Текст книги "Overlord - The Invaders of the Large Tomb"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Greenham was originally the third son of a farmer working in the Kingdom.

Like the saying goes, if many people split the farm lands, after several generations, the land each person could inherit would gradually grow smaller. The farm produce each family could harvest would also decrease. That’s why the eldest son would inherit the land, the second son could work as a helper, but the third son and the others would be nothing but trouble. It was normal for them to move to the city to seek a livelihood.

However, Greenham was blessed with a good body, and it worked out well in the end. But in the end he was just a farmer and the education he had received as the reserve of the reserve was as good as nothing. That went for reading, writing and etiquette.

It was true that workers focused on ability and the execution of the assigned task, not etiquette. However, it wasn’t good for him as a leader.

He worked hard on it, but unlike the talent he had with his body, he wasn’t gifted in such a way and it was barely passable. Greenham kept his position as leader because he was highly regarded in all other aspects. However, in order to not embarrass his comrades, Greenham started speaking in that strange manner.

“‘This quirky way of speaking is normal as a way to advertise my team.” That was what he wanted the clients to think.

Despite that, people would still look down on him. However, that kind of image would still be better than a dim-witted farmer.

“Alright, break time is over. We’re moving out, lads.”

Greenham announced and everyone started moving without complaint.

First was the thief who cautiously entered the crypt to search for traps.

The rest of the group placed a thick metal bar between the doors so it would not be closed completely even if there was a mechanism which shut the door. To avoid light from spilling out, the door was half closed. While the thief cautiously inspected the room, Greenham and the others did not let down their guard. The use of light couldn’t be helped. It was entirely possible that they might be spotted.

While Greenham and the rest of the team were crouching and watching the surroundings, the thief went to the area below the banner and observed it for a moment. After making up his mind, he reached for the banner, and pulled back nervously the moment he touched it.

“There is no problem here, everyone come in.”

The thief turned his head back towards Greenham and the others as he pointed at the banner.

“...This is really valuable, made from cloth-of-gold.”

“Haaahhh!? Cloth-of-gold? Leaving this here just like that, is there something wrong with their head?”

All of them gasped in surprise. Everyone gathered under the banner and took turns touching it. The cold material under their fingers was definitely metallic.

Considering how grand it looked, the appraisal of the thief should be correct. From this size, weight and artistic value, it must be worth a fortune.

“Our client won this one. Although our, or rather, the full payment for the four teams hasn't been collected yet, there are definitely loads of treasure here.”

“Do we take it with us right now?”

Greenham answered the thief’s query.

“This is too big. And heavy. Let’s take it later, any objections?”

“No. It will be difficult to move with this in tow. As for the result of the inspection, there are no traps or hidden doors.”

“...Well then, please.”

Greenham nodded at the mage– an arcane magic caster. His companion replied by casting a spell.

“‘Detect Magic’– I can’t detect any magical traps either. We can dismiss the possibility of anyone hiding with concealment magic.”

“...The inspection is almost done, let’s head for the main target.”

Their gaze fell on the stone coffin in the middle of the room.

The thief spent a lot of time investigating and concluded that there were no traps.

Greenham and the warrior nodded at each other and began the task of opening the stone coffin. It was rather big and should be very heavy, but it was lighter than they thought. They used too much strength and almost lost their balance.

The stone coffin’s cover opened, revealing numerous sparkling lights from within.

Gold, silver and gems of various colours, in addition to numerous sparkling accessories. And more than a hundred gold coins scattered all over.

They had been expecting something good after seeing the banner, but Greenham still grinned from ear to ear at this sight. The thief who was observing carefully picked up one of the items inside– a gold necklace.

It was an impeccable piece of jewelry. It seemed to be a simple gold necklace at first glance, but on close inspection, the chains had fine engravings on it.

“...A conservative estimate would be one hundred gold coins. With the right buyer, one hundred fifty would be possible.”

The reaction to the thief’s appraisals were different. Some of them whistled while others smiled. One common point was the joy and flames of greed burning in their eyes.

“Just the half we can get will be a bonus of fifty gold. Ten gold each, that’s a scary amount of additional payout.”

“That is really… Maybe these ruins are a treasure trove.”

“Incredible. This is so incredibly amazing.”

