Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Ch. 6 Chapter 6
—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
‘I need to become ruthless.’
Otherwise, even with my talents and the fact that I had returned, I could still fall midway in this world.
It was by no means an easy world.
‘Don’t feel guilty.’
What I was about to do from now on, and the path I would walk in the future, was a path that my former self who had just been summoned would find nauseating.
It was something that could never be considered moral.
I steeled my wavering heart.
Talent
It was only when evening approached that I was able to return to Nenson’s house.
Although it was now officially my house.
I opened the warehouse and took out some food.
As expected of a house where he had lived with his family, it was a place where one could live just by entering.
‘Is this a fantasy-style fully furnished house?’
Even in my first life, and even on Earth, I had never owned a house so well-prepared.
After finishing my meal, I lightly stretched my body and checked the household items in the house.
‘The equipment is sufficient, and…’
The diary and map he had left behind had all the locations of the traps he had set up in the past.
‘I should collect them tomorrow.’
It was just the right time.
After resting for a day, I immediately set out to collect the game.
Unlike the previous goblin capture, I had brought along a small cart since the situation was different.
Finding the traps set by the hunter wasn’t difficult as they were marked on his map.
“Kieeh?”
Ridiculously, a group of goblins was present around the trapped game, as if they had smelled the blood.
Although I called it a group, there were only three of them.
Without hesitation, I rushed towards them and slit all their throats.
I was the one who had captured five goblins without any injuries.
Killing them with intent was even easier.
‘This one is unusable.’
Unfortunately, the trapped game had already been eaten in various places, making it difficult to use.
After retrieving the trap, I checked other locations.
Fortunately, one more was caught in a trap, so I was able to bring back all three goblins I had hunted along with the trapped game.
‘I need people…’
That thought occurred to me when I returned home alone, pushing the cart.
Indeed, operating alone was inefficient.
Just bringing back the corpses was a task. If I were to be attacked by monsters midway, I would have to fight in an exhausted state.
Only weak monsters were present in this area, but it wasn’t as if there were no strong monsters at all.
Otherwise, there would be no reason for the territory to be destroyed by a monster wave after a year.
No matter how much of a frontier development territory it was, it wasn’t a place that would collapse under the attack of mere goblins.
‘Should I buy a slave?’
With the money I currently had, I could afford to buy one human slave. However, if I did that, the already insufficient money would be quickly depleted.
Even the cheapest human slave would cost at least 20 silver. And even then, there was a high possibility that they would have various defects.
For a proper slave, I would need to pay at least 50 silver, and on top of that, slaves had high maintenance costs.
If I wanted them to do hard labor, I had to feed them well and manage them so they wouldn’t run away.
‘It’s not impossible, but…’
I felt that it wasn’t the right time yet.
For the time being, I had no choice but to endure it.
I organized the game and separately collected the blood.
‘The byproducts… even if the price is a bit lower, I should just sell them.’
I didn’t know any processing methods.
Soon, my gaze shifted to the container where I had collected the blood.
To be precise, this was the goal of today’s hunt.
I approached the container of collected blood and carefully dipped my hand in it.
Then, I activated my magic.
Sssss.
Although it was magic that ordinary humans would find repulsive, from my perspective, it was rather familiar.
Following my will, the magic slowly began to spread from my hand into the blood.
I realized once again how close my body, my existence, was to the demon realm.
‘Didn’t they say that even demons can’t control magic this easily?’
Usually, magic was known to be the most ferocious and difficult to control among all the forces in the world.
Even decent demons had trouble properly controlling magic, but I had never experienced much difficulty since the first time I wielded magic.
The Demon Lord and my Master had called this talent.
In my first life, the problem was that I realized it too late.
After exposing the blood to magic for quite some time, the blood that was originally red turned almost black.
Perhaps because it had absorbed the magic, the blood showed no signs of coagulation at all.
It was exactly the form I desired.
Although there was little magic contained within my body, I had a seal that endlessly replenished my magic, so the blood of goblins and beasts could hold more magic than I had anticipated.
By the time I finished the work, the sun was already setting.
My body was crying out in fatigue.
Although my body had undergone a round of growth with the power of magic, it hadn’t been long since I had crossed over from the modern world to this one.
Without proper training, it was only natural to feel tired after experiencing various hardships for two consecutive days.
However, I didn’t take a rest.
‘I need to move now.’
I only slightly satiated my hungry stomach and immediately left the house, carrying the container of blood on my back.
The day had already completely set, but it was rather favorable for me.
What I was about to do now was something that needed to be done while avoiding people’s eyes.
‘In the first place, there are no people around here.’
Even more so at night.
In an already dangerous world, wandering around at night was an act of suicide.
Even the citizens who were protected and lived within the wooden fence, no, the stone walls, didn’t wander around at night.
From my perspective, that was the reason I operated at night.
The place I headed to was where the corpses of the hunter and his family were buried.
