So yeah, I am little late again. No excuses.
Secondly, no. I did not proofread in the 2nd chapter as I was preoccupied with my tasks.
Thirdly, yes. Gazef is dead. You will soon understand why it happened in this chapter, so don't be hasty.
And lastly, I am a science teacher, not an English teacher. But I am trying my best to learn it by myself.
With all that clear.
Now, enjoy~.
The new morning for Carne village with lot of new changes in their past daily routines. Rather than going to their past courses in fields and dairies, they were now cutting trees and putting fences surrounding the whole village. The entire structure of village was transforming into a fortress. And the one who pushed forward the whole process was none other than the saviour of Carne village, who was going to leave them soon. However, he did gave them a farewell gift as well.
"Lord Momon, I want to thank you for rescuing us back then."
Enri Emmot bowed down in gratitude, as she stood before him alongwith with Nemu, who bowed down as well. Enri held two horns, bestowed upon them by their savior.
"It's fine. Though it is sad that Gazef was no longer with us." He replied in a somber tone.
While fighting against the Sunlight Scripture, Momon collaborated with Gazef as an additional support. However, in order to deal a finishing blow, Gazef lost his life.
"He died as a martyr and as a hero. He should be remembered for his sacrifice for your village. Unfortunately, I was not strong against them. It is all my fault that he–"
"Please don't say it! You have done too much for us. Thanks to your Elementals, we are near to finish our fortification. Not to mention these horns, you have done more than what anyone could do."
"Is that so? No, you are right. I guess it is dissatisfaction that I can't consider it as victory."
He nodded to himself few times and noticed the approaching form of village chief's wife.
"Alright, you need to go back. Use those horns wisely or else I will not talk to you. Especially you Nemu."
He pointed his at Nemu, surprising the little girl, "What?"
"Yes you. Don't make your sister worry about you. Help her in need, or else I will not talk to you."
"I will always help my sister! You can trust on me!"
Nemu answered proudly with a thump on her chest. The cute gesture caused Enri to chuckle a bit, relaxing the gloomy atmosphere around them.
They gave their final gratitude and left him alone.
Finally, the village chief's wife arrived before him and greeted him.
"Good morning, Lord Momon. I hope you had no problem sleeping in our guest houses. We don't receive much guests, so they are always dirty. I apologize in advance for making you discomfortable here."
As she said those words, she was about to bow down as well, but Momon stopped her.
"No need for that. Letting a senior citizen to bow before me, even when the fault lies to someone else, is unacceptable for me."
"Then please take the rewards. This is the only thing we have to–"
"There is no longer any need for that. The village chief has already given me the reward. His directions and that map are very valuable for me. On top of that, he allowed to enter and exit the village anytime I want. Anything more than that was going to be too much for me."
"Ah, I see."
Realizing the reason for his dismissal for coins, she accepted his refusal and decided to tell the other reason for her arrival.
"Besides this, my husband requested you to come to the village square."
"You mean the village chief? At village square? Why?"
She shooked her head at the lack of knowledge of his summon. Once she left as well, Momon glanced behind him and spoke, "Don't let anyone come near to the house. [Message] me if you can't handle the situation."
There was nobody behind him, yet he stared at the empty spot like someone stood behind him.
After a nod, Momon left that spot as well. Unbeknownst to others, one of his servant was watching his new house with utmost vigilance.
The Earth Elementals were transporting the logs, the Water Elementals were providing fresh water to fill pots, the Fire Elementals were boiling the water and provided fire for cooking, and the Air Elementals were clearing the waste materials like ashes and dust away from the houses. The whole village was full of these Elementals, going from here to there, helping the villagers to fix their homes and other necessary tasks. From a normal person perspective, it looked like a magical village where the Elementals and the villagers were living in peace together, helping each other in their needs. However, that was not really the case here.
Momon mused at this change of picture. He might have used the Elementals to gain the favor of the Carne village, but he never thought that something so magical would happen. Only in fairytales, such an event existed.
Who knew that something like this would happen?
Once he left this village, this scene would vanish away as well.