“Really. It would be a pity to just leave the treasure here. Let’s put it to good use.”

As he spoke, the wizard picked out a ring with a large ruby on it and kissed the gemstone.

“That’s huge—”

The priest stuck his hands in, picking up the coins and letting it slip through his fingers.

The crisp sound of gold coins clinking against each other were heard.

“I have never seen such gold coins before. Which time period and country are they from?”

Using his knife to lightly nick the surface of the gold coin, the thief said with a sigh:

“This is pure gold. Just the weight is double the norm, the value would probably be higher, considering the aesthetic value.”

“This is really—Kukuku…”

Laughter leaked out from the group who couldn’t help smiling.

Just dividing the loot here would not be a small amount.

“All of you, thank your gods later. Let’s take what we can and head to the main objective. Our share will be taken if we are late.”

“—Ho!”

Greenham received a spirited reply, filled with excitement and fervour.

 

Part 4

The grand mausoleum was situated at the centre of the ruin. Giant statues of warriors that looked as if they would come alive at any moment surrounded the grand crypt like knights defending their king. Hekkeran hid himself at the feet of the warrior statue that was staring in the direction of one of the smaller crypts.

After a short while, Hekkeran noticed five men running from the smaller crypt. They moved fast yet still managed to conceal themselves Hekkeran watched paranoidly for anyone that might be spying on them or anything strange happening. Finally, after confirming the group coming this way was fine, Hekkeran sighed in relief.

He signalled by peeking out of the shadow of the giant statue and Greenham rushed over after noticing him.

“You sure are late Greenham.”

“Thank you for waiting for us this long.”

“We didn’t decide on the time to meet up so it’s fine. Instead, let’s change the location and then decide what to do next.”

Hekkeran crouched and lead the way cautiously.

A few steps later, Greenham asked.

“Just want to ask, did your team discover any treasure?”

Unable to hide his excitement and remembering how he had felt, his mouth curved into a smile and said:

“Of course, a motherload. Elder said the same thing.”

“You all as well, huh. Coming to this cemetery was the right move.”

“That’s true. I am grateful to the great men buried here.”

“Hmm. That might be so, but since we found so many treasures, should we consider the possibility that there might be nothing where the master of this tomb is buried??”

“Well, I bet there would be even more.”

“Hmm—how much are you betting?”

“Great. I will find more later and I can get a decent sum from you, too. This is the best. Ah, the problem is we would both be betting on the same thing.”

Both men didn’t make a sound as the corner of their mouth rose into a smile.

“That’s true. By the way, what is that?”

In front of Greenham, besides the feet of a giant statue, was something like a stone tablet.

“That?”

Hekkeran didn’t stop, while giving Greenham his answer. The words written on it were something the first three teams that arrived before him had never seen before. They held on to the faint hope that Greenham’s team might know about it.

“Something like a stone tablet, engraved with what might be words.”

“Engrave with what might be words? Why are you being so vague about this?”

“It is an unknown language. Not the national language of the Kingdom or the Empire, or even the ancient languages around the region. It might not be human language either. But I can read the number 2.0 here.”

“Numbers? Thinking about it with common sense, it should be the year this place was built. But the number is too small.”

“Arche thinks it might be a password for something in the ruins… Well, just keep it in mind.”

“Right, let’s do that.”

After passing through the giant statues and climbing up the long and narrow tilted platform formed by the stone coffin, what they saw was an open entrance.

“The stench of the dead.”

“Ahhh. It is, I smell that often from the thick fogs at Kattse plain.”

Greenham agreed with Hekkeran with a soft voice.

It wasn’t a strong, nauseating stench, but the smell of the undead accompanied by the cold found in the cemetery.

This might be a beautiful cemetery, but there were definitely undead here.

The group steeled themselves and saw a vast space within when they entered. Numerous stone platforms were placed to the left and right, on the other side were the stairs leading down. The door leading down was wide open and an uneasy atmosphere flowed out from within.

“This way.”

With Hekkeran leading the way, Greenham and the others went down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs was a burial chamber with a door on the other side. Aside from that, no other doors could be seen.

It was narrower than the crypt upstairs, but there was plenty of space. Hekkeran’s team ‘Foresight’, Eruya’s ‘Tenmu’ and Parupatra’s team were all here.

