Dariel let out a small laugh, “Well, at least it can’t copy books like the Deific Dictum. At most, it might be able to replicate their contents, but not the enchantments on the books themselves.”
“Yeah… I really don’t even try to consider myself that skilled.” I would need a whole other level of Origin spells in order to make artifacts like that, and probably a high level of enchanting, as well.
Dariel nodded slightly, before looking to me a bit more seriously. “Also, I have an update on your robes. Since you supplied the Mana Silk, and we had your measurements from last time, they already finished one. They’re enchanting it now, and then they will work on stitching the patterns in for the other.”
“Oh.. does Mana Silk have to be stitched in the shape of the spell diagram or something?” I tilted my head, a bit confused.
“Not necessarily, but it makes it easier. We tend to color the silk to match the colors of the robe, so that the extra stitching is invisible.”
“I see.. Well, I’ll be doing the enchantment on the second one myself, and I’m honestly not too sure what I want to put in it yet.” From her explanation, I figured it was something similar to the difference between engraving and imbuing enchantments for other items.
Dariel blinked at my confession, then shook her head with a wry smile. “You should really put more thought into these things. Seriously, Jin... “ Denise nodded her head firmly, agreeing with Dariel’s assessment.
“I know.. But the only armor I’ve enchanted so far was for Cynthia. With her, it’s easy, I just have to increase her physical abilities. But I need to be careful with this one, because there might be some.. unforeseen interactions with the magic I use.”
“What do you mean?” Dariel looked curiously to me.
“I plan to make the second robe an infernal item, a demon robe. When you do that, sometimes an item will get extra abilities based on its current enchantments. Since only infernal items work when I trigger one of my bigger spells, I want to make sure I’m prepared. I’ve already gotten a staff made for when I need it.”
“Ahh, now I get it. Well, you could put infernal magic on it, then, right?”
“I could, but I still am not sure what I would put on. I already have pretty good infernal resistances, so I don’t need that. Maybe I could enchant it with my Hellfire Aura?”
Dariel nodded, thinking about it. “What about that white aura you used on me in the big fight?”
“The Soulfire Aura? Yeah… I could do that.” Looking down at my Soulfire Ring, I saw that all six stones were charged. If I use the energy from this, I might be able to enchant the robe permanently, without the need to harvest more souls from defeated enemies.
Just then, another thought crossed my mind. “Dariel, I’ve got something I want to try, but it’s not something that I can do out here. Mind helping me down for a little while?”
The elf looked at me quizzically. “Sure, I don’t see why not.” She took my hand before summoning a vine, giving me just enough time to tell Denise that I’d be back in just over an hour. Before I knew it, we were practically falling towards the forest floor. The ground was getting very, very big before she tugged on the vine and slowed us down, allowing us to land on the soft ground.
Around us, there were a few animals, which really didn’t seem that interested in fighting us. The trees all stood tall and thick, being the basis for the elven village above, with various types of bushes and flowers surrounding it. Taking a look at the surroundings, I nodded inwardly. “Okay, I need to be somewhere that I won’t be disturbed for an hour.”
Dariel nodded slowly. “Well, I can stay here and make sure nobody bothers you, if you want..”
Smiling, I accepted her idea and sat down. What I wanted to try to do was create a new type of infernal item, by using the Soulfire Aura instead of Hellfire, or together along with it. I had honestly no idea what the result would be, and I probably only had enough Soul Energy for one attempt, maybe two. As such, I went with the method that I suspected had the highest chance of success, which was a combination of the two magical fires.
Reaching into my Artifact World, I pulled out one of my many staffs, which had been named the Staff of the Mountain. This one, I had enchanted with my various earth spells, utilizing both imbuement and engraving, as well as a single Mana Stone at the top to fit in all of the spells. Next, I sat down with my legs crossed, and held my staff out in front of me, closing my eyes.
“Spirits of the pit, fires from the world beyond, become the shield that holds your fury. Guardians of the eternal gates, wandering souls trapped in the abyss. I summon you before me and request aid for one who is to do battle on my behalf. Grant them your protection, and devour those unworthy.” My body lit up in pitch black fire as I began my chant, which mixed in with white flames as it finished. The easiest way to describe it would be a constant mix of yin and yang.
Holding my staff up in both hands before myself, I focused my twin auras along its length. When making infernal items, it is necessary to maintain this for at least an hour, though there are rumors that doing so for even longer will create better results. Since it took a hundred Soul Energy for ten minutes of Soulfire Aura, I wanted to stick with the basics.
Staying in this position, I held my eyes closed and maintained my focus, leaving the monitoring of my surroundings to Foresight and Dariel, who let out a light gasp when the twin flames released from my body. While concentrating on the staff, I gradually began pushing the energy of the two spells into it, attempting to reshape its essence as I had with my other infernal items. I could feel the wood in my hands slowly warping, a sign that the energy was taking effect.
