I couldn’t help but laugh while watching him, shaking my head. “Okay, okay. Well, let’s go ahead and make the contract.” I held my hand out to him. “Do you swear to become my sword and my shield, should I feel the need to call upon you?”
He nodded, taking my hand. He didn’t seem entirely too sure of what to do, but as a faint light emanated from our joined hands, he spoke up. “I swear.”
“Then by spoken pact, may this deal be final.” Green light coiled around my wrists, before winding past Shi’s hand and turning black as it merged with his shadow cloak.
You have formed a contract with the Reaper Shi. Shi is a player, so if he is summoned during a time when he is not online, his avatar will be summoned under the player’s control. Death penalties do not apply if the player dies while offline. If the player dies while summoned, the contract will expire.
I blinked a few times when I saw the new message. I hadn’t expected there to be any differences between contracts with players and contracts with NPCs, but this was a bit odd. It made sense that I only get him until he dies under my command, similar to if an NPC summon were to die, but to be able to summon him when he was offline was what surprised me.
“Okay, that should be good.” Looking at my list of available summons, I saw that I now had Dariel and Shi both. I still needed to get some normal monsters, but that could wait for a while.
“Thanks, man. Let me know once the monsters outside are tough enough to be a challenge. Until then, I’m pretty much on vacation.” He let out a low laugh that filled the area with the sounds of shaking bones.
“Yeah, Hell is actually pretty cool. And feel free to use the library whenever you want. I think I’m just about ready to try out one of these summons.” I smiled, picking up the books that I had gathered to read. Thanks to the last day of reading, I had managed to gain two levels in Summoning magic, and one in Scholar. Overall, it was not a big bonus, but since all I had to do was study it was enough.
“Alright, well I’ll see you around.” He nodded to me as he went to the pedestal to look for his own books. Looking down at the three in my hand, I wondered what I was supposed to do with them.
“Just put them back on the pedestal, and they’ll return to where they were summoned from.” Another demon, green skinned and just over waist-height, smiled to me as he walked past me, seeming to understand my concern.
“Ah, thanks.” I moved to get in line to return the books. It would be nice if I could take it out, but my own rule disallowed that. Thankfully, I could easily remember the contents of the various books due to my high Intelligence stat.
After returning the books, I left the library. Cynthia was in Hell, and I suspected that Denise was visiting Midnight, so there wasn’t a need to inform them of it. After all, I’d be heading back directly afterwards. I wasn’t quite sure where Dariel ran off to, but she probably went back home.
Once I left the Hellgate, I arrived at the same stretch of grassland that we entered the library from. I did not want to summon a half-angel either in Hell or surrounded by a bunch of demons, so this was my only real alternative. Unless, of course, I were to make a space for me to perform rituals in, but that was a bit much for now. It did, however, give me a good idea for an item that I wanted to try making later.
Back on topic, I moved to a flat area on the field, making sure not to wander too far from the forest. Once the area was secure, I began drawing the various circles needed for this summoning, using my Sculpt Earth and Stone spell to carve the ground. For this instance, I decided to employ the barrier method of containment, since it was easier to use. I also made sure to copy the runes I had seen in the book as precisely as possible.
Once the circle was complete, I took a few steps back and closed my eyes. Recalling the summoning rites, I began speaking, “I call on he who fell from grace, child of two worlds and yet neither. Prince of Blades, in the name of the light I invoke you. In the name of peace, I ask your favor. In the name of justice, I beg audience.”
I was admittedly nervous, calling upon the child of an angel when I myself was aligned with Hell. According to what I had read, Nephilims were almost as persecuted by Heaven as the Fallen. They weren’t bound by the contract, but seen as an abomination by their sires.
Within the arcane circles, a bright light rose up. I knew how big to make the circle, thanks to the book, so even when the light rose to be five meters tall and one wide, it did not collide with the barrier. Gradually, the light began fading, until it revealed a large human with a single white wing. The Nephilim was dressed in simple white clothing, with brown hair and blue eyes. “I can sense your allegiance. Why have you summoned me?”
Since he spoke in a calm voice, I assumed that he wasn’t angered despite me being allied with Hell. “I have come to ask your favor. As one who seeks to enforce justice, I have called you.”
The large man’s face twisted into a sneer. “And you would have me take part in your battle with Heaven? I know of how they have used summoners to enact attacks on the spawn of Hell.”
I shook my head, smiling. “I assure you, that tragedy is no more. Nor shall it arise again. Even if I sought to, I could not wield a blade against the armies of Heaven, nor could they against me. The treaty has already covered that weakness.”
The man’s face relaxed a bit upon hearing that. “You seem to speak truth. I have no love for the holy armies, nor the infernal legions. Tell me, conjurer, do you know the price I ask for one who calls me?”
