Spoiler Latest Chapter Discussion Thread for Death Mage Raws

Let's be honest Van hasn't been close to being a human for 4 to 5 arcs now

 

he was born as a dhrampier, so he wasn't human to begin with

 

His soul is made from fragments of other souls so you could say he wasnt normal(his soul that is) since four champions had their souls broken and then fragments of their souls were fused together

 

'Creepy' would be underselling it. I recall that evil gods were secretly horrorstruck when Van casually ate the remains of Ravovifard right in front of them, but this wasn't because of his dinner etiquette. They were scared because Van could do something Guduranis couldn't do, and they were plenty scared of Guduranis. Seeing Van heal a lot whenever he eats himself and his familiars also should cause onlookers to panic.

For context, eating yourself for vitality defies the laws of physics in a way that can't be explained by attribute magic, so it's impossibly effective. The creepy visuals are just icing on the cake. The evil god of cannibalism could best use this sort of power against others, but Van realized that they're most conveniently used on his own familiars, because viable dhampirs are in terribly short supply.

 

A question like this should be asked in this thread instead of the regular one.
I am not sure how many details you want, but let me adress your questions for now.

First of, there won't be any contact for quite a while. There will be two more arcs and at the the second half of the third one they are going to fight. Van is having a battle at a town called Moksie (Alchem Duchy), with his followers protecting the town from attacking monsters. They think that by teaming up with his opponent they can win.

Spoiler: detailed fight

When it looked like they would they die they tried to self destruct and return to Rodcort. But Fitun used the gap to execute the Marionetter ability and control them. (didn't save him though)

Van doesn't really care about the reincarnators. If they want to talk, he talks.
If they want to join him, he gets them under the influence of his guidance to keep Rodcorte from spying on him, but that's it.
If they want to oppose him, he destroys them.
Frankly, he doesn't care about them.

And no other reincarnaters have died so far. Some internal conflict has been foreshadowed, but this will still take a while. And I doubt Van will fight Amamiya in Lambda...

hope this andwers your questions

 

I think in appendix half breed is in one section.

 

New Chapter.

Starts with the Alda faction heroic spirits and such watching Van and talking. If they all came at Van at once, they could give him a difficult fight, but they can't really do anything about it because it takes a huge amount of energy for them to descend to the surface, so they could only fight for a few minutes. There are no heroes nearby for them to possess in the normal way, and even if there were Van would just shoot them down.

They wonder about the fate of Borgadon, the mountain god. They're not sure if Van ate him or is holding him captive or what. One hero reminds them that he's been sleeping since before the Alda-Vida conflict, so there's no guarantee he won't go over to the Vida faction without any prodding on Van's part. All of the familiars and servants of Borgadon they've ever met were actually servants of the evil god, after all. Borgadon also reportedly was close to the Vida faction yuushas.

Some of them wonder how the heroes of old fought against the original maou, but apparently that wouldn't serve as a reference, as all the gods and their servants were much weaker then, and there was no status system. What they need is a hero on the level of Bellwood.

They get a message that Heinz has returned.


Back on the surface, Pauvina and the Goblins are sad that they didn't get to participate in the fake fight between Van's fake evil god and Van's fake mountain god plus Darcia and the knights. Van decides he can at least show them, and uses the demon king's eye, light gland, and his perfect recollection skill to project an image of the fight. He's sad that he has no way to produce sound, so it's a silent movie. They have to narrate and do voice over themselves.

The Duke and his knights are fitting in and socializing normally, and are used to this sort of thing since there are similar magic items, but are shocked at them just casually using Demon King fragments for peaceful purposes like this.

We get a bit from the perspective of the Duke. He's decided to definitely, absolutely never make Vandalieu an enemy, and is planning to convert over to the full Vida faction. He expects there will be resistance from all his vassals, the temple, and even Vida's temple (who were working on compromising with the Alda faction) but that no matter how many assassins they send, it would be better than making an enemy of Van. Just the giant golem Van made for covering up the fight would be enough to destroy the city.

Two of his knights have been completely guided, the one with the magic eyes and the girl who was dying (she now is calling Darcia goddess)

Van notices that the Duke is looking worried and is concerned about his health. They've only just met so it's a bit early to reverse his aging, but he hands over a tin of "V Cream" that's popular in Talosheim. It's great for the skin and even helps to regrow hair (the duke is bald).


The next day Van goes to change jobs. There was a lot to do after and Van was extremely tired after controlling the giant golem. He'd also stayed up because Darcia was getting a medal and he wanted to see it.

He chats for a bit with the mountain god, who's feeling rather negative because he's so weak right now. He also runs into Miriam from the defector god's hero group, who's freaking out because she got Vandalieu's blessing on her status.

