The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time The Death Mage That Doesn't Want A Fourth Time 119

A lone young man stood on the dry ground, completely still, holding a spear. There was n.o.body in his surroundings, and he was isolated from the outside world by fifty-meter-tall walls in all directions.

This place was just like an arena.

I’ve committed countless crimes, apparently.

The young man recalled his somewhat hazy memories. At first, he’d simply wanted to eat until his stomach was satisfied. For that reason, he had headed for the Adventurers’ Guild with a spear in his hand.

He gained knowledge as an adventurer while cleaning the town and carrying luggage for his adventurer senpais. He learned the basics of using a spear from one of the kind adventurer senpais.

When he accepted his first extermination request, the weapon in his hand was a cheap, worn-out spear pa.s.sed onto him by that adventurer senpai.

Though this wasn’t an unusual story for an adventurer, the first person he killed was a bandit. This occurred during the extermination request that he had accepted as his D-cla.s.s promotion examination.

He remained calm up to the point he thrust his spear into a gap in the bandit’s tattered leather armor, ending his life. But before he knew it, he was crouched over the ground, throwing up.

He and the other adventurers who were taking the examination with him comforted each other, and they decided to form a party.

He had the feeling that time had gone by quickly after that.

He was certain that he’d struggled with requests to exterminate Orcs and Lizardmen, but before he’d known it, he’d been exterminating Wyverns and Ghoul Barbarians, and even become able to slay a Goblin King.

His spear was replaced by a Magic Item at some point, and that one was replaced by one with a Mythril tip.

He became an A-cla.s.s adventurer, slaying higher-Rank Dragons, Vampires, the chief of a Centaur tribe who called themselves a resistance and laid waste to the nation, and a Lamia Queen who had been wors.h.i.+pping an evil G.o.d in the depths of a Devil’s Nest.

Perhaps it was around then that he took up the Legendary-cla.s.s Artifact, Ice Age, and became known by the t.i.tle, ‘Divine Spear of Ice.’

Back then, had I stopped being an adventurer? I get the feeling that carrying out justice as a disciple of Alda, the G.o.d of law and fate, and Yupeon, the G.o.d of ice, had become my objective.

And then he partic.i.p.ated in the fierce battle between his homeland, the Mirg s.h.i.+eld-nation, and Talosheim. He defeated the t.i.tans standing in his way, one after another. He severed their arms, and when they had no arms left, he thrust his spear into their necks. Whether those standing before him were boys that were no more than children, the wrinkled elderly or women, he slew them indiscriminately.

And then he parted ways with his companions and barged into the royal castle, and while he was searching for the underground area where the evil magical apparatus created by the deranged G.o.ddess Vida had been sealed…

“Yo, it’s been a while,” said a deep voice that sounded like boulders being mashed together, bringing the young man… Mikhail, back to reality.

In his field of vision, there was a t.i.tan whose face he had no memory of. It was a particularly large t.i.tan man, and half of his face was comprised only of bone.

It’s been a while? Who is this?

Mikhail couldn’t remember. Since the t.i.tan had said, “It’s been a while,” they had likely met before. Mikhail was probably the one who had killed him.

But he couldn’t remember.

However, Mikhail’s body began moving to fulfil the role that it had been given, leaving his consciousness behind.

“Please prepare yourself. The training will begin,” Mikhail said.

A st.u.r.dy Obsidian spear and a st.u.r.dy suit of Obsidian armor. The armor had been directly attached to Mikhail’s body and fastened with rivets, replacing his skin.

Compared to the equipment he had worn while alive, it was much more difficult to move in, and it was also less st.u.r.dy. The only thing this equipment surpa.s.sed his old equipment in was the weight.

This was the equipment that Vandalieu had given Mikhail, thinking that this was more than enough equipment for a practice dummy.

“Has it been more than a month since you were put here? During that time, I’ve spent quite some time telling the kid what I think. Though I don’t think any, I went on and on about a warrior’s pride, and about how showing contempt for my enemy like this would only cast doubts on my tolerance. Troublesome, tedious things that were quite unlike me to say,” the man said as he released an enormous black sword from its sheath.