After the first ten minutes, my arms were beginning to get tired, so I lowered them. However, thanks to the ritual already being underway, the staff remained hovering in the air, unchanged by my shift in position. Thankfully, my mana recovery was well beyond the point where I had to worry about running out with just these two spells active.
After thirty minutes had passed, I began hearing a crack from in front of me, which sounded like breaking stone. While tempted to open my eyes, I made sure to keep them closed to continue infusing my Staff of the Mountain with more Hellfire and Soulfire energy. There was a distinct possibility that it could explode, but I was confident that if something like that happened, my Barrier would take care of it.
A full hour finally passed, and I heard the ding of message window appearing in front of me. At the same time, the last of the six stones on my ring ran out of power, so I cancelled the two spells I had been maintaining. Opening my eyes, I looked over the message, and hopefully my new staff.
Infernal Magic has increased to 29
Magical Talent has increased to 28
You have created a Demon Soul item. Demon Soul items are similar to regular infernal items, except they are able to grant a shape to their soul, changing from an item into its own creature.
Staff of the Mountain has become Stoneheart.
Looking at the staff, I could immediately notice some changes. First of all, the wood had been replaced by a solid shaft of stone, which bore none of the engravings of its former self. Likewise, it no longer had a Mana Stone embedded in it. I was a bit happy that I had created a new type of item, though I was unsure what to think of it. Infernal items could choose their own masters, so what about this one?
“Stoneheart, can you speak?” I asked the staff on the ground in front of me. Typically, an infernal item has a form of mental communication, but this was supposedly able to turn into a creature so I wanted to try it out.
After waiting for a few moments, I reached out to grab the staff. Maybe it can only mentally communicate through physical contact? When my fingers touched the stone shaft, it abruptly changed, growing thorns of rock that pushed out and stabbed into me. With a shout, I pulled my hand back, wincing as Dariel ran forward.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, looking to me. Seeing my hand, she quickly cast a healing spell on me. However
, my attention was taken entirely by the staff in front of me. Or, I should say the former staff. With the sound of shattering stones, it reshaped itself, pulling from the earth around it as it formed a humanoid shape.
As if that wasn’t enough, it began growing and growing, until it was well over five meters tall. At that point, even Dariel’s attention had been fully take away, before we heard a voice resounding through our heads. I will serve no weaklings, such as yourself. If you cannot defeat me, then you will perish.
Seeing that a battle was inevitable, I grimaced before stepping back. “Dariel… let us take care of this.” Slowly, my expression turned into a smile as I thought of something.
“Us..?” From my voice, she realized I didn’t include her in that, so she was obviously confused until I cast the summoning spell to call forth Cynthia and Denise. The two women appeared in flashes of light, and were confused momentarily upon their arrival, which quickly faded when they saw the giant stone golem.
“Jin, what did you do this time?!” Denise shouted out, equipping herself with her armor and bow from her ring.
“Y-yeah! What is that?” Cynthia had a slightly more worried reaction, but likewise retrieved her hammer and armor. I noted that the hammer was a good choice, since bludgeoning weapons would likely be more effective here.
“Cynthia, Denise, meet Stoneheart.” I smiled slightly, looking up to the golem that had yet to make the first move. “He wants us to break him.”
In this fight, Denise was the one most likely to be least effective, since piercing weapons such as her arrows would not work as well against a creature made of rock, nor would her swords. “We just have to smash it, right?”
Cynthia nodded, readying herself. “First group fight…” She gulped nervously, bringing her hammer up to prepare to engage the enemy. With a thought, I activated my Status Glasses to view the information on Stoneheart.
Name: Stoneheart
Difficulty: 35
Level: 350
HP: 12000
MP: 5000
Notes: A sentient golem, forged from the flames of Hell and infused with its own soul while in the form of a weapon. This powerful entity refuses to serve any lesser creatures, and can only be obtained by defeating it.
Damn… it’s got way more health than all of us put together, and more Mana than me. There is no way we can hold back against this enemy. It seemed that Stoneheart was waiting for us to be ready, so I took the liberty of ‘suiting up’ so to speak. “Guys, no holding back here. This guy is way stronger than we’re used to.”
“Spirits of the pit, fires from the world beyond, become the shield that holds your fury. Demon’s Cloak.” Black flames again surrounded my body, but then turned themselves inwards as they infused my body with the same energies that shape an infernal item. My body extended quickly, growing roughly a foot in height, my arms lengthening as well. My hair grew out, pitch black and long enough to reach my waist. My skin, though, turned deep red, with only a few runes placed over me. From what I had learned, this meant I was close to another evolution.
You have activated the Demon’s Cloak, and transformed into a Rune Devil. All item effects are disabled while in this form, except demon items.
+50 temporary Intelligence and Wisdom
Once my change was done, I raised a hand, summoning Shadespike from my shadow. Like an inky mass, it rose up to greet me, before resting firmly in my grasp. “We may begin.” My eyes shined with a red light, which could easily see the magic flowing from the golem’s body.
