Alright I've said this before but I just want this to come across as best as possible. My exams are coming up soon and I won't be able to update as much. Simple as that.

Last chapter was just a lot of description so in this one, there'll be a 'bigger' addition to the actual story.

VVVVVVVVVVVV = Change of Scene or time (If it's the latter, like a flashback, it will say)

XXXXXXXXXXXX = Start and/or end of the chapter

Talking: "Hey there old friend."

Thinking: "Is this guy serious right now?"

Summons: "As you wish."

Summons Thoughts: "Is he serious?"

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Trial and Skill

"Wait what? That can't be possible?! It was able to bypass a super-tier item? That means…"

"Albedo! Come here! We are leaving!"

The white-dressed succubus quickly and happily jumped into the arms of the undead heteromorph. Teleporting away, both found themselves in an entirely different field a few miles away. Albedo blushed from the contact with her beloved before it morphed into one of confusion and anxiety after he lord unhands her and flips out.

"Damnit! Damnit! Damnit Damnit Damnit! AAAHHHHHHHH!" screamed Ainz as he continuously pounded the earth with his shaking stomps. The same outside force as always calmed him down.

"What is wrong my lord? Please tell me? Did it not work?" came the near angelic voice of the floor guardian overseer.

"You are right Albedo. I was not able to cure Shalltear's status effects with shooting star. That leaves the only possibility for Shalltear's attacker to have used a…"

"World level item..."

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"Congratulations you two! Your mission success rate is adequately high and you have gone through with more than a few noteworthy achievements. As my right as guild master for the royal capital's adventurers guild, you are now gold-plated adventurers!" exclaimed an easy-on-the-eyes woman who was standing in front of 2 men, one in plate armor and the other wearing some sort of scale.

"Thank you for your kindness miss. We shall continue on as adventurers for this city, of course. May we meet again with greater feats." said Kolstein, the man in scale all the while taking the gold plate that was just handed to him and placing it around his neck. The other man in plate, Urman, simply hung his plate on his belt, falling over his right thigh.

It had been roughly 3 weeks since their encounter with Ainz and Co and progress has been made. They were now an official team, just the two of them. Considering they are only gold plated adventurers, they are well known around the guild hall as impressive upstarts by many. Even civilians are starting to recognize the two whilst they meander through the capital.

Various quests for ogre subjugations, large goblin nests clearing, hidden necromancer hunting, etc, are all under their name. The name their team was given by the guild was quite simple. Very few people had seen any of the two fight, if any at all, but they still give off conflicting senses of tension yet tranquility. This is just the air they have. At first it confused people, even frightened off a few. However, the guild's adventurers, both above and below, have long since gotten used to it. Even enjoying it considering that, unless one of them are angered, namely Kolstein, the feeling one gets around them is quite relaxing. Thus, their name. Serene Tempest. A calm, raging storm. Contradictory, yes. That's the point.

Although, not everyone likes them. Some angry iron plates complained about favoritism and how they climbed the ranks far faster than anyone. The only thing needed to be said was that there was plenty enough evidence to suggest they did all that they claimed. Eventually, the iron plates were 'taught a lesson' by some silvers. They said that they were being too loud in the guild hall.

That they were.

Since they had their first encounter with the adamantites, Blue Rose, they had actually not seen each other. Evileye was looking out for the pair. She wanted to know Kolstein more than just as a stranger. Her feelings were conflicting. There was no real romance, just some emotional attachment of some kind. She had yet to see someone move the way he did, hold themselves the way Kolstein had, the list goes on. It simply enamoured her.

With no luck, she could only keep an eye out while doing her own mission. The rest of Blue Rose that wasn't there for the little 'conflict' at the guild hall had of course heard of it. Serene Tempest's exploits also reached their ears so their leader, Lakyus, was interested in meeting them. Perhaps they could work together in the future? That's another story.

Kolstein and Urman were walking around town. They had just left the guild building after receiving their new ranks and were now just walking about. Urman was told earlier by Kolstein that he had plans for the both of them that would take a few days of their time.

