“Oh, ngunak, huh?” To Ainz it looked no different from any old weed, but to Dyne the druid, it was apparently completely different; he knew exactly what it was right away.
At that, Lukrut and Ninya both nodded a few times, like it made sense to them; they must have known the name.
While Ainz was still trying to decide if he should pretend to know it, all eyes turned to him. “Got it, Momon?”
“Hmm? Oh yeah, that one. Understood.” He nodded confidently.
If he didn’t have undead-style emotions, his voice probably would’ve been shaking from the stress, but his expression was hidden under his helmet anyhow, so no one could tell how he felt. Behind his wall of steel, he was quite imposing, regardless of what was going on inside.
“Yes, this is used frequently in potions that contain herbs.”
“Every adventurer knows ngunak!”
“Oh, so that’s why. I was wondering why we had to come all the way to this forest to gather it. Wild herbs have stronger medicinal effects than cultured ones or something, right?”
“That’s right. But the main reason is that we’re proud to make all-natural potions! Of course, they are ten percent more effective, as well.”
“That ten percent is pretty important to people who are out there fighting to the death. You offer a better product for the standard price… When you sell such high-quality potions, it’s no wonder the Baleare name is so well-known.”
Ainz let their conversation go in one ear and out the other as he pondered other things. In Yggdrasil, the basics of potion making required having a specific skill that only certain classes could get and knowing the spell you wanted to infuse into the potion. Although Ainz had never done it himself, he knew that synthesizing specific ingredients in an alchemical solution would then create the potion, but he’d never heard of anyone using herbs.
In other words, the potion-making method in this world was different from in Yggdrasil. When Nfirea said, You can’t make it using the usual methods, this is what he had meant.
Ainz felt strongly that obtaining this world’s potion-making techniques would strengthen Nazarick. It was just a matter of how to go about getting them.
As he was thinking, he realized that the conversation had returned to the task at hand, so he tuned back in.
“There’s a clearing in the woods, so our plan is to aim for that. I’ve told Lukrut how to get there, so he’ll be leading us.” Lukrut responded casually with a “Leave it to me!” and Nfirea turned back to the group. “Then let’s begin gatheri—”
“Might I make one proposal?”
“Go ahead, Momon.”
“Nabe can use a spell similar to the Alarm one that we used on the campsite, so do you think once we reach our destination, she and I could go off on our own for a little while?”
Everyone including Nfirea furrowed their brows a bit out of anxiety that their strongest fighter would be leaving his post right when they would be in danger, but Nfirea spoke up the quickest. “Sure, that’s fine. Just don’t stay away too long.”
“Of course. And it would be a problem if we got lost in the woods, so we’ll use a rope. If anything happens, you can just pull on it.”
“How about I chaperone? Just to make sure you guys aren’t doing anything nasty out there…”
“Drop dead, cockroach. If I castrate you, will your horny brain start to work normally?”
“…Cut it out, Nabe. Lukrut, that won’t be necessary. And Ninya, it would be useful if there were a spell that would let us find each other in case we got separated in the forest…”
“I’ve never heard of any magic like that, although it does sound like it would be useful.”
Ainz acknowledged his negative reply with a nod. There is a tier-six spell that allows the caster to probe for a specified object. Is he just ignorant of it? Or does it mean that just as this world has spells that aren’t in Yggdrasil, Yggdrasil has some that don’t exist here? Ainz put aside his questions for the time being and gestured to Narberal with his chin that she should get ready.
In response, she focused on each of the Swords of Darkness members in turn.
“So, Momon and Nabe will go away for a little while, and once they return we’ll start gathering.” No one could complain if that was what the requester had decided. The Swords of Darkness all nodded once, twice, that they approved of the plan.
With the proposals and cautionary notes of the final check finished, Nfirea called everyone to go. The group shouldered their bags and stepped into the forest.
In the area where the villagers had cut trees, the ground was dry and walking was as easy as hiking a well-tended trail, but gradually their surroundings morphed into what one would be tempted to call a green labyrinth.
In the forest, where there were no landmarks, where it was impossible to even tell which direction they had come from, there was a sense of helplessness, as if they’d been swallowed up. That combined with the imposing presence of the towering trees would probably be enough to scare normal humans. But Ainz, aside from the faint vestige of a human clinging to his undead mind, was not afraid, so he calmly admired the splendid scenery born of Mother Nature.
He even found himself thinking, The forests and other nature areas in Yggdrasil really were just game graphics. His feelings were mixed, since he was proud of how well-made the Great Tomb of Nazarick was, but he hadn’t realized a forest untouched by humans could be this moving. I see why Blue Planet loved the outdoors so much…
While appreciating the forest, he was on the lookout, of course, but detected no movement—it was very quiet. Far—quite far—away he could hear birds or some other animals twittering, but apart from that there was nothing that gave him the sense that there was anything alive in these woods.
He could see Lukrut walking cautiously at the front of the line, exercising all five senses to the fullest; the ranger seemed to have judged that there was nothing hiding in their vicinity.
But there is. Ainz thought proudly of the one who was probably silently tailing them at that very moment.
