Chapter 328: 327 Sudden Intrusion
"YGGDRASIL," this highly versatile game, when its power system was applied to reality, truly felt like it breached some balance.
Not to mention the easily surpassing six thousand types of magic, let’s talk about the up to seven hundred races and two thousand classes. When these races and classes turned into reality, the power they could grant players was absolutely astonishing.
Setting aside the human race with no special talents, demi-humans and monstrous races simply had to reach a certain racial level to gain special abilities inherent to their race.
For example, as a Sovereign of Death, Ainz possessed the following racial special abilities───
Create four high-tier undead per day.
Create twelve mid-tier undead per day.
Create twenty low-tier undead per day.
There were also Negative Touch, Despair Spirit Energy, Negative Protection, Dark Soul, Pitch-Black Light, Undead Blessing, Unclean Protection, Attribute Damage, Pierce Weapon Resistance, Slash Weapon Resistance, High-Tier Knockback Resistance, High-Tier Magic Nullification, Ice Attribute Attack Nullification, Acid Attribute Attack Nullification, Electric Attribute Attack Nullification, Magical Sight Enhancement/See Through.
These were the racial abilities that the race Sovereign of Death could possess upon reaching the max level of 100.
Following that were professional abilities like Instant Death Magic Enhancement, Master Dark Ritual, Undead Spirit Energy, Create Undead, etc.
Next, there were the basic special abilities of being undead, such as Immunity to Deadly Strikes, Mental Manipulation Nullification, No Need for Food, Poison Immunity, Disease Immunity, Sleep Immunity, Paralysis Immunity, Instant Death Immunity, Anti-Necromancy Magic, Physical Penalty Resistance, No Need for Oxygen, Attribute Damage Immunity, Energy Drain Immunity, Negative Energy Regeneration, Night Vision, etc.
Beyond that, Ainz had various other special skills, including but not limited to that terrifying ability to ignore subject-targeted instant death immunity, a skill that could cause instant death to all beings───"Death is the End of All Things."
Plus, with his mastery over seven hundred different magics, just imagine, if all these powers were made real, how disruptive it would be to balance.
You see, in Earth Mistake World, each adventurer could awaken to only three types of magic, and even Rephia and Revilia were only somewhat exempt from this limitation because the magic they awakened to was extremely special, allowing them to use more than three types.
There’s no limit to the number of skills adventurers have, but as far as Rui knew, it appeared that Finn had the most skills—he had five in total, which was one more than him.
Comparing these two situations, it was clear which was more against the rules.
Although, it isn’t necessarily true that having more magic or skills makes one stronger. Some magic and skills could be weak or even entirely useless. But as the saying goes, quantity affects quality. With someone like Ainz, even if he wasn’t fundamentally strong, he could still be stacked into a powerhouse by a multitude of abilities; not to mention he was a max level 100 player and not weak at all himself.
Of course, Ainz also had weaknesses, such as receiving severe damage from positive, light, and holy attribute attacks; his resistance to bludgeoning weapons was also very low, and fire attribute attacks could cause him triple damage as well, which were weaknesses as an undead and a skeleton.
However, the pros outweighed the cons. Compared to the natives of this world and characters from other worlds, Ainz was already greatly advantaged.
Shalltear didn’t possess as many magics, skills, or special abilities as Ainz, but compared to ordinary people, her advantages were still immense.
The racial abilities of being undead were one point; she herself could also use a variety of special skills and magic like the "Unclean Impact Shield" and even the blood orb hovering above her head had its significance.
It could store the blood of victims for various uses, such as drawing out magic power for use— a special skill called "Blood Pool."
All these magics, multitude of skills, and abilities combined to create an existence like Shalltear, who wasn’t the least bit underpowered even against NPCs of Lv.7.
The fact that Shalltear could fight with Rui up to now was proof of that.
The most horrifying fact was that Shalltear was still unequipped.
"YGGDRASIL" contained numerous magical items, including some that could change the rules of the world and were considered prohibited items.
As everyone knows, the difference in strength between game characters equipped with items and those without was night and day.
Shalltear hadn’t yet donned her armaments; she hadn’t equipped the high-tier magical items prepared for her by Supreme Sovereign Ainz Ooal Gown.
If Shalltear had donned those magical items and fully armed herself to confront Rui, the situation would definitely have been different from now.
