A/N: Thanks for the helps regarding Shield Hero lore. Given that, I've fixed Suzuki's level in chapter two to be according to this new rule given that transferring worlds resets your levels to level one (but Yggdrasil levels will remain unchanged regardless of what world they go to). He's level nine with 5 Yggdrasil levels.
Suzuki had wanted to visit the city of E-Rantel to gather more intel and also to register as an adventurer, but the fact remained that he was just a level 5 Yggdrasil Player at the moment, and even with his extra levels from whatever system the shield used, he was still incredibly weak. Not to mention his measly 5 levels were not in classes which were combat-oriented.
If he had his abilities, levels, or spells that he used to have as a level one hundred Overlord, it would've been fine if he just took one of the Pleiades along. Alas, he had none of these things and had no clue as to what happened to all of the XP he used to have. Were they simply gone when his levels had been reset? Or had that XP been stored somewhere?
As such, for his protection, firstly, Albedo was chosen given the Pleiades were considered too low-leveled to accompany him, and given Albedo was a tank she was most fit for this role. When this was decided Shalltear insisted on going, which given the fact she was the strongest of the Guardians when it came to a one on one fight was not an unreasonable request. Suzuki then decided to bring Sebas along as well because he didn't want to be caught in a weird love triangle and he thought the Butler of Steel could keep the other two in check. With the aid of three level one hundred NPCs, very few things could harm him and at the very least they could buy enough time for him to escape to the Great Tomb. In addition, several Shadow Demons were sent to scout out the nearby areas of the city.
All of E-Rantel was encased in anti-teleportation magic and skills by vassals who were also using magic to conceal theimselves.
Several vassals monitored the area from the sky while using invisibility magic. To top it all off, Nigredo was monitoring various areas using her divination magic.
Even all of this was not enough to please the Floor Guardians- Demiurge insisted on scouting the city several days beforehand to look for potential threats.
Suzuki very reluctantly agreed to this, but it ended up delaying his visit to E-Rantel by three days. As he approached the gate, he couldn't help but think of all he had tried to get done in those days.
Once Suzuki had returned to Nazarick from Carne, he immediately began prepping for the next wave. He would need to see if consumables could be restocked, perfect their formations, and a hundred other things.
However, before that he had to visit Raphtalia.
"Hello Shield Hero!" Raphtalia said as Suzuki found her.
"Um, what's that on your forehead?" he asked.
"A sticker!" she said proudly, pointing to the One-Yen Sticker on her forehead. "Shizu-san gave it to me."
Shizu approached the two of them and bowed to Suzuki, before patting Raphtalia's head fondly. "I've taught her a bit about the Tomb, Momonga-sama."
"Right..." Suzuki said.
"So when can I go home, Shield Hero?" Raphtalia asked.
"Um... about that," Suzuki said, dreading every single word. He remembered what his friend Yamaiko had told him- that children were the greatest of humanity's treasures. She had been a kindergarten teacher after all. He was sure that she would've had a better way with dealing with Raphtalia than he did, but she wasn't around.
None of the others were.
"Raphtalia, we are in another world right now," Suzuki said slowly. "We... can't take you back to your parents... not yet. But when the Wave comes again, we can take you back to them, but for now, we'll be the ones taking care of you, alright?"
"Um..." Rapthalia paused for a second before jumping up and saying "Okay!"
Suzuki was a bit taken aback by this- he had been afraid that she might've burst into tears at being taken away from her parents. That would've been an understandable reaction- though one he would have had no answer for.
"Aren't you upset?" he blurted out, regretting it instantly. If she wasn't going to cry- why was he trying to induce her to do so?
"Well, I'll see them again, right?" Raphtalia said.
"In a month and a half, yes," Suzuki said.
"Then I'll wait till then," Raphtalia said.
"Okay, well, do you want to explore the Tomb with me? Let me show you around," Suzuki said, leading Raphtalia on towards the Throne room.
Rapthalia was wide-eyed at everything she saw- oftentimes reaching out to feel the fabric of the curtains or to point at a tapestry.
Suzuki would then excitedly tell her about whatever it was that she was pointing at. While a good portion of the Tomb was in its "default" settings most of it had been altered by his guildmates and he was very well aware of nearly every single corner of it. Nearly every hallway had its own story which he narrated to her.
