"Zanac, I'm glad to see you're open at such an ungodly hour," Ainz greeted as he stepped out of his [Gate] inside the man's store. It was currently 8:00 AM in the morning and Zanac looked surprised by his entrance but recovered quickly enough.
"Sir Ainz! Glad to see you again! Do you have any more of your unusual clothing?" Zenfield asked hopefully, practically foaming at the mouth.
Ainz hummed at the thought before reaching into his inventory and pulling out a Christmas sweater he acquired after spending more than two hours playing YGGDRASIL on X-Mas. On the front of the sweater was a knitted Christmas tree and a red/green present, with a cute reindeer in-front of everything. "Here you go, but I don't want money this time; I need information and items."
After taking the sweater with excited hands Zanac nodded and said, "Of course! What do you want/need to know?"
"I need a map of this country, a map of this town, and directions to a blacksmith who takes speciality orders," Ainz requested as he held his new golden staff in his left hand.
"No problem! Give me a couple of minutes as I get your things," Zanac then left him alone as he went to his office. After three or so minutes had passed the short man came back holding two rolled parchments of paper before offering them to his benefactor. "Here's the maps, as requested. As for the blacksmith I suggest you go to Eight Bears Weapon Shop, which is not too far from here."
"Thank you again, Zanac. You've been very helpful so far. How would one get there?"
After getting the directions and bidding farewell, Ainz made his way to the shop, finding that it was a simple one-story building. It had an insignia of two swords and a shield next to the wooden door as Ainz entered, finding a plethora of swords, spears, bows, maces, halberds, and more on display in the shop. The gruff-looking owner behind the counter brightened up at seeing a potential customer. He was an older fellow, probably in his 50's. He had brown hair along with a beard, and he had a body-builder's build. "Welcome to the Eight Bears Weapon Shop. How can I help you today?" asked the polite man.
"Good morning. I was informed by an associate of mine that you do commissions," Ainz said, stopping a little ways away from the counter.
"I do, but it's a rule in my shop to pay upfront before the commission," the man warned. "But judging by your robes I'm sure you can pay it, sir…?"
"Please excuse my rudeness for not introducing myself. My name is Ainz Ooal Gown," the disguised heteromorph greeted. "And what is your name?"
"My name's Barral, owner of this fine shop. What kind of weapon are you looking for, Sir Gown?" Ainz wordlessy entered his inventory and pulled out a silver ore that shined in the light. The man behind the counter looked surprised and shocked from what he was seeing. "S—sir, how did you do that? And what is that unusual ore you have?"
"Oh, it's my Null magic. Why, does it interest you?" Ainz easily lied from behind his mask, chuckling a bit. "And this ore is called 'adamantite."
"It does interest me, indeed! What do you call your personal magic? Is it like a chest of sorts?" the man asked, curious as he took the ore from Ainz's hand. It felt different than any other ore he had ever held before, making his mind race at the possibilities.
"I call it 'Inventory,' and yes it's like a chest but with almost infinite room. It's filled with anything I could get my hands on," the Supreme Being told truthfully. "I would like you to make a katana out of the ore I've given you. And this," Ainz paused as he reached into his inventory and pulled out a brilliant ruby one size smaller than the man's fist, "is going to be your payment. You're confident that you can melt the ore, correct?" he challenged.
"Of course I can, or my name isn't Barral of the Eight Bears Weapon Shop!" the owner declared, a fire lit behind his eyes as he reverently took the gem.
"I'll be sure to have more work for you if you succeed. Good luck and a good day, Mr. Barral. I'll return here in three days time to retrieve my katana," Ainz said as he bid his way goodbye before saying, "[Gate]." He entered the door-shaped spell and appeared in the lobby of the Silver Moon Inn, where the young twins were waiting for him.
"I can't read any of this!" Ainz thought as he tried to read the papers on the board. It was the later on in the new day and he, Elze, and Linze were at the adventurers' guild, looking over potential bounties that interested them. His compatriots were to his left checking out a pair of bounties while he tried to read his own set but unfortunately, as he already knew, he couldn't read shit. Sighing to himself and begrudgingly thanking the shitty devs of YGGDRASIL, he reached into his pocket (while also going into his personal inventory) and pulled out his only pair of magic glasses; a pair of glasses that can translate any piece of foreign writing/text. He put on the magic glasses (thankfully magically conforming to his mask) as he read over the bounties on the board. "Kill a 100 slimes? Too monotonous, boring, and only one gold piece upon completion? Pass. Defeat five troll-sized monster frogs? Maybe, the pay isn't too bad either."
