Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 26

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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 26
‘Damn, the Adhesive Flame is absolutely broken. They’re in so much pain they can’t think straight—once it connects, they’re basically half dead already.’
Tay watched with satisfaction.
As a result.
The Tribe Chief and all his minions were dead, every last one.
The Shaman saw this and shrieked in shock, bolting toward the deeper chamber.
That was when—
“Hell Power Arrow.”
Rant cast the spell, and a black arrow streaked through the air, striking the Shaman in the back of the head.
Thud!
Dead before she could even scream.
The battle was over.
At the same moment.
-Your Level has increased through sufficient experience gained.
-Confirmed: Triple Class status.
-Your first Class, Black Mage, has risen by 1 Level.
His Level climbed, and his Black Mage Class rose by one—now at Level 3, which meant he could learn Class Rank 2 spells!
“Ohhhhh!”
Tay couldn’t help himself and let out a shout of pure joy.
Of course, everyone else could only stare at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“I just hit Class Rank 2, that’s all. I’m not insane.”
“Indeed, Contractor. Strengthening at such a pace… is this also thanks to your Bloodline Ability?”
“You could say that. Anyway, I’m about to gain a new ability, so keep quiet, all of you. Rant, use Skeleton Control on the corpses and extract Mana Stones from them.”
As he was giving these orders, another system message chimed.
-As a reward for gaining 1 Level, you acquire a skill from your Black Mage Class.
That’s right—at odd Levels, you could gain one Class skill.
The reward he’d gotten when reaching Level 2 was the first Level-up bonus; this was the first time he’d earned one normally.
‘Let something good show up!’
-You acquire a Level-up reward skill.
-You have acquired [Skill: Lord of Death].
[Skill: Lord of Death]
Grade: Unique
Type: Passive
A title and authority granted to those who possess dominion over death itself.
Your power to command Undead increases threefold, and if your Level is sufficiently high, lower Undead can be dominated without any restrictions whatsoever.
Furthermore, as your power over commanding Undead strengthens, those Undead come to better understand and execute your commands.
Function: Undead command power of equal grade or higher increases by 300%
Function: Based on Overall Level, Undead up to 3 Levels below your current Level can be dominated without restriction
‘This is… absolutely insane!’
In his past life, Tay had been a Mad Engineer, not a Necromancer.
Because of that, he didn’t know all the skills that existed, but he could tell this one was far from ordinary.
No restrictions on dominating lower-tier Undead?
That meant that even at Level 5, he could endlessly command and control Level 2 zombies and skeletons?
This was… insane!
‘What’s my current Level again…’
Tay checked his status window.
Class: Black Mage Lv 3 / Mad Engineer Lv 2 / Warrior Lv 2
Overall Level was a whopping 7!
By past-life standards, that was impressively high.
In fact, the highest Level anyone in his past life had ever reached was known to be 24.
“All right, now it’s time to harvest. Rant, how many have you processed?”
“I’ve finished six so far.”
“Let’s do the rest together. The rest of you—extract the Mana Stones and bring me anything made of metal.”
Tay gave the order partly to test his new Passive skill.
Then.
The skeletons began to move. And remarkably, they started dismembering the corpses to extract Mana Stones, gathering metal items one by one.
“Hoh… how interesting. Has the intelligence of the Undead increased?”
“Not quite. They’re simply receiving my commands on a spiritual level now.”
“A newly acquired ability, then.”
“Correct.”
“Indeed, it was a wise choice to make a contract with you, Contractor.”
“Now you see?”
Even as Tay exchanged pleasantries with Ath, he kept his hands busy with work.
Repairing the shattered skeletons.
Rant watched quietly from the side.
* * *
Tay extracted the Mana Stone from the Hobgoblin Lord’s corpse and claimed the Shaman’s Staff.
Then, deeper in the plaza, he discovered the goblins’ storage—where they’d hoarded their goods.
Inside lay high-purity Iron Ingots and Copper Ingots refined through goblin craftsmanship.
And several rare ores were stacked in considerable quantities.
“Wow! Master! You’ve struck it rich! With this much, you could manufacture hundreds of Madness Battery items! That’s what they call striking gold, isn’t it?”
While Dialogue shrieked, Tay surveyed the corpses.
‘Got a new Passive skill, and I’m now Level 3… I wonder just how far I can push this. Might as well try and see.’
Tay began creating skeletons immediately.
“Rant. Cut off the goblin ears, then use Flesh Dissolution to strip them down to bone. Set the Shaman and the Tribe Chief’s heads aside separately.”
