Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 23

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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 23
“I curse you to lose your sight! Darkness that blinds the eyes!”
The Steel Staff mounted with Ratman’s skull radiated an ominous Black Mana.
“Kyaaah!?”
At that, the hyena-headed monster that had been savagely swinging an axe at the Skeleton Soldiers’ halberd—a creature called Nol—shrieked and thrashed its head.
Darkness had settled in both its eyes, stealing its sight.
In that gap, the Skeleton Soldier in front of it let out an eerie howl and thrust its halberd forward.
Squelch!
“Kaaaaah!”
Nol shrieked. And toward Nol’s neck as it screamed, another Skeleton Soldier thrust its halberd.
Squelch!
One Nol fell dead.
In truth, it was hardly surprising.
The Nol were already dying off like this.
The Sight-Blocking Curse applied, and the Skeleton Soldier finished it.
Nol were certainly stronger than Skeleton Soldiers.
When they swung their halberd or axe with all their strength, the Skeleton Soldiers’ bones would shatter and they would collapse.
But this side had more than just Skeleton Soldiers.
The slave girl Rant. And the Imp she commanded. Then Tae and As. And the chattering voice of dialogue itself.
The sheer volume of Black Magic pouring out from five was overwhelming.
On top of that.
“Darkness that blinds the eyes. Darkness that blinds the eyes. Darkness that blinds the eyes.”
Tae didn’t even bother chanting a proper incantation.
He merely spoke the trigger word and Black Magic would shoot forth, sealing Nol’s sight entirely.
It didn’t take long for thirty Nol that had rushed in to become corpses.
“Not bad, stepping right out of the City and finding this.”
“Now that you mention it, you did say your contractor grows stronger through slaughter.”
“That’s right. It’s my Bloodline Ability, after all.”
To be precise, it was a Hunter Ability carried over from his previous life, but since Bloodline Abilities were more well-known in this world, Tae simply called it that.
“So, have you grown considerably stronger?”
“Not with just this. I’ll need to kill far more to reach the next stage.”
Based on his experience in his previous life, killing creatures like these Nol would require at least several hundred corpses before he could reach Level 3.
“Rant. You holding up?”
“I’m… fine.”
The beautiful girl Rant was drenched in cold sweat, clinging to a carrying frame.
She’d exhausted herself from overusing Black Mana.
Though she’d learned Black Magic remarkably quickly thanks to her prodigious talent, the quantity of Black Mana was something only time could resolve.
Unless she had a Hunter Ability like Tae’s carried over from a previous life.
Without that, she’d need more time to recover.
Or she could consume some elixir to rapidly increase her Black Mana reserves.
“Tsk. Rest until your Black Mana recovers.”
“Yes….”
Rant answered in a dying voice.
“Hmm. Your contractor’s slave seems to possess the finest talent among young humans, it would seem.”
“How would you know?”
“I’ve seen many young humans. But I’ve never seen one with such willpower.”
“It must be her bloodline.”
In this world, anything special came down to bloodline.
That’s why the term Bloodline Ability even existed.
Clatter. Clatter. Clatter.
The Skeleton Soldiers gathered the Nol corpses in one place.
“So… think this’ll work?”
“Work for what?”
“Modification and improvement.”
“You intend to upgrade the Skeleton Soldiers. How do you plan to do it?”
“First, I’ll try expanding their skeletal frame.”
“Flesh Dissolution.”
Sizzzzz.
Flesh melted away from the Nol corpse.
Reducing Nol to bare bone, he then used the next Black Magic to repair the damaged Skeleton Soldier with those bones.
“Bone Crafting.”
Black Magic that reshapes bone into any form at will.
Squelch-squelch-squelch-squelch!
Nol’s bones moved like liquid, adhering to the Skeleton Soldiers.
Broken pieces knitted together, fusing with the bones of the Skeleton Soldiers.
And then.
The Skeleton Soldier grew larger.
Its skeletal frame thickened threefold, and its height swelled to nearly two meters.
Its weight, too, became considerably heavier—naturally so.
And remarkably.
As its frame expanded, the Skeleton Soldier’s strength grew visibly more formidable.
Was it instinct—the instinct of a Black Mage?
Somehow, without anyone explaining it, he understood.
But.
This was the limit for the Skeleton Soldier’s size.
It could grow no larger.
If he wanted to push it further…… instinct whispered that he would need to raise its Level.
‘Even so…… this is rather excellent.’
A two-meter Skeleton Soldier!
Of course, Skeleton Soldiers were fundamentally weaker than ordinary adult human soldiers.
Why?
They had only bones.
An adult human’s skeleton alone weighed roughly ten to fourteen kilograms; a Skeleton Soldier weighed no more than that either.
The Black Mana wreathing the Skeleton Soldier substituted for muscle, moving the bones and keeping them pressed together to maintain human form, but it did not create weight that did not exist.