The rewards like money were useless for him, as he already gotten some gold, silver and few copper coins from Nigun. The more he asked from Carne, the more he would depreciate his efforts in front of them. Thankfully, everything went according to the plan. He secured a human village which he could use to negotiate with other human players, in order to show that he was just like them. If they still attacked him, then he would turn these villagers against them. He would defame them until the rest of the world would reject them as they were the wrong all along and he, Momon, was their best choice.
Momon sighed at his plan.
"Well, the opposite is possible as well. I need to be aware of their movements as they are highly likely to be awaiting for the best chance. I must not give them that chance."
The fall of Gazef Stronoff was not a part of his plan, as he expected him to back down one he reached his limit, or broke into tears if he saw the deaths of his men. The fact that he didn't stop even after that, was nothing to be scoffed off. And that thing about him was admiring.
Resurrection was also a viable option, but then Gazef might demand him for resurrecting his troop as well. Then, he would be in utter dilemma as that either get him indebted to Momon — he and his men's saviour — or lose quite a chunk of his resurrection wand. He wondered if the king had someone who could resurrect Gazef Stronoff.
[Control Amenesia] was a viable option as well, but he did not want to erase his memories that could be important for him. One small mistake, and Gazef would become like those goblins whom he experimented with. On top of that, this 10th tier spell required constant supply of mana. Taking risk and using that magic would cost him too much of his life. Thus, he did not take any chances and left him dead as it was.
While musing about that, he arrived at the village square where the corpses of the Warrior Troop and their Warrior Captain laid down. All of them were purified before funeral, but he was just here to meet the village chief only. He looked around the village square to find him. It took him few minutes to meet him again.
"Ah, Lord Momon. It's good to see that you have arrived", the village chief greeted.
"Is there anything else that I can help you with?"
"Actually yes. Please follow me."
He requested Momon to follow him to his house, where the clothes and equipments of the soldiers were lying. Among them were the Warrior Captain's clothes and equipments as well. However, the village chief ignored them and brought a ring out of the pile. The ring was awfully familar to Momon, as he knew whom the ring belonged to.
"That is Gazef's ring. I assume it should be given to his wife, right?" Momon had already told him that the ring belonged to Gazef when they were putting away their gears.
"Uh, that is the real problem. I have asked from some villagers who are up-to-date with the city, and I think that it is not his wife's ring. It is right to say that this ring is a magical item."
"A magical item? Let me appraise it."
Momon urged to check it by himself and used his best appraisal skill.
"[All Appraisal Magic Item]"
The information about the ring's manufacturer, its origin, name, ability and tier went to his mind. There was a slight pause from his side as he tried to comprehend what he just read.
"Lord Momon?"
The village chief asked in worry, wondering why their saviour had suddenly become so silent. More than a minute passed, yet he did not respond. Now the village chief started to panic and was about to shout, but thankfully, Momon came back to his senses.
"That was a lot to take in..."
"Are you alright, Lord Momon? You were not responding at all."
"Huh? Is that so? Apologies, but I was busy appraising the ring. Are these types of magic items common in this Kingdom?"
"As far as my knowledge goes, the magic items are crafted by the Magicians Guild and they sell these items to the adventurers at a discount rate, while the rest of the populace bought them at their original rate. Aside from that, there are stories of other types of crafting methods, to which my knowledge is unadequate."
Hearing the answers of the village chief, Momon sighed in relief. Fortunately, the new world had its own way of limited creation of items. If this world was capable of making a different means of crafting magical items, then why not him? That would be something he wanted to experiment with.
Now that he thought about that, if this item was not a creation of the YGGDRASIL means of item construction skills, then there might be a way to surpass his limitations. This ring did not follow any established rules of YGGDRASIL items, despite being crafted out of mythril and sapphire gem. Therefore, it was right to consider this ring to belong another system than he was familiar with.
Momon also considered that the ring belonged to the royal family and the king gave it to Gazef for the safekeeping. However, this theory had a lot of loopholes.
A king would never let his loyal subjects, especially someone like Gazef Stronoff, to be killed so easily. So, why not provide him the entire set? Letting him use only one national treasure was not a right decision to begin with, unless Gazef had an escape route. And to consider Gazef as a coward was a foolish thought, when this man himself had shown no fear of death.
In conclusion, this ring was given to Gazef by other than the king. A third party who wanted him to live long and strong. Yet, they failed to understand that there would be a well-prepared trap laid out for the Warrior Captain.
