The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

This is the regular release for Death Mage for this week; there should be a sponsored chapter coming on Sunday. Enjoy!

Yoshi

Munching on skewers of tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops meat, everyone other than Vandalieu drank the two-hundred-year-old Talosheim-made sake that had been found several days ago while Vandalieu drank dinosaur blood instead. He raised the dinosaurs that had been given to him as presents as Zombies to turn them into a moving dinosaur exhibition. And so his third birthday was enjoyable for everyone, even without a cake.

Vandalieu asked Darcia and the former adventurer Kachia, but it seemed that the cakes as Vandalieu knew them didn’t exist in Lambda yet. Though milk existed, there was no fresh cream, and though bread existed, there was no fluffy sponge cake.

Cakes in Lambda were apparently pieces of bread made of wheat flour with large quant.i.ties of b.u.t.ter, sugar, jam and honey spread over them.

If possible, Vandalieu wanted to make a cake with plenty of whipped cream for his next birthday for everyone to enjoy, but he was lacking the essential ingredients of wheat and milk.

Perhaps treasure chests and storage rooms in Dungeons could contain wheat seeds and milk?

The t.i.tans of Talosheim hadn’t domesticated animals like cattle and horses. They hunted monsters for meat, and as for labor strength, the t.i.tans themselves were stronger than farm horses and cattle.

The only things they domesticated were bird-like monsters called Gigas, which were apparently a replacement for chickens.

They were about as large as t.i.tan children... In other words, just a little smaller than the average human. Apparently they laid an egg every day. Incidentally, they were carnivores that possessed sharp beaks and talons. As Rank 2 monsters, they were not particularly strong, however.

『When I was alive, I used to put a raw Giga egg in my mug every morning and drink it up!』(Borkus)

Borkus laughed as he said this. Incidentally, the eggs were apparently of similar size to ostrich eggs.

The domesticated Gigas had either perished or run away during the war two hundred years ago, but apparently they still inhabited the Devil’s Nests and Dungeons now, so they decided to capture some and start breeding them again.

Fortunately, there were mountains of meat to use to feed them.

(Huh? What was I thinking about again? ... Oh yeah, cakes. Eggs are necessary to make cakes, and I also need –)

「Holy Son, what is the matter? You have been loitering in front of the door for some time now.」(Nuaza)

Vandalieu had been escaping from reality while standing outside the room used for the Job-changing ritual in the building that had once been the Adventurers’ Guild, but Nuaza’s voice brought him back to reality.

「Ah, no, I was just thinking a little about the future...」(Vandalieu)

「I see, that is a good thing. However, were you not intending to undergo the Job-changing process today?」(Nuaza)

「... I haven’t finished my mental preparations.」(Vandalieu)

There were no requirements for the Job-changing ritual.

If the Adventurers’ Guild was functioning correctly, he would normally pay a fee to the Guild to use the room. Afterwards, he would submit the Guild registration doc.u.ment... his Guild Card. But in these ruins, there was no need to pay or submit anything.

He simply needed to enter the room and place his hand on the crystal ball in the center of the magic circle inside.

And then he would choose from the list of jobs displayed inside his head.

And then it would be over.

He didn’t need to register himself on an employment website, apply for a Job, write a resume and attend an interview.

Well, that was to only natural, as this was quite a different kind of Job-change.

「... It was once explained to me that Jobs are engraved onto the soul, but there is no pain involved.」(Nuaza)

Wrongly a.s.suming that the cause of Vandalieu’s nervousness was a misunderstanding of the process, Nuaza smiled as he said this... It was probably a smile. It merely looked like the skin of his dried face was stretching, however.

However, Vandalieu couldn’t comment on the facial expressions of others. And even though he paced back and forth in front of the door, it did nothing but pa.s.s the time.

「... You’re right. Well then, here I go.」(Vandalieu)

And so he had Nuaza open the door and then entered the room.

The room had nothing inside other than a magic circle drawn on the floor of the room with a round crystal ball that had been set on a pedestal at its center. The crystal ball had a constant, faint glow, giving off a mysterious feeling.

「... Now then, will any Jobs appear for me?」(Vandalieu)

He gently floated into the air with【Flight】and reached out for the crystal ball. He wouldn’t have been able to reach the crystal ball otherwise, as it had been placed at a height appropriate for t.i.tans.

