Chapter 4: a child's excitement
(time skip, 1 day has past since the previous chapter)
"are you sure you want to go wearing those?" asked Ainz gesturing to my current outfit which consisted of light travel clothes, my katana which had a golden-lined midnight black handle with a pack of wolves howling at a silver moon on the sheath, a pitch-black cloak similar to what assassins might wear and a mask that was decorated with a golden wolf which covered most of the item. All in all, I looked like a typical adventurer minus the sword at my hip.
"Yeah, I'm trying to be less noticeable. Why? What are you wearing?" I asked curious as to how he would hide his skeletal figure.
"I will be wearing full body armour. It may not be incognito compared to what you are wearing but it will prevent my true appearance being revealed". He answered.
"Cool, where is Naberal she said she would be here early." I asked both replying and questioning the now armoured form of Ainz. However, before he could answer there was a knock at the door.
"You may enter" responded Ainz to the person behind the door. The door was then opened and in came Naberal whom was wearing similar clothes to me.
"Are you ready to go Naberal?" I asked the lightly clothed maid.
"yes lord" she answered whilst bowing.
"excellent" I said before clapping and turned to Ainz silently asking him the same question, to which he merely responded with a slight nod.
"and are we all familiar with what our aliases are to be whilst we are adventurers?" I asked the pair.
"I will be Nabe and I will specialise in magic" answered Naberal, still in her form of bowing.
"and I will be Momon, I will be the frontier fighter of the group" answered Ainz
"And I will be taking the role of Fenrir, I will be specialising in hand-to-hand combat which would place me as a frontier fighter and I will not be talking very much as Fenrir because I don't like to talk to new people because I am highly anti-social" I said theatrically, with the last part being more of the informative section of a documentary.
I could swear I heard crickets in the room.
'geez, tough crowd' I thought before turning to the door.
Raising my hand, I activated my form of space magic, [Abyssal Gate] it pretty much works the same as the [Gate] spell. However, I am unable to use the [Gate] spell and this looked way cooler.
In the space that I was facing the air seemed to still and the colour drained leaving it a dull grey, suddenly a slash appeared in front of me before claws of pitch black appeared at the edges and started to rip the space open.
'SO COOL' I thought.
I was the first one to walk through the portal, barely able to control my excitement I practically dived into the spacial rip, instantaneously coming out the other side and ramming head first into a low branch before landing cheeks first on the ground with a THUMP.
I turned to see the looming form of black, Ainz, reaching down and grabbing me by the collar before violently shaking me.
"That was extremely reckless, diving into the unknown like that" he chastised. I merely shrugged, earning myself another set of shakes.
After several minutes of being shaken by Ainz we begin to traverse our path out of the forest that we were in, it turns out blind jumps using magic are not smart.
After about 2 hours we managed to find our way out of the dense forest that I transported us to, luckily we found a group of merchants that gave us some directions. Turns out we were walking in circles for the entirety of the walk and that we were on the border of E-rantel which apparently was a fortress city of the Re-Estize thankfully it was only a short distance to the city walls from the forest. However, as we approached the entrance to the city several guards approached us, engraved on their faces were despicable smirks as they proceeded to halt us from entering. 3 of the guards stood in front of us whilst 2 more circled around to block our exit.
"Are you aware of the entrance fee" said the first guard.
"it's 2 copper per person big guy, so you guys are required to pay 6 copper to enter the city". Added his buddy.
Nabe reached for her blade but I quickly caught her hand and gave signalled her no with a nod, thankfully she relented.
"well done you can count, though at for a job like yours a doubt brains are required" replied Ainz, this statement made me begin screaming internally.
'what was the point of stopping Naberal from fighting if you were going to start a fight anyway'. I said screaming and crying on the inside and beneath my mask.
"what did you just say" said guard number 3, one of the blockheads that were currently blocking our exit.
The guard next to him or guard number 4 still had a smirk on his face. However, it now looked more lecherous then it had mere moments before.
"if you don't want to pay the toll you're more than welcome to offer up your little lady friend here as compensation" he said whilst reaching out to grasp Nabe.
