Spoiler Latest Chapter Discussion Thread for Death Mage Raws

This is the best way of turning everyone against Bellwood. Hypocrisy is a really bad quality for politicians and gods to have.

Bellwood probably appealed to the ignorance of commoners, most of whom didn't have the foresight or political know-how to see how Bellwood's ideas were terrible.

 

They can still have it though. When Zakkart raised the possibly of nuking the Demon King, one of Bellwood's arguments was essentially it would mean nuking the continent that had been home of a lot of people who had volunteered to fight. Zakkart and the other creation champions were also effectively volunteers to fight against the Demon King yet Bellwood either actively trashed Zakkart's deeds etc or allowed it to happen.

Bellwood was also able to persuade many gods as well. The gods in this series are basically just people as well - they can be wise or foolish. For example, we actually see Alda being quite thoughtful and introspective at times... but his end decision are still poor because he doesn't like the idea of changing his policies. He's sort of "My Country right or wrong" despite being the person notionally in charge. If he could be more assertive about what he thought was currently the best choice, rather than stuck in the past, then he might be much more effective.

 

Bellwood's complaints were that they deserved a chance to return to their homelands. Of course their homelands were long since destroyed to the point a major reclamation project would be needed, but that is besides the point. And Bellwood called Zakkart insane for wanting to use them. Iirc Zakkart even realized with magic a cleanup or purification would be possible and was working to develop this as well but bellwood was still against it. He did call bellwood out on the real reason that they were weapons from earth.

I think Bellwood had long since let his ego get to him, and the creation champions had gotten fed up with him demanding while pretending to listen and treating them as lesser.

 

Well all creation-champions are older and more mature than battle-champions with Zakkart as oldest and wind champion as youngest.

 

Yup. Though the point I was focused on was Bellwood's hypocrisy. Here he's using emotionally loaded arguments about the people fighting for them against the Demon King. But then he (quite possibly intentionally) fell into the Demon King's trap allowing Zakkart to be killed and then after the war he not only pisses on Zakkart's grave, he breaks the tombstone and assaults his "wife" (Vida). Very much "do as I say not as I do".

Incidentally, I re-read some chapters: it's actually specifically noted that Bellwood (and others) thought of the war as a "holy war" (as discussed briefly recently). It was Bellwood who persuaded the champions to change their names. Of the 4 creation champions, Zakkart was the more moderate one - the other 3 gave up on Bellwood long before him (kinda reminds me of how often Van is the more moderate one of those around him). Zakkart only started investigating nukes after he had persuaded a number of evil gods to defect - ie the situation improved and he took the opportunity to try to improve it even more (as he saw it).

Bellwood's suggestion to change their names might sound quite innocuous. But... something struck me while doing some background reading on various theories (eg horseshoe theory and related things) is that he has a fair bit in common with groups who turned totalitarian, who tended to start off as disaffected youths who felt that no existing political movements or the like supported their views - it's noted that on Earth that Bellwood was charismatic but it was short lived once people got to know him better so he probably felt somewhat alienated. One of the thing about totalitarian regimes is they tend to want to control everything (even how people think) and will also often do things that are actually counter-productive to their own livelihood or that of the nation. They are also highly prone to ignoring the arguments of their opponents and even using violence to against peaceful people promoting other ideas. They also tend to over-promise to a massive degree and then invent or exaggerate dangers or threats to excuse their failings and justify their extreme policies. Leadership cults are also common.

I wouldn't say that the Amid Empire is totalitarian overall but it has some strong tendencies as do Alda's overall policies - the ones that seem more obviously influenced by Bellwood seem by far the worst. It's not as extreme as (say) Nazi Germany and the like but there's a number of echoes, which I think is the point - I don't think the author is trying to recreate specific scenarios on Earth exactly but rather show various parallels in a very different world.

 

New chapter.

The exiled evil gods supported Vida all along, and they showed it by sheltering a society of Vida's races. Most of the chapter is the backstory to how those evil gods got here and what they've been doing since Zackart offered them asylum.

Van gets a few more job options. Sensing conflict in the near future, he chooses the Destruction Guider job, as Guider jobs tend to give large stat boosts. Rudra is the only new job option that was self-explanatory and didn't confuse Google Translate:
【ルドラ】　【血統者】　【魔電士】
On individual analysis, the second one apparently reads 'pedigree', and the third one reads 'sorceror'. If there are any alternate readings or missing contexts, that would be nice to know.

