Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 25

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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 25
Rant was certain of it.
This black mage who had purchased her was no ordinary human.
According to what Rant had learned in the past, Mental Plane Magic was powerful but carried distinct weaknesses as well.
It was difficult to use, and affecting multiple people at once was harder still.
Yet here was a black mage who appeared to be merely 1st Class, capable of such a feat?
Based on their conversations so far, he had awakened a Bloodline Ability…
Even so.
He was too strong.
Perhaps…
she might actually survive what lay ahead.
The enslaved girl thought to herself.
The longer she lived,
the more her house would move to eliminate her.
But if her master proved strong enough,
she could endure.
Even if.
she could not fathom what value or meaning lay in such a wretched existence.
Still, she did not wish to die.
* * *
Day Two of the Goblin Settlement conquest.
Why the second day?
Because on the first day, only the fortress at the Burrow’s entrance had been cleared.
The goblin Burrow was a maze, narrow and winding beyond expectation.
Well, goblins weren’t large creatures, so it was hardly surprising.
Among the goblins there were Hobgoblins—higher-tier specimens with considerable bulk.
Spacious tunnels existed for them, but the problem remained: the entire network was complex and varied wildly in size.
Venturing in blindly would be courting disaster.
So Tae decided to employ a simpler method.
“Undead Creation. Come now, zombies. Go forth and slaughter them all.”
He released control of some of the skeletal soldiers (they immediately turned feral and lunged at him to kill him, so he destroyed them) and transformed the overflow of goblin corpses into undead, shoving them straight into the Burrow.
Since he didn’t use Flesh Dissolution, these became Normal Zombies rather than skeletal soldiers.
After inserting ten zombie goblins,
he released control.
Then he created more zombie goblins and pushed them in, releasing control again.
Undead Creation was black magic that literally created the undead.
In other words, there was no way to stop these undead unless their skulls were crushed.
Because he had made them undead permanently, not temporarily.
So once zombie goblins were created and shoved into the Burrow with control released, they became wild undead, rampaging through the tunnels.
Doubtless the zombie goblins and ordinary goblins were fighting fiercely down there.
Roughly a hundred goblins had been at the fortress.
He severed their ears and piled them neatly in one spot.
Then transformed them all into zombies and fed them into the Burrow.
After that,
he restocked his skeletal soldiers and made camp.
“I cannot help but acknowledge that the Contractor’s mind is truly exceptional.”
“Now you see? I’m a master of cunning shortcuts.”
Tae puffed up at Aes’s words—whether mockery or genuine praise remained unclear.
Thus Day Two concluded, and they prepared their encampment.
Since the corpses had been neatly stacked and organized in one location, the campsite proved surprisingly habitable.
Day Three of the Goblin Settlement conquest.
From within the Burrow, occasional screams still echoed—the battle raged on.
Tae cooked a meal for himself and Rant using provisions they had brought along.
When he’d tried having Rant cook, she’d burned everything.
So Tae had to prepare the food himself.
One blessing remained: the fortress had a well.
Using the Purification Potion they’d brought in advance—a potion infused with purification magic—he cleansed the well water and could drink it freely.
The matter of drinking water was solved.
They passed another day in this manner.
Day Four of the Goblin Settlement conquest.
He sent the skeletal soldiers forward and began advancing into the Burrow.
He could see zombie corpses with shattered skulls scattered about, interspersed with the bodies of goblins.
* * *
“Quite the spectacle.”
“Well, if they’re wild Undead, they ought to make a statement like this.”
“Ha ha! Master! The cave seems to be painted quite magnificently! The interior design is absolutely splendid!”
“What does interior design mean?”
“Ah, well, you see! The inside of a building—…”
Tae strode deeper into the passage, letting the chatter of Dialogue and Aes wash over him.
The interior of the Goblin Settlement was an absolute disaster.
Goblin corpses lay torn to shreds.
Zombies were Undead, and one of their defining traits was that they seized the living and devoured them.
‘Here’s the interesting part—the more living flesh a zombie consumes, the stronger it becomes.’
Merely chewing and swallowing flesh didn’t mean a zombie could digest it.
How could a corpse—already dead—digest anything at all?
And yet.
It was possible to absorb the spiritual power of prey.
Strangely enough, this had been true in his past life as well.
He suspected that Mana—that force itself—made such things possible.
For this reason, when a zombie consumed enough living creatures, it gradually evolved.
From a Normal Zombie into things like a Zombie Warrior or Zombie Crawler.
And if it devoured even more prey, it would eventually evolve into a Ghoul—and from that point onward, it was classified as Mid-Tier Undead.
That made sense. A Ghoul’s body became hard as metal, so ordinary bullets wouldn’t pierce it—you’d need high-caliber rounds or at least a medium machine gun.
While he considered such things.
