Until he had complete mastery over his power, launching a war against the dragon was out of the question.
Roy gave the order:
“Keep going.”
“I need to keep testing my own strength.”
Kagura Inori’s face lit up with excitement:
“Being even the smallest help to the Almighty is my honor.”
“Remember, ramp up the counterattacks and pressure gradually.
For now, treat this as a teaching exercise, let me get used to real combat.”
“What?
How could that possibly be allowed?”
Veronica objected immediately.
If Kagura dared to actually hurt His Majesty, wasn’t that basically treason?
“Relax.
It’s only training.”
“The dragon’s a threat looming right over us.
I need more strength too.”
“Almighty, this shames us!”
Veronica and Kagura Inori both dropped to their knees.
If World City’s own battles required the King himself to step in personally, that was a failure on everyone else’s part.
Too bad for them, Roy wasn’t Ainz.
He wasn’t about to be held hostage by his own NPCs’ feelings.
He wasn’t afraid of looking foolish, and he had no need to worry about saving face.
All he wanted was to master genuine power.
“Ashamed?
Then cooperate with my training.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Roy had plenty of special classes and skills of his own, and every one of them needed real practice to master.
Take his Chronicler class, for instance.
Anyone with that class gained the special skill Record Magic.
Exactly what it sounds like: recording any magic he’d witnessed.
With a dedicated spellbook, he could easily log up to a thousand different spells.
A spellcasting class, maxed out, normally topped out at 300 known spells (three per level), and factoring in cash-shop purchases, a level-100 player could push that to around 400.
Ainz’s Dark Wisdom let him hold 718 spells, a genuinely exceptional case, and even that fell short of a thousand.
The Chronicler was practically a copy-ninja of a class, sidestepping the usual restrictions between Arcane, Faith, and Spirit disciplines entirely, letting him pick up magical skills from any school at all.
So why was this class universally considered garbage?
Because it recorded magic.
It didn’t actually learn it.
A Chronicler’s recorded magic worked just like a scroll: 50% weaker in power, 30% shorter in duration, and it burned even more mana to cast.
Some particular spells lost as much as 80% of their power, good for little beyond flavor.
Given all that, why wouldn’t a player just buy scrolls outright?
Sinking fifteen class levels into this was a waste, not to mention it added nothing to any spellcasting tier and barely offered any stats at all.
Fortunately for Roy, he’d commissioned his own custom artifact: the Incredible Notebook.
Its effect was simple enough: it restored Record Magic’s power back to full strength, and could be further boosted with cash-shop items on top of that.
Which meant that, as long as the conditions were met, Roy could replicate practically any spell and cast it straight out of his spellbook.
Of course, actually pulling out the notebook, flipping to the right spell, and casting it took a fair amount of time.
He’d need to master a faster method through real combat. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
So the two of them traded blows back and forth across the arena, and whenever HP dropped into dangerous territory, they’d pause to chug potions.
As long as nobody stepped in to stop them, Roy and Kagura’s battle could easily have gone on for three days and three nights straight.
Kagura was thrilled.
She actually got to cross blades with the Almighty himself, even if he was deliberately holding back, purely to guide her.
For Roy, every cell in his body felt like it was cheering.
This feels amazing!
He was gradually learning to command his own body, flight speed, combat speed, even casting speed, all of it sharpening through real combat.
A realization slowly took shape in Roy’s mind.
After something like a few hundred battles like this, he’d be able to turn this enormous power into pure instinct.
Only then could he barely call himself a genuine powerhouse, rather than just some lucky guy who’d stumbled onto a cheat.
His mana felt almost like it had a pulse of its own now, something he could draw on by pure instinct.
As for exhaustion, there wasn’t a trace of it.
The Immortal class’s frightening constitution showed itself in full at moments like this.
Roy even gave up on casting entirely at one point and threw himself into hand-to-hand combat with Kagura Inori.
He wanted to command every inch of strength in his own body, push himself right to the limit.
He couldn’t afford to panic and fumble the moment real danger showed up.
A crash!
Their fists traded blow after blow across the arena.
Come on.
Let’s do this one-on-one.
Roy even considered releasing the Valkyries, just to go three hundred rounds against them too.
Neither of them touched any artifacts, occasionally casting healing magic to top off HP, then diving right back in, fighting until the world blurred into darkness.
To Roy, nothing mattered more than this right now.
Until Eve’s message came through.
“Almighty, all nine cities have completed their scan with the All-Seeing Eye, and Laplace’s Demon has been sent out to gather further intelligence.”
