Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 82

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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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Chapter 82
A Barony of 110,000 Souls!
This was no small matter.
All the more impressive that he’d built it in the span of mere years!
Tay greeted the new year with a sense of quiet satisfaction, now master of such a domain.
After all his efforts, the days of pouring additional coin into the barony had finally ended—and that was the crucial point.
Perhaps because of that?
Now the money was pouring in at a staggering rate.
First, the ring workshop. Production of the Skeleton Manipulation Ring remained his monopoly (thanks to the Crazy Craftsman Hunter Ability), and monthly output climbed steadily.
At five hundred Goldmanta Coins per ring when the raw materials cost only a handful of silver, it was essentially printing money.
‘A reliable cash cow, no question about it.’
Then there was the business he’d newly launched.
The manufacture and sale of Necro Artifacts.
Now that Tay had reached Class 3, he could process bone and craft it into magically-imbued weapons.
Since he’d industrialized the process, he could produce an array of arms and armor—and they were flying off the shelves.
Of course, arming the Skeleton Soldiers before sale was standard practice.
The variety was remarkable.
Bone Swords, Bone Spears, Bone Shovels, Bone Pickaxes, Bone Hammers, Bone Shields, Bone Armor, Bone Helmets, and more besides.
The popularity was extraordinary!
Beyond that lay the poultry farms.
The scale had expanded to something utterly incomparable to before.
Not only did they feed all 110,000 inhabitants, but they’d grown large enough to export in bulk to the outside world.
There were now more than a dozen chicken shops within the barony itself, and the fierce competition had only raised the quality of the food.
‘Did I spark a chicken war in this world?’
And thriving in the wake of those poultry operations was another enterprise altogether.
The soybean oil workshop.
Operating in tandem with the farms, producing cooking oil for frying.
To fry chicken you need oil; to make oil you need soybeans; to grow soybeans you need fields, don’t you?
A linked chain of industry, each feeding the next.
And the Miscellaneous Item Mining Dungeon still bustled with mercenaries.
Entrance fees brought revenue, but the real profit came from the inn and shop around the fortress near the Dungeon.
Private merchants conducted their own business, and their taxes flowed straight into Tay’s coffers.
And the port he’d ambitiously developed now turned a healthy profit.
Large merchant vessels had begun to dock.
In the old days, only small traders had come and gone, but with the population at 110,000, the volume of commerce had transformed entirely.
Merchants brought great ships and sought large-scale transactions, and port fees climbed accordingly.
But there was more.
Two branches of mercenary guilds had opened.
Both the Black Spear Guild and the Silver Shield Guild had established themselves within the barony.
Not only did this aid in territorial defense when needed, it was also highly profitable.
Because mercenaries flowed through constantly.
Given the Miscellaneous Item Mining Dungeon, it was inevitable.
When mercenaries came, they slept at the inn, drank, had their equipment repaired at the smithy, and even went to the chicken shops for chicken and beer.
It all added up to coin.
‘Excellent. Quite excellent.’
Tay nodded contentedly as he reviewed the barony’s overall affairs.
With money flowing in of its own accord, how could he not smile?
Kael managed administration, Partan oversaw military affairs, and Rant provided magical support—leaving Tay to make only the strategic decisions.
He had become, truly, the master of a powerful realm.
A meteoric rise, indeed!
And yet, there was more besides.
From winter into spring, Tay had thrown himself into research alongside Rant and achieved a breakthrough…….
The research combining Class 3 Dark Magic and the Crazy Craftsman ability had finally succeeded!
The Plant-Loving Undead Army Domination Bracelet.
It was a bracelet of bone and metal fused together—to the eye, merely a crude bone bracelet.
But within lay intricate Magic Circles, and one could feel the pulse of formidable dark power emanating from it.
Its effect was simple yet potent.
The wearer could command one hundred Skeleton Soldiers.
Compared to the existing Skeleton Manipulation Ring, it was vastly more efficient!
However, as this was meant to be a trump card in defending his barony, he had decided to prohibit external sales entirely.
At least it might be possible to present it as tribute to the Duke of Harundel later on.
But there is one problem.
“Master. Is there really no way to deal with this……?”
Rant picked up the bracelet from beside him and furrowed his brow.
“It’s made by combining Dark Magic with the Crazy Craftsman ability. Items made with the Crazy Craftsman ability always come with side effects. There’s nothing to be done about it.”
The Plant-Loving Undead Army Domination Bracelet.
The effect was certainly excellent, but in exchange, an obsessive compulsion to excessively love plants would develop.
In some ways, it might be worse in quality than the Control Ring that caused obsessive cleanliness.