"Find any good ones, Ainz? And what's with the glasses?" Elze asked, looking over to him.
"Oh, these are just my reading glasses, helps me read and whatnot," he effortlessly lied. "No, I haven't found any good ones, all of them are kinda crap to be honest."
"Uh, there's a bounty on my side to defeat beast monsters in the forest to the east. How about we do that?" Linze asked, reading the flyer on the board as she said so. "It says to kill five One-Horned Wolves, and the reward is 18 copper coins."
"Hmm, not bad. Let's do it," Ainz agreed, watching as Elze pulled the bounty off the board and brought it to the counter for them to undertake.
They all left the guild's door as they made their way to the forest, talking to each other as they did so. "Ainz, I've been meaning to ask since we met this morning but where'd you get such a magnificent staff? It's otherworldly!" Linze commented, comparing Ainz's staff to her own weapon.
"I call it the 'Arcane Focus Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown,' as it allows me to use your world's magic system," the overlord answered honestly, a bit of pride welling up in him at his ingenuity, but not enough to cause his mood stabilizer to activate. "But not yet Null magic, I have to go theorycraft later to fix that."
"Wow, how does that work?" she asked, intrigued on how he did it.
"I took your spell stones and modified it to fit into the slots at the top of my staff, and it's conductive like a wand, allowing me to use any of your world's spells while holding it. Which reminds me, do you mind teaching me some spells or direct me to a spellbook of sorts? I'd greatly appreciate it and would pay—"
"Nope, no paying required! I'm sure my dear younger sister would teach you for free, right, sis?" Elze interrupted. "It's no skin off our backs to teach you, Ainz."
"Yeah, what are friends for?" Linze added, a small smile on her face at having a new pupil to teach.
"Friends, huh? Not yet, but maybe in the future…"
They had finally made their way into the forest as Elze spoke up as she put on her blue and yellow gauntlets, "As usual, you'll be our rear guard, Linze, and I'll be our vanguard. Ainz, you'll be in the rear guard with Linze, right?" Elze asked, a hand on her hip as the three of them walked side by side.
"Sure, I don't mind. Do you want me to be a proactive magic caster, a support, or a mix of both?" Ainz asked, genuinely wanting to know how he should battle with two other members of a party, as he could probably do this quest solo if he wanted to.
"The first one, please," she requested as they entered a clearing in the forest. As soon as they stopped however, six One-Horned Wolves jumped out of their hiding spots to ambush them. "Attack!" Elze commanded, charging at one of the wolves and uppercutting the head of one of the beasts. Everyone could hear a CRACK! noise as the wolf went flying up a good couple yards into the air as Elze switched targets.
"[Triple Maximize Magic: Magic Arrow!]" Ainz uttered, watching as three arrows made of magic manifested in front of him and struck three different wolves in the head with pinpoint accuracy. They died upon impact, making Ainz wonder how weak the monsters were in this world to not even survive such a subpar spell.
"{Come forth, Fire! Hail of Red Stones: Ignis Fire!}" Linze chanted while holding what looked to be her own arcane focus. A circle of flames appeared around her as the spell happened, before it then moved over to a single wolf and engulfed it in a tornado of fire. The monster screamed out in agony as it was cooked alive before it fell to the ground, charred beyond recognition.
Ainz made sure to note exactly what Linze said and how the spell was visualized for future spell-testing.
Elze noticed that one of the One-Horned Wolves decided to run from the fight as she started to chase it down before uttering, "{Boost!}" To Ainz she became even faster as she jumped up in the air and slammed her gauntlets down on the wolf's head, killing it in a single blow. Taking a second to breathe she noticed that they had all defeated the ambush and survived. With a smile on her face she took out a small blade and began to cut off the horn of the monster, with her sister copying her soon after.
"Do we need proof of the kill to complete the quest?" Ainz asked as he reached into his inventory and pulled out a small ebony dagger, cutting off the horns from the wolves he killed like his compatriots. "And was that your Null magic, Elze?"
"Yes we need proof of the kill and yes that was my Null magic. I call it {Boost}, as it makes me stronger and faster," Elze answered before going around and collecting the horns from Ainz and her sister in a small burlap bag.
