“So this is the New World’s army?”
“Their combat strength doesn’t seem particularly impressive.”
“Maybe they’re just the New World’s weakest common troops.
Still, best not to get careless.”
“Except they’re getting a little too close to the Great Tomb’s location.”
Suzuki Satoru, or rather, the Undead King who now went by Ainz, was watching the Kingdom army’s movements.
Ever since he’d crossed into this world with his guild in tow, he’d felt remarkably little pride or satisfaction, mostly just anxious unease.
For now, the NPCs seemed obedient enough, but if he ever showed the slightest weakness, there was no guarantee their loyalty would hold.
Ainz had planned to do some exploring of the New World, but with events having shifted somewhat, he still hadn’t decided whether to make contact with this army at all.
Especially given how the Kingdom’s army had made camp at Carne Village and was now spreading outward in every direction.
It had pushed Ainz to urgently reinforce the Great Tomb’s outer defenses and concealment, while doing everything he could to avoid any clash with the Kingdom’s forces.
“Lord Ainz, I could go capture a few of their soldiers and interrogate them.”
“Anyone who dares trespass on Lord Ainz’s domain deserves to be punished.”
The moment Ainz crossed over with his guild, he’d found himself with an entire retinue of loyal subordinates all at once.
Take Albedo, the Great Tomb’s Overseer, for instance.
The instant she saw these vile, lowly insects daring to approach the great Tomb of Nazarick, her temper flared instantly.
Ainz, by contrast, stayed considerably calmer:
“Albedo.
There’s no need for that.”
“They’re not here to invade the Great Tomb.
From the look of things, they’re here to deal with the forest’s monsters instead.”
“We can observe them for now, and step in to help once they run into real danger, using that as an opening to gather intelligence.”
“We don’t have enough information about this world yet.
We shouldn’t act recklessly.”
As a genuinely skilled player, Ainz had always approached things with real caution.
The simplest assumption was this: if he himself had crossed over by staying logged in at shutdown, couldn’t the same be true of others?
Not to mention, the New World’s actual combat strength was still an unknown quantity.
Extreme measures weren’t advisable yet.
“Yes, Lord Ainz!”
Albedo obeyed Ainz’s orders absolutely, and her own intellect was every bit a match for the Great Tomb’s strategist, Demiurge.
So she offered a decisive proposal:
“Since Lord Ainz intends to let the human army run into danger before stepping in to save them, shall we order Aura to make a move?”
Aura was one of the Great Tomb’s Floor Guardians, and a beast tamer besides.
Judging by how the Kingdom’s army was hunting goblins and clearing out nearby monsters, none of the great forest’s beasts stood any real chance against Aura at all.
Aura could function as an army unto herself, and could also massively boost the combat strength of monsters under her command.
If this human army’s campaign went too smoothly, wouldn’t that ruin Lord Ainz’s entire plan?
That simply couldn’t be allowed to happen.
Manufacturing the danger themselves, then swooping in to save the day, would guarantee everything went exactly as planned.
Not a bad idea at all.
Ainz wasn’t above such tactics, but he did wonder whether sending Aura out carried any risk of its own.
“Let’s first get a read on the Kingdom army’s actual combat strength.”
“Yes, Lord Ainz!”
Before long, the Kingdom’s army made progress.
On the second day of camping at Carne Village, Gazef and Brain led their elite forces to the Wise King of the Forest’s territory.
Ainz readied himself as well.
“The Wise King of the Forest has to be an extremely powerful monster.”
“These human warriors might not be able to handle it.”
“Albedo.
Stand ready to intervene at any moment.”
“Yes, Lord Ainz.”
Ainz just stood there, frozen, and actually covered his face with one hand.
Because a giant hamster had come scrambling out of a cave, roaring at the top of its lungs:
“Foolish creatures, coming onto my own turf like this.
You must have come prepared.”
“And if you don’t have the strength to back that up, I’ll beat every last one of you into the ground!”
Both Gazef and Brain wore dead-serious expressions.
A formidable physical form, blistering speed, and magical ability on top of that.
Genuinely a powerful monster.
“Wise King of the Forest.
We’ve come here to challenge you, to expand humanity’s territory.”
Rather than attacking outright, Gazef issued a formal challenge, following the standard etiquette of a warrior:
“Should we lose, we’ll naturally have no further designs on the Wise King of the Forest’s territory.”
“Should we happen to win, we ask that you cede the forest to us.”
Gazef stuck to proper etiquette, and this monster calling itself the Wise King of the Forest didn’t try to ambush him for it either, answering instead with breezy confidence:
“No problem at all.
I accept your challenge.”
And then-
“I surrender!
I surrender!”
“I’ve lost.
I yield.
Please, spare my life!”
The Wise King of the Forest’s combat strength wasn’t weak by any means, but unfortunately for it, it was up against two seasoned Hero-tier fighters.
The “challenge” in question hadn’t actually been Gazef against the Wise King one-on-one.
It had been the entire Kingdom army, ganging up on a single Wise King of the Forest.
Come on then: all of us, against just you.