Perhaps because the sun couldn’t penetrate to the ground, the forest was surprisingly cool. The party proceeded through it quietly and, minus two of them, nervously. The mental strain combined with the effort of walking over the uneven terrain had sweat beading on everyone’s foreheads.
Eventually, they reached an open area about fifty-five yards in diameter.
“Here we are. This will be our base as we gather the herbs.” Nfirea set down his bag and the others followed his example, but no one relaxed. They scanned the area and made sure they were combat ready, just in case—they weren’t in human territory anymore.
“Okay, then allow Nabe and me to go out for a little while as we discussed earlier.”
Upon receiving Nfirea’s okay, Ainz tied a rope to a tree and stepped into the forest holding the other end. It was thin but well-made rope that wouldn’t break from just friction with the ground.
Ainz and Nabe tried to go in as straight a line as possible. Normally that would be next to impossible because trees would get in the way, but since the rope showed the route they had come, even these two, who weren’t accustomed to walking in forests, were able to go nearly straight.
Soon, about fifty-five yards into the woods, where their rope was running out, they stopped. Looking back, there were trees blocking the view, so there was no chance they’d be seen. There was someone nearby who could deal with anyone following them, so they didn’t have to worry about anything.
“Here seems good.”
“My lord.”
“Now we can have our reputation-building meeting.”
“…A question, if I may: What exactly are you planning to do? Bring back a huge amount of that herb they are looking for?”
Ainz looked at her without responding and then shook his head. “I’m going to fight the Wise King of the Forest.” He could practically see the question mark over her head, so he explained further. “I want to make s
ure they understand exactly how strong I am.”
“Surely the fight against the ogres was enough to do that…?”
“…That’s true, but ogres aren’t enough. There’s a huge difference between them going home and telling everyone that the adventurer Momon halved an ogre in a single swing versus the adventurer Momon repelled the Wise King of the Forest. It’s obvious which rumor would spread faster and gain me a better reputation, hence the show I’m about to put on for them.”
“Aha! Brilliant as always, Lord Ainz! That’s a perfect plan, but how will you find the Wise King of the Forest?”
“That’s already taken care of.”
“And that means…?”
In response to Narberal’s query, a third voice entered the conversation. “Hello! It means I’m here!”
Alarmed by the sudden voice, Narberal looked threateningly in the direction it came from, already aiming a spell with her right hand, but as soon as she saw who it was, she calmed down.
“Mistress Aura! Don’t surprise me like that!”
“Sorry!” A dark elf girl peeked out from the shadows of a tree, giggling. It was one of the guardians of the sixth level of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Aura Bella Fiora.
“How long have you been there?!”
“Hmm? Since you and Lord Ainz came into the forest.” As a beast tamer and ranger, stalking was a piece of cake for her. Lukrut was a ranger, too, but there was too big a gap in their skill levels for him to detect Aura. “So I find the magical beast known as the Wise King of the Forest and send it after you, right, Lord Ainz?”
“Right. According to what we know, the Wise King of the Forest has a silver coat of fur, a long snakelike tail, and four legs. Does that description ring any bells?”
“Yes, no problem. I think I know who it is.” Aura responded quickly in the affirmative, glancing up into the trees. “So should I just control it?”
“I thought about it, but no, let’s not do that.”
As a beast tamer, it would be a cinch for her to get him under her command, but things would get messy if it came out that the fight had been rigged. It was smarter to avoid as many worries like that as possible right from the start.
“By the way, Aura, how is the work on your orders proceeding?”
“My lord!” She dropped humbly to one knee.
Ainz didn’t think it was very Aura-like, but he stayed in character as her master while he listened to her report.
“Work on your orders—‘Explore the woodlands and get a decent understanding of what it’s like in there. Check if there is anyone who would swear alliance to Nazarick, and set up a place to stockpile things’—is going well.”
Ainz acknowledged her with just an “Oh, good.” Before he left for E-Rantel, he’d assigned each of the guardians a job. Needless to say, the reasons he was having Aura (and Mare) investigate the forest were to guarantee Nazarick’s safety and to acquire intelligence.
And the stockpile area, it was perhaps more correct to call it an evacuation shelter. They could hide there in the event they couldn’t make it back for some reason, and building a fake base to keep Nazarick concealed seemed like a good precaution to take. Not that he wasn’t planning on storing all sorts of different resources there as well.
Finding some kind of life-forms that would obey them would allow them to check whether power leveling was possible and also just learn how leveling worked in this world.
To fulfill all those duties, Aura and Mare, plus the minions who would be building the facilities, were dispatched to the woods. That was a gigantic abnormality for the forest to try to absorb. It had upset the power balance, which might explain why those ogres went so far as to venture into the Wise King’s territory to get out.
“However, the stockpiling area will take more time.”
“Well, that can’t be helped. It hasn’t even been that long since I gave you the order.” They had brought golems, undead, and other minions who could work with neither sleep nor rest, but even so, there was a lot of work to get done; it wouldn’t happen overnight. “Take as much time as you need and aspire to perfection. Equip it with defenses such that it won’t fall in an attack.”
“Yes, sir! Understood!”
“Okay, then, Aura. I’ll leave the Wise King of the Forest up to you as we planned.”