"But how come Gazef got this ring? Is there a location where such things are easy to get, or... is there someone who knows how to create something so different? I would like to meet this person."
He hummed in his mind and decided to give the ring back to the village chief with one more thing.
"This ring is peculiar, and thus, it will bring a lot of attention to others. I will cast a spell that will protect the ring from being used by others for a limited period of time. That way nobody will find the powers of the ring."
"Such a spell existed?" the village chief asked in wonder, mostly amazed by the far-sightedness of their saviour.
"Yes. But do not tell others about it, otherwise they will undoubtedly steal it." Momon warned in quiet tone.
The village chief nodded in response and let the mage to cast that peculiar spell.
"[Silent Magic : Time Stop]"
The world stopped all its movements. The magic of the 10th tier enabled him to give him his own time to craft the item or the trap of his supposed "third party". He swiftly removed his gauntlet and put the ring in his only empty finger. Putting the gauntlet back to its place, he casted another spell.
"[Delayed Silent Magic : Create Greater Item]"
The reason why he used the Delay metamagic enhancement to let his spell to work after the time moved again to its general state. The reason for this simple was rather simple to understand.
Under the effects of [Time Stop], the caster would gain invincibility to all spells, skills and damages. But at the same time, the caster would be incapable of gaining any sort of XP or healing effect, unless they had something to deal with this drawback. And that "something" would either be very rare or expensive.
Thus, he decided to use this metamagic before canceling the said 10th tier spell. The time regained it's natural flow and a magically constructed ring emerged in his hand. It happened to fast for the untrained eyes of the village chief to actually see the difference. Momon handed over the fake ring and decided to leave this matter there.
In case this third party managed to find him, Momon would try to shoot a deal with them. But for that to happen, he had to gather enough strength and connections in this new world.
He dismissed himself from the village chief's house. He had a very important meeting with someone else and he hoped to find the right answers of his questions.
Nigun watched his former allies with curiosity. The abrupt change in environment and affiliation had affected his mind as well.
He came to this country for killing the Warrior Captain under the orders of his superiors, but it turned out that he faced something more than what he considered normal.
A powerful magic caster, whom he considered to be weak and arrogant, was now his new master. And whether he liked it or not, the caster did not appreciate his actions. So far, the caster named Momon showed a great deal of prowess that only legendary 13 heroes were capable of pulling. And this magic caster was pulling such fears so casually that Nigun himself considered that Momon had no concern of his achievements. At this point, only the Guardian Deity of the Slane Theocracy had the chance of defeating him. He mentally prayed to this Deity to hear his devotee's prayers. Otherwise, this monster would become unstoppable in future.
So far, this monster had done nothing to him, only putting random restrictions like not going out of the range of sight of his minions, not that he would like to go. If there was anything Nigun had learnt about the mages or Arcane Magic users, then it was their shallow rules which they bent to do whatever they wanted. He was not ready to handle this sort of people near to his personal space. Thus, he made this decision to follow his every command until there was any means of backstabbing him. That way, he could become useful to his country's welfare.
"As long as my safety matters, I will just tell him everything he wish to know. There may be a way to escape from his clutches and bring salvation to my men."
Nigun started to formulate a plan to run away from here. After all, only the Black Scriptures had the crucial Intel of the Theocracy's movements and actions, while the Ashendust Scripture lived in the oblivion. There was nothing much important Nigun could provide to this master of magics.
Soon, the door of his room opened with a creaking noise, and the familiar visage of the monstrous mage appeared in the room. The door closed with the same creaking noise and a deafening silence descended in the room. The buzzing and whispering of the Elder Liches ceased so fast that Nigun just thought they had turned statues. With a simple motion, all the present undeads — present in this guest room — knelt before him.
For a moment, Nigun thought that Momon was feeling embarrassed by their kneeling, but he quickly shot down that notion. How come a mage like him would act like this, when his power was far above anyone in this room. It might be Nigun's fault to misunderstand his gestures. But that damned mask was going to be an obstacle to see through this caster's true emotions.
"I hope that you are not having any problem here, Nigun." He asked so politely that anyone would be fooled him, if they were unaware of his true power.
Nigun reluctantly replied in negative, "No. So far, there were none."
