The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

At first, Vandalieu hadn’t known how he should use Death Iron and Dark Copper, the liquid metals that he had created with his Mana. But once it was heated, it turned out to be unexpectedly easy to process.

“This is a metal that one could only dream of!” Datara cried.

The weights of Death Iron and Dark Copper were the same as the iron and copper that they had been created from, but since they were liquids, they could easily be shaped by pouring them into molds.

They became harder as they heated up. At iron and copper’s respective melting temperatures, Death Iron and Dark Copper turned into solids resembling solid iron and copper at room temperature.

Of course, they returned to their liquid forms when they cooled, but if they were struck with hammers and forged in this solid state, they remained solid after cooling.

Datara poured Death Iron and Dark Copper into molds, heated them to a temperature where they became easily-manipulated solids and then used his hammer to forge them. After doing this, they didn’t return to their liquid forms even after their temperatures dropped.

The swords and spears made from Death Iron were harder, tougher and sharper than those made from steel. But even when their blades were chipped, as long as the broken fragments were recovered, they turned back into liquid and fused back into the blade to restore its original shape.

On the other hand, Dark Copper was more suited to being used for armor; it absorbed impacts well, withstood slashes and resisted Mana as well. And like Death Iron, if it was damaged, the broken parts turned back into liquid and fused back into the armor.

Also, perhaps because they were metals that had been transformed by death-attribute Mana, both metals had properties that made them easy to enchant with death-attribute spells. It was simple to create swords enchanted with Healing Negation and Deadly Poison or shields enchanted with Energy Absorption.

“For some reason, it seems that only the Holy Son, us Undead and the Ghouls can forge it, but that’s part of its charm!” said Datara.

Perhaps Death Iron and Dark Copper were affected by Death-Attribute Charm; only Vandalieu was able to use it to create items. Anyone could use the completed products, however.

But he now had Datara, the other Undead t.i.tans helping Datara and the Ghosts who had been trapped in the underground cemetery in Nineland, so this wasn’t a problem.

Incidentally, if Vandalieu wanted to turn completed products back into liquid metal to turn them into something else, he would heat them up, then use Heat Leech to remove the heat energy, and the equipment would return to liquid form after cooling down.

By pouring Death Iron and Dark Copper that had been heated to the perfect temperatures into molds and hammering them a few times to harden them, Datara succeeded in creating coins.

And so, the thousand-Luna Dark Copper coins and hundred-Luna Death Iron coins were created.

“Is it alright for them to be this small?” Vandalieu wondered, holding up one of the Luna coins between his fingertips. It seemed that he was worried about the fact that they were about as big as j.a.panese one-Yen coins.

“I am sure they will do,” said Chezare, full of confidence.

“But they were originally copper and iron, you know?” Vandalieu told him.

“You are right… I am not so sure that we can trade these for hundred-Amid gold coins once we begin trading with other nations in the future,” said Tarea. “This metal was originally copper, after all.”

“Indeed, it is copper,” said Sam.

“But they are harder than gold or silver, and they are pretty,” said Zadiris. “I personally prefer these.”

“Unlike gold and silver, these coins can be combined to make armor in times of danger,” said Basdia. “I think this metal is better, too.”

“I prefer hard metals as well,” Vigaro added.

Because the metals were originally made from iron and copper, Vandalieu, Tarea and Sam were worried about whether the coins could be exchanged for gold and silver coins in the future.

On the other hand, the Ghouls were ignorant about monetary economies and valued metals not for their scarcity, but their properties when they were turned into weapons and armor.

And then there was a third group of individuals smiling wryly, knowing that the other two groups were both wrong.

“I don’t know if coins of this size would be considered of equal value to Amid and Baum gold coins, but –” Rita began.

“I think people will happily make the trade,” said Saria.

“Your Majesty, not only merchants, but even n.o.bles and royalty would produce mountains of gold… no, mountains of platinum coins in order to obtain these coins of Death Iron and Dark Copper,” said Princess Levia.

