Chapter 406: 384 "Heat Stone
In the over a month of fierce battles within the eighth floor of the Nasalik Underground Tomb, Reiger was not constantly being suppressed.
Because his adversaries were not as versatile as he, sometimes they would run out of Magic Power and become unable to use magic, sometimes they would exhaust the usage limits of their special abilities, and sometimes their health points would plummet to critical lows without means of recovery. Coupled with Reiger’s occasional outbursts and opportunistic counterattacks, he had achieved quite impressive results.
For instance, Lubedo, known as the strongest individual in the Nasalik Underground Tomb, had been successfully killed by Reiger three times.
The cryptonite beasts that were placed in the eighth floor of the Nasalik Underground Tomb were no different; some had died once or twice at Reiger’s hands, and others even more.
Even Ainz, who had not long ago brought the Guardians to besiege Reiger, had been killed by him once or twice in the chaos—especially Shalltear and Albedo, who bore great enmity towards him. Had it not been for their life-saving abilities, they would have lain at Reiger’s feet at least ten times over.
In this way, Reiger repeatedly faced death and emerged victorious, slaying formidable enemies, and even broke through attacks using world-class artifacts several times. Under such circumstances, his great feat had long been achieved.
...
Reiger Brillhaut
Lv.6
Strength: S996→ SSS1376
Endurance: S968→ SSS1352
Dexterity: SS1055→ SSS1431
Agility: SS1078→ SSS1457
Magic Power: SS1114→ SSS1469
Light Armor: D→ C
Swordsman: D→ C
Magician: F→ E
Combat proficiency: G→ F
Quick Assault: H→ G
...
These were Reiger’s upgraded ability values amidst the chaos of a heated battle.
Not only had all his abilities reached the SSS stage, but his developmental abilities had also each advanced a stage—evidence enough of the growth and improvement Reiger had undergone in nearly two months.
It was also since the update of his ability values that Reiger’s Megumi began to exhibit a flickering, glowing state.
It was a sign of being able to level up, a reminder for Reiger to evolve and ascend to the next stage.
In other words, Reiger was ready to level up.
——— "Lv.7".
In the Maze City Orario of the Earth Mistake World, where only one person held that level, and not even the members of the Loki Clan, known together with the Freyja Clan as the two kings of Orario, held it, Reiger had at last reached it.
If it weren’t for needing to consider which new developmental abilities to learn—something impossible to ponder in the midst of life-or-death battles—he might have leveled up on the spot.
Therefore, Reiger’s primary goal of conquering the Nasalik Underground Tomb and achieving the great feat of leveling up had been smoothly accomplished.
With that being the case, he could consider ceasing fire.
For one, his main objective had been met, and he was eager to hurry back and level up his Megumi—a truce was indeed necessary.
Secondly, Reiger wasn’t too keen on confronting the "Twenty" world-class artifacts, as their effects were truly perverse.
Not to mention others, just take the Slaying Saint Spear, which could unconditionally eliminate someone in exchange for one’s own life, and after successfully eliminating the opponent, no Resurrection Magic or revival artifacts could be used to revive them; only another equal-ranking world-class artifact could succeed in reviving them. Just hearing about its effect made one not want to face it directly.
Even Reiger felt the same way.
What a joke—he sought thrilling skirmishes and battles, not to be bombarded with a nuclear strike. That’s not called a fight, that’s being a target.
Thus, Reiger spoke a casual word to Ainz.
"Then, let me take a look at the artifact first," he said.
Upon hearing this, Ainz didn’t refuse but agreed quite readily.
"You may."
Ainz flipped his hand and suddenly produced an artifact.
The gaze of everyone present was immediately drawn to it.
It was a stone that seemed to have flames burning inside it, completely fiery red in color, emitting red light and heat as though it were a red-hot iron.
"The world-class artifact I’m going to give you is this one," said Ainz as he tossed the fiery red stone towards Reiger.
Reiger caught it effortlessly, noticing that it indeed emitted heat.
"[High-Tier Item Appraisal]."
Reiger cast the magic on the artifact to acquire its detailed information.
The next moment, a message flooded into Reiger’s mind, which he received.
It was indeed a world-class artifact.
In "YGGDRASIL," this artifact was considered an extremely versatile material, with even the NPCs referring to it as the "Wise Man’s Stone" and declaring that there was no more versatile material in the world.
It could be used to inlay into weapons or armor to enhance their grade and power, to modify existing items, and could even be used as the core of a golem.
Its effect in "YGGDRASIL" was such that one could make requests to the game’s operators to create anything one desired.
Its name was the "Caloric Stone".
"So it’s this."
