Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10
“After the Great Purge has ended, you shall select capable personnel and direct them into the depths of the sewers. Investigate the cause of the Great Purge. If it occurred merely because filth had accumulated to critical levels, then fortunate. But if some fool damaged the sewers themselves, and if that fool yet lives—then you must root out the culprit and bring them to justice.”
That was the crux of it.
Uncover why the Great Purge happened so suddenly.
Such was the will of the Duke, Harundel’s ruler.
Failure to accomplish this would bring severe punishment upon the Mercenary Guilds themselves.
“Then, having given my orders, you shall do your utmost. You must not disappoint me.”
With those words, the Duke rose from his seat.
And, meanwhile.
At the very moment the Duke was leaving the council chamber.
Contrary to the confident proclamation of the Knights Commander Ivan, who had sworn that all would perish.
Tae, the reincarnated one, stood atop a toppled golem, crackling with sparks, wielding an object that existed nowhere in this world—
A Monkey Wrench—and bellowing at the top of his voice.
“This is shock and awe, tech! You lousy clunkers, tech-tech!”
Why a Monkey Wrench?
How?
And how exactly had he toppled the golem?
And why—why was he appending “tech” to every sentence?
To understand, one would need to rewind time a bit further.
* * *
“Is this a sewer or a dungeon?”
Tae’s face had twisted into an expression of sheer disbelief.
Why?
There were far too many monsters.
It was only because he had mastered Soul Theft—Black Magic—that his mana hadn’t bottomed out; otherwise he would’ve been in serious trouble.
“Die-eeeee!”
“Kyaaaah!”
Hobbits—that was the name of these monsters. Different from Ratmen, they were small, bipedal creatures that resembled wild boars to some degree.
Dozens upon dozens of them were swarming toward him.
“Clinging Flame. Clinging Flame. Clinging Flame.”
Tae’s tactic in response was simple.
If they came at him with overwhelming numbers, then so would he!
Whoooosh!
Dark crimson flames erupted forward, engulfing the small, humanoid pig-like monsters that charged at him.
“Kyaaah!”
“Kye-eek!”
Hobbits shrieked and tumbled about.
Watching them, Glasshalabolias the imp muttered with an expression of bewilderment.
Once an imp used Black Magic, there was a cooldown, which left him with considerable idle time.
“You—are you certain that’s a Bloodline Ability? Using Black Magic at such a rate……”
“Ah. Your first time seeing this, is it? This is what we call ‘rap.'”
Tae spouted complete nonsense.
Then he unleashed the spell again in rapid succession.
The dozens of Hobbits that had been charging forward so eagerly found their numbers reduced to less than ten by the time they closed to melee range.
And at that point, upon seeing Glasshalabolias and the hovering hellfire, they were immediately struck with Mental Erosion!
Madness!
“Gaaaaaah!”
“Kraaaaatch!”
Friendly fire ensued.
Directing Soul Theft at those now frozen in place and cutting them down one by one was hardly a difficult task.
Having done this dozens of times since entering this sewer, he dispatched all the remaining Hobbits without breaking a sweat.
Glasshalabolias, watching it all, spoke.
“Extraordinary. Black Magic activating without any verbal incantation……”
“My Bloodline Ability is rather impressive, wouldn’t you say?”
The Hunter System. It allowed magic to activate with merely a trigger word—a skill in its truest form.
This was how such feats became possible.
Rapid-fire spell casting was an ability that ordinary mages or Black Mages could never accomplish.
“It’s nothing like High-Speed Incantation. And it’s certainly not Pre-Cast Activation either.”
“You understand such things?”
“I am a butler-master serving a noble personage. Hmm. Indeed. By human standards, I would rank at least at the sixth Class level.”
“Is that really true?”
Tae was taken aback. Wait. Rank 6?
That made him at least a Baron-class demon.
A Noble Demon!
This bastard was more of a big shot than I thought?
“Why are you telling me so readily?”
“I’ve come to respect my contractor a little more, that’s all.”
“Much obliged.”
With that, Tae looked over the corpses and moved on.
“I was wondering why so many of them swarmed in like that, but they’ve built themselves a settlement here.”
Inside, through a crudely fashioned door, he spotted young goblins and what appeared to be a female. They were huddled together.
The reason dozens of them had attacked in a frenzied rush was likely because they’d seen Glasshalabolias, a demon.
From their perspective, it must have looked like a demon was charging at them to destroy their home.
Tae could understand that.
And since things had come to this, there was only one thing left to do.
“Aes.”
“What is it? Have you taken pity on these younglings?”
Without answering Glasshalabolias’s question, Tae got straight to the point.
“You know direct-attack type Black Magic, right? Something like a shadow arrow. Teach me. I’ve got plenty of soul fragments, so it should be fine?”