I nodded, sighing slightly. The Prince of Blades had one of the more lenient costs, but also one of the most powerful. Like the old stories of the fae, this prince barters in favors. And once a favor was promised, there was almost no limit to what it could be used for.
“I see, it is good that you were informed. Very well, then. I will form the contract with you, for two favors. These favors may be decided any time in the future. Knowing this, do you still wish to accept?”
“I do.” My head nodded again, and a light appeared from the circle. This time, the light was blue, and spiralled around the Nephilim.
“Then call me by my true name.” The large man seemed to be waiting for my reply as the lights floated around him. This was the final part of the ritual. While names did not hold the same power here as they did in old legends, many beings used them to seal deals.
“Kirinad, the Prince of Blades. I agree to this deal as it has been offered.”
Immediately, those blue lights shot out of the summoning circle, and pierced into my body. For a brief moment, there was excruciating pain, and then nothing. I gritted my teeth to hold in a groan, which became a sigh once the effect was lifted. “This deal has been set. Do not fear, conjurer, I will not ask of something beyond your power.”
“You have my thanks for that.” After speaking, the ritual was complete. The lights in the circle faded, and the Nephilim vanished. I knew that I had to be careful, because it wasn’t like most settings. If I were to abuse the power to summon a sentient entity, especially one to whom I owe favors, then they could turn on me in an instant.
My first three masteries should be Nature, Infernal, and the last spot will be either Enchanting, Summoning, or Origin magic. As for spells, that will be the hard part. Infernal spells will be hard to master without revealing myself, but the others are nowhere near ready. Maybe if I were to challenge a few dungeons, then I could master the spells, but even that would carry great risk. I shook my head and sighed, sitting down and wiping away the summoning circle.
Looking at my list of summons, I now possessed a Reaper, a Nephilim, and an Elven High Priestess. These three would be very useful to keeping my two party members and I safe. Now, there was something else I wanted to test, since I was given time alone.
If I’m right, then the Aura talent will allow me to mimic an elemental’s ability to freely control their element. Considering what I had to go through to get that power, it should be possible. I recalled how Aura was given to me because I was a spellcast
er that had risen Agility to a sufficient degree. If you consider that the talent is only given to someone who has both 200 Agility and 500 Intelligence or Wisdom, then that is already a large requirement. Add in that the Aura doesn’t automatically have the ability to manipulate elements, and the difficulty increases again.
Since it was impossible for me to judge this by watching the wind, I wanted to test it with one of the other four elements. There was neither fire nor a water source nearby, so that left me with earth. Thankfully, earth was the element that I had the highest affinity with, so it was the one I was most likely to succeed with.
Placing my hands on the ground, I focused my aura downwards. This method should be considered similar to the Earth Freedom spell. Rather than runes, I used the feeling of the earth itself to guide me. Since I was constantly interacting with a solid substance, my mana was dropping at a slow pace.
After sending my aura down a few feet, I sent it ahead of me and tried to bring it back up, while still focusing on the feeling of the earth. Ahead of me, I could see the ground shifting slightly as my aura rose up. Another minute passed, and I began to see a shapeless mass of mud rise into the air. The speed was too slow to use in a fight, but the fact that I could do it alone was enough that it made me happy.
Aura has increased to 6
I had the feeling that elemental manipulation was an advanced Aura technique, so training it this way should level me up quickly. Pulling my aura back, I released the mud and allowed it to fall to the ground. My next experiment would be with wind. So far, my affinities with the four elements could be listed from highest to lowest as; Earth, Wind, Water, Fire. Since my Nature magic was at the master level, my fire affinity wasn’t exactly low, but I wasn’t in a hurry to burn myself if I messed up.
I had never taken the time to focus purely on the wind, before. I had done so with the earth when I first learned my magic, and again with nature as a whole when I learned Nature magic. But I had never focused purely on the wind. Thus, I sat down and crossed my legs, entering a meditative stance with my eyes closed..
Okay, this should be easier than the first time… I expanded my aura outwards, forming a bubble around my body. Focusing on the wind passing through my aura, I was able to ‘capture’ the feeling of the wind. Shapeless, flowing, neither fast nor slow. Hidden in plain sight, but with the power to change the world.
“Okay.. here goes…” I lifted my head up, opening my eyes while focusing on the feeling, channeling it through my aura. The blue light around me seemed to vanish, but I could still feel its presence. Slowly, I lifted my hand, passing my aura along it like a breeze. With a smile, I accelerated the current, until I could feel the wind around me picking up. “If I can master this, then maybe I won’t need a flight spell..”
Aura has increased to 7
Thus, this became my new goal, to master the wind aura. The next hour, I spent meditating and trying various maneuvers with the wind. As I had suspected, infusing my aura into an element drastically increased the speed it leveled up, while at the same time increasing its mana cost. Thankfully, my meditation and natural ability kept my mana from falling too low. Unfortunately, after an hour, I was no closer to learning how to fly.
