CHAPTER VIII: SOLDIER
The days pass by in a blur as I throw myself with abandon at my training, fighting all manner of monsters in the arena to increase my "job levels". It's difficult to resist the urge to use the Divine Forms to win but at the insistence of Demiurge, I focused on developing these job levels instead. Spells and martial prowess made up the bulk of my abilities with many of the spells I now cast giving passive buffs before combat even began. The new spells I was learning where utility in origin like Appraisal Magic Item, Detect Magic and Discern Enemy because I was taught by Demiurge that it was important to learn the basic utility skills now and get the stronger magic later. The results were amazing nonetheless as it allowed me to judge the relative strength of the enemy displayed on the strange screens and counter it before even entering combat.
Demiurge taught me how to focus my mind so that I could choose what abilities to gain but overall, he's teaching me based on Lord Ainz's "build path" as he was instructed to do. My respect for Lord Ainz rose immensely over the time period due to his intricate knowledge of spells and their applications and I could honestly say that I've never met a being as intelligent. It made me wonder why heteromorphic beings were so feared and looked down upon when they could possess such great power and above all, compassion and empathy. My father taught me the dangers of such beings but now that I was among them and serving one with such mercy, my early teachings were revealed as half-truths. Not all monsters are bad.
I went home only once during the span, Margaret still ranting at how I betrayed my town and my mother still ranting about how I'm betrothed to a dark elf despite my insistence otherwise. The only one happy to see me is Karen who seemed immune to ill will towards me. She likely wasn't old enough to understand but I felt like I didn't need to explain it. It started to become clearer and clearer that I couldn't count myself as a normal human anymore because my strength was already far beyond what existed in the town, more so with the lack of able soldiers.
This was demonstrated further when a group of bandits, 30 men strong, tried to capitalize on our lack of guards by raiding the town through one of our ruined walls. It was the perfect opportunity to test out my new training as I marched alone to meet them, the leader trying to taunt me with his atrocities but decapitated in a single move when I threw my shield at his neck. The other bandits were stunned at their leader being so easily felled but they fell soon after, those who chose to attack me beaten into bloody stains by my mace and those who fled begging me to spare them when I found them. None of them showed me any reason to spare them, my weapons arcing down to kill those who begged with cold efficiency. Their leader had sealed their fate...just like Commander Sindre...arrogant fools...
I hadn't even broken a sweat when I returned to the town, the people viewing me in fear at having butchered 30 men without effort and leaving their corpses piled in the grass field for all to see. That horror was only magnified when I informed Lord Ainz of my deeds via Message, his great form making an appearance to claim the corpses for his armies personally. I felt a swell of pride at giving the first true gift to Nazarick since my induction and gained the gratitude of Lord Ainz himself for my contribution to his efforts. People saw me differently after that but soon, I stopped caring about their approval altogether and returned back to my home in Nazarick.
The strangest part of the passing days was Aura who started to act more friendly towards me over time. I asked her bluntly what she intended for me but never got a straight answer, multiple attempts shot down at each point it was made. I asked Mare and Shalltear what to do but Mare didn't want to gossip so he gave me nothing and Shalltear issued the same threats as before, going as far as to break one of my arms in emphasis.
I kept asking around anyway, going further and further up the chain of command. Cocytus lectured me on how I needed to find out what my heart desires on my own and not run to others to decide for me. Demiurge just laughed at me and suggested that I try dating which I wasn't sure about. Albedo openly shunned me for trying something so bold on a guardian not old enough to have a relationship. Lord Ainz, with his infinite knowledge, was actually stumped on this and asked me to come back later when he had time to think. The next day, he told me via a message that it was up to me to decide what to do next.
And I had no idea what to do next.
"Looks like you made it this far, Basugul. Your training as a Novice is over and you've levelled the job class as far as it can go. It's time for you to select your next one," Demiurge states as I kneel on a circle of magic that he drew, my head bowed as I listen to his words and closing my eyes when Demiurge commands me to. Magic flows around me as a see-through screen, a menu they call it, appears in my mind, a list of names displayed on it for me to choose from. "Tell me what you see," Demiurge commands and I nod my head once in confirmation. "Soldier, Knight, Spellcaster, Spellsword, Alchemist, Sergeant," I rattle off clearly, the only sounds I hear the humming of magic and Demiurge pacing the floor.
"The choice is now yours, Basugul. You may choose one of the six but don't feel discouraged by what you choose. To gain your full potential, you'll need to finish all six of these classes to proceed with your training," he explains calmly as he keeps pacing, another nod from my head signalling that I understand. "Just focus on a name and the class will become active within you."
