The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time

nd his martial technique without breaking your shield!”

“Y-yes, Ma’am!”

Though Kasim had made great efforts, those efforts had resulted in his shield breaking, so Tarea scolded him.

Vandalieu had wanted to warn Kasim as well, but he hesitated, seeing that he was too late.
Seeing Kasim feeling depressed after Tarea’s nagging, he thought that lecturing him further would be a bad idea, so he ended up comforting him instead.
“… Well, that shield was full of scratches, anyway.
It has been holding out against similarly powerful opponents since you came to Talosheim, so I’m sure it was nearing the end of its lifespan.”

“Van-sama, how can you be so soft on him?” Tarea asked.
“I am saying these things to him for his sake –”

“I’m sure Kasim already understands,” said Vandalieu.
“Isn’t that right, Kasim?”

“Y-yeah.
I’ll be careful from now on, Tarea-san,” said Kasim.

Seeing Tarea and Vandalieu’s conversation reminded him of the times he was scolded by his parents.
Back then, his mother had been angry as well, while his father calmed her down.

Tarea looked to be only a few years older than Kasim in appearance, and Vandalieu was less than half his age, so it felt significantly out of place, however.

Of course, Tarea’s real age was over two hundred and seventy and the number of years that Vandalieu had lived in total was over forty years.

“Well, let’s replace our equipment when we get back to Talosheim.
My sword has started to fall apart, too,” said Fester as he looked at the chipped blade of his longsword.
He and Zeno had been talking to each other about how they should clear the Dungeon without Vandalieu’s supervision next time.

“Will you be upgrading to Death Iron equipment?” Vandalieu asked.

“Hmm… It’s tempting, but I still think it would be a waste for us to use it,” said Fester.

If they were to indulge in exceptional equipment, they would become negligent in the training of their techniques.
It seemed that they planned to do their best with iron and steel equipment for a while longer.

“So, was there anything that seemed useful in this Dungeon?” Zeno asked.

“There weren’t any minerals, but there were fish like catfish, swamp prawns and swamp crabs that can also be found in the marshlands, and mud,” said Vandalieu.

“Mud?” Princess Levia repeated.

“Yes.
The grey mud that can be found in a part of this Dungeon has fine dirt, so I think it will be good for beauty products.”

The mud-packs that had been available on Earth.
Of course, Vandalieu had no experience with mud packs or beauty salons that had used mud products, but wouldn’t he be able to do the same thing with this mud?

“Oh my, is that true?!” Tarea exclaimed.

“That’s good for you, isn’t it, Tarea-san?” said Princess Levia.

“I see,” said Saria.

“More importantly, Bocchan, you said that catfish are delicious when cooked with the kaba* method, but how are you supposed to cook them with the kaba method?” asked Rita.

“Come to think of it, I heard from Hannah-san that there are Lava Hippopotamuses that live in boiling lava, but… I wonder if you use those to cook them?” Princess Levia wondered.

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TLN*: From Wikipedia: Kabayaki is a preparation of fish, especially unagi eel, where the fish is split down the back (or belly), gutted and boned, butterflied, cut into square fillets, skewered, and dipped in a sweet soy sauce-based sauce before being broiled on a grill.

カバ/kaba also means “hippopotamus.”

 

The only one interested in skin beauty among the women present now was Tarea.

After all, the other four didn’t have skin.
What appeared to be skin was actually spirit form.

“Kabayaki takes time, so I’ll try it when we return.
It will be my first time doing it myself, too,” said Vandalieu.
“Incidentally, I won’t be using hippopotamuses.”

Meanwhile, Tarea and Kühl had both increased in Rank.

Tarea had become a Rank 4 Ghoul Artisan first, and now a Rank 5 Ghoul High Artisan.
There hadn’t been any large changes to her appearance, but tattoo-like patterns had appeared on her skin, centered around her arms.

And as expected of the Artisan in her race name, it seemed that there were bonuses to her crafting skills.

Kühl had become a Rank 4 Venom Slime.
The volume of its body had increased and its color had become a poisonous-looking purple, but Vandalieu was expecting it to develop even further.

“Fufufufu, once we get back, we must have the working Ghouls level up in turn and have their Ranks increase,” said Tarea, spellbound by her arms that moved more nimbly and powerfully than before.
It seemed that her memory of how opposed she had been to leveling around half a month ago had vanished into the distance.

“Please be careful when leveling them,” said Vandalieu.
“Have them wear the armor of the Red Wolf Knights’ Order, and don’t forget to post requests at the trading post to recruit people to support them.”

“Of course,” said Tarea.
“You should do your best in clearing the B-class Dungeon as well, Van-sama.”

“Once we get back, we need to get new equipment and find new party members,” said Kasim.

“Things went well this time because Vandalieu and everyone else were with us, but things will be tough with just the three of us,” said Zeno.

“Yeah, do your best,” said Fester.
“I’m sure you two can find nice girls like my Lina as well.”

“That’s not what we meant!” Kasim and Zeno shouted together.

 

 

 

The Dungeon that had given birth to Leo, named the Scaled King’s Nest, was in the depths of the cavern that Leo had been using as his burrow.

“Well then, here I go,” said Vandalieu as he entered without any particular signs of enthusiasm, being watched by a large number of Lizardmen.

The Lizardmen who had served the Scaled King seemed skeptical that he would really be alright on his own as they watched him go.
They were intelligent and had an advanced society for monsters, but they were still monsters.

