Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 63

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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 63
“I’ll go myself.”
The moment Tay said this, Randt and Partan objected in unison.
“That’s not acceptable, sir.”
“My lord. This is a newly formed Dungeon. We don’t even know what kind it is.”
Partan’s expression turned grave.
“Venturing into a Dungeon without knowledge of its internal structure, the types of monsters within, or its rules—for a lord to enter personally would be reckless.”
Partan spoke firmly, and Randt nodded in agreement, adding his support.
“A Dungeon without prior intelligence is dangerous. It’s a completely different matter from something like the Trencle Ant Dungeon, where we had advance information.”
It was sound reasoning.
Tay was not unaware of this.
‘But the Hunter System grants an achievement to Hunters who clear an Unexplored Dungeon for the first time…….’
The First Clear Achievement.
Even in his past life, there were Hunters who threw themselves at Unexplored Dungeons chasing this reward.
The compensation was extraordinary, after all.
But it was equally dangerous, and many died attempting it.
‘Still, I’m a lord. There’s no helping it.’
Tay swallowed his regret and backed down.
“Fine. Then let’s hire mercenaries to scout it instead.”
He placed a request with the Mercenary Guild that had connections in Harundel.
Five teams were hired.
Each team consisted of five skilled Dungeon explorers—a mix of Silver Rank and Iron Rank mercenaries.
The five teams entered the Dungeon.
And then.
Only two teams returned.
* * *
“It’s a Trap-type Dungeon.”
The surviving mercenary captain made his report. His face bore signs of deep exhaustion and pain.
One arm bore stark burn scars, and he was wrapped in bandages in various places.
This was the state he was in even after rough treatment with Healing Potions.
“A Trap-type, you say…….”
“Yes. The Dungeon interior is laid with all manner of traps. The floor caves in the moment you enter, arrows fly from the walls, poison pours from the ceiling. Monsters do appear, but they’re secondary—it’s the traps that make this Dungeon difficult to clear.”
Another mercenary added his account.
“Three teams were caught in a chain of traps midway through…… and never returned.”
Tay fell silent for a moment before asking.
“Are there any restrictions? Limits on summoned creatures or undead, for instance?”
“There were no such restrictions. Unlike Trencle, no rules limiting personnel or the number of summoned creatures were detected.”
Tay’s eyes gleamed.
“Interesting.”
No numerical limits.
This meant he could bring as many undead as he desired into the Dungeon.
A Trap-type Dungeon.
No matter how numerous the traps, they were ultimately physical devices.
Once triggered, they don’t activate again until they’re reloaded—or the mechanism itself is destroyed in the firing.
In that case.
The answer was simple: use bodies to absorb the traps.
“I’m going in myself.”
Just as Randt was about to speak, Tay raised his hand.
“No objections this time. If there are no numerical limits, I can do this my way.”
“Your way, sir……?”
Tay smiled faintly.
“Overwhelming force with Skeleton Soldiers. There’s an old saying—there’s no beating a war of attrition.”
* * *
The Dungeon entrance.
Tay and Randt, followed by a procession of Skeleton Soldiers, stretched onward.
One thousand.
One thousand medium-sized Skeleton Soldiers were arrayed before the Dungeon entrance.
Some wearing armor, others wielding Bone Swords, still others bearing Bone Shields.
An endless column of bone filled the hillside.
Randt gazed upon the sight and let out a long sigh.
“I’m not sure we really need to go this far…….”
“It’s efficient though.”
“This? Do you realize how much all of this costs, master?”
“Who cares about the cost? Dungeon clearing comes first. Come on, Skeleton Soldiers, advance!”
Tay issued the command to the leading Skeleton Soldier.
“Forward.”
The Skeleton Soldiers surged into the dungeon.
Once he’d sent them all inside, Tay entered with Randt at his side.
The moment they stepped through, chaos erupted ahead.
Whoosh! Thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk!
Arrows rained down from both sides of the corridor.
Dozens of shafts buried themselves in the leading Skeleton Soldiers.
But being skeletal, they took no damage.
A few collapsed when arrows punched through their helmets and shattered their skulls, but the Skeleton Soldiers behind simply trampled over the destroyed ones and pressed forward.
Arrows meant nothing to the undead.
Without flesh, there was no bleeding. No pain.
The shafts lodged between their bones as they walked on.
They advanced for some distance like this.
In the second section, a trap triggered.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The floor collapsed. It was a massive pit trap.
Dozens of leading Skeleton Soldiers tumbled into the chasm all at once.
Yet the Skeleton Soldiers behind did not hesitate.
They leaped down onto the ones that had fallen, using them as stepping stones, then the ones behind jumped down onto those.
Once the pit was packed with skeletal forms, the Skeleton Soldiers behind used them as a bridge to cross.
The third section.
Roar!
Flames erupted from the walls.
A flame-thrower trap—its power transformed the entire corridor into an inferno.
Dozens of Skeleton Soldiers were engulfed in fire in an instant.
But the Skeleton Soldiers were bone.
They suffered no real harm, though they crumbled to pieces as they advanced.
Looking closer, Tay realized that the Black Magic holding the Skeleton Soldiers together was being dispelled by the flames.