Come to think of it, the long-armed Vigaro and the taller women like Basdia would have been able to reach this crystal ball, but just how had Zadiris managed it? Perhaps she had used wind-attribute magic to fly.

Vandalieu touched the crystal ball with such meaningless thoughts running through his mind, and words appeared in his mind in the same way as when he opened his Status screen.

『Jobs that can be selected:【Death-Attribute Mage】,【Golem Trans.m.u.ter】』

「Uwah, they’re there!」(Vandalieu)

Vandalieu was so surprised that a Job-change would be possible for him that he accidentally undid his magic. He fell onto the floor.

He had thrown his head back reflexively, so the back of his head hit the floor with full force. His【Danger Sense: Death】gave him a warning.

Children’s skulls are fragile things.

「Holy Son, I heard something – Holy Son?! Are you alright?!」(Nuaza)

Vandalieu stayed on the floor while waiting to recover with his【Rapid Regeneration】skill and the no-attribute magic spell,【Enhanced Healing Power.】Nuaza, surprised to hear a noise, entered the room and gave a reaction as if he were the first one to discover the scene of a locked room mystery*. As he rushed towards Vandalieu, Vandalieu waved his hand to signal,「I’m fine, just leave me as I am.」

Since Vandalieu had hit his head, he didn’t want to be moved until he had recovered.

After overcoming various difficulties, Vandalieu had sworn yesterday on his third birthday that he would live on. Despite that, he almost met a foolish end by hitting the back of his head on the floor out of surprise. Having managed to avoid that, he touched the crystal ball once more.

『Jobs that can be selected:【Death-Attribute Mage】,【Golem Trans.m.u.ter】』

His potential jobs were really displayed there.

He had thought his chances of being able to undergo a Job-change to be slim because of his curse, but there were even two different Jobs that he could choose from. He would normally be happy about this, but...

「Is this some kind of trap?」(Vandalieu)

Resisting the inner urge to dance with joy, Vandalieu calmly considered the situation.

Rodcorte, who had cast the【Cannot learn existing Jobs】curse on Vandalieu, had wanted Vandalieu to fall into despair give up on his vengeance and commit suicide. Wasn’t it strange that it was possible for him to obtain a Job so easily?

「Now that I think about it, why am I even able to undergo a Job-change at all? The same thing goes for the curse that prevents me from obtaining Experience Points independently. If he wanted me to fall into despair, he should have just cursed me so that I can’t level up or undergo a Job-change.」(Vandalieu)

If Vandalieu had been prevented from leveling up and gaining a Job at all in the first place, there wouldn’t have been any loopholes. He would be like a monkey that couldn’t grow wings and fly no matter how hard he tried.

Could the fact that Rodcorte hadn’t done this be part of some kind of ingenious trap? Would he eventually be cornered if he picked one of these displayed Jobs now?

Perhaps they would offer pitiful bonuses for his Attribute Values and cause him to gain pa.s.sive skills that only served to hinder him.

Vandalieu didn’t know if they existed or not, but【Shortened Lifespan】or【Ill luck】would be bad pa.s.sive skills to have. Skills couldn’t be directly sealed away once learned in this world, so it would be a huge problem to gain such skills.

But then, would Rodcorte set such a roundabout trap?

Everything that this G.o.d had done so far was setting up the fundamentals in a sketchy way and then leaving everything else up to the people that he reincarnated. He was certainly not an all-knowing, omnipotent G.o.d.

It was normal in this world for people to possess levels and acquire Jobs. Looking it the other way, if something didn’t have levels or Jobs, it wasn’t a person.

Rodcorte had set things up so that the people he reincarnated, including Vandalieu, would reincarnate in Lambda after dying in Origin. It was likely that he was unable to make Vandalieu, who was already set to be reborn in Lambda, an exception to the rules that people possessed levels and Jobs.

Wasn’t this the reason why the curses that had been placed on Vandalieu were【Unable to gain Experience Points independently】and【Cannot learn existing Jobs?】Even a G.o.d couldn’t ignore a world’s rules, which was possibly why the curses had ended up like that with loopholes in them.

Also, Rodcorte didn’t exist in the world of Lambda himself. He did govern the circle of transmigration for reincarnating the dead, but his name didn’t appear anywhere in the myths of this world.

