Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 12

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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 12
Tae first made his way out of Hobidyn’s nest toward the source of the sound.
And he saw it.
A golem standing roughly three meters tall, tearing apart cobolds.
Tae crept back out and ventured toward the mushroom colony.
He saw golems there too, setting the mushrooms ablaze.
An emergency!
At this rate, he could die!
‘I can see what the Grand Purge is, no question about it…….’
The Grand Purge!
In other words—a day of great cleansing in the sewer.
Apparently, monsters had infested the sewer depths and bred there even in ancient times.
So they would conduct these periodic purges, then.
This sewer, built with the magic and technology of ages past, still had its own self-repair, restoration, and maintenance systems in operation.
Those golems were surely part of one such system.
The problem, though.
Humans also became targets for processing during the Grand Purge.
In other words, Tae himself could die.
Tae immediately retreated back to Hobidyn’s nest.
“We face an emergency, contractor. At this rate, those golems will recognize us as refuse and dispose of us accordingly.”
“No doubt about it. We could very well die here.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll have to break through head-on…….”
“Is that even possible? The difference in combat class is far too severe.”
The demon spoke with evident concern.
If the contractor vanished, there was no knowing when he would emerge back into the Middle Realm. So worry was inevitable.
Tae understood that fact well enough.
“There’s a way, so don’t worry.”
Tae headed again for Hobidyn’s nest—toward the forge.
As he went, he dragged the bodies of Hobidyn’s corpses and laid them beside the anvil.
Then he gripped the hammer.
-Activating Mad-Touched Crafting.
-Imagine the object you wish to craft, consuming “madness” to do so.
-Please imagine the object you wish to create.
-Consuming accumulated madness.
The thing he needed to make to escape this place.
A weapon he had crafted before, in his past life.
[Mad Monkey Wrench]
-Confirming creation of the Mad Monkey Wrench.
-Sufficient materials exist in the vicinity.
-Madness blesses you.
-Critical Success!
‘Yes! Critical success again!’
Exultation! Another critical success!
[Mad Monkey Wrench]
Quality: Supreme
Grade: Magical
A wrench favored across ages by scientists mad with obsession over science and invention.
It radiates an aura so maddening merely to behold that it inflicts severe psychological trauma upon those in specialized professions.
Moreover, it deals formidable damage to inanimate foes.
Achieving critical success grants it supreme-tier quality, conferring additional properties as a result.
Property: Mental Erosion (Medium)—amplified damage if the observer is a graduate student or similar professional
Property: 500% attack power increase against inanimate targets
Property: 3-second stun on strikes against inanimate targets
Property: Electric shock damage to user if the technique name is not suffixed with “tech”
‘Ooooooh! It came through!’
Tae let out a cry of joy.
This was a weapon he’d crafted several times in his past life, and it came standard with the first and second properties.
On top of that, the critical success added the third property—a three-second stun—which was honestly a completely broken option!
The only drawback was the penalty from the mad engineer’s profession, but fortunately what appeared was tolerable enough.
Some items come with unusable options—like self-harm requirements when used.
“Excellent work, tech. You’ve crafted something truly fine, tech.”
Tae held a Staff in one hand and the Mad Monkey Wrench in the other.
“Contractor, what is this manner of speech?”
“Is the master opening new horizons of linguistic expression, tech? I shall eagerly join in kind, tech!”
“Ugh… my head is spinning.”
The imp Glashalavolias felt his hair stand on end at the sight. In his long demon life, he’d never witnessed such twisted abominations.
“That’s not it, tech. To use this item, you have to append ‘tech’ to the end of every sentence, tech.”
“I’m losing my mind.”
Glashalavolias removed his glasses and splashed his face with water.
So demons do that too, Tae thought.
“Well then. Shall we move on, tech?”
Tae advanced forward with his contracted demon and the Reading Lamp slung over his shoulder.
Now came the struggle to escape the Sewer.
* * *
And so Tae began his exploration of the Sewer.
While searching for stairs leading upward, he eventually encountered a golem.
“Vermin detected. Vermin detected. Exterminating. Exterminating.”
The imp translated the golem’s ancient speech for him.
“So humans count as vermin too, tech?”
With that, Tae gripped the Monkey Wrench and began to run.
The golem charged straight at him.
Tae calmly rushed forward to meet it.
As they drew closer and closer—
Slide!
Whoosh!
The golem’s arm swept past over Tae’s head, and he sprang up immediately, swinging the Monkey Wrench with all his might.
“Hyaaaa!”
Clang!
-Stun activated.
Crack!
The three-meter-tall, thick-bodied golem stopped dead in its tracks!
“That’s right, tech! This is it, tech! What can you do now, tech!? I’m on the golem, tech!”
