The Dwarven Crafter

by Kugane Maruyama

  Pandora’s Actor would probably be overjoyed.

  Recalling that guy’s bizarre demeanor, Ainz made sure to lock the door from the inside before floating into the air.

  He could see some weapons and armor partially buried in the coins. Why didn’t they care if any of them got damaged?

  I see. If everything was neat and tidy, any thief who got in would be able to see at a glance what was most valuable, so they did it this way on purpose? Hmm? In that case, this place might also follow the common pattern of…

  “Gondo. There’s something I want to ask you. Is there any chance they hid a door beneath this mountain of gold pieces?”

  Gondo turned around in surprise. “Oh! I can’t say for sure that there isn’t one. But if there is, it’ll be hard to find. We’d have to move all this treasure out of the way first.”

  They would at least have to move the coins.

  “What if we measured up from the floor below to see if we could detect any suspicious thickness?”

  “Nah, even if there was a hidden door under here, I imagine it would just be a sliding door for a treasure compartment only big enough for a few items. It would be difficult to judge based on thickness. And besides, it’s normal for a vault to have thick walls, floor, and ceiling.”

  Gondo asked with his eyes what they should do, and Ainz shook his head. Poaching items from this place was more of a bonus than anything else. It didn’t make sense to prioritize putting all his energy into that.

  “That’s not why I’m here. It would be foolish to spend time searching for something that we’re not even sure exists. I think I’d rather be here when the dwarves recapture the place and offer to purchase things at a fair price so they feel like they should be considerate of me, too.”

  “Understood. Then, let’s find what we’re looking for.”

  As Gondo resumed his search, Ainz selected a few items with a lot of magical energy.

  “Hmm? What’s this?”

  Among them was a sword.

  It was quite possibly the most enchanted item out of the entire collection.

  “Hmm… In terms of level, I guess it’s fifty?”

  It had the length of a longsword and was gorgeously ornate.

  He wasn’t sure if it was from Yggdrasil, but it had an awful lot of mana for something from this world.

  Ainz ran a finger along the naked blade but didn’t feel any bumps.

  “It’s a splendid, beautiful sword. No runes on it? Then, why?”

  He clenched a hand around the grip. That instant, the sword trembled. It was as if mana had coursed through it.

  “You mean…I can use this?”

  The classes Ainz had acquired didn’t allow him to wield longswords. But perhaps this sword was made of magic? The limitation didn’t seem to apply.

  “Interesting.”

  He swung it a few times and then stabbed it casually into his hand.

  As expected, he felt no pain. His power to neutralize all attacks from level 60 and below was functioning normally. This sword didn’t seem to have any magic as special as the enchantment that graced what Gazef had wielded.

  Losing interest slightly, he cast a spell. “Appraise Any M—”

  “Your Majesty, King of Darkness! How about it? Did you find anything that strikes your fancy?”

  “A few things, so I’m in the process of deciding what to take.”

  “I see! Well, I’m counting on you.”

  Gondo had interrupted his spell, but Ainz tossed the sword back into the mountain of riches.

  A sword he could use was intriguing, but at this point, that’s all it was. If he was going to take an item with him out of this place, he wanted something different, something that would really benefit him.

  I guess it’s just magic items like this? It’s too bad, but, well, maybe it’s my fault for fantasizing about finding a World Item or something.

  Ainz continued searching until he found something that pleased him.

  “Gondo. I’ve made my selection. I don’t recall hearing about any national treasures like this, but will you check for me?”

  4

  “Okay, here I go.”

  With that announcement to Shalltear, who stood at her side, Aura unfurled the World Item she had brought—a scroll—and activated its power.

  Scenes of Nature and Civilization…

  In a nutshell, it allowed the user to trap their target in an isolated space. More precisely, the world depicted on the World Item and the real world intersected, altering the real world to match the painting.

  The target would be an area, just like how the super-tier spell the Creation worked, which included all things animate or not—if something was in that location, it had no way to resist.

  In this case, everything inside the gigantic cave, including the capital city, was trapped in the alternate world created by Scenes of Nature and Civilization.

  Naturally, since Ainz and Shalltear were protected by the World Items they carried, they weren’t imprisoned by the effects, instead merely appearing in the painting world that had been created to replace the reality that had been swallowed up. Since Aura had used the item, she was forcibly pulled into the alternate world.

  The world of the painting seemed identical to the real world—except it was an illusion created by the World Item; that meant once the power of Scenes of Nature and Civilization was cut off, or people inside the area of effect stepped beyond the boundaries, any changes that occurred in the temporary painting world would all disappear like smoke. In other words, even if they acquired treasure in the painting world, that would go up in smoke, too.

  Of course, Ainz and Shalltear entered the altered real world voluntarily. Normally, World Items didn’t affect people carrying World Items, but if they accepted the effects, that was a different story. Or more accurately, this function came about mainly thanks to a patch from the admins, who hated becoming stuck somewhere.

  The user of Scenes of Nature and Civilization could choose one of a hundred different overlays for the alternate world.