So it was possible that he could only look down at Lambda from a distance, and he might not even be particularly knowledgeable about the world.

「In other words, I’m able to make use of these large loopholes because Rodcorte is crude and ignorant, I guess?」(Vandalieu)

He felt suspicious and precautious when he remembered Rodcorte from time to time, but in the end, he arrived at the conclusion that G.o.ds weren’t all-powerful.

The next thing he thought was unusual was the fact that Jobs that weren’t particularly creative that n.o.body had acquired before had appeared for him even though he hadn’t done any training to obtain these Jobs, but after thinking for a while, he realized that it wasn’t unusual at all.

「My death-attribute magic is a type of magic that has never existed in Lambda before. Considering that, I guess it’s not strange for there to be Jobs that n.o.body has ever acquired before, either.」(Vandalieu)

The Job system had been created by the G.o.ds, but that didn’t mean that the G.o.ds had created every single Job themselves. It was a system that had existed for well over a hundred thousand years, after all.

For example, the aristocratic system hadn’t existed in the age of the G.o.ds, so Jobs such as【Knight】and【Holy Knight】also hadn’t existed.

In the future, if someone reincarnated from another world invented guns with gunpowder in this world, Jobs like【Musketeer】and【Gunman】would appear.

... Though Vandalieu had been surprised that the【Golem Trans.m.u.tation】skill had never been used in this world before. How were Golems created in this world, then?

Vandalieu puzzled over this as he wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about Golems in Lambda, but deciding to find that out later, he turned his attention to other things.

「So the problem is, which do I choose, but...」(Vandalieu)

【Death-Attribute Mage】and【Golem Trans.m.u.ter.】Neither of them had “apprentice” at the start of their names, so they should both be fairly difficult Jobs to level up. The bonuses that Vandalieu would obtain from them would probably be large to compensate for that, but it would likely take him between several months to a year before he could undergo the next Job change.

He could a.s.sume that the【Death-Attribute Mage】Job, as its name suggested, would put an emphasis on the use of death-attribute magic. Jobs with names that consisted of “Attribute + Mage” existed for other attributes as well.

The mage jobs of other attributes provide large Attribute Value bonuses to Mana and Intelligence, but the bonuses to other things are small. Most notably, they provide almost no bonus to Strength. As for skill bonuses, they provide a large bonus to the attribute of magic in the Job’s name, a moderate bonus to magic-related skills such as【Mana Control】and a small bonus to magic of the other attributes. On the other hand, they make it more difficult to acquire martial-type skills.

a.s.suming the【Death-Attribute Mage】followed the same pattern, this Job would be the correct choice as it would increase Vandalieu’s skill with the death-attribute magic that he had been using up until now. However, it would make it take longer to acquire non-magic skills.

The【Golem Trans.m.u.ter】Job had no a.n.a.logous Jobs, so nothing was known about it. It would likely provide a bonus to the【Golem Trans.m.u.tation】skill. Vandalieu didn’t know what bonuses it would provide to his Attribute Values. He did think that it would provide a bonus to his Intelligence, however.

The【Golem Trans.m.u.tation】skill was a convenient skill that he had used well up until now. He wouldn’t stop using this skill ten years or even a hundred years from now.

「... I’ll choose【Death-Attribute Mage.】」(Vandalieu)

After considering his options, Vandalieu chose【Death-Attribute Mage.】

His goal right now was to defeat the Dragon Golem beneath the royal castle and obtain the resurrection device. That was why he chose to prioritize improving his death-attribute magic, which would be more directly useful in battle.

He would soon obtain the【Alchemy】skill, and since the【Golem Trans.m.u.tation】skill was something that originated from death-attribute magic in the first place, it was possible that the【Death-Attribute Mage】would provide a bonus to it anyway.

As he selected his Job, the words【Golem Trans.m.u.ter】disappeared from inside his head, and the words【Death-Attribute Mage】grew larger.

And then he felt the sensation of something growing hot deep inside his chest.

「This is... more amazing than I thought it would be.」(Vandalieu)

There was so much power filling up his whole body that Vandalieu couldn’t help but to let out his voice. In particular, his head had become wonderfully clear, as if his brain cells had undergone a software version upgrade.

