5. Magic

Magic casters, to say in the least, are extremely bothersome. It was a class where you had to plan extensively into the future, is what some Yggdrasil players said.

　Firstly, magic in Yggdrasil had a ridiculously large number of spells that could not be changed or made by the creator tools.

　There were 3000 of them.

　Of course it was impossible to use all of them. They were separated into 4 types.

　Those that call upon god's miracles are the <Clerics> and <Priests>. Placing heavy emphasis on their faith stat, magician—<Wizard> and secret arts user—<Arcaner>.—- Prioritizing on their magic power stat—the Talismancer and the Miko.They placed heavy emphasis on their mental strength stat*. Lastly were those that placed heavy emphasis on other stats.

*TL Note: If you have any ideas for what I should replace this with, please write in the comments below.

ED Note: Instead of emotional strength, how 'bout mental strength? And the (秘術) means secret arts? I'm not sure.

　For each class, different spell lists were available.

　A wizard could use Tier 1 spells of a certain type, and could go up to Tier 2. However, Arcaners could use Tier 1 of this type but could not go up to Tier 2.

G.S: Are Tiers and Ranks different? They use Tier in the LN.

TL: They are the same, I just wrote them differently, so I can change them later.

G.S: Noted~

　This way, when the players level up along with their chosen class, they can choose 3 new spells from the class' spell list. Hence, level 100 players could use 300 different spells.

　However this has been counted as a separate system and the stacking of classes are different from the level of magic one can use. And for that reason level 100 characters who had bad faith series classes and could use only up to the 4th Tier of magic when they could have gotten up to the 6th Tier.

　Simply put, having a level 60 wizard and a level 40 cleric would not let you use the highest 10th Tier magic of the faith series.

　And the most number of spells the highest level—-level 100s could learn was 300.

　Whether this was few or many, magic casters could only accept it. But it was extremely few. At least, when compared to the total number of spells that could be learnt.

　Firstly, in order to learn magic, you must first fulfill the prerequisites. Selected classes, special events, using certain items, etc. And then—-Being able to use the selected magic type.

　Similarly to how one learns a language, you need to learn the prerequisite magic.

　And for that purpose, there were players who devoted 1/3 of their total magic to the prerequisites, and there were players who tended to give up learning as they could not clear the prerequisites.

　In addition, and for those who were becoming specialists, there was a problem about what to choose. It was extremely common that the magic that they wanted to learn was not within their field. It was not rare to die and recreate one's classes. Also there was the tricky problem of handling the stats.

　For example, the magic <Fireball>. Its attribute was considered magic. So, if your magic power was high, you could perhaps deal more damage with it or maybe your range would increase when compared to other high levelled players.

　Let us assume that a player who specialises in the faith series cast <Fireball>. Their spell would not be as strong as other classes which focused on magic power.

　Then what would happen when such a class cast <Fireball>?

　The damage and distance would be inferior to those that focused on magic power.

　This was the decision tormenting the minds of Yggdrasil players.

　If the magic casters were just planning to fulfill a certain objective, then 300 was a sufficiently large number.

　There were magic casters who wanted to just fight monsters—-Many ordinary DMMORPG players chose to specialise in using buffs and attacking.

　Solely dealing damage to the enemy was the way to go. Magic casters were also looking for a way to handle multiple scenarios. If you were hoping to simply destroy strong monsters with overwhelming strength, then you could not do that.

　However due to the overwhelmingly large number of spells that you can learn when compared to normal DMMORPGs, unlike regular DMMORPGs that only have magic for battle, there is magic that can be used for a variety of situations.

　For example, metal detection magic from the lower to the higher tiers existed, it could also refine and purify it. Magic that let you peer into the ground, and magic that let you turn dirt into low ranked metals.

　There was countless transportation magic. Long range transportation with a chance of missing, long range transportation with no chance of missing, transportation which caused a flashy effect for no meaning whatsoever, transportation that swapped the position of two objects, transportation that gathered all the party members. Transportation that brought you to the closest town, short-ranged transportation that could be cast for an unlimited number of times within a certain time period. There were many others.

　Another would be sensory magic, sensing of nearby enemies, detection of enemies who had erased their presence, sensing of the enemies magic casts, knowledge of special items, sensing of opposing magic, there was countless magic that gave you sensory abilities.

　By using one's head to cast the attack magic, there were countless magic that made it easy to change the flow of a battle.

　For that purpose, learning 300 individual magic, if you thought about dangerous situations, you could not feel that it was a lot. In fact, you would feel that it was too few.

