{The Throne Room of Nazarick, some days after the Alfheim expedition…}
"Our suspicions are further confirmed… these are not the same realms of YGGDRASIL that we once inhabited," mused Ainz. Albedo, Demiurge, Aura, Mare, and Shalltear were gathered around him as he sat upon the Throne of Kings. "We will look into this matter of the Sons of Thor. It seems like Asgard has stumbled into a fight with us."
"What is our next move, Lord Ainz?" inquired Albedo.
Asgard is a big threat to us, if Thor and his sons are any indicator… We'll likely end up fighting them seriously in the future. I'm pretty sure there was some big battle of gods in mentioned in YGGDRASIL lore… what was it called… hmm… oh right… Ainz thought aloud. "Ragnarök…"
Shalltear perked up. "Ragnarök? Lemme see…" She flipped through her encyclopedia with a sense of urgency. "Got it! A huge battle that ends the world, fought between the gods led by Odin and Freyr on one side, and Frost and Fire Giants on the other, led by Loki and Surt respectively. The two armies kill each other and destroy everything, allowing another world to emerge from the ruin."
"Hmm." thought Demiurge, before his usual impish smile widened. "So that's how it is…"
"Demiurge?" asked Ainz. Uh… what?
"Since we have identified our YGGDRASIL player as Thor, not to mention his sons' attack on Aura and Mare in Alfheim, Asgard is by far the most active threat to Nazarick and Your long-term objectives. Your plan is to play both the Gods and Giants against each other, allowing us to control the start of Ragnarök until it suits Your plans. Once we initiate it, we will wait out the destruction within Nazarick. After that, Nazarick will be the victor by survival, and the new world that follows will be Yours to rule! Lord Ainz, the utter genius of Your plan shines even through the foggy lens of my feeble understanding!"
Ainz's jaw dropped open in shock. WHAT? What's he… He's talking about ending the world like it's just another Tuesday! Well, I guess for him, it is…
"I trust I have surmised some part of Your plans at least?" asked Demiurge. He saw the archdevil almost wagging his tail in expectation. Ainz knew the drill.
"Quite well, Demiurge. The only thing you missed is that I need to ensure my friends are not in this world first. If I confirm they are not, then we can proceed with Ragnarök. Now, explain the rest of that plan to them as you understand it as well. I anticipate an accurate summary." Whatever he's got in mind, it's likely better than what I can come up with.
Demiurge's grin widened even more, likely from a sense of profound achievement. "As You command, my Lord." He turned to face the other Guardians. "Lord Ainz wishes us to launch His scheme by making peaceful contact with the Giants, the easier part of all this, ultimately, since we have a common enemy. Once we have established relations with them, we will try to reach out to Asgard in secret and without giving away our own identity. But for the moment, the Giants are our priority. We will need our best scouts to scour the mountaintops for Jotunheim gates, as our spell [Gate] will not open a passage to Jotunheim elsewhere, assuming the YGGDRASIL principles of the Jotunheim gates yet hold true. Of course, I recommend the Floor Guardians Aura and Mare be put to the task, but any grouping of us Floor Guardians can be made to work for Lord Ainz's purpose. Have I strayed from the truth at all, Lord Ainz?"
"No, Demiurge, wonderfully done. I will make some additions, however. Since we will likely be making formal diplomatic contact with the Giants, I will be coming personally on this expedition. We will travel light, with minimal guards. Demiurge, you will handle Albedo's administrative duties for a short while, as she will accompany me on this journey since she is the Prime Minister of the Sorcerer Kingdom."
"Of course, Lord Ainz. While I cannot fully surpass Albedo's talent of administration, I will find ways to improve upon such deficiencies. It is an honor to step into the Overseer's shoes."
"I will be counting on you, Demiurge. Now, are there any other questions or suggestions before we prepare to depart?"
A small pause.
"L-Lord Ainz… uh… I… I don't know if I'm strong enough to… protect You…" said Mare timidly.
Albedo glared at him. "Competence is the duty of every Floor Guardian, and if they are lacking, then they must find a means to improve, especially where the protection of the Supreme Being is concerned. Have you found such a means?"
