Gild: 30
Level: 4
Health: 50
Mana: 177
Strength: 8
Agility: 11
Endurance: 5
Wisdom: 14
Intelligence: 25
Luck: 4
Attack: 1 + 4
Defense: 1 + 6.75
Talents: Magical Talent 2, Mana Recovery 1, Mana Pool 1
Lilith let out a short gasp, and smiled broadly. “It worked!” She jumped up into the air and clapped her hands happily. “Okay, just head inside, and you can find everything you need. Good luck!”
Finally I had the chance to take in my surroundings as Lilith ran off. Apparently the fact that we already knew it worked didn’t get me out of finding out how well it worked. We were indeed standing next to a massive spire that looked like it reached all the way up to the stone ceiling above the city. “Must be the seventh spire of torment, huh?” In the distance I could see half a dozen similar towers, and small homes lining makeshift streets. Though, many of the homes look like they had taken damage. Did she drop us off in the ghetto? The ghetto of Hell!?
Some of the houses had scorch marks along their side, others having holes in the roofs. Either demon powers going haywire, or a demon gang war. Either way, I nodded to Levy and the three of us made our way inside the spire, where we found several well equipped classrooms. Each one had scrolls and textbooks lining entire shelves, likely even more than the library of the Rosenheim college!
“So, Levy? Would you mind having a seat please?” I asked with a smile, and he moved to one of the desks appropriately sized for an imp. There were many that size, while others were too big for even a full grown human to sit in. “How much do you know about magic?”
I figured I knew the answer already, but I had to ask first to be polite. “W-well.. not much. It can do some amazing things… and apparently I have a talent for it?”
In a literal way, you have three. I should work on getting Mana Pool and Mana Recovery talents… “That’s right, you do. I noticed it earlier when you agreed to let me teach you. But first, let me begin with the basics.” I closed my eyes, dispelling my normal mage robes and equipping myself with more of a scholar’s outfit, including a squared hat, a vest, and well made pants. Part of this was for the aesthetic look, but the other part was to pour all but a hundred of my mana into it. Maybe I can get one of them by training my mana like a muscle. I haven’t really done that much.
Levy just stared in awe at my transformation, before I continued casually. “Magic is a manifestation of your willpower. Once you learn to control it, then you can do amazing things with it. By itself, magic doesn’t do anything. It as to be focused in order to work. But that’s not the only thing needed in magic. Sure, having the will to use it is important, but there is an ancient language of magic called runes. With these runes, you can change the essence of the magic into a spell.”
Levy nodded to me patiently as I searched through the books to find a beginner textbook on runes. Once I had it, I took it over to him. “This book contains the basic runes that are used in most general spells. Take a moment to look it over, and properly study a few of the runes. After today, I’ll regularly quiz you on their meaning so I expect you to take it seriously.”
He hesitantly grabbed the book from me and nodded. “I understand… I’ll do my best, sir..” As soon as he opened the book, I received a pop up. Thankfully, by now Lilith’s spell had worn off. It was weird watching her run away from her perspective.
Levy has received the talent Magical Knowledge 1
The fact that he learned that talent after such a short speech and barely opening the book surprised me. I had to study a ‘magic for beginners’ book for over an hour to get both that and Magical Talent. Maybe he will get pretty far with his training after all.
As he read through the book, I received another message indicating his knowledge level had increased. Once I got that message, I noticed he was suddenly reading faster, flipping through each page after less than a minute of studying. If it weren’t for the fact that his level was rising I would think he was only skimming.
Less than half an hour later, and two more levels, he closed the book and nodded to me. “I think I understand sir. I’ll study it more later.”
“That’s alright. This much is fine. It’s already late, so head home.” I went to where I grabbed the book from, and picked out the next advanced rune book. “Take this one too. Once you have the first set of runes memorized, move on to this. Tomorrow, we’ll cover creating and casting spells.”
He nodded again, taking the books and walking to the door. Did he get taller? No, it’s probably just that he isn’t as shy now. I nodded to myself as I went out to meet Denise.
“So, how’d it go being a teacher~?” She was grinning as she asked me, waiting just outside the spire.
“Oh hush you. I could have let them stick you with the job.”
“I know, I know. I’m thankful you took the responsibility yourself, I really am. I can still tease you about it though.”
“Anyways, that guy’s learning speed is insane. In about a half hour, he got the same results I received in a full day at the College. And even I had an accelerate growth as a foreigner.”
“Wow, nice. So, what’s with the clothes?” She looked to my uniform. “Not really complaining, but I swear you were wearing a robe before.”
