Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 37

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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 37
Southern Wilderness.
The ruined village had transformed into something entirely different.
There were people everywhere.
Hundreds of them.
The sound of hammering never ceased.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
On the eastern side of the village, carpenters and the laborers working under them—slaves that Tay had purchased—were raising the pillars of new buildings.
They were sawing timber bought from Harundel, shaping it with planes, and fastening it all together with nails.
In the center of the village, stonemasons were repairing stone structures.
Work was in full swing to raise new roofs and patch the cracked walls.
At the village’s edge, laborers were constructing wooden palisades.
They drove thick logs deep into the ground and lined them up in succession to build fences.
By the riverbank, workers stood in line carrying water, while Skeleton Soldiers traded their weapons for shovels and dug deep moats around the palisade perimeter.
And scattered throughout.
Clatter. Clatter.
Skeleton Soldiers moved about.
Hauling timber, moving stone, digging pits.
The laborers had been terrified when they first saw the Skeleton Soldiers, but by now they’d grown accustomed to them.
The fact that a single Skeleton Soldier could move heavy stones with ease had even prompted workers to comment that it was actually convenient.
“One of those Skeleton Soldiers does the work of ten laborers.”
“Tell me about it. Never gets tired either.”
Murmurs from the laborers.
Tay stood atop the intact roof of the stone building, surveying the scene below.
“Your execution speed is remarkable, Contractor.”
“This much is nothing. I’m making plenty of gold anyway. What would I do with it sitting around?”
“Indeed. I’ve been studying human economics lately myself, and they tell me even lower-ranked nobles couldn’t dream of profits like yours.”
The Twisted Bone Spear of Finger Sacrifice was an absolute bestseller.
Even at a price raised to one gold coin per unit, supply couldn’t keep up with demand.
And so the revenue flowing into Tay’s coffers was staggering.
Moreover, since he’d recently bribed the tax collector, his true profits would never come to light.
This world had no computerized system, so this sort of tax evasion was impossible to detect.
And more than that.
Once the settlement succeeded, he’d owe no taxes to Harundel whatsoever.
Why, you ask?
Because he wouldn’t be selling the bone spears in Harundel!
Merchants would come here to the frontier settlement of their own accord and purchase the spears.
In other words.
All the profits would belong to Tay.
“Where did you even learn such things?”
“Being confined to your shadow grew tedious, so whenever you slept I’d wander about and pick things up here and there.”
“Is that so.”
“So. What are your plans going forward?”
After completing reconnaissance and returning to Harundel.
What Tay did was straightforward.
He spent money.
Two hundred construction laborers. Dozens of skilled workers—carpenters, stonemasons, blacksmiths, and the like.
He hired them all, paying gold in Harundel to bring them here.
He bought all the building materials with money as well.
Timber. Stone. Nails. Rope. Tiles.
He purchased and transported food with money too.
Grain. Dried meat. Salt. Water casks.
People naturally hesitate when asked to work in the perilous Southern Wilderness.
So he bought slaves in bulk.
At his current wealth, Tay could purchase hundreds of slaves at once without strain.
Though he’d nearly exhausted his savings in the process, it didn’t matter.
After all, the slaves would work hard enough to earn back their own purchase price many times over.
“I’m going to make this place my workshop and my fortress.”
The decision to establish a frontier settlement was a calculated move with multiple objectives.
First and foremost: a Noble Title.
In a hierarchical society such as this, no social power is as formidable as a Noble Title.
And second is influence.
To own a Fiefdom and command men under your banner — that alone shifts one’s entire standing.
Moreover, one can establish large workshops without regard for others’ eyes.
The Mad Engineer profession itself is grotesque, and wielding dark sorcery to manufacture things carries many constraints within a great city like Harundel.
But an independent Fiefdom made such trifles irrelevant.
“Indeed… a splendid plan. And at this pace, we’ll have the basic structure of a settlement within a month.”
“That we will. The problem is defense.”
Since the Crabster attack days ago, no other monsters had appeared, yet caution remained warranted.
Marine monsters were not limited to Crabsters. Far greater varieties existed, and any could strike at any hour.
And the Orcs and Trolls dwelling in the mountains posed their own threat.
In other words, monsters could emerge without warning.
A means to repel them was necessary.
“Surely you, the Contractor, have a method for this?”
“I do, in fact.”
Countermeasures were already in place.
Tay smiled to himself.
The Mad Engineer.
Its true power would soon be revealed.
* * *
A mountain near the Southern Wilderness.
Beyond the dense forest, this peak was home to far more than Orcs alone. Numerous monsters and creatures dwelt within its slopes.