Gazef, clad in heavy armor, planted himself bodily in front of the enormous hamster.
Battle Focus.
Instant Reflex.
Ability Enhancement.
Ability Super-Enhancement.
Fortress.
Unfalling Fortress.
In the very first instant of the clash, Gazef turned himself into a living battering ram.
Rather than reaching for his usual Sixfold Slash of Light, he burned through six enhancement techniques in a row, planting himself immovably in front of the hamster to buy Brain his opening.
By the time the hamster caught on to Gazef’s tactic, it was already too late.
Two battering rams collided, and neither gave an inch.
Gazef’s level-35 strength fell noticeably short in raw power due to the racial gap between them, but he still held the Wise King of the Forest dead in its tracks.
A crash!
Dust exploded across the forest floor as the Wise King tried to strike Gazef with its tail.
Except Brain beat it to the punch.
In the opening Gazef had bought him, he let out a sharp exhale and unleashed his sword technique, Tiger’s Falling Flute.
A ringing clash of steel!
A perfect arc sliced through the air, cutting straight toward the Wise King of the Forest.
If Gazef’s swordsmanship carried overwhelming weight and momentum, Brain’s was blindingly fast, unmatched in speed.
In a single flash of the blade, a vicious gash opened across the Wise King’s body, blood pouring freely.
Except Brain wasn’t satisfied.
Because with the opening Gazef had bought him by doing all the dirty work, he still hadn’t managed to end it in a single strike. Get faster updates on g.com.
Gazef earned the whole Kingdom’s respect for more than just raw strength.
He took the dirty, thankless work on himself, and handed his teammates the easy damage and the glory.
The army’s spellcasters swiftly rallied to join the assault, and several adventurers who’d tagged along with Gazef threw themselves in eagerly too.
Magic and martial techniques flew through the air together, all of it raining down on the Wise King of the Forest.
It wanted to flee, but there was nowhere to run.
Drag this out any longer, and it was certain death.
So the Wise King of the Forest made the decisive choice to surrender, keeping a last-ditch effort in reserve in case surrender didn’t work.
An idea suddenly struck Gazef:
“Wise King of the Forest.
Would you be willing to swear fealty to the Kingdom, to His Majesty the King?”
“If you’re willing to take that oath, we won’t just spare you, we’ll see to your wounds and provide for you besides.”
The Wise King of the Forest was, without question, a genuine Hero-tier powerhouse.
In a true one-on-one duel, Gazef, without the Kingdom’s heirloom treasures, couldn’t have claimed victory with any confidence.
The two of them would likely have taken each other down together, a direct consequence of the Wise King’s sheer physical toughness and vitality.
If the King he served could claim a mount like this for his own, it would surely go a long way toward suppressing the opposition back home.
Not to mention, killing the Wise King of the Forest outright would just leave the Eastern Giant and Western Serpent free to move in and claim the territory instead, which wouldn’t do humanity’s expansion any favors.
The Wise King of the Forest obviously didn’t want to die, and this man genuinely did have the power to have beaten it besides.
So it prostrated itself flat on the ground and said:
“I am willing to submit to a being as powerful as yourself.”
“I will guard this forest in your name.”
As the Wise King of the Forest yielded, both the Kingdom’s soldiers and the adventurers alike broke into loud cheers.
“Long live the Warrior Captain!
Long live His Majesty the King!”
“If the Kingdom can tame a monster this powerful now, we’re sure to beat the Empire someday.”
Brain, meanwhile, wore a conflicted expression.
Something had suddenly clicked for him.
Why, growing up in the exact same special training ground, had Gazef always progressed faster than he had?
The training ground actually ran dedicated talent assessments, and by those results, Gazef had tested as Hero-tier, while Brain himself had tested as a rare Aberration-tier talent, a once-in-a-generation case even among humans.
By raw talent alone, he was the more gifted of the two.
And yet, here they were.
The training ground’s overseer had once told him:
“The talent test is only one part of it.
Whether you actually reach your ceiling comes down to your own effort, and a bit of fortune besides.”
The dirty work, the thankless work, he’d have to take that on too, if he ever wanted to understand what Gazef had actually achieved.
Brain fell into thought.
At that moment, Ainz, gazing out over the battlefield, was lost in his own thoughts:
“Albedo.
Have Aura get ready.”
“The Wise King of the Forest going missing, with other monsters moving in to seize the territory, makes for a solid pretext.”
“Have the monsters make their move, and put some real pressure on the Kingdom’s army.”
“Careful, though.
Judging by this human army’s actual level, don’t cause too many casualties.”
“Just enough pressure will do.”
It wasn’t that Ainz had gone soft.
He’d simply seen a version of his own past self in what he’d just watched.
A leader who still put himself on the front line, shouldering the hardest task himself.
Someone like that didn’t deserve to end up a casualty.
All Ainz wanted was to appear as a friendly spellcaster, nothing more.
“Yes, Lord Ainz.”
Except while Ainz kept his eyes on the Warrior Captain, Laplace’s Demon kept its eyes fixed on Ainz.