"Urman, in here." came the voice of said master as Urman followed him into a metal workshop. While inside the store with the widest variety of metal in the capital, Kolstein picked out a unique ingot. It was light green in color and although it didn't shine too much from what little light was in the room, it was still unmistakably metal. It costed a small fortune. 1 platinum coin and 4 gold. Quite a lot, in fact, almost half of the money Kolstein and Urman had made up until this point.

Not that they cared, they lived out in the land primarily. They hunted themselves, ate by their own campfires, etc. They only returned by night to sleep at the inn considering that a comfortable bed was superior to the cold forest floor.

Kolstein grabbed the ingot and tossed it to Urman who caught it with a start, not at the surprise through but more so the weight. It was very light to say the least. Urman turned to Kolstein as to ask what it was exactly but Kolstein was already leaving so he just followed, keeping his mouth shut.

As they walked through the city, waving hello to 3 or 4 friendly faces they had worked with in the past month on the way, the 2 made it to the front gates and left. The guards, of course, knew who they were, almost personally. They left the city almost everyday so it isn't too surprising that they got out without any qualms.

Walking through the forest path, the morning sun besting the leaves attempting the shield the world from it beamed on the flattened dirt. After trotting for about 15 minutes, they veered off to the right, off trail, and continued another 400 meters into the already thickening woods. The trek now coming to an end, a small clearing with a diameter of 20 meters cut cleanly out of the trees met them with open arms. A small stream that came through the forest of 15 meter tall wood that cut the flat, grassy clearing at one side, almost like dividing a fourth of the opening and leaving it to itself.

Right in the middle sat a wood cabin. Sturdy logs formed its walls as the cabin stood 6 meters in height at its tallest, considering the angled roof, and 5 meters and its shortest. 1 side had a window with a shutter over it, keeping it safe from the outside world. On the adjacent side, facing the stream, was a door just big enough to fit Kolstein, who, mind you, was 3 inches taller than Urman who stood at 5'11.

On the wall opposite the door was a chimney of stone that stuck up 7 meters from the cabin's base. Entering the cozy home shows what it really was. Just like the outside, everything inside was new, almost unused. That's because it was almost unused. Kolstein and Urman worked for about half a week to make it. Their speed allowed them to make it quickly although they were in no rush so half a week was fine by them.

The interior was simple. The window now open and door letting in light, one could see the round pit made from rock with straw bags filled with charcoal sitting on the right side of the room. There was some coal still inside the shallow pit which covered up the bottom, riddled with holes used to supply air derived from the bellows sitting off to the left. Side air-producer was hooked up to a rope and pulley system as to allow the user to pull on it while still standing near the anvil located right at the front of the pit.

"It took a little while, but now that we've finished the beginnings to our little workshop, we can start working on our own tools and what not." As Kolstein thought this, he couldn't help but smirk at seeing the workbench along the wall with the window, tools lining the wood next to it, and a grindstone in the other corner.

"This is so Skyrim esk its insane. Well, I guess that's the point."

"Urman, today we are going to further your potential." This piqued Urman's interest. "I have of course noticed you strength increasing in time, however I feel that as we continue up ranks, you may need better equipment. On our last mission, you could take on an ogre on your own. That's good however I saw that you were overwhelmed at 2 or more at the same time. Your weapon to dull, armor too lacking. Let's fix that so that your growth is left unstinted."

"Yes master! Although, what would you like to do specifically?"

"Well, we will start with this." Kolstein held onto the metal he had just purchased. "This is mithril, one of the best metals money can buy, which was why it was so expensive. It is exceedingly light so it should go unnoticed by you, especially how I've intended to use it. I will craft you a better weapon soon, or even give you one from my personal armory but for now, new armor will do you good."

"Yes, thank you master."

