Athena woke up soon after she started hearing a hammer hitting against metal in the morning, she was still half asleep, but she still stood up from bed. Athena was in her night clothes, the ones she wore at the ‘Starling Inn’, she walked towards the door to leave her room.
She walked towards Shiro’s room and knocked on the door, there was no response, so she entered it without hesitation and found the slime Azure on a table wiggling.
Athena picked it up towards her small chest and left the room, Azure didn’t mind Athena since it considered her an ally of its master Shiro.
She walked downstairs to find out what that sound was, her silver hair was covering a bit of her view and her doll like face was pasted with a tired expression and her small body gave you the illusion that she was still a child.
She arrived downstairs to find Shiro, hammering a white red sword, it was probably heated to the point where he could form it, he was probably learning how to blacksmith.
The dwarf Willow was looking at him with judging eyes, he was a veteran at blacksmithing, so his judging ability was on par.
Shiro was hammering the iron sword with a small hammer, his face was still as emotionless as ever, but you could see that he was giving his best.
‘How long is this gonna take?’, I thought as I continued to hit the Iron sword that I was making.
After the iron ore cooled down a little and started to take shape after a sword, I started hammering it to get rid of the impurities of the iron, I would have to keep on hammering it till it would become the sword of my desired outcome.
By the time I realized, Athena was already up and about. She was looking at me working diligently, I was starting to get a little embarrassed, but I continued to work on my sword that I was making.
I picked up the sword and looked at it, the sword wasn’t completely clean, but it had a normal shine to it that any other sword had.
I showed it to Willow, and he nodded. “Not bad, boy. Ya might have a talent for it.”, Willow said with a smile. “Really….. huh.”, I said unmoved by his remark.
I finished my sword sooner than expected, it was average. Any blacksmith could make it, even though Willow said I might have talent for it, just because I was able to make one on the first try without help.
“Master, I think we should go to the guild and do another quest.”, Athena suggested.
We should continue getting money for later on, and also, I’ve got to repay Willow somehow. “Yeah, we should. Willow we will be going now…. You can sell the sword I made. See you later.”, I said a little unmotivated.
The quest we took at the guild was easy, we took Azure with us in this quest, and you could guess what the quest was.
Quest: Subjugate ten Rock Slimes and bring materials back.
Rank: E
Rewards: Thirty Bronze
Information: A Blacksmith has been searching for Rock Slime material and is requesting adventurers.
Yeah, slimes again. You could even start calling me ‘Slime Slayer’.
Athena tried slicing a rock slime, but her sword stopped mid way through its slime skin, Athena noticed that she couldn’t penetrate the slimes skin and retreated.
“It seems it has a really hard skin, no wonder the name rock slime.”, I said as if I were a professor of some sorts. I felt Azure moving on my shoulder, as if it were asking me for permission to join the fight.
I nodded and Azure started going towards the slimes, it started to jiggle in front of the other slimes… it was kind of effective. The slimes then started jiggling with him. Were they communicating?
Suddenly the slimes started gathering in one point and Azure started absorbing them in one fell swoop, after it absorbed them its size increased a little.
“What just happened? Did it just commit cannibalism?”, I said backing away with pitying eyes. “No, slimes are known for being able to evolve when they fuse together, they can evolve normally of course. However, it is most likely that it hasn’t evolved yet, so in a way it did commit cannibalism.”, Athena explained while watching Azure wiggling.
Azure’s color didn’t change much, you could say it’s still the same, the only difference I that its size changed, only a little though.
“Well….. now we have to find more of them.”, I said looking at Azure who then stopped wiggling and started to climb my shoulders unhappily.
We went searching for more Rock Slimes, we leveled up a little, Athena was ready to change jobs and I was slowly reaching level fifty on my job. Since I was fighting with my sword my job did not level up as much.
You can level up your job by fighting monsters, but it mostly depends on what job you have. If you have the job ‘Swordsman’ you will level faster if you fight with a sword or swing it the whole time. If you use magic it will not level up as fast as it would with swinging a sword.
Meanwhile, Azure evolved into a ‘Dark Slime’. Before it was a ‘Slime’ but now it evolved, the difference isn’t much as to what I was expecting, It can now extend his body, however it can’t change its whole shape and its color changed to a darker blue.