"I-uh-well…" Mare floundered.
"Mare…" groaned Aura. Albedo continued.
"Mare Bello Fiore. You embarrass yourself, your sister, and me, and all of Nazarick. You stand in the presence of our king and God, offering Him only useless stuttering in defense of your inadequacy?"
"They-but-I-I-I didn't-" The elf boy looked utterly terrified.
"Albedo… that's enough," sighed Ainz. Does Mare think he's gonna be executed or something just because he lacks self-confidence? Buku gave him that timidity since that's how she believed all younger brothers should be. Sheesh, Albedo…
"As You wish, my Lord. You can admonish him more thoroughly than I." She backed off.
"Mare, look at me." He did so. "The core of what Albedo said is true, even if it was harsh. Self-improvement is everyone's burden, even mine. Look at me: I am not a martial combatant, and I am vulnerable to bludgeoning damage, fire, and holy magic. In YGGDRASIL, I needed to learn spells, obtain equipment and train myself to minimize those weaknesses. This idea applies to Nazarick as a whole as well. We have a finite stock of YGGDRASIL potions and no YGGDRASIL resources to easily make more, which is why we have acquired talent from outside Nazarick to develop such potions for us using only New World resources. We have no means of mass-producing magic items without expending scarce metals and data crystals, so now we cultivate and protect Dwarven runecraft to create such items for us in the future and have recruited Brok to our side. We lack YGGDRASIL parchment for spell scrolls, so Demiurge has set up a farm to harvest materials for new parchment and scrolls. The list goes on. Do you see what I mean, though?"
Mare nodded. "I think so… I… We all h-have to get better, or tr-tr-try to… I'll-I'll think of a way to get better, and just do my best until then! Th-Thank You for sharing that with me, Lord Ainz!"
"Such wisdom is only a droplet from the vast and infinitely deep ocean of Lord Ainz's intellect," praised Albedo. Ainz nodded in satisfaction.
"Of course, a droplet indeed, yes... That's the spirit, Mare. Now, any other questions?"
"I only got one, Lord Ainz: When do we go?" asked Aura.
"Once there are no more questions."
{The mountain…}
"Now, boy!" shouted the grizzled man. A mighty dragon lay stunned under some sort of crane. The boy strung one of his arrows, loosing it at the old rope that held the crane's claw up. The rope tore, and the claw fell right on the dragon's neck. The man jumped up, stabbing one part of the claw into the dragon's neck. He ran over the top of the dragon's head, jumping onto the other end of the claw. The momentum of his leap let him land on a spiked crystal sticking out of the rock. The man pushed and pushed with a roar.
The dragon struggled against him, but then screeched as the crystal spike pierced its scaly hide and dug deep into its neck. Its flailing intensified, breaking the crystal off. It reared into the air, and the man swung down, kicking the crystal deeper into the dragon's neck as its lightning breath built in its heaving lungs. The man threw himself from the crane's claw, landing with a thud on the ground.
The neck of the dragon exploded, sending a shower of dragon flesh, blood, and crystal shards all over the ground. The monster groaned one last time in its death throes, as its body went limp. Its head crashed onto the ground first, the jaws open and facing the man.
The man exhaled from the mild exertion, and turned to go, rolling his neck. The boy ran up to him, quite out of breath. "Wow, we actually did it!" He turned to face the dwarf in golden armor. "And-and you!" He started to approach the dwarf, who flinched away from him, before turning his attention to the fallen dragon.
"But-but-but-but nobody's killed a dragon for hundreds of years, not since the Grand Culling of the Wyrms! And unless I'm mistaken you did all of that… for me!" The man began to walk away.
"You are mistaken. The dragon was simply in our path, nothing more."
"You deny it all you want, but you saved me, and that deserves compensation." The dwarf reached into a small pouch on his belt. He withdrew a bundle of bright green arrows, and handed them to the boy with a smile.
"What are these?" asked the boy.
"Braided mistletoe arrows! Straighter than Heimdall and perfectly weighted!"
