Chapter : 01
-You have awakened.
For some reason, you have awakened.
‘Why?’
Tey stared at the awakening notification window before his eyes.
After being reincarnated with memories of his past life.
He had been an orphan, with nothing to his name but the clothes on his back, and had to struggle desperately to survive.
It had already been 21 years of scraping by like that, and now—why on earth was he awakening?
Of course, having been born and living in this world up until now, today was somewhat special—one could say it was a turning point in his life.
That was because today was the day he would learn black magic spells.
But learning black magic didn’t seem more special than being reincarnated.
‘Fuck. If this was going to happen, why didn’t I awaken right after reincarnating as a baby?! Or at least before becoming a black mage! Ah, life is really a piece of shit.’
“Now. You have all become black mages. You have sufficiently accumulated the demonic energy of the Nine Hells in your bodies, and have formed a circle in your hearts with it—so this is only natural. However, that does not mean you have become anything great. As explained in previous lessons, whether you are a black mage or a regular mage, if you don’t know any spells…”
‘That old man sure talks a lot…’
From behind the lecture podium, a middle-aged man named Selton, the black magic instructor, was speaking earnestly about black magic.
In truth, Tey had heard this speech so many times he could recite it in his sleep.
Selton the black mage was affiliated with the ‘Black Lance’ Guild, a mercenary guild located in Harundel—the second most bustling and commercially prosperous trading city in the Valant Empire.
The Black Lance Guild was a small-to-medium sized guild, ranking among the lower-middle tier among the over one hundred guilds in Harundel.
What set them apart from other guilds was that they actively operated a system of indentured mercenaries.
On a volunteer basis, they would teach combat skills or magic.
In exchange, they would saddle the recruits with debt, securing and exploiting guild members that way.
The repayment amount was considerable, but from a newcomer’s perspective, the reduced chance of dying made it a fairly well-known system.
And the Black Lance Guild had profited handsomely from supplying mercenary manpower through this system, allowing them to maintain their influence.
Tey had come across information about the ‘Black Lance’ Guild by chance, and threw himself into it, becoming an indentured mercenary.
At first, he learned how to use a sword and shield—he hadn’t known at the time that the guild taught black magic—and after learning about black magic later, he decided to take out more loans.
He had tried to make a living by swinging a sword, but he felt that continuing like this would get him killed.
So why specifically a black mage? There were several reasons.
First. Black mages have lower repayment debts compared to other professions.
To begin with, black mages are classified as an aversion profession, but the problem is that they are also quite essential—so they’re a profession that can’t be done without.
In other words, due to supply and demand, the repayment amount being less than half that of other professions was attractive.
One could say it was suitable for an orphan like Tey to learn.
Second. You can learn it even without talent.
Regular magic heavily depends on one’s innate talent.
However, black magic can be learned and trained even without talent as a mage.
This is because black magic itself acquires magical power through abnormal training methods.
Tey didn’t know whether he had talent as a mage or not, so he judged it better to choose black magic.
Third. Among the professions capable of ranged attacks, black mage was the best.
In his past life, Tey had been a crafting-type Hunter, and had never fought hand-to-hand with anything.
So, when he first joined, he learned to use a sword and shield and worked as a low-ranked mercenary, but he had to go through several life-or-death crises.
Fighting directly just wasn’t his strong suit.
That’s why he aimed to switch to black mage.
Fourth. In this world, black mages were not extermination targets.
A thousand years ago, when beings from what was called the ‘Outside World’ appeared and drove the world to ruin—
black mages also joined forces to help protect the world, and that’s how things became that way, apparently?
Still, they were avoided, making it an unpopular profession.
For those reasons,
Tey had decided to become a black mage to survive.
‘Awakening at a time like this… leaving the reason aside for a moment, this is actually a huge jackpot, but… let’s see. Status window.’
Name: Tey
Occupation: Black Mage Lv 1 / Mad Engineer Lv 1 / Warrior Lv 2
Traits: Reincarnator
Skills: →
Spells: →
‘What? I’ve got a triple class now? Whaaat?’
Tey stared blankly at the status window for a moment.
What made Tey dumbfounded was the fact that it showed three occupations!
Of course, even in his past life, there were people with two or three classes.
What was noteworthy was that most of those individuals became overwhelmingly powerful, reaching the top ranks.
‘Is it for real that I became a triple class after reincarnating?’
Tey became even more incredulous than before.
Now of all times?
After reincarnating, losing his entire family, and finally managing to live a somewhat decent life—now?
Does that make any sense?
‘No, wait. Come to think of it, since I’m a reincarnator, I could be triple class. Who am I? A reincarnator! Wow! Reincarnators are amazing!’
