Black Iron Magician

Chapter 16 Mudslinging Match

There are several ways to learn magic in this world.

One is the basic of the basics that you learn when you acquire a magic skill, super elementary magic that’s commonly used by apprentices. If it is flame magic, 『Ember』 emits a weak fire that creates a spark. If it’s water magic, 『Water』 produces clean water that can be used for drinking little by little. If it’s dark magic that Haruna uses, 『Adva』 produces a small amount of mud containing harmful poison. As you improve your skill level, you will be able to learn new basic magic that matches the level of your skill.

The next method is to learn magic by using an item named scroll. Scrolls are disposable, so only one person can learn magic per scroll. Basically, you can only find them in the dungeon. Although there is a restriction that you can’t learn it unless your skill level is above a certain level, it is stronger than the magic you can learn when you raise your level, so it is traded at a fairly high price.

And lastly, there’s a way to inherit magic from others. It’s very rare to learn magic this way. After all, the person who taught the magic can no longer use it. It can be said to be a method used by teachers and disciples, or by nobles and royalty to pass on secret techniques to the next generation. Of course, in this case too, if the target’s skill level is insufficient, it cannot be learned.

The only thing Haruna learned is Adva, which she learned automatically when she put dark magic into the skill slot. Haruna is thinking that it’s an amazing magic that the Hero Gobuo used to kill the Demon Lord Orcuho, by mixing it into the meal, but as a matter of fact, it’s elementary magic from dark magic. To be honest, anyone can use it once they learn the dark magic skill.

Even so, Deris told her to thoroughly refine this basic magic first. Obeying his words, Haruna used Adva many times, as long as her MP allowed, and learned the way to use it efficiently and beneficially. Perhaps because of that, Haruna seems to already have a vision of victory in her head.

When the fallen ash kobold boss stands up, Haruna proudly moves her left hand’s finger back and forth to provoke it as if saying ‘bring it on!’. It is clear that she is trying to instigate its emotions, but as a beast, its emotions are laid bare, making it easy to make it angry. It jumps forward and full swing the mace. It’s a large swing and therefore doesn’t hit Haruna, but it’s still difficult for her to use aiki while using magic, so she can’t use them at the same time. Instead, Haruna threw a lump of mud, which she was holding in her right hand, at the boss’s face when she dodged.

「Ho!」

「Guo――!?」

The poisonous mud hit the face splendidly and went into its eyes, nose, and mouth, making the boss writhes in agony.

Even if the poison from the elementary magic isn’t deadly, it’s still extremely painful if you let it touch the weak spot as a living thing. The pain robs its sight, the mud smell disables its sense of smell, and inside its mouth is busy with a festival uproar.

「Guvaoooooooo!」

The boss that’s in disorder begins to rampage, brandishing the mace with all its might. However, it’s nothing but randomly attacking the enemy it can’t see and hard to hit. After passing through the trajectory of the mace, Haruna slashed both its legs with the hunting knife she took out from the bag. Then, she quickly took a distance after attacking.

(As expected, it’s hard.)

It is a sharp knife that has been sharpened well in the kitchen before leaving the house, but it seems to only make shallow wounds against the sturdy skin of the ash kobold boss.

(Nevertheless, it’s bleeding, so it doesn’t mean that it’s not working.)

Haruna casts Adva again, this time she’s grabbing the mud in both hands.

(And then――)

She throws it and then throws it again. The two mud thrown by Haruna hit the wounds on both legs of the boss. Her pitching success rate today is frighteningly 100%.

「Gua…!?」

The poison penetrated into the wound and the movement of the boss stopped a little as if it was holding back the pain.

「Sei!」

「――!!」

Haruna, who got close unnoticed, strongly kicked the boss’s little finger of the right hand, which was holding the mace. The little finger, that made a sound of something snapped, turned in the wrong direction that even an amateur could easily imagine that it was broken.

The ash kobold boss can’t bear it and then let go of the mace. It tries to bend over, but the stiffness caused by the pain creates a further gap. Haruna grasps its broken little finger and slams the boss against the ground. Her aiki is in good health. Without a moment’s delay, Haruna slashes the boss with the knife many times, increasing the number of wounds.

By the time the boss’s eyesight was about to recover, a special mud dumpling was thrown in, the wound was also contaminated, thrown, slashed, snapped――――

「Ga… a…」

Approximately 30 minutes after the start of the battle, the ash kobold boss fell to the ground and lost its life. The countless cuts on the body are all smeared with mud, and most of the limbs’ fingers are not in a normal state. His foaming mouth and bloodshot eyes are covered with a lot of mud, and his dying face looked like he was in agony. With the prolonged battle by accumulating poisons and blows, the goddess of victory smiled at Haruna.

「I… win!」

The delighted Haruna raised her hands in the air and shouted. Although it was an unavoidable battle where you can say ‘what is a wizard?’ at the battle details, she overcame the big wall of status and level and achieved a great feat.

「Fuwaa, I-I’m really tired… Shishou, it was an unreasonable request~」

Haruna sits down on the ground and regains her breath. Even with the tournaments across the country that she had experienced, her concentration was not so much just like this time. This time, the feeling of exhaustion is completely attacking her, and it gradually changes into a sense of accomplishment that’s hard to describe. She takes out a potion from the bag and drinks it up in one go as if to appease her thirst.

「Puhaa! It’s disgusting, but delicious! Fuu, I calmed down. Well then, let’s take the tail―― uh?」

Haruna tried to cut off the boss’s tail. However, the hunting knife didn’t penetrate deep enough.

「Its defense power doesn’t change even after death…. Umm, what should I do? I can’t dismantle it with this…. It’s clearly too big, but I wonder if I can put a corpse in the bag?」

As Haruna removed the bag from her waist and brought it next to the ash kobold boss’s corpse, the bag sucked up the kobold’s huge body, and the next moment, the entire body was sucked up. It was a bit horror.

「Uwaa…. W-well, I guess I’ll just take it home with me and ask Shishou to make a decision. I’m tired, but I have to do some mining now, right? Let’s take out the pickaxe――」

Haruna was focused on her opponent’s movements during the battle, so she completely ignored the news of her skills and job that leveled up. It’s Haruna’s bad habit to lose sight of the surroundings when she is absorbed in something. Therefore, it was at this time that she realized a certain something.

「Boss-san’s mace sank into the wall where the ore is…」

It seems that the huge mallet, which the ash kobold boss released in the middle of the fight, landed just right on the place that was filled with the ore. The jet-black fragments were scattered on the ground.