Chapter 10 The Lone Adventurer, Momon the Dark Warrior.
"It's time for me to go, my men." Ainz said to his subordinates.
Ainz is currently wearing a black hooded robe with purple and golden markings, the same robe Shi gave Ainz when he first met him during his encounter back in the Land of Desolation.
Equipped with two Nodachis strapped at his back, a katana on his left side, black steel gauntlets for both hands, durable leather boots, a pouch of kunai blades, several collapsible shurikens, (all of the items are enchanted by magic.) and finally a mask that completely hides his undead skull features.
After a month Ainz was transported to the New World and the events that followed, Ainz decided to become an Adventurer.
Despite the useful information his subordinates gave him, Ainz felt a bit lacking and wanted to gather more information via adventuring.
"Are you sure my Lord? Can't you let one of us accompany you on your journey towards the Fortress City, E-Rantel?" One of his subordinates asked, concern clearly evident in his voice.
During his stay in Carne Village for the past month, training his subordinates in a brutal training regiment that would make the famous spartan training, left in total shame.
Naturally, the training was hard. Especially for the Magic Casters, since their bodies weren't used to do physical training of this much brutality.
During at that time, Ainz relationship between him and his subordinates grew and became more akin to a king and his most loyal knights, mostly in stories commonly told in fairy tales.
Despite the brutal training they recieved, that should have made his subordinates resent him. (Which is actually true during the 1st and 2nd week of their training.)
But in contrast it made them not just loyal, but stronger than ever before.
For the Knights they felt as if they can take on an adamantite adventurer in an one-on-one duel. Ainz estimated their level to be about level 35. (Formerly level 14.)
As for the Magic Casters, they're able to achieve 6th tier magic as such a level has never achieved before, even the early days of the Theocracy till the present day, as it mostly been told in myths and legends by their head priest. Ainz estimated their level to be about level 42 (Formerly level 21.)
Ainz chuckled as he answered to his subordinates "There's no need for that my men. Afterall I've already know the way there." Ainz said (after memorizing the map of course.) as he looked at his subordinates.
After Gazef left, Ainz made an oath to the villagers of Carne Village that he would protect them until they're deem strong enough to survive on their own, or at least hold out a possible attack or invasion until support arrive.
Ainz taught the villagers basic weapons training, both offensive and defensive styles as in case they have to fight with weapons to defend the village.
Ainz looked at Carne Village, it was barely dawn and most of the villagers are mostly asleep and a few of them are awake and went to work with their daily chores.
Ainz looked at the undead samurai "You'll be in charge while I'm gone Yamato. Be sure to protect the village and continue training my subordinates, and if they're slacking off you know what to do." Ainz said to the undead samurai Yamato
Yamato is an undead who has the features of... well... a samurai as one could picture it, given at first glance.
Yamato was formerly a Death Knight. Who Ainz rewarded him with a name and accidentally transferred his [Despair Aura V] negative energy to Yamato, thus transforming him to a Death Lord.
A Death Lord is a warrior type Overlord whose level is on par with Overlord Wiseman and Grim Reaper Thanatos, able to easily kill a average level 100 player and is one of the many types of the Overlord family in Yggdrasil.
'I still haven't gotten over the fact, that he was able to evolve in such a way.' Ainz thought at the memory how he made Yamato a Death Lord, he then looked at Yamato who was bowing to Ainz in a respectful way.
"I will go and do as you wish my Lord." Yamato said while bowing respectfully
Ainz nodded and grunted an "Umu." to Yamato, as he stared at the sunrise.
"I'll be leaving now my men, I've left Yamato in charge while I'm gone. And don't you dare slack off your training or else." Ainz eye dots started to glow deathly red "You'll experience THAT again if you disobey. Understood." Ainz said to his subordinates, who are shaking in fear at the memory of Ainz doing THAT again.
"Yes sir!" His subordinates called out to Ainz, mixture of fear and determination can be heard, Ainz heard them perfectly clear.