His hand was halted by my grasp on his wrist, behind the mask my face was contorted into pure hatred a disgust at this creature.
"what do you think your doing you little runt" he spat at me, I started to increase the strength in my grasp. The guards face slowly slipped from a perverted smile and lecherous eyes to a pained frown and eyes filled with fear. The sound of bones snapping filled the air, swiftly followed by anguished screams.
"let go of me you brat" he screamed, his free hand trying to pry my fingers off of his slowly breaking wrist.
Guard number 3 drew his blade and pointed it at me.
"you betta let go of him before I make you" he said threateningly, however I could see the spark of dread in his eyes. My enraged glare was turned towards him, a pitch-black mist begun radiating off of me, this spectacle caused this cocky creature to tremble with fear. I felt a hand grasping my shoulder signalling that I should let go before it goes too far. I then promptly released my victim giving him a menacing growl before reeling in my aura and returning to where I was standing a minute prior.
"what were you saying about a toll?" asked Ainz to the still trembling guards.
"n-n-n-nothing, I believe you misheard us we merely were welcoming you to E-rantel" he said, sheer terror laced every word, then he and his crew parted to allow us entry.
{you should have remained calm, they may become an annoyance later down the road} messaged Ainz.
{you would have done the same thing} I responded knowing that If I hadn't broken the guards hand then Ainz probably would have cut the grotesque limb off.
{true} was all that the armoured giant responded with.
Neither of the two noticed the admiring glance of their fellow companion as she internally screamed in joy at witnessing Harito's strength.
"first things first, we need to register at the adventurer's guild and then after that we need to find a relatively cheap inn to stay at for the night". Spoke Ainz, ignorant to the numerous gazes that were directed at him due to the expensive looking armour that he had decided to wear.
'he probably could have worn a less expensive looking set' I said silently complaining at all of the attention that was being directed our way.
Whispers slowly became audible. "never seen him before" "wow what a hottie he has" "never seen an inhuman like that before, wonder how much he could sell for" "his fluffy ears are adorable" "look at all that gear, that stuff don't look cheap, they must be loaded".
Many were just innocently curious about us, whilst others began to see us as goldmines or items to sell.
20 minutes later
We finally located the adventurers guild; the registration was very simple.
'No wonder there are so many adventurers, with these standards a simple farmer could become a high ranked adventurer' I thought.
Afterwards we asked the lady at the reception where there were any cheap inns that we could stay at overnight.
"there is one just a little bit further down the path on your left" was all that she responded with before returning to sorting out request files. We were greeted by the light of the setting sun as we exited the building, the light seemed to infect the sky with it's colour and illuminated the settling city. It was beautiful, though as we followed the receptionists directions I couldn't help but sigh as the singing colours of the setting sun began to fade out from the sky, plunging this new world into darkness.
After walking for a couple more minutes we came across the inn that she had described to us. Although, the inn itself was mostly occupied by drunken adventurers, some where sober enough to speak, some where drunk enough to try and speak Norse. We walked in and silently the bustling conversations that had been audible from down the street, came to an abrupt halt, all eyes turned towards us, some of the gazes were filled with innocent curiosity and the rest of the stares were solely aimed towards Nabe.
'what is it with everyone and staring at the woman of Nazarick, seriously first there were people at the village that stared at the figure of albedo and now everyone is fixed on Naberal, do none of them have any woman in their lives or are the all desperate single men'. I delivered an informative speech in my head as we walked towards the man that we assumed was the barkeep due to him being behind the bar, if not this conversation would become highly awkward really fast.
"we would like to book a room for three, if you have any available?" asked Ainz.
Slowly but surely my eyes begun to wander, soon after my eyes begun to wander, I lost myself once again to my thoughts.
'I wonder if mum will miss me? I hope she doesn't mourn for too long, she doesn't deserve to suffer anymore then she already has. I hope one day I will see her again even if it's only for a couple seconds, I want to see her smile like she used to….' My internal dilemma was interrupted by being picked up and shaken once again.
I glanced towards the person attacking me with a violent case of SCIENCE. Finding the offender in the form of a giant black armoured figure, of course it was Ainz.