Though both weapons were black, Mikhail knew that this sword was on a completely different level from the spear that he was holding.

It is made of a fragment of the Demon King, just like the pieces of flesh that are embedded in my body.

Vandalieu had buried numerous fingertip-sized pieces of the Demon King’s carapace inside Mikhail’s body.

While Mikhail was alive, he had been a devout believer of Alda and wielded an Artifact that contained Yupeon’s spirit clone. The pieces of the Demon King’s carapace were there to explode inside and destroy Mikhail’s soul in the event these G.o.ds tried something or something caused Mikhail to regain his sanity.

Vandalieu had taken the effort to tear up Mikhail’s flesh, turn him into an Undead and fill him with the carapace.

I suppose the fact that this man is holding a weapon made of that fragment means that he is trusted by that person.

Mikhail’s mind was filled with feelings of envy towards the man and despair at the fact that he wasn’t the one standing where the man was standing.

But it seemed that the man’s mind was filled with something else.

“Most of the people of the city have been revived; they’re enjoying themselves, drinking, eating fish with mayonnaise on it, playing shogi and Reversi. That Nuaza kid is happily making stone statues. I was able to meet my orphaned child, Gopher, and my grandchildren, too. Levia-sama, and more recently, Jeena and Zandia-jouchan have come back as well,” the man said, thrusting his enormous sword into the ground. And then he took up an Obsidian training sword instead.

It was about the same size as the other sword, but it was nothing more than a bladeless, st.u.r.dy lump of metal in the shape of a sword.

But the hatred being released by the man was real.

“You’re pitiful compared to them,” the man growled. “You truly have nothing ahead of you. Even my feelings of hatred for you would disappear… that’s what I mistakenly thought!”

Being completely bathed in the man’s anger, something pulled at Mikhail’s memory.

Jeena. And Zandia… These are names that I’ve heard numerous times. Ah, that’s right…

They were the ones taken by the Vampires after death, just like Mikhail had been. The memory was faint, but he remembered it. The t.i.tan woman and girl whose resolves had remained steadfast despite their anger and sorrow over the defeat of their companions.

Then this man is the one I defeated first back then –

“If I hadn’t been killed by you, I’d never have met the kid and the others! But because you guys attacked us, everyone suffered for two hundred years! It’s my fault for being defeated! It’s our fault! I’m not going to deny that! That’s why… I’m only going to knock you down once!”

With a beast-like roar, the man… Borkus, charged forward.

He’s fast?!

“The training will begin,” Mikhail declared to Borkus in a mechanical voice as he broke into a run, unable to express his discomposure.

The speed and fluidity of his movement was astonis.h.i.+ng for a Zombie.

But Borkus’s movement was faster, and he possessed vigor and power.

Mikhail deflected the first blow with his spear, and as he tried to unleash a counterattack, the sword that he had deflected returned to repel his spear in return.

So, he has become far stronger than back then?

Both weapons were mere training weapons, with their st.u.r.diness being their only notable quality. No Magic Items or martial skills were used. And so, Borkus and Mikhail’s strength competed against each other.

Borkus, who had grown stronger than when he was alive, and Mikhail, who had grown weaker than when he was alive.

And most importantly, their mental conditions were different.

Gradually, Mikhail’s spear became unable to deal with Borkus’s attacks, and the openings for Mikhail to attack disappeared. The sword started grazing him, and Mikhail’s armor and ears were pulled and torn into pieces.

After the hundredth blow, Mikhail’s spear shattered, and Mikhail himself flew through the air like a broken mannequin and crashed uselessly into the ground.

Spectacular. If martial skills were used and it turned into a good, real battle, it would have been settled more quickly, Mikhail thought as he gazed helplessly at the sky, not a single unbroken bone left in his body. What would his Rank be now? I am Rank 10, so he must be greater than that.

