The guardian overseer Albedo had to hold herself back from sighing as she walked the road of the newly conquered E-Rantel. She knew that the acquisition of this city was a part of her beloved lady Ainz's plans and therefore necessary for their ultimate goal of world domination but she wished that her lady could have sent someone else in her stead. Even if the role of 'showing herself to the locals' was a very important duty that went beyond her feeble mind, it was also a cause of her being separate from her beloved lady. She really wished that she could have spend her time to make more clothes for her lady and devise new ways to seduce her rather than walk in a street, surrounded by inferior creatures.
No, she should not let her own desires get in the way of her beloved's plan. What she really should be doing at the moment was to understand the reason her beloved had sent her to 'mingle' with the common populace, understanding even a fraction of lady Ainz's thought process for her plans would also bring her closer to figuring out how to get to her beloved's heart!
So what could lady Ainz truly want her to do in here. E-Rantel was, for all intents and purposes, a rather worthless place. It's inhabitants were weak, royalty corrupt and king useless. Other than the fact that it was the first city conquered by lady Ainz, it had no value. So what could it be…
While she was thinking of the possibilities, a rather interesting object caught Albedo's eye. A man standing at a corner. He looked nothing special, just as pathetic and inferior as any other human, but there was one thing that could be classified as interesting about him. The sword at his waist, the markings on the sword to be precise.
They were runes. The smithing art of this world that lady Ainz was trying to obtain from the dwarves, so why was a rune weapon here?
"You." She called out as she walked up to the man who looked like he was about to piss himself as she got closer, truly an inferior creature.
"Where did you get that?" She asked as she pointed at the sword.
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'Svarog's House', that was the name of the shop Albedo had found herself before after interrogating the pathetic insect about where he had gotten his sword.
Her lady Ainz was truly amazing. To think that she would have predicted the existence of a runesmith in this town and had sent her to investigate about it. Truly, there were no limits to her lady's wisdom.
To be perfectly honest, she did not understand why her lady put such an importance to weapons with runes. Even the best of those weapons seemed inferior compared to almost any kind of weapon in the treasury of Nazarick. Was it because they were impressive by this world's standards? That might explain why she had not been able to understand, it was hard to differentiate between shits after all.
But she was happy about her lady's interests. After all, she had just found the one place that sell weapons and items with runes. A gift that would definitely impress her and something that lamprey could never come close to!
With those thoughts brightening her mood, Albedo entered the shop in order to meet the pathetic creature… who was quite a bit taller than she had thought.
To be perfectly honest she was expecting some average blacksmith or even one who looked like a dwarf, instead she ended up meeting with a man that looked like he was almost as tall as Cocytus himself. With very short black hair and a growing beard covering the lower half of his face. Arms that were just as muscular as one would expect from someone who worked with heavy objects all day. Not exactly the most repulsive human she had met, if he was actually human.
"Can I help you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow while wiping his hands clean with a rag.
"Yes." She said with the regality expected from a denizen of Nazarick, not letting her momentary shock to humiliate her.
"I have been told that you can create items with runes."
"That I can do, though it depends on what you want an item to do." He said with a frown.
"Then simply show me the best item you have." She said with a wave of her hand, this was merely a case of her trying to impress lady Ainz anyway. In other words, she didn't expect much from the item itself.
"Hmm, can you be more specific. When you say best do you simply mean in combat utility or complex rune matrix work?" His question slightly took her back. She hadn't expected the man to have made anything other than for combat purposes. Interesting.
"Both, I wish to see both of them." She said and the man nodded before leaning down and opening a chest.
"It's not exactly finished yet, but at the moment this is probably the strongest piece I have in combat utility." He said as he brought out a sword that Cocytus would have liked. An enormous zweihander that looked bigger than Aura or Mare, adorned with runes glowing with a icy blue color. It certainly looked impressive but…
"What can it do?" That was the real question. To which the blacksmith merely smiled.
"Come with me." He said as he turned around, not seeing the ugly expression that appeared on Albedo's face at being told what to do. But in the end her dedication to her mission was far more important to her than this… discomfort, so she followed after him and walked down the stairs to a rather large basement.
"This is what it can do." He said with a smile as he swung the blade, and the there were twelve more; each one of them hovering around him.
"As I said, it isn't completed yet but at the moment; this sword can create twelve copies. Six of them will hover around you in order to block incoming attacks while the other six will attack those designated as enemy." He said calmly as the sword hovered around him.