"we managed to procure a room for the night, follow me." He said before placing me back onto my feet again and then proceeding to walk by me.
He then halted abruptly causing me to bump into him. I glanced in front of him and saw that a silver ranked adventurer had decided that he would have some fun with us and placed his leg in our path.
"hilarious" said Ainz sarcastically as he kicked the adventurers leg out of our way. The man immediately stands up and rushes back into the path of Ainz continuing with his waste of time excuse for entertainment.
"Hey, watch it you big oaf, how am I supposed to work with a busted ankle?" he said glancing over Ainz's shoulder towards Nabe and I.
'is it just me or is this scene a cliché, like in every isekai something like this happens' I thought, still staring at the waste of life in front of me.
'I suppose that this sort of stuff is quite common when you are new in town, I don't know why I'm so surprised that he is acting this way. However, that fact doesn't mean that he is any less of a disappointment.
I then noticed the perverted tint within the trashes eyes as he looked at Nabe, a glance like that could mean only one thing. This man in front of us was equally sick as he was a disappointment. Great. All Nabe was doing was death staring the man and if looks could affect someone then this look would have caused the man to die in the most painful way imaginable.
The man released a humourless giggle, it sounded as if he was trying to be evil but had the flu.
"hey now maybe your little vixen here could kiss it and make it feel better" he said trying to hint that if we didn't want anything to happen then we should do what he says.
He is a truly pathetic excuse for an adventure and an even greater waste as a member of humanity. Suddenly, Ainz broke out into laughter. "not even in your dreams" he managed to say through his fit of laughter.
"what?" said the man, his brain being clouded by arrogance, alcohol and anger.
"your uncivilised behaviour is quite amusing, I can't help but to laugh" continued Ainz, which only caused to further the man's blind fury. The waste of life stepped forwards, stepping over all of the levels of personal space, he was about to retort to what Ainz had said. However, the man was halted by Ainz as he picked up the man and decided to through him across the room. He fell directly on a female adventurers table and causing her potion to spill all over the floor. Ainz was about to say something to the rest of the adventurers but was interrupted by a banshees screech.
I returned my eyes back to the redhead whose potion had just been spilt across the floor in the wreckage that was once called a table. The fiery redhead marched over to us and then proceeded to scream at us.
"do you know how much that potion cost me?" she asked rhetorically, startling Ainz.
Nabe was slowly starting to reach out for her blade. However, it wouldn't be in our best interest if she killed the poor adventurer here, so I made a subtle gesture towards her as to halt her movement, she had seen my gesture and withdrew her hand from her blades handle.
By the time I had returned to the one-sided conversation with the screaming chick and Ainz it had reached to a point where it seemed more like a mugging.
"I demand compensation" she said.
Which confused me seeing as how we are a couple of new adventurers, as well as the fact that we were acting mainly in self-defence – as well as to put that stuck up piece of crap in his place.
"shouldn't it be these fine men that reimbursed you as it was technically their fault?" asked Ainz.
She then turned to face the silver ranked adventurers that were still sitting down in their seats looking slightly more fearful than when they had their overly cocky and smug expressions on when their buddy was 'playing' with us.
"You think that these guys have seen a decent pay in their lives? However, you on the other hand, are wearing some expensive looking equipment, you should have a spare potion or two stashed away in that suit of yours" she said, returning her piercing glare to Ainz.
'this has gone on for long enough' I thought as a stepped forward towards the lady and tugging on her sleeve to get her attention.
"yeah, what do you want?" she asked, before I extended a hand holding one of my health potions to her. She grabbed it and stared at it quizzically.
"that should make us even shouldn't it?" asked Ainz, sounding all to eager to get this current event out of the way. To be more then honest so was I, I could all but hear the calming embrace of a mattress screaming my name.
"yeah, for now, what's your names by the way?" she asked
"My name is Momonga, this is Fenrir, he doesn't talk much, and she is Nabe" answered Ainz, more than happy that she had finally decided to leave us alone.
Seemingly satisfied with his answer se turned and walked out of the inn, still staring at the potion that I gave her suspiciously. However, I couldn't care less at his point in time about her or her suspicions, all I wanted to do was sleep.