I focus on the name of Knight, the word growing larger as the other names disappear from the menu. It asks me if I'm sure and I focus on the word yes, confirming the selection and opening my eyes. Demiurge claps his hands in awe as he smiles at me in good humour. "Splendid! A flawless execution of a job change without any accidents! Now we must get your equipped properly for your new class! Aura will handle the rest," he states as Aura steps in with a yawn, Demiurge already moving off to do other business as my head tilts at Aura's lack of ceremony. "What? This is boring to me. When do we get back to the Arena?"
"Not for a while, Aura. You know that Lord Ainz wants my presence soon and he has a mission he's gonna send me on. Once you furnish me with the new gear, we might not see each other for as long as I'm away," I state neutrally but Aura snorts to herself and waves her hand for me to follow. A Gate spell is intoned and she leads me through it but what's on the other side isn't the armoury of the Arena but the wooden cabin I inhabit. I'm already confused when I start looking around the cabin but nearly jump out of my skin when the other guardians appear out of nowhere. "Surprise!" they shout in unison, my head jolting back at the strangeness of their sudden applause. "Is...something happening?"
"You're no longer the Novice Basugul so we're throwing you a small congratulations meeting," Aura states as she turns around and grins at me, Mare appearing next to her with a wrapped box that he offers me. I gently take and open the wrapped box to find a few healing scrolls in it, nodding my head as I take them out of the box and put them in my back satchel. "Thank you, Mare. These will come in handy."
"Aura would be sad if you didn't come back alive-" he starts to say but Aura interrupts him by pulling his face, my face amused but only for a moment. Shalltear is less forgiving of Mare's outburst and its implications, already surging towards me along with Albedo. I put my hands up in surrender as they approach and keep my face neutral, waiting to see what they would do. "Give me your hand," Shalltear commands, my eyes looking at Albedo who nods for me to do so. As soon as my right arm goes forward, she grabs my hand with hers and breaks my pinky finger with her thumb, a grunt of pain escaping me as the limb is moved out of place. "Anything else?" I whisper in pain, Shalltear responding by breaking my ring finger as well before throwing my hand at me dismissively and opening a Gate.
Albedo fills the spot she just vacated and I ask her what she wants. "I'm here to formally congratulate you on reaching the first step of your development...and this," she states as she stamps down on my foot, another grunt of pain escaping me at having my toes broken as she also leaves through the gate made by Shalltear. "Anyone else?" I ask aloud, no one saying anything in response and giving me my cue to cast Light Healing to fix the broken limbs. "Why do you let those creatures abuse you so, Basugul? Do you not have the will to call them out on such behaviour?" Cocytus growls before exhaling cold mist, a short chuckle my response as I test my fingers and toes. "Those "creatures" are not only my superiors in the hierarchy but also my superiors in power. Plus I have to admit, I may have deserved that-"
"I think you enjoy pain more than you realize. Lord Ainz has selected an interesting choice in servants," he growls as he turns to leave through the gate, Demiurge stepping in and throwing a leather satchel at me that I catch awkwardly. "This is an Infinite Backpack, able to hold 500kg worth of items. If you find anything interesting while out in the world at large, do bring back something I can use?"
"Wait, he's playing errand boy too!? How come I wasn't informed!?" Aura shouts as she rounds on me, her hand opening in the air and a piece of paper entering it from nowhere. She shoves it into the pack that I'm holding and grabs the collar of my robes so that my face is level with hers. "Read that list and bring some of the stuff back and I may reward you. Don't bring anything back and I'll probably break one of your ribs. Comprende?" she states playfully, my head nodding once as she lets go of my robes. Demiurge is already handing me a similar piece of paper that I take and place in the pack as well but he also gives me instructions. "This pack has a menu of its own and you can focus your mind to sync its magic with yours. Try it," he commands as I rotate the backpack. I focus on the magical energy of the item and see a menu appear, the two scrolls of information showing up and extending in submenus to reveal their contents. I raise my brow when I see the title of Aura's list. Grocery and Approval list? What's that mean?
Before I can ask about the other list, Demiurge is already leaving and waving his goodbyes and Aura and Mare are leaving out the front door. "You know where to find us!" Aura shouts with a grin as she shuts the door behind her, leaving me to shrug and pull out my badge of Ainz Ooal Gown to open a Gate of my own. I put a hand to my head as I walk towards the gate, highly confused at the mixed signals I keep getting from everyone. Aura keeps dropping hints...or am I overthinking it...she won't answer me directly and...argh! I don't know!
I ignore my doubts for the moment and keep walking, entering the gate and into the relative quiet of the Arena armoury. Rows upon rows of weapons and armour are lined up in several isles, some of them gleaming off the low light of the yellow ceiling lights as I start to peruse the selection of weapons, ignoring the arrays of blades and heading straight for the blunt instruments. "Detect Magic," I intone as my vision displays detailed information on each weapon, my hands hovering over each to see its stats. One of the maces stands out above the rest and I pick it up, a strange triangular head with a point at the top that I hold aloft and swing a few times to test the weight. Perfectly weighted...that'll work.