"Good." that was Ainz only reply, before he walked out in a distance and left towards the Fortress City, E-Rantel.
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Scene Change.
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Fortress City, E-Rantel. (Late Afternoon.)
The Kingdom's city of E-Rantel was situated at the border between the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy. Since it was protected by 3 layers of city walls, it was known as the Fortress City due to its appearance. The zones between each layer had their own unique characteristics.
The outermost walls were used by the Kingdom's military and had all the necessary military armaments.
The innermost wall housed the administrative zone. This zone has its own warehouse for food, and was heavily protected by soldiers.
The zone between the two areas was the residential area for civilians. When you hear the word city, this was the zone that matched it.
Of the several plazas within this zone, the biggest one was called the central plaza. Lots of people set up shop there, laying out all sorts of vegetables, spices and other sorts of merchandise.
In the lively crowd, a shop owner shouted loudly in an attempt to attract customers. Elderly housewives and merchants haggled over the price of fresh ingredients, youths are being enticed by the fragrance of juicy, barbeque meat kababs.
This plaza was incredibly lively in the day, the noisy and crowded atmosphere would carry on till sunset. But one figure leaving a five-story building put an end to the rowdy atmosphere.
Every eye in the plaza was drawn to the man as he stood motionlessly.
some people in the plaza mumbled: "Dark Warrior."
That's right, that person was wearing an elegant full body robe decorated with purple and golden markings. the face couldn't be seen through under the hood and the mask he had worn. At his back two extremely long, slightly curved swords strapped at his back with a foreign feel emanating from it, at his side is a sword slightly curved and has the same feel as his extremely long swords, a pouch most likely be filled with throwing knives, several star-shaped weapons that can be considered as throwing weapons, and complementing the style of dressing.
He looked around and took the first steps.
The crowd started to murmur as they watched the back of the figure fade into the distance. They were surprised by the rare sight they just saw and felt no fear or wariness towards the armed man.
The reason for that was that the man exited from the building known as the 'Adventurer's Guild', an association for experts who hunted monsters. Other armed people also left the building as well after the person left. The observant people had also noticed small copper medal hanging on his neck.
The person only attracted attention because of his weapons and strikingly cool clothing.
He walked silently on the narrow road.
The water pooled in the tracks of carriages reflected the sun. The road itself was made from sand and mud, thus meaning that it was not as good as those paved with stone and was hard to walk on. It was easy to slip and fall, but the man's balance was excellent and his walking speed was almost the same as if his walking on a paved road.
The masked hooded robed man confirmed nobody was around and said fully to himself:
"Ah finally I've made it." Ainz said his voice low and quiet as to make sure he wasn't being overheard.
After travelling non-stop for nearly a whole day, he was able to reach the Fortress City, E-Rantel without any encounters with other players. Which was a good thing, since he was travelling on foot on the way to E-Rantel.
Why he has to travel on foot, you ask? Because he doesn't want to attract unwanted attention by teleporting out of nowhere as he might be discovered by players who might be using [Delay Teleportation] on the city walls to detect incoming players who are capable of using [Teleportation Magic] to travel E-Rantel 'directly'.
"Well at least I was able to become an adventurer without incident." The Overlord mused to himself.
He enlisted himself as 'Momon' as an alias to become an adventurer himself, as well as becoming famous and gather information as a high ranking adventurer to know how this world works and what kind of technology it possesses.
"Now, where was the tavern she told me to stay for the night?" The blacked hooded Overlord asked himself.
Ainz looked around him.
There were several shops open for business, with a handful of visiting customers. To the side were a few workmen in work aprons carrying goods.
He searched for the tavern in this shop-populated zone since he was told by counter lady, that he was to stay in one of the cheapest tavern.
Since Ainz knew how to read the written language of this world (Which was written from several of his subordinates who knew how to read and write.) and thanks to his boosted intelligence and translation items, he was able to decipher the symbols that made up the written language of this world
Shortly after, he found the intended 'tavern'. And then Ainz unconsciously sped up quickly closing the distance
Dusting the dirt off his leather boots, Ainz walked up 2 steps, opened the double doors with both hands and entered.