"thanks for the save there" said Ainz over his shoulder as we walked up the stairs.
I merely gave him a thumbs up, exhaustion seeming like an endless wave at the current point of time.
The moment that Ainz opened the room and walked in, I went from the speed of a turtle all the way to the speed of a Formula 1 race car, really quick. I practically flew at the empty mattress; my appearance was that of a torpedo that acted like a dolphin.
Without a care in the world a landed in a mattress and immediately passing out. My mind falling into a vast field of grass as I begun to dream.
Naberal's POV
The moment that we entered this rathole of a space that they dared to call a room, lord Harito sped past Ainz and leapt into an empty mattress before becoming unmoving.
"Great and I thought that we could discuss what actions that we were going to take tomorrow, I guess we can talk in the morning" spoke Ainz as he stared at his companion.
'why wouldn't they be able to talk right now?' I thought and apparently my thoughts were evident in my expression because my silent question was then answered by lord Ainz.
"We can't talk right now because he's asleep right now and it would be quite rude of me to just wake him up to discuss something as trivial as how we were going to spend our time tomorrow" he clarified for me.
I knelt before him and bowed my head.
"thankyou for answering this lowly being's question my lord" I said, the wooden floor encompassing my vision.
"whilst under the disguise of the adventurer Momonga I ask of you to not treat me with such titles and formalities, it will be the same case with Harito as he lives und eth guise of Fenrir". He said, and I was shocked at this.
'if I was to treat them without any sort of title nor any formality that would be disgracing them as a supreme being' I thought, minorly discussing the meaning of his words.
"do you understand this Nabe?" he asked, and I could tell that he was currently testing me to see if I could do as he had asked me to and respond to him without any form of formality nor any sort of title.
"Yes Momonga, sir" I replied.
'I can't do it without some sort of title I would be dishonouring his greatness and that is something that I would consider I crime that deserved the death penalty' I thought, stressing at the fact that I had just failed my masters test.
Lord Ainz sighed in defeat before muttering "good enough, I guess".
Then he went silent. Moments later he spoke, and I realised that he had been communicating with the Nazarick.
"It would appear that I am required for a bit back at the tomb, would you mind keeping an eye on Harito whilst I'm out?" he asked me.
"It would be an honour my lord" I answered as he removed his armour in a brilliant display of blue flames.
A portal appeared before him and the last thing that he did before stepping through the portal was send a gaze at Harito.
'I wonder what the issue was? It would have been dire if they requested the aid of lord Ainz.' I concluded before staring at the unconscious form of lord Harito. Standing up, I headed towards his sleeping form and with general ease I removed his mask and cloak and placed them on the desk in the corner of the room. I wouldn't dare touch his blade nor remove the Remainer of his clothes.
Suddenly the image of the naked form of lord Harito planted itself into my mind. I could feel a rush of heat engulf my cheeks. Steam seemed to be rushing out of my ears, as if there was a flame inside my head and the smoke could only be released from my ears.
'Am I blushing? Is this what it feels like to have a 'crush' as Shaltear described her desire for Lord Harito?' I said before quickly returning to my bed across the room from my lord.
As I returned my gaze to him I could see his adorably fluffy ears and tail twitch and wiggle. It was as if they had a mind of their own. I remember Lord Ainz and Lord Harito discussing what he was.
Apparently he from a rare species of creatures called Abyss wolf's, with this memory I couldn't help but imagine a group of adorable lord Harito's, with this thought the rushing heat returned at full force.
'No, bad Naberal, you are a proud member of the Pleiades and this is Lord Harito, one of the members of the Supreme Beings and the only one besides Lord Ainz to remain behind when the rest of the Supreme Beings left us behind.' I chastised myself for being so ignorant.
Movement dragged me from my thoughts, Lord Harito had shifted so that his fluffy and wagging tail was pointed in my direction and I found my eyes following it's movements as if I was becoming a victim of hypnosis.