“Well then, what should we do next? Our plan was to spread out and gather information. Any new ideas after having searched the crypts?”

After speaking, Hekkeran glanced at everyone who had gathered.

There didn’t seem to be any more new ideas. Was it greed gleaming off them or merely a reflection of light? It wasn’t clear, but everyone’s eyes were lively. Everyone seemed to be filled with excitement and couldn’t wait to go in the cemetery.

“A suggestion. My team will check for hidden doors and search outside.”

That was their leader’s words, but his members seemed unhappy about it.

It was because of the treasures they saw. They couldn’t agree even if it was the opinion of their well experienced leader. They were probably imagining a mountain of treasure flying away before their eyes.

“What do you say? We did search the surface, but we weren’t that thorough. There’s a chance that one of the smaller crypts has a hidden passage inside, right? Isn’t rest of the cemetery worth surveying?”

“Elder has a point. I heard that even the Sasasharu Ruins, which bards sing of all the time, have a safe passage leading directly to the centre of the ruin just steps away from the entrance.”

“Ah, Greenham. We checked all the way up to this room, but didn’t find any hidden passages.”

“That is why I’m offering to do this. As compensation for my team taking this lesser job, how about giving me a cut of the loot you find on this floorl. Yup, how about ten percent from each team? And tomorrow, let my team be the first ones to search the floor below this one?”

“I have no objection to this proposal.”

The first to speak was Greenham. Hekkeran agreed a moment later.

“Good, we are all agreed then! What about you Uzruth?”

“I’m not comfortable with it, but since it’s just ten percent, so be it.”

The elder simply smiled at his sarcastic voice. In the end, it was Eruya who made a bitter expression after his snide attitude failed to garner any response.

“Ah, Elder. Can I ask you for a favour since you’re going to pass that way. We found a banner made with gold thread in the crypt we searched, but it looked too cumbersome to lug around. Could we trouble you to take it back?”

“I agree with Hekkeran. It might be a hassle, but could you help us out?”

“In that case, take mine too.”

Eruya gestured with his chin to one of the elves, and she took out a large piece of cloth to place it on the ground, all the while staggering under its weight.

“Understood. Aside from these, is there anything else you want me to safekeep or carry back?”

There was no answer to Parupatra’s question.

“Very well! Like I proposed earlier, my team will search the top. Be careful. It’s fine if you leave something valuable for me.”

“Haha, we can leave a couple of monsters for you, but there won’t be a single coin left behind for you.”

After a round of laughter, Hekkeran asked the others: “Shall we go?”

Everyone agreed immediately. They took a step forward. With their eyes shining with greed and anticipation, they took their first step into the unknown ruins—the great underground tomb.

The door opened and there was only one path leading deeper in. As they expected, it was kept clean and tidy.

Things like rust and moss weren’t found on the stone passage, there were some indents on the wall where human shaped figures, wrapped in burial clothing, had been placed. There wasn’t the unique scent of corpse here. Instead, there was a cold air and smell of the undead.

There were flickering bluish white lights on the ceiling a fixed distance from each other. However, since the distance between them was rather large, there was some darkness along the way. The light allowed them to move freely, but was just dim enough that they might miss something. It would feel dangerous if they didn’t have an alternate source of lighting.

“—Rob. Any undead reaction from that corpse?”

“No, nothing.”

Arche thanked Rob and walked towards the corpse in the body bag, cutting open with her knife. After seeing her actions, the other team also sent out one or two members to investigate the corpse inside the body bag.

“...From this height and built, the possibility of this being human is high. A full grown man.”

“It is not wearing clothes, so it is hard to tell what time period this ruins is from.”

“But this ruins is filled with mysteries. The architecture, burial method and time period are all unknown. Maybe it is something from six hundred years ago.”

“—If that is true, this will be a historical find.”

For people doing research, this might be a topic worth discussing, but they were here to do a job.

After receiving cold stares from Hekkeran and Greenham, they hastily announced the investigation result “The time period and background of the ruins are still a mystery.”

“Understood. Shall we move on? Personally, I want to kill some monsters.”

Agreeing with the dissatisfied Eruya, the group moved ahead but stopped shortly.

Their stances were ready to draw their weapon.

Sounds of bones creaking ahead could be heard.