"Ah, that painting was made by an artist that Touch Me commissioned- it looks rather heroic, doesn't it?"
In the span of doing this it took them much longer to reach the Throne Room than it would have otherwise.
Raphtalia's eyes widened as she beheld the Gates of Judgement, which Suzuki opened with a gentle push.
Of course, the rest of the Tomb was nothing compared to the Throne Room.
Raphtalia began running around the room. "This is even bigger than the whole field!" she shouted. She then turned to Suzuki. "Shield Hero, your house is amazing!"
Suzuki chuckled, elated that the work of his friends was being admired. "Hey- you can feel free to stay here as our guest as long as you want!"
Albedo was looking at the two of them from beside the Throne. Suzuki walked up to her. "Ah, Albedo, I wanted to discuss some things regarding our battle strategy with you later on. In addition, I want to clarify that Raphtalia will remain a guest of mine until we can return her to her family. Understood?"
"Understood, Momonga-sama," Albedo said while gently inclining her head.
"For now though," Suzuki said, turning around. "I think it's time for dinner. You hungry, Raphtalia?"
Raphtalia nodded.
"Whoa!" Rapthalia said, her eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets as she saw the mountain of delicacies piled before them.
"I apologize if you all had to work too hard today," Suzuki said to the maids. "I should have known to not summon you all with me, and given that you were brought to battle, it means that you were distracted from your chores."
"Not at all!" Fith, one of the maids, said.
Suzuki checked her status screen.
Fith
Homunculus Maid Level 9 [+1 Yggdrasil Levels (Capped)]
It appeared that everyone, even the Mercenary NPCs had received XP in whatever levelling system the Shield used, though Yggdrasil levels remain unchanged. "Tell me Fith, do you feel stronger now that you've levelled up?"
"Now that you mention it, Momonga-sama, I indeed feel a bit stronger than before," Fith said.
Suzuki checked her stats and saw that indeed, she was stronger than what a level one character would be in Yggdrasil. That was good.
"So, Momonga-sama, are you ready for dinner?" Decrement, another maid, asked him.
The various maids serving him right now were members of the 41 Homunculus maids. They were all level one unlike the Pleiades and were made with slightly varying appearances and personalities so that it was kind of easy to get them mixed up with each other.
"Here, you can sit here Raphtalia," Suzuki said, indicating a chair next to him.
The maids seemed to be taken a bit aback that Suzuki was letting an outsider sit next to him while dining, but none of them dared object.
"I just wonder," Suzuki mused. "Is the food okay for a child? I mean, children do prefer sweet things in general and have different palates when compared to adults..."
"I'll get some more sweets, Momonga-sama!" Decrement said and ran off before Suzuki could tell her it was okay and that Raphtalia probably couldn't eat all the desserts stacked on the table even if she tried.
"What's that?" Raphtalia asked.
"That's, I believe, a dragon steak, no, Fith?" Suzuki said.
"Right you are as always, Momonga-sama," Fith said.
"A dragon?" Raphtalia asked, wide-eyed. Even in her world, dragons were creatures of great power and renown. The idea that one could casually kill such a creature and eat it was something she would have never imagined before.
"Do they have dragons where you live, Raphtalia?" Suzuki asked her.
Rapthalia then spent some time describing dragons, and another species of creature known as Filolias which Suzuki had never heard of but were apparently rivals to dragons.
Throughout dinner, Suzuki kept asking Raphtalia about her earlier life. He wanted to know as much as possible about her world, but it seemed that Rapthalia herself knew very little about it- though that couldn't be helped given her age.
Sometime during the meal, Shalltear walked in.
"Greetings, Momonga-sama," she said and bowed her head.
"Good evening, Shalltear. Is there anything important you have to report?" Suzuki asked. It was unusual for Shalltear, an undead, to be here given she didn't need to eat. Even if she wanted something, she would probably dine in her quarters on the first floor.
"It's nothing very important," Shalltear said. "I just wanted to tell you that I had put the head of the beast I slaughtered in that other world in my inventory. Would you care to add it to your shield?"