New jobs on the list are "Divine spirit magician", which is the next level above "Death spirit magician", and "Ouroboros", which he suspects is a cannibalism-related skill, because eating his demon familiars is basically eating himself.

He takes Great Demon King, because he hopes the extra control over the fragments will let him make a buff muscle body. It evolves his string skill, bloodworks skill, and fragment limit break, as well as leveling up a bunch of other stuff. It also immediately hits level 100, probably because of all the fragments he has.

He tries to make a thick muscle arm, but the muscle fibers just break out of his skin and cover it. It is technically a thick muscle arm, but not exactly what he was hoping for. He tries making more arms and they become tentacles. He starts to wonder if the demon king was even a mammal.

His next job...not sure on the translation here, it's the one related to his howling/shout skill? He's still regretting the movie the day before being silent. Nothing seems to change, and he figures if this doesn't work he can just hunt down the Demon King's vocal cords.

We get Van's full updated status at the end.​

 

I was really surprised, I was not expecting Vandalieu to choose the job [Great Demon King], and after that so many skills would become higher skills, and still the job of [Demon King] also reached the maximum level, so being able to change jobs again. And this time the next job is [Vengeful Berserk], which surprisingly did not cause any change in Vandalieu's skills.

 

^I would guess Vengeful Berserker is something like a combination of the existing Avenger and Berserker jobs. So he might end up getting something like Revenge skill like Ketchup and Zod who had the Avenger job before.

 

I knew it!

Well, we now have Heinz to worry about again. I can't wait to see what he'll do after finally recovering. If he wants to defeat Van, he'll need lots of outside help, since Van has been growing like a weed while Heinz was in his divine coma.

 

Speculation:

When was it that Van faced him? IIRC wasn't it before Van infiltrated the kingdom? Heinz will probably hear that Van has been doing stuff in his territory and run off to stop him, only to get there and find that he's a beloved and well-respected member of the community. He'll probably talk to the Duke, who will refuse to make an enemy of Van out of fear, and possibly run into Randolph, maybe some of Van's other forces he left in the first city. Either it won't turn into a fight and he'll learn that they're not such bad people and feel even guiltier, or he'll attack them and make a scene and get disgraced in the eyes of the citizenry.

Possibly he might also run into Darcia, or at least hear about the great reputation she's built up, and suddenly get very, very uncomfortable. Maybe he'll say something bad about her and her idol fans will attack him.

Regardless, I don't think Heinz by himself is that much of a threat anymore. When he faced Van previously, Van was powered down, alone, and Heinz had a full party in top shape. Now Van is even stronger than he was normally at that time, has his allies close by, and Heinz's party is in bad shape.

I predict that the next time they clash it'll be led not by Heinz, but by whats-his-face, the scout guy whose soul Rodcorte is fixing with various bad Demon King fragments. He'll go crazy and fight Van, and Heinz will be left having yet another crisis of conscience as he questions the gods he serves.

 

Was it mentioned how was this last fight covered up? Does public know about Van's involvement? If yes, that might have improved his and Darcia's public image greatly. Furthermore, don't forget that Heinz has that negative tittle in effect. He should be hated even without doing anything.

 

The first time they met was in the Hartner duchy, but they fought in the dungeon that Alda prepared, much later in the story.

Whatever else happens, you're probably right about that. Heinz knows that Van has good intentions. However, he's also under the impression that Van ends up leaving civil unrest wherever he goes, which is kind of true, but the problem isn't really as bad as he thinks it is. Even so, Heinz will be horrified to find that Van is an undead magnet, since he believes the dead should move on and return to the natural cycle.

I also thought he might meet Randolph, if Van doesn't meet him first. If that happens, things will get interesting really quickly.

Heinz will feel uncomfortable, but I doubt he'd say something mean. If he thought Darcia was a bad person, he wouldn't have felt guilty about killing her. More importantly, Heinz now has a title that presents negative effects regarding his position as Darcia's killer. That will probably work against him from now on.

Heinz just recieved godly support. If the gods expect him to face Van very soon, I doubt they would have let him leave them without taking some cool artifact or skill or what have you. Otherwise, he needs to train ASAP.

I'm worried that Rodcorte is making yet another fatal mistake through sheer incompetence. While Edgar probably won't totally flip out, Rodcorte did mention that there may be side effects from having part of a foreign soul. A miscellaneous (insignificant) part of the Demon King's soul was used, so it might not turn out to be anything dramatically bad, though. On the other hand, Van will probably finish eating Edgar's soul first if he learns that Edgar has a demon king fragment.

 

Officially the evil god was defeated by the mountain god with the help of Darcia, a couple of the girls who are technically Van's "tamed beasts", and the 5 knights of the duchy. The knight who was actually the mimic was impersonated by Van's blood mimic slime, and officially sacrificed himself to seal the god.