The stench of rotting goblin corpses mingled with the reek of waste, and it assaulted his nostrils.
But Tae didn’t flinch.
Thanks to the Heart of the Undying skill, he had status abnormality immunity running as a passive, and as a dark mage, the smell of decaying corpses was simply the air he breathed every day.
“Grrrrr…”
“Growwww…”
A strange grinding sound echoed from deep within the Burrow.
The two-meter-tall Godai Max Skeletal Soldiers that Tae had sent forward dislocated their own shoulder blades with a clatter, squeezing through the narrow cave entrance.
“Master, look there! The zombie goblins performed their duties with such dedication! Seeing that severed goblin arm rolling around—tears fill my eyes!”
Dialogue chattered excitedly from his shoulder.
Just as Dialogue said, the cave was littered with the corpses of goblins that had been torn apart and consumed by the goblins-turned-zombie.
“Rant, conserve your Mana. Real ones are coming from here on out.”
“Understood, Tae.”
Rant, sitting atop the pack frame carried by a skeletal soldier, replied tersely and gripped her Staff tightly.
‘Whether it’s excellent bloodline or just fine upbringing, either way—that girl’s no ordinary mind. Here’s to her mental fortitude.’
He muttered to himself as he pressed deeper.
Then a wider chamber opened before him.
Not a burrow—a naturally formed cavern.
They’d probably discovered this place and made it their nest here.
And inside stood a creature three times the size of a common goblin, muscular and clad in crude but sturdy Iron Armor, currently bringing its weapon down upon a goblin corpse.
The surroundings were packed with bodies.
Corpses of what had been goblin zombies, or corpses of ordinary goblins, lay strewn about.
‘Oh. This isn’t just some Hobgoblin, is it? Do you need this much mass to be a tribe leader?’
It stood at least two and a half meters tall—a frame even larger than typical Hobgoblins.
‘A Lord… probably not quite that tier. Maybe two or three steps below a Goblin Lord.’
A Goblin Lord.
The supreme individual among all goblins.
A Goblin Lord was known to be a monster capable of collapsing even a small domain in mere moments.
Yet if it were truly a Goblin Lord, simply sending in goblin zombies wouldn’t have laid waste to everything like this.
Beside it stood a goblin Shaman wielding a bizarre Staff, and there were several surviving Hobgoblins and goblins scattered about.
“Craaak! Kar-lak! Kachaa!”
The tribal leader shrieked something in the goblin tongue.
Then.
As if catching the sound or scent of Tae’s group, it whirled its head around.
“Kar-kachaaaaa!”
It let out a roar.
And then the surviving Hobgoblins and goblins shrieked and rushed forward.
At the same moment, the entity that appeared to be a Shaman waved his Staff.
“Front ranks, advance. Aes. Dispatch them.”
“As you command.”
But then.
Tae’s army arrayed against them moved with perfect discipline.
Raising Halberds horizontally, they surged forward.
In the same breath, Aes conjured Adhering Flames and hurled them down.
Whoosh!
The flames that Aes had thrown clung fast to the head of a Hobgoblin charging ahead.
“Shrieeeek!”
Screams filled the plaza.
In that instant, the chieftain himself hurled his body forward.
In his hands was the thick Iron Mace that, moments before, had been pulverizing corpses.
Crack!
The ribs of a sturdy Skeletal Soldier shattered into powder in a single blow. Clearly, the physical force of a superior being could not be dismissed lightly.
And with that, the Shaman in the rear unleashed what looked to be a sinister incantation of Shamanic Magic.
Shadows writhed of their own accord, rising from beneath the Skeletal Soldiers’ feet and grasping at them.
Then the Skeletal Soldiers collided with the Goblin chieftain, the Hobgoblins, and the Goblins.
“Shrieeeek!”
Crash!
Five Skeletal Soldiers had their bones shattered and were neutralized in an instant, but at the same time, many of the Goblins were wounded or fell as well.
“Hehehehe! Once again, a war of blood and screams! I am prepared, my master!”
“Adhering Flame. Adhering Flame. Adhering Flame….”
Tae spat out the incantation ten times in rapid succession.
While the Skeletal Soldiers and Goblins clashed, trading blows for a brief moment, the completed barrage of dark magic rained down upon the Goblins all at once.
Dialogue’s item effect activated, naturally!
Twenty Adhering Flames fell upon the bodies of the Goblins.
Whoooosh!
“Shrieeeek!”
“Roaaaah!”
The dark flames clung to every last Goblin, burning continuously.
Writhing on the ground in agony, the Goblins all thrashed about trying to extinguish the fire, but it was useless.
The Skeletal Soldiers moved.
Whomp! Crack! Shriek! Thud!
The Halberds cut down the Goblins without mercy.
Being a dark sorcerer makes the blacksmith’s job far too easy
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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