“Of course it’s fine. The spell I’d recommend is the Hellish Mana Arrow. It has excellent penetrating power. But why do you suddenly want such Black Magic?”
“Because I have to do what I can do.”
To kill them without pain.
The young ones. Their mother. All of them.
That was all Tae could do for them.
Glasshalabolias looked at Tae with emotionless eyes beyond his spectacles and nodded.
Then he pointed a finger toward the mother shielding her young.
And he began to chant the incantation.
“Hellish Mana Arrow.”
Soon, dark crimson mana gathered at his fingertip. It split into three arrows and flew forth.
Both the mother and her young were pierced simultaneously and died instantly.
-Madness Measurement activates.
-You have acquired the spell: Hellish Mana Arrow.
“Have you learned it?”
“Yeah.”
“Then finish what needs to be done.”
“I will.”
Tae picked up his staff. Then he slaughtered every living creature in the den of the frightened goblin tribe.
* * *
It appeared to be a small community of about fifty living together. Once he’d killed them all, Tae heard a system message.
-Through sufficient experience, your level has risen.
-Triple Class confirmed.
-Your first class, Black Mage, has risen by 1 level.
‘So Dual Class and above really do level up separately. That’s actually true?’
Tae wasn’t flustered.
He’d heard this before in his past life. When you have multiple classes, they level up sequentially—that much was common knowledge.
Rather, what shocked him was that he’d reached level 2.
Because raising a level at all was extraordinarily difficult.
The higher the level, the harder it became.
In fact, even becoming a Black Mage, Tae had predicted his level wouldn’t rise for another one or two years.
Yet here he was, leveling up already.
‘I did kill a lot of them, didn’t I?’
Ever since entering the Sewer and tumbling down here after being caught in the rapids.
He had killed many monsters. Perhaps that’s why he’d leveled up so quickly.
-As a reward for reaching level 1 for the first time, you acquire a skill for the Black Mage class.
He’d hold off on that for now.
Rewards could be claimed later.
As he was taking stock of his situation, the demon he’d contracted with showed signs of surprise.
“Contractor. Your presence has suddenly elevated. How did you manage that?”
“It’s my Bloodline Ability. The more living things I kill, the higher my rank climbs.”
He’d explained it indirectly, saying nothing about the Hunter System.
Surprise flashed across the sharp-featured beauty’s face.
“Don’t tell me. Are you of demonic bloodline?”
“I don’t know. But do demons have that kind of ability? First I’ve heard of it.”
“There are demons of that sort in existence. Indeed. Perhaps there was a reason I was summoned here after all.”
“A reason?”
“Yes. Some fateful power may have been at work. The Great Providence is a law even the greatest gods cannot fathom.”
“The Great Providence, then…”
Tae listened to those words while dragging corpses over and stacking them to one side. Left alone, they would rot, and then plague would follow.
“But why are you organizing the bodies?”
“I’m going to make this place a base. It’s reasonably defensible, isn’t it?”
“True enough. That makes sense.”
“But how in the world did these creatures end up here and make a home of it, I wonder…”
Tae gathered the corpses together and set them alight. Using Clinging Flame repeatedly, the bodies burned well.
As he cremated them, he looked around and discovered a crude smithy of primitive construction.
“They were living here making weapons too?”
There was a forge. There was an anvil.
“Small races often possess manual skill through their Bloodline Abilities for the sake of survival. It’s nothing strange.”
“First I’ve heard of it.”
“That’s only because you grew up in an environment where you never properly encountered such knowledge.”
According to the imp’s explanation, most small races are born with some kind of crafting ability.
Goblins possessed an ability called Goblin Craft—a Bloodline Ability to extract ore and transform its shape—and Ratmen were similar, though their ability lay in combining different materials. And Hobgoblins, remarkably enough…

Could convert organic matter into metallic inorganic material.
What sort of philosopher’s stone ability was this!
But they couldn’t craft anything harder than a certain level. At best, copper.
“Ah. So that’s why Hobgoblins are treated as treasures!”
“Treasures?”
“It’s common knowledge among mercenaries that finding a Hobgoblin nest means good coin.”
“The Middle Realm is fascinating.”
Hobgoblins convert organic matter—corpses and the like—into metal and use it. And copper ingots fetch coin too.
Minerals are all precious in this age.
“The smithy anyway… here it is.”
Tae crouched down in front of the anvil.
He picked up a hammer fashioned from a copper mass lying nearby.
‘Madness-Touched Crafting Lv 1’
He tested the skill.
Then.
—Using Madness-Touched Crafting.
—Imagine the object you wish to craft by expending Madness.
‘Hmm—that familiar feeling. So it works even in a crude place like this?’
Tae smiled inwardly.
Being a Black Mage made blacksmithing far too easy.
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Automaton G
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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