@FussyBadger This chapter has a status update for Van. Just thought you should know.

 

Something along these lines:
【ルドラ】 = [Rudra] (Mythological figure, Van notes it's probably from Gods of Earth protection)
【血統者】= [Blood Ruler] (Van notes he got this from the upgrade to bloodwork, aka 血統/bloodrule)
【魔電士】 = [Demonic Lightning Warrior] (Van thinks it might have something to do with eating lightning giant son a couple chapters back)

Maybe I'll try nonsensing my way though Van's status again tomorrow! Van-style banzai!

 

This segment mostly sums up why Van can now take this job:

This probably relates to the sound cannons Van used last battle. That Van is terrifying just goes without saying at this point.
As I said, this particular job is self-explanatory.

 

In other news, MORE MUTANT VARIANTS OF LAMBA SPECIES!!!

Thanks to the divine protection of the exile gods, Aracne become female Scorpion men (so Scorpion Women,) Titans become yetis, Centaurs become 4 legged all-female Satiers (well, at least we don't have another endless sexual stamina species.) And, instead of humans, we have Homunculi that are indistinguishable from humans except for the fact that they can gain ranks in addition to jobs, and can also reproduce sexually and be born from non-human mothers.

Is it just me, or do the Homunculi sound like the most broken race from this new gain? They get the superpower of getting both ranks and jobs, and they also still look exactly like humans and can blend in with human society. Just add Van's guidance and I think we are going to have a new frontliner on our hands if one of them join the main group.

EDIT: And the Yetis would make excellent guards for the peaks of the boundary mountains.

 

The fact that they use the rank system means they must be different from normal humans in some meaningful capacity. The ability to be born from nonhuman mothers probably has something to do with that.

This sets a limit for how nonhuman one has to be to use the rank system, which apparently isn't much.

 

Also, his destruction guider job leveling up his cannibalism abilities which were nothing like what he had available WAY back when that job first became available.

All the stat gains Van is getting from all these jobs and divine protections he has, it seems like he will get +10 to every stat, a full normal human's strength on top of what he already had, just from doing something as insignificant as wiggling his big toe. Then again, +10 to every stat is also completely insignificant compared to his monstrous stats as they are. I'm forced to wonder when Alda says that Van is not as strong in combat as Guduranis yet. If he isn't, then he must be approaching that door by now.

 

When Evil Gods didn't understand what alda and bellwood think,

 

with addition of new guider job, I wonder if we should expect Guidence and Enticement skills to be maxed out and awakened soon.

To be honest I cant imagine awakened version without it being something close to full blown brainwashing...

 

Well, he's already half-guided souls in Origin using his basic guidance skill, maybe an awakened guidance and enticement skill can even legitimately pull souls from another world and it will no longer be just "half." Honestly, I just want Hiroto and Neruse's kids to come along for the ride to Lamba when everything is said and done.

 

Time for another round of Van's stats, cross referenced with Yoshi's latest translated chapter (172). Also stuck them in first post format if @FussyBadger wants to paste them in:

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

Spoiler: Stats

Attributes:
Vitality: 577,752 (2,061 UP!)
Mana: 8,940,478,230+(8,046,430,407) (overall 808,900,411 UP!)
Strength: 59,631 (749 UP!)
Agility: 52,968 (217 UP!)
Stamina: 63,430 (950 UP!)
Intelligence: 68,171 (678 UP!)

Spoiler: Job History

Job: Destruction Guider
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
Enchanter
Dream Guider
Demon King
Demiurge
Whip Tongue Calamity
Divine Enemy
Dead Spirit Mage
Thread Manipulator
Great Demon King
Vengeful Berserker

