The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

88 The king pulls the strings

TLN: I previously named one of Vandalieu's new metals "Death Metal" (because I couldn't resist the pun), but it's actually more accurately translated to "Death Iron" and could cause confusion if I left it as "Death Metal," so it's now "Death Iron" from this chapter onwards.

At first, Vandalieu hadn't known how he should use Death Iron and Dark Copper, the liquid metals that he had created with his Mana. But once it was heated, it turned out to be unexpectedly easy to process.

"This is a metal that one could only dream of!" Datara cried.

The weights of Death Iron and Dark Copper were the same as the iron and copper that they had been created from, but since they were liquids, they could easily be shaped by pouring them into molds.

They became harder as they heated up. At iron and copper's respective melting temperatures, Death Iron and Dark Copper turned into solids resembling solid iron and copper at room temperature.

Of course, they returned to their liquid forms when they cooled, but if they were struck with hammers and forged in this solid state, they remained solid after cooling.

Datara poured Death Iron and Dark Copper into molds, heated them to a temperature where they became easily-manipulated solids and then used his hammer to forge them. After doing this, they didn't return to their liquid forms even after their temperatures dropped.

The swords and spears made from Death Iron were harder, tougher and sharper than those made from steel. But even when their blades were chipped, as long as the broken fragments were recovered, they turned back into liquid and fused back into the blade to restore its original shape.

On the other hand, Dark Copper was more suited to being used for armor; it absorbed impacts well, withstood slashes and resisted Mana as well. And like Death Iron, if it was damaged, the broken parts turned back into liquid and fused back into the armor.

Also, perhaps because they were metals that had been transformed by death-attribute Mana, both metals had properties that made them easy to enchant with death-attribute spells. It was simple to create swords enchanted with Healing Negation and Deadly Poison or shields enchanted with Energy Absorption.

"For some reason, it seems that only the Holy Son, us Undead and the Ghouls can forge it, but that's part of its charm!" said Datara.

Perhaps Death Iron and Dark Copper were affected by Death-Attribute Charm; only Vandalieu was able to use it to create items. Anyone could use the completed products, however.

But he now had Datara, the other Undead Titans helping Datara and the Ghosts who had been trapped in the underground cemetery in Nineland, so this wasn't a problem.

Incidentally, if Vandalieu wanted to turn completed products back into liquid metal to turn them into something else, he would heat them up, then use Heat Leech to remove the heat energy, and the equipment would return to liquid form after cooling down.

By pouring Death Iron and Dark Copper that had been heated to the perfect temperatures into molds and hammering them a few times to harden them, Datara succeeded in creating coins.

And so, the thousand-Luna Dark Copper coins and hundred-Luna Death Iron coins were created.

"Is it alright for them to be this small?" Vandalieu wondered, holding up one of the Luna coins between his fingertips. It seemed that he was worried about the fact that they were about as big as Japanese one-Yen coins.

"I am sure they will do," said Chezare, full of confidence.

"But they were originally copper and iron, you know?" Vandalieu told him.