  For example, it could be a lava zone that dealt continuous fire damage, a freezing zone that dealt continuous chill damage, a shock zone where a lightning storm struck at fixed intervals, or a world with horrible visibility due to rainstorms or fog.

  One strange option was an encircled battlefield. At set intervals, a sizable amount of reinforcements would show up to fight the enemies. But the reinforcements would be only about 60 percent as strong as their opponents’ average strength, so they wouldn’t be useful for much more than chipping away at the enemy and wearing them out.

  The single combat battlefield overlay allowed the summoning of powerful fighters who had 80 percent of the user’s strength and in enough numbers to evenly match their opponents. If defeating the enemy was the goal, this was the best option.

  The most fearsome property of this item wasn’t that it sucked people into an alternate world but that the user was able to select who the effects would apply to. In other words, even if the user created a lava zone, they could selectively grant some people immunity to the fire damage.

  But there was a weakness.

  With certain exceptions, each time the item was used, one of forty possible escape routes would be randomly implemented. If any of the targets managed to escape, they would gain possession of the item. Of course, none of the escape methods were simple, but compared to the other World Items, which required defeating the owner to steal, this one was easier.

  Aura chose an alternate dimension; it was a simple closed area.

  Other than offering nowhere to run or hide, there were no adverse effects on those who were trapped. There was still a single way to escape, though.

  “Okay, Hanzos. I want you to camp at the exit. It would be a pain if anyone got away. C’mere.”

  A Hanzo emerged from the shadows, and she whispered into his ear how the escape method worked.

  She didn’t think anyone was hiding within her field of
perception, but it was better to be on guard.

  “So, Aura, how many people infiltrated this world after the beginning?”

  “Hmm? Just two.”

  That answer meant the enemy didn’t have any World Items. It was only natural that they both sighed in relief.

  Shalltear scanned the rows of buildings lining the old capital’s streets. It was quite a large city, but everything seemed so still that it was as if all its inhabitants had fled.

  She had to hurry up and catch the kuagoa clan king and give him the Supreme Being’s message, but her view was obstructed, and she couldn’t tell which building he was in.

  “We can’t get rid of these vexatious buildings?”

  “Huh? No. But we could manifest an area that deals continuous damage. Like, if they were wooden buildings, we could burn them in a lava zone.”

  “Meaning, you refrained because it would wipe everyone out?”

  “Yeah. We could have it run for a limited time and then round up all the survivors… But if the ore and whatnot melted, that would be a waste.”

  Kuagoa fed their children various metals, so there had to be huge stockpiles of metals, gemstones, and ore in the city. Shalltear could understand how destroying those would be a shame.

  “And Lord Ainz’s orders were to first see if they would accept his rule.”

  “He also said to crush them if they rejected that proposition, didn’t he?”

  “…Shalltear.”

  When Shalltear saw Aura’s sharp look, she realized what she meant to say. “Never you fear. I definitely, definitely, definitely—Def. In. Ite. Ly.—won’t mess up.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I appreciate your understanding. I’m thinking ahead. Shall we get started?”

  “Yeah, let’s. I can leave the culling to you, right?”

  “I imagine I’m more suited to the task than you, but are you sure you’re all right with that?”

  Aura’s strength depended on her magical beasts, so she wasn’t the best person for this job.

  “Yeah… If Mare were here, he could cause an earthquake and decrease their numbers all at once, but…”

  “He really does have the best area-of-effect attacks in all of Nazarick. I’m pretty proud of mine, too, but a location like this limits their effectiveness.”

  In reality, if they used an earthquake to take out most of their targets, they wouldn’t be able to follow Ainz’s order about being selective. If they were allowed to disregard that, Shalltear could have simply used her kin to exterminate the kuagoa indiscriminately.

  “That’s why he gave you the order, right? I’m pretty sure the point of this whole job was to give you the opportunity to learn.”

  Aura reiterated what their master had already ordered her to do numerous times.

  “Yes, that’s right…,” Shalltear replied and then casually asked something that had been bothering her. “Given the strength of the enemies we’ve been encountering, it’s hard to imagine anyone powerful enough to defeat death knights is here. Was it just a fluke? It seems more likely that they used some kind of item to send a summoned monster back… It’s rare for Lord Ainz’s hunch to miss the mark.”

  She realized Aura was staring at her with narrowed eyes. Shalltear didn’t think her question merited such a reaction.

  “What is it? Did I overlook something?”

  “No, it’s not that. Mm… Ugh, you’re just so stupid.”

  Shalltear looked back at her in dissatisfaction in spite of herself.

  If she had missed something, Aura could have simply told her so. After some hesitation, she finally got an explanation.

  “All right, the thing is, Lord Ainz would never make that kind of mistake.”

  “Do you mean to say that the defeat of the death knights was part of his plan? The death knights created by Lord Ainz are high-level performers. Defeating them really wouldn’t have been possible for any of the enemies we’ve met thus far today…”

  “Oh, that could be it, too.” Aura struck her palm with a fist. “I see. So Lord Ainz could have let them kill the death knights on purpose. I hadn’t thought that far, though; I’m just saying that his hunch didn’t miss the mark. Those death knights either fell into the Great Chasm when the bridge went down or were pushed in. There were death knight tracks past the fort but none on the other side of the crack. That means they were defeated while crossing. The cause of death could only really be one thing.”