Spoiler: Current Available Jobs

《Jobs that can be selected:
【Dark King Mage】
【Fallen Warrior】
【Insect Nin】
【Enchanter】
【Dungeon Master】
【Chaos Guider】
【Void King Mage】(虚王魔術師)
【Eclipse Shaman】(蝕呪士)
【Daemon Ruler】(デーモンルーラー)
【Creator】(創造主)
【Pale Rider】(ペイルライダー)
【Tartarus】(タルタロス)
【Ara Mitama】(荒御魂)
【Dark Battery Cannoneer】(冥群砲士)
【Magic Wand Creator】(魔杖創造者)
【Soul Grappler】(魂格闘士)
【God Destroyer】(神滅者)
【Qliphoth】(クリフォト)
【Dark Beast User】(冥獣使い)
【Spirit Tuner】(整霊師)
【Artisan: Transformation Equipment】(匠：変身装具)
【Shadow Warrior】(虚影士)
【Balor】(バロール)
【Apollyon】(アポリオン)
【Demogorgon】(デモゴルゴン)
【Soul Eater】(魂喰士)
【God Eater】(神喰者)
【Nergal】(ネルガル)
【Rakshasa King】(羅刹王)
【Shaitan】(シャイターン) (arabic word شيطان, not サタン/Satan)
【Chi You】(蚩尤)
【Divine Spirit Mage】(神霊魔術師)
【Uroboros】(ウロボロス)
【Rudra】(ルドラ)
【Blood Ruler】(血統者)
【Demonic Lightning Warrior】(魔電士)
》

Spoiler: Titles

Title:
【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】(試練の攻略者)
【Violator】(This is Zuruwarn's term for the champions, 侵犯者/Violator (of boundries, taboos, life/death, etc.), not just Invader)
【Black Blood Emperor】(黒血帝)
【Dragon Emperor】(龍帝)
【King of the Stalls】(屋台王)
【Genius Tamer】(天才テイマー)
【True Ruler of the Entertainment District】(歓楽街の真の支配者)
【Patron Saint of Transforming Equipment】(変身装具の守護聖人)

Spoiler: Skills

Passive Skills:
Herculean Strength: Level 6
Rapid Regeneration: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
Dark King Magic: Level 9 (Level UP!)
Status Effect Nullity (Awakened from Status Effect Resistence!)
Magic Resistance: Level 9
Dark Vision
Dark Demon Creation Destruction Dream Path Enticement: Level 9 (fused with 【Destruction Path Enticement】!)
Chant Revocation: Level 9
Guidance: Dark Demon Creation Destruction Dream Path: Level 9 (fused with 【Guidance: Destruction Path】!)
Perpetual Mana Recovery: Level 2
Mass Strengthen Adherents: Level 3
Deadly Venom Secretion (Claws, Fangs, Tongue): Level 4
Enhanced Agility: Level 9
Body Expansion (Tongue): Level 10
Augmented Attack Power while Unarmed: Small
Enhanced Physical Ability (Hair, Claws, Fangs, Tongue): Level 9
Magic Thread Refining: Level 1
Mana Enlargement: Level 9
Mana Recovery Rate Increase: Level 9
Strengthened Attack Power while Firing Magic Cannon: Max
Augmented Vitality: Level 2
Strengthened Attribute Values: Ruling: Level 6
Strengthened Attribute Values: Target of Religious Faith: Level 3
Strengthened Attribute Values: Vidal Demon Empire: Level 1
Self-Renewal: Cannibalism: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
Augmented Attribute Values: Cannibalism: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
Strengthened Attack Power while Using Materialized Soul: Medium (LEVEL UP!)

Active Skills:
Bloodrule: Level 1
Surpass Limits: Level 8
Golem Creation: Level 7
Void King Magic: Level 6
Precise Mana Control: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
Cooking: Level 8
Thaumaturgy: Level 1 (Awakened from Alchemy!) <錬金術->錬神術>
Soul Destroying Combat Technique: Level 5
Poly-Cast: Level 4
Surgery: Level 8
Realization: Level 4
Coordination: Level 10
Ultra-Fast Thought Processing: Level 6
Commanding: Level 10
Thread-reeling: Level 8
Throwing: Level 10
Scream: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
Divine Spirit Magic: Level 2
Demon King Artillery Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
Armour technique: Level 10
Shield technique: Level 10
Group Shadow Binding Technique: Level 7
Trascend Limits: Fragments: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Refined Spirit: Level 1
Whip Technique: Level 3
Spirit Form Transformation: Lightning
Staff Technique: Level 2
High-Speed Flight: Level 1

Unique Skills:
God Devourer: Level 8
Abnormal Soul Hive
Mental Encroachment: Level 9
Labyrinth Creation: Level 5
Great Demon King
Abyss: Level 10
Divine Enemy
Soul Devour: Level 9
Vida's Divine Protection
God of Earth’s Divine Protection
Collective Thinking: Level 7
Zantark's Divine Protection
Collective Operation: Level 7
Spirit body: Level 4
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: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Mutagenesis
Demon King's Flesh
Demigod