I let out a short sigh.
Then, I immediately began to dig up the ground.
My body was screaming that it wanted to rest, but I ignored it.
The dug-up corpses were in a rather unpleasant state, with numerous insects clinging to them, but still, their original forms were mostly preserved.
If it were me from the first life, especially me from this time period, I probably would have retched just by looking at the corpses, but the current me was definitely different.
I felt no particular emotion upon seeing the corpses.
I laid the excavated corpses side by side.
There were a total of three corpses.
The hunter, his wife, and his grown-up son.
‘He was probably planning to become independent soon.’
Or perhaps he was the one who would have inherited the hunter’s profession.
It wasn’t particularly important, so I turned my head.
I took out the blood from the container I had brought and sprinkled it over the corpses.
‘Normally, it would be better to focus on one…’
This was the first time I was using it with this body.
As soon as the corpses were sufficiently soaked, I drew upon the magic.
Then, I arranged the magic according to the spell I desired and muttered.
[Rise.]
For a mage to use magic, there were a few necessary things.
One was mana.
Two was the arrangement of mana.
Three was the activation word.
The magical power used by Warlocks was also mana that had been contaminated by magic, but its foundation was still mana.
I used magic, but since the type of magic I used was black magic, there was no significant problem.
It was just that the magic my body had accepted was far from sufficient to use magic.
‘I supplemented that with this blood.’
To be precise, it was a sacrifice.
It wasn’t particularly unusual.
When mages wanted to increase the power of their magic, or when they wanted to use magic that was difficult to fully utilize with their own abilities, they commonly used such ‘sacrifices’.
Usually, they used minerals imbued with mana, such as gold or jewels, or parts of monsters’ bodies.
One of the reasons Warlocks were shunned by people was because the sacrifices used in this manner caused revulsion in humans.
‘They mainly use blood, monster corpses contaminated with magic, human souls, and such.’
For ordinary mages, minerals imbued with mana were more effective, while for Warlocks, contaminated biological entities were more effective.
‘It’s difficult to contaminate the mana in minerals.’
I chose blood here. It was the most straightforward and easily applicable choice for me to use at the moment.
The arrangement of mana differed from person to person in terms of their main focus.
There were schools that focused on hand seals, those who specialized in incantations, and those who primarily used magic circles.
Of course, they didn’t use just one method. Although mages had their main focus, most of them knew how to use all of them, and my Master was no exception.
My Master’s main focus was hand seals.
In my case, I didn’t use any of the three.
‘There is another method, though.’
Truly, a method allowed only to a very small number of people.
I didn’t particularly need such a process for arranging mana.
‘I think it was called Shadowless Window.’
The privilege of mages blessed by mana.
A technique that could only be used by those who could arrange mana with their will alone, thanks to the blessing of mana.
It was said that mages who could use Shadowless Window could usually grow up to 6th Class.
In my case, although it wasn’t the blessing of mana but the blessing of magic, the effect wasn’t significantly different. However, this was much rarer.
‘Because magic is a much more ferocious force than mana.’
It wasn’t for nothing that I was evaluated as having the potential to contain all of the Demon Lord’s power.
Therefore, I could think of the magic I wanted to use, draw upon the magic, arrange the magic according to my will, and then simply utter the activation word to immediately use the magic.
Even demons were unable to do this.
And the magic I had just used was…
Thud, thud.
The corpses began to stir.
Soon, their hair, clothes, and flesh started to melt away.
“…Tsk.”
A severe stench began to spread around the area.
‘No wonder they hate Warlocks.’
Reasons to shun black magic were hidden in such trivial aspects.
My main focus was necromancy among the various branches of black magic.
In the past, necromancy wasn’t particularly my main focus. To be precise, I didn’t concentrate on any one branch to the extent that it could be called my main focus.
‘I didn’t have the opportunity to do so.’
In the past, I was forced to grow as a vessel for the Demon Lord’s incarnation, so I had to steadily learn all branches of black magic and focus on maximizing my physical abilities rather than actual combat.
As a result, I had a broad knowledge of various branches of black magic.
Despite having many possibilities, I chose to become a necromancer.
‘Among Warlocks, necromancers are as shunned as curse mages and poison mages.’
Nevertheless, the reason I chose to be a necromancer was because of how powerful they were.
‘An army in oneself.’
There was a significant drawback that if the subordinates who were the source of power died, the power would drastically decrease, but…
‘A highly developed necromancer can face an army alone.’
Moreover, as long as there was sufficient magic, an endless army could be raised.
My greatest advantage was that I constantly received a supply of magic.
In other words, while I was suitable for any path, necromancy was a branch that could utilize my talent to the extreme.
‘It’s also perfect for operating in small numbers.’
Due to my constitution, there were many aspects that made me reluctant to expand in scale.
Managing people was also a task.
However, undead didn’t require much management.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