Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 78

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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 78
Parksan was seething with rage.
“Damn it all……!”
His teeth bared in the seawater.
Until moments before, he had been at ease—standing atop the Demon Turtle, unleashing his appetite, intoxicated with the thought of ravaging the Territory teeming with human prey.
The prospect of advancing his level through an abundance of sacrifices had set his laughter running wild.
And then.
Something massive erupted from the depths, seizing the Demon Turtle he rode and tearing into it savagely.
An Undead Serpent!
A marine Undead fashioned in the shape of a bone serpent spanning dozens of meters.
Crafted from the skeletal remains of sea creatures stitched together, its size and ferocity were far from ordinary.
The Undead Serpent dragged both itself and the Demon Turtle down, engulfing Parksan in its jaws and plunging him beneath the waves.
“Choke!”
Parksan was pulled under in an instant.
For an ordinary human, it would have meant death.
Coiled by a massive skeletal serpent in the depths, lungs filling with water—yet Parksan was no ordinary Black Mage.
He was bound by contract to Shaknark, the Sea Demon.
One benefit of that pact was the ability to breathe beneath the waves. Thus he could draw breath underwater as readily as any fish.
Thanks to this, he escaped drowning.
‘Damn it all!’
Even beneath the sea, Parksan wielded formidable power.
In moments, he brandished his staff and unleashed Black Magic directly at the serpent’s torso.
A wraith under Parksan’s command shattered the creature’s bones. With the Undead Serpent dispatched, he wrenched himself free and surged toward the surface.
‘Big body but no real strength to speak of. Damn it! I’ll catch whoever did this and torture their soul! Curse them all!’
Parksan knew a Black Mage was hiding in the Territory.
The one who conjures Skeleton Soldiers. But he’d assumed the wretch was barely Class Two……and yet such cunning tricks?
An uneasy premonition flickered across his mind, but Parksan dismissed it. After all, he was Class Four.
He burst through the surface, rising into the air.
Splash!
Spraying water in all directions, he shot skyward.
And then he saw it.
Hundreds of Bone Spears hurtling toward him.
‘What—what is this!?’
“Spirit Barrier!”
Parksan thrust out his left hand in panic, crying out the incantation.
A wall of black energy coalesced before him. Within it, hundreds of tormented faces shrieked in anguish.
A Black Magic art that forcibly ensnares the souls of the unjustly dead—wraiths transformed into sentient shields.
Among Class Four Black Magic spells, it ranked among the highest-tier defensive incantations.
Hundreds of Bone Spears embedded themselves in the Spirit Barrier.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Thunder roared.
The Spirit Barrier shattered under the impact.
The wraiths trapped within shrieked as they scattered, and the Bone Spears poured through in their wake, hurtling straight at Parksan.
The sheer volume of projectiles had obliterated his Spirit Barrier!
“Wh—what is this!?”
Parksan’s face went deathly pale.
Then.
A voice rang through his mind.
-Fool.
It was Shaknark’s voice.
Parksan’s contractual demon overlord, the Sea Demon himself, spoke with utter contempt.
Splash!
Seawater surged upward, forming a colossal barrier of water before him. Shaknark himself had intervened directly, manifesting a shield.
The Bone Spears collided with the water barrier and shattered, scattering into fragments.
“Aaahhh!”
The defense held perfectly, yet Parksan screamed.
Unbearable agony radiated from his right arm. He stared down at it, his face draining to ash.
The skin of his entire right arm was splitting open.
Like ancient tree bark cracking in the sun, his arm split lengthwise in deep fissures, blood fountaining from the ruptures.
This was no mere wound. His blood and life force were being drained into the seawater itself—the price demanded by the contract.
That’s all the help I can give you.
Shaknark’s voice echoed once more.
Parksan’s eyes widened.
“W-wait, Shaknark! Just a little longer—!”
I have no intention of wasting more strength on such a foolish contractor. Whether you live or die is no concern of mine. But I have certainly collected my due.
The demon’s voice scattered like mist.
Parksan gritted his teeth and drew a Healing Potion from his pouch with his trembling left hand, drinking it down.
It was at least mid-grade—the sort of recovery elixir he always carried for emergencies.
He downed the entire vial in one gulp.
The split skin on his right arm began to close, slowly mending.
But.
His entire right arm had turned a sickly blue-black.
It looked as though the flesh itself had begun to necrotize.
The skin had taken on the pallor of a corpse, and he could feel almost nothing in his fingertips.
The bleeding had stopped, but the wound was far from healed.
The life force drained as payment to the demon was preventing complete recovery.
A low groan escaped his clenched teeth.
Parksan ground his jaw together.
One arm was now effectively useless.
And Shaknark’s support was cut off as well.
Now he would have to fight with his strength alone.
‘What is happening… What on earth exists in this Territory…?’
Parksan’s gaze snapped toward the Shoreline.