"Oh… Thanks?" The boy seems disappointed in the gift.
"Oh. Okay," sighed the dwarf, reaching again into the pouch at his side. "Hold on. Uh, eugh, not that…" he said as he pulled the head of a crude poleaxe from the pouch. "Um… have you seen my brother again?" he continued to rummage through the purse.
"Yeah, he said you lost your talent!" replied the boy. The grizzled man hmphed.
The dwarf spoke a bit angrily at that statement, pulling out various objects from the pouch, many being too physically large for its volume. "Oh, and that I'm selfish, no… or I'm sure that I value a weapon's look, no, over its purpose. That I'm pretentious, no, and uptight. Fussy… I know what he thinks!" he said, holding out a fish by its tail. "But he can't hurt me any- AH!" He dropped the fish onto the ground as soon as he realized it was in his hand. "Burn that."
"I do not have time for this," growled the man.
"No, no, no, no, wait-wait-wait-wait… I have a better idea."
"What?"
"I just need a tooth from that dragon."
The man looked back at the dragon, then at the dwarf, and back at the dragon again, before walking up to its gaping jaw and hacking off a tooth with two swings of his axe. He grabbed the tooth in his hand. The dwarf tried to warn him before he took the tooth.
"Watch where you grab tha- oh, never mind. Ugh… so unclean… hrk… so, so unclean… ugh… oh, the smell! Perfect… that should do… ulgh…"
The man walked up to the table at the dwarf's makeshift smithy, and held out the tooth. The dwarf flinched.
"Yyyyyeah… I'm not touching that… just hold it out?" The man did so. Humming a quick tune, the dwarf cast a spell on the inside of the tooth, which began to glow bright orange. The dwarf brushed his hands off after casting the magic. "Now just run that along the string of your son's bow."
The man glared at the dwarf in suspicion.
"Just humour me…" sighed the dwarf.
The man finally turned and went up to his son. "Atreus, your bow." The boy handed his father the bow, and he dragged the exposed inside of the tooth up and down the bow. A golden glow surrounded the string.
"Two passes should do it…" said the dwarf. "Now how do I explain this in a way you'll understand…"
When his father finished, Atreus took back the bow, stringing a mistletoe arrow and shooting a red crystal and twisting roots that held it up over the mouth of a cave. The arrow hit, and electricity into the crystal, causing it and the roots to explode much like the crystal shard that had killed the dragon.
"Oh… I see you've figured it out… well… I wasn't about to explain the intricate parts of my craft or anything."
Without a word to the dwarf, Atreus and his father went off into the cave.
{A cave in the mountains, a half-hour after the dragon was killed…}
"What happened here?" wondered Ainz. He, along with an armored Albedo, Aura, and Mare, stepped out from a great cave. They were part way up a steep ravine in the mountains.
"My martlets will be back soon with the path ahead, Lord Ainz," said Aura. "Oh, Lord Ainz, did I mention that spectral squirrel Mare and I met in Alfheim?"
"No… I trust it wasn't something important?"
"I didn't think so…"
"H-he s-s-seemed mean…" added Mare.
"Yeah… Lord Ainz, what does 'fucking' mean? That squirrel said it a lot to me but I don't know what it means exactly. Is it a mean word?"
Ainz's emotional suppression silenced a wave of shock. Albedo looked equally shocked at the rather clueless twins. Ainz fumbled for a response as the two elves gazed at him expectantly. "Uh… that… isn't important right now. I'll answer your question fully… uh… later, some time. For now, it's a very rude word I think Bukubukuchagama would not have liked hearing either of you say, unless you were extremely angry about something very bad that happened."
"Oh!" Aura put her hands over her mouth in horror. "I'm sorry, Lord Ainz!"
"It's fine. You had no way of knowing before now."
A flock of small black birds assembled overhead. What set them apart from other birds was their distinctive lack of feet. They descended and began circling around Aura. She looked up and put a hand to her chin thoughtfully as they sang a beautiful melodious song to her, reporting what they had seen from high and above the creatures of the earth. After a few minutes, the martlets flew off to continue their restless mission of reconnaissance.