He ordered Rant to dissolve the corpses’ flesh, then cast Undead Creation Black Magic.
Clatter. Clatter. Clatter. Clatter.
Thirty-two goblin skeletons rose from the ground.
Rant instinctively grasped that even more undead could be created, yet he stopped at thirty-two.
Why?
They’d run out of bones.
Enlarging all thirty-two skeletons with Bone Refining Black Magic had consumed every available corpse.
Thus completed were thirty-two massive skeletal soldiers.
Using them, he diligently hauled everything from the Goblin Lair outside.
Honestly, the value of what they’d salvaged from the goblin stores was ten times greater than the quest reward itself.
He fashioned carts from bone, and the skeletons dragged these vehicles along.
From a distance, it looked like nothing short of a mad procession of the undead.
Thanks to this, they faced no monster attacks—the creatures had no desire to tangle with such numbers of undead—and returned safely to Harundel.
And so.
By selling off what they’d brought from the Goblin Lair, Tay secured substantial funds while earning considerable renown.
* * *
“Huh… I didn’t realize we’d have this many commissions piled up.”
The journey from leaving to assault the Goblin Lair and returning had taken roughly fifteen days.
During that time, his slave Daisy had managed well enough without incident.
She hadn’t once set foot outside the house, or so she’d claimed.
Since he’d stocked generous supplies before leaving, there was little reason for her to venture out—but perhaps more importantly, she felt safe because word had spread that this was a dark mage’s lair.
No one would want to risk curses or undead attacks.
Still, several traders had called while he was away.
They’d placed massive orders for bone spears and left, she said.
Tay sat at the table, eating while he peered over the order forms, muttering to himself.
Across from him, Rant and Daisy shared their meal.
“The Contractor’s bone spears are formidable items, after all.”
“Hah. Insane in design though they may be, the performance is undeniable.”
A potent guiding force!
That was genuinely useful.
Worth breaking a finger for.
“That said… if I have to keep making these myself, it’s going to get tedious. I think it’s time we moved on to the next step.”
At those words, Ath perked up with interest.
Since Tay had cast mental protection magic on Daisy as well, she could look upon Ath without suffering mental erosion.
But she was clearly frightened nonetheless.
Understandably so—what business would a commoner ever have seeing a demon?
Rant, by contrast, continued eating without a care, though he did react to Tay’s words.
“Lord Tay. Should I be the one making them?”
“No. You can’t make these anyway. They’re tied to my Bloodline Ability.”
“I see. Then what’s your plan?”
“I need to build a machine to manufacture them in my stead.”
“Oh! So I’m getting a colleague!?”
Dialogue’s excitement rippled through the air.
Dialogue truly was a peculiar thing—conscious, yet fundamentally an object.
A kind of golem, one might say, was this item called Dialogue.
“It might be similar to yours, or it might not be.”
“I’m curious what you’re planning to create.”
At Ath’s words, Tay pushed the spellbook aside for now.
“Well… my abilities always have that uncertain edge to them, the way they do. So I won’t know until I try.”
Tay finished his meal after saying that.
“Rant. I’m giving you free time. Train if you wish, do whatever you like—just stay inside the house. If any intruders appear, handle them. I’m placing twelve skeleton soldiers under your command.”
Rant was a Class-1 black mage.
Because of that, he could command a dozen skeleton soldiers.
“Yes, Tay.”
“Daisy, you continue with the household work as you have been. If the house needs anything, ask Rant to purchase it.”
“Yes, master.”
“Then we’re dismissed.”
Tay rose from his seat. He had quite a bit of work ahead of him.
* * *
The mass production project for the Twisted Bone Spear of Finger Sacrifice.
Until now, Tay had been crafting them himself, but as bulk orders began flowing in, he had no choice but to transition from cottage industry to factory-scale mechanical production.
He boldly skipped the intermediate stage of factory-based handicraft manufacturing.
There was no help for it.
The Mad Engineer Hunter ability couldn’t be transferred to others.
For that reason.
Tay had purchased four insane slaves.
To use them as Madness Batteries.
And.
He’d bought two more slaves to care for these four.
After attempting to extract Madness from these four slaves.
They hadn’t regained their sanity the way Rant had.
In Rant’s case, the curse had driven him mad, so absorbing Madness had restored his reason—but.
These four had their minds utterly destroyed from the start.
Absorbing Madness merely quieted them and stopped their mad behavior.
It didn’t restore their sanity.
Their minds were already completely shattered, leaving them in a state barely distinguishable from idiocy.
A black mage blacksmith was far too easy.
Author |
Automaton G
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(주) Samyang C&C
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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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