【The levels of the Death-Attribute Magic skill, the No-Attribute Magic skill, the Chant Revocation skill, the Mana Control skill and the Spirit Form skill have increased!】

【You have acquired the Alchemy skill and the Automatic Mana Recovery skill!】

And thanks to the announcements in his head, he realized that he many of his skills had leveled up and he had gained some new ones.

In a single moment, the【Death-Attribute Magic】skill that hadn’t increased past level three despite being used thoroughly as well the skills that had stayed at level 1 for a long time had increased , and he had even learned the Alchemy skill that he had been training for almost a year now.

「The skill bonuses that a Job provides are amazing.」(Vandalieu)

Vandalieu experienced the reason why the Ghouls had been in a daze after undergoing their Job-change.

He opened his【Status】to check his Attributes and skills to see…

「Ooh... my Attribute Values increased by more than I thought they would, and my new skills are there.」(Vandalieu)

He had heard that mage-type Jobs didn’t provide much of a bonus to Vitality and Strength, but they had increased by about ten percent. Even if he took into account that some of it might be related to his race and that his body was still developing, it was still a considerable amount.

Notably, his Intelligence had reached three digits. No wonder his head felt clearer.

And though this was bonus had little impact as Vandalieu’s Mana pool was over 100,000,000 to begin with, it had increased by another ten million. Job-changes were amazing, providing ten million Mana just by acquiring the Job!

... The bonuses to Attribute Values were probably calculated as a percentage of the original values. In the case of Vandalieu’s Mana, it had increased by around ten percent.

His skills had increased as well, and he could even feel it in the【Flight】that he was using now. Up until now, he had always had the option of floating lightly like a jellyfish or forcibly using his Mana to fly at a high speed, but now he felt as if he could fly more efficiently.

The increase to the level of his【Mana Control】skill probably had something to do with this.

He wanted to skip with joy, but he apparently looked insane when he tried to skip and he wanted to avoid being forced to rest some more.

And so Vandalieu quietly lowered himself to the floor and left the room just as quietly.

Now then, the next thing to do was level up!

With that said, because of Vandalieu’s【Cannot gain experience independently】curse, his level wouldn’t increase no matter how many monsters he defeated.

Therefore, he would have to visit Devil’s Nests and Dungeons with his Undead subordinates. He hadn’t created any new Undead companions since he started living with Zadiris and the other Ghouls, so he wondered if he would be alright with the same members as before, but there was an unexpected rush of people wanting to accompany him.

『It’s your first time visiting the Devil’s Nests and Dungeons around here, right? Then it’d be best if a veteran like me guides your way. The A-cla.s.s adventurer, the【Sword King】Borkus, will teach you the structures of the Dungeons and the most efficient way to earn Experience Points, so just follow me!』(Borkus)

『What are you saying, Master?  If you do that, you’ll end up killing the ones that the Holy Son’s supposed to kill as well. Holy Son, if it’s monster-hunting you’re after, leave it to me, the Scout Zran!』(Zran)

『No, no, what he truly needs is a Healer. The Holy Son can heal his Undead, but the only magic he has to heal himself is no-attribute magic. Though I am still inexperienced, please leave this to me, Nuaza, as I am able to use life-attribute magic.』(Nuaza)

As if trying to make the best first impressions possible, the Undead t.i.tans appealed to Vandalieu one by one, trying to convince him to let them accompany him. The number of applicants was... all of them.

「Now that I think about it, you’ve never come on a hunt together with me, Van. How about taking this opportunity? I can teach you unarmed combat techniques, too.」(Basdia)

「No, it should be me doing that, since I’m the one who’s teaching Saria and Rita, right?」(Vigaro)

「Hey, aren’t you interested in how adventurers fight? If you’re happy with me, I can teach you.」(Kachia)

「Ah, then me too.」(Ghoul)

「Well then, me as well.」(Ghoul)

And so the Ghouls came to convince him as well...

「I wanna go too!」(Braga)

「Me too, me too!」(Zendo)

「I also want to go.」(Memediga)

「Fugofugoh.」(Gorba)

Even Braga, Zendo, Memediga, Gorba and the other monster children raised their hands. Would the fetus inside the Live-Dead raise its hand as well? Vandalieu was so popular that he almost started fantasizing that this would happen.

It was only June, but their enthusiasm was like the middle of summer*.

Was this a moteki*? Was it really a moteki?