Almost all the windows were closed, giving the indoors dim lighting. Those who were used to the bright light outside wouldn't be able to adjust immediately. But for Ainz, who had nightvision, this amount of light was more than enough.
The interior was spacious; the first floor was the dining area with a counter. Two cabinets were placed behind the counter, with a few dozen wine bottles on it. The door next to the counter probably led into the kitchen.
At the corner of the dining area was a right angled stairway leading to the 2nd floor. According to the counter lady, the 2nd and 3rd floor were guestrooms. A handful of patrons were scattered around some of the round dining tables. Most of them were men and the atmosphere felt hostile.
Everyone was looking at Ainz and they seemed to be taking his measure. The only one who ignored Ainz was a woman sitting in a corner who was staring at a bottle on her table.
This scene in the tavern caused Ainz to raise his nonexistant brows under his mask.
He had mentally prepared himself for this, but it was still filthier than he thought.
In Yggdrasil, there were many dirty and disgusting places and even the Great Tomb of Nazarick had one of them. Examples would be the hall of the Lord of Terror or the giant cavern of poison worms.
But this filth was different.
There were scraps of food all over the floor and unknown liquids; weird stains on the wall; a mysterious cube-shaped item moulding in a corner...
Ainz sighed in his heart and looked around the tavern.
There was a man with a dirty scarf around his neck, with his sleeved rolled up to show off two muscular arms. There were several scars that were either from a beast's claw or a blade wound.
His looks were somewhere between a brute and a beast, scars could clearly be seen on his face and his head was shaved.
He looked more like a bouncer than the owner, holding a rag while observing Ainz openly.
"Looking for a room? How many nights?", he asked from across the room with a voice that sounded like a broken bell.
"I want to stay for one night." Ainz said to the owner.
The boss answered crudely:
"...Copper medal. Communal hall will be 5 copper coins per night. Oatmeal with vegetables will be complementary, one more copper if you want meat. The oatmeal might be replaced with bread several days old." The owner said.
"I see, thank you for your help then." Ainz said as he thanked the owner.
The owner snorted:
"...There are 3 taverns used exclusively by adventurers and mine is worst of the lot... Do you know why the people at the guild introduce this place to you?" The owner questioned at Ainz.
The black robed adventurer shook his head "I don't know, please enlighten me."
In response to Ainz's query, the owner raised his brow and showed his intimidiating side:
"Use your brain! Or is the inside of this flashy mask empty?" The owner said as he used his most intimidating voice he had made.
Even after hearing the impatient and loud voice of the owner, Ainz remained unmoved. He calmly dismissed it and treated it like a children's tantrum because of the battle a month back.
After the battle, and the intelligence he got from his subordinates, Ainz understood just how powerful he was. That was why he didn't get agitated after being shouted at.
"... You have guts... most of the adventurers staying here have copper or iron medals. Even if you meet someone for the first, you can form an adventuring party if your abilities are around the same level. That's why my place is best suited for you to find teammates matching your current abilities..." The owner explained to Ainz.
Then the owner's eyes flashed for a moment:
"You can sleep in a room if you want, but you won't get teammates without using the common grounds. If you can't form a balanced party, you will be dead if you fight monsters. Rookies without comrades will advertise themselves in a crowded place like this. I will ask for the last time, you want the communal hall or a room?" The owner asked Ainz whether he chose the room or the communal hall.
Ainz answered "One room. I will pass on the meal." He simply stated.
The owner scowled "Tch, brushing off my good will... or did you think you are something special and your flashy weapons isn't just for show? Never mind, one night will be 7 copper coins. Payment in advance, of course." The owner said as he promptly held out his hand.
Under everyone's judging eyes, Ainz started walking towards him, when suddenly a foot was stuck out to block Ainz's path.