Due to the illumination from the ceiling, they could see the figures of the undead ahead.

After closing the distance and identifying the opponents, the workers was shaken as if they were seeing something incredible and discussed softly.

“Isn’t that too…”

“Hey, are you for real…”

“Eh? Are there only skeletons?”

The moment someone finally blurt out the name of the monster, the group couldn’t endure it anymore and burst out into laughter.

“Hey hey hey!! Isn’t sending skeletons a gone case? We have many people here alright?”

The appearance of skeletal monsters look roughly the same, so it was hard to tell what type they were.

However, it was easy to judge that these were normal skeletons from the air they gave off.

“Even if these are scouts, they should send out stronger monsters– I got it! There are either no monsters controlling this cemetery, or they are too incompetent to tell how strong we are. Or they are morons who didn’t even notice they have been infiltrated!

They couldn’t stop laughing.

“Eh, it is impossible for skeletons. Or maybe all the treasures in this ruin are placed in the crypt on the surface?”

“That would be terrible.”

For workers who were on par with mithril adventurers, skeletons were too weak. And the workers even outnumbered them.

In front of the six skeletons, they looked at each other thinking about who should go.

“I don’t want to.”

Eruya declared. It was easy to understand how he felt.

“Then I shall go.”

Greenham said and walked to the front.

The weak mind of the skeleton seemed to be thinking about something. They were probably thinking about overwhelming the lone warrior. Or maybe they were considering something else.

The skeletons attacked together and—

They were easily shattered by the swinging shield and axe.

It only took a few seconds. Maybe less.

Smashing the six skeletons and stepping on their remains, Greenham sighed as if he was tired. It wasn’t fatigue from the battle, but the fact that the first opponent in this great ruin was the too weak, the lowest tier undead skeleton.

“How brittle, just skeletons after all. That may be so, but it would be foolish to get careless. Keep the possibility that powerful undead might pop up in mind and advance with great caution!”

They straightened their faces after hearing Greenham’s words and moved on– towards the depths of the ruins. Their hearts were filled with the anticipation of the treasures lying ahead.

♦ ♦ ♦

“Yare yare, so they left huh.”

“They did. They might be workers, but we are working on the same team now, so we are colleagues for this job. It will be great if they return safely… Momon-san, what do you think?”

“—All of them will die.”

Ainz replied with a deep voice, stunning the leader of the adventurer team.

Oh no, I said my thoughts out loud—

“Eh, oh, I mean being mentally prepared for that possibility. These are unknown ruins we are talking about. There is no way of telling what dangers they will run into. Holding on to high hopes will only result in great disappointment.”

“I see, so it’s like that… Sorry for making you worry.”

... I was winging it, and he agreed with me? Well, that works great for me.

The team leader lowered his head like this because he blindly thought the words of the adamantite-ranked man were correct.

Ainz’ effort– his response filled with good intentions and friendly attitude during the journey to Nazarick paid off.

“So as we planned, I will take a break first.”

Ainz headed towards his – which was of course shared with Nabel – tent. As it was a certain distance away, some people assumed it was to keep others from hearing moans. Or rather, that was what they heard from the leader just now.

Compared to the workers, he felt more camaraderie with Momon who was also an adventurer, and shared the information he got from the workers freely.

Ainz and Nabel closed the entrance of the tent after going in. They peeked out just in case and no one seemed to be watching them. In fact, there were people who intentionally made a show of not caring.

“...Even though they said this is a love nest, not denying it outright was probably the right move. They don’t suspect anything even though our tents are further away, they don’t pay attention to this place and they don’t get close.”

There were downsides too, but the benefits outweighed the cons.

Ainz removed his helmet and revealed his skeletal face.

“Well then, Nabe… No, Narberal. I will return to Nazarick and send Pandora’s Actor to replace me as planned. If something happens in the meantime, resolve it by yourself.”

“By your command, Ainz-sama.”

“Erm. Contact me if there is anything.”

Ainz dispelled the magic that created his armor and sword, and the weight of the helmet disappeared in his hands. The sense of liberty from taking off the armour made Ainz utter “ah” in relief, although it wasn’t that hard on him. It was the same reason why he was rotating his shoulders that weren’t stiff at all. These actions were remnants of his time as a human.

“...Yare yare.”