Van himself didn't take part in the subjugation, but his mother and tamed beasts did, and that's public knowledge (in this chapter it was mentioned that they got a parade and were awarded a medal). Everyone who was at the Duke's villa for the meeting also knows all about Van now, and it was said that many other people in the town were aware that Van was bad news and panicked when they heard the ruckus at the villa, thinking they'd offended Van.

So officially Van himself wasn't involved, but people around him were, and people will figure out that he had some hand in it. It'll probably be on the level of open secret. The public won't know, but people in power will.

I expect that the Duke will also try to send out messages to the King, his vassals, and the other dukes. Even if he doesn't reveal Van's abilities, he'll definitely try to press the point of absolutely don't make him an enemy.

 

Which are too late as two duchy already deserted by Van

 

Apparently the next chapter will be a "side chapter", probably focused on Heinz and his team.

 

About the muscles, I must say that it went exactly as I expected, when after previous chapters it was said that muscles muscle fibers burst out of his arm like tentacles, I though that it sounds very similar to "Muscular" from boku hero no academia:

about Vengeful Berserk:
Is it first time new job doesnt provide any skills or skill upgrade ?

also how upgraded versions of string skill, bloodworks skill, and fragment limit break are called ? also is there any mention if anything changed about how those skills work ?

 

I'd forgotten there was a new chapter today, heh.

Well, things have moved on quite a bit. I was expecting the duke to be willing to work with Van but he's keen enough (desperate enough?) that he's willing to go a long way. Enough that he'll probably make enemies and might even face assassins - though I'm sure Van will be happy to help reduce the risks of such things.

Van has already told him about the Vidal Magic Empire and other things. I wonder if Van will tell him about the other duchies he's been to and what happened there. I suspect we'll get a trade agreement between the duke and Talosheim / Vidal Empire soon. There should also soon be a ceremony for Van's big statue and also the official start of the Vidal Empire, so perhaps the duke will get invited.

Anyway, this is definitely going to increase tensions, both internally (within the duchy) and externally. I wouldn't be surprised if some will suspect that the duke was brainwashed or something.

I suspect the next chapter will be the last in the arc.

 

Welp, good a time as any to cross reference against the chapter 146 translated stats and put together the latest English version of Van's character sheet. though jeez Van has gotten a lot of... everything.

edit: and now with some additional cross referencing against some of Yoshi's other character sheets.

Spoiler: Van's latest stats (ch 270)

Name: Vandalieu Zakkart
Race: Dhampir (Goddess)
Age: 11

Titles:
[Ghoul Emperor] [Eclipse Emperor] [Guardian of the Cultivation Villages] [Holy Son of Vida] [Scaled Emperor] [Tentacle Emperor] [Champion] [Demon King] [Oni Emperor] [Conquerer of the Trial] [Violator] [Black Blood Emperor] [Dragon Emperor] [King of the Stalls] [Genius Tamer] [True Ruler of the Entertainment District] [Patron Saint of Transformation Equipment]

Job: Vengeful Berserker
Level: 0

Job History:
[Death-Attribute Mage] [Golem Transmuter] [Undead Tamer] [Soul Breaker]
[Venom Fist User] [Insect User] [Tree Caster] [Demon Guider] [Archenemy] [Zombie Maker] [Golem Creator] [Corpse Demon Commander] [Demon King User] [Dark Guider] [Labyrinth Creator] [Creation Guider] [Dark Healer] [Disease Demon] [Magic Cannoneer] [Spirit Warrior] [Transplanted Fragment User] [Dream Guider] [Demon King] [Demiurge] [Whip Tongue Calamity] [Divine Enemy] [Dead Spirit Mage] [Thread manipulator] [Great Demon King]

Attributes:
Vitality: 575,691 (202,331 UP!)
Mana: 8,514,741,172 (+7,663,267,054) (overall 1,973,384,604 UP!)
Strength: 58,882 (15,5531 UP!)
Agility: 52,751 (13,225 UP!)
Stamina: 62,480 (20,433 UP!)
Intelligence: 67,493 (11,095 UP!)