Mikhail wanted to see Borkus one more time, but he heard a voice saying, “Tch, I’m out.” It seemed that this wish wouldn’t be granted.

Mikhail’s consciousness vanished.

And then he suddenly awoke.

My restoration is complete.

After having been completely destroyed, Mikhail’s corpse returned to normal and was revived as a Zombie as it had done countless times before.

Vandalieu had adjusted Mikhail to be an Undead for training use. When he was destroyed, the Magic Item installed in the training grounds would drag his spirit back and automatically revive him as a Zombie.

The wounds in his flesh and the deformations in his armor was repaired and he returned to normal.

And then he would be used for training until he broke again.

This was the most effective way to make use of Mikhail that Vandalieu had been able to think of.

Vandalieu had no intention of letting Mikhail, a sworn enemy of Talosheim, join his allies, and couldn’t do so even if he wanted to.

However, although Mikhail was unable to display his true ability due to Gubamon’s adjustments, he was Rank 10, so he was valuable.

Thus, he would be used for training and as a source of Experience Points. He would likely become unusable after several dozen or several hundred uses, but if his soul was destroyed once this happened, no miracle would allow him to be sent to Alda.

I was simply born in a nation that treated the persecution of Vida’s races as justice, believed in a G.o.d who treated it as justice, lived as an adventurer in that nation and fought as a hero. It’s just that this is a sin in the eyes of that person.

This was only natural since Vandalieu, the one Mikhail called “that person,” was the ‘Holy Son of Vida.’

Mikhail would not even be given an opportunity to atone.

Then I shall at least fulfil my role as a training dummy until the end. If my wish of fighting for that person cannot be granted, then I shall become nourishment for those who fight for him. Either way, I am already unable to do anything else.

Borkus had already left the training grounds; only the mark in the ground where he had thrust his sword into it remained.

However, the next person would come for training soon. Mikhail would fight that person, and if he won, the match would end there, and if he lost and was destroyed, he would enter a momentary slumber.

That process would repeat itself over and over. Until the moment his soul was broken.

There was a low groan.

The next opponent had come. Mikhail raised his spear.

“Please prepare yourself. The training will begin.”

Mikhail felt a sense of déjà vu at the sight of this grotesque female Zombie that he had never seen before.

“Be… gin!”

Before Mikhail could figure out the ident.i.ty of the female Zombie… Rapiéçage, the Patchwork Zombie made by sewing together Mikhail’s former companions, curled her enormous fists and charged towards him.

Iris Bearheart, the leader of the resistance organization known as the Sauron Liberation Front, made a declaration to her companions who had gathered before her.

“The detached force led by Debis should be headed for the distant third base about now. The other units are retreating, too. In other words, we cannot expect reinforcements. We will be making an isolated struggle here with this mountainous area as our camping grounds.”

This was bad news, but her companions waited for her next words without showing any signs of agitation.

“According to our spies that have infiltrated the enemy army, the extermination force that has been dispatched outnumber us five to one. Right now, they are likely split into three directions and are closing in on us while destroying any path we could possibly take to escape.”

The situation was not just bad; it was downright hopeless. Iris’s companions… the former fake resistance members, Haj and his group, showed unrest for the first time.

“No way… in other words, they’ve fallen into our trap!”

“So many prey, it’s just like training in the Dungeons!”

“… It’s our first time fighting people isn’t it? I wonder how it will feel. Ufufu.”

Iris looked at Haj and the others, who simply looked like a group of evil berserkers, and gave a bitter smile as she reminded them of something. “I’m happy you’re so full of fighting spirit, but don’t kill the ones who have surrendered,” she said. “I want information, after all.”

“But Leader, if they’re too weak –” a man began.

“I’ve said before that those who disobey orders will have their pay reduced,” Iris said firmly.

The man hastily fell silent. It seemed that even the berserkers preferred the scent of spices, which was more fragrant than that of blood.

“Liberating Princess Knight of the Sauron Liberation Front! We have you surrounded! Make an honorable surrender! If you yield, I will guarantee your safety!”