Momon nodded after hearing his response and gestured him to sit at the only chair in this room. Another chair appeared out of nowhere for Momon, and Nigun wondered if it was a creation magic or summoning magic. He considered it to be the latter.
"I am not going to beat around the bush, so let me be blunt with you. Answer my questions faithfully, or be tortured by my servants for all eternity. And choose wisely, for I am not a man of forgiveness."
There was an open threat in his words and Nigun could only nod in fear now. He was now fully focused to answer his every questions, otherwise he would be the next Elder Lich or something even worse...
"Alright, I will do my best to satisfy your doubts. But what will I get in return?" Nigun asked with a little bit of hope, however, the answer was rather unexpected for him to hear.
"Is living your life not enough?" It was a rather emotionless answer that he heard from this man. Nigun could only fear what type of person was hiding under this mask.
Nigun gulped and did not stretch the conversation away from the topic, "Okay, I understand."
"Good. Now tell me, why do you wish to kill Gazef Stronoff?" asked Momon.
Nigun blinked in surprise, hearing a rather unexpected question, but he complied to answer as he saw no loss answering it.
"I was under the orders of my superiors to kill him."
Momon nodded and asked again, "But why? You are not telling me everything."
"Umm ..., how should I explain this... ?", Nigun paused for few seconds and then continued, "Gazef Stronoff is the strongest man of the Re-Estize Kingdom and as long as he was defending this place, the Baharuth Empire will never go on a full scale war with the Kingdom. And so, we were sent by our superiors to deal with him."
"I see. But why the Empire? Anything else to add?"
Nigun nodded and further elaborated, "Yes. The country of Re-Estize is a cesspool of corruption and incompetent people who are just wasting the important resources of this land. They have a naturally protected region, yet they are all idiots who are full of arrogance. This region is good for the growth of powerful humans, where they have nothing to be worried about the demihuman raids and other miscellaneous disasters. Once the Empire conquers this land, it will be easier for other humans to develop their skills and powers. We also thought of conquering it, but there is Argland Council State too. That nation is a bad news for Theocracy and the dragon lords of that nation are too powerful for our country to deal with..."
Nigun did not stop and kept telling him about the lack of education, basic human necessities, infrastructure and other facilities for human development. The more Nigun told, the more he felt courage to speak to him. He was literally taking out his suppressed emotions through anger upon the Kingdom and its lack of growth. Once he was done, he felt less afraid of Momon's presence.
"That explains a lot. Considering Gazef's loyalty to the king, there is no way to save the people of this region. I guess, it is not really a bad idea."
To hear that the magic caster was taking his words whole heartedly, Nigun wondered if his own words had some some miraculous effects over Momon.
"So he is not aligned to the Kingdom? Thank goodness, my country will be in trouble if he were a patriot or something. Though I doubt most of the people in Knigdom wish to live under the corrupted nobles. But there are indeed some good ones as well..."
Thinking back about his words, Nigun felt sorry for those people who were trying hard to fix their country. It was their sacrifices and hardships which sustained this sorry country. Even that so called benevolent king was an idiot to believe that those nobles would hear his every command.
"What a pitiful country..."
"Hmm... in that case, he should stay dead. That's the best thing he deserved." Momon concluded, and at which, Nigun could not help but only nod in return.
"By the way, how do you craft a magic item? And no, I am talking about the item you create in this region."
Now that piqued his interest. It was not like he had interests in the Arcane Magic System, but rather their ability to craft magic items.
From what he knew so far, Momon was not from this part of the continent. His lack of knowledge about the geography easily put him as some far from this area. If he showed no knowledge of history, then it was likely that Momon had no interests in history lessons. But that was not the case here.
"Magic items are solely created by the Arcane magic casters. They know about the spells regarding enchantments and crafting. However, a priest like me can only bless an item for temporary period of time. I am sorry, but I can only give instructions on how to cast it. But to demonstrate the whole process is just beyond me."
"Umu, what about the martial arts? Can a magic caster learn martial arts despite being a mage?"
"That's a little difficult to answer." Nigun answered in confusion. After contemplating for few minutes, he replied again, "Martial Arts require immense focus in physical combat. The more focus you put, the more stronger your Martial Arts will become. The more battles a Martial Art user do, the more number of Martial Arts they will make. I guess, that's the basic concept behind all of this."
