It’s no wonder Steady Mouse was so dumbfounded.
In areas suitable for level-100 players to grind and explore, normally only 8th-tier and above spells could do any meaningful damage — 5th-tier spells were practically useless there.
Seeing how fragile these knights were, even Momonga — steady as ever — instantly lost all sense of tension.
Of course, it was also possible that these two knights were just trash mobs, which would explain their weakness.
Still, even if the enemy was stronger than expected, escape should be no problem.
Relaxing slightly, Momonga nevertheless raised his guard.
After all, there was still the possibility that a powerful enemy commander existed… Even if that probability was as low as “decimal point followed by several dozen zeros.”
And so, Steady Bone decided to stay cautious, using one of his unique skills:
[Summon Middle-Tier Undead]
A mid-tier undead creature, one that players were very familiar with — a Death Knight.
It was around level 35, with attack power roughly equal to a level-25 creature.
Its defense, however, was decent, about level-40 equivalent.
For Momonga, this creature was basically a toy, almost useless for serious combat.
But this particular undead had two very useful skills: One was Taunt, forcing enemies to target it first.
The other was essentially “Second Life” — no matter how powerful the attack, it would survive once with 1 HP.
Thanks to these two skills, Momonga loved using Death Knights as meat shields.
A cloud of black mist surged toward the corpse of the knight whose heart had been crushed, engulfing it completely.
Moments later, the corpse began to shake, its body twisting and transforming.
After several seconds, the transformation was complete.
Its height shot up to 2.3 meters.
In its right hand was a 1.3-meter-long greatsword, while its left arm held a massive tower shield that covered nearly three-quarters of its body.
Its entire body was now encased in black metal armor, covered with crimson runes and wicked spikes.
Demonic horns jutted from its helmet, and beneath it was a rotting, twisted face, with hollow eye sockets glowing red with hatred and killing intent.
It was the very image of an evil creature — brutal and violent — looking straight out of a Western RPG.
The freshly summoned Death Knight silently awaited its master’s orders.
Through the mental link, Momonga commanded:
“Exterminate all the knights attacking this village.”
“OOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHH—!”
To intimidate the enemy, the Death Knight let out an ear-splitting roar before charging forward like a bolt of lightning toward its targets.
Momonga, who had been watching the Death Knight run off, suddenly turned to the side.
A portal opened nearby as Luke emerged along with the Council’s mage, Hatsune.
Luke was clad in armor made from the hides of five fully grown dragons.
In his left hand was a 1.2-meter-long Shaggaeti sword, while his right hand held a massive double-bladed axe.
Hatsune, on the other hand, wore a beautiful crimson magic robe, holding a divine-class staff.
Four elemental orbs — fire, water, wind, and earth — floated around her like miniature satellites, circling her in perfect orbit.
“Luke-san, I thought you were going to run all the way here.”
“This is your fault, Momonga!
Too much, man!
I was right next to you and you didn’t take me along!”
Hatsune bowed respectfully, “Lord Momonga, I deeply apologize for arriving late.
Albedo has already raised Nazarick’ alert level and should be on her way here.”
“…Honestly, I was just worried there might be danger, so I came to scout ahead.
Think of it as the guildmaster caring for his guild members.
Forgetting you?
Impossible.”
“You sound so convincing, I almost believed you!”
“Hahaha, alright, Luke-san, back to business.
From my observations just now, these knights are unexpectedly weak…”
‘Of course they are — you opened with a 9th-tier instant-death spell followed by a 5th-tier spell.
That’s called bullying, you know?!’
But Luke couldn’t just say that, so he played along, “Oh?
How weak?”
“Hmm… if I had to compare, I’d say it feels like fighting those slimes we killed when we first started playing the game.
After all, just a mere 5th-tier spell can instantly kill them.”
“But since there are too few of them to gather reliable data, I summoned a Death Knight to test further.”
“I see.
But wow, Momonga — you’re so steady that you won’t even go yourself, just send a summon instead.
You’re practically Steady Dog now!”
“It’s not that I want to be overly cautious — I just don’t know the situation yet.
Also, I didn’t expect a Death Knight, which in the game could only stay near its summoner, to have such high autonomy here.”
“Honestly, as a tank, running off without the summoner and happily going on a murder spree — I don’t know if I should be pleased or worried.”
At that moment, Hatsune spoke, “Lord Momonga’s arrangement is the most prudent.
Truly worthy of being called the very symbol of Nazarick’ wisdom.”
Just then, another figure stepped out of the still-active portal.
As the portal slowly closed behind her, the figure fully emerged.
It was a woman clad head-to-toe in black armor.
Her armor was covered in spikes, leaving no skin exposed.
Her gauntlets had clawed fingertips, one hand held a black shield, and the other easily gripped a massive greataxe that glowed green.
Her blood-red cape billowed dramatically behind her.
“My apologies for the delay, Lord Momonga, Lord Luke.”
This was Albedo — a full-level NPC, a Dark Knight specialized in defense, and Nazarick’ ultimate wall.
“No problem.
You came at the perfect time.”
“Then, Lord Momonga, Lord Luke — how shall we dispose of these lowly creatures?
If you don’t wish to dirty your hands, I can slaughter them all for you…”
“No, Albedo, this is the result of Momonga heroically rescuing the damsels in distress — don’t ruin the moment,” Luke said mischievously.
As expected, Albedo’s hand gripping the battleaxe began to tremble…
“Albedo!
Calm down, don’t listen to Luke-san’s nonsense… The ones I’m here to save are the villagers — these two little girls were just incidental rescues.
Our enemies are those armored knights!” Momonga quickly explained.
Albedo still couldn’t completely suppress her jealousy, but since Lord Momonga had said so, she couldn’t take out her anger on these two lowly creatures.
Seeing her reaction, Momonga wasn’t stupid.
He immediately understood that her hostility hadn’t disappeared.
With no other choice, he coaxed her, “Besides, compared to you, their appearances aren’t even one ten-thousandth as beautiful.”
“They have nothing to do with the word ‘beauty,’ so this isn’t really a damsel-rescue situation at all…”
In an instant, Albedo’s voice became cheerful, “My lord, you are absolutely right!”
‘Old Bone, your moral integrity stat really is dropping lower and lower…’
###
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