For some reason, these three seemed to think that the Death Iron and Dark Copper coins would have a lot of value.

“Vandalieu-sama, I agree. After all, these are magical metals that n.o.body in the world can create except for you. Not only the Mages’ Guild, but every nation will want it,” said Eleanora.

Indeed, the value of Death Iron and Dark Copper was unclear, but it would certainly be high. Just as Eleanora said, they were metals that had been created by Vandalieu, probably for the first time in the world’s history!

Even if their base materials were copper and iron, which were worth far less than gold and silver, Vandalieu was the only one who could create them. That was why its preciousness was unfathomable. n.o.body could decide how much they were worth in gold or silver.

“I see,” said Vandalieu. “Then I suppose these sizes are alright for now… but before we begin trading in the future, we need to think about how to exchange money.”

In the future, it was possible that trading with foreign nations would result in the Death Iron and Dark Copper coins being depleted extremely quickly. There was also the possibility that they wouldn’t even be given a second glance, though.

And so the circulation of the Luna currency began, and for now, things were going smoothly.

“This is ten Lunas, and this is fifty Lunas, huh… Oh, the Death Iron coins shine like a rainbow when you hold them up in the sun.”

“The purple color of the Dark Copper coins is pretty as well, isn’t it? I wonder if I should gather more.”

“Bufuh~ I’m going to make a necklace out of Death Iron coins.”

The Ghouls and Orcuses, who weren’t used to a monetary economy, seemed to be more interested in the coins’ visible beauty rather than their convenience.

“Receiving money is something that we are truly grateful for, and even providing us with work… Thank you, thank you.”

“I’m really glad I didn’t die at the mine.”

“Our hard work from now on will become our earnings… but I don’t want to be a miner anymore. I suppose I’ll go and be a farmer.”

“At the farms, they apparently teach you singing and dancing for some reason as well. I’m tone-deaf, you know.”

“I suppose I’ll go to the tofu factory.”

“I can sew, so I suppose I’ll be a seamstress.”

“I shall start a business. It brings back memories of the days when I was selling fish in the Sauron Duchy.”

The ones who had been made to work in the slave-run mine, like Gopher and the other former refugees as well as those from the First Cultivation Village, had some experience with living in societies with monetary economies, so they accepted Lunas without any problems.

These non-fighting, creation-minded people were precious in Talosheim. Up until now, only a few of the Ghouls and Undead who were formerly craftsmen had been involved in Talosheim’s farming, fishing and other industries.

As former slaves in a mine, Gopher and the others had the Mining skill; now that they were free, it was only natural that very few of them would want to continue doing the work that they had been forced to do for two hundred years… and miners in Talosheim needed to know how to fight. Because of this, it seemed that they would be employed in Talosheim’s newly-created factories or in the farms.

The same went for those from the First Cultivation Village, but they were previously working as leatherworkers, seamstresses and merchants; it seemed that they wanted to find work similar to their previous jobs.

It was doubtful as to whether there was work for them in the Golem factories that had Golems instead of manufacturing robots or farms with Monster Plants, but there were plenty of other jobs available.

Vandalieu just needed to provide the Golems with a little of his vast Mana pool and they would work on and on. But in the end, they were just Golems.

They would accurately repeat the movements and protocols they had been provided, but their applications were limited. Most importantly, their ability to detect temperature differences that were too low to damage their mineral bodies and their ability to determine the current state of the product were too weak. Also, they were not suited to performing precise work.

These flaws would be made up for by people, finally allowing Vandalieu to get closer to producing the items that could be produced in Earth’s factories.

It was the same concept behind the reason why tofu made by a craftsman tasted better than tofu produced entirely by machines.

“People are needed after all,” said Vandalieu, feeling earnestly glad that he had visited the Hartner Duchy.

Incidentally, a tax system had also been implemented. Income taxes had been introduced.

“Your Majesty, you cannot be serious with these instructions!” Chezare protested.