Because with this bracelet, symptoms would emerge: stop at the sight of flowers, caress trees, and lose the will to rise when lying in a grass field.
“And since you can endure it to some degree, it’s fine.”
“Hmm. How bizarre…… it feels like a cursed object.”
“What can my ability do about that?”
But Tay’s logic was simple.
“Still, isn’t it better to have something rather than nothing? It’s an item that can control a hundred Skeleton Soldiers. If you just develop a taste for plants, you can always grow orchids—there’s no real problem.”
“……Your optimistic way of thinking is sometimes admirably remarkable, master.”
Rant spoke with words that could be either praise or sarcasm.
In any case, the Plant-Loving Undead Army Domination Bracelet was decided to be non-negotiable merchandise.
If it were sold externally, the military advantage of the Maker Barony could suffer considerable damage—a natural precaution.
In fact, the Control Ring alone was already selling quite well.
In the end, Tay crafted a hundred of these bracelets.
Combined, they would allow ten thousand Skeleton Soldiers to be controlled without Tay’s direct involvement.
He gave all hundred bracelets to the knight Partan.
Partan took the bracelets and fell silent for a long moment.
“M-my lord…….”
“Under your responsibility, Partan, distribute them among the senior soldiers.”
“This is…….”
Partan’s eyes grew red.
“Are you entrusting me with complete command of the military forces?”
Yes.
This was not merely distributing bracelets.
It was a declaration that command over ten thousand Skeleton Soldiers would be placed under Partan’s chain of command.
Even if Tay left his territory, Partan would be able to lead the Skeleton Soldier army.
“It’s fine to be moved, but don’t cry. You’re a knight.”
“I am not crying, my lord!”
Partan, streaming with tears, his face shining with emotion.
He seemed delighted to be trusted.
Then again, he was a man who’d been fired from his last job for embezzling to fix his daughter…… it made sense.
The sight of a man in his forties clutching a bone bracelet and weeping was rather grotesque, but Tay pretended not to notice.
And so.
The problem of military command authority in the territory was finally resolved.
Partan would be able to command ten thousand Skeleton Soldiers, and the structure was complete where the remaining Skeleton Soldiers remained under Tay’s direct control.
The standing force of a thousand human soldiers was already under Partan’s command from the start, so now Partan had truly become the military commander-in-chief of the Maker Barony.
‘Now I can empty my territory as much as I want!’
Tay exulted inwardly.
And immediately turned to the next problem.
Leveling up.
He had to become stronger. He still fell far short of Duke-class superhumans.
Moreover, a new problem had emerged this time.
Up to the Medium Skeleton Soldier (a Skeleton Soldier strengthened through clever means, quite powerful), Tay could control them infinitely with his Hunter Ability, but with Skeleton Warriors—classified as lower-tier undead—it was impossible.
Currently, the number of Skeleton Warriors Tay could command was thirty-four.
Of course, each Skeleton Warrior was strong enough to crush ten Medium Skeleton Soldiers, but…… in terms of numbers, it left much to be desired.
This couldn’t be solved through item crafting either.
The only way to solve this was through leveling up.
But one problem had emerged.
War-related requests had stopped coming.
His previous performance had apparently been too overwhelming.
When word spread of the incident where he’d wiped out the enemy forces in half a day with three thousand Skeleton Soldiers, a perception took root that if Tay became involved in war, the war itself would lose all meaning.
And on top of that.
The high nobility seemed to have taken issue with him.
‘Presumably they found it grating to see someone like me, who just brute-forces through everything, poking his nose into their affairs.’
Without concrete proof, the circumstances suggested that the upper-ranking nobles—whether Salkat or Count Kolando—had issued instructions down the chain: “Do not touch that bone baron. And do not request his participation in the war.”
The war was blocked.
‘If things go this way, marching out with troops for war isn’t looking great…….’
He could force his way in, but that would increase the political risk.
It was unwise for Tay, still only a baron, to provoke the sensibilities of count-level nobility.
That left two choices.
A large-scale monster subjugation.
Or a dungeon.
‘Which way should I go…….’
Tay leaned back in his office chair and gazed at the ceiling.
Monster subjugation offered good experience point efficiency with no political risk, but it meant long travel times and uncertain scale.
And since he’d need to deploy Skeleton Soldiers in large numbers…… it could turn into a situation where he was spending money to earn experience points.
Given that he preferred to earn money and experience points simultaneously, he felt a certain reluctance.
A dungeon offered the exceptional reward of a first-clear achievement, but it carried high danger and the experience point efficiency was lower than war or subjugation.
‘Hmm…….’
The deliberation deepened.
The Black Mage Is Too Easy as a Blacksmith
Author |
Automaton G
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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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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