The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

59 The Eclipse King is cursed by the marshal

Talosheim's total fighting strength was quite different now compared to the time when Vandalieu was just approaching his third birthday.

Vandalieu himself had grown strong, but more importantly, those around him had also grown stronger as a whole.

The only Ghouls remaining at Rank 3 were workers like Tarea and those of the newly-born generation. Most of the rest, including those like Bilde and Kachia, had become Rank 4 individuals with race titles such as Warriors, Grapplers, Archers and Little Mages.

Many had reached Rank 5, becoming Ghoul Barbarians, Ghoul Heavy Warriors and Ghoul Grappler Adepts.

They were developing incredibly quickly compared to regular Ghouls.

Though the Undead Titans had developed very little in the past two hundred years, they were now commuting to the Dungeons day and night, and most of them had at least increased their Ranks by 1. Braga and the others were also developing at a hectic pace.

In addition to them, the third city wall was a Stone Golem, and the Cemetery Bees had doubled in number. And though they could only be used in a defensive battle due to their limited mobility there were around a hundred Immortal Ents.

Those who could be called Vandalieu's personal guard don't even need to be mentioned.

There was one girl who raised her beloved mace, refusing to be overshadowed by the others.

"You can't do that."

"Eh...?!"

"Even if you make that surprised face, you can't," Vandalieu said to Pauvina, who was holding a stone mace that he had made for her after she had pestered him.

"I-I'm not a kid anymore!"

"No, you're only two years old."

"You're only five, Van, and you're smaller than me!"

"... Age and body size isn't the problem."

Pauvina, now two years old, was far larger than Vandalieu when it came to body size. Not horizontally, but vertically.

Not only was she large, but she had high Attribute Values. Her abnormal Strength value in particular wasn't something that an ordinary person could compete with. If someone were to have a serious arm wrestle with her, it was fairly likely that their bones would be broken or their hand would be crushed.

In regards to her strength, Vandalieu had sacrificed his own body to raise her, so it was apparent that she could do that without any problems.

"Then why can't I?!" Pauvina demanded.

"Your skills," replied Vandalieu. "You haven't learned any yet, have you, Pauvina?"

Skills were more important than Attribute Values in real battles, unlike arm-wrestling. The presence or absence of skills had a great influence on one's fighting strength.

"I've learned Club Technique!"

"It's still level 1, so you can't."

"Rapiéçage's is level 1 as well!"

Rapiéçage groaned and moved her eyeballs to look at Pauvina. Just recently, Rapiéçage had finally managed to acquire a level 1 skill in Unarmed Fighting Technique.

Vandalieu had used human spirits when creating her and had even torn up spirit mass that was floating about and added them into her. But though she could easily level up skills like Physical Resistance and Superhuman Strength, it seemed that it was difficult for her to gain martial-type skills.