They would not recognize those who were not strong as superior beings, as rulers.
With that absolute instinct in mind, Vandalieu hadn’t fought the Scaled King directly, so some of the Lizardmen had their doubts whether he had the qualities of a ruler.

He had fired the projectile that had killed the Familiar Spirit (actually the Spirit Clone) of the evil god that had given the Scaled King his divine protection by smashing its heart, but it wasn’t as if the Familiar Spirit’s (Spirit Clone’s) corpse could be found lying around, so naturally, some had begun to doubt Vandalieu’s abilities after some time passed.

This was especially true for those that had served the Scaled King.

Vandalieu could always have Bone Man and the Black Bull Knights’ Order use physical force to convince them if they caused problems, but it would be troublesome to have to repeat this over and over, so Vandalieu had decided to solo the Dungeon, leveling himself and his monsters in the process.

Though he had told them that he would be soloing, the Lizardmen would not be able to see him once he entered the Dungeon, so he would be letting everyone out once inside.

“As expected of a Dungeon where Dragons appear; it is quite large, isn’t it?” Princess Levia remarked as she appeared.

Pete gave a hiss as he emerged from Vandalieu’s body.

“It’s quite different from Barigen’s Fall Life-Mountain, even though they’re both B-class Dungeons,” said Rita.
“Barigen’s Fall Life-Mountain’s internal structure was all mountains.”

“Well, it is a mountain,” said Saria.

The two sisters had simply been stored in Vandalieu’s luggage.
The suits of armor that were their actual bodies actually had very little volume, so once they erased their spirit forms, the armors folded up and were easily carried.

Bone Man had insisted that his bones could be taken apart and absorbed by a large worm, but there was a chance that they would be digested, so he had been stationed in the marshlands.

“Is everyone alright?” Vandalieu asked.

“Ugh… We are alright, but… This is something that I cannot get used to,” said Zadiris.

“It’s quite harsh on us,” said Vigaro.

The two of them had emerged from Vandalieu’s body after Pete, and Basdia was with them as well.

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“Being infested by the parasite is alright, but… being equipped inside you with your Insect Binding Technique, Van, is a little…” Basdia muttered.

“Now that you mention it, what is it like inside me?” Vandalieu asked.

“… It’s dark and we can’t see anything.
While we’re equipped, we can’t move, but the other creatures can, so we can feel them crawling around on top of our bodies… we can hear the sounds of the insects’ wings in our ears, too.”

“Wow.”

It wasn’t just that they found insects unpleasant; it seemed that the inside of his body was an extremely unpleasant place for people to be.

“Well, it is called the Insect Binding Technique,” said Zadiris.
“The insects are the main part.
Also, we could not hear the sounds made by the Ents and Monster Plants, so the ones equipped by the Plant Binding Technique are likely in a different place.”

“It’s amazing that Eleanora and Luciliano were always willing to be equipped,” said Vigaro.

“That’s true,” Vandalieu agreed.
“Well, Luciliano’s unlikely to care about a little discomfort once his ambition for research is fired up.”

“Hmm, was it really that unpleasant to have insects crawl around on you?” Rita wondered.

“I wonder? I do recall that it is unpleasant, though,” said Saria.

“The normal sense of touch… I lost my body two hundred years ago, so I cannot remember,” said Princess Levia.

“It was certainly unpleasant,” said Darcia.

As the four of them didn’t have skin to speak of, they only felt confusion during this discussion.

As if the monsters had heard the noise, the ground suddenly rumbled.

“It seems that the first monster has appeared, so let’s leave the talk for later… and let’s begin our leveling,” said Vandalieu.

And so the power-leveling on the stage of the B-class Dungeon that nobody had cleared in over a hundred years began.

 

 

 

Name: Tarea Rank: 5 Race: Ghoul High Artisan Level: 17 Job: Arms Smith: Skilled Artisan Job Level: 90 Job history: Apprentice Arms Smith, Arms Smith → Slave (Forced job change at level 47), Apprentice Prostitute, Arms Smith (Level 48) Age: 271 years old (18 years old physically and in appearance) Passive skills: Night Vision → Dark Vision (Transformed!) Pain Resistance: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!) Superhuman Strength: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!) Paralyzing Venom Secretion (Claws): Level 1 Allure: Level 4 Active skills: Estimation: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!) Armor Smithing: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!) Weapon Smithing: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!) Bedroom Skill: Level 5 Dancing: Level 2 Love-making: Level 2 Archery: Level 3 (NEW!)

 

 

 

Title explanation:

【Monstrosity】

A name acquired by those feared by numerous influential beings.

But those with this Title are not simply feared; the Title cannot be obtained unless a strange, ominous aura surrounds them.

Those who acquire this Title are often monsters whose true identities are not known to the higher-ranking individuals and bosses in societal organizations, including the Adventurers’ Guild, so those with this Title are treated with caution once they are known to possess it.
However, they might simply draw attention in the underworld.
When monsters possess this Title, it becomes easier for them to acquire subordinates.

Those who have acquired this Title attract the attention of those who fear them more easily, and more individuals in the underworld take notice of them and draw closer.

In the past, there have been numerous cases where statesmen deliberately acquired the Monstrosity Title in order to watch out for the movements of bosses of criminal organizations that had become so tremendous that gaining more subordinates made no difference to them.