In Lambda, unlike those such as adventurers and mercenaries, each normal citizen was taxed a certain amount as a poll tax. This would include a tax of 40-50% of their harvests in the fields and their profits from their businesses.

In the new Talosheim, this poll tax had been abolished and an income tax was collected from everyone’s earnings. With this system, even those who earned little could theoretically pay taxes.

Of course, this included a rule where those whose incomes were too low were exempt from paying taxes and a system where those with higher yearly incomes were taxed higher percentages of their incomes.

The minimum tax was 5% and the maximum tax for those who earned the most was 20%.

“Your Majesty, please reconsider!” Chezare urged Vandalieu. “This tax system is one normally used for the Adventurers’ Guild and merchants of the Commerce Guild. In order to apply this to each individual, we must determine each citizen’s income! And the taxes are far too low for what the nation requires!”

n.o.body could blame Chezare for voicing these opinions. With such a low-percentage tax system, the nation would become poor in the not-so-distant future and become unable to maintain its structure.

But Vandalieu remained calm as he responded to Chezare’s concerns. “The head of most of the ongoing projects in Talosheim is me, you know?” he pointed out.

“… You are right,” said Chezare.

Vandalieu’s Mana was essential for operating the Magic Items enchanted with the Fermentation spell used for creating miso and soy sauce, as well as to provide power for the Golems in each of the factories.

Most of Talosheim’s other industries were practically impossible without Vandalieu as well. The Golems, Monster Plants, Immortal Ents and Cemetery Bees were all giving their blessings to Talosheim because Vandalieu was here.

The supply distribution center in the remains of the Adventurers’ Guild was also only functioning because Vandalieu was providing it with the products to distribute.

The members of the Church, the stonemasons, the carpenters and the blacksmiths – Vandalieu was the leader of all of these groups.

That was why determining the incomes of each citizen wasn’t difficult. It was possible that it would become difficult in the future, but he simply needed to set up a system to do so before then.

And it was unlikely that the nation would fall into poverty because the taxes were too low. In the end, the citizens were buying various things from Vandalieu, the nation’s king, as they lived here.

Actually, it was unlikely that things would be 100% problem-free, but Vandalieu had no choice but to simply use trial-and-error and make improvements whenever problems arose.

“I understand,” said Chezare. “Well then, please leave the details to me.”

“… Chezare, won’t you quit being the general and become the nation’s prime minister?” Vandalieu asked him.

“No, I am a person who belongs in the military, Your Majesty,” Chezare replied.

But was it really alright for a military person to be doing so much work that a civil official should be doing?

Some time pa.s.sed after this conversation, and the end of summer was in sight. Vandalieu was having a nighttime meal to take a break from work in the underground chamber beneath Talosheim’s royal castle, the place where he had defeated the Dragon Golem and obtained the materials he had used to create Rapiéçage.

“Umm, Your Majesty, what is this?” Levia asked.

“This is ramen, Princess Levia,” Vandalieu explained as he showed her the contents of his bowl – various ingredients and some noodles submerged in a white soup. “It’s a dish that’s similar to udon, but not quite. Incidentally, this is the tofu ramen I made at Braga’s request. The soup base is misodare with tofu, and the noodles are made by combining wheat flour and soybean flour in a certain ratio, and I’ve used fried tofu and freeze-dried tofu in place of pork fillet. For condiments, there’s onions.”

It was an incredibly tofu-filled… soybean-filled ramen. This was the time for isoflavones (whatever this meant)*.

If there was one thing that Vandalieu wanted to quickly get his hands on, it was spring onions. And wouldn’t the soup taste better with sesame seeds added to it?

“It looks very delicious, doesn’t it? Vandalieu is so good at cooking. Why don’t you have a bowl as well, Princess?” Darcia suggested. Her tastes now matched those of her son, thanks to the Mental Encroachment skill.