The order to surrender from the extermination force, who had apparently completed their encirclement, echoed out. The voice was likely being amplified by wind-attribute magic or a Magic Item.

Iris and her companions couldn’t hold back their laughter.

“They say they guarantee our safety. What do you think?”

“Let’s see… I suppose we’ll all be gathered in one place and hanged together?”

“After they question and torture Leader and then have her raped by the soldiers for days, they’ll drag her around the town and execute her publicly, won’t they?”

“No, isn’t this the pattern of events where they treat you like a plaything but let you live?”

“Don’t be foolish. There’s no way they’ll be that soft. That might happen if she were the princess of a nation or the wife or daughter of an important n.o.ble family, but Leader isn’t anything like that.”

“You’re right. I agree,” said Iris, the corners of her mouth rising as she considered the pessimistic predictions of Haj and his group. “Well then, we will commence battle as planned.”

Haj and his group immediately scattered and ran into position. Iris drew her beloved sword and began running as well.

“I am leaving, Father.”

“… Iiiris…”

The extermination force had no doubt that they would be victorious.

The Sauron Liberation Front had absorbed the resistance members left behind by Raymond Paris, the deceased leader of the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army, and they had been more active in conducting anti-government movements.

However, the core members of the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army had all previously been exterminated by Mardock, the leader of the resistance extermination force. All of the former knights had been annihilated, and only those with poor fighting abilities had joined the Sauron Liberation Front.

And thanks to the reformed extermination force, the Liberating Princess Knight was now isolated and helpless, along with only a few troops. They were outnumbered five to one; she was like a cornered rat.

“But sometimes, the rat bites the cat. Don’t let your guard down,” the knight in command warned his subordinates, but soon reconsidered, thinking that this was an overestimation of their enemy.

This was because the resistance members had come out towards his subordinates who were encircling them. Their movements were strangely quick despite them being completely clad in metal armor, but what was there to fear about heavy infantrymen who were coming to attack of their own will, one by one?

“Commander, it seems that they have become desperate,” said the commander’s aide.

The commander internally agreed with the aide’s words, but he gave orders in a strict voice so that his subordinates wouldn’t lose their focus. “Don’t let your guard down! This might be a ploy to use themselves as bait for the Princess Knight to escape! s.h.i.+eld-bearers at the front, slow the enemy down! Archers and mages, finish them off!”

This extermination force that had been reformed by the empire’s army possessed a high level of training and quality equipment. The s.h.i.+eld-bearers carried out their orders and thrust their s.h.i.+elds out towards the resistance members, Haj and his group, as they closed in.

“Stone Wall! Stone Form! Provocation!”

They activated three consecutive martial skills of s.h.i.+eld Technique and Armor Technique. Their defensive power grew two-fold, and forcibly drew their enemies’ attention towards them.

Behind them, the archers were aiming at the gaps in their targets’ armor, and the mages were reciting incantations.

Within the next ten seconds, the resistance members that were letting out rousing war cries would be falling, one by one.

“Let’s go, Partner! Precipice!” shouted one of the resistance members.

“UOOOOOOOH!” the rest of them roared.

That expectation was shattered when a s.h.i.+eld-bearer received a single halberd attack from one of the resistance members.

“I-it’s heavy! GUAAAH!”

The s.h.i.+eld-bearer’s s.h.i.+eld was split and his armor couldn’t withstand the attack; he fell back with blood spurting from his arm.

Without a moment’s delay, one of the troops behind him stepped forward to take his place and fill the gap. But the new soldier’s head was filled with astonishment.

Impossible! If a martial skill of the same quality is used by two people with the same skill level, the defensive one is supposed to come out ahead!

This was common knowledge. Of course, things were different if the quality of equipment differed, but something like this couldn’t happen unless that difference was very great.

And from this soldier’s point of view, the skill of the resistance member wasn’t bad, but the halberd of his prey didn’t look like a product of a quality that was clearly superior to the weapons he and his companions were armed with.