In boxing alone, lightweight and heavyweight divisions differ drastically.
A larger frame and greater mass naturally generate stronger physical force.
Although the Skeleton Soldier could exert strength disproportionate to its weight thanks to Black Magic, in a head-on collision it would bounce back or topple easily due to its light frame.
Tae’s Skeleton Soldiers were at least equipped with gear to add mass, but even that had its limits.
However.
Look now.
With bones three times thicker and a height of two meters, the bone mass alone seemed likely to weigh at least fifty kilograms.
Add to that all manner of gear piled on top.
The total weight appeared to be somewhere around sixty to seventy kilograms.
At that strength, it seemed as though it could easily overwhelm—and slaughter—ordinary footsoldiers.
“Hehehehe. This is quite nice. When will another monster show up?”
“Monsters are abundant, so you’ll encounter one soon enough.”
“Good. Level up and gather materials.”
Tae laughed wickedly, while his slave Rant watched him with an unreadable gaze.
* * *
Rant.
Once blessed with noble blood, now reduced to mere slavery, the girl surveyed her surroundings.
Her master—a sellsword-turned-Black Mage—seemed by no measure to be an ordinary human.
First, his knowledge.
His behavior was crude, hardly befitting noble blood, yet the knowledge he displayed bore the unmistakable mark of formal education.
In this world, education was a privilege granted only to the select few.
Even among the so-called nobility, illiteracy was rampant enough that some could not read at all.
This was because the written language of this world was logographic, making it extraordinarily difficult to learn.
Yet this man claimed to be an ‘orphan,’ and yet he read proficiently, could perform ‘mathematics,’ and moreover.
He possessed the kind of judgment only a properly educated nobleman would display.
And that ability.
Enhancing Undead in such a manner—Rant had never witnessed it.
If such a thing was unfamiliar to Rant, who had received considerable education, then it was certainly not commonplace.
What could his true nature be?
Was this some kind of trap?
Or……
Thus the slave Rant gazed at her master with questions in her eyes.
He was occupied with directing the Skeleton Soldier to construct an encampment.
In truth, this ‘encampment’ itself was quite curious.
No matter how she thought about it, she had never seen others build camps like this.
First, he moved toward the vicinity of a fairly large boulder.
And then he dug deep into the ground beside the boulder.
Using Black Magic’s Bone Crafting, he transformed bones into shovels, and with the Skeleton Soldiers wielding them, he was able to carve out a space that looked quite spacious and comfortable.
Next, he used Bone Crafting again to fashion a floor from bones inside, and constructed a hearth.
Then he even built walls and a door.
After that, he sent the Skeleton Soldiers to scrape together soil and moss from the surroundings, slathering it thickly over everything.
At a glance, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary natural rock formation—perfectly camouflaged.
Remarkable.
What’s more, the interior was warm and cozy, not cold at all.
Laying down the Fur he’d brought and stretching out, it had become quite a serviceable shelter.
Watching the entire process unfold, Rant’s questions about Tae only grew deeper.
* * *
Two meters tall.
Long, gangly limbs.
Simply hoisting the blade and bringing it down dealt tremendous force.
Even more, the Halberd was a polearm with considerable weight, and a blade axe was mounted at its end.
Crack!
As the Halberd came down vertically, the orc’s skull split in half like a watermelon.
“Urrgh.”
“Go! Charge, Max Skeleton Soldier!”
Tae, perched atop the bone palanquin, shouted with excitement.
He couldn’t help but be thrilled!
A brawny Skeleton Soldier—how could he not be impressed?
In moments, twenty orc skulls had been crushed to pieces.
In the process, two Skeleton Soldiers had been destroyed, but repairing them was no difficult task.
An absolutely overwhelming exchange rate!
And on top of that.
The corpses obtained that way were stacked carefully onto the cart.
Orc corpses were worth money.
“But where are these orcs coming from anyway? The same with Nol. No matter how much of a wanderer they say they are…… these things sure do travel far.”
Looking at the orc corpses, Tae grumbled.
“Those cast out from their tribes are found anywhere, are they not.”
“Even in hell?”
“That is a question I cannot answer.”
“How cowardly. You won’t even answer a question like this.”
“Rules are rules, after all.”
“I suppose so.”
“By the way, Contractor. You appear to be quite accustomed to this sort of combat.”
“I’ve picked up plenty of experience one way or another.”
More in his past life than in this one.
That was the thought Tae kept to himself.
In truth, his combat experience in this life wasn’t particularly extensive.
Or rather, to be precise, he had avoided intense combat situations altogether.
Without the Hunter System, he’d lived risk-averse.
He’d chosen to become a Black Mage precisely so he could cast a spell from the back lines and live comfortably without struggle!
“Speaking of which…… it looks like we’re getting close to arriving?”
A Black Mage Is Too Overpowered as a Blacksmith
Author |
Automaton G
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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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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