Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 19

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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 19
“Damn it.”
Jeko, a mercenary, was one of the escort fighters accompanying a merchant convoy heading toward another city connected to Harundel.
A member of the Black Nose Mercenary Corps—a twenty-one-strong outfit that ran reasonably well—he cursed under his breath while surveying their surroundings.
No wonder. Gnoles had appeared from nowhere and were closing in around them.
Gnoles—creatures that looked vaguely humanoid with hyena-like heads, walking upright on two legs.
Some mages classified them not as mere monsters, but as Non-human Races.
Goblins and orcs, for instance, were deemed Non-human Races because they wielded tools and formed societies of their own—or so the theory went.
Jeko wasn’t much for such classifications, but he knew well enough that Gnoles were filthy opponents.
They were weaker than orcs in raw strength and stamina, but their limbs were longer and lankier.
And the Gnoles’ weapon of choice was the Halberd.
Their craftsmanship was surprisingly decent; they forged Halberds that even by human standards were worth wielding.
Any mercenary worth his salt knew how deadly a Halberd could be.
The reach alone was formidable, and a downward thrust had enough force to cave in a skull.
Coupled with its effectiveness in thrusting attacks, it was a devastatingly effective weapon.
And now thirty to fifty of these Gnoles, armed with such polearms, were moving as a unit?
It was less like a raiding party and more like a small army.
With that many Gnoles surrounding them and hurling thrusts from every angle, Jeko had every reason to curse.
Clang! Clang-clang!
“Shriek!”
“You filthy bastards!”
“Grragh!”
The mercenaries outnumbered the Gnoles by roughly twenty fighters, yet the creatures formed a disciplined phalanx with their Halberds and pressed forward relentlessly.
A few of the weaker mercenaries fell in the first collision, and since then, the company had been fighting a desperate, losing battle.
Ordinarily, mercenaries would cut and run if the odds turned against them, but the terrain here offered nowhere to flee.
“Fight, damn you all! If we get pushed back, we’re dead!”
“Hell! Captain! If we live through this, you better pay us triple!”
“Get out of here alive and I’ll get you wine, women, and song! Now fight!”
Cotton, the captain of the mercenary band, bellowed as he swung his Hand Axe.
Aura flickered along the blade of his weapon.
His opponent was a Gnole a full head taller than the others.
It was clearly a warrior-class among its kind.
Aura shimmered along its Halberd too, suggesting the captain would have a hard time prevailing easily.
“Hell.”
How could they win? How could they survive? If only that Gnole chief fell……
That was when it happened.
Jeko suddenly remembered something.
An item he had purchased.
It had been when he visited the Black Spear Guild.
“A finger breaks, but it’s guaranteed to hit the target?”
“That’s right! Remarkable, isn’t it?”
“Wait. What does ‘guaranteed to hit’ mean? Can it not be dodged?”
“Dodging it is nearly impossible! Though I’m told it can be blocked.”
“Blocked? Like, intercepted?”
“Exactly that!”
“Give me one, then.”
“Right away!”
Recalling that exchange at the Black Spear Guild, Jeko’s hand went to his belt.
The guild handled diverse business—contracts, mercenary recruitment, and all manner of ventures—and they also offered a proxy sales service for goods.
He’d picked up bargains there before, and on one such occasion, Jeko had bought two disposable weapons from a suspicious Dark Mage.
They were called Finger Sacrifice’s Twisted Bone Spears.
And one of them hung at his lower back now.
Despite its name as a spear, it was only as long as his forearm.
More like a short cudgel than a true spear.
Pale and twisted, the thing looked unnatural.
Jeko drew it as if entranced and gripped it tight.
“Go to hell!”
And he hurled it with all his strength.
Then.
A piercing shriek tore through the air.
Remarkably, the twisted bone spear flew in a pristine arc and pierced straight through the skull of the Nol chieftain who had been fighting the mercenary captain.
Splurch!
“What?”
Did that… actually work? Seriously?
Jeko himself was astonished. So stunned that he stood dazed for a moment.
Crack!
“Argh!”
One of his fingers had snapped.
“Damn it!”
Looking down at his hand, the middle finger was unmistakably broken.
It hurt like hell, but this was no time to worry about that.
The moment the Nol chieftain fell, the mercenary captain began to bellow orders.
“Your leader is dead! All of you, perish!”
True to his word as a mercenary who wielded Aura, the captain charged the other Nols and swiftly severed their necks and limbs with his hand axe.
The Nols panicked in an instant and began to flee.
Jeko looked at his broken finger and laughed quietly.
His body was already covered in cuts and gashes from the Nol halberds.
Killing a Nol chieftain who wielded Aura with a single finger was a worthwhile trade.
“We won!”
The mercenaries roared in triumph.
Jeko resolved to exact proper compensation from the captain for his broken finger.