"Looks like there's a dead dragon up ahead, Lord Ainz, and some sort of tent next to it, with another dwarf working in it. He's not blue, though, like the other one You met."
"I see. We will approach him gently."
"Do you have a moment before you do that?" came the soft, wispy voice of a man in the cave behind them. The Floor Guardians spun around, brandishing their weapons in the direction of the stranger that stood in the shadows. "I'm not here to cause trouble, I'm just here to talk. I really hope you have that moment. This really can't wait." The man stepped forward into the light. He was old, frail, and bearded, and wore a long blue tunic underneath a brown cloak, topped by a fur cap, whose point was buttoned down over one side. One clear blue eye looked over Ainz and his following. The other eye, or at least its socket, hid beneath a leather eyepatch.
"Who are you and how did you follow us here?" demanded Albedo. "Speak quickly."
Well, I suppose that's as diplomatic as Albedo can get… Ainz thought to himself as he began casting [Silent Magic] buff spells on himself, starting with [Life Essence] and [Mana Essence]. The old man's HP and MP were minimal, probably level 10?
The old man put up his hands disarmingly. "I just wanna talk. No fighting. No killing. Just a chat. Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King, I presume?"
"We have little time for a 'chat,'" replied Ainz.
"I'm on a tight schedule as well, but I think you'll have time for what I have to say. Now, to answer your lovely hulder assistant's question, I think you already know my name, although we're not formally introduced. Odin Borrsson. Just call me Odin, or Allfather, if you want variety. I want to start by saying that I'm really impressed with what you've done here in Midgard, in such a short time, too. The Realms need more reasonable leaders. I don't know if just the two of us alone can cut it. You are a reasonable leader, right? I did take all the trouble and risk of coming here by myself to talk…"
THIS IS ODIN?! HERE?! There is no way that my [Essence] readings are true, then. He must be using [False Data] spells to mask the real stuff. Even so… why is he here by himself? He's outnumbered four to one. He's either perfectly confident of winning a fight against all four of us… or just trying to make me think he is. All the same, Demiurge's plan secretly befriending the Jötnar and Asgard, in no particular order. Here's a good chance to achieve one part of that objective.
"Very well," nodded Ainz. "Albedo, Aura, Mare. Stand down. [Anti-Information Magic Wall], [Mirror World], [Create Greater Item]. Now we will be undisturbed." A circular table appeared in between Ainz and Odin.
The old man nodded with a smile. "Wonderful magic. No over-the-top rituals, blood sacrifices, hangings, ominous chanting, none of that dramatic fluff. Straight to the point. I like it." Odin seated himself at the table, and removed his hat, revealing his balding head of gray hair. He set the hat on the table. Ainz, along with Albedo, who removed her helmet and set it on the table as well. Aura, and Mare seated themselves as well. Odin withdrew a small flask from a pouch on his belt. "You don't mind if I drink as we talk?"
"Ensure it does not impede whatever you have to say," answered Ainz.
The Allfather took a swig from the flask, and then clasped his hands on the tabletop. "I'll respect your time by being brief. I think we got off on the wrong foot, your people and mine. I want to…" he thought up the words. "... air out those grievances so they don't fester into something unpleasant."
"What grievances?"
Odin chuckled. "Ainz… transparency here is the best way to achieve peace, but it's a game for two. I know you've sent some of your people into Alfheim. I have no issue with that at all. The problem is that these little ones," Odin said as he pointed to Aura and Mare, "came across my grandsons not two days ago, and bruised them up quite badly, I might add. And just after I had their father kill a wild fire giant in Midgard for you, too…"
The case of Lord Wrath's murder? Definitely closed. Guilty parties established! "You'll need to tell me more-"
"Ainz, please… just be truthful with me, as I am being truthful with you," said Odin pleadingly. "I'm not angry at your kids here for defending themselves. Magni and Modi are a little… troubled, it's something I'm working to fix. Okay, look, I'll tell you what's going on with my end. I sent Thor's boys into Alfheim to hunt down some half-giant monster running amok and being a danger to everything in its general vicinity. Not to attack or antagonize you and yours. And-"
"You said you would be brief," said Albedo. "Be brief."
