Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 77

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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 77
The chicken leg fell from Tay’s hand.
“Wait, what are you talking about?”
Aas closed the book and stepped down from the table.
“Exactly as I said. A hostile presence is approaching this territory.”
That was when it happened.
Boom!
A heavy tremor shook the entire mansion. The beer glass on the table rattled, and the decorations on the wall swayed. It was no ordinary earthquake. A shockwave infused with magic power.
“Is that the thing you’re saying came looking for us?”
“Yes.”
Aas nodded. The usual ease had vanished from his bearing, and a glint of wariness flickered in his narrowed eyes.
“It’s a demon. More precisely, a Black Mage contracted with one. Since I myself am a demon…… I sensed that presence just now. It’s coming from the direction of the Sea. Considerable magic power.”
Tay exhaled slowly.
“Damn it. Where did this illegal Black Mage bastard crawl out from…….”
Combat in the middle of eating chicken. The timing was awful.
Tay rose from his seat. He wiped his greasy hands roughly with a cloth and headed toward the window. In the direction of the harbor, black mist was rising into the air.
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
* * *
The Sea.
Something was approaching from the southern coast of the Harundel Marquis Territory toward the harbor of the Maker Barony.
A turtle.
But no ordinary turtle.
A colossal sea turtle, the size of a house, was cleaving through the waves and charging toward the shore.
Its shell was covered in black coral, and from its eyes flowed an ominous violet glow. A Demonic Beast, warped by the magic power of a demon.
And upon that turtle’s back stood a man.
“Kehehehehe.”
A low, damp laughter spread across the water.
A man wearing a hood. The face visible beneath it was pale and bloodless, with a black tattoo carved beneath each eye.
In his left hand he gripped a Staff topped with a skull, and in his right hand hung a Ritual Dagger stained with blood.
His very appearance screamed: I am a Black Mage!
The Black Mage’s gaze fixed on the territory beyond the coast.
There, far off, the outline of the Maker Barony came into view.
Houses stood densely packed, smoke rising from them. Ships were moored in the harbor, and stubble from harvested wheat remained in the fields.
A territory where people lived. A territory with a large population.
The corners of the man’s mouth lifted.
“Such a vast population dwelling in one place…….”
The sound of him swallowing saliva was audible.
“If I use all the humans there as sacrifices…… I can ascend to an even higher Class!!”
Parksan.
Known as a Black Mage contracted with Sharknack, the Demon of the Sea.
Originally nothing but human garbage—one who raided small fishing villages along the coast, capturing humans to offer as sacrifices.
He would massacre an entire village, then offer the corpses to his demon master to gain power.
Even the Balantma Empire had listed him among the wanted, with a bounty reaching thousands of Goldmanta Gold Coins.
His Class was rank 4.
It was a level that even three or four ordinary knights or mages would struggle to face.
Moreover, thanks to his contract with the Demon of the Sea, he had earned a notorious reputation for fleeing into the ocean when cornered, vanishing without trace.
No matter how hard pursuers chased him on land, once he slipped into the sea, he became uncatchable.
Such a man had drifted to this place in search of sacrifices to elevate his Class further.
A territory of one hundred and ten thousand souls.
To Parksan, it must have looked like the perfect hunting ground.
Parksan brought his Staff down toward the sea.
“Go! Demon Fish!”
Black magic power spread out into the seawater.
“Go and slaughter the humans!”
The sea churned. Something began to move beneath the surface. Not just one, but dozens, hundreds of forms swimming toward the shore from below!
Demon Fish.
The lowest-rank demons commanded by Sharknack, the Demon of the Sea.
Their faces were a grotesque blend of twisted human and demon, while their bodies were fishlike.
Yet they bore human arms and legs, creating a deeply disturbing appearance.
Sharp teeth and poisoned claws served as their weapons.
As the lowest-ranked demon, it surpassed Imps in raw physical strength—and naturally, it was far more powerful than an ordinary human.
For a Black Mage named Parksan to command hundreds of such creatures made him a formidable threat indeed.
Parksan’s eyes blazed with madness.
“Excellent. Excellent. Today I shall land the great catch. I will offer all of them as sacrifice and ascend to Class 5. Kha-ha-ha!”
A wave of Demon Fish surged toward the coast.
Toward the harbor of the Maker Barony.
Just as ruin was about to fall upon the Maker Barony—
“Kee-shaaa-aaa-aaah!”
“Ka-sa-sa-sa-sat!”
“Kee-eee-eee-eek!”
Suddenly.
The Demon Fish turned on one another and began tearing each other apart.
A state of complete frenzy.
A massacre of their own kind.
Parksan’s confident face went blank with shock.
“What!?”
Then his features twisted in rage.
“Grrr—how dare you stand in my way!? I will not forgive—”
In the very moment he began to roar in fury—
Crunch-shwaaaah!
An enormous set of jaws fashioned from bone swallowed him whole—him and the turtle-shell mount beneath him.
“Huh?”
He let out a single dazed syllable before being swept away entirely.
* * *
-Waaaaaaa-eeeeng!
-Air Raid Alarm! Air Raid Alarm! Residents must evacuate to your homes immediately! Residents must evacuate to your homes immediately! A marine monster attack is in progress! Residents must evacuate to your homes immediately!