Suzuki nearly face-palmed as he had forgotten to do that on the battlefield itself, and had neglected to ask anyone to keep the monster parts of monsters they had slain. It was a good thing that Shalltear had enough foresight to do it herself. "Not now, Shalltear, I think that'll frighten Raphtalia to see a dismembered head, but I will do it later on."
"Understood," Shalltear said and then quizzically turned to Raphtalia. "Hmmm?"
Suzuki turned his head to see that Rapthalia had managed to fall asleep in her chair.
"Must have been a long day, huh?" Suzuki said softly and gently picked her up in his arms.
The maids and Shalltear had looks of envy as Suzuki carried Rapthalia to one of the unused rooms in the guild base. There were a hundred rooms for one hundred possible guild members, though only forty-one had ever joined the guild.
Suzuki took her to one of the unassigned ones and laid her gently down on the bed.
"Ufufu," Raphtalia said, slowly coming too.
"Relax, go to sleep," Suzuki said and began patting her head until she dozed off again.
He found his own head getting heavy too and wound up falling asleep right by the side of the bed.
When he woke up, he found that Rapthalia was still sleeping so he left and told the maid outside to give Rapthalia whatever she needed. He would also need to prepare some clothes for her- perhaps she could borrow some of Mare's outfits? No, it would be more prudent if he gave her some of the extra clothes he had lying around. Not only that, but they would need to find a magic caster to remove that sticker- it was rather durable from what he had heard.
His first order of business now was to equip himself a bit better given he still couldn't find where any of his old stuff had gone.
After an extremely embarrassing encounter with Pandora's Actor, he stuffed his own inventory full of things he thought he would need, and he also equipped himself with appropriate gear.
Next on the line was forming a formal battle plan for when they would tackle the Waves. This was done with the Guardian's assistance.
To start, during a Wave certain individuals such as those on the Eighth Floor, Gargantua, Victim, Guren, and the Homunculi Maids would be left in Nazarick to guard it while they would be busy fighting.
The rest of their forces would be divided into eight legions.
The First Legion, commanded by Coccytus, would focus on elimination as many enemies as possible in a wide frontal assault.
The Second Legion, commanded by Shalltear, would play a similar role to that of the First Legion, but would focus on killing the boss. As such, vassals skilled in tracking and divination magic were added to her legion as she herself had no such abilities.
The Third Legion, under Demiurge, would be their Air Force and would monitor the area from the sky as well as try to take out the monsters which appeared from the cracks in the sky before they could even land. Demiurge would also be the architect of their overall battle strategy.
The Fourth Legion, under Sebas, would be tasked with evacuating the civilians in the area. As such, this was viewed as being less important than the others and his legion was staffed at half capacity, with forty members rather than eighty.
The Fifth Legion consisted of Aura, Mare, and Aura's monsters. They would split up into two- with the winged beasts aiding Demiurge and the others aiding Shalltear and Coccytus.
The Sixth Legion, under Aureole Omega, would consist of the healers. They would rescue both injured civilians and also injured members of Ainz Ooal Goal and tend to them.
The Seventh Legion, under Albedo, would be their reserves. Their job was to guard the area occupied by the healers safe, in addition to this, Albedo would be coordinating the other legions and assigning extra units to them as needed. She would also assist Demiurge in formulating a battle plan.
The Eighth Legion, under Pandora's Actor, would serve two functions: First, to serve as Suzuki's personal bodyguard, and second, to function as a set of wildcards as needed. Pandora's Actor was also given access to several Mercenary data scrolls and gold to summon any that might be deemed necessary for the fight.
The legions were staffed with vassals most appropriate to their respective assigned task, and not simply by those vassals in each Floor Guardian's respective domain.
As an example, Demiurge's Evil Lords could technically use healing magic to some degree, but were far more useful in other areas and as such were not assigned to the Sixth Legion.
Most of the members of the legion were at least level eighty with very few exceptions.
With this settled, the next topic that came up was regarding consumables.
Food was not just for eating in Yggdrasil- special meals could increase stats, and as such, it would be preferable if all the fighting members who could eat did so before the fight. But preparing that much food was not an easy task given how few members they had who specialized in cooking.
"Eh? Is it necessary though?" Shalltear asked. "Aren't we strong enough as is?"
