The battles he had fought ever since first arriving in this world, this would not be like his fights against Nigan and Clementine, where an overwhelming difference in power guaranteed his victory. This time it would be life or death, and furthermore a battle under an absolute disadvantage.
If he was not an undead, and—
“If I wasn’t the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and also not the representative of the Guild, perhaps I would not be able to even raise my fist.”
Ainz laughed out loud, and like this, pushed aside all of his negative emotions.
The fear of death had already vanished without a trace. Even the anxiety of defeat had disappeared.
Recalling pride and glory endowed Ainz with strength.
“I am Ainz Ooal Gown. With that name at stake, there can be no defeat.”
Being able to prove that he was the master of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, this position was not merely an empty title.
Ainz’ sharp eyes looked towards the unprepared Shalltear.
“…… Well then…… let us begin!”
Ainz shouted loudly, activating his magic. From his large collection of spells, he carefully selected— the tenth ranked defensive magic to be activated.
「Body of Effulgent Beryl」
Ainz’ white skeletal body began to emit a green glow. Following this—
“Ha ha ha!”
— During the activation of his magic, Ainz laughed out loudly while not taking his eye soff Shalltear. Because in addition to the satisfaction felt from his predictions proving to be accurate, he had also won a large gamble.
“So I was right! Unless my actions are seen as completely hostile, then the NPC will not ready itself for battle! It is exactly the same as in the game!”
Her behaviour mirrored that of mind controlled monsters in YGGDRASIL. The game logic also applied to this world, which slightly eased this absolutely unfavourable situation.
“Since it’s like this, Shalltear, I hope you will not mind but before the battle I shall kindly request that you remain still and wait a while longer.”
Ainz continued to activate different magic.
—「Flight」, 「Magic Caster’s Blessing」, 「Infinity Wall」, 「Magic Ward: Holy」, 「Life Essence」, 「Greater Full Potential」, 「Freedom」, 「False Data: Life」, 「See Through」, 「Paranormal Intuition」, 「Greater Resistance」, 「Mantle of Chaos」, 「Indomitability」, 「Sensory Boost」, 「Greater Luck」, 「Magic Boost」, 「Draconic Power」, 「Greater Hardening」, 「Heavenly Aura」, 「Absorption」, 「Penetration Boost」, 「Greater Magic Shield」, 「Mana Essence」, 「Triple Maximize Magic: Explosive Mine」, 「Triple Maximise Magic: Greater Magic Seal」, 「Triple Maximize Magic: Magic Arrow」— like this, an almost endless amount of magic surrounded Ainz’ body.
“Now, here I come!”
Upon finishing his preparations, those words were thrown at both Shalltear and himself.
The first magic which Ainz selected was an ultimate move, a spell surpassing the tenth rank.
It was called Super-level magic—
In terms of magic rank, it was a magic already beyond the ranking system. It could be considered as both magic and not magic. Firstly, there is no MP used when it is activated. However there was a limit on the number of times that it could be activated per day.
When it was first learnt, it could only be used once a day. However beyond level seventy, it could be used one more time per day for every additional ten levels.
The number you could learn is one for each level.
Rather than magic, it could be more appropriate to consider it a special skill.
That was also to say that the average player who reached level 100 could only use Super-level magic four times. So then you may wonder, wouldn’t Shalltear be defeated through the continuous use of Super-level magic? Indeed, the destructive power between Super-level magic and tenth-ranked magic was not comparable. If only it were possible to continuously use Super-level magic, even in terms of a simple calculation of aggregate damage, only a handful of level 100 players could survive. this would not include Shalltear, thus she would be defeated.
However it was not so simple.
Because Super-level magic could not be activated consecutively.
Firstly, every Super-level magic has a set activation period. Although it was possible to use cash items to remove this activation period, there was another penalty which prevented Super-level magic from being cast continuously.
When members of a small group activated Super-level magic, all of the members would be affected by this penalty— there would be a period of time during which it was impossible to re-cast Super-level magic, called the cooldown time.
This kind of penalty setting was designed for Guild wars, so that during wars, one side could not obtain victory by continuously activating Super-level magic. In addition, neither cash items nor special abilities were able to remove this cooldown.
As such, in PVPs, any person who activated Super-level magic off the bat was often recognised as an idiot.
Because using the only trump card without fully understanding the opponent’s ins and outs often spelt defeat. In fact during PVPs, obtaining victory by using Super-level magic at the start of battle was rare.
However, Ainz’ first move was Super-level magic.
There was no anxiety or confusion on that face, only a calm light in those empty eye sockets.
A huge three-dimensional, dome shaped magic about ten metres in radius was activated with Ainz at the centre.
The magic emitted a white light, and texts or marks of translucent patterns floated into existence. These patterns were continuously shifting and dazzling to look at, changing shape every second.
If cash items were used, the Super-level magic could be activated instantaneously, yet Ainz did not do so. His eyesight moved away from Shalltear and turned to survey the surroundings.
“No ambush ……? Or are they still standing by the sidelines? Surely this moment should be the best opportunity for them to attack?”
A magic casters’ defensive abilities would drop when activating Super-level magic. Furthermore all the caster has to suffer is a certain amount of damage for the magic to be automatically cancelled.
As such, basically every time Super-level magic was activated, there would be several companions to protect the caster. That also meant that now was the perfect time to attack the unprotected Ainz.
However, there was no change in the surroundings.
“Could it be that I was overcautious?”
Ainz smiled then shrugged.
Although it had only been a hunch, by now Ainz was certain that Shalltear hadn’t been placed there as bait, she had truly been discarded.
“Seriously, what happened here. Hey, I’m not omniscient, of course I do not possess the power to see through everything. If I did, then the situation wouldn’t have become like this.”