“Ah, sorry. Yeah.” I switched back to my robe, and paused. That’s why it won’t give me those talents. Manifesting items don’t actually spend mana unless I get rid of them like an arrow. I’d have to make a super-mana intensive projectile to actually give me mana a work out. “When I saw Levy’s abilities earlier, I noticed that she had talents that increased her mana limit and mana recovery. I had an idea to try to get something similar, but went about it all wrong.”
“What do you mean?” She tilted her head, not really understanding the whole magic thing.
“When I materialize an object like this, I’m not really spending any magic. I’m just borrowing it. That’s why my magic doesn’t recover while I’m using it. The only exception is something like an arrow, where I remove the object from my person. So basically, I have to use magic to such a degree that I exhaust my mana and keep it low for a while... This would have been so much easier when I was still new to this.”
“So… like with that summoning from a while ago, you want to make yourself pass out from using too much magic..? That doesn’t sound at all bad to you?”
“Well, if I do it in a controlled environment like Hell, then there’s no worry about being attacked. And there are plenty of people nearby that can help me if something goes wrong.”
“How about we talk with Lilith about this first..? Demons use a lot of magic, right? So maybe they have a training area made for something like this. It’d have to be better than just firing your magic off at random at least.”
I thought about her proposal for a moment as we walked towards the court. “Alright. I’ll ask her in the morning. It’s been a long day, and right now I just want to rest.” As if to prove my point, I let out a long yawn.
“Now that’s an idea I can accept. Onwards, to the bed!” Denise smiled and we picked up the pace, going to our usual sleeping chambers when staying in Hell. Of course, those were Lilith’s quarters. Since she hadn’t mentioned arranging anywhere else for us to stay it should be alright. Much closer than heading all the way back to the port, anyways.
On our way, we passed through the heart of the District of Wrath. Every now and again, we’d see a fight going on behind a house, or even in the middle of a street. There were times that we considered stepping in to help, or using my authority to order them to stop. However, it turns out that none of these fights were serious, and they just performed sparring as a way to relieve stress. The loser
would typically be seen handing over a few coins to the winner, but only when there was property damage involved.
So, the loser pays for repairs? I guess that’s one way to do it, though I think it’d be better to make the winner pay so that they aren’t encouraged to do unnecessary damage.
When we passed through the District of Gluttony, there were food stands lining the road at every opportunity, and large restaurants advertising exquisite food at low prices. A lot of the establishments had outdoor seating so that passing viewers could see the quality of food being served.
At the sight of this, my stomach rumbled loudly, causing Denise to laugh and pull us into one of the fancier restaurants. It’s not like we really had a budget to worry about, and I had never been to any of the places here before. The last time we were in Hell, the food I ate was typically brought to me by Lilith while I was working for the first few days, and then Denise would get me something to eat the rest of the time. I guess she went to places like this during our stay, though.
“Come on, Jin, I’ve heard this place is great!” Denise smiled as we entered the large greeting room. It was clearly designed to be suitable for even the larger demons, with the ceiling a full seven meters high. The red velvet carpeting looked extremely extravagant, but somehow seemed to fit with the red walls. Likewise, at the four corners of the room there were black columns with a single strand of gold spiraling up them like a vine. Through an arch to the side of a wooden counter at the far end of the room, the sight of multiple demons happily enjoying their meals could be seen.
A smiling female demon with four arms and dark blue skin stood behind the counter. Atop her head were three small horns that shot straight up a few inches as if to decorate her long purple hair. She was wearing a long red dress with golden flower designs along it. “Ah, well this is quite the surprise. Our two human guests came to pay us a visit.” Her smile broadened as she saw us. “I take it that it will just be the two of you dining tonight?”
“That’s right.” Denise answered for us, nodding happily.
“Excellent. I hope you enjoy our service and come again. It’s an honor to have such distinguished patrons as yourselves.”
“If the food is half as good as Krath told me, I’m sure we’ll be back!” Denise laughed again, and the hostess nodded.
“Well, that is certainly high praise to have one of the generals recommend us. I do hope that we live up to your expectations.” She grabbed a pair of menus from behind the counter and then stepped out, revealing her long legs that could be seen through the high cut of her dress as well as her taloned feet. “Please, follow me. I hope you don’t mind, but we’ll be placing you in our VIP section this evening.”
I shook my head, not really understanding her concern. “I don’t know why we’d object to that. It should be fine, right?”