"There's no guarantee the Waves will keep being easy," Suzuki explained. "If anything, I'd bet that they get stronger over time, so we need to be ready. There may even come a time when we face a foe that will require all Eight Legions to come together to fight them." That was how stuff in video games worked anyway, and this other world also seemed to be mostly based off of a video game.
Next, the issue of scrolls and potions came up. They needed a way to get more of them, but more research would have to be done on that over time.
Then came up the matter of training. "You all are maxed out when it comes to your levels in Yggdrasil, but it appears that you can get stronger. Do you all feel any stronger?"
Most of them shook their heads, but given how powerful they had been beforehand it made sense that unlike the Homunculus maids, they would not notice a substantial change.
"Ah, but I nearly forgot again- did you all bring in materials from the other world?" Suzuki asked.
Shalltear handed him the dog monster's head, and as Suzuki added it to his shield a message popped up:
Error! Materials from another world are not recognized!
Suzuki frowned and added more materials the others gave him to get the same result. How strange...
Come to think of it, he was only level nine, when he should've levelled up far more when he was in the other world. Perhaps shields and levels could only transfer during the Waves? However, it seemed that Yggdrasil levels did not adjust like that.
Regardless, it was necessary for him to become stronger. This was why, in addition to getting intel, he wanted to head to E-Rantel but the Guardians vehemently disagreed at that point and wanted to make preparations before he left.
Lastly, the topic of items came up. The Treasury was filled with powerful treasures, and it had to be weighed on whether or not it was appropriate to distribute them among the various vassals. On the one hand, appropriate gear could easily turn the tide of a fight, but on the other hand, there was always the risk that such gear might be lost. Of particular note were the World Items- items which had game-breaking effects. Suzuki was unsure if he should bring them out or keep them safe for now. Eventually, he decided to leave this topic for another time.
Once work was over, he went to go have dinner with Raphtalia as usual. She seemed to be her usual perky self, but there was one odd thing that stood out to him.
"Eh?" Suzuki asked. "Rapthalia, are you dressed in pants for a reason?" She seemed to be dressed up as a boy- granted children her age were rather androgynous and maybe she wanted these clothes for greater movement or she simply preferred them? But she had been in a dress when he had first found her...
"Umu, Shizu-san said that boys are supposed to be dressed up as girls and that girls should dress up as boys in Nazarick," Raphtalia said. "And that it's a rule or something..."
"Erm?" Suzuki said and scratched his chin. He couldn't think of a single time such a rule had been made. "They must've been mistaken- do you want to change?"
"Aah!" Rapthalia exclaimed as she saw the piles of dressed lied out for her.
Clothing in Yggdrasil was magical- in other words, one-size-fits-all. And being a hoarder, Suzuki had grabbed every single piece he could get. Even if he couldn't wear a piece himself, he could always trade it to someone else or give it to a guild member. Thankfully he had kept his collection in a closet in his room- most of it, anyway, so that most of it hadn't been lost with the rest of his inventory. "Feel free to wear any one you like."
"Is... that really okay?"
"Indeed."
"I like this one..." she said, pointing to a brilliant red dress studded with rubies.
"Alright! I'll be outside while you get ready!" Suzuki said, leaving the room. He knocked on the door five minutes later. "Okay if I come in?"
"How do I look?" Rapthalia asked rather nervously.
"Great!" Suzuki said.
Suzuki had said this in an offhand way, but Raphtalia perked up considerably when he said so.
As Raphtalia followed him to the dining table, she asked, "Shield Hero... is this place heaven?"
"Huh?" Suzuki asked her, confused.
"It's just, this place is so cool! I can eat cool stuff, everything is amazing, even the clothes!" she said. "It seems just like what my mom said heaven would be like."
The only problem she had was that her parents and friends weren't here, so she had even had thoughts that perhaps she and she alone had died sometime during the Wave and that this place was the afterlife. The number of angels and demons she saw certainly made her more suspicious about such a thing. Granted, she didn't think the Shield Hero would lie to her about something like that, but she thought if he did it might be a way of calming her for the moment.
"Well, you aren't dead," Suzuki said, chuckling. "But in a way yeah... I guess you could say that this is like heaven. It certainly is for me."
Initially, he had treated Raphtalia this well to partially alleviate his guilt of having taken her from her family, and also that once she was returned she would hopefully tell everyone about how she had been kept so that it would lead to fewer problems later on. But, he was beginning to become rather fond of her.