I reach forward and grab the holster for the weapon, putting both on my right hip and moving over to the shields section. It takes only moments to notice the silver heater shield design with a winged sword on it, my hands already snatching it to mount on my right arm.
Richochet Shield.
The voice of Yggdrasil rings in my head as I follow its instructions, rearing my right arm back and swinging it forward to throw the shield. The shield unlatches and is sent spinning in the air like a thrown blade, flying around the armoury in a circular arc before coming back to me. My right arm shoots forward as it arrives, easily catching and strapping the shield back to my arm but quickly unstrapping it as I move it to my back.
The last stop is armour and I immediately find what I'm looking for again, the armour in question on a specific armour rack with light shining directly down on it. My Detect Magic doesn't see any traps but being suspicious, I crouch down slowly and examine the area around the armour and quickly find a tripwire on the ground. Following its path, I see that it's attached to a spring-loaded mechanism that threw knives aimed for whoever tries to stand near the armour rack and pick up the armour. I bring my shield out just in case and plant a foot on the wire, the mechanism going off but at such a speed that the knives ricochet off the armour and fly everywhere. My shield arm goes up to absorb the storm of blades that pings off it violently, some of the blades putting more gashes and cuts into my robes and nearly hitting the skin underneath. When I'm sure there aren't any more deadly surprises, I lower the shield to check for any other traps, snorting when I see another wire and step on it to trigger a jet of flames from beneath the suit that heats up the metal.
I wait patiently for the fires to subside and finding no more traps but when I reach the suit of armour, it's glowing red hot and partially melted from the fire. "Damn it..." I say to myself in chastisement for having damaged what I wanted to find instead of disarming the trap, turning away from the suit in disappointment. "I'll make due with what I have since I messed that suit up..." I whisper as I cast another Gate, walking through the gate back to the 10th floor. Lord Ainz is absent so I find a place near one of the grand pillars to sit against and wait for him to appear.
He appears out of nowhere with no prior warning of his presence, my head looking up lazily to find him staring at me with glowing red eyes. I quickly right myself and move to stand in front of him, bowing my head once before reporting. "I am prepared for your special assignment, Lord Ainz," I state to him but when I look up, he eyes me suspiciously with a hand on his chin. "You lack armour of any improvement. Did you forget to peruse the selection?" he asks in good humour, my face embarrassed as I respond to his query. "There was an accident and I destroyed an armour suit. I consider it a personal fault and will perform this task without new armour."
Lord Ainz gently waves his hand in the air, casting magic that only he can see before intoning Create Greater Item. An armour suit of similar design to the one I destroyed appears on my frame underneath my robes, the plates fitting snuggly to my body and feeling light for heavy plating. "Aura set a prank for your armour to be destroyed upon finding it. Impressive that you almost succeeded in preventing its destruction," he states powerfully, my head bowing to him once but no words spoken as I wait for him to continue. He tells me the mission without preamble. "You will travel to E-Rantel and join the Adventurer's Guild as a copperplate adventurer. I have arranged everything beforehand. Your task is simply to climb to the highest tier of the guild and try to gain reputation and income for Nazarick. Do you have any questions you'd like to ask me?"
"What do you think I should do about Aura? I don't know what she wants from-" I blurt but stop myself when I see Lord Ainz put a skeletal hand to his face in dismay from my sudden question. "You meant the mission...sorry..." I respond with a bowed head, raising my head with a crooked smile and clearing my thoughts to try and ease the tension building from the conversation. "I understand, Lord Ainz. Most of the Adventurer Guild members are human from my knowledge and I'm one of the few humans you have at your disposal. It makes sense that I'd eventually be called to perform this task."
"In answering your other question and since Aura is guarded with her answers, Aura Bella Fiora is 76 years old but that's not adult age by dark elf standards. It explains why I keep receiving reports of your indecency from Shalltear and Albedo." There's caution in his voice as if trying not to be heard and I bow my head in deference to his words, smiling at having at least one problem laid to rest. "I understand, Lord Ainz. She is far too young for such options to be considered and it is against the wishes of two of our greatest guardians for me to act. I thank you for the insight."
I turn to leave with a clear conscious, the odd situation finally sorted out until Lord Ainz adds one more line as I leave. "If she pursues you, let her in but only if you're willing to accept the danger into your heart," he states from behind me, my pace stopping as I turn my head back to regard him. His skeletal face gives away nothing but his next words put a smile on my face.
"You did not hear that from me, of course."