'focus Naberal, Lord Ainz has entrusted you with protecting Lord Harito while he is asleep, he didn't ask you to take advantage of the fact that no one is around to stare at how adorable and cuddly he looks' my resolve was slowly beginning to fade to the point where I couldn't control myself, I walked over to Lord Harito and begun to touch his ears.
'They are so soft and fluffy, it feels as if I am touching a living cloud of fluff' contempt with the way that his ears felt I moved towards his wagging tail.
'here's the moment of truth' I thought, and I touched the tail of Lord Harito. It felt as it should, completely and utterly divine. It was as if Lord Harito was blessed by all of the Supreme Beings with all of the fluffiness and softness that they could manage to conjure.
After several minutes of patting his tail I returned to my bed and sat down on it, it was at this point that I finally noticed that the sun had begun to rise which meant that Lord Ainz would be returning soon from his business with Nazarick.
'I wonder how the others will react when I tell them how soft Lord Harito's fur is? Hopefully they won't try and acquire any for themselves' I thought, moments later a portal appeared in the centre of the room and once it had disappeared it had left behind the dark armoured form of Lord Ainz when he was acting as Momonga the swordsman.
'maybe I should ask him what a crush is? I hope that Lord Harito doesn't mind that I touched his ears and tail whilst he slept' I thought noticing that the sun was high in the sky signalling that it was morning (that sounds a lot creepier then I meant it, cue the old man in the closet wearing a superman custom).
Return to OC'S P.O.V
I woke to the sound of birds lullabies and the endless streams of the sun's rays of light. I slowly rose out of bed while I yawned and rubbed the copious amounts of sleep from my eyes. While I performed my morning routine of stretching, I glanced around the room only to notice that I was currently the only one present within the room.
'that's strange, I remember having friends before falling asleep' I thought, standing up I finally took notice of the fact that my mask and my coat were both currently not upon my person.
'and I remember having a lot more clothes on before sleeping' I added, my sleep-addled mind attempting to piece together a non-existent mystery. As it slowly woke up from a separate slumber from mine I managed to notice a small piece of paper on the desk alongside both of my missing sections of apparel.
'ha ha, the mystery has been solved, great work gang' I thought, attempting to imitate Scooby-doo.
I put my extra clothes on before deciding to read the letter, the neat and delicate handwriting on the letter expressed the fact that the letter was written by Ainz.
Harito
If your reading this then it means that you finally managed to wake up from your sleeping beauty slumber, I wouldn't be surprised if your character wasn't the inspiration for that story.
Anyways, I decided to head to the guild hall to take a job, it would have been nice to have you with us due to the fact that you have a skill that allows you to be literate in any and every language ever, it would have also been a great opportunity to test if passive skills like that are still functional in this world.
If you wake up before we return could you come and meet us at the guild seeing as how you're a part of our little team while we are adventurers.
P:S according to Nabe, your fur is the softest and fluffiest thing in the universe. She is also accompanying me to the guild hall.
'so that's why I felt like I was being pet while I was dreaming last night, I never would have guessed that Naberal would be the one to touch my fur but it's not like I care. It's not that soft and fluffy, is it?' I questioned, wondering what my fur felt like for others because it just felt ordinary for me.
After snapping out of my internal discussion I decided that I should probably get going, lifting the mask to my face I fell back into the role of Fenrir.
After leaving the room and walking down the stairs I walked back into the bar section of the inn, it was there that I noticed the group of trouble-making adventurers from yesterday, unsurprisingly they noticed me as well.
"Oi brat, aren't ya with that armoured ass from yesterday?" asked the projectile from yesterday.
'great, now I have to deal with issues that Ainz created' I grumbled internally.
"yea, he was, I remember him, he was the one that handed that potion to that angry chick yesterday" said his buddy.
"I've got a bone to pick with you big friend, so why don't you tell me where he is and I'll leave ya be" he said, that cocky and smug grin replacing the earlier angry scowl that he was wearing. The only thing that he was answered with was silence, which was mainly due to the fact that I had nothing that I wanted to say to the thug, apparently this response was not the one that the thug wanted.
"oi, can yer hear me? Do these work?" he said reaching out to grasp my ears, this movement triggered some sort of primal instinct because I went from completely calm and passive to aggressive and offensive as fast as people with terminal death die. Instantaneously.