The remnants of human emotions were troublesome sometimes.

If he could handle every situation calmly, the circumstances might be different now. However, if he lost all remnants of his human emotions, he wouldn’t love the Great Tomb of Nazarick as much as he did right now. The longing the human Suzuki Satoru had for his friends will probably disappear as well.

While Ainz was smiling wryly, he cast his magic. Thoughts about his remnants of humanity was gone from the back of his mind. Ainz wasn’t a talented person who could focus on two or three things at a time. He needed to drop everything aside from what he was considering.

His spell was ‘Greater Teleportation’.

Since he was wearing a ring, Ainz made it through the barrier of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, all the way to the entrance of the Throne Room.

“Welcome back, Ainz-sama.”

Moments later, a beautiful female voice welcomed his return.

“I am back, Albedo.”

The lady who bowed deeply raised her head, a blossoming smile appeared on her beautiful face. She looked straight at Ainz—as if she couldn’t see anything else.

Ughh...

Seeing the golden pupils filled with beams of love, he couldn’t help feeling goosebumps all over. But he couldn’t adopt an attitude unbefitting that of Ainz Ooal Gown, the ruler of the Grand Tomb of Nazarick.

Ainz suppressed the feeling that weakened during the short moment of silence, and coughed fakely.

“Just as planned, the invaders are here. No, maybe they are already inside. How are the preparations to welcome them?”

“The preparations are done. The guests will definitely be delighted.”

“I see… Albedo. I look forward to seeing their elation.”

He walked to the heart of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the Throne Room. Albedo followed him one step behind.

Albedo had only one order regarding the invaders this time. That was to conduct a practical test for the performance of her defense system.

Where to place the POPs in Nazarick and the combination of monsters were all done by his past guild mates, and must be done really well. But given the current situation, it was hard to say that a better setup didn’t exist.

Thus it was necessary to inspect the defense system. And they could do that now.

“...The invaders are fragile, so of course we can’t test everything. But let us pray we can learn something from this.”

“I understand. I promise that I will not let you down, Ainz-sama.”

“Good. As you already know, avoid using traps that cost money like spraying poisonous gas or sudden floods of undead, try to use POPs and traps with serfs. Any problems?”

In response to Albedo’s smile, Ainz nodded.

“Very well, in the mean time, let us enjoy ourselves. What are the other Floor Guardians doing?”

“Yes. The moment Ainz-sama returned, I have instructed them to gather. Will it be fine to grant them entry according to the order they arrive?”

“Granted. The more people there are, the merrier.”

Before the throne on which Ainz was sitting down were numerous things that looked like TV screens floating in the air. Each one of them displayed a different part of Nazarick. Albedo who was controlling it to show Ainz what he wanted to see.

Next would be Albedo displaying her control over the defense net. Ainz wasn’t sure what the changes between now and before were though.

… To make full use of this training, I have to learn something from the displayed images. If there is a sharing session after this, it will be bad.

Ainz was the absolute ruler of the Grand Tomb of Nazarick. How could such a man not understand anything about the defense system compared to his subordinate?

“Just in case, I have to ask. There are no chances of triggering ‘Ariadne’, correct?”

Ainz opened his console and controlled the cursor, checking for problems as he asked.

“I don’t think there is a chance of that happening. However, I want to confirm whether Ariadne will be triggered if the invaders are locked up?”

Ainz remembered the Yggdrasil Q&A he read in the past, no, the update-log explanations by the developers.

“There shouldn’t be… that should be so… I think that’s how it was.”

Even though that was the case in Yggdrasil,there was no guarantee that this rule still applied in this world. Even the existence of Ariadne itself was not confirmed.

“What would happen if we were to manipulate the humans into doing so themselves?”

“There might be a chance it won’t activate, but considering the losses if it does I was too scared and never tested it.”

Ariadne system.

A system that checks the validity of a created base.

There was a simple way of creating an invincible fortress: By sealing the entrance, no one would be able to get in. Just burying the entire Grand Tomb of Nazarick underground would be enough. But as a game, this was not allowed.

In order to stop one from making such a base, the Ariadne surveillance system existed.

There must be a path that lead from the entrance to the heart of the base. Other things Ariadne inspected were the distance one could travel inside, how many doors there were and various other rules on base construction that were set in detail.

