Brita was shocked.
Many mercenaries and adventurers congregated in E-Rantel, so vendors specializing in weapons and equipment were able to earn a lot of money, with the recovery potion trade being the most profitable. That’s why E-Rantel had more pharmacists than other cities.
But even in the face of so much competition, Lizzie Bareare held on to her title as the best pharmacist. Among all the pharmacists in the city, she could concoct the greatest amount of complicated potions. Since the owner mentioned Lizzie Bareare, Brita couldn’t refuse.
Part 2
The wooden door closed with a creaking sound.
Aside from a small table and two single wooden beds with attached chests, there was no other furniture. Sun and fresh air were available by opening the blinds.
Ainz looked around the room and was disappointed. He didn't expect a tavern from the countryside to have the facilities and cleanliness of Nazarick, but he was still put off by this.
"How dare they assign such quarters to Momon-sama."
"Don't say that Nabel. Our objective in this city is to become adventurers and get famous. Before that, it will be a good experience to live in a way that befits our current status."
He didn't mention the displeasure in his heart as he consoled Narberal while closing the blinds. The sunlight leaking through the gaps of the blinds wasn’t enough to illuminate the whole room. Ainz and Narberal were fine since the both of them had nightvision, but for normal people this room was too dark.
"Being an adventurer… this job isn’t as fantastic as I imagined."
Adventurers.
Ainz had some fantasies about them.
People who sought out the unknown, venturing around the world. Ainz had certain expectations of this career that embodied the right way of playing the game YGGDRASIL. But after listening to the explanation of the counter lady, he learned that adventuring was a practical and dull career.
In short, adventurers were 'mercenaries who deal with monsters'.
Some parts were similar to Ainz's idealized version of adventurers. They do explore the ruins of countries destroyed by demon gods, and do seek unknown treasures in secret realms; but they are basically monster hunters.
All monsters had unique abilities, so there was a need for people with a wide variety of skills to handle them.
Thinking about it from this angle, there really might be heroes that were needed by the people, who showed up as if they were clichés in a game.
But reality was different.
The governing organizations disliked the existence of armed groups outside their control. Even setting financial concerns aside, the social status of adventurers was still low.
There were other reasons why countries didn't take in adventurers en masse. Instead of hiring permanent staff with high salaries, it was better to outsource the work to local adventurer guilds, which made more sense as a business. For companies that can operate without the adventurers guild or a nation that can clear monsters with their military, the status of adventurers were even lower.
According to the complaints of the counter lady, there were no adventurers in the Slane Theocracy. The status of adventurers in the Baharuth Empire became even worse after the current emperor ascended the throne.
Ainz purged the slight feelings of disappointment from his heart. Getting the job you wanted and realizing reality was different from your imagination was a common occurrence.
As Ainz waved his hand gently, his dark full body armor and the 2 giant swords on his back disappeared without a trace, revealing his skeletal body under the magic equipment.
A red reticule flickered on top of his gray goggles. His headpiece was covered in thorns and decorated with amethysts.
He was wearing a silky, black, long-sleeved shirt and baggy pants. The belt around the pants waist was a simple, black band.
After removing his plain steel gauntlets, a ring could be seen on every single bony finger, except for the ring fingers on both hand.
His brown leather boots with rough exterior were adorned with gold embroidery
Hanging on his neck was a silver disc with a drawing of a lion. A red cape was draped over his shoulders.
The equipment of YGGDRASIL was normally installed using an external crystal drive, so it was hard to standardize the looks of equipment. But since a lot of players hated wearing mixed pieces of equipment, it was resolved in one of the version updates.
It added the option to standardize the appearance of equipment without affecting its stats.
The black armor that covered Ainz’s whole body had several requirements and possessing the ability [High-Level Item Creation] was one of them.
Right now, Ainz was equipped with [Sure Hit Glasses], [Crown of mental Barriers], [Clothes of the Black Widow], [Black Belt], [Metallic Gauntlets], [Nemean Lion] and [Boots of Speed].
Item trading in YGGDRASIL was usually done via computer crystal data transfer, but for the sake of creating more powerful equipment, there were people who bought second hand items. A problem might arise if an item was created by another person─── and the name of the item included words that were banned on a server or insulted specific persons. The mods might request the name to be amended, but the items were usually named as the creator pleased.
A weird name wouldn’t be popular when you attempt to sell it. The fee for renaming wasn't expensive, but few people would want to purchase an item and rename it later.
So every player gave their all in naming their equipment. The name might originate from mythology or the English language.
And of course, there were exceptions too.
It was a hassle to name rings, so calling them [ring1], [ring2], [ring3] wasn't too bad. Ainz even saw people naming [thumb ring], [index finger ring] and [middle finger ring].
Ainz's friend Takemikazuchi used two Tachi if the situation warranted it. He named the 8th generation of one of the Tachi as 'Takemikazuchi Mk 8'.
It was the same for naming this red cape.
Because he copied the dark hero of an American comic, it was named [Spawn Cape].
These were all relic level equipment. Compared to Ainz main gear it was 2 ranks lower, but bringing equipment that was too powerful might cause problems, so he decided to bring only equipment of this level.
As Ainz stretched his shoulder to enjoy the feeling of liberty after taking the armor off, Narbaral choose this moment to ask:
"Speaking of which, how should we dispose of that annoying wench?"
"Ahh, you mean the woman whose potion was smashed? No need to bother with her. If something important to me was broken by others, I might’ve lost my cool as well…"
Since his mentality changed after turning into this body, Ainz stopped momentarily and continued:
"…probably. Criticizing me for being careless is only natural."
“But the only one to blame is that stupid human who sought trouble with the supreme ruler, if it weren’t for him, nothing would’ve happened.”
"That might be so, but since I was the one who tossed him, I will generously forgive her this time. And what we are trying to achieve in this city is to become part of this world and raise the fame of Momon and Nabel. It will tarnish our names if others learn that we can't even pay for a bottle of potion."