"Of course, of course. In short, I want to start over, you and me. How does that sound, Ainz? Let's make a promise to each other: we put this unpleasant Alfheim stuff behind us, and you don't owe us one for killing the fire giant. No war between Asgard and Midgard. You've done a wonderful job of keeping Midgard safe, you know, letting Asgard use its manpower to get to the bottom of these problems like the Hel-walkers. I'm really, truly grateful for that. If we both went to war now, we'd both have to stop protecting the realms, since we'd be too busy killing each other. Peace is the greatest service we can provide… to each other. We can even go so far as to make an alliance, if you want. What do you say?"
"That is a bit too much at once, I think," said Ainz. "You have spoken to us informally for five minutes. We are not ready for something so committed as an alliance." If we can agree to the no-fighting part, and Asgard upholds their side of the bargain, I could move my subjects around without much worry… "Can we reduce the scope of whatever we agree to today? A temporary measure would suit us better."
"A non-aggression pact?" suggested Albedo.
"That," confirmed Ainz. So that's what they call those things.
"So we brush the Alfheim business aside, drop the fire giant stuff, and just… leave each other alone, until we come up with a more permanent arrangement?" asked Odin. He mulled over the idea for a moment. "I can work with that. Anything last minute to add to the agreement? We can always meet again if you think of something."
"I have nothing. Albedo?"
"No further suggestions, Lord Ainz."
"Great!" cheered Odin, taking a swig of mead. He stood up. "Now… shake on it? Seal the deal?" The smiling Allfather extended a gaunt, ring-bedecked hand to Ainz.
This guy reminds me of the more easy-going managers back home. Very laid back and understanding… It's nice, but… I don't know if I should trust him. As long as I ensure Nazarick's actions during this truce remain beyond reproach, it should work out if Odin decides to turn on me. That's something I'll always need to keep an eye out for. If he catches me trying to contact the Giants, then there'd be another problem.
Ainz took Odin's hand firmly. Odin smiled, and as the handshake ended, he turned to go.
"I appreciate your open-mindedness with this thing, Ainz. Alright, Huginn." A flurry of screeching ravens and dark feathers sprang up around Odin. "I sense something wonderful coming, for both Asgard and Nazarick." He was gone.
"Nazarick… how does he know about…" puzzled Ainz. "Nazarick… [Message, Demiurge]."
"[Lord Ainz? Is everything alright?]"
"[Demiurge, I want you to investigate every possible way the name of the Great Tomb of Nazarick could have been made publicly known, and to make inquiries into that matter. Additionally, I want Nazarick to be ready for invasion at all times, if it is not already.]"
"[Consider it done, my Lord. How else may I serve?]"
"[Business as usual for now. I'll explain more fully when I return]. End [Message]. Albedo, what do you think? How do you think he found out?"
"It's possible the name leaked either from Carne Village or, more likely, from the upper echelons of the Empire, perhaps even the human Emperor himself, given his visit to the Great Tomb. If we find whoever made this information known to Odin, they should be silenced immediately before they can further endanger Nazarick's security."
"I agree, but only if we receive undeniable proof. I don't want to risk losing valuable human assets like the Emperor over matters of circumstance. We need to accelerate our efforts to make contact with the Giants under conditions of utmost secrecy, while we have this temporary peace with Asgard."
"Yes, Lord Ainz. Something of note about this Allfather," said Albedo, "is that I could not read his face. I can read and perceive the thoughts and desires of most inferior entities, but not Odin."
"I would be careful about calling him 'inferior,'" warned Ainz. "He was using magic to conceal his HP and MP, so if I ever get into a fight with him, I'd only find out his true stats the hard way. I could not tell if he came here to impress upon me that his position is unassailable, or just the idea that it is."
"A similar thought crossed my mind," replied Albedo. She felt ecstatic at that. I know His thoughts! YES! "Regardless of Odin's position, I am not optimistic about the pact's life expectancy, Lord Ainz. I suspect it will be shorter-lived than the time spent discussing it."