Chapter 21
As soon as I said that we were ready, the earth beneath our feet shook. I could see the stone golem in front of us releasing mana into the ground, but there were no runes accompanying this action. Glancing back, I shot a look to Dariel. “Make sure that the surroundings aren’t damaged. I really didn’t want to do something like this so close to the city.” She nods, bringing a vine down to help her jump up to a nearby branch, as cracks begin to form along the ground.
“Cynthia, try to distract him. Denise… well, you’ll just do whatever you want anyways.” I smiled to her, a few runes spinning around me as I lifted my body up into the air. I had never fought in the Demon’s Cloak before, but what I heard made it sound like I should be able to do a lot with this. The main feature of the Rune Devil, the demon that I become, is the ability to directly manipulate and empower runes without spells. Of course, I’m still winging it.
Responding to my remarks, Cynthia charged up to the golem, swinging her hammer in a wide arc to slam into one of its arms. At the same time, Denise jumped up into a nearby tree and began firing arrows at it. The hammer strike caused a few chunks of stone to break off of the arm, and some arrows stuck in, however it didn’t seem phased. Within moments, the fallen stones returned to the arm, which then swept Cynthia aside like an insect.
Giving a short cry of surprise, the teenage girl was launched into a nearby tree, stunned for a moment while the golem turned to advance on her. Holding my hand out, I tried to stop it with my magic. If anything, it is even harder to operate without spells, since there are so many runes that can mean something. In this case, I used a Slow rune to try to impede it, combined with a Shatter rune to attack.
The first rune slowed it for a few moments, while the second caused its arm to crumble. However, just as before, the effects were short lived. Its arm flew back to its normal position, and its body sped up. However, it was now turning towards me, since I had done more damage to it. “Didn’t think that through..”
Shit, I can’t use Magus Wrath. Even if I had the time to chant it, and had enough space to use it, the guy’s health is too high. I was still watching as its mana poured into the ground around it, causing more and more cracks to appear. Is it going to cause an earthquake if we don’t defeat it fast enough? “Shadespike, your turn to play.”
Lifting my staff as if it were a spear, I threw it at the walking mountain. Eager to have its share of excitement, the shadowy staff surged forward, before its dark tendrils spread out like a spiderweb. This should be a combination of the staff’s Grasping Darkness and Hungry Shadows effects, which quickly wrapped around the golem like a net. Thankfully, this time the effect lasted more than two seconds, because it was physically being held in place.
The golem still moved, but more slowly, having to pull the shadows which were both eating away at its body and anchoring it to the ground. Given some more time, I raised my hands to experiment with something. There were dozens of words to mean certain concepts, and likewise there were just as many runes. In front of my hands, I gathered every rune I could think of to symbolize wind.
First, it started as a small breeze in front of me, then a miniature cyclone formed, a condensed ball of wind. Controlling this many runes and launching it used nearly half of my available mana, but it fired off with a destructive force powerful enough to throw the giant rock back several meters, blasting a thick hole in it.
For a moment, the cracks had stopped, making me think that I had won the fight with that move. That thought, however, was short-lived when sand began rising from within the cracks. Again we heard the golem’s voice in our minds. I am the heart of the earth, the seed of the world. You walk in my domain, and in my domain shall you perish.
Grains of sand rose into the air, forming small clusters. Still, I couldn’t sense a single rune from these effects. It was as if Stoneheart was actually able to control the ground through sheer will. I barely had enough time to cover Denise, Cynthia, and myself with Protect runes, before the sand started to fly at us. Even Denise, with all of her speed could not fully evade the omnidirectional assault.
How do we fight the ground… I knew one surefire method that could work, if I were to cast Arcane Inversion, and Stoneheart was still classified as an item. Theoretically, it could destroy him. However, I haven’t given up on the idea of defeating him. After all, there was the chance that I could obtain the staff as a weapon if we managed to do so.
With a quick bit
of thinking, I brought my hands forward again. There was one way to defeat sand, in such a manner that it was no longer a form of natural stone. Gathering the various runes in my hands, I began identifying as many targets as I could manage. This trick probably won’t work twice…
Adding a few speed runes to myself, I flew threw the air, launching bolts of lightning at every cluster of sand I spotted. I couldn’t get the ones surrounding the girls without worrying about hitting them. However, I was able to turn a fair amount of sand into glass, causing them to fall to the ground and shatter. A few small flames also arose from my strikes, but Dariel quickly put them out.
Glancing to my mana bar, I grimaced when I saw I barely had ten percent left. Meanwhile, the golem stopped channeling magic into the ground, and instead sent it into its own arms. As a result, its arms extended far beyond their normal limits, shooting towards me with their hands wide open. My speed runes were wearing off already, so I didn’t even have a chance to dodge, if Cynthia hadn’t jumped up and slammed her hammer against one of the stretching arms.
The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 30