As the coals were poured into the pit, the fires lit thanks to Kolstein's flame spell, Urman took to gathering water for quenching. As Kolstein heated up the pit even further with his spell, all the while adding oxygen with the bellows, it only took 5 minutes to get up to forging temperatures. Mithril has a slightly higher melting temperature than steel, sitting at around 2000 degrees celsius. As he fed the ingot in the forge, the process began.

After leaving the water inside, Urman sat in the grass, waiting for Kolstein to finish before he decided it would be better to get working on some food and collecting things for a fire. Fishing from the small stream might work too. Maybe afterwards, he might train a bit on some moves he's picked up on...

Back inside, Kolstein was getting ready his first hammering. The mithril came out bright yellow, a glowing bar looking as if it was cut from the sun's surface itself. He Kolstein, with masterful speed and grace, began pounding the metal. Each hit work hardening the bar as it slowly began to take shape. As it cooled down, it went back into the flame.

Back and forth, back and forth. The bar was heated, cooled and then reheated. Every so often, Kolstein would pour some water onto the anvil with a ladle before placing the ingot down and smacking it on top of the water, the steam and small blast removing any oxidizing scale in the process.

The metal flattened with time and eventually, it became something akin to a thin sheet of mithril. Kolstein moved the sheet to a sort of cutter that was placed on the table. A simple blade fashioned by an unused orichalcum dagger he had in his inventory worked wonders as he fed the sheet through the upturned blade. As he did, the sheet had a small strip half a centimeter in length cut away along the whole length. This process was repeated over and over until the sheet was no more; now just a bundle of mithril strands.

The strands were heated and cut while yellow into sizable lengths. Each small length of mithril neatly formed a ring when wrapped around a rod he had lying around as a form. After 3 hours of arduous work, all strands were made into a great pile of flattened, mithril links. With one final heating through the forge, the links were quenched in hot oil, of which Kolstein just instinctively knew what temperature to bring it up to, the perks of being a level 100 smith, after which bringing said rings to be tempered in the residual heat of the now coal-less forge. Kolstein eyeballed this too and was constantly working the metal to make sure the heat coated every link near perfectly.

Yea, level 100 smith.

After the hour long tempering, Kolstein got to work with the easiest part, but one not lacking in length.

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Urman had been working for a while now. It had been 9 hours since Kolstein went in there and Urman was curious as to what he was so focused with. He had already eaten and had prepared some fish he procured as well as wild vegetables that were in his pack from a previous expedition, all waiting for his master. In the meantime, Urman did was he could to improve himself.

"Ability Boost!" Urman's body shimmered green for but a hair.

"Martial Arts: Cutting Edge!" Again, Urman, or rather, his axe glowed a bright green for a fraction of a second before gathering at the edge of the bladed section.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH" screamed Urman in a battle cry as he charged his target; a set of trees. His axe came in a horizontal strike, the weight of the relatively large man and heavy axe mixed with martial arts cutting 4 trees in half with subsequent ease.

As the logs fell to the dirt below, Urman let out a sigh and started to lightly pant. "5 hours of strength training and martial arts practice will really kill a person…" Releasing another breath, Urman was about to continue before the door to the cabin calmly opened, disturbing but a blade of grass in its grace.

Out from the door came Kolstein in a blacksmith's apron, his armor and other clothing back in his inventory for now. "Urman, here. This is yours." He held out his hands, revealing a neatly folded set of newly forged chainmail…

"Wait, this isn't chainmail…" The links were flat and had no opening. Put simply, there was no evidence of the links being fit together. Otherwise, the set was immaculate. It shimmed a light green in the late afternoon sun, almost glowing with its own radiance. Taking it in his hands, Urman noticed just how light it was, even more so than a thin, sleeveless leather vest.

"Master, this chainmail, it's quite different. What is it really?"

"My, you have quite the eye there. You are correct, it technically isn't chainmail. It is called riveted mail." This brought a confused look to Urman's eyes.

"Riveted mail is basically chainmail, just it is riveted shut, no openings whatsoever. This means that it loses the weakness that plagued it before, no longer any metaphorical and literal 'holes' in it. This also means that it can be made with about half of the material, considering it doesn't require to be as thick as it doesn't use its own tensile strength to hold the links shut."

