Runes

Just as the silence permeated the room, the warrior guarding the entrance came in and informed them that they could enter.

-

Akabaru looked around the room observing each of the dwarfs that sat before him.. the guard left the room at the order of the Commander in chief..

The dwarven council was made up of eight members, all responsible for their chosen field ranging from politics to alcohol.

After the guards had left the commander spoke;

"Could you repeat what you have said to me to the rest?" His stoic persona seemed to have returned.

"Yes of course.. I and my partner Sasha wanted to fiend the runesmiths of the dwarfs that were rumoured to live in the mountains… on our way we encountered a gragoa in fear of something terrifying that was in the capital of the kingdom…" Akabaru continued to repeat his fabricated story, cleaning the holes he had made before as he now had the story in mind.

"So you are saying that a demon lord has taken up residence in the old capital and killed all the dragons?" one of the counsel men wanted to confirm.

"Yes we managed to escape, as he seemed to have been distracted by a simple looking lamp from within the treasury.."

"He opened the treasury?!" The merchant guild master seemed to have experienced a even greater shock than before..

"Yes but he seemed to only want the lamp.." The story that Akabaru wanted to shape was that a newly awaked demon lord took over the capital in search of a powerful artifact possibly moving to other kingdoms for the same purpose.. in the lamp would be a powerful genie that would grant three wishes to whoever held the item… thereby creating a platform for his true form to be unleashed.

"Are their any records of a mysterious lamp that we had in the treasury?" The counsel turned to one another questioning them if they knew of something that a demon would want with a old lamp but they seemed to have no clue..

'if everything works as intended I can push all responsibility to demiurge and explore the world doing it.. how would Ainz get involved..' Akabaru pondered his thought ignoring the rambling of the dwarfs, until..

"But you said you could defeat him?" The commander in chief asked turning the conversation back to Akabaru.

"Well with proper preparations it wouldn't be impossible.. getting some holy gear and with runes will make us unstoppable, right Sasha?" the attention turned to Shalltear who was quit until now.

"Of course Faer-san, I suspect you could defeat him with if you were equipped with the right gear." Shalltear genuinely said as she knew that he could defeat her, so it wouldn't be strange to defeat Demiurge if he had to.

"You do know that, enhancing weapons with runes means that they can't be enchanted with magic right or do you just wish to claim our craft without knowing it?!" The forge master seemed to want to prove himself better and show off his knowledge.

"Of course I know, but the craft of rune smithing could be much greater than normal enchanting.."

"What makes you think that?" The forge master questioned again.

"The tales that brought me here, the ability to prescribe rune after rune until it surpassed any enchantment a mage could put on a sword." Akabaru tried to make them believe in the possibilities.

"Those are just fairy tales.. rune smithing is powerful but not comparable to modern enchantments.." but some were quick to shut it down.

"And yet I have encountered these.." Akabaru showed the dwarven hammer he had taken from the vault inlaid with eight runes..

A surprised look appeared on all the dwarfen faces as the runes looked majestic on the Warhammer, the forge master took a look and confirmed that it was the real deal..

"This Warhammer was made countless years ago.. but it was just a high class item.. nothing worthy of the aww you treat it with… I know of weapons legend to have at least double the amount of runes this one has.." Akabaru revered to the aesthetic choices some of the guild members made to appear as though they had runes.. but motivating some dwarfs was the least it could do..

"Impossible…" the counsel looking in disbelief at the artifact Akabaru had just called a normal high class item..

"Well do we have a agreement..? I will defeat the demon and take back your city and the dwarfen runesmiths work for me.."

"We have to discuss with them and under ourself but the request is not impossible.. we just ask you if you intend to let them live where they want.."

"I will only ask them for their craft.. exclusively through me… I will allow them to work where they want but I would appreciate if the dwarfs would be allowed to choose for themselves.." The counsel looked at one another and nodded.

"We will discuss it for some more time.. but please prepare to fight against the demon.."

"Wonderful.. no before I leave I have a gift to all of you.. nothing special.." Akabaru took out a barrel of strong liquor and some glass mugs, and handed them over.. "Then I will take my leave.." Akabaru left with Shalltear leaving the counsel to enjoy the gift he gave them..

"Should we try it?" "what if it is poison?" two of the counsel spoke their concern out..

"the glass is meticulously made. I wonder how well it tastes in such expensive material.." the merchant guild master was focused on the same but took time to appreciate the glassware they had been given.