He had been preoccupied with dealing with the Waves and getting the Great Tomb ready for the next one, but the fact remained that right now, he felt more alive than he had in ages.
As it was, preparing for a large raid or boss battle was right up his alley as a guild leader, so it was almost as if he was back in the golden days of the guild.
After putting Raphtalia to sleep. Suzuki went on with his duties. He now had a Ring of Sustenance equipped, meaning he didn't need to sleep or eat, and as such could devote as much time to prepping and mastering various shields as he had in a day.
Suzuki had learned that if he equipped a shield for long enough, he would have 'mastered' it, meaning he could use some of its powers even without it being equipped.
The only real issue was that there were so many shields it was hard for him to focus on choosing one, but he did manage to get some interesting results with some experimentation.
Most importantly, he unlocked the Messenger Shield when he threw in a scroll with the [Message] spell imbibed into it in. This opened up a mental chatroom of sorts within his vision whereby he and other members of Ainz Ooal Gown could send messages to each other on what was very similar to an old-style Internet chatroom- this rapidly became invaluable as a method of communication in the Tomb.
The only drawback was that posting a message on this shared system would use up a small amount of SP- granted most of the others had no abilities that required SP in the first place so it was not an issue. Suzuki did find some shields that used it, but otherwise it was a fine system.
Once morning came he went to go greet Raphtalia and would alternate taking her to the eighth and sixth floors to hang out with Shizu or some other guardian while he got other work done.
And now, he was here.
Suzuki would've been fine staying at a cheap inn, but the NPCs had insisted on the finest in the city, the Shining Golden Pavilion Inn. The only way that Suzuki could afford it was by converting Yggdrasil gold to these different coins- which he didn't like to do. He had only found one real way right now to make money- he had a shield which he got by adding Pandora's Actor's fingernail to his shield called the Treasurer's Shield.
This shield generated 1% interest on whatever money Suzuki had in his inventory per day- with a maximum limit of one hundred Yggdrasil gold pieces. This was only a fraction of the gold needed to keep the guild base running however, so all non-essential functions within the Great Tomb had been turned off.
"Well, time to register at the guild then," he said.
They had gotten a lot of strange looks at the guild admittedly speaking. Probably because all of them looked far too wealthy to be rookie adventurers, and Suzuki guessed that most of them assumed that they were rich kids who were doing it as some sort of dare or the like. They called their team "Team Satisfaction" and went on their way.
Being newbies, they had to start off as Copper Ranked adventurers, the lowest on the totem pole. This also restricted the kind of jobs they could do.
Regardless, they did get a job finishing off monsters like goblins outside the city, which they finished quickly.
Suzuki used the Frost Jaws Shield for this. He had unlocked it recently, and it consisted of a pair of mandibles protruding from a white shield. He had gained it by adding parts from Coccytus to his shield.
Offensively it was the best shield that he had. It gave a stat boost of +5 attack (virtually tripling his attack stat value), dealt a small amount of Ice-type elemental damage on contact with an enemy, and had a special ability known as [Froth Breath] which Suzuki could activate by using 30 SP points. It dealt a wide area-of-effect frost breath effect that was similar to Coccytus's own. Lastly, the mandibles could crush anything that got between them, dealing devastating damage, but Suzuki would have to get up close to an enemy for that to work.
"This was easy," Suzuki said, counting their kills. His team consisted of himself, Albedo, and Shalltear with Sebas staying back at the inn. It was decided that Sebas was not going to be a member of Team Satisfaction. Before leaving though, Suzuki's eyes saw some strange plants growing near the fringe of the forest. "I wonder..."
After unlocking the Herb Shield with them, he found himself able to find even better plants, and with a tiny bit of fiddling with the items he found, he had managed to make a vial of light green liquid.
"Oh!" Shalltear exclaimed.
"It's nothing special really," Suzuki said sheepishly. All it could do was cure a mild cold- granted such a potion did not exist in Yggdrasil so he had done something incredible if you looked at it that way. It was still mostly useless for his cause though. "But let's pack up and head home then."
