The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  Given that we hadn’t been camping for a while, and had been staying in the safety of Hell, the Unity, or an inn, I had completely forgotten about casting my usual Alarm spell on the area. So, I was quite surprised when I was shaken awake in the middle of the night by a quiet Denise, who held a finger up to her lips.

  Taking the message, I nodded, looking around. I didn’t see anything unusual, but my senses aren’t as good as hers. I was tempted to cast Scan, but the glow from that spell would be as bad as talking. It was, of course, at this time I realized my blunder, shaking my head.

  Denise slowly got up to her feet, using her bracelet to retrieve the bow Nightshade. The shadows twisted around her arm, manifesting the bow of darkness in her hand. Finally, I heard a faint noise from the forest, the sound of a twig snapping under a footstep. She heard that and it was enough to wake her up? I debated whether she had some kind of light sleeper power, but apparently that was just all her.

  They’re coming for me.. That thought wasn’t mine, and suddenly my eyes shot open. Damn the consequences, they were not taking my horse! The Scan spell activated immediately, and I saw that there were dozens of short people around us, completely surrounding our camp. They were holding crude spears or stone axes, covered in mud and wearing little more than loincloths and tribal masks.

  With their formation, I couldn’t make out who was the leader. Instead, I whispered to Denise. “I’m going to try to scare them off..” She glanced at me, seeing the glow in my eyes and nodding. Kneeling down, I placed my hand on the cold stone, spreading my magic out through the ground. If it weren’t for my high earth affinity thanks to my Nature Magic, I doubt I would have been able to pull something like this off. No time to make a new spell, so I just have to do what I can.. I pushed as much magic as I could into the spell I wanted, both aided and restricted in my options thanks to our surroundings. “Nature’s grip.”

  When I spoke, vines lashed at the surrounding force from all directions, pulling some off the ground and throwing them into the trees. Others were pinned by roots that sprouted to grab their feet. Suddenly, the quiet forest was in an uproar, the tribal army cutting at the roots and vines to hurriedly get away.

  Denise smiled next to me, but never put her bow away. “Nice spell.”

  “Thanks.. I guess this will be the perfect chance to get stronger Nature Magic, huh?” She nodded to my question. “You get some rest. I’ll set up an Alarm and keep watch while working on it.”

  She hesitated for a moment, but then laid back down, her bow vanishing back into the bracelet. I got up out of the shack and cast a quick Alarm over the area, letting it extend just past the tree barrier. Then, I went over towards Midnight. “You alright, there?”

  He nodded to me. They… were coming for me.

  “Are you sure?” When he nodded again, I felt compelled to ask. “Do you know what they are?”

  Don’t know, but their eyes were visible through the trees. They kept watching me.

  “I understand. I’ll be staying up for a while in case they come back, so you can rest for a bit.” He nodded reluctantly and got down on his stomach, bending his legs to lay down.

  I don’t like this place.

  “If you want, we can have you go back to Hell. I’m sure Lilith’s people would be happy to look after you until we are done here.”

  This time, he shook his head, looking up to me. I’ll stay. If you can put up with this danger, then so can I.

  “See, now that’s the arrogant horse I remember.” I grinned, and Midnight whinnied. Moving back towards the shack, I made a small bench against its wall, keeping my Scan spell active. Judging by their appearance, they would be a sentient race. Tribal, but sentient. They were also organized and using stone weapons. Though, I doubt they would be able to speak the human language. No, it’s possible that they might not even have a real language. This island has not been explored since the kingdom was cast into the sea, so they have been all that time without outside contact.

  Deciding to get to work, I began thinking about what kind of spells I’d be needing to help me deal with the situation. It would be nice to get a barrier set up to protect the camp at night, but I had other priorities before I dabbled with a new magic. First, I need either area spells, or stronger single target spells. I was still using only basic attack spells in my Nature Magic, and if this island had anything that could threaten us, I’d need something more.

  This was my first time creating an advanced spell, so I referenced the ones I already had in order to identify the patterns. Coincidentally, the patterns in the diagram for an advanced spell lined up with those for enchanting. Except there was no need for an outer circle, because the diagram was formed in the mind of the caster. Granted, some of my spells still had them, but I suspected that was more for when they are drawn on the ground.

  Now, the lines in the diagram for a spell link runes together, rather than bringing the magic to the center. This seems to cause the magic to deviate along the course, and perform two actions at once. Like the Hellfire Aura surrounding my body while being careful not to damage it. Examining the runes, I even saw that that spell should allow me some control over the aura itself. But I can’t test that in a forest.