My hand reacted purely on instinct as it reached out and grasped the wrist of his extending arm, the strength behind the grasp was quite weak, yet it was still enough to cause the man to scream in agony as his wrist slowly begun to break. However, just before I snapped the thug's wrist I decided that it would be wiser to release him in case I managed to inflict any permanent damage to this man because even though I thought considerably low of the man it didn't mean that I wanted to cause him anything life-altering, instead I decided to kick his leg out before using his falling momentum to deliver a haymaker which flattened him into the boards of the wooden floor.
'worth it' was all I thought before proceeding to exit the inn after placing some coins on the bar to manage the expenses.
Despite how the morning started, I found myself enjoying the lightly bustling townspeople and the sweet melody of life that surrounded me, bargains were being made, birds were singing sweetly as they soared through the skies, the light whistling of winds as it blew past the well-made pottery along the streets.
'I could get used to this' I thought with a sigh. As I continued to walk at a leisurely pace towards my objective of the adventurer's guild hall.
As I entered the guild hall I was swift to notice the absence of a certain armoured undead and a highly murderous combat maid.
{Hey Ainz, where are you?} I messaged, my mind already shifting to the idea that he might have already left without you.
{Naberal and I are currently with a group upstairs, we are currently discussing a possible team-up with mutual benefits} came his response.
{do you want me to come up?} I questioned, disliking the idea of him saying yes, which meant that I would have to socialise with strangers.
{No, we are just finishing up now, we will be down momentarily} he answered. Ending the communication.
'why does he sound so professional all of a sudden?' I thought, curious as to why the way he talked had changed from semi-professional to full on formal speech overnight.
I decided to sit down and wait for them near the stairs, the chairs were oddly comfortable for a guild, but I was slightly thankful for that because I had to wait for a full 5 minutes before I could hear the thundering thuds and clanks of Ainz's armour.
I stood up and glanced towards the top of the stairs, behind Nabe and Ainz were 4 others, there was the archer who reminded me a little of an elf, the loli boy, the dwarf and then there was an average looking guy with a sword.
'I guess they are the group that Ainz was talking about' I gathered from the way that they were both walking together, and they were engaged in a conversation about a monster hunt.
I walked towards them as they neared the bottom of the stairs, I reached them just as the receptionist called out to Ainz.
"I apologize but someone has specifically requested you for a job" she said after Ainz had responded to her.
"do you know who asked for me?" he asked, his voice displaying the same hint of suspicion that I had.
"yes, it was Mr Nfirea Bareare" at the mention of this name most of the heads in the building swivelled our direction and muttering begun to spring forth from the adventurers endless ranks.
'this is a tad suspicious, mainly due to the fact that we have only been adventurers for less than a day.' I thought before lightly chopping Nabe on the head as she attempted to step forward against a non-confirmed threat in the form of a figure whose sight I doubted because of the curtain of hair that fell over his eyes.
Ainz made a gesture for the client to follow him back upstairs to discuss what the work was and what it would require.
{do I have to be there for this talk? If so can I go to sleep?} I questioned Ainz.
{Yes, you do have to be there for this discussion and if you really want to sleep while I talk with this man, then be my guest just please make sure that you are in a state where I can wake you up} he answered through the link before yet again severing the connection. His answer made me sigh with relief.
'thank god that I don't have to socialise with people, nor do I have to listen to any boring discussions' I spoke internally thanking the gods for blessing me with this majestic gift not being bored beyond any form of recognition. After entering the room, I sat down on the couch that Ainz and Nabe were seated at and once again fell asleep immediately. Darkness consuming all thoughts and encompassing me in its embrace.
TIME SKIP to the point where they are leaving to go on the quest
I was woken by a sickening amount of shaking performed by the being I am now awarding the title 'bone shaking'. Ainz was once again shaking me like as if I was a filthy carpet and he was attempting to get all of the crumbs off of me. Little did he realise that he was pinning my arms to my sides, meaning that I couldn't signal to him that he had woken me up.
