“T-then, uh, thank you very much!”
“But that doth not mean it shall be for free. I shalt ask one thing from thee; to aid in the creation of a scroll.”
“Ah, yes! What do I need to do?”
“Be at ease. When I speaketh so, activate thine 4th tier magic towards the scroll.”
“C-can it be any kind of magic?”
“The decision shalt be thine to make.”
Mare frowned. It was most difficult for him when he needed to make a decision. He wondered if a regular spell would be fine.
Titus reached for a small table besides the drawing table with a parchment laid on top. There was a mound of gold coins gleaming on top of the small table — they were gold coins from Yggdrasil.
Some of the Yggdrasil gold melted under the skeletal hands and flowed onto the parchment as if it had a will of its own.
The golden fluid flowed to a point on the parchment before spreading out. In the time it took to take a breath, there was an intricate golden magic circle on top of the parchment.
“Ready.”
Mare quickly cast the spell after waiting tensely and he could feel his magic being sucked into the magic circle.
A regular scroll would have been complete at that stage, or so Mare thought.
Until—
There was a scarlet flame.
Something that should not have happened occurred. As Mare watched on in panic, the parchment burned up like high alcohol content liquor and vanished within the blink of an eye.
There was no trace of what had happened, as if it had been an illusion all along. Not even the smell of burning remained. But there was one piece of evidence that spoke of what had taken place.
It was the ashes from the parchment.
Titus picked up the ashes as if he had expected it to happen.
“T’would seem, it cannot hold a 4th tier spell. The puissance of the wonderworker changeth nought about the outcome.”
Titus wrote down a memo saying “Heat — ten year's old skin cannot withstand” while grumbling.
“Uh, w-why was it like that? Did I?”
“Thou doth need not mind. Mine experiments with the bounty of this world hath been devised to limit the depletion of Nazarick’s reserves. But surely this harvest must be of a base quality.”
There were limits on what kind of materials could be used for scrolls, depending on the tier of magic they were intended to contain.
For example, regular parchment could be used to store 2nd tier magic, but nothing above that. A scroll made with materials of the highest tier, like dragonhide, could contain even 10th tier magic.
Of course, dragonhide was an extremely rare item that could not be obtained except from killing a dragon. All the members of Ainz Ooal Gown used to hunt dragons together back in the past, but that was back in the days of YGGDRASIL. Because of that, Ainz limited the usage of dragonhide until they could confirm the existence of dragons and other creatures in this world.
There was bound to be a moment they would need the materials, and it was foolish to use their supplies without being able to replenish them.
“No, not my dragons!”
“Perish the thought. No need for such measures exists. Thine dragons were specially summoned by the wills of the Supreme Beings. T’would be unthinkable to harm such blessed beings.”
Titus disposed the ash, which was all that remained of the scroll, into a waste bin. As he did so, he looked at the relieved Mare.
“Uh, does that mean the parchment from this world isn’t suitable for making scrolls?”
Mare looked at the ash.
“T’would be very likely. Or not— I recant my previous statement. ‘Tis difficult to tell. ‘Tis not unthinkable for mine methods of artifice to be a deviance in this world. For instance, the methodology of potion manufacture diverges vastly from those methods I know to be efficacious.”
“T-that’s a possibility? But are you sure it’s the parchment’s fault after just one failure?”
“Just one? I hath experimented repeatedly with various parchment materials from the surface. But with magic over 3rd tier, t’all ended the same; in flames. Tis most likely because the parchment could not contain the magic and combusted as the result.”
“But don’t the magic casters in this world use parchments like the one from just now?”
“In all likelihood, the magic casters of this world utilize regular parchment. I cannot conclude that practice is universal in all the countries of this world. But when utilizing the parchment found in the countries near Nazarick—”
Titus took out a roll of parchment that was a little different from the one he just used.
“—the experiment concludeth that 1st tier magic was the limit.”
“Does that mean humans have always been using crude and unrefined materials?”
“Probably not. The difference doth lie in the process of manufacture. Though it paineth me to admit it, their technique is quite refined. I can but master this new methodology and thereby improve myself.”
“You’re amazing!”
Mare felt respect towards the Chief Librarian who took great effort to polish and improve his abilities.
“‘Tis be thanks to all the Supreme Beings. Now then, Guardian Mare, I shall lend thee the Overlords as promised.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Nazarick Time 10:28
Mare arrived in a stone building in middle of the lizardman village after depositing the ring back in Nazarick and using mass teleportation.
The lizardmen did not possess the capabilities to build with stone materials, which needed a strong and solid foundation in humid and marshy land. It was a given that outsiders had built it — the ones dispatched from Nazarick.
The reason why Nazarick had bothered to send someone over to build something like that stood behind Mare, in the deepest part of the building.
Mare bowed towards the figure and so did the overlords who accompanied him.
The figure that was a couple steps above the ground was a stone statue of the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Ainz Ooal Gown. The statue looked extremely realistic, as if Ainz himself had been petrified, and the way it was swinging the staff to the front gave a commanding aura that was befitting of a ruler.
There were numerous offerings laid out in front of the stone statue. From Mare’s point of view, all these offerings were worthless. They were trivial objects such as flowers and fish.
But Mare was not displeased by the offering. The tributes conveyed clear feelings of admiration and worship. For example, the flowers did not grow in the marshes, but in the forest. As the forest was dangerous for lizardmen, someone must have risked his life to get these flowers. Also, the fish were far bigger than the ones the lizardmen ate, and he could tell they had selected the best to offer.
Mare nodded his head in satisfaction. The fact that some rabble from nowhere had finally recognized the greatness of his master made him happy.