  Using my Sculpt Earth and Stone spell, I began drawing a practice diagram on the ground for a spell I wanted to create. Given our surroundings, I could only use plant or earth spells for this. Maybe light or darkness, but these guys didn’t seem to have any trouble seeing in the dark.

  I had the basic circle drawn, but what kind of spell to create was eluding me. There were so many possibilities that it was hard to come up with something specific. For right now, I decided to go with a single target plant spell. Something that could attack a target with lethal force beyond what my current spells could produce. Even if I had taken on that so-called King of the Forest outside Grazel, that thing didn’t seem nearly as strong as my wolfman summon. Likely it was a weaker variant created with the magic of the mana trees.

  So, separating this spell into stages. First, I put in a function similar to Nature’s Grip, which caused roots and vines to grow and grab a target. Of course, this was only the innermost level of the spell. I had learned from enchanting that a diagram may either begin from the inside traveling out, or the outside traveling in. For this spell, I was using the former method.

  After my Nature’s Grip layer, I added a twist by putting in something else I learned from enchanting. Recently, I had received a skill that allows me to bestow negative enchantments called curses. For the second layer, I put in a curse of life drain that emanated from the vines, and cycled that into an enchantment that would strengthen the vines holding them, or even repair damaged ones.

  This should be enough, right? I feel kind of bad creating a curse spell, but it’s not like I plan to use it all the time.

  Leaching Vines has been added to your Spell List.

  Figures, even something like this has already been done before. Okay, I need an area spell as well. An earth spell would create too much damage in the forest, so I guess we’re doing nature again.

  This time, I worked on a much larger spell that I should be able to activate anywhere in this forest. But to get what I wanted to work right, I had to make another simple spell first. I quickly erased my earlier diagram, and wrote down five runes. Wind, Condense, Direct, Contain, and Edge. I was shortly rewarded with another message, granting me the spell Wind Blade.

  Now I could get back to my big spell. First, the inner layer designated the target as leaves within a thirty meter radius of the spell’s target area. The next layer caused those leaves to rotate, while granting them the Wind Blade ability, turning them into airborne knives.

  Finally, the outer layer was designed in order to let me control the leaves. If it was just a matter of having them converge on the area, I could have reversed the order of layers and used this as the center. However, I wanted to be able to avoid including Denise in the spell if she was in melee with the e
nemy.

  Leaf Blade Assault has been added to your Spell List.

  Just then, from the corner of my sight, I saw movement beyond the trees. It seemed a lone tribesman was coming towards the camp, with a spear in one hand and an axe in the other. Deciding that it was best to stop him from getting any ideas, I held my hand out in his direction. Naturally, he wasn’t using a spell like mine to see through the trees, so he wasn’t able to see it coming when a nearly invisible wave of air slipped between the forest heading in his direction.

  Somehow, he still managed to jump out of the way as the spell flew past him. But, he seemed to get the message that I knew he was there, and grumbled as he began running back in the direction he came from. It might have been their equivalent of a diplomat maybe. But coming at night with two weapons, prepared for battle? I can’t risk it.

  When I went back to work, thinking that I had time to create a barrier spell now, another message I had been expecting for a while appeared.

  You have fully mastered the Scan spell!

  From now on, when you unleash the full potential of the Scan spell by using the incantation, you can choose one of two variations of the spell. The first is Perfect Vision. This variation grants the user the ability to expand their field of vision to see everything around them, piercing weaker concealment effects. The second is Walking Vision. This variation allows you to let your sight move away from you, controlling its movement and direction with magic, while providing the normal benefits of the Scan spell.

  I should wait to test the Walking Vision until I have someone watching my body, right? But, I can use Perfect Vision now. Thinking such, I canceled the spell and quickly reactivated it by pouring additional mana into the spell, taking advantage of my skills to simulate the effect of the chant. It cost more mana to cast, but right now that didn’t matter as much as staying quiet.

  When the spell reactivated, I could indeed see everything around me all at once. I saw Denise sleeping in the shack behind me, the diagram I had drawn in front of me, and even a few more of the tribal soldiers off in the distance. It appeared that the range of my Scan increased, as well as the additional benefits. The people I spotted weren’t close enough to be an issue, nor were they moving in this direction.

  Taking a bit of time, I searched through my vision to look for a few things. My biggest concern so far had been the complete lack of creatures. Not including the tribesmen, we hadn’t seen a single creature since we arrived here. In a forest this big, we should have seen something by now.