"What this means for you is the following: A normal set of riveted mail made from steel is actually half the weight of its chainmail counterpart while also being upwards of 10 times stronger." At this, Urman's eyes lit up in shock.

He seems to be doing that a lot these days.

"That is strong, but remember that this is made from mithril. Put that on under your armor and you will be able to withstand quite the blow, even if it comes through your plate."

Urman quickly complied and arduously took off his chestplate, adorned the mail, and wore the armor once more in just under 2 minutes. "Master, it's so light! I cannot even feel it underneath! You truly are incredibly talented. To not only know of such a construct but to also be able to create it… Your abilities know no bounds."

"Thank you Urman, but now I find myself quite tired. Allow us to eat a bit and then head back to town. We will rest before coming back here again to train."

"Yes master!"

And so, the 2 went back to the tavern after eating the fish and vegetables that Urman had so kindly prepared. After a nights long rest, they approached the little workshop area again for another days work.

"Listen well Urman. Today, we will both be training. I will help you a bit but first." As he finished his sentence, Kolstein grabbed Urman's axe and placed several steel weights on the handle and slid them down towards the axe head, securing them there with some cloth. "The added steel here will increase the axe's weight by 30%. This is a technique I have seen many people use before. By adding more weight to the axe, you get better accustomed to higher weights. This means, 1, you will strike harder without the weights on, and 2, you will get used to bigger axes should you need to in the future." Urman accepted this with a nod. He had his hole set of armor on, minus the helmet.

"I want you to practice swinging that. Use the 'shadow opponent' I had you fighting earlier to imagine any potential counters. Swing your axe accurately and as fast as you can. The more you get used to mid-strike shifts, the better you will be able to control your axe in combat and the greater your chances at catching your foes off guard. Also, keep using your martial arts. I have a personal goal for you; within a months time frame, I want you to be able to use the Greater Ability Boost as to increase your capabilities. I will be on the prowl for some other martial arts that can be useful for you. Also, just so you are aware, I will be working some on my conjuration… just so you don't get too scared at seeing some skeletons…" Kolstein said the last sentence with a grin and in a teasing voice, causing Urman to show a smirk on his own before nodding and heading off to begin his training.

"Alright then" began Kolstein, now alone on the other side of the clearing. "I want to try this conjuration although it is quite strange." Kolstein brought out a… goblin corpse… one that has been lying preserved in the clearings edge for a while. It had been killed while attempting to attack Kolstein during the building process.

He laid the corpse out on the grass and stood 2 meters back from it. "Alright, so raise zombie would get him to resurrect. However, he would still be weak… I could just give it armor and such but no… wait, I could try to mix 2 spells and then give it equipment. Hmm, I got just the thing and if this works, he'll be one hell of an opponent on the battlefield." Kolstein began his strongest raise zombie spell in his left hand and in his right was the (Expert) level spell, Conjure Dragon Priest.

He placed his hands together and the two black orbs combined and began swirling in the same direction, merging with the other. Kolstein opened up his hands to reveal the ball of black, forcing it towards the goblin's small corpse. As it struck, a small vortex about 2 meters tall engulfed the small body, rendering it incapable of being seen; the black swirls accompanied by the sharp whistle of a quick wind dominated the clearing. In the process, Kolstein brought out 3 items. One was a brown, leather hood with a light gray mask covered in an ethereal glow. The mask had intricate patterns surrounding the cheeks, by the mouth and forehead. It had 2 eyes with horizontal slits for openings, just enough to be able to be seen through.