Passive skills:
Herculean Strength : LV6 (LEVEL UP!)
Ultra-Fast Regeneration: LV3 (LEVEL UP!) <高速再生/Rapid Regeneration->超速再生>
Dark King Magic: LV8 (LEVEL UP!)
Abnormal Condition Nullity
Magic Resistance: LV9
Dark Vision
Dark Demon Creation Dream Path Enticement: LV9 (LEVEL UP!)
Chant Revocation: LV9
Guidance: Dark Demon Creation Dream Path: LV9
Perpetual Mana Recovery: LV2 (LEVEL UP!) <魔力自動回復/Automatic Mana Recovery->魔力常時回復>
Mass Strengthen Adherents: LV3 (LEVEL UP!) <従属強化/Strengthen Subordinates->従群超強化>
Deadly Venom Secretion (Claws, Fangs, Tongue): LV4 (LEVEL UP!)
Enhanced Agility: LV9
Body Expansion (Tongue): LV10
Augmented Attack Power while Unarmed: Small (Awakened from Strengthened Attack Power while Unarmed!) <無手時攻撃力強化->無手時攻撃力増強>
Enhanced Physical Ability (Hair, Claws, Fangs, Tongue): LV9
Magic Thread Refining: LV1 (Awakened from Thread Refining!) <糸精製->魔糸精製>
Mana Enlargement: LV9
Mana Recovery Rate Increase: LV9
Strengthened Attack Power while Firing Magic Cannon: Max
Augmented Vitality: LV2
Strengthened Attribute Values: Ruling: LV6 (LEVEL UP!)
Strengthened Attribute Values: Target of Religious Faith: LV3 (LEVEL UP!)
Strengthened Attribute Values: Vidal Demon Empire: LV1 (NEW!) <能力値強化：ヴィダル魔帝国>
Self-Renewal: Cannibalism: LV1 (NEW!) <自己再生：共食い>
Augmented Attribute Values: Cannibalism: LV1 (NEW!) <能力値増強：共食い>
Strengthened Attack Power while Using Materialized Soul: LV1 (NEW!) <魂纏時能力値強化>

Active skills:
Bloodrule: LV1 (Awakened from Bloodwork!) <業血->統血>
Surpass Limits: LV9 (LEVEL UP!)
Golem Creation: LV7 (LEVEL UP!)
No-Attribute King Magic: LV6 (LEVEL UP!)
Precise Mana Control: LV2 (LEVEL UP!) <魔術制御/Mana Control->魔術精密制御>
Cooking: LV8
Alchemy: LV10
Soul Destroying Combat Technique: L5 (LEVEL UP!) <魔闘術/Magic Combat Technique->魂格滅闘術; 魂格滅 is more like soul level destruction than spirit form destruction, like saying someone has bone breaking punches>
Poly-Cast: LV4 (LEVEL UP!) <同時発動/Multi-Cast->同時多発動>
Surgery: LV8
Realisation: LV4
Coordination: LV10
Ultra-Fast Thought Processing: LV6
Commanding: LV10
Thread-reeling: LV8 (LEVEL UP!)
Throwing: LV10
Scream: LV7
Divine Spirit Magic: LV2 <死霊魔術/Dead Spirit Magic->神霊魔術>
Demon King Artillery Technique: LV4 (LEVEL UP!)
Armour technique: LV10 (LEVEL UP!)
Shield technique: LV10 (LEVEL UP!)
Group Shadow Binding Technique: LV7 <装群術/Group Binding Technique->装影群術>
Trascend Limits: Fragments: LV1 (Awakened from Surpass Limits: Fragments!) <欠片限界突破->欠片限界超越>
Refined Spirit: LV1 <整霊>
Whip Technique: LV3
Spirit Form Transformation: Lightning
Staff Technique: LV2 (LEVEL UP!)
High-Speed Flight: LV1 (NEW!) <高速飛行>

Unique Skills:
God Devourer: LV8 (LEVEL UP!)
Abnormal Soul Hive (Awakened from Abnormal Soul form!) <異形魂魄->異貌多重魂魄>
Mental Encroachment: LV9
Labyrinth Creation: LV5 (LEVEL UP!)
Great Demon King (Awakened from Demon King!)
Abyss: LV10 (LEVEL UP!)
Divine Enemy
Soul Devour: LV6
Vida's Divine Protection
God of Earth’s Divine Protection
Collective Thinking: LV7 (LEVEL UP!)
Zantark's Divine Protection
Collective Operation: LV7
Spirit body: LV4
Demon King's Evil Eye
God of Origin's Divine Protection
Ricklent's Divine Protection
Zuruwarn's Divine Protection
Perfect Recording Technique
Surpass Limits: Soul: LV1
Mutagenesis <変異誘発>
Demon King's Flesh <魔王の肉体>
Demigod <亜神>

Curses:
Experience gained in previous life not carried over
Cannot learn existing jobs
Unable to gain experience independently

 

I wonder if the fragment in origin can join the party (Van's soul) once Collective Thinking reaches lvl 10...

I started thinking about this and here's the result:
After being seperate from the original body he regains contact with the soul, just to find a giant body filled with small bodies in the midst of a discussion. Unsure whether this is actually the right place he has a closer look and hears the topic of the discussion: how to gain muscles. Let's join!