  But now that I was looking, I still couldn’t find anything. There were fox dens, some burrows dug in the ground, or even hollowed sections of trees. But no foxes, moles, or owls living in them. There weren’t even any bones or blood that I could make out.

  My first thought was a subterranean monster that was eating everything whole, but there was nothing underground, either. Not even the bones of long-dead animals. Okay, this is getting to be too weird. I think I saw a movie about this once, and it did not end well.

  The only thing that I could make out with my vision was the forest itself. Aside from the tribesmen, the forest was the only thing that had any life in it. Not only that, but it was overflowing with life. I considered that maybe these were Mana Trees, but they didn’t share the coloring of the ones we saw in Grazel.

  “Midnight… you still awake?” I didn’t glance back at the horse, but my sight focused in on him.

  Of course I am. Did you expect me to sleep in this forest?

  “Right… I know what you said earlier… but I want to send you back.”

  ...Why? What’s wrong? Suddenly his head was raised in alarm, looking in my direction.

  “This forest… Something here got rid of every single animal without leaving the slightest trace. There are no birds, insects, or even bones in the ground. If it only targets animals..”

  Then it will come for me… those savages! Midnight let out a neigh as he declared his suspect.

  “It’s possible. For now, will you let me send you back to Hell? I think Denise and I would both feel better with you out of danger.”

  ...Very well. I agree to this in protest, though. There’s definitely something wrong in these woods.

  I nodded, agreeing, and went to my pack in the shack to grab a paper, on which I wrote a simple note explaining the situation.

  ‘Lilith

  Something is wrong in this island, and it has no animal life in it. Since there seems to be a tribe of people, I do not believe Denise and myself are in immediate danger. However, I am sending Midnight back to you with this note. Please take care of him. And, when you can’t hear me in the daytime, it might be best to have Levy monitor our situation. I’m not sure what will await us, but I want to try handling it on our own before we call for backup. Also, I really hope you can read the human language. I kind of got this far before even stopping to think of that.

  Jin’

  With the letter written, I went to Midnight and placed it into his saddle. “Alright, I’ll open you a gate here, and send you straight into the throne room. Lilith will recognize you, and she’s probably listening anyways so she should understand the situation. If not, she can read the note I gave you.”

  Midnight nodded to me, so I turned around and pointed towards the trees, retrieving my grimoire from my bracelet and accessing the spell I needed. “I am he who holds the favor of the underworld. Rise now before me, and open your gate.” There was a cracking of stone that could be heard as am obsidian gate rose from the ground. Alerted by the noise, Denise was instantly on her feet with her bow out.

  “What’s going on?” She asked, immediately seeing the gate I called up.

  “Something’s wrong here. Midnight is going back to Hell for now. This place is especially dangerous for him.”

  Denise looked to me curiously. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s nothing here. Not a single living creature, aside from those tribesmen. I used my detection spell to find abandoned dens for animals, but even beneath the ground, there are no insects. There’s not even a single bone, above or below the soil.”

  “But the tribesmen..”

  “Right… I think whatever this is, targets mostly animals. That’s why it is more dangerous for Midnight.”

  She nodded, gripping her bow firmly. “I understand. It would be terrible if something happened to him.”

  “Agreed.” I willed the gate to open, and let Midnight walk through. Briefly I heard another thought in my head, but I knew it couldn’t have been from the horse.

  Mom said you should be careful. It seemed like Levy had another trick up her sleeves, and the connection was stronger when I opened a gate.

  I will. Keep an eye on me, okay? I’m not really that confident this time.

  I was going to even if you didn’t ask.

  Lilith doesn’t know you can do this, does she? I smirked a bit at the thought, and couldn’t help but chuckle when I got Levy’s reply.

  Does she need to? I could swear that it was the tone of a rebellious teenager wanting to keep a secret, though it seemed like she might have told if I asked her to.

  Not for now. Don’t slack off on your training, you hear? I want to know as much as you do what you will become.

  Yeah, yeah. You aren’t my father. As the gate closed behind Midnight, I thought I heard a laugh at the end of her message. She doesn’t even have a father, does she? Kroa said that demons were made by other demons crystallizing their essence. That should mean she only has her mother, Lilith. Maybe she inherited her mother’s sense of humor? Now that was a dangerous thought.

  With Midnight taken care of, I felt like I could relax a bit. Of course, Denise did not share my opinion, and insisted on taking watch while I went to rest for the night.