After 2 more minutes he finally noticed that I was awake, from the kick that I managed to deliver.
"We are going on an escort mission, we leave now" he informed me as he placed me back onto the ground once more.
My only response to this was the smallest nod of my head.
"I also introduced you to the others while you were sleeping" he added, before informing me of the names of the group that we were taking with us. The elf look-a-like was called Lukrut and he was apparently a ranger meaning that he was the eyes and ears of the group, the loli was Ninya and she was both a talent-holder and a magic user, Dyne was the dwarf and he was a druid which made him especially useful in forests and finally there was Peter who was the leader and the swordsman of the group. Then there is our client whom is an herbalist and a talent holder with the talent to use any and every magical item.
After leaving the guild we met up with the rest of the group just outside the walls of the town, thankfully I was able to travel in the back of the wagon along with Nabe. Ninya and Nfirea sat at the front of the wagon. I excluded myself from any and all of the conversations that took place as we travelled, instead I chose to admire how beautiful this world was compared to my old world.
The air was fresh and clean, as we travelled through a forest I glanced up and saw a that the canopy was practically glowing from the sun's light, a couple rays pierced through the thick coverage creating a majestic sight, we passed a small lake and it seemed to dance under the clear blue sky and it sparkled like a vast horde of treasure as the sun glinted off of the surface.
It was beautiful, but I knew that a world as bright as this would need to contain a lot more darkness, sometimes it plays the role of the light but behind the curtain it is darker than any void in the abyss.
(sorry I really wanted to be dramatic. Hopefully my description of the scenery created a clear enough picture for you).
The sun was directly above us as we neared a small clearing of grass on the edge of a dark forest.
{Bet you that were about to get attacked by goblins or trolls} I messaged Ainz
{what makes you think that?} asked Ainz.
{look around, we are in a clearing which means there is not many places to run and there is a very dark forest over there} I answered.
{True} was all that was managed before my guestimate was proven accurate.
The blonde ranger suddenly stopped, and I could understand why, a pungent odour filled the air as if it was smoke.
"there are trolls and goblins approaching from the forest, they are about to breach the tree line". He said, for once he finally said something that didn't make me want to punch him in the face as hard as I could.
"can you tell how many there are?" asked Ainz, also noticing the fact that the ranger had just said something useful.
"there are about 10 goblins and 4 trolls" he answered, though his numbers were not aimed to be accurate due to the distance and the lack of a visual source to acquire those numbers from, but he still did pretty good for an idiot. There was 11 goblins and 5 trolls, he was only 1 off of each so meh.
"I think we can handle this; wouldn't you agree Fenrir?" asked Ainz as he took a step towards the charging beasts as they appeared in the light.
I nodded my head as I begun to walk towards the repulsive smelling goblins.
"you guys stay back we can take care of these foes, that includes you as well Nabe" he said as he drew his sword and rushed the trolls.
I turned and gave a thumbs up before swiftly rushing the goblins. The first of the goblins that I reached attempted to stab me with a worn and crooked blade, I easily avoided the blade by smacking his extending arm away with the back of my hand before delivering a fatal palm strike to his head and sending it's lifeless corpse to be sent flying backwards.
The next goblin attempted to jump me from behind. However, the meaning of sneak attack was definitely wasted because it was screaming the entire time it was moving, I avoided the blade aimed at the back of my skull by moving my head to the side at the last moment, then I grabbed the arm that was moving past my face and flung the body of the goblin over my shoulder and into the ground below before stomping on it's throat and crushing it's neck.
Two more goblins attempted to team attack me from opposite sides which I avoided causing the brainless creatures to impale each other.
'that's 4 down, which leaves 7 remaining' I thought.
Reaching down to the handle of my blade I waited for the next attackers, which were a group of three, they all charged me head on and from the same direction making my life much easier. The first goblin of the trio lunged at me only to be beheaded and with the same strike I managed to cut the attacking arm of the goblin on my left, I twisted my blade around and sliced the head of the left goblin before parrying and impaling the last of the trio.
'3 more down, 4 more to go' I continued the countdown for the deaths of the goblins.