It is possible, I’ve just got to train more. I decided that I would continue my training in Hell, after I conducted more research to raise my Scholar level. Having a high Intelligence, and thus more mana, couldn’t hurt when training my aura. With a sigh, I opened another Hellgate, and returned to the library. This time, I went immediately to the table and pulled out my book on master-level enchanting techniques.
After this, I should see if Cynthia is ready for me to enchant anything. I smiled slightly while thinking that, reading through the book. According to what I read, it was common for enchanters to use customized spell diagrams for their enchantments, since often a spell might not be perfectly suited for an item. Such enchanters often kept their diagrams, in case they needed to make the item a second time. Of course, those diagrams were hidden so that others wouldn’t be able to steal their techniques.
Thoughts began flashing by as I imagined what I would do with the unused robe that Dariel had gifted me with. According to the book I was reading, in order to imbue an item with a permanent elemental essence, such as a blade of fire, a material component is needed for the enchantment process. But where could I find a material component for Soulfire?
The more I looked at it, the more I believed it impossible. While I could accept the existence of fire elementals, and maybe even hellfire elementals, a soulfire elemental should not be possible. The only way it could work is if a fire elemental mutated under the power of infernal magic. For a moment, I considered the possibility of using Levy’s Origin spells to purposely create a ‘soulfire elemental’. However, I had not yet even attempted creature creation.
This book I was reading seemed to hint that there were even more advanced enchantment methods, such as the methods to create artifacts. It was a brief passage, but it said that such things were beyond the realm of normal masters. Each artifact had its own creation method, which must be designed specifically for it. Even an object as strong as Stoneheart would likely be worth less than the weakest of artifacts, such as my grimoire.
Okay, so I probably can’t imbue my robe with permanent Soulfire energy. The best I can do is similar to my ring, and make it chargeable. Hellfire, however… I could probably get an essence of hellfire. I began thinking back to the infernal crafting techniques. Since not all demon smiths excelled at infernal magic, it was common to have hellfire essence in a forge. The best demonic weapons had to bathe in hellfire for a long time, whereas the minimum was the one hour period he tended to use.
I could probably ask Lilith for one of the essences. If I did that, I could enchant my robe with a permanent Hellfire Aura effect. By now, I had gained another level in Enchanting and Scholar each, and finally knew what I was going to do with the robe. Next, I wanted to finally learn the spells that Levy had developed for her Origin magic.
Depositing the enchanting book into my Artifact World, I stood and walked over to the pedestal, closing my eyes to focus. Since I was looking for books on Origin magic, naturally only a few were available. One was a name I had never heard, but the other was clearly labeled as Levy’s studies. Retrieving the latter, I moved back quickly to begin reading.
I took my time scanning through the book, making sure to absorb all the information I could. Thankfully, Levy made thorough notes about all of her theories, even the ones that did not work. This allowed me to easily grasp her spells. So, she forms the body and the mind separately? Yet within the same spell.
According to her notes, the reason that she was unable to create fully grown creatures at first was due to the fact that she was creating the body and mind at the same time. Starting with an infant mind, the body was unable to age properly. She later solved that problem by adding a second diagram to the spell, which allowed the creation of a mind.
It was a rather astounding spell, as it sent both creature and maker into a sort of simulated space, where the creation grew up naturally in a setting of the maker’s design. A year spent in the simulated space was only a minute in the real world, so she was able to create adult creatures by nurturing them in the proper environment.
In her notes, Levy repeatedly warns against using the spell for too long, as it becomes easy to lose track of magic consumption. Similarly, there were warnings against ever making anything more powerful than its creator. The reason behind this was clear, as soon as the spell ended, there was no guarantee that the creature wouldn’t turn on you while you were weakened.
I was, admittedly, eager to try the spell. There were a number of different creatures I would like to create, however I made myself resist. Raising these creatures would be a full-time job, and I have other things I want to attend to first. I had not yet forgotten my goal to visit the dwarves.
Create Infant Creature has been added to your Spell List
C
reate Adult Creature has been added to your Spell List
Create Homunculus has been added to your Spell List
Origin Magic has increased to 25
Scholar has increased to 4
After reading through the spell to create a ‘homunculus’, my curiosity was piqued. This would be an excellent spell to create a familiar. I smiled, thinking about the possibilities. One of the things I would need to do eventually, would be to use this spell. By now, it was obvious that Origin and Enchanting spells were meant to go together. Or, at least, Origin was made to go with Enchanting.
Hearing a low ring, I frowned, recognizing the tone. Someone was using a Message spell to contact me. There weren’t many people that could do that, so I was hesitant to answer. After I did so, I quickly asked who it was.
“Hey, man. Long time no see.”
“Ah, hey Kev. What’s going on, for you to use one of the tokens?” Since he was using one of the tokens I gave him to call me, I imagined something must have happened.
The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 34