Dungeons that violated the rules would be flagged by the Yggdrasil system and fined. The Guild funds would be deducted gradually at a visible rate.

For Nazarick, such problems were solved by the 5th and 6th levels– They had to pay a lot to widen the dungeon to maintain it.

Ainz controlled one of the monitor which displayed the figures of the workers.

“Tch! Well then, it is finally time for them to show up. They made me wait really long.”

Feelings of unhappiness hit Ainz when he saw the images of the stronghold he made with his comrade being sullied by the dirty feet of the invaders. Although his emotions would be suppressed if it exceed a certain threshold, but it couldn’t completely keep his burning anxiety down.

“Albedo. Don’t allow any of them to escape.”

“Of course. Please enjoy watching the fate of the thieves intruding into the residence of the Supreme Beings. Also… which guinea pig should we choose for the experiment?”

“Ah, right. I sparred with this old man. I sparred with this man on the way too. This team is not suitable for training. Let’s dispose of these fellows first.”

Ainz pointed with his finger at a monitor Albedo could see.

Chapter 3. The Large Tomb

Translator: Rocky-mon

Editors/Proofreaders: TaintedDreams, Namo-Namo, Skythewood, JcqC, Nigel, SifaV6

 

Part 1

 

The worker team led by Parupatra, “Green Leaf”, departed from those caught up in expectations and excitement and looked at the surroundings from the top of the main tomb’s entrance stairway.

As if everything in the graveyard had been covered by winter snow, there was nothing alive and everything seemed dead. There was only silence and starlight. The team asked him when they finished climbing the steps.

“Elder, don’t you think it was a wasted opportunity? We could have left searching the surface to other teams.”

“That’s true. No matter the team… except for that bastard’s, there shouldn’t be much difference in abilities. Anything we can do, “Heavy Masher” or “Foresight” can probably do as well.”

“Then…”

Parupatra interrupted his comrade and continued.

“But didn’t we get the right to be the first searchers tomorrow? We aren’t going to be missing out on too much. Plus, by tomorrow, the survey of the inside should be finished. The last team to go in would miss out on all the loot, and in the worst case scenario, get stuck in the base camp with guard duty.”

“Ah-ha…”

“It’s too risky to be the first ones to go into an unknown location. They are going to be our little canaries. I hope they return unharmed.”

Parupatra turned around with cold eyes. His gaze was fixed on the place where the workers who entered the tomb had been standing. His sublime disdainful expression was not befitting the usual jolly and fluffy man nicknamed the “elder”. Those who didn’t know much about him would be surprised, but his comrades knew.

The old man named Parupatra was a very cautious man. He was the kind of man who would check a bridge twice before crossing. That was how he had managed to survive as an adventurer for such a long time, and he had even vanquished a dragon once. Conversely, he had also missed out on many opportunities due to his cautious nature. However, because he had never lost a single comrade so far, all his teammates trusted his decisions.

Although life was the most precious treasure of them all, there was still some lingering regret that they might be missing out on the loot.

“This is a chance to find some really amazing items. Isn’t that worth the risk?”

“You’re not wrong, but take a look at this cemetery. Don’t you think this is too clean? If something is cleaning this place, a monster might pop out to say hello. It’d be best to let the other teams find out what kind of monsters there are. Personally, I don’t really like requests like these. There’s too many unknowns.”

A teammate carefully responded to Parupatra’s complaint.

“But you took it anyway.”

“That’s because the other teams took it as well. In the worst case scenario, we’ll leave them behind as bait while we run away.”

The team stepped off the stairs.

“Is that why you suggested searching the surface? So we can run away in case we hear their screams?”

“That too. But I think of this as a gamble… Like you said, we might miss out on the loot. If we had more information, it might be safer, but we don’t know if the benefits will outweigh the risks. If you are right, I apologize.”

“Don’t worry about it, elder. We all trust you. After all, in most cases, you were right.”

“Plus, even if we miss out today, we can find other jobs to make money. You said it yourself, as long as you’re alive, opportunities to make money will always be there. So there’s no need to dive in recklessly.”

“How nostalgic. That was from when we were still young.”

“Haha, you sure you aren’t still young?”

“Don’t joke like that, elder. You shouldn’t be the one saying that.”