Ainz stopped, only moving his gaze to the man who was sticking his foot out.
The man showed an annoying smirk. The other men at the table did the same, staring at Ainz.
The owner and the other customers kept quiet and didn't interfere. Everyone appeared to be indifferent, but they were actually expecting to see a good show, with some of them watching the whole scene closely.
'Well, well..." Ainz thought as he looked at the man.
Ainz then sighed softly in irritation and gently kicked the foot away.
The man seemed to be waiting for this action and stood up. Because he wasn't wearing armor, the bulging muscles under his shirt were easily visible. A necklace hung around his neck, swaying with his every move. It was similar to the one Ainz wore, but this one was made of iron instead of copper..
"Hey hey, that hurts."
The man threatened Ainz with a sharp voice and approached him slowly. He was wearing his gauntlets when he stood up and metal parts squeaked as he clenched his fist.
The man was just as big as Ainz and stood a bit too close for a brawl as they glared at each other. Ainz flamed the fight on:
"I see. My field of vision is rather bad because of my mask, so I didn't see your leg in front of me. Or maybe I didn't notice your leg because it was too short... That's my reason, would you forgive me please?" Ainz asked the man politely or rather mockingly for the man.
"... Bastard." The man said as he scowled at Ainz.
Ainz's taunt made the man glare dangerously, but when he turned his gaze to look at Ainz's two Nodachis strapped at his back.
"You are an annoying fellow... but I am a generous man. I'll forgive you if you lend me those two swords at your back for one night." The man said obviously wanting to sell the two Nodachis for a high price.
Ainz laughed coldly at the man, as his red eye dots started to glow in a menacing way.
The man noticing he was laughing in cold way "... What are you laughing at?" The man asked.
Ainz answered "Nothing, it's just that you said a classic line befitting a mob villain, which made me laugh, don't worry about it." Ainz stated in a casual tone.
The made a confused "Eh?" before his face turned red from anger.
"Oh before we start I wanted to ask: Are you stronger than Gazef Stronoff?" Ainz asked to the man who only replied.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" He asked in a confused tone.
Ainz looked at the man "I see, I can tell from your reaction. I don't even need to use my strength to play with you--fly." Ainz said as he grabbed the man's chest and lifted him up in an instant.
The man couldn't dodge or resist, shouting 'Whoa!' in surprise. The men watching the scene got rowdy. Just how powerful was his arm strength if he could lift a full grown man? Everyone present could imagine how powerful he had to be in order to do that.
The man's legs kicked vainly as a wave of shouts and gasps came from the crowd. Ainz gently tossed away.
But 'gently' was relative when it came to Ainz.
The man nearly hit the ceiling as he flew in an arc and heavily hit the ground.
The sound of bodies colliding, something on the table shattering, wood cracking and the man's painful howl reverberated within the hall. The tavern was silent as if they were shocked by the moan. But--
"Hya--!"
--The woman seated at the table screamed a beat too slow. It was a scream as if a catastrophe fell from the sky.
No, it was normal to scream like that if a man suddenly fell from the sky, but something other than surprise was mixed in that scream.
Ainz then looked at the man's comrades "...So, what do you guys want to do? Can you come at me together to save me some trouble? Wasting time on this is stupid." Ainz taunted the men who shared table with the troublemaker, and his companions understood the meaning behind this words and lowered their heads:
"Ah? Ehh! Our friend has offended you! We are very sorry about that!" They said in unison to Ainz.
Ainz answered "...Okay, I'll forgive you. It didn't trouble me too much, but make sure to compensate the owner for the table." Ainz said to man's companions
When Ainz felt this matter was settled and was planning to leave, someone stopped him;
"Hey, hey, hey!" He heard a voice calling him.
He turned and saw the woman who had screamed miserably approaching him unceremoniously.
She was about 20 years old or youngee, her messy hair trimmed short for easy movement. No matter how you put it, her hair was untidy. Frankly speaking, it looked like a bird-nest.