After giving his reply, Migun waited for his response, however there was no reaction from Momon. Thinking that he wanted to know more, Nigun came up with another idea.
"But it is possible for a full fledged magic caster to learn any Martial Arts, as long as they have a Talent specifically made for that type of field."
"A Talent? What do you mean?"
Now that brought some reaction out of Momon. Seeing that Momon was listening him carefully, Nigun elaborated his statement.
"You see, Talents are really enigmatic powers which every people in this world born with. Some are good, some are bad, but at the end of the day, they are game changers. Even I have a Talent which puts me above the casters of my level." Nigun replied with pride at his own Talent.
When he was still a child, a priest discerned his Talent for boosting his summons. After that, Nigun made it his goal to learn as much as about the summoning magic. Eventually, his efforts bore the fruits and he got the position of the Captain of the Sunlight Scripture. At which point, he started to train his own disciples for the future of his Scripture. The same Sunlight Scripture which had become the undead slaves of this man Momon. Nigun still had doubts on whether he was truly a human or not. But he also knew that some humans could become strong enough to challenge the Godkins of Theocracy. So, it was possible that Momon had some divine blood running through his veins.
The possibility of making him the ally of Theocracy had been already lost, all due to his stupid plan to kill Gazef. It was right to consider that Momon now had a bad taste about the Theocracy.
"Dammit! Now I feel like a real aggressor. If only we have met him before this whole incident, it may have turned Theocracy a major powerhouse. Is it still too late to bring him at our side?"
His mind came up with many scenarios, but he could not find anything to sway him. Either Momon had a thing for women or fame, it would be easier to use that as a leash to be the part of Theocracy.
Fame was out of the list, as he seemed to be am introvert. Otherwise he would have shown his magic prowess in front of villagers. And money seemed useless for him if one looked at his clothes and jewelleries. And using women or romance was the only thing in his arsenal. The thing, in which, Nigun was utterly incompetent to use.
"You have a... Talent?" Momon asked curiously.
Nigun felt a strike to his pride with that type if question. For a caster to consider him as a regular, was a little upsetting, but he drank up this shame and answered, "Yes, I do."
"Interesting. What it does exactly? How it works? Do you need to activate it,or is it passive?"
Momon bombarded him with so many questions, like that of a child who asked many questions to his parent about his favourite hero.
Nigun smiled for the first time in this whole conversation. He finally found a way to attract Momon to his home country.
"My Talent allows me to enhance the powers of my summons greater than their usual abilities. That way I don't need to boost their abilities through spells. It saves my mana as well as increases the whole duration of my summon." He replied with the air of arrogance, but Momon didn't respond. Seeing this lack of reaction, Nigun decided to list the best Talents of his home country.
"There is also a Talent which instantly recharges all the used up mana, a Talent that removes the activation period of rituals or other similar time taking abilities, and a Talent which can discern lies. There are numerous people in our country who joined the military to better serve the country. In return, the country itself supports these individuals to further enhance their abilities which correspond to
their Talents..."
Watching the intense focus of Momon at him, Nigun kept adding many things about his country. He was sure that Momon would feel safe to come at their home. Sure, he killed the elite members of the Theocracy, but they were expendables in the grand scheme of things.
When comparing an army of a thousand adamantite-ranked soldiers to a single person who could them casually, it was this one person anyone would opt. Slane Theocracy worked in a similar fashion. What's the point to support many strong individuals instead of one man army? That was how it functioned there.
"Umu, your country is pretty good in Talent management. What about the other nations? Are they anywhere near to Theocracy?"
Nigun nearly laughed at the innocent questions of Momon. Yes, they were special in their own way, but they were nowhere near to the full force, or even the half-force of the Theocracy. It would be a one-sided massacre if a war occurred between any of them. Only the Argland Council State was capable of putting an actual damage over his country. AR that point, the Guardian Deity would save them from such a carastrophe.
The Dragon Lords were the strongest as well as the original rulers of this whole world. They wielded immense powers that defied the logic itself. Whether it was creating an artifact of great powers, a gate to another distant world, or even warping the very fabric of reality, they could do it with ease.
