when
he helped us out.”

“
Sadly, the warriors
of my clan weren’t as impressed when he came in and declared
that an act of war was a misunderstanding. There wouldn’t be
any other elves from Vinehaven that would follow him like that.”

Lilith puffs her chest
out, as if that had been a declaration of victory for her. “Alright!
It’s settled, we’ll have him train a lesser demon in
hell, and see how it goes.”

“
Right, there’s
no helping it.”

At this point, I decided
it would be best to step into the conversation. “Uh.. hello? Do
I get a say in this? You guys know I’m still here, right?”

The two of them smirked
and looked at me. Lilith nodded her head slowly, her tail flicking
back and forth behind her. “We know. We were just trying to
come up with a good solution. You don’t mind, right..?”
She lowered her head, pouting and making wide sad eyes at me.

“
....You know I’m
weak against that look.. That is cheating.”

Dariel smiled to Lilith,
patting her back. “You must teach me to do that.”

Lilith laughed, looking to
the elf. “Men, they’re so easy to read.”

“
Still here.”
I added when they went on like this again. It looked like I wasn’t
going to get my say in this after all though, because they continued
without me again.

“
How long should we
have the training be?”

“
Well, they started
in Rosenheim, right? That’s only a day or two from Vinehaven,
and they arrived there almost a month ago. So their adventure
shouldn’t have started very long ago.”

“
I see. Then, if we
pair him up with a lesser demon, we should be able to see the results
in a matter of days.” Lilith nodded, smiling happily as they
made their plans for me. Denise was just laughing uncontrollably
beside me, the little traitor.

“
...I’m not
getting out of this, am I?”

In response to my
question, all three women shook their heads firmly. No, it appears I
was not. “Fine.. alright, I give up. But we can’t let it
take too long, right? I still want to get back to the trip I had
planned.”

Lilith nodded, once again
displaying her tendency to eavesdrop on me. “The island you
picked is about two days away. Well, I’ll have you train one of
my demons for three days, and then take you directly to the island
myself. That way you’ll only be one day late.”

“
I get it. So, how
am I going to train a demon anyways? I’ve never trained anyone
before. At anything.”

“
Hmm.. you want it
to be a warrior, but you can’t do that yourself. Oh! What if
you had Denise train them for you?” At Lilith’s
suggestion, I turned and grinned at the previously quiet Denise, who
suddenly looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

“
Uh.. m-me? Why? I’m
barely any good with a sword myself..”