The brew master took a glass and filled it with the liquor.. he smelled it for a second and immediately chucked the whole glass.. "Woohoo.. this is some fine quality.." the brew master quickly filled another glass, but was blocked as others got there before him.

..

.

Leaving the hall Akabaru was guided to a empty house where he could rest and prepare.. he originally thought he would be guided to an inn but because of the dwindling population it was just better to get them a house on the edge..

Once in the room he used a scroll to mask the sound and contacted Demiurge to tell him about the plan he had created… his first wish would be for a map that showed him the artefacts that he would name, that setting the stage for future events.. he also asked about the capture of the powerful creatures that had inhabited the mountains.

Apparently he had found some interesting creatures that weren't mentioned in the first account of the dragons, but Demiurge had dealt with them efficiently and taken them to be capture inside of the tomb.

With everything set all he had to do was contact Ainz and discuss their plans.

Akabaru [messaged] Ainz, and he was quick to respond.

"How is the conquest going with Cocytus?" Akabaru wanted to first see how everything was going with the tomb as he had left for some days and hadn't made much contact outside of reporting that he was alive.. leaving everything else to his subordinates to handle.

{"Well he has asked me something that I am not sure off.."} The dry voice of his favourite skeleton could be heard from the spell.

"Well it is your decision.. I just wanted to contact you about Demiurge.. and how he could be used to set up your Momon persona.."

{"How so?"}

"Well I have arrived at the dwarven city and they have agreed to help me… and I have used demiurge to take control of their capital.. that was taken over by dragons, who now are captured inside of the tomb…"

{"When did that happened?"} The confusion was not evident in his voice, but Akabaru noticed that it was there..

"Well I did say that he should deliver his report to you but you could have not received it yet.." Akabaru thought of the task he had given Demiurge and how he had ordered to deliver the news to Ainz..

{"Ohh…."} a silence came trough as if Ainz had remembered something that he was supposed to do..

"I am sure that it will arrive in no time.. anyhow…." Akabaru explained everything that he had explained to demiurge, communicating his role and the possible roles that he could take, maybe as a dead mage from the past who ones ruled those lands or as a dead saint cursed by their god with eternal live..

He seemed quit clear that he just wanted to rule the tomb and be happy so Akabaru didn't push the subject.. he understood that the racial traits of the undead had changed Ainz and that his own had made him more prone to sudden actions and strange thing just because he found them fun..

-

Ainz had cut the call, the report that Akabaru talked about had been delivered to him but he just signed it without really reading it. The troubles of managing the tomb were big, luckily most was taken over by albedo who loved the tomb and wanted the best for all residents.. he did feel bad about changing her setting but that was the past..

His creation, pandora's actor had been put to use as a clone of him so he could manage the tomb more.. the decision was made with heavy pressure from Albedo who taught that wasting Pandora's actor was unacceptable and that he also needed to witness the tomb rise..

Getting his NPC out did get him thinking of Akabaru's NPC, the worst of ero.. he remembered that his personality was the best out of the five, but he hadn't seen him in a while..

Thinking about it he did receive a report of him..

Digging trough his pile of stamped documents Ainz found the one from Suraimu Shokusku, the worst of ero.. in it he found the report of the little guy detailing how he had nothing to do and was hoping he could see his creator when he had time..

It would have brought tears to his eyes if he had some, but alas, a skeleton even of the highest rank only possessed a skull..

-

Blake woke up.. he had been left behind by his owner and was now just guarding the gragoa at the edge of the capital.. his days consisted of him sleeping and eating.. he was brought food by Aura after he had eaten one of the gragoa..

He didn't mind the gragoa who where building something that he thought was useless.. a perfect home would just be a nice cave with some sun that shined through to light it, but after getting accustomed to the big dark cave he was in now he confirmed that it was just as good...

-

Akabaru had prepared everything he needed for his adventure to seem real.. he had gotten some holy water from the temple and had taken his swords to be serviced on by the dwarven craftsmen.

His armour was changed to suit his needs as he thought it would be best to seem well prepared by noticing a big difference in equipment, because if a powerful adventurer only had one good set than he was just good in what the armour helped in.. for example the bleu rose party seemed to wear the same set everywhere they went because they balanced each other out.. the armour they wore was meant to enhance their specialties..

But even they would change weapons and equipment to better suit their needs if they had them.. and that is if, because it seemed as though only the extremely wealthy had multiple sets of high quality armour..

The last things he needed to do was talk to the runesmiths and make arrangements as the dwarven counsel had agreed with some more than others to let him be the exclusive manager of the rune smithing craft, if he defeated the demon and let them recapture their lost capital..