“ . . .”
A sound like fragments of metal scraping together rang out behind him. Bubuldoura whipped around to see a deep crack appearing there, too. A tongue emerged from that one, longer and thicker than any of Bubuldoura’s tendrils.
“Ah, accck!” The Devil God of Magical Texts shrieked as the tongue wrapped around him, then squished him. At once, Bubuldoura understood the strange sound he heard before.
It had been a short sentence. “Are you trying to tickle me?”
And so it was that the devil god that had escaped death at the hands of Gold Farmoun and concealed himself, consuming the minds of those who would read him for 100 thousand years as he sought to revive himself, was squished out of existence by a certain “reader” as one might swat a fly that landed on one’s neck.
Vandal had snuck into the magicians’ guild by using Golem Creation to tunnel through the ground and pop up through the floor inside. Then he searched the interior for spirits. He had found some, but unfortunately, they were all old and on the brink of vanishing, only interested in getting a dose of magic or simply crackpot insane. None of them knew anything about Princess Lebia.
The spirits in the town didn’t know anything either. Maybe I should be asking living people? Not that I think they would tell me anything useful. Giving a sigh, he decided to search for something else—forbidden knowledge that he might use to bring Dalshia back.
That was when the spirit of a magician mentioned a cursed book that was kept sealed away. Apparently, all who read from the evil book received incredible power but were also fated for destruction. Now that caught Vandal’s attention. He used death magic to break the seal on the book and picked it up.
“. . . There’s a bit of a nasty presence hanging around it but nothing too powerful.” He could feel some magical power but Detect Danger: Death barely registered.
It seemed like nothing more than a fusty old book. The sharp corners, reinforced with metal, looked like the most dangerous thing about it. He wasn’t expecting much, but he opened the forbidden text and started to look at the strange symbols that covered every page. None of it looked like text he could read.
“Bah. I can’t even read it. I’m not going to get any strength like this . . . huh?”
All of the sudden, he felt a tickly sensation, just for a moment. He didn’t like it, but it didn’t really hurt.
Acquired 5,000,000 Magical Power!
The skill Spiritual Pollution became Spiritual Abnormality!
Acquired the skills Physical Length Change (Tongue) and Spiritual Corrosion!
Skill level increased for Brute Strength, Rapid Healing, Resist Magic, Soul Crusher, God Smiter, Physical Length Change (Tongue), and Spiritual Abnormality!
Suddenly his MP increased, and his skills started to level up.
“Huh?” He checked his status in surprise. There he saw not only the increases from his activities in the pioneer villages, but also the newest round of changes he had just been informed of.
——Name: Vandal
——Race: Dhampir (Dark Elf)
——Age: 7 years old
——Alias: [Ghoul King] [Eclipse King] [Unspoken Name]
——Job: Poison Master
——Level: 20
——Job History: Death Mage, Golem Creator, Undead Tamer, Crusher of Souls
——Status
Vitality: 184
Magical Power: 378120344 (increase of 5 million)
Strength: 128
Agility: 130
Muscle: 119
Intellect: 761
——Passive Skills
[Brute Strength: Level 3 (UP!)] [Rapid Healing: Level 5 (UP!)] [Death Attribute Magic: Level 6]
[Resist Maladies: Level 7] [Resist Magic: Level 3 (UP!)] [Night Vision] [Death Attribute Allure: Level 6]
[Skip Incantation: Level 4] [Enhance Brethren: Level 8] [Magical Power Auto Recovery: Level 4]
[Enhance Followers: Level 4] [Poison Dispersal (Claws, Fangs, Tongue): Level 3 (UP!)] [Agility Enhancement: Level 1]
[Physical Length Change (Tongue) Level 3 (NEW!)]
——Active Skills
[Suck Blood: Level 7 (UP!)] [Limit Break: Level 5] [Golem Creation: Level 6]
[Non-Attribute Magic: Level 5] [Magic Control: Level 4] [Spirit Body: Level 7 (UP!)]
[Carpentry: Level 4] [Construction: Level 3] [Cooking: Level 4] [Alchemy: Level 4]
[Brawling Proficiency: Level 5 (UP!)] [Soul Crusher: Level 6 (UP!)] [Simultaneous Activation: Level 5]
[Remote Control: Level 6] [Surgery: Level 3 (UP!)] [Mental Multitasking: Level 5]
[Substantiation: Level 4] [Cooperation: Level 3] [Rapid Cognition: Level 3]
[Command: Level 1] [Agriculture: Level 3] [Clothing Making: Level 2] [Throw: Level 3]
——Unique Skill
[God Smiter: Level 3 (UP!)] [Spiritual Abnormality: Level 2 (change from Spiritual Pollution)]
[Spiritual Corrosion: Level 2 (NEW!)]
——Curses
[Unable to carry over experience from previous lives] [Unable to enter existing jobs] [Unable to personally acquire experience]
“Hmm, that has boosted me a little. But why?”