Thousands of Skeleton Soldiers awaited him there.
And beyond them.
A man was walking forward slowly.
* * *
Tay stood on the shore, gazing out toward the Sea.
It was after he had confirmed that Parksan’s right arm had begun to necrotize.
The demon’s intervention had conjured a barrier of water, but as the price Parksan had lost the use of one arm—and so the strategic damage had been considerable.
Tay folded his arms and murmured to himself.
“Bone Spears. Now that’s a useful commodity.”
Rant, standing beside him, tilted his head slightly.
“Suddenly thinking about Bone Spears?”
“Yes. As long as we can mass-produce them, there’s nothing quite so handy.”
Bone Spears were among the materials produced in bulk in Tay’s Territory.
They served as the primary weapon of the Skeleton Soldiers and were also sold as trade goods to outsiders.
Made of bone, they were cheap to manufacture and easy to produce in volume.
And on a day like this, nothing was better suited for expendable use.
Thousands of Skeleton Soldiers all threw their Spear Throw simultaneously.
Even a Level 4 Black Mage couldn’t hold back such a volley when it descended all at once.
“Even at Level 4. Quantity conquers all, as they say.”
Rant cupped his chin, gazing out at the Sea as he spoke.
“What do you intend to do now?”
“Well.”
Tay’s mouth curved upward.
“Kill him.”
Parksan, gripping his necrotized arm, hung suspended above the Sea—now little more than a breath away from death.
The demon’s support was severed, his combat power halved.
Had he fled, they would have found him difficult to catch—but his opponent, whether from stupidity or stubbornness.
Still showed every sign of wanting to fight.
So a mercy stroke was necessary.
Tay flicked his fingers lightly.
The Skeleton Soldiers on the shore responded as one.
They drew fresh Bone Spears from the bundles of secondary weapons slung across their backs. Thousands of shafts rose skyward once more.
“Fire.”
* * *
Parksan trembled with fury above the Sea.
“You… cursed—!”
His necrotized right arm had no sensation at all.
He gripped the staff with only his left hand, and even that grip had weakened from what it once was.
Still, Parksan did not yield.
He withdrew a small glass vial from his robes.
Inside gleamed a crimson liquid.
Essence of Blood.
A deadly elixir refined from demon blood and human souls.
Taking it would explosively amplify a Black Mage’s dark power for a brief time, but the price was a catastrophic loss of lifespan.
‘It pains me to use it here… but I have no choice.’
Parksan clenched his teeth.
‘With the Essence of Blood, I will surely annihilate that wretch Baron Maker…’
Then it happened.
Movement along the Shoreline caught Parksan’s eye.
The Skeleton Soldiers were drawing fresh spears from the bundles of Bone Spears on their backs.
Thousands of them. All at once.
Parksan’s face went white.
“…No.”
Thousands of Bone Spears were raised in unison. A forest of them, dense enough to blot out the sun, descended upon the Shoreline.
Screeeeeech!
Thousands of Bone Spears tore through the sky, hurtling down.
“Nooooo!”
Parksan’s cry tore from his throat.
“Maker, you bastaaaaaard!”
There was no time even to drink the Essence of Blood before the rain of spears came pouring down.
“Aaaaagh!”
Hundreds of Bone Spears pierced Parksan’s body.
Not just his limbs and legs, but his chest and head as well, bristling with spears from every angle as his body began to shatter into pieces.
In the end, his form became unrecognizable as it scattered and fell apart.
Parksan, the Black Mage under contract with Shaknark and wanted by every authority, met his end thus.
* * *
“Oh.”
A system message appeared before Tay’s eyes.
-You have acquired Experience Points.
“Experience came in.”
Tay’s expression brightened.
The Experience Points from slaying a Quadruple Class Black Mage were indeed exceptional.
Far heavier than killing hundreds of ordinary monsters all at once, the Experience flooded in all together—impossible not to smile.
But that satisfaction was short-lived. Tay’s expression darkened into annoyance.
“Ugh. This is irritating.”
“What troubles you, Master?” Rant asked, puzzled.

“No. I just took a massive loss.”
Tay grumbled.
“I mean, yes, a sorcerer under contract with a demon becomes a resource, but… I spent far too many Bone Spears. I hurled thousands of them twice over. A few dozen per volley would have been enough. Hell. Damn it. I should’ve held back.”
Thousands of Bone Spears.
The manufacturing cost per spear was negligible, but just now I’d deployed nearly ten thousand.
That’s a fortune gone to waste!
Money I could’ve earned, simply squandered!
Argh! The losses are catastrophic!
Rant watched and laughed outright.
“Hehe. You remain amusing, Master. Lamenting the cost of spears after slaying your enemy.”
“Well, a loss is a loss, no matter what.”
As Tay continued grumbling, another system message appeared.

-Your Level has increased through sufficient Experience.
-Triple Class confirmed.
-Your first Class, Black Mage, has increased by 1 Level.
Black Mage is Far Too Easy
Author |
Automaton G
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Samyang C&C Corporation
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Editorial Department
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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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