Denise nodded next to me, and the hostess led us up a pair of stairs at the back of the restaurant, giving us plenty of time to look at the surroundings. Even if the entrance had seemed overdone, the style of the building matched throughout. Again in the dining area was red carpeting and walls, with a hanging chandelier that appeared to be decorated with glowing jewels in the center of the room.
In one corner at the back was a stage, with a pair of succubi performing a duet. Their looks may not be up to Lilith’s level, but either of them could easily play the part of a pop star in my world, one having long black hair and a matching dress that accentuated her curves while the other had white hair and a matching dress. Her curves weren’t as pronounced as her partner’s. Even though they weren’t speaking the human language, the normally guttural tongue they sang in still sounded beautiful. Enough so that I was tempted to cast my translation spell to understand their lyrics.
In the VIP section, there were several closed off rooms, each allowing the guests to maintain their privacy. I guessed that it would become an issue if we sat in the general area, since we’d draw enough attention to be labeled a disturbance. The blue demon guiding us led us past a few doors, grasping the golden handle of the one she stopped at. “Please be seated. One of our servers will be with you shortly.” As she says this, she sets the menus on a large round table with elegantly carved chairs, each one having a soft red velvet seat.
“Thank you very much.” I smiled to the hostess before she left, silently closing the door behind her. The interior of the room was well decorated, with mounted candles along the wall burning a deep red. At the wall to our left after we sat down there was a painting hanging from the wall that seemed to display a different famous demon every time I looked at it. Well, I assumed they were famous. Among the assorted glances I noticed that Lilith and Krath were in the painting at some point.
Denise opened up the menu and stared at it for a second before smiling and flipping through it. I followed her action, picking it up and immediately noticing that none of it was written in a language I could understand! She must have noticed my apparent distress, because Denise giggled softly. “Just give it a second.”
I figured I might as well trust her, and looked at the menu again. Slowly, the words were shifting on the page to become what looked like english to me. Now that I could read the menu, I saw that there were quite a number of delicious sounding dishes offered. And the price really wasn’t all that bad. If I didn’t know this was hell, I’d have thoughtt I died and went to cuisine heaven!
“Figure out what you want yet?” Denise smiled to me as she closed her menu, setting it down in front of herself.
“Not in the slightest.” I continued skimming through the various dishes. The problem wasn’t trying to figure out what sounded good. The problem was trying to decided between everything on the menu, because it all sounded good!
I heard the door opening to our room, so I hastily picked something that looked good at random. The server that appeared to take our order took me rather by surprise. It seemed to be the black haired succubus from the performance downstairs. “Good afternoon~. My name is Kroa, and I’ll be attending you today.”
“Weren’t you doing a performance just a minute ago?” I asked, a bit confused. Surely, they didn’t pull her off the stage just to attend us? Even if we were VIPs, that was excessive.
“Oh? You saw that?” She blushed a bit, and then nodded. “The serving staff does a rotating performance. My turn just ended, so I’m back to work~.”
“Really? You two were great. Even if I couldn’t understand the words, it sounded lovely.” I smiled to her, readily praising her for her singing. “I was certain that you were a professional singer.”
“Well, thank you! That’s really nice to say. Maybe some time, my sister and I can do a private show for you~?” She winked to me at the tease, and laughed. “Sorry, old habit. But if you would like, we offer several different forms of service here for our distinguished guests. Anything from private performances, massages, or of course more intimate entertainment. If we don’t offer it, we can help you find someone that does!” She puffed out her chest proudly, shamelessly advertising her workplace.
“Sounds like this is a pretty good place to work.” Denise added in next to me, smiling. “We haven’t really had much chance to talk with regular demons yet. Wow, never thought I’d be saying ‘regular demons’ before. But, think conversation could be one of the services?”
Kroa smiled happily, nodding. “Of course! Won’t even charge you for it, since you two seem nice. Let me just take your order real quick and run it down, then I can sit down and join you. Just, I’m still on the clock and I already had my dinner break.”
I chuckled, looking between the two women. “That’s fine. She’s right, it would be nice to talk with you. I don’t know about Denise, but the only demons I’ve really talked to are Lilith and the one I am teaching.” I glanced at my menu again, taking the chance to order a large pasta dish that sounded surprisingly close to spaghetti and meatballs. Denise ordered a dish that I had noticed was a burrito. I didn’t even realize this world had such things.
&
nbsp; “Alright, and would you like a side order of tormented souls to go with that~?” Kroa asked with a grin, and as soon as we looked at her she laughed. “I’m kidding! Sorry, never served a human, so I couldn’t resist.” She smirked and then walked out of the VIP room, closing the door on her way out.
The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith Page 40