Tay climbed aboard the Skeleton Soldier Carriage as the Air Raid Alarm blared.
“Good thing I had that made.”
The Air Raid Alarm was something Tay had commissioned from a mage in Harundel, paying handsomely for the work.
After all, the territory had been attacked by marine monsters before.
“Full speed.”
Rat-a-tat-a-tat!
The Skeleton Soldier Carriage surged forward at speed. Beside it came the rapid clattering of hooves. Glancing over, Tay saw Rant mounted on a Spectral Skeleton Horse.
Envious. The Spectral Skeleton Horse!
Tay could craft ordinary skeleton horses well enough. But what Rant had made was no mere skeleton horse.
A Spectral Skeleton Horse.
Not a simple skeleton—it was a creature capable of flight, able to soar through the sky at least temporarily.
If Tay’s skeleton horses were like a Damas, then Rant’s Spectral Skeleton Horses were at least a Genesis—the difference was vast.
A chasm between them.
“Ah. You made it.”
“Master, you seem remarkably at ease.”
“Well. I set traps.”
Tay spoke with casual indifference.
“Traps, you say. Ah—those Skull Decorations?”
The Mad Skull Decoration.
A special trap crafted by the Crazy Craftsman. Merely looking upon it caused one’s mind to fray and corrode.
And the advantage was this:
It worked on demons too.
Though demons themselves emitted wavelengths that eroded the minds of living creatures, the mental erosion emanating from the Mad Skull Decoration operated on a different frequency altogether—alien to demonic wavelengths.
Which meant it could affect them.
Of course.
It would work on Black Mages as well.
But Black Mages universally employed Mental Protection Dark Magic as a baseline defense, so the effect would be substantially diminished against them.
“But such power wouldn’t work on a Black Mage, would it?”
“Ah. I have other traps besides.”
The Undead Serpent.
It was a remnant from when something resembling a lobster had emerged from the sea in a past assault.
After defeating those creatures—
While combing the shoreline afterward, what Tay discovered was—
The skull of a Serpent, a medium-sized sea monster. Though the body was gone, the head alone was more than sufficient.
Why, you ask?
Because the skull is what forms the undead’s sense of self.
With the skull as the core, the body is constructed from bone scraps using fabrication magic.
That’s what the Undead Serpent is.
The command is simple.
Upon detecting any hostile life-form above a certain size, attack and kill it.
And if chaos breaks loose at sea, this creature will move.
Whether it actually brings down the enemy—I can’t guarantee that.
But it’ll buy us time.
Rant nodded at the explanation.
“Indeed, you are a true master. Your plan leaves nothing to chance.”
“I do my best. Anyway… wow… this is quite the mess.”
The two had finally arrived at the harbor.
And what they saw there were lowest-tier demons—Demon Fish—slaughtering one another.
“An overwhelming number. Someone must be contracted with a special demon…”
Rant’s brow furrowed.
Meanwhile.
Medium-sized Skeleton Soldiers from various points throughout the territory were closing in.
And the Skeleton Soldiers dove into the sea without hesitation.
“Kaaaaah!”
“Shrieeeek!”
Skeleton Soldiers versus Demon Fish!
However, the Demon Fish were in a frenzied state, attacking without distinction between enemy and ally, making them far less effective.
In an instant, the Skeleton Soldiers killed the Demon Fish one after another.
“Lowest-tier demons have weak willpower, it seems?”
“Those creatures belong to the demon species, but they’re mindless beasts.”
Aas spoke up.
“Hmm… still, a demon is a demon. They’d make useful materials.”
“Thinking such thoughts upon witnessing that—I wonder who the real demon is here.”
At Aas’s remark, Tay chuckled.
A Black Mage attack—he’d thought it would be serious.
But the enemy’s first strike had already been blocked by the Mad Skull Decoration.
This meant the territory would suffer no damage. Rather, they could earn money and level up.
‘This is actually perfect!’
The moment Tay smiled.
Boom!
An explosion roared from the open sea before the harbor.
-The Undead Serpent has been destroyed.
“Tch.”
The trap he’d so carefully set had been destroyed.
Well.
The Undead Serpent was large in size but lacked any special abilities of note.
Its only asset was sheer bulk.
In the sea, certainly, size alone made for a formidable weapon—yet if the opponent possessed unique abilities, its utility diminished sharply.
And indeed.
It seemed the attacking Black Mage had not been subdued.
And then.
Whoooosh!
A Black Mage wreathed in dozens of malevolent spirits burst skyward.
Beneath him floated a half-decomposed corpse.
“Kraaaagh! May you rot with endless curse for all your days, yooou! Master of this undead filth! I shall surely capture you and torture you eternally, eternallyyyy!”
“Oh… found an idiot.”
And then.
While watching the raging opponent, Tay flicked his finger.
“Twisted Bone Spear Throwing. Begin.”
The surrounding Skeleton Soldiers drew forth Twisted Bones Spears of Finger Sacrifice.
And then.
Hundreds of Twisted Bones Spears of Finger Sacrifice—each possessing unerring homing ability—took flight across the sky.
A Black Mage is far too easy for a Crazy Craftsman
—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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