Fire and death were opposites, after all.
But the flame-thrower trap couldn’t burn forever either—it soon died down.
In the end, more Skeleton Soldiers surged forward.
The fourth section.
Corrosive liquid rained from the ceiling.
Toxic fluid soaked the bones of the Skeleton Soldiers.
It would have killed any living human instantly, but poison meant nothing to the undead.
“What is this—a poison trap? There’s no damage at all.”
Tay laughed with amusement.
Fifth section. Sixth. Seventh.
Falling rocks. Spinning blades. Acidic liquid. Crushing walls. Traps of every conceivable kind poured forth.
The Skeleton Soldiers were destroyed a handful at a time with each trap, but against an army of a thousand, it hardly mattered.
Each trap destroyed at most three or four, rarely more than twenty.
But the Skeleton Soldiers were legion!
And once a trap was triggered, it was done.
Arrows ran out. Pits filled with bone. Flame-throwers ran dry.
Exhausted traps became nothing but empty corridors.
Randt stood behind Tay, counting the destroyed Skeleton Soldiers.
“……Master, is it really acceptable to clear a dungeon this way?”
“If it works, it works.”
“I suppose that’s true…….”
Randt’s expression was conflicted—not wrong exactly, but something about it felt off.
Monsters appeared intermittently, but the Skeleton Soldiers rushed them, and with Tay, Randt, and As casting Black Magic, they fell quickly.
The fallen were immediately raised as Zombies and joined the ranks of the Army of Death.
This was the true Army of Death!
Then, at some point, the traps stopped.
Nothing triggered anymore. They were all exhausted.
Tay checked the damage.
Eight hundred Skeleton Soldiers destroyed.
Out of one thousand, eight hundred gone. Eighty percent wiped out.
Had they been human, the losses would have been catastrophic—but these creatures could be remade as long as bone remained.
It was a strategy only possible with Skeleton Soldiers.
Tay gazed ahead.
At the end of the corridor stood a vast door. Its surface was carved with strange magical symbols, and beyond it radiated the unmistakable presence of formidable power.
The Boss Room.
“Well then. Shall we meet the main attraction?”
* * *
The Boss Room door swung open.
Inside stretched an enormous circular chamber.
The ceiling soared high, and the floor was etched with bizarre magical circles.
Strange mechanical devices studded the walls at intervals, while gears and pipes intertwined, grinding and hissing in unrelenting chorus.
And in the center of the room.
There it was.
“Shriek! Kreeeek!”
The sound alone was grotesque.
“You’ve broken through my traps! Clever ones! Hand over your brains!”
The voice echoed from everywhere at once, not from any single point but reverberating simultaneously from multiple directions.
Tay’s brow furrowed as he took in the boss monster.
‘Good lord. Insane… what the hell is that thing?’
Utterly… grotesque, and yet somehow—oddly magnificent in its strangeness.
Its lower half was six mechanical spider legs.
Brass and steel limbs clicked against the floor as they skittered back and forth.
Steam hissed from the joints.
The torso was that of a troll.
Green-skinned and muscle-bound, the troll’s body sat atop the mechanical lower half.
Four arms total—the left pair were troll limbs, the right pair pure machinery.
At the ends of the mechanical arms hung serrated pincers and what resembled a drill.
And the head.
There was no head. Instead, five glass vessels sat atop the torso.
Each vessel brimmed with liquid, and within each floated a brain.
Brains in jars.
All five, each wired to mechanical apparatus, trembled and pulsed.
The central vessel was different. Not a brain—an entire head, intact, submerged in liquid. A goblin’s head.
The severed neck swayed in the fluid, while the two eyes stared wide open, fixed upon him.
The goblin head’s mouth opened.
“Shriek! Brain! Give me the brain! The brain that pierced my traps! Surely a good one! Must go in a vessel! Kreeeeek!”
In a fantasy world, and suddenly a Steampunk-designed monster appears!?
Tay marveled.
‘Maybe I’ll try crafting something like that as a Crazy Craftsman.’
“Skeleton Soldier charge.”
Admiration aside, Tay had work to do—he sent the remaining two hundred Skeleton Soldiers rushing forward.
The Skeleton Soldiers surged at once toward the monster, the chimera.
But then.
Crash!
The chimera’s troll arm whipped through the air.
A single swing shattered five or six Skeleton Soldiers in an explosion of splinters, bone fragments scattering in all directions.
The mechanical arm’s drill spun, piercing through the charging Skeleton Soldiers, while its pincer claw grabbed another and crushed it to powder.
‘Oh… that’s magnificent!!’
Its spider legs launched it across the floor, and as it spun, all six limbs swept through the surrounding Skeleton Soldiers like a scythe.
Smash! Crack! Crunch!
The sound of Skeleton Soldiers shattering rang out in rapid succession.
The creature was massive. A troll’s torso atop a spider’s lower half—easily over four meters tall, with a span of ten meters when its legs spread wide.
In a narrow corridor it might have been hampered, but here in this expansive Boss Room, that sheer size became an advantage.
The Black Mage and the Blacksmith Is Too Easy
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Automaton G
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(Co.) 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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