He set up a message on the board suggesting that they bring in Raphtalia to the inn via teleportation magic. Suzuki thought that she would appreciate wandering around the city with them- and that also perhaps she might see something that reminded her of her old world. There was still a possibility that there was a way to go to her world from this one aside from the Waves, and this would also help Suzuki figure out the differences between the two worlds a bit more.
When they got back to the inn after handing in the monster parts to the guild (they only had to given in the ears, Suzuki's shield took most of the other parts) and collecting their reward, Raphtalia was waiting for them. She was wearing a blue dress today, and started talking about what she had done on the Sixth Floor.
After Suzuki got ready, the five of them headed out.
He had to admit that they would've looked like a really odd group while wandering the streets. Sebas easily fit into his role as butler. Shalltear was wearing a different outfit which granted her more freedom of movement with a short skirt and black leggings, and Albedo was also sporting a different dress.
Compared to how beautiful the two of them were, Suzuki felt, he just couldn't compare.
He didn't know it at the time, but Raphtalia also felt the same.
The best Suzuki could guess that people would think was that he was a wealthy merchant, Albedo was his wife, Shalltear a concubine, and Raphtalia his daughter (her ears and tail were hidden with illusion magic).
"So how is the city, Raphtalia?" Suzuki asked her.
"It's cool," she said. She had never been to the capital city of Melromarc, though her father had promised to take her there one day, so she had nothing to compare it to. It wasn't as nice as the Great Tomb of Nazarick, in her opinion, but it did have its own charm if one ignored certain things about it. She had not seen orphans or beggars before, so that was a bit of a shock to her. Not to mention some areas of the city were rather derelict.
"What on earth took you so long?" Khajiit asked. He was a short, bald man who fitted the description of an evil magic caster.
"Come on, don't you know ladies take their time getting ready?" a woman by the name of Clementine joked. She was carrying the body of a young boy slung over her shoulder. The boy's name was Nfirea, and he was a local alchemist.
"Huh. More like time wasted on having fun for you," Khajiit said.
The two of them were gathered in the cemetery of E-Rantel. While it could not be said that the two of them were "friends" exactly, they were cooperating this time.
Khajiit wished to drown the city of E-Rantel in a horde of undead in order to harvest enough negative energy to turn himself into an Elder Lich. Clementine needed his help in order to escape the wrath of the Windflower Scripture.
For you see, Clementine had been a member of the strongest of the Theocracy's Six Scriptures, the Black Scripture, before she turned rogue.
The boy, Nfirea, had been kidnapped because he had a Talent, that is to say, a particular ability native to the people of the New World. This let him use any item regardless of its usage conditions, making him a perfect candidate to use the Crown of Wisdom.
The Crown of Wisdom was one of the Slane Theocracy's great treasures- it let one cast seventh tier magic, which was beyond the realm of humanity to normally use. Even the famed magic caster Fluder Paradyne of the Empire could "only" use sixth tier magic. However, only one in a million people could meet the requirements to use it, and if one used it they would become little more than an empty vessel, incapable of independent thought. Additionally, removing it would lead to insanity.
Clementine had stolen the item, which was why the Windflower Scripture was after her in the first place.
"Teehee, now be a good boy and cast [Undeath Army] for Onee-san, won't you?" she said in a sweet voice to the captured Nfirea.
That spell of the seventh tier would unleash a large number of undead that would rapidly consume the city. Clementine just had to be careful about planning her escape properly so that she could get out before it got too problematic.
"Goodnight, Raphtalia," Suzuki said, tucking her into her bed. He had teleported back to Nazarick just for that. "How was today?"
"It was great!" she said and yawned. "Thank you so much... Shield Hero..."
With that, Suzuki went back to E-Rantel in order to try to create other potion recipes, but a message soon popped up.
Momonga-sama, there is something strange going on at the cemetery.
Suzuki frowned and asked the vassal who had sent that message to explain further.
Half a minute later, Demiurge teleported into the room. It was a good thing that turning friendly fire off did not block off friendly teleportation. "Momonga-sama, a large number of undead have gathered in the cemetery and will soon break out of it. The city may very well soon be inundated with undead. We should get you back to Nazarick for safety." There was a hint of urgency in his voice.
"Actually," Suzuki said, "I think this might be a good thing. We can test out the efficacy of Nazarick in dealing with a large number of weak enemies, such as we'll encounter during the wave."