　In addition, in order to make the choice of choosing your magic rare, when you levelled up and chose your magic, even though you chose it, you could not cast it that often. Also, there was a large amount of data on the Yggdrasil wiki that was also easy to understand.

　Momonga, thanks to his cash items, had learned 100 more spells. In addition, due to his repeated PKs<Player Killer>, and participating in special events, another 318 more. In total, he had learnt 718 spells.

　Instead of simple destruction spells, he had a specialisation in binding magic and death magic. In addition, he chose a class that matched them, boosting the abilities.

　And for that reason, he would lose to a battle-focused magic caster in terms of damage, and the destruction level was also a problem. Conversely, investigation and searching magic were very important but there were few of those so it could not be compared.

　Momonga slowly pointed his finger towards the scarecrow that was set-up in the middle of the arena.

　Momonga's many death magic spells did not have much of an effect on non-living organisms. A simple explosion spell would be best here.

　He sent a sidelong glance towards Aura.

　Her eyes were sparkling with curiosity.

　On her two sides were huge monsters.

　Their giant bodies over 3 metres tall reminded one of an inverted triangle.

　A skeletal structure that appeared to be the mix of human and dragon, with thick and sinewy meat covered it. Covering that was a set of scales that were harder than steel. In addition, a dragon's face and a tail that made you think of a tree. While it had no wings, it looked similar to a dragon standing upright.

　Dragonkin—-They were monsters with the title [Close relatives of Dragons].

　With arms thicker than a man's torso, and a length that was half of its body—-It was holding a weapon that could have been a sword or a shield.

　Sacrificing her own battle power, she gained the highest position as a Beast Tamer. With her servants, her battle abilities would go up to 2.25 of their original. She had 100 of them.

　And the 2 at her side were cleaners of this amphitheatre.

"Fuu"

　Momonga breathed softly.

　If she was that excited about it, it would be difficult.

　The current goal was to confirm if he could successfully use magic.

　The reason why he let Aura attend this experiment was so that before the other Guardians came, he would let her know that having him as an enemy would be a bad idea. Currently, he did not see any intention of betrayal, if Momonga lost his magic, he was not sure if he could keep their loyalty, he could just not believe it.

　While it seemed that Aura had no such intentions, this was the first time he met an equal. While it was true that her character was created by collecting ideas from everyone in the guild. However, having this intelligent existence, she must have other sides to her apart from what was imputed. Would this side to her would cause her to tire of a weak ruler. If it would not then everything was fine. But if she would try to stand on top of a ruler that showed weakness…

　There was no need to think any further, but it would be a foolish decision to simply trust her.

　Look before you leap. Under this situation, this was Momonga's natural thought process.

TL Note: This translates into "Hitting the Stone Bridge before crossing it".

　Could he actually cast magic, it was important that he alone affirmed the results of that experiment. If he could not cast magic, he had to act casual and ask someone. If he really could not use magic, there was a chance that he simply could not understand how to use it.

　Aura did not know a lot of magic but she could use magic of the highest tier. If there was a problem, maybe he could ask her.

　Temporarily, it was fine even if he could not cast magic.

　As for why, it was because he came to check the power of the staff. Since he came to check the magic item, he had several excuses that he could use.

　Momonga memorised 718 magic spells.

　Which would be the most suitable one here.

　Firstly, area of effect magic could not be used due to friendly fire. If that was the case—-.

　It would be great if it was the same as in Yggdrasil where you clicked icons. But currently there was none, something else had to be done instead. He had a grasp of it.

　The ability was embedded in himself.

　It was the same as isolating your senses and focusing your consciousness. It was like the icon was floating in the air—-.

　Momonga laughed.

　<—-Fireball>

　A ball of fire swelled up from Momonga's finger and was released.

　It hit the scarecrow without a single error. The ball formed by the flamed burst apart upon impact, releasing the heat that was trapped inside.

　The resulting flames licked the surrounding areas of the tomb.

　All of that in a single moment.

　Nothing was left. Only the charcoaled remains of a human scarecrow.

"Fufufufu."

"?"

　Aura sent a strange glance at Momonga who was suppressing a laugh.

"—-Aura. Another scarecrow."

"Ah, yes, right away! Wait, wait."

　The Dragonkin replaced it with another scarecrow. At the same time, he cast his magic.

　<Explode>

　Its top half burst apart and danced in the surroundings. The head that was blown off landed directly on the body of the Dragonkin right next to it.

　The Dragonkin made a faint cry and sent a sharp gaze to Momonga.