Reiger first paused slightly, then he raised his head to look at Ainz.
"Good grief, so you’re using this World-class item as compensation. No wonder you agreed so readily."
It wasn’t strange for Reiger to say this.
Although the Caloric Stone was an extremely powerful World-class item, as a consumable item, it would disappear after one use, just like "The Twenty".
The difference between the Caloric Stone and "The Twenty" lay in the fact that it was a World-class item that could be obtained repeatedly by synthesizing a large quantity of seven-colored ore of various kinds.
The so-called seven-colored ore referred to seven types of the most precious metals of different colors.
In this world, metals were categorized according to strength and rarity: copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, mountain copper, and adamantite. Adventurer’s tags were made from these metals, and their grades were also determined by the ranking of the metal’s strength and rarity.
In this world, mithril was considered a very precious rare metal; mountain copper was viewed as an even rarer metal, while adamantite was currently recognized as the strongest metal by the natives. Most of the highest grade armor and weapons were made of adamantite, making them extremely valuable.
However, the seven-colored ore was even rarer and stronger than adamantite, regarded as an expensive material even within "YGGDRASIL".
The Caloric Stone was a World-class item synthesized using large quantities of various kinds of seven-colored ores, and one could obtain it repeatedly so long as they knew the method of production.
In the past, "Ainz Ooal Gown" had once synthesized a Caloric Stone by chance and later used it up.
In the previous world, many who had read the original work speculated that the Caloric Stone might have been used on Rubedo, contributing to the creation of Nasalik’s strongest entity.
"Ainz Ooal Gown" had considered synthesizing a second Caloric Stone, but due to the loss of the seven-colored ore’s production area, they never obtained another Caloric Stone again due to the lack of large quantities of various kinds of ores.
Who would have thought that now, Ainz had suddenly produced a Caloric Stone to compensate himself?
"This is a World-class item I obtained after coming to this world," Ainz said with a shrug. "I owe its successful acquisition to Shalltear’s journey to the Slane Theocracy."
Ainz’s remark made Shalltear beside him puff out her chest and glare at Reiger.
Reiger began to understand a little.
"Did Shalltear discover a large quantity of various kinds of seven-colored ores when she attacked the human cities in the Slane Theocracy?"
Is that how Ainz successfully synthesized the second Caloric Stone?
Reiger’s guess was on the mark.
Indeed, Shalltear had stumbled upon a great amount of various seven-colored ores beneath that human city.
Whether those seven-colored ores were deliberately concealed by someone or had naturally formed in that land, the moment Shalltear discovered them, she immediately notified the Great Tomb of Nasalik, drawing Ainz’s grave attention.
Afterward, Ainz sent people to bring those seven-colored ores back, and after some experimentation, they successfully synthesized the Caloric Stone.
"Unfortunately, in order to synthesize the Caloric Stone, all the seven-colored ores brought back were used up. It probably won’t be easy to make a third one," Ainz said with regret.
Yet, the Caloric Stone now turned into the most suitable World-class item to give away as compensation.
Since Ainz knew the method of its synthesis, he could obtain another so long as he had the materials.
As the Great Tomb of Nasalik had already used a Caloric Stone, losing another of the same kind wouldn’t be too painful.
What mattered most was that by using the Caloric Stone as compensation, Ainz would not need to part with any other World-class items that couldn’t be acquired again.
Thus, the World-class item inventory of the Great Tomb of Nasalik effectively remained unchanged, and the loss was minimized - this was the good calculation Ainz made.
"Even though it’s an obtainable type, a World-class item is still a World-class item; I believe it holds value as compensation," Ainz said to Reiger.
"With this, we can consider our grudges settled, right?"
These words made Reiger reveal a noncommittal expression.
"Whether it’s settled or not, that remains under consideration," Reiger said, shifting his tone before Ainz and the others could react, "However, this fight indeed need not continue any further."
In the presence of Ainz and the others, Reiger put the Caloric Stone into the dimensional storage space of his magic cube.
"Click..."
Amidst the slight metallic friction sound, Reiger sheathed his sword, retracting his battle stance.
"This time, we can leave it at this."
"But, I hope you understand that if Nasalik doesn’t change its way of dealing with things, sooner or later, we’re bound to have a second large-scale conflict."
"I hope you can truly do as you said, and stop being so excessive towards humans," Reiger, who said this, completely disregarded the darkening expressions of Ainz and the others as he turned his figure and flew off towards the distance.
"...Open the teleportation gate, let him out," Ainz ordered in a deep voice.
"Yes."
Someone responded to Ainz and went to make the preparations.
Ainz watched Reiger go, the red light in his eye sockets flickered frequently, his thoughts unknown.