“Right!” Aura sprang to her feet.
After she parted with Ainz, as if on cue, a huge wolf with a gleaming coat of jet-black hair slowly appeared from behind a tree. Its fiery crimson eyes harbored a profound wisdom, which made it clear that it was no mere beast.
And that wasn’t all. Curled around a different tree was a hexapedal monster that looked like a cross between a chameleon and an iguana. Its scaly skin was changing colors with such tremendous speed that it almost looked like waves were rolling over its body. It was just as big as the wolf.
“Fen, Quadracile. Worried about me, huh?” Fen the wolf rushed at Aura, snorting. Quadracile stretched out his tongue to pat her on the cheek. “Hey, hey, I gotta go do my job for Lord Ainz.”
Aura was one of the weakest of Nazarick’s floor guardians. There were even domain guardians more powerful than her—but that was her solo strength. Her true strength was in numbers. She controlled a hundred magical beasts at their level cap of 80, and with support from her skills, they were probably equivalent to level 90. Figuring in her pack, she could probably outdo any of the other individual guardians.
The familiars with her now were two of her favorites, divine beasts—an elite type of magical beast—Fen the fenrir and Quadracile the itzamna.
They both understood and stopped pestering her. “Okay, shall we go, then?” Accompanied by the two beasts, Aura raced through the forest. Despite all the trees, she moved as fast as the wind, never needing to slow down.
A little less than thirty minutes after she began her sprint, she reached her destination. A satisfied grin that clashed with her youthful features spread across her face. There was something innocent about it but also something cruel.
“I kinda wanted to keep it, but oh well, Lord Ainz’s orders…,” she said to herself, sounding more like she was talking about a piece of jewelry than a pet.
The reason she knew the location of its nest was that she had already been considering acquiring it. Compared to the other monsters she controlled, the Wise King of the Forest was extremely weak and not very valuable. Still, the idea of a completely unknown monster excited her collector’s soul. She felt it was a shame she had to give up on that idea, but it was for her ultimate master to whom she had sworn her loyalty; there was nothing she could do.
“Let’s see…” Aura changed the composition of the gas in her lungs. An exhalation of unnatural, recombined components escaped her slightly parted rosy lips. Now she had breath that was capable of manipulating emotions and more.
Usually it would just be a passive skill of, well, questionable utility, since it would only disperse throughout a limited area around her, but if she wanted to, she could combine it with a ranged skill to be able to strike a pinpoint at a distance of a mile and a quarter—even in the densest forest.
This time she didn’t even have to go that far. She would keep her presence hidden and sneak up close to her target. Even a magical beast with exceptional senses couldn’t register Aura now, much less normal wild animals. With her presence extinguished, she walked right up to the Wise King of the Forest and breathed on it, phooo.
The fear-inducing effect woke up the napping king immediately. With all its hairs standing on end, it hightailed it out of there, lickety-split. The quadrupedal beast, driven by terror to sprint at full speed, was oddly fast—but Aura, in pursuit, was faster.
She was like death incarnate as she pursued, guiding the beast to Ainz with a breath here and there.
“If it dies, I’m gonna see if I can get its pelt.”
The forest stirred. Lukrut pricked his ears up at the change in the air and scanned the vicinity cautiously, a grim look on his face
. “Something’s coming!”
At that, the other Swords of Darkness, who had been helping gather herbs, drew their weapons and assumed fighting stances. A moment later Ainz grabbed his great swords.
“Is it the Wise King of the Forest?”
There was no response to Ninya’s anxious voice as he began packing the herbs into a bag. Everyone just silently stared into the depths of the forest.
“Ahh, this is bad,” Lukrut muttered, predictably sober considering the circumstances. “Something big is charging this way. I don’t know why it’s zigzagging, but from the sound of the undergrowth being trampled, it seems like it’ll be here soon. I just…can’t tell if it’s the Wise King of the Forest or not.”
“We withdraw. Staying here is dangerous whether it’s the Wise King of the Forest or not. Whatever it is, we’ve probably trespassed on its territory, so there’s a good chance it’ll come after us,” Peter announced and turned to Ainz. “Momon. You’ll take the rear?”
“Yes, leave it to me. We’ll take care of it.”
The Swords of Darkness peppered Ainz with words of encouragement and then took Nfirea and began their retreat to the edge of the forest.
“Momon, don’t try to do the impossible, okay?” The trust Nfirea had in Ainz was audible, and his eyes sparkled under his hair. Ainz felt awkward and urged him to leave as quickly as possible.
As he watched them all depart, he was briefly made uneasy by the possibility that he and Narberal might not be able to find their way out of the woods, but he realized that when it was all over, he could have Aura lead them. The bigger problem was…
“Crap… This might not even be the Wise King of the Forest… Even if I take it to Nazarick, I need some kind of proof that I drove it off… Should I chop off a leg?”
“Lord Ainz!” A shadow loomed behind some trees in the distance where Narberal was looking. Since it was concealed, they couldn’t tell what it was, and since the sun wasn’t shining on it, it was impossible to confirm if it was silver or not.
The Dark Warrior Page 15