　Now that he could cast magic, there was no worries of strong opponents. He was confident that he could one-hit a Dragonkin. Anyway, there was a need to apologise to its owner. Thinking that, Momonga turned to face Aura.

"...Sorry. I should have held back."

"—-Eh? I do not mind if you destroy the scarecrow."

　Without being affected in the slightest seeing magic cast right next to the Dragonkin, Aura did not show any signs of surprise or worry. She waved her hands and became flustered when Momonga apologised.

　The goal of the magic was to test if it affected another target. Was that what she believed? It was like she did not care if the Dragonkin lived or died.

　Anyway, he had confirmed whether he could cast magic. Thus, he could conclude that he had the game abilities he had in Yggdrasil.

　Now he should use a magic to try and contact the GM but he should not get his hopes up.

　Momonga activated another magic.

　<Message>

　The first one he should contact was the GM.

　He heard a sound similar to when he had calls on his phone when he was in Yggdrasil, if he was not in a certain locations, the sound would not be made and the call would be immediately cut.

　This time how should he say it. Putting it in words would be extremely difficult, it was like extending a string of sorts and he felt like he was searching for something. However, that feeling continued and the effect of the magic ended.

　It was expected yet disappointing. Both emotions swam strongly through his head.

　Momonga recast the same magic. His target was not the GM. It was other members of Ainz Ooal Gown.

　However, you could say that so it was like that, or perhaps you could say it was natural. No one answered.

　Momonga breathed softly and stifled his feelings and moved on to the next item.

　It would not be bad to try to contact Sebas, but anyway for now—-.

　Power collected in the staff and was released.

　<Summon Primal Fire Elemental>

　He stabbed the staff forward and formed a large ball of light, in the middle of which held an extraordinary whirlpool of fire. It increased in speed and size with a diameter of 10 metres and a height of 15 metres.

　There was a large blast of purgatory flame and blistering hot winds swirled through the surroundings. The two bodies of the Dragonkin held Aura, guarding her from the hot winds. Momonga's robes fluttered with the heat waves. It would not be weird for heat on this level to cause burns but Momonga had absolute flame resistance and thus it had no effect on him.

　The tornado of flame ate up the atmosphere and grew larger, and released a shine like that of molten iron, and took up a humanoid shape.

　Primal Fire Elemental—-An elemental spirit of the highest class. It was a level 80 monster.

"Uwaa..."

　Aura's voice was filled with admiration and looked up at it.

　In front of the highest class of spirit that he had never summoned before, Momonga had the face of a child that had received a toy that it had always wanted.

"...Do you want to try fighting it?"

"Eh?"

　Aura was bewildered for a moment, and then put on an innocent smile. Maybe it was a bit too much to call her a chi—-No, she was quite warped.

"Is it okay?"

"I do not mind, even if you defeat it it will not be a problem."

　Momonga shrugged his shoulders. The staff was an existence that allowed him to summon this monster once again tomorrow.

"More importantly will it be fine? You are bad with those who use pure power right?"

"Mm. It will be okay. I can make myself immune to fire, I should be able to do something."

　Half listening, Aura began her preparations. She was probably coming up with a strategy in her head.

"...If it is impossible, do not push yourself."

"Yes!"

　A spirited reply. Aura had decided to fight and signaled the two Dragonkin at her side to move away. She was probably going to fight alone.

"Primal Fire Elemental—-" The wavering mass of fire began to move. "Defeat Aura. If you do, stop there. Return."

　The giant of fire made a mass of fire in the shape of a fist and quickly closed the distance between itself and Aura. Aura held her whip with both hands and readied herself for the fight.

　While giving Aura a sidelong glance, Momonga had a thought fluttering around in his mind.

　It was what should I do now.

　The problem was that he had used a bit too much magic. He still had some left but since he was not sure what would happen from her on out, he needed to recover some. If he could, he would like to go to a place where it could recover but...

　Magic had tiers, they were from 1 to 10. And then there was <Over> magic which surpassed that.

　The consumption of MP became extremely important at this tier and was consumed from this tier alone.

　Assume that a magic caster has 100 MP. He could use tier 1 magic 100 times. However, he could only use tier 10 magic not more than 10 times.

　Overlords were another exception.

　Also, there was strengthening magic—-For example, chantless magic, magic strengthening, magic conversion—-If you used these, the MP cost would increase.

　The time it took to completely recover your MP was 6 hours. Basically, if you only used the highest tier, you would soon run out of gas.