Tey tried to hype himself up alone.
But soon he sighed and stopped.
His feelings were all mixed up.
Nevertheless, pushing those emotions aside, he looked at the status window and thought.
‘Well, gaining my past life abilities is nice, but… this really doesn’t have great synergy.’
Listening to Selton’s lengthy rambling with one ear and letting it out the other, he pondered his current situation.
Mad Engineer.
Just as the strange name suggested, it was a bizarre crafting profession.
A job that had the ability to create abnormal items.
You could say it made things with powerful effects, but always with some flaw or penalty attached.
Later on, at higher levels, it became possible to make normal things too.
But at that level, the things you could make were extremely strange.
And to use this profession’s abilities, several conditions were required.
But above all, the biggest problem was separate.
Money.
It costs quite a bit of money.
‘To use the Mad Engineer’s abilities, I need materials, I need a workspace… ugh… setting all that up won’t cost just a few coins. I have to repay my debts too—when am I ever going to earn enough to open a workshop? Ah shit, life is filthy. If I was going to be reincarnated anyway, why couldn’t I be born as a noble or at least a rich merchant’s son.’
Tey frowned.
In his past life, as a crafting-type Hunter, people had come flooding in with money, waging wars to recruit him…
But now, he was living hand-to-mouth, a mayfly existence—he couldn’t even dream of such things.
‘Ah! How I miss the old days! I mean, my past life! Anyway. This is really awkward, isn’t it?’
After lamenting to himself, Tey opened up his skills.
Skills:
Black Lance Guild Standard One-Handed Sword Arts Lv 2 / Black Lance Guild Standard One-Handed Shield Arts Lv 2 / Throwing Lv 2 / Fire-Making Lv 2 / Campsite Construction Lv 2 / Cooking Lv 2 / Marching Lv 3 / Disease Resistance Lv 2 / Poison Resistance Lv 2 / Peltahark Black Magic Lv 1 / Madness Accumulation Lv Max / Madness-Infused Imagination Design Lv Max / Madness-Infused Touch Crafting Lv 1 / Madness Measuring Eye
‘Look at all these miscellaneous skills from having three classes. What a damn mess.’
Warrior was level 2.
That was from using a sword and shield all this time to earn money.
Normally, dual or triple classes consist of classes that synergize with each other.
That’s how you gain synergy and become stronger, reaching the top ranks of Hunters.
But with all this junk, what the hell is he supposed to do?!
He’s a janky build! A garbage build!
And on top of that,
when classes are added, the experience needed to level up increases like crazy!
Why?
Because it doubles!
In other words—strong, but slow to grow!
Adding to that, what was suspicious was just how miscellaneous the skills were.
Originally, skills under the Hunter system were obtained upon leveling up.
Or they could be earned as rewards from dungeons or quests.
But this was quite strange.
Why were things like Fire-Making and Campsite Construction listed as skills?
‘Could it be… that if I perform an action, it gets registered as a skill? Something like that? Nah… that’s too generous… hmm… but if not that, there’s no explanation for why all these random skills are here.’
While he was lost in thought like that—
Whoosh! A sound rang out.
At the same time, a burning pain struck his forehead.
“Ow-ow-ow~!”
“Pay attention. If you can’t learn the spell this time, you’ll have to accumulate more debt and take the class again. Understood?”
At the black mage Selton’s words, Tey rubbed his forehead and looked forward.
A small flame had touched his forehead, making it hot and sore, but the instructor was speaking the truth.
This was a paid lesson—if he slacked off, Tey himself would be the one losing out!
“Alright. Then, the first spell. The very first spell of a black mage is Contract Summoning. With this, you will contract with a minuscule, lowest-class demon from the Nine Hells. It’s a pitifully low-class demon, but you must be careful. Even if it’s the weakest, a demon is still a demon. It can gnaw away at your mind.”
Selton said that, then began dragging around someone who might be his disciple or his slave (somehow giving off a grad student vibe).
That disciple was pushing a cart, upon which a stone slab inscribed with a magic circle rested.
‘Is that the demon summoning circle? It looks messy. Hoo. Alright. Awakening or whatever, first I need to learn black magic. I’ve spent a fortune on this…’
As he was thinking that—
Suddenly, a system message appeared.
– The Madness Measuring Eye activates.
– [Design: Lowest-Class Demon Summoning Circle] acquired.
– [Peltahark Black Magic] Lv 1 activated.
– [Spell: Lowest-Class Demon Summon] acquired.
‘Does it… work like this?’
Tey’s face went blank for a moment.