"I agree. But, we have one less thing to get in the way of our objective. Now then. To the dwarf."
{The dwarf's tent near the dragon's corpse…}
Sindri was finishing up a spear. Nothing to rival the sons of Ivaldi's work, of course, but a good, sturdy weapon with a shaft of oak and a deadly steel point. Surely someone semi-sanitary would come along who was looking to buy it. Atreus and his highly-destructive father were the only decent customers who weren't half-starved mortals driven to cannibalism or those incredibly disgusting undead… and even then, Atreus and his father couldn't carry every weapon he made.
"Excuse me… Mister Dwarf?"
Sindri looked up from his work, and did a double-take in surprise at three things: the unfamiliar voice, the person it had come from, and how that person and one other had gotten this close to his shop unnoticed. Two… somebodies stood just a few feet from him. They were short enough to be dwarves… but their pointed ears betrayed them as elves of some sort… they looked too human to be either the dark or light elves he knew. Their attire surprised him as well: immaculate white, with one wearing green underneath and the other red. Were they just kids? Alone like this? Some elf parent was about to get a piece of his mind.
"Uh… can I help you?" asked Sindri. Something was off about all this. He was ready to use his magic to escape if this was some sort of ruse or trap. "It's not really safe being out here by yourselves, you know that? I don't know of any safe places to send you, but if you're lost and looking to get home, I can try and help you out, if you can tell me where you're trying to go."
"We know our way around here, actually. Thanks for the offer, though."
"You're both safe? That's good. Thank Freya."
"Freya?"
"Well, surely you've heard of the goddess Freya? Queen of Vanaheim? Gave the Allfather and his idiot kids a bloody nose or fifty in the Long War?"
"I think I've heard the name somewhere before… I'll remember it. On the matter of names, mine's Aura Bella Fiora, and this is my brother, Mare Bello Fiore. We're dark elves. What's yours?"
"Call me Sindri. Good to meet you. Now, I assume since you're standing in the presence of… well.. me, you're looking to buy something, or commission something?"
"Well, not us, but the one who sent us might."
"Wait… you're not from Asgard, are you?"
"Nope. From what I've heard and seen of the Aesir, they're not the sort we'd ever want to run around with."
"Thank goodness… You two didn't seem like Aesir anyway. Too well-kempt. Well, what does the person who sent you want from me?"
"He's nearby, as a matter of fact. He actually wanted to ask you Himself, but He didn't want to just appear out of nowhere like a ghost. So He just wanted us to break the ice with you first."
"Well, that's considerate of him, but to be honest, after standing downwind of this thing for the last half-hour," Sindri said, gesturing squeamishly at the decomposing dragon corpse, "I feel like I could handle anything."
"Did you kill it?"
"Oh, gods, no. Ugh… I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, even if it was alive, yuegh. So, so, so many little beasties all over it..."
"Do you know who killed it?"
"I don't-" Sindri trailed off as an imposing undead, clad in robes darker that night, appeared behind the twin dark elves, two points of ominous light in its skeletal eyesockets glowering at the dwarf. "Get out of here, you two!" shouted the dwarf. I thought they said he wouldn't appear out of nowhere!
Aura turned calmly to face the undead. "Oh, Lord Ainz, perfect timing. I was just asking Sindri here who killed the dragon."
The dwarf's jaw dropped.
"Good, Aura. Now, Sindri, will you please answer the question?" asked the undead. Sindri's jaw dropped even further. A revenant of some sort… is in charge of these two elf children? And joining in a conversation? Is the decomposing dragon smell getting to my head?
"Uh, the… um… er…"
"Let me take a guess: it was a tall, stern, bearded man, abnormally pale, with a red tattoo on his head and a large axe, accompanied by a small child wielding a bow?"
"Don't come any cl-closer! Don't touch my things… uh, please?"
"Before you answer, allow me to introduce myself as well. I am Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King. Aura and Mare here are my subordinates." As Ainz spoke, a third stranger appeared, heavily armed and armored in black, carrying an axe. Feathered wings sprouted from their back. "Albedo here is also my subordinate," Ainz said, as Albedo lifted her helmet's visor to see the dwarf better. "Now, will you confirm the guess I have just made?"
