Using【Golem Transmutation】to purify copper as Vandalieu had shown Tarea didn't consume much Mana. Perhaps it would be different for other mages, but for Vandalieu, who possessed a Mana pool of 100,000,000, it was a truly miniscule amount.
What he was actually doing was middle-school-level science. He was simply transmuting the copper with the image of ejecting all of the non-copper material from within it.
Though earth-attribute mages manipulated minerals, they were unable to increase their purity. The reason for this was likely because they didn't understand the molecular structure of metals. Nobody could blame them, as this was a fantasy world with no electron microscopes.
However, Vandalieu understood the concept of molecules. But increasing the purity of a single kilogram of copper to a hundred percent had caused a fever intense enough to make his consciousness hazy, so the technique itself did indeed seem difficult.
『Or maybe my Intelligence is just too low. I have a feeling there's a good way around this, but... Fuh, Tarea's back feels good.』
As Vandalieu set heat-absorbing【Demon Fires】around himself and pressed his forehead against Tarea's back, he suddenly realized something.
「Come to think of it, Tarea's...」(Vandalieu)
「Y-yes, my what?」(Tarea)
「Upper arms are thick and muscular, aren't they?」(Vandalieu)
「That is where you want to touch?! There are plenty of other good places, you know?! If it is you, Van-sama, I would not mind if your hand were to slip a little!」(Tarea)
「Other places... Your back is muscular too, isn't it?」(Vandalieu)
Though arms smiths didn't swing hammers like blacksmiths, they still used a considerable amount of physical strength. That was why Tarea had more muscle on her arms and back than one would suspect... though few had noticed this due to her wearing clothes and ornaments that covered her back and upper arms to conceal it.
「NOOOOO! Why are you choosing only places like that?!」(Tarea)
Tarea was covering her face in shame, but Vandalieu had only meant it as a normal compliment. Muscles were splendid things. They were powerful justice, powerful beauty, powerful muscles.
Even if one didn't have such extreme opinions, would lean muscles not be considered attractive?
「I-I don't need any more massaging- oguh?!」(Tarea)
But perhaps squirming around with Vandalieu on her back had been a bad idea. Tarea's hips gave an unpleasant clicking sound.
「... There aren't any problems with the bones. You have a strained back.」(Vandalieu)
Tarea suddenly stopped moving, and Vandalieu used his magic once more to numb her pain and cool down the affected area.
Strained backs were incredible, to even render a Ghoul possessing the【Pain Resistance】skill to become half-unconscious.
Incidentally, this was the first time the term『strained back*』had been used in Lambda, and in the years and months to come, the term would spread from Talosheim all over the continent. But right now, nobody was aware of that.
TLN*: This is notable in Japanese because the term is a rather unusual one, ぎっくり腰/gikkuri-goshi, where "ぎっくり/gikkuri" is an onomatopoeic sound (I think) and "腰/goshi" means hip/back, so it's something like "clicked back"? Anyway, it sounds weird if you don't know what the word means.
「There you are, boy... So, who is this lying down like that?」(Zadiris)
「It's Tarea; she can't move because she injured her back.」(Vandalieu)
It was in the evening, which came early in Talosheim, when a lively-looking Zadiris came to see Vandalieu.
「She injured her back, you say? As to be expected from an elderly person.」(Zadiris)
「Kyiiiiih, even though you are thirty years older than I am! I hope you get a strained back yourself!」(Tarea)
「S-strained?* Well, I do understand that you are cursing me.」(Zadiris)
TLN*: Zadiris's reaction to the word is like this because of the above mentioned onomatopoeic sound.
Though Vandalieu had numbed the pain, the injury hadn't actually been healed, so Tarea was lying still to recover.
As Zadiris looked closely, she saw that Vandalieu's arms had fused into Tarea's back.
「... What are you doing?」(Zadiris)
「Spirit Form assimilation therapy. If I turn my body into Spirit Form and fuse it with Tarea's, she becomes able to use my【Rapid Healing】skill. I can't use healing magic, but I tried to see if there was anything I could do and this is what I came up with.」(Vandalieu)
「Fuh, fufufu, are you jealous? Van-sama and I have become one... No, you cannot shake me! Stop it, you insolent little girl!」(Tarea)
「I am only doing this because you show no respect for your elders. Good grief.」(Zadiris)
Satisfied at making Tarea scream after being teased by her, Zadiris whispered into Vandalieu's ear with a serious expression on her face.
「Is it her lifespan that is in danger?」(Zadiris)
「No, she's just old. I can't see a shadow of death, so I think she'll be fine as long as she doesn't push herself.」(Vandalieu)
「... She will, so that is impossible.」(Zadiris)
「You're right. I'll ask her soon if she wants me to use【Youth Transformation】for her.」(Vandalieu)
Tarea hurting her back twice in a row might have just been something unique to Tarea, but Vandalieu and Zadiris suspected that it might be because she was aging. They might have been overthinking it, but it would be best to reverse her age and have her become healthy again long before the shadow of death became visible.
「Come to think of it, how is your training?」(Vandalieu)
「Hmm, it is going well. I have become level 100, so I am due to change Job again tomorrow.」(Zadiris)
The Ghouls who had undergone Job changes had acquired『Apprentice』Jobs to begin with. All kinds of『Apprentice』Jobs existed, such as『Apprentice Warrior』,『Apprentice Mage』,『Apprentice Arms Smith』and『Apprentice Maid.』
As their names suggested, they were Apprentices, so the bonuses to their Attribute Values and skills were weak. However, the bonuses were spread widely over their skills, so everyone could take their own strengths and weaknesses into consideration as they trained and plan out what skills they wanted to obtain.
Zadiris and the other Ghouls had increased the levels of their Apprentice jobs to their limit in the space of just a few days, but they were a special case.