"Impressive. These dragon lords seem very strong. I wonder how strong this Platinum Dragon Lord is?" Momon spoke while contemplating over his words.
"Shit! He is into dragons now! I need another thing to sway him at our side. But what else?"
While Nigun was silently thinking about his next move, a light knock on the doors interrupted his train of thoughts.
All the Elder Liches present there turned invisible so fast, that Nigun thought that they had teleported somewhere. Nigun himself turned invisible as per his promise to stay hidden until Momon would permit him. To which, he had no issue to follow. Being the instigator of their massacre, the Carne village would never welcome him with open arms.
The door was opened by Momon, who greeted the old man, most probably the chief of this village.
"Do you require me for anything, chief?" Momin asked politely.
"Ah, yes. It seems that the fences are going to complete at afternoon. The messenger is going to come here at the evening, so can you please stay here until the evening? I hope you can..."
The village chief seemed reluctant to let him go easily. And that was understandable to Nigun. Currently, the village lacked the manpower to fight if they met any other invader. The presence of Momon assured their safety in case of another battle. Being the strongest person in this village, the villagers were dependent upon him, but it was going to be the case.
"Apologies. I have some other places to go. But I assure you that my gifts will protect you for the time being. You can put your faith on them."
"Gift? Them? Are there more people like him?"
The very thought of an army of casters like Momon, terrified him. If one of them could wipe out an entire Scripture, then an group of casters like him would destroy the entire Theocracy. At that point, only the dragon lords could stop them.
"Is that why he was interested into dragons? Is there an organization behind him? Are they trying to overthrow the existing Dragon Lords in order to dominate the world?"
The sudden revelation of meeting a powerful mage like Momon was not enough, and an army of mages like him was beyond his thought process.
Nigun wanted to deny these thoughts, but right now, he could do so.
"Have I somehow sold my country? No, he is too strong to consider my country a threat. I need to play smart and inform my nation about this."
But the main issue was, how would he do that?
After conversing with the village chief, Momon was wondering to reach the nearest city of this country. Join the Magician's guild and let his Liches to learn any important or new spells ofthus world. Once they became strong enough, he would initiate the ritual of [Dark Wisdom] to transfer the spells into his own arsenal. With the consent of his liches, he would gain all the spells he wanted to learn.
"Normally, I will learn only few spells from the dropped items, — or in case of the lore of my skill, the corpses of the victim — which happens because of the lack of support from the said items' owner. But my liches will change that. Their loyalty will ensure that my arsenal become bigger than the one in the YGGDRASIL."
This new world was real and so were the inhabitants of this world. He had a lot of things to do in this world. The experiments with his spells, the transformation of his skills, the actualization of the lores and the unlimited time under his grasp. All these things would eventually turn him stronger than his current self.
There were the dragon lords and their strange magic which he had no idea of. The possibility of their magic being capable of bypassing his resistances did crossed his mind. One day, he would confront them and only his labour would save him.
"I need to become strong. Not for me, but for the treasures of my friends and their memories... I will really give my all!"
He had three World Items, including his red orb, in this world and his Guild Weapon, which was almost a World Item if not near to an actual World Item. He would not let them go so easily. One way or another, a hidden player might come in the future. The least he could do was to hide somewhere. But how long? Eventually, he was going to face these obstacles. The least he could do, was to fight and flight. And gather information about how to kill them.
"It is sad. But if they are against me, then resisting their advances is the only thing I can do."
Finally, I finished. No excuses on my side. I know that I am late, so no excuses.
Now to answer some interesting questions :
— Yes. Gazef will be dead.
— Momon will struggle for power.
— Nigun misunderstood him.
— Spawn from Vertigo comics is the most favourite character of Momon, as per the Word of God.
— And gods, the canon storyline is going to divert at this point.
Well, atleast Momon is now using his non-existent brain, just like in the Evileye sidestory where he found the real culprit of Evileye's racechange without any assistance from Evileye herself.
That's why, you will some similarities between Momon and Satoru, instead of Ainz Ooal Gown.
If you find my English problematic, then do point it out. I will not be able to fix it. This site is working right for some time and I don't want to lose my works while grammar fixing. Hope you understand this.
Now, for the next chapter, we will start our adventures~.