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In the archives of the small Mages’ Guild branch of the city of Niarki, there was a magical tome that had been sealed away, feared to be a ‘cursed, forbidden tome.’

It was a cursed item, said to contain forbidden knowledge that granted power to those who read it, but at the cost of their sanity, changing them to have cruel personalities.

According to one theory, the tome contained not forbidden knowledge, but an evil god whose powers had been robbed from him, sealed inside the tome, entering the minds of those who read the book and brainwashing them in an attempt to remove the seal.

That theory was ninety percent true.

“Hihi, it seems that another fool has opened me.”

Buburdura, the Evil God of the Magic Tome whose power had been robbed from him, felt joy stirring in his heart. In the past, he had been defeated by Farmaun Gold and lost his power. He transformed himself into a book and now, he was seeking ‘readers’ in order to restore his power.

By possessing and manipulating the ‘readers’ that opened and read him, he absorbed their power like a leech to regain his own.

“I have finally recovered half of my power. Tonight, I shall seize the body of this fool, turn him into my possessed servant and use him as a foothold towards my full recovery,” he told himself.

With a thud, the pages fluttered open. Not letting this moment escape him, Buburdura flew into the mind of this ‘reader.’

“Now then, I shall manipulate you, just as I have done to all of the foolish prey who have come before you!”

The body of Buburdura’s will, which resembled an ugly combination between an arthropod and a mollusk, extended its tentacles into the center of the mind of the ‘reader.’

Resistance would be completely impossible; Buburdura’s mind would violate the reader’s mind in an overwhelming manner. At least, the evil god had assumed that this would happen, as this was how things had gone up until now.
“Muh? What is the meaning of this; I cannot reach it?”

No matter how much Buburdura extended his tentacles, he couldn’t reach the memories and personality that he wanted to tamper with. Flustered, he extended his tentacles as far as they could go, but even so, only a few of them barely managed to touch something at all.

And the thing that he touched caused him deep bewilderment as well.

“What is this? Why are things like this? Impossible; why does it have this structure? Is this reader really someone from this world?” he wondered.

Buburdura had invaded the minds of hundreds, thousands of people. In a way, he was an expert when it came to minds. To his knowledge and experience, there were no people with minds like this.

It was unsystematic.

Things that were supposed to be in certain places weren’t; instead, there were things with completely different shapes that weren’t supposed to be there at all.

If comparing it to a person’s body, it was as if a small intestine in the shape of a liver had been packed into the place where the brain was supposed to be; it was completely incomprehensible.

It was as bizarre as a castle forcibly built from random junk.

As Buburdura came to this conclusion, a terrifying possibility rose in his mind.

“That is right; I have heard that after the Demon King-sama broke the souls of the four champions, some god gathered their fragments together and forcibly joined them into a single soul. If something were to break that soul again… Hyih?!”

Buburdura realized something, mid-sentence. There was a deep opening above his head. And as the opening moved, he let out a scream of terror.

The opening widened a little, revealing an enormous eye.
Buburdura saw himself reflected in its dull, mud-like pupil.

“ –…”

TLN: There is a censored, three-syllable word here in the raw.

A noise that sounded like fragments of metal scraping against each other echoed from behind him.

He turned around immediately to see that there was a deep crack there as well. A tongue far thicker and more terrifying than Buburdura’s tentacles extended from the crack towards him.

He screamed again.

The tongue wrapped around Buburdura, the Evil God of the Magic Tome, and crushed him.

Buburdura finally understood the meaning of the noise that he hadn’t been able to hear properly. It had said, “How itchy*.”

TLN*: This is the previously censored three-syllable word.

And so, the evil god whom Farmaun Gold had failed to defeat, who had hidden for a hundred thousand years while slurping up the minds of his victims and was finally about to make a recovery, was destroyed by a certain ‘reader’ who had made a casual attack, as if merely brushing away a winged insect that had stopped on his neck.

 
Having turned the ground into Golems and used Golem Transmutation to dig a tunnel in order to infiltrate the Mages’ Guild from underground, Vandalieu investigated inside, searching for spirits. He found some spirits. But unfortunately, they were old and on the brink of being extinguished, had no interest in anything other than magic even after death, or had gone mad, becoming unable to speak in coherent sentences. None of them knew about the First Princess Levia.


The spirits in the city didn’t know anything either; would it be better if I asked people who are alive? But it’s questionable as to whether the people of this city would give me honest answers.

Though he was worried about this matter, he was also searching the archives for any forbidden techniques that could be used for Darcia’s resurrection. Suddenly, a mage’s spirit informed him that there was a single forbidden tome in the archives.

It was apparently an evil tome that granted those who read it great power, in exchange for also bestowing upon them a destiny of ruin.

Intrigued, Vandalieu used death-attribute magic to remove the seal that had been placed on the tome and tried holding the tome in his hands.

“… I do feel an ominous presence, but it’s not really that big a deal?”

Though he could feel Mana, there was only a feeble reaction from Danger Sense: Death; he could only think of the book as unimportant.

It was such a nonthreatening forbidden tome that Vandalieu wondered if it was the metal reinforcements on its corners that were supposed to be dangerous.