Her features weren't bad, her eyes were sharp, she didn't wear makeup and her skin was wheat colored after long exposure to the sun. Her arms had solid muscles and hand was full of calluses from weilding a sword. The first impression that came to mind wasn't 'woman' but 'warrior'.
A necklace with a iron medal hung over her chest, swaying violently as she walked.
"Look at what you have done!" The woman shouted at Ainz, who in return ask her.
"What is the matter?" Ainz asked the woman unknowingly what the matter was.
"Huh? You don't even know what you did?" The woman intimidately questioned Ainz.
She then pointed to the broken table.
"Because you threw that man there, my potion, my precious potion broke!" The woman whined about it, as Ainz only sweatdropped at her actions.
"It is just a potion..." Ainz stated simply to the woman.
The woman continued "...I didn't even eat in order to save the money for it. I just bought that potion today, but you broke it! No matter hoe dangerous an adventure is, that potion would've kept me safe. But you have shattered this pious hope of mine and still show me such an attitude? This is infuriating." The woman finally finished as she took another step closer to Ainz.
Standing before him was a raging bull, glaring at him with bloodshot eyes.
Ainz held back his sigh. It was his fault for tossing the man without thinking about where he would land, but Ainz had his reasons as well, so he wouldn't compensate her so easily:
"...How about getting your money from that man? If he didn't stretch out his short leg, this tragedy wouldn't have happened, isn't that right?" Ainz said as he glared at the man's companion through his mask.
"Ah, that's true..." The man's companion simply said.
"But..." The other faltered to say.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter who, just compensate me for the potion... the price was 1 gold and 10 silver coins." The woman said as she told the price to the man's companions.
The men lowered their heads; it didn't look like they were able to pay the money. Thus the woman looked at Ainz again:
"As expected. Of course they won't have any money, considering the way they're drinking. With such flashy weapons, you must have some potions, right?" The woman asked Ainz.
Ainz understood why the woman was asking him for compensation. This was rather a difficult case.
After thinking for a while, Ainz braced himself and asked:
"I do have some... but that was a recovery potion correct?"
The woman replied "That's right. I worked for every drop-" She was then interrupted by Ainz.
"--Yes, yes, you don't need to say it. I'll compensate you with a potion and settle the issue."
Ainz took out a low grade potion and gave it to the woman. The woman looked at the potion. The woman looked at the potion with a strange expression and recieved it reluctantly.
"...Are we even now?" Ainz asked the woman
"Yeah, everything is good." The woman said her tone showing hints of uncertainty.
Ainz nodded as he felt the situation deterioated and took out a leather purse, picked up a silver coin and placed it in the owner's rough hand.
The owner silently put the silver coin into his pocket and grabbed a few copper coins.
"Here are 12 copper coins as change." The owner said as he put the copper coins in Ainz iron plated glove and placed a small key on the counter."
"The first room on the right, up the stairs, you can store your luggage in the chest behind the bed. You don't need me to remind you not to approach the rooms of others carelessly. It would be troublesome if a misunderstanding occurs, but that's not a bad way to get others to know you. You look like you can handle any situation, just don't give me any trouble." The owner said as he glanced at the man moaning on the floor.
"I understand. Please prepare the minimum necessary equipment for adventurers. I lost my stuff and the guild told me you would prepare them for your customers if I asked." Ainz said to the owner, who only looked at Ainz dressing and stared at Ainz's leather purse.
The owner replied "Yeah, got it. I'll prepare it before dinner. You need to ready your money too." The owner said, Ainz nodded at him.
"Sure, I'll be leaving now to my room." Ainz said as he climbed up the old, creaking staircase and headed to his room.
After Ainz's figure disappeared onto the second floor, the companions of the man thrown by Ainz hastily cast a healing spell on him. Their action was like lighting a fuse, and the tavern became rowdy again.
"...Seems he is as tough as he looks."
"Definitely. That arm strength is too powerful, how did he train to reach that level?"