However, it seemed that Princess Levia hadn’t been asking about the ramen. “Thank you for the offer, but I was not referring to the ramen –”

“Then were you referring to this? This is a wedding dress,” said another Vandalieu separate from the one who was eating ramen… A Vandalieu who had been produced by using Out-of-body Experience and creating a clone. He was holding up the wedding dress that he was in the middle of making.

Using countless needles and threads, Vandalieu was trying to create a wedding dress straight out of thread.

“Making dress paper and things like that turned out to be troublesome, so I’d thought about how I could do it, and recently I realized that I could simply make thread directly into clothes without using dress paper,” he said.

“I’m in the middle of doing that,” said another Vandalieu. “Incidentally, these dresses are for Braga’s brides, Marie and Linda.”

“I’ve already taken their measurements,” said yet another Vandalieu. “Also, the material I’m using is the honey silk from the Cemetery Bees.”

Four Vandalieus’ arms, which had divided into thin, thread-like lengths, were manipulating countless sewing needles.

Vandalieu wanted to make Golems and Cursed Tools to do this one day, but it was precise work, so he had no choice but to do it himself for now.

“With this, I can make clothes without any seams.”

“Frills, frills… Laces, laces… Flells, flells*.”

“But working alone, making two or three dresses in one day is my limit, so I need to make a sewing machine soon. This is cutting it close. I suppose I should make a pedal-operated one?”

Based on what Vandalieu had seen in Nineland and Niarki, the clothes of Lambda were inferior to those of Earth. There were more dyes available and they were more vividly-colored, but the designs of the clothing were limited.

Vandalieu had put Undead Insects on Eleanora as she walked around Nineland, and through their eyes, he had seen secondhand clothes being sold in the marketplace. As someone who had lived in modern j.a.pan, he had thought that they looked considerably unfashionable.

Vandalieu had only been a high school student back then; although his conduct hadn’t been bad, it hadn’t been particularly good, either. He had seen quite a few things in places such as the lost-and-found center.

That was why he planned to make various things. Things like bras, garter belts and stockings in particular. As for swimsuits, he planned to begin work on those once he found a fiber that wouldn’t turn transparent when wet.

Also, as someone aiming to achieve physical beauty equivalent to that of a Hollywood action star, he needed to find the right time to make men’s boxer underwear as well.

“It’s really pretty, isn’t it? I’m sure everyone will be happy, and when we begin trading with other nations in the future, I think everyone will buy them,” said Darcia.

“Yes, I think they are very wonderful,” said Princess Levia. “But it wasn’t that… I was wondering what that is…” Her gaze was directed at the ma.s.s of meat that was being carried out of the resurrection device.

It was an armful of meat with no hands, no legs and no head. There were throbbing blood vessels running along its red exterior surface, making it clear that, unbelievably, this thing was alive.

“Ah, don’t pay that too much attention –” Darcia began.

“That’s my seventh failed recreation of Mom,” said Vandalieu.

“NOOOOO! DON’T SAY IIIIT!” Darcia cried.

“I’m not saying that that’s your true form, so calm down,” Vandalieu told her.

Vandalieu had thought of the idea of using Golem Trans.m.u.tation to manipulate liquid Death Iron and Dark Copper to replace the resurrection device’s damaged parts. As a result, the resurrection device had started working again, but… when he tried to recreate Darcia’s body with it, the device produced only lumps of meat.

He had gone through a lot of trial and error, but no matter what he did, the device only created lumps of meat that bore no resemblance to Darcia.

“As you can see, there is only meat and blood vessels… if there were organs, I would add an Orichalc.u.m skeleton after it was finished. It seems making unnatural, temporary repairs to a resurrection device that was incomplete to begin with isn’t going to be enough to recreate Mom,” Vandalieu concluded.

He had used the machine seven times, but there was nothing he could do to stop the device from producing mysterious ma.s.ses of meat. According to legend, the device was supposedly capable of creating bodies that were complete apart from their souls, but Vandalieu’s results were nothing close to that.