“Together, Partner! Triple Charge!” the resistance member shouted.

In reality, the tip of the halberd pierced the soldier’s arm right through his immediately-raised s.h.i.+eld, and he was covered in his own blood. And though he knew that he shouldn’t let go of his s.h.i.+eld, his s.h.i.+eld fell out of his hand and the halberd was thrust once more through the now-empty s.p.a.ce.

Who is the one he’s calling ‘Partner?’ wondered the soldier as he gazed at the lone resistance member, the halberd’s tip embedded in his throat, and then he died.

Similar events were occurring all over the battlefield at the same time.

“S-switch to attacking! Archers, mages, attack in order!” shouted the commander, hastily changing the plan to attacking after realizing that the resistance members’ offensive power far surpa.s.sed his troops’ defense.

And the troops of the extermination force quickly obeyed these orders, setting aside their discomposure at seeing their companions defeated, showing that they were exceptional individuals who deserved to be known as the elite.

However, the resistance members took no notice of this.

They knocked down the knights attacking them with the exchange of just a few blows before driving in lethal attacks. Even though the archers and mages were finding openings to fire arrows and spells, they showed no signs of having taken any damage at all.

“Hah! They’re nothing special!” Haj shouted.

“Behind you,” said a voice echoing inside his helmet.

Reflexively obeying the voice, Haj thrust the handle of his halberd out behind him, causing the light infantryman who had been trying to attack him from behind hastily jump out of the way.

“You saved me, Partner.”

“Thank me after you’ve finished killing them.”

The partners of Haj and the other resistance members were the suits of armor that they were wearing… the Living Armors.

Datara and his team of blacksmiths had forged suits of Dark Copper armor and Vandalieu had used Golem Trans.m.u.tation to plate them with iron, disguising them as suits of iron armor. He’d then had spirits possess them to create Living Armors, and Haj and his group were now wearing them.

This not only provided Haj and the others with improved defense, but by coordinating their movements with those of the Living Armors, who possessed the Superhuman Strength skill, they could exert strength far beyond their own physical capabilities.

And while they were fighting, the Living Armors were watching their surroundings. Haj and the others had no blind spots.

They had undergone the same training as the ordinary citizens of Talosheim, but both they and their Living Armors had acquired the Coordination skill. Due to this skill’s effect, they were able to exhibit 120% of their ordinary strength.

“Commander, at this rate…!” the commander’s aide muttered.

“Don’t panic! Rebuild our formations properly! The enemy has no mages; join the unit together… is that the Princess Knight?!”

As the commander shouted at his aide, he suddenly saw Iris, who was cutting her way towards him.

He was astonished that the Princess Knight would personally expose herself on the frontlines, but what had caught his attention were her movements. She was avoiding the swords and arrows of the extermination force with defensive movements that looked like a dance, but the ground behind her was littered with fallen troops who’d been stabbed and slashed through the gaps in their armor.

The commander had seen these movements before. “This is Lord Bearheart’s… could it be, the Princess Knight is his daughter!”

The feared knight who had once defeated numerous soldiers and knights in a battle between the Amid Empire and the Sauron Duchy, George Bearheart. Iris’s movements resembled his.

“Flying Charge!”

A knight was holding up an enormous s.h.i.+eld in defense, but the thrust of Iris’s Swordsmans.h.i.+p martial skill found a tiny gap in his defense and her blade buried itself deep in his helmet.

And then she cut through the large opening left by the knight, deflected the sword of the astonished, wide-eyed commander and slashed the artery in his armpit.

“GUAAAAH!”

“Spreading your soldiers so thin to surround us was a mistake,” Iris murmured. “Your commander has fallen! We will now be fighting to exterminate you all! If you want to live, throw your weapons away!” she declared, stepping on the arm of the commander who had fallen onto the ground in shock.

The commander’s aide reflexively swung his sword at her, but he was cut down in a single strike.

Having lost their commander and vice-commander, the troops of extermination force lost their will to fight and threw their weapons aside one by one.