  “If that’s the case, doesn’t it mean Lord Ainz’s guess was wrong?”

  “No! If he was being serious, then you would be right, but he wasn’t.”

  “What do you mean?” Shalltear furrowed her brow in a lack of comprehension, which prompted Aura to stomp her feet in frustration.

  “Agh! What do I mean? Exactly what I said! Look, Lord Ainz knows that the death knights died by falling into the Great Chasm.”

  “What?!”

  “Agh. Remember back when, you know, he was explaining it all to you. I was going to ask if the death knights had gotten pushed off the edge and if that was how they died, but Lord Ainz looked over and signaled me not to. Did you not see that? When he signaled me?”

  Shalltear fluttered her eyelids in spite of herself. She in fact did remember him making some sort of gesture like that. She had thought it was merely to keep Aura quiet because she was about to say something, but given that this was one of the Supreme Beings and a genius strategist they were talking about, Aura’s idea made more sense than assuming Lord Ainz was wrong.

  But then why was he explaining it to me like that?

  “You’re making a why? face, but if you think about it for a second, you’ll understand.”

  As if Aura’s impatient words were the cue, the whirlpool within Shalltear coalesced on a single point. “It wasn’t for my sake, was it? Are you saying he said all that as part of my training?”

  “…What other reason could there be? On the way here, you were asking him all sorts of things about the possibility of encountering powerful enemies, right? If you had known the death knights had fallen into the Great Chasm, would you have asked that much? Oh, and don’t tell Lord Ainz that it was me who told you. I only did it because you were doubting his abilities…”

  “Doubting his abilities?! I would never!”

  She wished Aura wouldn’t say something so horrifying so calmly.

  “Well, just keep it a secret. Because his gesture to me meant I shouldn’t tell you.”

  “I will, of course.”

  When she took a moment to think about it, Aura was committing an awful crime. She was ignoring an order from a Supreme Being. But she was doing it only because Shalltear had said something insolent.

  Does that mean Aura is being disrespectful? Am I? Or maybe neither of us is? Hmm…

  She was starting to get a headache, so she tried to wrap up the issue by deciding to keep it a secret and not mull it over anymore.

  …But is that in itself disrespectful? Hrmm…

  “…Hmm. By the way, Lord Ainz said to cut their number down to ten thousand if they weren’t going to submit, right? He said to make sure there were females, but what about children?”

  “I’m planning on leaving some.”

  “But those guys have that thing where their strength depends on what metal they eat as children, right? If we took control of them, the kids would be the easiest to brainwash, don’t you think, Shalltear?” Aura grinned teasingly. “The fact that Lord Ainz didn’t give you more detailed orders probably means…that this is a test. You could have just sent the Hanzos out and awaited instructions, but he told you to take care of it, right? I think that means he wanted to see how you would deal with the situation…like, ‘Can my guardian handle this?’”

  Shalltear answered with a faint smile. She had already been thinking of her answer since then. “Four thousand each of males and females, plus two thousand young should be fine.”

  “Hmm. Well, I guess. Seems like you coul— Huh?” Aura
stopped mid-sentence and held her hands behind her long ears. Shalltear knew what she was doing, so she tried not to make any noise. Before long, Aura smiled. “Ah, I heard something that sounded like a ton of kuagoa on the move.”

  “Are they evacuating? Or deploying troops?”

  “Since I can only base this on sounds, I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think it’s evacuation. They seem to be spreading out beyond the city limits.”

  There were supposedly sixty thousand kuagoa here. Subhumans grew stronger as they aged. In essence, they were all soldiers. If they mobilized even ten thousand and sent them into the city, their numerical superiority would be reduced by half.

  Though the attacking forces were too small to be called an army, their incredible might should have been apparent to the kuagoa from the earlier incident with the dragons. Anyone with half a brain would commit forces to hold the rear while everyone else evacuated and then construct a position before luring in the enemy for a fight. If those enemies were holed up in the city, the appropriate strategy would be to encircle the place and conduct sporadic harassment attacks to tire them out before sending a crack team to storm in and end it.

  Either way, they would need a large area for gathering the troops.

  And that lined up perfectly with Shalltear’s objectives.

  “So they’re over there. Okay, let’s start with negotiations.”

  “Of course. We mustn’t keep Lord Ainz waiting.”

  •

  The total of over sixty thousand kuagoa who were capable of fighting awaited their enemy. The mobilization was so large because females who hadn’t gotten pregnant or given birth could fight alongside the males. But even directing the largest kuagoa army ever assembled, the clan king, Pe Riyuro, was unhappy.

  This was just so out of the ordinary. The entire huge cave had suddenly been enveloped in a hazy fog. What could it possibly mean?

  The battle-ready army tidied up their ranks facing the capital. If the enemy got scared off by their numbers and didn’t even leave the city, that would be terrific. They had taken only the bare minimum of food with them when they left their homes, so the dwarves’ treasures were all still inside. The enemy would have to be stupid to find any merit in fighting.