Just reading the book had giving him five million MP, which would indeed be a massive increase—for a normal person. That was equal to the magical power of five thousand elite Magicians; no wonder such power had broken countless minds.
Vandal didn’t like the look of the skill Spiritual Corrosion. It also seemed strange that Soul Crusher and God Smiter had leveled up. His Spiritual Pollution skill had also changed to the unique skill Spiritual Abnormality.
“Hmmm, but most of all—what about this Physical Length Change (Tongue)? Can my tongue, what, extend now? Oh—wow, yes it can!”
He tried sticking out his togue, and it just kept on going. It didn’t particularly hurt or feel like anything at all. Indeed, it was as natural as extending a limb. His tongue could extend even farther than his arm could reach.
He could also then freely move it around. He could wriggle it like a snake or flick it like a frog catching a bug. He could probably wrap it around a pen and write with it if he wanted to. It was like gaining another hand.
“. . . Barbed Tongue.” He gave it a try, activating the skill to attack with his tongue. It worked. His tongue shot a shorter distance than its maximum, but at a speed that allowed for rapid fire.
He didn’t know what Spiritual Corrosion and Spiritual Abnormality were, but he had definitely gotten stronger.
Perhaps he had also been fated for destruction. Only time would tell on that score.
“Did people who read this book also start swinging their tongues around?” Vandal wondered aloud. “Maybe that led them to be treated as outcasts, ruining their relationships? Is that the destruction they were fated for?”
Someone with a three-foot tongue would be a freak on Earth. Vandal decided he had to be careful with this new power himself, even here on Ramda. He returned the forbidden book to the shelf.
It would be quite a while before Vandal realized that he had destroyed the soul of a Devil God—which had, in all fairness, practically thrown itself into his stomach—and eaten it, obtaining the being’s MP and some of its powers. However, he still worked it out long before the Niakki magicians’ guild realized that their fabled forbidden text was now just sheets of paper.
It went without saying that the nations and towns of Ramda suffered from the existence of criminal organizations.
They bought and sold stolen merchandise, moved restricted goods like drugs and cursed items, traded in illegal slaves, and carried out contract killing. They were far nastier than the thieves’ guilds that appeared in the fantasy works of Earth, and many went far beyond committing “necessary evils.”
Niakki, too, had its own such organizations.
One was the Night Fangs. Comprised of around ten members, this criminal enterprise had been exploiting the economic downturn in the Heartner Domain to buy and sell drugs and slaves. Their boss was Split-Ears Zagi, a man feared for having his ears shredded by a rival organization during torture when he was younger and, yet, never having let out a single scream.
“Speak! What’re you doing here?” At the moment, Zagi was glaring at a beautiful woman with red hair and eyes. He was sitting on the sofa in their hideout, a piece of furniture that smelt of blood.
On the sofa opposite him, there was a boy with silver hair and a crazy hat that looked like a human hand, while the woman stood next to him. Everyone else in the room was either bleeding on the floor or cowering in the corner.
“I’m here—”
“I’m not asking you. Shut it, brat. Lady, I don’t know what kind of joke this is, but if you’re trying to make me think this kid is yer boss, it ain’t working. No way a woman who can beat the snot out my guys in seconds serves a ba—!”
As Zagi was running his mouth, a fist smashed into his face. The hand-shaped hat from the boy’s head had jumped over and whammed into him.
It’s not a hat! It’s a real hand?! The surprise hit him as hard as the physical impact, walloping him back in the sofa. Then the red-haired woman grabbed the front of his shirt and lifted him up.
“What are—gwaah?!”
Before he could finish his question, the woman smashed her own fist into his solar plexus and then threw him down onto the floor. It’s like she’s handling a child! No normal woman can do this! Taking blows to the front and back, Zagi couldn’t even breathe, let alone pick himself up, and he rolled in pain on the floor. There were tears in his eyes, but he was still able to see the hand trot in front of him, using its fingers like legs.
“Gwah!”
The woman proceeded to stamp down on his chest with one beautiful leg. Some people may see this situation as a life goal, but Zagi wasn’t so far gone as to enjoy the sound of his ribs creaking. The last of the air in his lungs burst out, but the lady pressed down harder, like she wanted to shatter his ribcage.
The boy, however, had recovered the severed hand and then indicated for her to stop.
“Eleonora, calm down.”
“But Lord Vandal, these measly lifeforms who denigrate your greatness have no right to breathe the same air as you. They need to be tortured to death—as slowly and as quickly as possible.”
“Now you’re just contradicting yourself,” the one called Vandal chided her. “I don’t want them to die yet. Please, calm down.”
“. . . Of course. You should be grateful for the mercy of Lord Vandal, human.”
“Ah, I’ve been meaning to mention that. You can’t use ‘human’ like that. Me and you and Lefdia and Zulan, we’re all humans, okay?”
“Yes, of course. We are all humans, all humans.” She turned back to Zagi. “Be grateful, you ball of hair.”
“There we go. Much better.”