“Well done… Iris…”

“Yes. It’s all because of you, Father,” Iris whispered to her father who resided in her narrow sword that glowed with a sinister light as she sheathed it.

Iris Bearheart who wielded a sword that had become a cursed weapon, having acquired the Cursed Spirit Swordsman Job, leading Haj and the others who had become the first people in Lambda to acquire the Armor Tamer Job.

Their activities caused the Amid Empire’s army occupying the Sauron Duchy to tremble.

Around the same time, Vandalieu was training in the s.h.i.+eld Technique and Armor Technique skills.

He was training hard with a s.h.i.+eld that Tarea had made by combining the Demon King’s carapace and the Demon King’s horns, large enough to cover the majority of his body, and the liquid Dark Copper armor that he used when he fought Bellmond the first time.

“… It’s very plain, isn’t it.”

Vandalieu had gone through other types of training without complaining, but this training was so dull that he whispered this complaint.

First, he was simply walking, running, flying, crawling (moving forward by crawling), over and over, while fully equipped.

“It can’t be helped, can it? You’re training in the techniques of using a s.h.i.+eld and armor,” said Kasim with a bitter smile. He was a former adventurer of a cultivation village in the Hartner Duchy, and he had come to act as Vandalieu’s instructor.

“That’s right. Weapon skills like Swordsmans.h.i.+p and Spear Technique can be learned by practicing attacks, but that doesn’t work for s.h.i.+elds and armor, so it can’t be helped,” added Eleanora, the red-haired Vampire woman who called herself Vandalieu’s servant.

Attack and defense. It didn’t need much thought to know which was more important. However, when it came to learning the skills, attack skills were far more popular.

A lack in defense could be compensated for to some extent by wearing armor, but the problem was that a lack in offensive power couldn’t be compensated for just by holding weapons… which was why training with weapons, where training involved flashy movements, drew more attention from new adventurers.

“I preferred training my Swordsmans.h.i.+p skill as well, so I know how you feel,” said Kachia as she recalled the times when she was still a human. She was a former adventurer, now a Ghoul Magic Warrior.

Basdia, a Ghoul Amazoness Leader, nodded. “s.h.i.+eld Technique and Armor Technique are dangerous if you don’t practice moving while wearing defensive equipment first. If you’re not used to it, you’ll lose your balance and fall over in the middle of training. I only use s.h.i.+eld Technique, but at first, I fell over because of my s.h.i.+eld so many times, and the hardest times were when I hit my head against my s.h.i.+eld,” she said, holding up her beloved, long, narrow s.h.i.+eld that was in the shape of an enormous mask. This unusually-shaped s.h.i.+eld did indeed seem difficult to handle.

As Kachia said, one of the reasons s.h.i.+eld Technique and Armor Technique weren’t popular among new adventurers was because of how plain and also how painful it was.

Even for the people of Lambda, who could increase their physical capabilities more easily than the people of Earth and Origin, exercising the whole body while equipped with heavy armor and s.h.i.+elds was difficult at first.

Muscular strength and stamina was necessary for acquiring weapon skills as well, but it seemed that when the training consisted of just moving the body, the mental sense of satisfaction was different.

“And Vandalieu-sama, you sometimes forget that you’re holding a s.h.i.+eld and try to run on all fours, and when you lose your balance, you extend your tongue towards the ground. That’s fine to do after learning the skill, but if you do that before learning them, you’ll never gain them,” said Eleanora.

“You’re not allowed to use Flight to fly today, either, Van,” said Basdia.

“Or Out-of-body Experience!” Kachia added.

Up until now, Vandalieu’s defense had generally relied on his exceptional physical capabilities for evading, his death-attribute magic barriers and the monsters that had powerful defense, like Pete.

It seemed that this fact had become an obstacle in learning the s.h.i.+eld Technique and Armor Technique skills.

“Well, we’re going to do quick monster-style training either way, so you just need to get a feeling for it. Now then, let’s start sparring,” said Kasim as he stepped forward, resting a mace on his shoulder.