Humans with Apprentice Jobs were normally not much different from average people. Beginning from this state, they would train with wooden swords and spears, have practice battles, fight Rank 1 monsters such as Goblins, Big Frogs and Living Bones under the supervision of a mentor and slowly gain Experience Points.
But Ghouls were at least as strong as Rank 3 monsters to begin with and already possessed numerous battle-related skills. Thus, they were able to kill monsters like Needle Wolves that human Apprentice Warriors would simply be slaughtered by, earning large quantities of Experience Points.
Zadiris had joined the other Ghouls in defeating monsters such as Flying Sharks and Raptors and promptly reached level 100 in the『Apprentice Mage』Job.
Incidentally, her level as a monster didn't increase. It seemed that Experience Points were split separately into『Job Experience Points』and『Monster Experience Points.』
「I know that you are eager to try, but you must be relaxing for now. It should be the date we promised, your birthday, by the time Tarea's back is healed.」(Zadiris)
「Well, I don't know how it'll go, though.」(Vandalieu)
With the【Cannot learn existing Jobs】curse, Vandalieu could not acquire a Job that had already been confirmed to exist in Lambda.
He wanted to try, so he was half-full of expectations but also half-full of anxiety at the fact that he might not be able to acquire a Job.
Well, in the case of the latter, he would simply have to concentrate on making the Undead and Ghouls stronger.
「Auuh, Van-sama, is my back in such a bad state...?」(Tarea)
Not knowing about Vandalieu's curse, Tarea assumed that he was talking about her back, so he had to spend some effort in calming her down.
And then Vandalieu's birthday came. Vandalieu was brought to the royal castle.
『Bocchan! Please just think that you've been tricked and put this bag over your head!』(Saria)
『Don't forget to use the blindfold and earplugs before that, okay?』(Rita)
Vandalieu froze as Saria and Rita approached him with a leather bag and a blindfold made of cloth.
At first, Vandalieu thought this might be a gekokujou*, but this seemed to be a planned surprise, so he excitedly put on the blindfold on and the leather bag over his head. From the outside, he looked just like a child being kidnapped.
TLN*: This is a Japanese term that's similar to rebellion/mutiny/coup d'état/betrayal where those in lower positions such as vassals overthrow the ones in the higher positions such as lords.
『He's here! I took a lot of effort in bringing these here for you!』(Borkus)
「Me too! I brought in a lot of them as well!」(Vigaro)
「Stop competing with each other already when we haven't even shown him yet!」(Basdia)
After a while, things suddenly became noisy. Thinking that a bigger surprise was waiting for him than he'd originally thought, Vandalieu's heart began throbbing.
『Happy birthday!』
The leather bag and blindfold were removed. Vandalieu saw a great dining hall that had been built after Talosheim began trading with the Orbaume Kingdom in order to hold buffet parties and balls like the higher societies of humans.
Borkus, Vigaro, Zadiris, Nuaza, Basdia, Tarea and many others had gathered in this vast place.
The dining hall had once been magnificent, but now it was ruined, a mere shadow of what it once was. As if to replace the decorations and ornaments that had been lost, a great number of corpses covered in colorful feathers and scales had been lined up around it.
「These are dinosaurs!」(Vandalieu)
Nobody knew their exact names and they were likely very different from the dinosaurs that had once inhabited Earth, but their bone structures were easily identifiable those of dinosaurs at a glance.
Corpses resembling tyrannosaurus rexes, with enormous sharp teeth growing in their mouths.
Corpses resembling pteranodons, clearly different from birds and bats.
Corpses resembling triceratopses, with large horns growing on their heads.
Corpses resembling stegosauruses, with sheets of bone growing on their backs and spikes on their tails.
Some of their horns were chipped and their bellies had been sewn shut; they weren't unharmed. But they all seemed relatively fresh.
「This is our present. We heard from Mother that you wanted scaled monsters that weren't Dragons, Van, so everyone gathered them here.」(Basdia)
「There were quite a few of them coming out of the Dungeons. Though we've taken out their blood and organs, since they would have rotted otherwise.」(Vigaro)
It seemed that the information that Vandalieu liked dinosaurs had been leaked by Zadiris.
Well, perhaps because nobody had known what could be categorized as a dinosaur, enormous crocodile and snake monsters as well as a three-meter-long cat-like carnivorous creature possessing sharp claws and teeth with scales covering its whole body were included in there as well.
But this did nothing to inhibit the emotions that Vandalieu felt.
「Everyone... Thank you...」(Vandalieu)
He was moved to tears. He knew how hard it must have been to bring the monsters' corpses all the way back from the Devil's Nests and Dungeons, even if their blood and organs had been taken out first. The Cursed Carriages he had made for crossing the Boundary Mountain Range had probably helped, but even so, it wouldn't have been easy.
『Vandalieu...』(Darcia)
Darcia's spirit appeared from the bone fragment that Saria brought forward.
『You know, during the time leading up until now, there were a lot of times when I thought that everything was over. Your father was killed, I was captured... But you still turned three years old. Thank you so much. Make sure you become even healthier and stronger from now on, okay?』(Darcia)
Vandalieu had cried so many tears that it would be impossible to count them. Tears of anger, frustration, grief, misery, suffering, hatred, sorrow, resentment, rage, loathing.
But this might have been the first time he was crying tears of happiness.
What a pleasant feeling it was.
「Thank you, Mom. Thank you, everyone. Please keep taking care of me from now on.」(Vandalieu)
That was why he would live on.
And he would resurrect his mother.
The tears of joy that he would cry after resurrecting her would surely be pleasant as well.
There was no way that he would be killed, there was no way that he would die.
As for anyone standing in his way, he would kill them – and make them his allies.
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net