"I… I can't."
"I am not hunting them down. I have already promised someone else that they will come to no harm, and I will make the same promise to you, if it would ease your mind. I am a man of my word, so if I give it to you, I will keep it."
"Could you?"
"I swear on my name, Ainz Ooal Gown, that no harm will come to these travelers from me or any of my subordinates, unless it is in self-defense. Is that sufficient?"
"Yes. Alright. They killed the dragon, and are heading to the mountaintop."
"Thank you. Now, I have another question for you as well. I am looking for great talent, but I will need proof of your skill. Are you willing to prove yourself? Albedo, could I ask you to give him your weapon? I will not compel you if you are unwilling, however."
Albedo hesitated. "I will obey Your every command, Lord Ainz, but I must say that this was given to me by… by Your friends…"
"Indeed. For that reason, master dwarf, I must ask you that if you damage the weapon in the process of upgrading it, what compensation can we expect?" asked Ainz.
"Well, I think I can make a new one fairly quickly or fix it if it's a minor issue, maybe fifteen minutes to replace from scratch, with a little bit extra goodies thrown in. But don't worry, miss. Your weapon is in the best possible hands!"
"I will hold you to that, dwarf," said Albedo. "It is worth more than your life."
"R-right…"
Sindri set to work on Albedo's weapon, 3F.
"Incidentally, Sindri, are there any difference between dwarves like yourself and blue ones?"
Sindri chuckled. "I assume this blue one was short, bald? I bet his breath was heavy with mead, and he swears like nobody's business?"
Ainz recalled what the YGGDRASIL encyclopedia had said about Brok. "Isn't Brok's brother Eitri?"
"That… is not a name I ever expected to hear… How'd you know that name?"
"I have some sources. Does it mean anything to you?"
"Well… that was my birth name, actually, but I had to change it to Sindri when my brother and I first introduced ourselves to the Aesir all those years ago. I don't think our godly customers would have been all that pleased to have a dwarf named after the venom that's supposed to kill them working on their weaponry."
"Interesting. I take it your opinion of the Aesir is just as low as your brother's?"
"I'd sooner sleep near that dead dragon before I make another butterknife for them."
"Right… now, I should inform you that your brother is fine, and that he's agreed to work for me. Can you surpass him?"
"Definitely."
"The truth's in the metal, I suppose."
"I follow. So just upgrade this thing? By the way, it's an incredible weapon, even by my standards. This shapeshifting feature isn't something I ever worked with before, so I'll have to research it if I wanna recreate it! What substance is this by the way? It reminds me of Muspelheim obsidian or something… but with such perfect crystallization… Incredible…"
"So are you and your brother rivals?"
"Oh, no no no, my talents are vastly superior, and infinitely cleaner. You know why he's blue? He refuses to wear any form of protection when handling metal. Claims he can't hear the metal as he wants it. Do that for centuries, and the metal'll soak right into your skin, although you don't have that concern anymore, it seems. That's a sore topic for him, so don't ask him about it, or at least don't tell him I said anything about it."
"I never expected a dwarf to be so concerned with cleanliness, no offense."
"I was just like any other dwarf, until a Vanir witch showed me that everything is covered in thousands upon thousands of tiny, nasty, little… beasties! If they get inside you, they make you sick! Oak wood keeps them away, though, so I only ever make hafts and handles from that now."
Germs? They know about germs… interesting… "Well, I didn't mean to bother you during your work."
"Oh, it's no problem. A good conversation while working gets me in the zone, so to speak."
"I see. We'll have to continue later, unfortunately."
Ainz called his guardians away to talk for a moment.
"Alright, we should get this dragon corpse to Demiurge to salvage. In the meantime, I will use [God's Eye] to scout out the mountain peaks nearby. Jotunheim gates were always around such places in YGGDRASIL, so we can start our search there. Once we find a lead, we'll use [Gate] to go in person and investigate. [God's Eye]."