The adventurer way to train defense was to endure repeated attacks from an instructor wielding a wooden weapon, a method that required perseverance.

However, the monster method was to start off with gaining experience in real battles while using armor and a s.h.i.+eld. This method took less time, but cut the survival rate of the trainees in half.

“I’m relying on you,” said Vandalieu.

For those who already possessed high Attribute Values like Vandalieu, the monster-style method would be best for learning to fight real battles while wearing Legendary-cla.s.s armor.

“Vandalieu-sama, you can’t use magic even if you get scared!” said Eleanora.

“Do your best, Van!” Basdia shouted.

“Even if you get hit, it probably won’t hurt, so it’ll be fine!” said Kachia.

Vandalieu was forbidden from using magic, as it wouldn’t help him train in s.h.i.+eld Technique and Armor Technique. Thus, he had to block Kasim’s attacks using the s.h.i.+eld and armor that he wasn’t accustomed to using.

“You don’t have to worry so much,” said Kasim. “Just like Kachia-san said, even if I accidentally hit him with a martial skill, it wouldn’t even scratch him.”

“… You’re not going to use martial skills, are you?” Vandalieu asked.

“… Vandalieu. The truth is, I still don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Could you please explain why you’re confessing that to me now –”

“HERE I COOOOME!”

Without giving Vandalieu a chance to respond, Kasim raised his mace and tried to strike at Vandalieu.

Of course, Kasim had no intention of taking out his anger on Vandalieu who was receiving the attention of a beautiful, gray-brown-skinned Ghoul with red patterns on her nice body, another Ghoul woman who was a swordsman and a beautiful, red-haired Vampire. It was an act that Kasim was carrying out because he thought that giving Vandalieu a little sense of danger would make the training more effective.

The truth was that Kasim’s movements weren’t that fast in Vandalieu’s eyes. Kasim looked impressive as he charged forward in his full suit of armor, but it wasn’t enough to produce a reaction from Danger Sense: Death.

Thus, Vandalieu calmly raised his s.h.i.+eld and stopped Kasim’s attack.

“Oh?” he said in surprise.

And then he was mowed down and sent flying.

Job explanation: Armor Tamer

A Tamer Job specialized in taming Living Armors. The prerequisite for the Job is that the tamed Living Armor equips itself and acts together with the wearer.

This is one of the inferior versions of the Undead Tamer Job.

Those with this Job gain bonuses to the acquisition of the Armor Technique, Coordination, Strengthen Subordinates and Strengthened Defense when equipped with ●● Armor (where ●● is metal or non-metal) skills.

Job explanation:

【Cursed Spirit Swordsman】

A Job that can be acquired by a swordsman who wields a sword that has become a Cursed Weapon. The prerequisite requirement is that the Cursed Weapon must be tamed.

This is one of the inferior versions of the Undead Tamer Job.

Those with this Job gain bonuses to the acquisition of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p, Coordination, Surpa.s.s Limits, Surpa.s.s Limits – Cursed Spirit Sword, Strengthen Subordinates and Strengthened Attack Power while equipped with a Cursed Spirit Sword skills.

Note from the translator:

Well, this is the last sponsored chapter in the queue and my PayPal is still broken, so Death Mage releases will be stalled for a bit. The good news is that my PayPal SHOULD be fixed sometime this week.

In the meantime, I'll just throw in a shameless promotion of my side project, Kimi wa Tsukiyo ni Hikarikagayaku, or "You s.h.i.+ne in the moonlit night." It's a romance/tragedy/drama; I would describe it as a somewhat darker-toned version of s.h.i.+gatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April). It was a very emotional and touching read with a powerful message so I decided to translated it as a side project - it's an award-winning one-shot with just a single volume of four chapters, and I've already translated one whole chapter, so it won't take me too long to translate it completely. I know it's very different from Death Mage, but some of you might hopefully enjoy it. If this sounds like something that would interest you, please check it out here!

Yos.h.i.+