"Right now I am trying to find a way to add different attributes to each of the blades in order for it to be useful against several different types of enemies but haven't managed to enchant more than three yet." He claimed as he stabbed the sword to the ground and the copies vanished.
As much as it hurt to admit it, Albedo was pleasantly impressed. She could already see the use for such a weapon and had to wonder, how strong would it be if this man had superior material like the resources of Nazarick?
"And, what about the complex one?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, purposefully hiding how impressed she was. It would be useful when she would negotiate with the man later on. Negotiating someone into submission was quite more fun than beating them into submission after all.
"Hmm, give me a moment." The man said as he went to a box in the corner and pulled… a safe out of it. Which he then started to spin in order to put the combination and opened it, taking a smaller box from it.
"This, is likely the single most complex rune item I ever made; ever will make. Not sure if I can even recreate it without a lot of gold." He said with a frown as he opened the box and showed… a dozen rings. One of them was completely black while the others were a more blood like red colored and each one of them had a glowing gem on top of them. But…
"Where are the runes?" Albedo asked with a frown to which the blacksmith pulled out a magnifying glass and put it over the rings.
"On the rings." And indeed the runes were on the rings, likely hundreds of them, each smaller than the eye could see.
"And what do these rings do?" She asked with a frown as she took one of the red ones in her hand and inspected it.
"They are… something close to a hive mind, with the black ring being the queen so to speak. They create feelings of devotion and love towards the bearer of the black ring." He said with a shrug but Albedo's mind was going at the speed of light. Such a thing, it was ridiculously useful and hard to believe. As a matter of fact, she didn't believe and cast an All Appraisal Magic Item and found… nothing.
"You… do you take me for a fool?" She asked with a glare as she let out enough pressure to nearly destroy a human's mind and… it did nothing. The blacksmith looked completely relaxed.
"Appraisal Magic Item I assume." He said with a smile before pulling the sword out of the ground, making Albedo tense as she readied herself for battle but instead the man simply stretched his hand with the sword towards her.
"Cast it on this as well." He said with a smile and Albedo glared at him before doing as he had asked… and got nothing.
This… this could not be. She had just seen the magical powers of the sword, yet her spell was telling her that the sword before her was nothing more than a simple lump of metal.
"It wouldn't do well if a simple spell could see everything about my creations, I would go out of business." He said with an amused gleam in his eyes that made Albedo think of Demiurge. This man…
"I do understand your disbelief but I assure you, the ring in your hand does exactly what I said it does. It takes at least three days to properly effect the wearer of the red rings but it can theoretically even affect undead." He declared with a wide smile and Albedo could feel herself still. To claim to be able to mentally affect an undead…
"And how… exactly does it do that?" His answer could end up with her axe splitting his head, if he had any connections to the people who had controlled Shalltear…
"As I said, theoretically. I haven't actually tested it on any undead, it takes three days to affect the wearer after all; I feel that an undead might kill me within a minute of being near me." He said with a shake of his head, he looked honest about his words too. Which likely meant that he wasn't affiliated with people who controlled Shalltear.
"Normally one can't mentally control an undead, that's because such spells target the brain. An undead's brain either doesn't exist or it's merely decoration, they are corpses animated with magic after all. So the rings don't target the brain, it targets the wearer's soul. Though that also makes any kind of effect rather subtle, so giving emotions like love and affection is the best it can do." He explained and Albedo nodded. Her course of action was clear, this kind of magic should be immediately presented to Demiurge and lady Ainz in order to research it and use it to find more about the people who had attacked Shalltear. She would… she should… she really should but…
She didn't want to let go of such a chance to get lady Ainz to fall in love with her!
"How much for them?" She asked, doing her utmost in order to not show how desperate she was for the rings. By the sacred walls of Nazarick, she was willing to even give her underwear for them!
"Hmm, let's make a deal." The man said with a smile and Albedo waited for the lecherous desires to come out.
"I will give them to you and I want you to come back later on and tell me how they worked." But he seemed to have no such interests.
"If they do not properly work, you owe me nothing and I'll even give you the sword for the free. If they do, I want a report on exactly how it worked. If they do work that opens a lot more for my rune matrixes after all." She was getting a good deal; as a matter of fact, it was far too good to be true, yet…
"I accept." She took the small box into her hands and put them into her inventory, already knowing who she would be testing them on.
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AN
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