We were currently on our way back to Sintel when suddenly three adventurer looking men appeared. There were spirits haunting them, that meant that they were killed by them.
“It seems these are the new rookies. Ha, we got lucky that both are pretty girls. I’ll be the first one to have fun with the elf.”, one of the Adventurers said. Because I look like a girl and a boy, he misjudged me for a girl and an elf because of my pointy ears.
“No, let me go first!”, another butted in. However, among them there was one who stood out the most. He had a greatsword in his back and a huge body and muscles.
“Alright, let me explain how things work, if you want to live a little longer you have to give us everything you got. And then we will show you a good time, do not worry we’ll be gentle.”, the adventurer said with a disgusting smile.
If I had to guess, they are actual adventurers, but they’ve committed crimes and were never found out by the guild and the victims were either silenced or killed.
Right now they probably thought that they could make easy money by threatening us, and then they would have fun with us since I looked like a girl and Athena was one.
“I’m sorry, however I’ll have to turn down your offer.”, I said politely trying to annoy him. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem effective since my voice was flat and emotionless. “Ha! You think there is a way out. We are D class adventurers, we could easily beat F class losers like you!”, one of the adventurers said with a pitying gaze on us.
I kept staring at their leader’s eyes without a hint of fear. “Argh… AAAAAAAAARRRGG”, their leader started shouting holding his head as if he were heaving a headache. He fell to the ground twitching. “What’s wrong boss?!”, one of them asked.
However, their boss did not show any reaction to their voices since he was under the effects of my spell ‘Brainwash’. The spells allows me to manipulate my opponents mind, whether it’s through eye contact or verbal contact.
“Tch! It was you wasn’t it! You little!”, one of the boss’s lackeys realized that I was the one behind the mental attack. He picked up his sword that was hanging from his belt, and tried to slash it at me, but he lost his grip on the sword and let it fall on the ground.
“AAAAAAAAH?! PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS!!!”, the lackey screamed holding his body feeling his body in pain because of the effects of possession.
The last one was confused and scared by the reaction of his friends. He was looking at me with his eyes trembling, down his pants you could see that he leaked himself out of fear.
I slowly walked towards the adventurers and inspected their equipment, the swords were coated in some type of liquid it was probably poison. I found two things that looked like a potion or maybe some sort of bottled substance, I picked it up from the twitching body of the leader and walked towards the last one who was still sane.
“Hey, what were the swords coated with and also what are these?”, I asked him as he was looking at me with fear. My body was surrounded by black miasma, I was using the skill ‘Dark Aura’, it instills fear in my opponents, unless they possessed the skill ‘Mental Fortitude’ or ‘Mental Corruption’.
“T-t-the swords were coated with poison and that flask is filled with aphrodisiac, and the other one is a healing potion.”, he explained trying to hold back his tears. “What would you use them for?”, I asked as I noticed that my voice was getting colder.
Athena was behind me looking at them with a cold gaze, she did not have any intent to spare them.
The adventurer was looking at me as if trying to find out what I was thinking about. “W-w-w-we would use the poison t-t-to make you suffer a-and then we would use the healing potion to heal you and then torture you again. And the aphrodisiac to—“, he was about to say something that I couldn’t tolerate to hear, so I cut his throat with my sword.
The leader started to gain his sanity, he tried reaching for his sword, but I stomped on his hand. “AAAARGH! You bastard, you think you can get away with this?! If somebody finds out that we are gone, they will come after you two.”, he said trying to threaten us as his body started to be in pain because of the poison.
I sat on top of his stomach and looked at him in the eyes. “Is that so… but the question is, how will they if there is nothing to find out?”, I said coldly at the adventurer, he looked at me realizing what that meant.
“Master… are you sure that was alright?”, Athena asked me. “Yes, trash like them don’t deserve to live.”, I answered casually.
We were back in the capital, and Azure was juggling happily for being able to help us. The so called adventurer’s were disintegrated by Azure, I had no reason to let them live.
I used ‘Brainwash’ to get rid of their spirits memories if by chance there would be a spiritualist in town.
Athena looked at me and simply just accepted my short answer. The town was starting to get empty, and the sun was about to set, and some stores were about to close.
We were walking towards the guild to get our reward for finishing the quest. We arrived at the guild and were greeted with tremendous liveliness, the adventurers were talking about their adventure and the receptionists were occupied with paper work and attending adventurers like always.