「You children can come later. After you become ad... after you gain more skills.」(Vandalieu)

If Vandalieu were to carelessly say,「After you become adults」, they would definitely reply,「But you’re still a child, King!」so he quickly corrected himself. In fact, the Black Goblin Braga was already bigger than Vandalieu.

『Oka~ay.』(Children)

The children were surprisingly obedient. Even though their bodies were larger than Vandalieu’s, his Attribute Values were still higher, and they hadn’t finished learning their skills.

However, what other criteria would he need to use to choose who would accompany him? Both the Undead t.i.tans and the Ghouls were far more experienced in combat than Vandalieu. They could fight much better than he could, as he just used his Mana to brute-force his way through battles.

This had been fine up until now, but he would need to learn an effective way to fight and coordinate with his allies in order to defeat that Dragon Golem.

And any of the Ghouls and t.i.tans could become his teachers.

Of course, they had plenty of fighting strength. Vandalieu was planning to clear a D-cla.s.s Dungeon first, so bringing Borkus or Vigaro would be overkill. Vigaro would be of the same or higher Rank as the Dungeon’s boss. As for Borkus, any monster in a D-cla.s.s Dungeon would be small fry for him, including the boss.

「Right, let’s decide this with Reversi.」(Vigaro)

『Bring the boards and pieces!』(Borkus)

「No, wait a moment. With this many people, it would take days to make a decision with Reversi.」(Vandalieu)

While Vandalieu was contemplating, it seemed that everyone else wanted to settle things with a Reversi tournament. Now that things had come down to this, perhaps it would be best for him to use【Golem Trans.m.u.tation】to make a lottery system.

「Boy!」(Zadiris)

As this thought occurred to Vandalieu, Zadiris suddenly ran up to him. Was she hoping to accompany him as well?

「Bilde has gone into labor!」(Zadiris)

So he thought, but it was an urgent report.

「How is she?」(Vandalieu)

Bilde had become pregnant in September last year. Now it was late June. It was a little short of the normal duration of pregnancy, but it wasn’t a fatally premature birth.

Vandalieu had been periodically monitoring the condition of the unborn babies using【Spirit Body Transformation】in place of ultrasound scans, so there shouldn’t have been any problematic diseases like in medical dramas, so he was calm.

He was calm, but Bilde was finally giving birth after Vandalieu had dealt with the Ghouls’ low fertility and used magic to prevent miscarriages. There was no way that he could be uninterested by this.

「There should be no problem. Well, this is her first childbirth, so this could take some time. Well then, let us go.」(Zadiris)

「... I’m sorry?」

However, he hadn’t expected that he would be dragged along to the event. Zadiris suddenly picked him up and took him with her. As to be expected of the Ghoul chief possessing the【Superhuman Strength】skill, even though she looked like she was in her mid-teenage years.

『Ah, but we haven’t come to a decision yet!』(Borkus)

「Well, I guess it can’t be helped with these circ.u.mstances.」(Vigaro)

And so everyone watched Vandalieu leave... What was it that couldn’t be helped?

『Bocchan, if a man shows weakness at a time like this, you will be dominated*, so I humbly suggest that you take a firm att.i.tude.』(Sam)

「Sam, why would Bilde dominate* me?」(Vandalieu)

Vandalieu and Bilde weren’t married, nor was the child in her belly related to him.

『Bocchan, do your best!』(Rita)

「No, the one giving birth is Bilde, not me.」(Vandalieu)

Both Sam and Rita seemed to be seeing Vandalieu off. Saria was waving her hand.

「Umm, what position are you calling me to take?」(Vandalieu)

Since there were no problems with Bilde’s health, there shouldn’t have been a need for Vandalieu to be there, since he didn’t have any specialist knowledge in regards to maternity and gynecology, nor was he a midwife.

「Hmm, if there is a sudden emergency, I want you to help. Also, Bilde said she wants you to hold her hand.」(Zadiris)

... The position of doctor and husband?

「I understand.」(Vandalieu)

Ghouls didn’t have the concept of marriage, so Vandalieu would just think of it as Bilde relying on and trusting in him. And he was the Ghoul King, after all.

Vandalieu was content with that.

Well, this was an adventure in itself as well. Childbirth was life-threatening even on Earth, where medical science was more advanced.

... This wouldn’t earn him any Experience Points, however.