"Shall I mobilize all of our forces then, Momonga-sama?" Albedo asked.
"If that is the case, I think we should wait and let the undead spread across the city a bit more," Demiurge said. "It would be better suited for a drill then."
"No," Suzuki said, brow creased as he was thinking. "On second thought, let's have just the three of us try to handle this. Let's take it out as quickly as possible- it'll increase our reputation with the Adventurer's Guild. But have your legions on standby in case things go south, alright?"
Everyone nodded, and Demiurge and Sebas, not being members of Suzuki's adventurer team, would stay in the rear.
Shalltear opened up a [Gate] leading the the cemetery, and Suzuki saw that the guards were very quickly going to be overrun if nothing was done soon.
Out in the distance, a mound of skeletons coalesced to form a monster about fifty feet high which was taken down by a spell from Shalltear.
The guards only gave them sparing glances as they hopped onto the walls. "Copper plates- no good here!"
"[Turn Undead]!" Suzuki said, using a skill to turn a host of zombies to dust. "Don't worry- we'll handle it!" He added as the three of them jumped off and made their way towards the source of the disturbance.
The many undead were taken care of by Shalltear's summons, which allowed the two woman to stay close to Suzuki. Ahead of them, they saw a clearing with many people gathered in a circle.
"So, who are you guys?" Suzuki asked.
Rather than reply, one of them sent a [Negative Ray] at him. This was blocked by Shalltear simply standing in the path. Given the spell used negative energy to harm its target, this actually would have healed Shalltear if she hadn't been at max heath already.
Seeing this, sparks crackled near the caster's hands. He was going to use [Lightning] or another variant of that spell- that spell could harm a target hiding behind another.
The response to this from one of their vassals flying overhead was to bombard the enemies with a powerful area-of-effect spell which completely wiped them out.
Suzuki was slightly annoyed- the purpose of this whole excursion was so that Team Satisfaction could make a name for itself. Granted, no one should've seen that, but it was best if they handled this themselves.
"Woohoo- what's this?" Clementine asked, stepping out of the shadows to see Khajiit was dead. "Oh my... a little feisty bunch we have here, don't we?"
"Who are you and what do you want?" Suzuki asked plainly.
"Want? I simply wish to see this city drowned in a sea of undead!" she said. "But enough about me, let's move on to you. I would love to get to know you better, but the thing is, I'm short on time here, so I'm going to have to ask you to die quickly, m'kay?"
Clementine leapt out of her position, using the Martial Arts skills [Agility Boost] and [Greater Agility Boost] as well as [Flow Acceleration] to move faster than Suzuki's eyes could follow. A gleaming dagger in her hand was pointed right at his neck.
"Pathetic," Albedo said, crushing Clementine's skull with a single blow. "Insects should know their place- at Momonga-sama's feet."
"The spell isn't over yet," Suzuki mused. His eyes fell on a dark piece of coal. "Could it be because of that?"
He picked it up, and to his utter surprise a voice spoke to him. 'Kill. Spread death.'
The voice was only in his head, and when he realized it came from the strange rock he dropped it. Once he calmed down a little, he added it to his shield to get a strange message.
Difficulty processing item. Kindly standby.
This had never happened before- but he did realize that this item wasn't the cause of all of this mayhem.
They should've kept one of those cultists alive to interrogate them as to what was going on.
Momonga-sama, there is a boy casting the spell hidden inside.
The message was sent by Nigredo, and Suzuki descended a flight of stairs to find a boy with a strange circlet on his head. The boy seemed completely comatose, and when Shalltear appraised the item on the boy's head she told Suzuki that removing it would cause him to go insane.
The only way they could get the boy out of the trance safely was by destroying the item, which Suzuki forced Shalltear to do. It would be good to have one witness as to this crime, and it seemed that this boy was more of a victim rather than a perpetrator in the events involved.
And so, with the boy slung over Shalltear's shoulder, they made their way back to the entrance right as the sun crested the horizon.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry if I wasn't clear enough about this- but Suzuki doesn't have access to any of his earlier abilities as Momonga given he had been reset at the very beginning.
Also, Shalltear does have an adventuring outfit in the game Mass For the Dead. You can Google the words 'Shalltear adventurer's outfit' to see what that looks like.