Chief among them were Goblins.
The very creatures Tay had once culled.
Smaller than Orcs, weaker than Orcs, far dimmer than Orcs.
Yet they came in numbers.
Small green-skinned monsters that bred and swarmed everywhere they settled.
But with Orcs and Trolls also inhabiting this mountain, they had never achieved the substantial tribes Tay had once eradicated elsewhere.
Such was the nature of survival in these lands.
And yet.
The Goblins had noticed the humans’ presence.
Humans had come down the mountain to build something.
By day, they hammered loudly; by night, they kindled fires.
The Goblins watched from a distance for days.
Then they reached their conclusion.
Attack at night.
Humans had strong individuals among them, but most were weaker than Goblins.
Capturing them meant plunder. Tools could be seized.
This was their reckoning.
And so more than a hundred Goblins descended the mountain under cover of darkness — every warrior the tribe could field.
Their eyes saw well in the dark, making a night raid possible.
Kee-kee-kee.
Chick-chick.
The Goblins emerged from the forest with soft, chittering cackles, advancing toward the settlement.
A green horde gripping stone blades and wooden spears darted through the darkness.
But when they drew near to a point some distance from the palisade and moat construction site.
They saw it.
A scarecrow — wooden posts crossed horizontally with a crossbar.
Yet unlike an ordinary scarecrow, a skull crowned its head.
And the moment the Goblins approached, dark crimson light blazed forth from its eye sockets.
The Mad Skull Decoration.
A Mental Erosion item forged by the Mad Engineer.
And.
Just as the Goblins moved to pass before it.
Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
The skull decoration shrieked.
A sound that tore at the ears.
No. Not a shriek.
A wave of madness that shredded the mind itself.
Mental Erosion (Medium-Low).
A mental assault so severe that even by human standards, those with weak minds go mad instantly.
And what of goblins?
The goblin at the front was the first to fall.
The moment the sound pierced their ears.
The world changed.
‘W-what! What is this! What what what what what aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!’
The wooden palisade in front vanished.
Instead.
Fire appeared.
The entire world was burning.
Fire poured from the sky, erupted from the earth, and bloomed from the bodies of its companions.
‘Hot! It hurts! No! Cold! What is this! I don’t know! It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts aaaaaaaaaahhh!’
The goblin screamed.
But nothing was actually burning.
The hallucination of fire shifted into something else in an instant.
A companion’s face twisted grotesquely.
Its eyes became three, its mouth split to its ears, its teeth multiplied into hundreds.
The agony continued throughout.
Its body wasn’t actually hurt, yet it felt the pain.
The goblin’s mind was already completely shattered!
This was the power of Mental Erosion (Medium-Low)!
‘Enemy! Must kill!’
The goblin swung its stone dagger. The blade lodged in a companion’s throat.
“Keeeek?!”
The stabbed goblin was already mad.
In its eyes, the one who had stabbed it appeared as a giant serpent.
It drove a wooden-branch spear through it.
“Kick! Kick kick kick!”
“Keeeeeeek!”
“Kick! Kick! Kick kick kick kick kick!”
Twenty goblins went mad all at once.
They stabbed each other, tore at flesh with teeth, raked with claws, trampled with feet.
They forgot who they were, forgot who the enemy was—everything their eyes perceived became an object of terror.
One goblin gnawed at its own arm.
It thought its arm was a serpent.
Another smashed its head against the ground, shrieking.
It felt worms crawling inside its skull.
Madness.
The terror of Mental Erosion, which utterly shatters reason.
No base creature like a goblin could withstand it.
And.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Skeleton Soldiers emerged from the darkness.
Skeleton Soldiers bearing halberds or flanged maces approached.
There was no need to rush.
The enemies were already killing each other.
The Skeleton Soldiers advanced toward the raging goblin mass.
And.
Raised their weapons and brought them down.
Crack!
Goblin skulls burst open, bodies split asunder.
Not a single one resisted.
Mad in their frenzy, they didn’t even perceive the Skeleton Soldiers approaching.
And even if they had, a goblin’s stone dagger could never scratch a Skeleton Soldier’s chain armor.
Only a few minutes.
That was all it took.
For the hundred goblins that had swarmed forward to be cleaned up into corpses.
And here.
Tay lay down to sleep when he received the message that the goblins were dead, and he muttered to himself.
“Ah. Automatic hunting—sweet as honey.”
Auto-hunting is always right.
The dark mage makes the blacksmith far too easy.
Author |
Automaton G
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Chief Editor |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
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7F Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260511100
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
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The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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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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