“But you know, it’s kind of… You say that, Vandalieu, but it’s like I’m being told that this really is what I look like, so it’s hard,” said Darcia.

“I’m sorry, I…” Levia began.

“It’s alright, it’s just something that I’ve fooled myself into thinking. I’m sure that it’s because the device is incomplete,” said Darcia.

“Well, it does function, so I’m thinking of trying to make it more and more complete,” said Vandalieu. “Please wait a little longer, Mom.”

I suppose it doesn’t work without the damaged parts being replaced by the originally-used materials. Unlike other materials, I still can’t make detailed shapes out of Orichalc.u.m, so… Should I make a Homunculus after all?

The level of Vandalieu’s Golem Trans.m.u.tation skill had increased, but not enough for him to be able to create precisely-shaped components from Orichalc.u.m. The work needed to repair the device wasn’t on the level of hand-making a semiconductor, but it was about as precise as trying to write letters on grains of rice. It wasn’t simple to do.

Perhaps it was better for Vandalieu to find an evil G.o.d, make a contract and create a Homunculus to use as Darcia’s body.

He had gained the knowledge he required to do that at the Mages’ Guild in Nineland. Things like sacrificing virgins would be a tall obstacle for Vandalieu, but perhaps he could discuss this requirement with the evil G.o.ds.

I wonder if you can negotiate with G.o.ds? I probably wouldn’t be able to threaten them.

In reality, he had already eaten an evil G.o.d, but as Vandalieu was unaware of this, he was under the impression that every G.o.d was certainly a superior being to him.

“I’ll find the perfect evil G.o.d for the job,” said Vandalieu.

“Levia-san, it seems that my son is going to run off to a bad religion; what should I do in this situation?” Darcia asked.

“U-umm, I-I think it will probably be fine!” said Levia.

Vandalieu had only been trying to rea.s.sure Darcia, but it seemed to have only made her more anxious. He hadn’t said that he would necessarily join the evil G.o.ds, so why was she so worried?

『You have acquired the Blacksmithing, Thread-reeling and Enhanced Physical Ability: Hair skills!』

『The Clothing skill has been combined with the Thread-reeling skill and the Enhanced Physical Ability: Hair skill has been combined with the Enhanced Physical Ability: Claws, Fangs, Tongue skill!』

『The levels of the Cooking, Enhanced Physical Ability: Hair, Claws, Fangs, Tongue and Thread-reeling skills have increased!』

Time pa.s.sed, and it was now October.

After finishing creating his currency and treating Gopher and the other former slaves with Youth Transformation, Vandalieu dropped by the cultivation village’s harvest festival.

He treated the villagers who were in poor health, and in return, he was treated with not the thin porridge made from rice and millets that he had been given before, but a dish resembling fried rice with proper ingredients, which had been made by stir-frying vegetables and meat along with southern rice.

“You’re eating a lot; how many bowls is that?”

“This is my third.”

Vandalieu had given the villagers three Horned Rabbits and a sack of walnuts as presents, so he wasn’t holding back.

“Man, things were really crazy after you came back,” said Fester. “Something happened at the slave-run mine, you see. The outer walls were destroyed, the mine turned into an empty area of land and all of the soldiers and slaves turned into skeletons.”

“What did you say, is that true, I can’t believe it,” Vandalieu said with his usual expressionless voice and flat tone; he was the perpetrator – the main perpetrator at that – of this incident.

Both his expressionlessness and flat tone were nothing out of the ordinary, so it seemed that the others hadn’t noticed.

… The fact that Vandalieu’s expression didn’t change and reveal his true emotions unless he put conscious effort into it came in handy at times like this, too.

“Yeah, the wall was apparently destroyed from outside, so it was probably monsters that appeared. They didn’t find any footprints or tracks, though.”

“So the soldiers and slaves killed by the monsters probably turned into Undead.”