It was the Morokei Mask, one which has relative armor to it but its main purpose lies with its ability to regenerate the user's magicka 100% faster than normal. Considering all beings had at least some level of magicka, even if it was slightly different in this world, the wearer would still get similar effects. The other item was a Staff of Chain Lightning. It had a straight, golden handle that began to curve like an 'S' towards the last half meter, finishing with the head of something akin to a Chinese dragon towards the top, its mouth slightly parted as it faced the heavens. As its name describes, it is capable of launching the (Adept) level spell Chain Lightning as many times as the user wishes, so long as there is enough charge. Since coming to the new world, Kolstein has noticed that these kinds of things lose charge very slowly, especially since he crafted the staff himself, thanks to a mod, with the best (Grand) soul gem he had. It would last a while and could be easily recharged by Kolstein himself every few months.

The final item was also quite special. It was Kolstein's own set of Arch Mage Robes. The gentle fur that wrapped his shoulders melded well with the light brown and darker colors of the cloth bases robe, a leather belt near the waist to assist in holding it in place. The robe set gave 3 things itself; 1, 100% magicka regen. 2, an increase of 50 magicka which, by this world's standard, is actually quite powerful, maybe even close to a 3rd or 4th tier mage, and finally, 3, a 15% spell cost reduction for any and all spells. This would be useful considering Kolstein has every intention to teach some spells to the… thing… if he gets this to work.

As the items were thrown in, the vortex began to calm down and revealed a now floating being. The goblin could no longer be seen on the ground, rather it was floating. In fact, one couldn't even tell it was a goblin anymore. The goblin just seemed to be the base for which the Dragon Priest to possess. It would seem that the only thing the base dictates is how strong the Priest is right out of the gate, which would mean in this case that it isn't at its best right now. However, due to its items and the fact that a Dragon Priest's soul has been implanted, the body will rapidly grow in strength to its current maximum within the next day or so.

Standing in front of Kolstein, the black swirling wind now long gone, stood… nay, hovered the new being. It hovered half a meter off of the ground and, in and of itself, it stood at 5'10, just an inch below Urman. Feet and calves were almost just skin and bones, a pale limb just able to be seen from the cloth hanging from its waist. The arch mage robes covered its upper body beautifully, extending wrapped linen over its arms and covering its hands. The face and head were fully concealed by the Morokei Mask and, as the mask was named such, the being would now be called Morokei. It held the Staff of Chain Lightning firm it its right hand, slightly angled towards the right and directed the head of the staff upwards.

Morokei, the first ever Dragon Priest of this world was now completely under Kolstein's control and would be one of the stronger beings the world's seen, technically speaking. "Damn, this guy looks cool. The mask really suits him. Considering what I've seen and heard, this guy would be equivalent to a tier 5 or tier 6 mage. And that's just with the staff. Due to the nature of the masks, I think I will only be able to get him to learn a few destruction spells, but I may be able to get him to grasp some restoration. Regardless, lets confirm his sentience…"

"Welcome back to the world of the living, if you want to call it that, Morokei."

The Priest remained silent for but a few seconds before responding in a raspy-with-age kind of voice, deep and with plenty of bass. "Yes of course lord. I am at your command."

"Excellent. A new summons. And this one lasts forever really, that is unless he gets killed. This really just means that not only do I have another subordinate, but considering he can talk, and the rough history of the masks and the nature of my spell, he should be quite intelligent yet remain loyal as well. I have all of the masks on me, in which case, I could maybe make the whole group of Dragon Priests something akin to generals or captains when I finally need something like that."

"This is all getting oh so interesting…"

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Alright, the story didn't progress as much as I wanted. To be frank, my story, as of right, is kind of reflecting what I want to see in the stories I read.

You know, showing the characters building up, tinkering with new spells, meeting new people and then subsequently helping them out with skills as well.

I also really like the idea of all the Dragon Priests under the control of Kolstein and leading like a small army each in some sort of a battle. It probably won't happen, but imagine a battle where Demiurge and Cocytus or whomever really are just out in some fields preparing for a fight when they get surrounded by all 8 dragon priests?

That would really be something cool. Wonder how they'd react?

Anyhow, again, sorry for taking so long with this one. You've probably heard it before in a whole plethora of different fics but I really will try to release earlier. Just gotta prioritize my school work for now, you know?

Bye for now