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

Spoiler: Demon King Fragments

Demon King fragments:
Blood
Horns
Suckers
Ink Sacs
Carapace
Scent Glands
Luminescent Organs
Blubber
Jaw (Fangs, Chin)
Eyeballs (Retinas, Lenses)
Proboscis
Fur
Exoskeleton
Jointed Legs
Antenna
Claws
Compound Eyes
Gills
Auxiliary Brain
Protuberance
Veins
Tongue
Lungs
Fins
Venom Glands
Bones
Skin
Orb
Evil Eye
Nerves
Stomach
Membrane
Feathers
Shadow
Tentacles
Scales
Bone Marrow
Fallopian Tube
Silk Glands
Muscles
Crystals
Sweat Glands
Cnidocyte

 

while that would be really great to see I am mostly worried how much awakened guidece can force people to change their views, Bellwood is good example of how bad impact guidece can have on others.

EDIT: heiro001 I see one mistaken in currently available jobs, "creation guider" is job that van already has.

 

Finally got to read the chapter. Hmm, I suspect a lot of time is going to be spent in this place given how much effort the author has put into it. It's practically a mini-continent / sub-world down there, considering that it covers 1/3rd the area of the Demon King's Continent, so perhaps Van won't have to tunnel that much.

Was nice to get one minor piece of info: there was a gap of about 100 years between the end of the war with the Demon King and the war between Vida and Alda. This was actually something I was wondering about recently - 100 years is perhaps slightly less than I was expecting but not by much. Was also nice to get some more detail on what happened immediately after the war and also the perspective of the evil gods at the time.



PS One thing that might be confusing to some people (particularly those using machine translation) is the use of the word "pillar". This is more of a side-effect of one of the somewhat awkward parts of the Japanese language. Compared to English, in some areas it tends to be less specific but in some areas it's more specific. For example, the language itself is quite gender neutral - it is much easier to reference someone without making their gender clear. Sometimes Japanese authors will use this aspect to disguise the real gender of a character or to delay when their gender it made clear to much later than would make practical sense in English. This can be hell to translate, even for professionals.

Another example is that Japanese doesn't differentiate as strongly between singular and plural - it's more of a special case than a generate case. To explain this example a bit more, if you use Google Translate to translate the words "I was attacked by wolves" into Japanese you'll get "私はオオカミに襲われた" but you'll get the same output if you enter "I was attacked by a wolf". This is not a bug in Google Translate, really. It's more like people are used to speaking that way and it's possible in practice that a follow-on question or bit of context would clarify (if necessary) whether it was actually singular or plural. Often it might be left unspecified, leaving the reader unclear as to the exact situation.

However, conversely, when you are listing a count of something you need to specify a "counter" for the type/category of the thing being counted. "I bought two pencils yesterday" is "私は昨日2本の鉛筆を買った" and "I bought two books yesterday" is "私は昨日2冊の本を買った". In the former "2本" is how "two" was translated but in the latter it was "2冊". This is because different "counters" are used for different things. "本" commonly means "book" but is also the "counter for long cylindrical things" (and a bunch of other things) while "冊" generally don't have much use except as a counter for books. Essentially the "counter" is something that doesn't translate back into English - in everyday conversation you wouldn't say "I bought two long cylindrical things of the pencil variety yesterday", which would be the REALLY pendantic way to translate it back to English.

And all this complexity leads us to "柱" which can mean "pillar" or "post" and other things but is also the "counter for buddhas, gods, nobles". Most of the time when the author is using this kanji character in the latest chapter is as a counter for gods. So here "2柱" doesn't mean "two pillars" but "two [gods]".

Fun, huh. Incidentally, the biggest argument I ever had about how to translate something turned on the exact intended meaning of a "counter"...

 

Van seems pretty casual about taking dangerous sounding jobs now but I wonder if it might cause practical problems somewhere down the line. For example, "destruction guidance" might have a bad influence on the "evil gods" around him.

Anyway... nice to see an update on Van's spec sheet but not much has changed, despite a few gods dying and him eating them. I guess he got no exp for killing them since he did it directly rather than through subordinates.

 

Thanks for doing all the heavy lifting I'll update the front page in a little bit.

 

Honestly, it is easy for me to see the guider skills if they make a divine version, such as divine aura instead of enchantment, or teaching instead of guldance.

Well, I expected guider skills to go up to level 10 now, so when he chooses "Chaos Guider" the skill will wake up to a higher version.