　Incidentally, the base MP was the level times 10. And then there were stat bonuses, special achievements, equipment modification and class modifications. Momonga currently had 1980 points. This was mostly due to the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown and the fact that he was a top class magic caster in Yggdrasil. Since most level 100 players have 1300 points, it is simple to understand the magnitude of the capacity.

　In regards to recovering MP, there were no such convenient things as MP recovery potions. The only way to recover it was the passing of time.

　Then how do most solo magic casters save their MP?

　There were scrolls, staffs and wands.

　These all had magic inside of them, scrolls could only be used once, staffs and wands were predetermined—-They were items that allowed magic to be cast until the charges were finished.

　However, the strength and duration of magic was unchangeable.

　Let us say that a Level 10 magic caster used a protection spell which had a duration of 10 minutes, and that a scroll of the same magic was used, the duration—-The effects of such spells would be about half the duration. In this situation, 5 minutes.

　Similar to how the duration was shortened, the effect also weakened.

　It could not go past half but the damage was ¾ of the original.

　There were other items that had limited daily charges but did not consume MP.

　The Primal Fire Elemental that Momonga summoned was a result of such an item, and another example would be the band on his wrist that could cast a certain magic a certain number of times a day. However, these items were expensive and could not be used at a moment's notice.

　And compared to wands and staffs, scrolls were cheaper and were used more commonly.

　In the end, money is spent purchasing items.

　Due to that, most magic casters try to use only their MP. Staffs, wands and scrolls were preserved.

　As a result, and as time still passes when you are logged out, solo magic casters logout when they run out of MP and return the next day to play.

　However, there was no time. Momonga sent his gaze towards the band on his left wrist. There were 20 minutes left until the other Guardians got here. He had until then to investigate. He had no time to replenish his MP.

　—-He had to investigate it later.

　The tests for magic and item activation were over. The remainder was his personal items.

　Momonga owned quite a few scrolls, wands and staffs. He was the type of person that hoarded everything. Even when he was facing the final boss in a video game, he did not use them. It was more miserly than carefulness.

　Just like that, Momonga hoarded his items. In Yggdrasil they were in an Item Box, but now where were they?

　Momonga extended his hand into the air. It was nothing but bone.

　He recalled what happened when he opened the Item Box—-.

　It was like extending his hand into the surface of a lake. The middle of Momonga's hand was swallowed up and disappeared.

　It was like opening a window and Momonga moved his hand in a large sliding motion.

　Countless staffs were lined up neatly. It seemed that this was Yggdrasil's Item Box.

　Moving his hand, he scrolled through the Item Screen-like thing. Staffs, wands, scrolled, weapons, ornaments, gems, potions...There were innumerable magic items located inside.

　Momonga smiled.

　He felt safe.

　Now even if the whole of the Great Underground Tomb became his enemy, he would be able to confirm his own safety.

　While watching the fighting Aura, Momonga recalled all the information he had compiled up til now.

　Firstly, were the NPCs he had met up til now programmes?

　No, they were the same as sentient humans. There was no way that such minute details could be included in the programming. They should be treated the same as humans and not as simple programmes.

　Next was what was this world?

　Unclear. It was reasonable to believe that the existence of magic was similar to that of the game, but he could not believe that it was the same as the game. If that was the case, then a world with magic...It would be reasonable to think of it as another world right?

　Just how should he prepare himself?

　He had confirmed that he could use his Yggdrasil abilities. Therefore, if you thought about the base data, there were no strong enemies that could become a threat to the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. The problem was were there any threats which was outside of Yggdrasil. In any case, if there were stronger people out there—-the gravity of that situation—-He had no other options.

　What should the plan be from now on?

　Data collection. Aspects of this world was still unclear and to put it simply, they were ignorant pilgrims. Carelessness could not be afforded, data collection was of the utmost importance. He had some hopes for the information that Sebas would bring back.

　If this was another world, should he try to return to his original?

　He was not sure. If he had any lingering regrets, he would say a third.

　If he had friends, he should do his best to go back.

　If his parents were alive, he would look for a way until he died or went insane.

　But there was no such thing.

　Going to the company, doing work, returning home to sleep. Until now he had returned home and entered Yggdrasil, making preparations should his friends return, but now even that was gone. Even now, he had not gone for a single day without thoughts about the company.

　Was it worth it to go back to go back to that world?

　But, if he was going back, he would do his best for it. There were not many choices he could make. If the outside world was like hell, the possibility was high.

"What should I do now..."

　Momonga's self-directed words went into the surroundings and disappeared.