In the guild there were elves, dwarfes and Demi-humans, however there were not many of them. Since Dawnwell is a human supremacist country, other races are not as many in masses.
I look like an elf because of my ears, but you could also mistake for a vampire which is most likely described as a monster. I might be a vampire since I can suck blood because of the Skill ‘Bloodsucking’.
“Welcome back to the guild, how did your quest go?”, the receptionist asked as we arrived at the counter.
Skill Explanation: Mental Corruption
This skill measures one’s trauma. This skill is mostly gained by assassins and soldiers who had undergone wars. The guild does not recommend somebody to gain this skill, even though it protects somebody’s mind from mental magic attacks or monsters who have skills like ‘Instill Fear’. People who have this skill are known for being psychopaths or crazy killers.
you can feel death mage from this novel.....
How so? I only read the manga and can't find many connections
@Tenmachii ???? maybe if you read the wn you can see it clearer.......
@QQundeadwolfQQ well I can only think of the spirit thingy and the dark attribute (kinda since death mage only controls spirits)
@Tenmachii well the mental corruption can be another one...... i would need to reread the story to point out all the similarities.....
@Ebunari A lot of the skills are like renamed versions of the ones in Death Mage, the way skills like Archery work with the whole "Technique" thing is the same, the way the skills are divided (active and passive) are the same, the split where monsters evolve their race at level 100 and humans can get new "Jobs" at level 100 by going to the guild and using a crystal, even the "Job History" is all from Death Mage
@Dr.Steel ... You just explained the system of 50% of isekai novels not really unique for death mage
@Ebunari I mean it is in the exact format that Death Mage uses. And most other systems use Classes instead of Jobs, divide skills differently (like magic skills, mental skills, physical skills, racial skills), the "technique" thing I've personally only ever seen in Death Mage (where it's like an addition to the weapon skills, and it's like learning new spells specifically for that weapon), and usually systems let you change your job/class when you get to level 100 wherever you are, whereas Death Mage you specifically have to use the job change crystal, located in specifically the adventurers guild. Plus, one time the author wrote that Shiro used Mental Encroachment (a skill Vandalieu uses in Death Mage) when he meant he was using the spell he made Brainwash. Also, there is the Mental Corruption skill, pulled directly from Death Mage, and Shiro gained it in a similar situation to Vandalieu. He also shares the No-attribute and then discovering he has the unique attribute Dark, very similar to Death. Mana bullet, telekinesis, and fly are all No-attribute spells directly from Death Mage as well. His "new attribute" also effects the evolution of monsters and makes a new magic metal, just like Death Mage. Sure, any one of these things doesn't mean much on it's own, but all of them at once? It's clear a lot of inspiration was taken from Death Mage.
@Dr.Steel Even the skill explanations at the end of the chapter is done in Death Mage, in the same style. And the guild thing, revealing the status, and then there being a work-around through the temporary registration.
@Dr.Steel no-attribute magic isn't just in death mage (also referred to as null magic in some stories) , if you read far enough you know said crystals for a job change are portable, this is also nothing new it might be a pillar or a church but not new. Mana bullet, telekinesis, and fly are all simple spells in almost every magic novel in some form if its not a limited magic world, jobs instead of classes......eh i guess? you could also call them professions, dark and death magic aren't unique in any case, how they are used yes but not unique. and in several novels, there are abilities to strengthen allies in both permanent and temporary ways. but yes this novel has taken a lot of inspiration from death mage i just want to point out it isn't unique, more niche and death mage is one of the most popular in that niche
@QQundeadwolfQQ exactly what I wanted to say.
@QQundeadwolfQQ Oh I know it isn't unique to Death Mage, just that there are so many things taken from it and done in the exact same style as Death Mage. There is obviously going to be a lot of overlap with other stories just due to the way the LitRPG genre (and, to a lesser degree, Fantasy as a whole) works in general though. On the plus side, this was the impetus for me to go back and re-read Death Mage again!
(And the Job change crystal being portable... only really exists for Sam due to his spatial expansion skill, it is explicitly mentioned that others have tried to make the crystal portable, but the end result was that it is too impractical to carry the entire room necessary to make the crystal work)
@Dr.Steel impractical not impossible, and most people wouldn't need to change jobs so often so there is no real loss