“I understand. Then I shall go and see if our objective is in this place.”
Gondo began searching again, and Ainz picked out several items which seemed more magical than others.
“Hm? This is…?”
Among those items, Ainz discovered a sword.
It might well be the most magical item out of everything here.
“Umu… going by levels, it would be around level 50, then?”
It was long enough to be considered a longsword, and it was intricately decorated.
He was not sure if this was made in YGGDRASIL. But if it was an item of this world, then its magical power would beggar belief. Ainz felt the body of the sword. It was smooth and even.
“What a beautiful and exquisite sword. But there are no runes carved on it. How could that be?”
Ainz gripped its hilt. In that instant, the sword vibrated. It felt as though mana was flowing through it.
“This is… something even I can use?”
Ainz could not use longswords due to his class restrictions. However, it would seem this sword had been imbued with some sort of magic which waived that restriction.
“Interesting.”
After swinging it several times, Ainz casually poked his hand with it.
There was no pain. It would seem Ainz’s immunity to attacks below level 60 was still in effect. It did not have the special magic that was imbued into Gazef’s sword.
Having lost some of his interest, Ainz cast a spell.
“[Greater Magic Item─”
“Your Majesty! How goes the search? Did you find anything interesting?”
“─Several articles, but I’ll decide which one I want to take afterwards.”
“Is that so? I”ll leave you to it, then!”
Now that Gondo’s call had interrupted the spell, Ainz tossed the sword back into the pile.
While a sword which he could wield was quite interesting, given his present circumstances, it was nothing more than that. Any item Ainz took from here would have to be more special and beneficial.
Is that the calibre of the magic items here? What a shame. Well, I guess I shouldn’t have been hoping for a World-Class Item or whatnot.
Ainz continued searching, and an item caught his eye.
“Gondo, I’ve made my selection. I’m not sure if this is a national treasure, but could you come over and help me take a look?”
4
“Then, let’s begin.”
After saying that to Shalltear, who was standing beside her, Aura unfurled the scroll ─ the World-Class Item she had brought with her ─ and activated its power.
[Depiction of Mountains and Rivers].
Simply put, it was an item that sealed a target into a closed-off space. To be more precise, it swapped a painted landscape with the real world, and then it would convert the real world into a painted landscape.
The definition of “target” in this case was the same as that of the super-tier spell [The Creation], and referred to a specific area. Nothing within that area ─ animate or inanimate ─ could resist its effects.
This time, she was going to trap everything within this gigantic cave into the otherworld created by [Depiction of Mountains and Rivers].
Shalltear and Ainz were protected by World-Class Items, so they would not be imprisoned within the otherworld. Instead they would appear in the painted landscape which substituted for the region of devoured reality. However, as the item’s user, Aura would automatically be sucked in.
This painted world was almost the same as the real world, with nothing strange or outstanding within it. However, it was fundamentally an illusion. Without the power of [Depiction of Mountains and Rivers], once one exited the target area, everything would vanish into mist. In other words, any treasures gained from within the painted world would also dissolve into mist.
Of course, the two of them had entered this oublietted segment of reality of their own volition. Normally speaking, World-Class Items could not affect holders of other World-Class Items, but it would be a different matter if those holders accepted that influence. All that was thanks to a patch from the devs.
One could choose from 100 otherworlds to overlay onto the targeted portion of reality.
For instance, there were lethal lava lands which dealt ongoing fire damage, boreal landscapes which dealt ice damage, thunder plains that rained down lightning strikes at periodic intervals, monsoon regions where visibility was practically zero, or mist-shrouded worlds, as basic options.
The strange thing was that there were also battlefields which could be overlaid. After a certain period of time, a sizable number of reinforcements would show up to attack the enemy. However, these troops would only be about 60 % as strong as their opponents, so they were generally limited to depleting the enemy’s resources.
If one-on-one confrontations were desired, one could instead face the enemy with an equal number of stronger entities, each of which had 80 % of the user’s power. Due to this ability, it was quite useful if one’s opponent was to defeat the foe.
The most fearsome aspect of this item was not drawing people into an otherworld, but that it allowed the user to choose which targets would suffer its effects. The user could also choose these effects. In other words, even if the user created a region of molten lava, they could exempt chosen people from the fire damage it inflicted.
However, it had its weaknesses.
Unless specific otherworlds were used, one of 40 escape routes would be randomly chosen during each activation, and if the enemy managed to escape via that route, ownership of the item would transfer to the enemy. Of course, none of these escape routes were simple, but the fact that one could seize the item without defeating its holder meant that obtaining it was easier than most other World-Class Items.
This time, Aura chose one of those specific otherworlds, a simple region of sealed-off space.
Besides being trapped, the enemy would not suffer any deleterious consequences. However, there was only one specific way to escape from this place.
“Alright, Hanzo, I want you to block off the escape route from this world. It’ll be troublesome if any of them got away. Lean over a bit.”
The Hanzo leaned over from his hiding place in the shadows, and paid close attention to Aura’s explanation of the escape route.
Although Aura had not detected any ambushers nearby, it paid to be careful.
“Then, Aura. How many more people have entered this world after the others?”
“Hm? Only two people.”
That answer meant the enemy did not possess World-Class Items. They breathed a sigh of relief.
Shalltear looked around the residences of the old Royal Capital. It was a large city, but it was quiet, as though its citizens had all fled.
They had to quickly capture the Clan Lord, the ruler of the Quagoa, and convey the Supreme Being’s words to him. However, their visibility was impeded by the houses and they could not find the place where he was staying.
“Can you burn those houses away?”
“Hm? I can’t. However, I could create a hazardous environment to deal damage over time. For instance, if there were a line of log houses, we could create a lava region and burn them to ash.”
“That might kill them all, so you can’t do that.”
“Yeah. Still, I could activate it briefly and deal with everyone who survived… but it would be a shame if their ores melted.”
The Quagoa fed their children metal and the like, so there ought to be large quantities of metal or raw ore and minerals lying around. Destroying them would be a waste, and Shalltear agreed.
“Besides, Ainz-sama’s order was to see if they were willing to flock to our banner.”