* * *
Tay had entrusted the sales distribution to the Black Spear Guild.
As someone who had once worked as a debt-collection mercenary for the Black Spear Guild, Tay found it worthwhile to use their services even with the commission fee.
After all, what good are connections if not for times like these?
And.
It sold far better than expected.
One broken finger in exchange for a weapon capable of a one-hit kill in unexpected situations.
From a mercenary’s perspective, it was worth buying one as insurance.
On top of that, the price was cheap.
Five Goldmanta Silver Coins.
Since ten Goldmanta Silver Coins equaled one Goldmanta Gold Coin in value, it counted as a bargain among one-time magical items.
Though it was consumable, the merit of “guaranteed to hit” was undeniable.
So it had been selling quietly at first.
Then it suddenly became a massively popular product.
Why?
Because a mercenary named Jeko had used it to kill a Nol chieftain.
Though it was used as a side action in the fight between the mercenary captain and the Nol chieftain, the news that he had killed an Aura-wielding Nol spread far and wide, and now the item had become impossible to keep in stock.
As a result.
Finger Sacrifice’s Twisted Bone Spear began to sell over a hundred units a day, flying off the shelves.
In Goldmanta Gold Coins, that meant fifty coins of daily revenue.
Since any bone could be used for the materials, bones from the slaughterhouse were purchased at rock-bottom prices, making the cost of production a mere one Goldmanta Silver Coin per unit.
It was pure profit pouring in!
“Heh… look at this. Beautiful!”
Clink-clink-clink.
Tay delighted in handling the coins.
And for good reason.
The money was flowing in at a tremendous rate.
A month had now passed since selling Finger Sacrifice’s Twisted Bone Spear, and even after deducting raw materials and the Black Spear Guild’s commission, the accumulated profit had reached a staggering one thousand Goldmanta Gold Coins.
In other words, in a single month, she had earned the equivalent of one billion won in Korean currency!
It was absolutely insane!
“That’s a vulgar habit, Contractor.”
“Why not? You have to savor moments like these.”
“Even though you’re just going to deposit it all at Goldmanta Bank anyway…”
“Well, that may be true.”
Goldmanta Bank.
The bank was established by the golden dragon Goldmanta, a creature whose very name suggested something uncanny and extraordinary.
Dragons were classified as Transcendent Beings—quasi-divine entities of unimaginable power, creatures far beyond the reach of mere humans.
There were legends of dragon-slayers, yet those with even a passing knowledge of magic dismissed such tales as fantasy.
After all, dragons were said to have no limit to their lifespans, and the supreme dragon Naigamart had openly declared his own age to be approximately one billion years.
A billion years ago—when exactly was that, anyway?
Wasn’t that before dinosaurs even existed on Earth?
Tay had indeed complained about living in a fantasy world.
Most dragons lived as though they didn’t exist at all.
It was because of their transcendent magical power that they couldn’t even be discovered in the first place.
When Tay heard tales of such dragons’ deeds, he’d mutter things like “cosmic entity” or “isn’t that cosmic horror?” and the like.
In any case, even among those Transcendent Beings—the dragons—Goldmanta was considered eccentric.
Why?
Because this creature loved gold far too much.
So much so that he’d created a lake made of gold coins and swam in it with his enormous body.
When Tay heard that story, as a child he’d thought of Scrooge McDuck from that American animation he’d once watched.
That duck character who’d swim in a vault full of gold coins.
This Goldmanta loved gold so dearly that, according to legend, he’d wanted to gather every last piece of gold in the world into his own hands.
But even a Transcendent Being found that impossible, so the story goes, and he changed his strategy.
Rumor had it that someone from another world had given him a brilliant idea.
The result was the Goldmanta Bank.
By now it had become a Big Brother–like organizational system that controlled all of the world’s finance.
Because of this.
Nearly every gold coin in this world came from the Goldmanta Bank.
Why?
Because Goldmanta Bank coins cannot be counterfeited.
The Goldmanta Gold Coins issued through the golden dragon’s transcendent magic are known to be extremely difficult to damage.
Because of this, they became the currency with the highest credit rating in the world, and nearly every nation uses them as their reserve currency outright.
In the past, various nations had tried to create their own different coins, but they were overwhelmed by the Goldmanta Gold Coin’s overwhelming performance, or so the story goes.
Moreover, the Goldmanta Bank guarantees services on an entirely different level from other nations.
Such as the Soul Identification Authentication System.
And it even accepts card payments!
All thanks to the golden dragon’s terrifying transcendent magical power.
That’s right—the Goldmanta Bank is essentially a mad bank that provides nearly all the services of a 21st-century Earth bank (though with even superior security thanks to applications of soul magic).
Other ordinary banks cannot do such things.
They lack the magical capability to operate such systems in the first place.
Dark Mage is a Blacksmith Too
Author |
Automaton G
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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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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