"Plenty of weapons on his body, he must be confident and well prepared if he has that."
"Why did this have to happen again... now there's another person who'll surpass us immediately!"
The conversations were filled with sighs, surprise and fear. Everyone knew from the beginning Ainz wasn't a normal adventurer.
The first clue was his flashy equipment. Full body equipment wasn't cheap, only those who kept adventuring and had plenty of experience could afford them. Only those who had advanced to silver medal rank could accumulate such wealth with the remunerations of their missions. But there were still some who inherited or picked it up from the battlefield or dungeons.
That was the reason they wanted to know his actual power.
Everyone was a companion and a competitor at the same time. They all wanted to know the capability of the newcomer, so the process just now kept on repeating.
All who were present went through the same ritual. But no one had passed through the rites so easily. That meant the man wearing the copper medal... Be it companion or competitor, he was definitely powerful, that was evident to anyone who watched him.
"How should we deal with that guy?"
"His weapons are top notched, no?"
"But if that was only him, he can join our team."
"You got it wrong; we should be the ones asking him to join his party."
"I wonder what he looks like under that mask."
"I will eavesdrop from the neighboring room of that guy tonight."
"He mentioned Gazef Stronoff, the strongest warrior among the neighboring nations just now right? Could he be the desciple of the knight captain?"
"That is possible. Let me take on this heavy responsibility with my good hearing [Thief Ears]."
As the crowd noisily discussed the mysterious man in high spirit, the tavern owner walked towards one adventurer:
It was the woman who got the potion from Ainz.
The woman -- Brita shifted her gaze from the red potion she was staring at intensely and looked at the owner with a dull expression.
"What potion is that?" The owner asked.
"Who knows?" Brita simply answered him in a flat tone.
"... Hey, you don't even know? didn't you accept his compensation immediately because you knew the price of this potion?" The owner asked once more to Brita.
"That's impossible, I've never seen such a potion before. Didn't you come here to take a look as well because you haven't seen this before, old man?"
Brita guessed right.
"Can this potion really compensate you? Your potion breaking is a fact, right? This one might be cheaper than the one you brought."
"That might be... this is a gamble, but I'm confident I'll come out ahead. This was given to me by a guy with flashy equipment after hearing the value of my potion."
"I see..." The owner said as he stroke his chin.
"... I have never seen a recovery potion with such a strange color; it might be a rare item. If I hesitated back then and asked to be paid with money instead, it would be the same as leaving the tiger's den empty-handed. I'll get it appraised tomorrow and find out how much it is worth."
"Oh, I will foot the appraisal fee. Not just that, I will even recommend a good place for you."
"Old man?"
Brita frowned. The tavern owner wasn't a bad guy, but he was definitely not a charitable man. There must be a catch.
"Hey don't give me that look. I just want you to tell me the effects of your potion."
"Is that what you are planning?"
"It's a great deal right? And with my connections, I can introduce you to the pharmacist, Lizzie Bareare."
Brita was shocked.
Many mercenaries and adventurers congregated in E-Rantel, so vendors specializing in weapons and equipment were able to earn a lot of money, with the recovery potion trade being the most profitable. That's why E-Rantel had more pharmacist than other cities.
But even in the face of so much competition, Lizzie Bareare held on her title as the best pharmacist.Among all the pharmacist in the city, she could concoct the greatest amount of complicated potions. Since the owner mentioned Lizzie Bareare, Brita couldn't refuse.
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And cut
sorry for the late update I was busy doing some school stuff, my place was hit by a storm called Urduja (Yes I live in the Philippines.) and there was no electricity for the next few days after Urduja so I was able to finish this today since the electricity came back.
Also sorry for the disappointment that from now on I would follow the canon events that would happen in the LN and hopefully make my chapters as long as the LN.
Also I changed the timeline instead of 10 days I made it 1 month so I made it more realistic (for me.) so yeah
Hopefully you enjoy this be sure to review and press the fav. button.gabrielchiong11.