Rui was well aware of this fact.
Thus, he felt somber about it.
However...
"Disregarding special skills like the ’Unclean Impact Shield,’ not all special skills are necessarily good things."
Rui’s gaze towards Shalltear gradually deepened.
"To think that you forced me to use the ’Unclean Impact Shield’... Damn humans... Damn...!"
Whether it was the humiliation of using a precious trump card against the scornful humans or not, the evil aura, rage, and madness emanating from this Guardian of the Nasalik Underground Tomb grew increasingly wild.
"Unforgivable... absolutely unforgivable...!"
Thus cried Shalltear, who was almost devoid of what was termed rationality.
This was not only due to the provocation Shalltear faced.
In "YGGDRASIL," to balance out certain excessively powerful professions, some professional skills were actually passive penalties.
Shalltear possessed such a penalty-based special skill.
The more blood stained on her, the greater the killing impulse would become; although her combat power greatly increased, the cost was an uncontrollable mental state. This was Shalltear’s penalty-based special skill───"Blood Frenzy."
Now, with the blood orb above Shalltear’s head already accumulating much blood, the provocation by Rui naturally almost pushed her to the brink of loss of control.
"[Summon Minion]!"
In an almost delirious state, Shalltear utilized another special skill.
As the name suggests, it was a skill capable of summoning creatures that obeyed Shalltear.
Once she activated this skill, figures formed from darkness surged around her, crawling out from her shadow and spreading everywhere.
Among these summoning creatures were swarms of bats and beasts resembling dogs and wolves.
They all shared one common feature, their bodies were pitch black, except for their eyes, which glinted with a blood-red light.
"Go, my minions! Bite that human to death!"
Countless summoned creatures charged toward Reiger’s direction at the sound of Shalltear’s frenzied roar.
Meanwhile, Shalltear mysteriously held a gun in her hand.
A peculiarly-shaped, large, syringe-like lance.
"Finally getting serious, are you?"
Reiger squinted his eyes and suddenly smiled.
"Since that’s the case, I guess I should show some real skill as well," he said.
Grasping his blade tighter, Reiger subtly altered his breathing pattern, causing the moonlight gleaming on the blade to gradually fade away.
In its place, a scorching air stream emerged, slowly encircling the blade like condensed flames.
"Full Concentration·Sun Breathing..."
Reiger was about to inhale a large amount of oxygen into his lungs to drastically enhance his strength.
But at that moment, someone surprisingly burst in.
"Hmm?"
"What?"
Reiger and Shalltear immediately sensed the newcomer’s presence, halting their actions simultaneously.
Both turned to the side and then saw a group of people emerging from the undestroyed forest at the edge of the devastated battlefield.
It was a group of humans, each clad in a variety of different armors.
They were few in number, certainly fewer than the creatures Shalltear had summoned.
However, they were all in complete armor, which was obviously of high quality, so much so that even from a distance, Reiger and Shalltear could vaguely feel the magic power flowing through them.
Especially the leader of the group.
This person wore male equipment yet appeared remarkably androgynous, creating an ambiguous impression of their gender.
They were not tall and appeared quite young, with black hair that almost touched the ground and sharp red eyes that first fixed on Reiger with a look of surprise before turning toward Shalltear, where surprise turned into solemnity and hostility.
The person also held a spear in their hand, oddly mismatching with their attire, yet that spear seemed exceptional as well, certainly no less than the so-called Four Great Treasures of the Re·Yestijie Kingdom.
Upon seeing this group, Reiger and Shalltear reacted very differently.
"So, the other group that entered this forest was them, huh?" Reiger realized with an epiphany.
Shalltear was initially surprised by these people’s armor, then seemed to sense a threat from the young leader, directing her focus toward them.
"Don’t interfere!"
Shalltear glared at the group with bloodshot eyes and cast a spell.
"[Full-Species Binding]!"
This was a binding magic affecting all species, capable of impacting multiple beings.
Shalltear cast the spell towards the group led by the young person.
However, the armor on those people seemed to react to Shalltear’s spell, lighting up successively and successfully blocking her magic.
"Don’t let her escape," the youth commanded coldly.
"Use it on her."
As soon as the words were said, an old woman dressed in an incongruously styled cheongsam stepped out from behind the youth.