“None of the nine cities have any especially powerful creatures nearby.
Most everything out there is weak, not even a match for the cities’ automated defenses.”
“Sky City has appeared above a human nation, a theocratic religious state called the Slane Theocracy.
They worship deities known as the Six Great Gods, said to be powerful figures who saved humanity six hundred years ago.”
“Governor Lucifer asked whether she might be permitted to display a miracle and win the nation’s faith over.”
“I’ve already ordered her not to act on her own initiative.”
Lucifer was a religious zealot through and through, the highest-tier Seraph there was, and Sky City itself was dominated by the angel races besides.
So of course she’d ended up right next to the Slane Theocracy.
Roy let out a breath of relief.
This confirmed the time and place he’d landed in wasn’t any different from Ainz’s own.
Which gave him a real edge of foreknowledge, and let him keep his own people from acting out of turn.
Roy nodded and said:
“Good call stopping her, Eve.
This is still an intelligence-gathering phase.
No one shows off their power without my say-so.”
“Understood, Almighty.”
“What about the other cities?”
Eve continued her report:
“Ocean City appeared in the sea off the continent’s far northwest, near a human settlement called the Sacred Kingdom.”
“Governor Livia is looking to lay claim to new stretches of ocean and cultivate new marine races there, and she’s proposed opening up sea trade with the humans.”
“That’s been turned down for now as well.”
Roy commanded nine cities, and naturally, nine Governors to go with them.
Roy nodded:
“Go on.”
“Forest City appeared in a stretch of primeval forest, near a nation called the Elf Country.
What we’ve learned so far is that the elves’ king is thoroughly lecherous and cruel.”
“Governor Sylvia says an elf that disrespects life like that deserves a serious lesson, and wants to drag him into Paradise Lost as a pet.”
Roy understood exactly where Sylvia’s anger came from.
As one of the World Tree’s own kin, her love for life ran deeper than anyone else’s in all of World City.
Confronted with a piece of work like this Elf King, if it weren’t for Roy’s standing order, she’d already have charged out to put him down like the animal he was.
“Desert City hasn’t found any kingdom nearby, just desert in every direction, at most some tribes and bandits, plus a scattering of oases.”
“Serqet did spot a floating city, though.”
“She’s dying to go explore it.”
A floating city.
If Roy’s guess was right, that had to be Eryuentiu, the capital the Eight Greed Kings had left behind.
Every one of his subordinates was eager to get moving, but Eve hadn’t approved any of it yet.
“Keep going.”
“Machine City turned up north of a massive mountain range, and there’s what looks like dwarven activity in the area.”
“Governor Omega recommends reaching out to the dwarves, trading craft knowledge with them, and getting a read on this world’s overall technology level.”
“Elemental City appeared near the mountain range dividing the Orc Kingdom from the Giant Kingdom.”
“The area’s rich in earth elemental energy and mineral deposits, though the climate is pretty brutal.”
“Governor Ifrita finds it fascinating and recommends sending elemental envoys to survey it.”
“Eternal Night City appeared at a place called the Katze Plains, wrapped in a fog that never seems to lift, and home to no shortage of undead.”
“Governor Hela recommends we take the whole plain and rule over the undead there.”
The Katze Plains sat directly adjacent to the Great Tomb.
As for how to handle the Great Tomb, if they overstepped, a lesson could be arranged.
The Great Tomb was nothing more than a speed bump.
No real threat.
Though putting them to good use could make for an interesting angle too.
Roy turned the question of policy toward the Great Tomb over in his mind while Eve pressed on:
“Golden City appeared near the City-State Alliance, a fairly prosperous trade region governed jointly by merchants and citizens as an autonomous territory.”
“Governor Mammon is surveying the markets there for any trade opportunities.”
“Last is Hell City, which appeared somewhere in the underground world.
We can’t get a read on its surroundings yet.”
“No other living creatures detected so far, only lava.”
“Governor Lilith recommends putting the lava to use and developing it.”
“That covers the situation for all nine cities.”
“Awaiting Your Majesty’s instructions.”
Roy answered without hesitation:
“Nobody goes out for now.
Priority goes to gathering intelligence on the Slane Theocracy.”
“Once that’s done, move on to the Katze Plains near Eternal Night City, and check whether any powerful undead are out there.”
“As you command, Almighty.”
Just how many butterfly effects had he set off, over those twelve years in the game?
And the Great Cat Kingdom’s members.
He hoped, wherever they were, they were still alive.