It seemed that this was the conclusion reached by the Knights’ Order that had investigated the incident. Vandalieu’s effort of using Golem Trans.m.u.tation to make monster bones resemble t.i.tan skeletons had paid off.

“Fortunately, it seems that the monsters that destroyed the outer wall moved south from where the mine was afterwards, though.”

Those investigating seemed to have thought that monsters were the culprits since there were no traces of armed forces having moved in the area, and since there were no monster tracks, the monsters had simply flown off somewhere else.

I’m sure that there will be some who have made the connection between this event and the fact that the Demon King’s seal was removed, but… I’m sure they won’t know.

n.o.body would dream that Vandalieu simply happened to have removed the champion’s seal and released a part of the Demon King (his blood) during his quest to rescue the slaves at the mine.

In fact, Heinz’s party and members of the Church of Alda were just as perplexed about the incident at the slave-run mine as Vandalieu had expected they would be. Considering the timing of the incidents, they probably weren’t unrelated, but they wondered, why had the second incident occurred there?

For the Hartner Duchy, it was quite an important location, as it was the duchy’s only source of mineral resources other than Dungeons. However, it was doubtful as to whether it would be a likely place targeted by the one who had undone the Demon King’s seal, or the Demon King’s fragment itself.

It wasn’t as if there had been other sealed fragments of the Demon King, nor were there other evil G.o.ds involved. As long as they didn’t realize that the one who had removed the Demon King’s seal was someone related to the former refugees of Talosheim, they would only be able to wonder about how strange it all was.

And it seemed that they hadn’t realized this fact yet.

The fact that this cultivation village had gone unchecked was proof that those investigating the incident hadn’t come anywhere near the truth.

Vandalieu’s familiars, the Lemures in the sky over the village, confirmed that no lookouts of spies had been stationed here.

“Thanks to that, the adventurers and knights pa.s.sed through the highway from Niarki, so Oyaji-san was all excited about it,” said Kasim. “Now he’s downhearted about the fact that we don’t know if traveling merchants will come this way anymore, though.”

Kasim and his friends, who didn’t know about the various things happening behind the scenes, were being carefree and enjoying the festival. Seeing them was truly therapeutic for Vandalieu.

“Things are hard on Lina though, since she has more work to do now.”

“Come to think of it, weren’t you three included in the group sent to exterminate the Skeletons in the mines?” Vandalieu asked.

Actually, because of the Lemures, Vandalieu already knew that Kasim and his friends had been a part of the extermination force, but he decided to ask because he thought that it would be unnatural if he didn’t.

“Of course we were. Just by partic.i.p.ating, we were paid a reward that we can use for something other than food.”

“Skeletons are Rank 2. They’re enemies that even we can defeat, and there were lots of people in the extermination force.”

“And the men of the village… and even some of the women, have started hunting Goblins to make the Gobu-Gobu that you taught us about. They go out in groups of five and hunt them with handmade spears and bows, so there haven’t been any Goblins appearing near the village lately.”

Vandalieu had been watching through the Lemures, so he already knew this, but the people of the village were st.u.r.dy. In fact, it was their st.u.r.diness that had brought them this far.

“But there was something different about those Skeletons,” said Kasim. “They were attacking the other guys normally, but when it came to fighting us, they were like…”

“It was like they were training with us. No, both our weapons and theirs were real, so we did defeat them properly,” said Fester.

“It was supposed to be a real battle, and even though it was a real battle, it kind of felt like training as well. Also, I felt like there was something watching over us from somewhere as well,” Zeno added.

How to fight enemies wielding long weapons, enemies faster than them, enemies that outnumbered them, enemies that included both Archers and Shield-bearers? Kasim’s party felt that they had been tested on these subjects one after another.

Of course, this had been the result of Vandalieu having given the Skeletons instructions, using the Lemures and Undead insects that he had left behind. He had used a countless number of winged insects and made them form letters to give orders to the Skeletons.