Ainz got the darkest of urges to use [Dark Wisdom] on Elze to get her Null magic, as that sounded like a great buff, but unfortunately he'd have to kill her in order to get it. It sure was tempting, but he held himself back, vowing to himself to figure out how to replicate other people's Null magic without needing to kill them and then use [Dark Wisdom]. "I need to do a few errands today so how about I cut our walk time to nil? [Gate]," Ainz said as a door-shaped portal appeared, ushering the two girls into it. He followed shortly afterwards and came out the other side in the lobby of the adventurers' guild. Everyone there was gawking at them with shock and some with envy as the three walked out.
"Ainz, do you mind giving me your Guild Card? The receptionist needs it to rank us," Elze requested, holding out a gloved hand. After giving her his card and watching her go to the counter with a bag full of the horns, a short female by even his standards came walking up to the disguised skeleton.
She had a bookish appeal to her, with her glasses a bit too big for her. Her yellow irises matched with her equally blond hair, holding a big book in her hands. "Um, excuse me, but was that the Null magic spell {Gate}?" she asked, pushing her glasses back up her face as it slid down her nose.
Ainz turned to her and replied, "Kind of, yes. Why do you ask?"
The girl then proceeded to open the book and flipped a few hundred pages to the "G" section of the book before showing the page in question. The undead overlord quickly took out his magical glasses and put them on, reading on the page:
Gate: The user creates a portal to a place where he/she has visited. However, the user must physically walk through the portal.
"You have the same Null magic as another person, which is really rare!" the girl praised before closing the book and holding it in such a way that Ainz was able to read the title which read: "Null Magic Compendium Vol. 56."
Intrigued by the book and the knowledge of the girl he asked, "Where'd you get that book?"
"I got it from Saurus's Book Store in town. It wasn't cheap like most books," the girl answered. "Sorry, I have to be on my way now," the girl said suddenly before she beelined her way out of the building, leaving Ainz to ponder and scheme.
After getting 6 copper coins from Elze and splitting up with them for the time being, and also buying the newest edition of "Null Magic Compendium Vol. 67" from Saurus's Book Store, Ainz used [Gate] to fast travel to his room where he immediately took off his disguise and pulled out the two maps he had acquired from Zanac and set them down on the table to read them with his magical glasses. Apparently he was on the western Europa continent and in the country of Kingdom of Belfast. He also discovered that Reflet Town had a cemetery on the outskirts of the town's borders, which Ainz filed away for later.
Grabbing his newest book and setting his staff inside his inventory, he began to read Null magic spell after Null magic spell. Thanks to his new undead body he was reading faster than ever and retaining the knowledge quite easily. Most of the Null magic spells were useless, such as {Color Change}, which changed the color of any non-organic item to whatever the user wanted. There were a few, however, that peaked his interest, those being {Accel}, {Enchant}, {Long Sense}, {Multiple}, {Program}, and so on and so forth.
Ainz really, really wanted to be able to use these spells, especially {Enchant}/{Multiple}/{Program} as he wondered if he could mix and match spells from YGGDRASIL and this new world. But alas, he didn't know where each unique individual had died so that he could use [Dark Wisdom] on their corpse. He could, in theory, use his skill on every corpse he found or made and hoped that he would unlock new Null magic spells, but that would take a lot of time and accumulate many useless spells in the process.
The undead heteromorph looked down at his skeletal hands, seeing one of the rings on his bony fingers taunting him. The ring was engraved with three blue shooting stars, and was called "Shooting Star." It was a ring that (in YGGDRASIL) could make the user's wish come true (out of 200 available options). In this new world, however, he had a feeling it had changed and became stronger, and that if he became really desperate he could wish to be able to use all types of Null magic, but Ainz was hesitant to do so. Afterall, he'd have to sacrifice his XP and potentially his levels to make his wish come true.
But it was a small wish, wasn't it? Wishing to use all types of Null magic didn't seem like too much of a big deal, and he doubted that he'd lose a level or two if he tried. Still, he decided that his dilemma wasn't worth a use of Shooting Star (yet), so he shelved that line of thinking for now as he decided to lay down on his bed, rest his eyes and not think of anything for the rest of the night.
Author's Note: I'll be completely honest that the idea for Ainz to commission the Eight Bears Weapon Shop came from chapter 10 of "Re: He Who Is Beyond Sin."
Should I make Ainz use a wish to use all types of Null magic? I'm leaning towards a "no" but I would like to read your opinions. Any ideas on how he should acquire them are much appreciated, seeing as how (at the moment) Ainz would be basically body hunting around the world trying to find just one spell to add to his arsenal.