Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 70

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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 70
“My bloodline aligns best with Celestial Magic. If circumstances were different, I would have trained in it…….”
Rant spoke quietly.
“This too is destiny, I suppose.”
Tay interjected.
“What’s Celestial Magic?”
“You know there are many schools of magic in the world, don’t you?”
Rant regarded Tay as he spoke, his tone haughty yet his eyes grave with sincerity.
“Just as Black Magic divides into demon magic, spirit magic, and life magic—there exists a school that draws primarily on the power and phenomena of the heavens. That is what we call Celestial Magic.”
“I see…….”
Tay nodded in acknowledgment.
Even in his past life, the classification of magic had been intricate, but he had never heard of Celestial Magic before.
It appeared to be unique to this world.
Rant set down a piece of bread and continued.
“It is because you lack knowledge of the Noble world, Master.”
“So you’re just coming out and calling me ignorant?”
“It is the truth.”
Rant replied without hesitation.
Tay was taken aback, but the words were not wrong.
A commoner turned Debt-Mercenary could hardly be expected to possess deep knowledge of the Noble world.
“In truth…… I meant to tell you this once the slave binding on me was severed.”
Rant’s expression grew serious.
“You must learn knowledge of a higher order.”
“Such as?”
“All Nobles of Count rank and above live at minimum five hundred years. You were not aware of this, were you?”
The bread fell from Tay’s hand.
“W-wait…… is that really true?”
“It is genuine fact.”
Rant answered evenly.
Five hundred years.
Nobles of Count rank and above living over five hundred years? When human lifespans were barely seventy to eighty years?
No—in truth, the average lifespan in these lands was only around forty years. Reaching fifty was considered a long life.
What manner of nonsense was this?
Tay felt genuine shock wash over him.
“They extend their lifespans and maintain their youth through excessive magical force and Secret Arts, among other means.”
Rant elaborated.
“The foundational knowledge required for this is guarded as secret lore and transmitted mind to mind.”
Rant tapped his own head with a finger.
“It is inherited through Knowledge Transfer Magic, planted directly into the mind. The vast repository of knowledge within my own mind came to me in precisely this manner.”
Tay stared at Rant blankly, not even retrieving the fallen bread.
Five hundred years of life.
Secret Arts guarded as forbidden lore.
Knowledge transmitted from mind to mind.
‘This means…… there exists a world far deeper than anything I’ve known.’
Tay had been a Hunter in his past life.
In this world, he had become a Black Mage, then a Lord.
Through all this, he believed he had come to understand the world reasonably well.
Yet the deepest layers of the Noble world remained untouched.
“Tell me more of this.”
Tay spoke with grave intent.
Rant smiled—a smile unlike any Tay had seen from him before.
“Of course, Master.”
* * *
When Rant became 3rd Class, circumstances shifted.
No matter how he thought back on it, the fact that he’d reached 3rd Class seemed absurd.
Here he was grinding away at training with nothing to show for it!!
In any case.
With the slave binding severed, Rant no longer needed to act with caution.
He began demonstrating his true abilities without restraint, and as he coordinated with Kael, the plan to resettle one hundred thousand gained genuine momentum.
Rant’s vast knowledge of the Noble world and Kael’s administrative expertise—when these two forces aligned, the plan rapidly took concrete form.
First: the implementation of the Debt-Mercenary System.
Creating Skeleton Soldiers in vast numbers required both Black Mages and massive quantities of bones.
Bones could be procured readily enough with enough coin, but sourcing Black Mages was another matter entirely.
The Black Mages currently employed fell far short of what was needed.
So Tay drew inspiration from the Debt-Mercenary System and resolved to operate something similar.
That very system he himself had once passed through during his Black Spear Guild days—teaching Black Magic in exchange for the student incurring debt.
He recruited volunteers from among the territory’s population.
Remarkably, applicants flooded in.
Word spread that becoming a Black Mage meant higher wages and more favorable terms for eventual release from service.
From the pool of volunteers, he selected those with genuine magical aptitude (Black Magic could be learned without talent, but talent made it vastly easier), and in short order had produced one hundred 1st Class Black Mages.
One hundred Black Mages.
All of them capable Necromancers who could craft Skeleton Soldiers. The moment they were deployed to the bone-grinding factories, production velocity skyrocketed.
Second: simultaneous with the mass production of Skeleton Soldiers came the launch of a massive construction project.
From the existing stock of medium Skeleton Soldiers, he retained only the minimum force needed to defend the territory, and funneled the rest into construction.
Half toward road works. Half toward residential development.
The road project aimed to improve the path to Harundel.
They widened the existing dirt roads, laid stone, and dug drainage ditches.
Skeleton Soldiers required no sleep. They did not eat. They worked without rest, twenty-four hours a day.
A single Skeleton Soldier accomplished what ten human laborers could manage.
Was this not an industrial revolution?
The residential development proceeded likewise.
Creating a housing district capable of accommodating one hundred thousand souls was staggering in scope, but with thousands of Skeleton Soldiers deployed simultaneously, the pace was breathtaking.