“I’ve heard that Undead tend to repeat the actions that they performed when they were alive. Perhaps those Skeletons were previously instructors for new adventurers?” Vandalieu suggested.

“I see,” said Kasim. He and his friends seemed satisfied with this explanation. It seemed that they now a.s.sumed that the gaze that Zeno felt was also that of one of the Skeletons.

The truth was that none of those Skeletons had been good people while they were alive, however.

“Come to think of it, what happened to that priest-san?” Vandalieu asked. “I haven’t seen him around.”

The priest of Alda’s peaceful faction who had left the village, saying that he was heading for the city of Niarki… or rather, the simple life-attribute mage and spy who was disguised as a priest, Froto. This man was nowhere to be seen in the village that was crowded with people for the harvest festival.

“We have no idea, either. It’s not just this Seventh Cultivation Village; it seems that the people of the other cultivation villages haven’t seen him, either,” said Kasim.

“I asked the people in the extermination force, and they said they didn’t know of any priests like that. How about you, Vandalieu? Didn’t you see him when you went to the city?” Fester asked.

“Fester, it’s awkward for me to approach the Church of Alda,” Vandalieu told him. “Unfortunately, I didn’t see him there.”

“I see… I hope nothing has happened to him.”

The three young adventurers looked worried.

Vandalieu nodded in agreement. “Me too. But I think he’s probably doing fine, though,” he said.

He still didn’t know that Froto had been a spy. Even the Lemures would have been noticed if they got too close no matter how transparent they were, at most, they could only watch people’s movements from afar.

The Fangs of Dark Nights in the city of Niarki had been eliminated by Edgar, one of the members of the Five-colored Blades, faster than Vandalieu had expected, leaving him with no way to gather further information.

As a result, Vandalieu was under the impression that Froto was an unusually virtuous clergyman despite being a believer of Alda.

“By the way, what are you going to do now?”

“Starting from tomorrow, I’m going to go around all of the cultivation villages and indulge myself in the harvest festivals,” said Vandalieu. “After that, I was thinking of going to the city to get some essentials and visit some distant relatives of my mother.”

“Distant relatives of your mother, do you mean –?!”

“No, my father was the Vampire among my parents.”

“Ah, is that right? No, I was sure that…”

If Eleanora had been present, there might have been a misunderstanding. Vandalieu knew that this bothered her quite a lot, so he was glad that he had come alone.

“Oi, the main event is starting soon,” said the oyaji from the jack-of-all-trades store, calling Vandalieu over. “The stone statue is going to be put in the shrine, so come over here!”

And so, that day’s conversation ended there.

Incidentally, the quality of the statue of Vandalieu created by the former stonemason Ivan was… questionable. As the entire thing was made of stone, it had failed to portray the color of his hair, skin and odd-colored eyes, so it was possible that n.o.body would know that it was a statue of Vandalieu unless they were told.

Skill explanation:

【Automatic Mana Recovery】,【Increased Mana Recovery Rate】

Those with the Automatic Mana Recovery skill recover Mana automatically no matter what they are doing... When they are resting, exercising or even in the middle of reciting the incantation for a spell.

The Increased Mana Recovery Rate skill is a skill that increases the rate at which Mana recovers while resting.

Their names are similar, but they are separate skills.

Automatic Mana Recovery restores a fixed percentage of the skill owner’s total Mana pool, while Increased Mana Recovery Rate reduces the amount of time required for Mana to recover regardless of the amount of Mana that needs to be recovered. Thus, those with large Mana pools often desire the Automatic Mana Recovery skill.

However, the Automatic Mana Recovery skill has the flaw of being difficult to acquire, and even after acquiring it, it requires training by expending all available Mana to increase the total Mana pool. In addition, the rate of natural Mana recovery is dependent on one’s health and mental condition, but many mages are aware that sleeping is a way of drastically increasing it, so they tend to be fixated on the environment in which they sleep and the number of hours they sleep.

The fact that well-known mages carry pillows for traveling is even detailed in their biographies.