Thinking that there wouldn’t be much to expect, Vandalieu opened the forbidden tome to find that its pages were filled with figures resembling geometric shapes rather than written characters.

“Huh, I can’t read this. I don’t think that these would grant power… Hmm?”

As Vandalieu thought about this, he suddenly felt an unpleasant, itching sensation.

 
『Your Mana has increased by 50,000,000!』

『The Mental Corruption skill has transformed into the Grotesque Mind skill!』

『You have acquired the Body Expansion (Tongue) and Mental Encroachment skills!』

『The levels of the Superhuman Strength, Rapid Healing, Magic Resistance, Soul Break, God Slayer, Body Expansion (Tongue) and Grotesque Mind skills have increased!』

 
For some reason, Vandalieu gained additional Mana, new skills and his skills leveled up.

“Eh?”

Though he was surprised, he checked his Status to find that everything was as the announcer in his head had said.

 
Name: Vandalieu

Race: Dhampir (Dark Elf)

Age: 7 years old

Title:【Ghoul King】,【Eclipse King】,【Taboo Name】

Job: Venom Fist User

Level: 20

Job history: Death-Attribute Mage, Golem Transmuter, Undead Tamer, Soul Breaker

Attributes:

* Vitality: 184

* Mana: 378,120,344 (Increased by 50,000,000)

* Strength: 128

* Agility: 130

* Stamina: 119

* Intelligence: 761

Passive skills:

* Superhuman Strength: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

* Rapid Healing: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)

* Death-Attribute Magic: Level 6

* Status Effect Resistance: Level 7

* Magic Resistance: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

* Dark Vision

* Death-Attribute Charm: Level 6

* Chant Revocation: Level 4

* Strengthen Followers: Level 8

* Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 4

* Strengthen Subordinates: Level 4

* Venom Secretion (Claws, Fangs, Tongue): Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

* Enhanced Agility: Level 1

* Body Expansion (Tongue): Level 3 (NEW!)

Active skills:

* Bloodsucking: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

* Surpass Limits: Level 5

* Golem Transmutation: Level 6

* No-Attribute Magic: Level 5

* Mana Control: Level 4

* Spirit Form: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)

* Carpentry: Level 4

* Engineering: Level 3

* Cooking: Level 4

* Alchemy: Level 4

* Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)

* Soul Break: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)

* Multi-Cast: Level 5

* Long-distance Control: Level 6

* Surgery: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

* Parallel Thought Processing: Level 5

* Materialization: Level 4

* Coordination: Level 3

* High-speed Thought Processing: Level 3

* Commanding: Level 1

* Farming: Level 3

* Clothing: Level 2

* Throwing: Level 3

Unique skills:

* God Slayer: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

* Grotesque Mind: Level 2 (Transformed from Mental Corruption)

* Mental Encroachment: Level 2 (NEW!)

Curses

* Experience gained in previous life not carried over

* Cannot learn existing jobs

* Unable to gain experience independently
 

“I see, I definitely acquired power, but…?”

If simply reading the book was enough to grant 50,000,000 Mana, it certainly was great power for normal people. It was the equivalent to the Mana pools of five thousand first-rate mages; it wouldn’t be strange for them to lose themselves in it and bring ruin upon themselves.

The unique skill called ‘Grotesque Mind’ seemed dangerous.

But why had the Soul Break and God Slayer skills leveled up? The Mental Corruption skill had transformed into a unique skill for some reason as well.

“And most importantly, what is this ‘Body Expansion (Tongue)’? I can expand my tongue? Ah, it expanded.”

Vandalieu tried sticking his tongue out of his mouth to find that it could stretch outwards. There wasn’t any pain or unpleasant, stiff sensation. As naturally as bending and stretching his limbs, Vandalieu could stretch his tongue to a length of less than a meter, but longer than his arms.

He could even move it with complete freedom.

He could bend it like a snake or extend it quickly, like when a frog used its tongue to catch insects. He could probably even wrap it around a pen and use it to write. It was as if he had gained an extra hand.

“… Sharp Tongue.”

He tried using the ‘martial skill’ that used his tongue to pierce the target to find that it functioned normally. Its range was far shorter than when he had sent his tongue flying, but with this, he would be able to use it multiple times in quick succession.

Vandalieu didn’t know what the Mental Encroachment and Grotesque Mind skills were, but he had indeed gained power. He didn’t know what would become of the destiny of ruin that he was supposed to receive along with it.

“All of the people who have read this forbidden tome, did they all gain the ability to extend their tongues as well? If that caused them to be treated like freaks and made them fail in their relationships with others and their work, that really would be a destiny of ruin, I guess?”

On Earth, someone with the ability to stretch their tongues to a length of a meter would be considered freaks, and many would think they were creepy. Making a note of being careful of this happening to him, Vandalieu returned the forbidden tome to its shelf.

It would take Vandalieu a long time to realize that the soul of a foolish evil god had essentially thrown himself into his stomach, granting him the evil god’s Mana and a part of his power.

But not as long as it would take the Mages’ Guild branch of Niarki to notice that the forbidden tome had turned into an ordinary bundle of paper.