Third: Tay threw himself into the effort.
Thanks to the Immortal Life’s Hell Heart, he needed neither sleep nor suffered fatigue; by day, Tay stationed himself at the road-works site, using Black Magic to shape terrain and cut stone directly.
By night, he mass-produced potions—special potions crafted from his own blood infused with Black Magical power.
Half he sold. Half he stockpiled.
He would need them eventually, whether for war or for crafting items.
Three months.
In three months alone, he had succeeded in constructing a road all the way to Harundel.
The pace was insane.
Ordinarily, a construction project of this scale would require a minimum of two years.
That figure assumes even a massive mobilization of labor. Yet it had taken only three months.
Impossible construction speed without the Skeleton Soldiers’ overwhelming numbers!
And the construction itself carried political complications, making the speed even more improbable by conventional standards.
What was the problem?
To travel from Tay’s territory to Harundel, one had to pass through two intervening domains.
Building a road that cut through another’s territory naturally required that Lord’s permission.
Tay had made his request politely.
Leading thousands of Skeleton Soldiers with him.
The two Lords, upon witnessing thousands of Skeleton Soldiers arrayed along their territory’s borders, broke into beaming smiles.
“Please, do lay down that road beautifully! Ha ha.”
“A road passing through my domain? I should rather offer my thanks! Ha ha ha.”
They folded entirely.
There was no refusing.
With thousands of Skeleton Soldiers arrayed before their eyes, how could they dare object? What if those bones came marching in?
Of course, they were all vassals of the Harundel Marquis Clan, so actual war was unlikely—Tay would not attack, after all—but the fear of his military power was nonetheless real.
Besides, Tay Meiker the Count had recently earned a reputation as a man of considerable wealth.
Why make an enemy of such a person?
Moreover, a well-maintained road would benefit these domains as well. Increased trade volume was a matter of significance.
In any case, the road was completed.
Wide, solid, and broad enough for two wagons to pass abreast, the road cut in a straight line from the Meiker Barony all the way to Harundel.
The distance that had once required considerable time now took a third of the span.
And then, a few more months slipped by.
With the road completed, Kael’s migration plan swung into full operation.
Recruitment offices were established in Harundel’s slums, promising settlement funds and housing to attract migrants.
Wagons ran on a regular schedule, ferrying the poor every four days.
A thousand people at a time were transported and resettled.
The response was explosive.
Word spread through the slums that food, shelter, and work awaited, and volunteers poured forth.
For those eking out a living day to day, the promise of settlement funds was like a dream made flesh.
Within a few months, roughly twenty thousand people had begun settling in Tay’s territory.
Twenty thousand.
Added to the existing ten thousand population, that made thirty thousand total. The population had tripled overnight!
True, they were still far from reaching one hundred thousand,
but this was only the beginning.
Roads had been laid down, residential areas continued to expand, and carts arrived every four days bearing new arrivals from the slums.
As time passed, the population would grow faster still.
Tay stood upon a hill overlooking his territory, surveying the newly established residential district below.
Houses were sprouting up in tight rows.
Smoke curled into the air, and the laughter of children drifted on the wind.
Fields were being cleared, and Skeleton Soldiers hauled heavy loads across the landscape.
‘Good.’
The territory was alive and breathing.
* * *
“Ah… managing a territory feels like playing a simulation game. I rather like it.”
Tay stood atop the stone manor that had become his lord’s residence, gazing out across his domain.
Just a few months in, and the population had reached fifty thousand.
Naturally, buildings were rising everywhere, farmland was being cleared and cultivated.
The administrative workforce continued to expand as well.
And here, Kael’s connections proved invaluable.
After all, he was the Academy’s valedictorian.
Though he’d been marked by powerful families in the central nobility, that didn’t erase his network entirely.
From those connections, he’d recruited lesser Academy graduates who worked in administration, filling out the roster.
These personnel, combined with those Rant had assembled, meant the territory was stabilizing rapidly.
Of course, achieving this expansion required pouring vast sums of money into the effort.
He was spending everything he earned.
Recently, he’d reached the point where he couldn’t save anything at all.
Yet the territory was expanding at an extraordinary pace.
In the end, Guillaume Partan had succeeded in organizing a thousand soldiers, and was currently training them.
And thanks to mass-hiring Black Mages, the production of medium-sized Skeleton Soldiers had increased to eight hundred per month.
In a year, that was nine thousand six hundred!
A staggering number.
If he continued at this pace for just a few more years, Tay’s territory would become unrivaled in this region—barring exceptional domains like the Harundel Marquis Clan.
In fact, it was already unrivaled now.
Yet Tay could not be satisfied.
“Well then. I suppose it’s time to level up again, isn’t it?”
Tay crossed his arms, muttering to himself as he gazed out across his domain.
Why had this thought occurred to him? Because Rant had taught him several hard lessons.
Lessons about the true power of those who occupied the upper echelons of this world’s elite.
Being a Black Mage was far too easy to master.
Author |
Automaton G
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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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