Tae climbed atop the golem’s head and danced.
Between each step, he struck the golem’s skull with the Monkey Wrench—bang, bang, bang.
Had to keep that stun effect going!
“This is shock and awe, tech! You pathetic tin cans, tech!”
A joyful celebration!
Pure performance!
Glashalavolias’s eyes went cold watching the spectacle, but Tae paid him no mind.
And Tae still didn’t know that the golems maintaining this ancient Sewer each had their own function.
In particular, the golem he’d just toppled bore the designation: Sewer-Vermin-Extermination Golem.
In ancient times, goblins, kobolds, and ratmen would frequently infiltrate sewers to breed, so these constructs had been built to counter them—and were actually high-performance combat units capable of defeating trolls one-on-one.
Its two arms could easily seize and crush monsters, and one hand was fitted with an incinerator flamethrower.
This ancient golem lacked ranged weapons out of concern for facility damage, but what it had was formidable enough.
And that’s precisely why Tae destroyed it.
Had it been equipped with ranged weapons, Tae couldn’t have brought it down even with the Mad Monkey Wrench.
His body would have been riddled with holes long before he closed the distance, and he’d have been dead.
But against an opponent that only fought close combat, Tae’s cursed Wrench was devastatingly effective. One solid hit triggered the stun.
Which was exactly what had just happened!
Now it was a matter of pounding it to smithereens before it recovered!
With a 500% attack power boost, relentless strikes would shatter it to pieces.
Moreover, Tae’s Warrior Level was 2.
Thanks to his days grinding through combat before becoming a dark mage, he could obliterate this thing one way or another.
“Ha. That ability is quite grotesque.”
“It is, tech.”
And as Tae continued spouting “tech,” he channeled Dark Mana into the Monkey Wrench.
While Dark Mana lacked the destructive force of the Aura that warriors and knights wielded, infusing objects with mana or Dark Mana amplified their destructive power.
The Monkey Wrench, now suffused with Dark Mana, descended with the force of a collapsing mountain.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crack!
A single blow cracked the solid exterior of the golem.
Dark Mana with five hundred percent attack power!
“So you just keep stacking techniques on top of each other?”
“You have to stack them, tech.”
“Oh…… my god.”
The imp butler had found his deity.
In the meantime.
Crash!
The golem’s head finally shattered!
And Tae obtained an Achievement.
-An Unbelievable Achievement!
[One Who Slew a Golem While Lowborn]
An unremarkable title granted to one who defeated a golem in single combat despite being lowborn and weak—utterly unremarkable.
Effect: Fifty percent damage increase against inanimate targets.
‘I’ve never earned a title like this, even in my past life.’
The Achievement system!
This was one of the supplementary functions attached to the Hunter System, and Achievements could be earned by accomplishing feats that astonished the world.
For each Achievement earned, one could gain a useful ability, so naturally, the more you obtained, the better.
But in my past life, I only managed to earn two, so to get one already…
‘Why does this life feel so blessed? Like a day touched by fortune…….’
Tae recalled “A Day of Good Fortune,” a piece of satirical literature he’d read in his past life.
“By the way, you promised to teach me a powerful dark spell. What happened to that, tech?”
“I truly wish I could stop hearing the word ‘tech,’ but very well.”
“Doesn’t it sound rather endearing, Glashalavolias? Your master’s manner of speech is quite amusing and entertaining, is it not?”
“That is your impression alone, I assure you. Dialogue.”
“There are only us here, so I have precious few to compare with! But soon I’ll be able to observe others outside!”
“So when are you going to teach me, tech?”
“Sigh…… very well. Since you’ve managed to impress me, I shall teach you a reasonably potent dark spell.”
“This is exciting, tech!”
“I’m losing my mind.”
The imp butler wiped his face once more in exasperation.
“The dark spell I shall teach is a summoning magic.”
Summoning magic!
“Of course, I do not mean summoning contracted demons like myself, but rather temporarily useful entities. You are aware that Hell is not inhabited solely by demons, are you not?”
“I am aware, tech.”
“Excellent. Among them, I shall teach you the dark spell to summon Hellhounds. You are fundamentally a Dark Mage, and you lack frontline fighters, do you not? This should serve you well.”
And so.
Tae was able to learn the dark spell of Summon Hellhound immediately.
[Magic: Summon Hellhound]
Summons a Hellhound dwelling in the barren wastes of the Ninth Hell.
After one hour, the Hellhound returns to Hell.
“Excellent, tech!”
“I shall go mad.”
Thus, after obtaining one more new dark spell, Tae decided to press forward once again.
A Dark Mage Makes for Too Easy a Blacksmith
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AutomatonG
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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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