I picked up 4 of the crooked blades that had been dropped by the fallen goblins, after ridding my katana of the repulsive goblin blood I sheathed it. Placing 2 blades in one hand and the other 2 in the other.
2 of the remaining goblins begun to tremble in fear as I unconsciously released some of my aura, the other 2 decided to flee and leave their allies behind. I threw 2 of the blades over the heads of the trembling goblins, I was expecting my projectiles to hit their targets, but they did the first blade I threw had lodged itself through the back of right fleeing goblin, while the other one sliced through the back of the left runners head.
I then charged the remaining goblins, they attempted to attack me, desperation clearly guiding their current actions as I merely had to sidestep to avoid them, I struck the goblin on the right first, I struck him in the face with the but of the blade which caused him to stumble back giving me enough time to finish his friend by piercing his neck with a blade. The stumbling goblin didn't get the chance to balance himself as I drove the blade through the spot in between his eyes.
From start to finish the battle on took about 3 minutes.
'It worked, I never really had the chance to test my fighting technique in the other world, but I finally got the chance to do it, though it was only a close-quarters fight and I still haven't managed to employ anything but the basics due to foes being braindead goblins. However, now I can start to improve on those basics to make the style itself stronger and more effective' I started to rant on all of the things that I could have done better when I was fighting.
I turned back to the others and they were all gaping, even Ainz was looking on in mild shock.
{did I do something?} I asked Ainz through message.
{since when could you fight like that? I didn't know you knew martial arts} came his response
{why wouldn't I be able to fight? you fought the trolls and killed them all with a single swing each, why can't I be able to fight? wait you didn't think I could fight and yet you still thought that I could face them by myself?} I questioned the logic behind his decision.
{I thought you would be more offensive and slice them all up you sword, I didn't think that you would use your bare-fist then use your sword then act like a highly trained assassin or ninja}.
{I could have done basic stuff like you, but I wanted to test my own style, and this was the perfect opportunity, it also allowed me to gather how much my physical state improved so that I can manage it.} I ended the line of communication, then I walked back to the group and returned to my previous place in the wagon, ignoring the curious gazes and admiration I proceeded to close my eyes for a little bit.
When I reopened my eyes, it was nearing night time and everyone else had already begun to set up camp, and me being the lazy person that I am pretended that I was still asleep. Then I waited for Ainz to come and wake me up when it was time to eat.
"I know your awake" he said as he neared me. I then opened my eyes proving to him that he was indeed correct.
I walked with him to the campfire, slightly uncomfortable with the way that they were all looking at me.
'I'm getting the feeling that I am going to be annoyed if I remain here to eat' I came to my sound conclusion as we waited for the food. After receiving my food, I returned to my spot in the wagon with the food. If this world was beautiful during the day than the view at night was a masterpiece. The black night sky was illuminated by millions of stars, giving a preview of the vast wonders that are out there far beyond what we can see.
If the sun glinting of the water was a twinkling dance, then the silver light of the moon created a dazzling performance upon the silent waves.
I swiftly finished off all of my food before returning to my sleep with the stars above my head and the sounds of the darkness greeting my ears with the chorus.
'this is what it means to live' I sighed as I succumbed to the darkness of sleep.
That is chapter 4. So sorry for the delay, there were a couple things that kept me busy ranging from lack of ideas for this chapter to school.
And as usual the mentions of the newest people supporting my story, so a huge thank you to the following for either reviewing, following or favouriting this story it honestly means the world to me:
CurleyQue, Loky687, cbkiely5, thatonephlogpyro, , 3I Mora, AGENT MUTE, Alyssa Sunborn, Demon438, Iceleigh, fireball724, IgnitedHeat, BigRobot, casperhaffert, WildfireZ03, Adam-cross, Blood Fluffles, UNHOLY LIGHT, XxHawktalonxX, Notice me sempai, Strongbridge and Gilgamesh50.
And a final thing recently I have been working on creating about 5 other stories so you may or may not look forward to other stories of mine. It's up to you if you want to look forward to it. However, this is not a guaranteed thing I might just focus on this one before putting the others out there.
And with that I wish you all a very lovely day.