Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 8

In the desolate expanse of the Katze Plains, a lone table stood. It was seemingly crafted from a single piece of obsidian, and upon it was placed a multitude of magical weapons. If an Adventurer, Worker or Imperial Legionnaire had come across it on one of their many patrols to suppress the Undead in the area, their eyes would have lit up in irresistible greed over the priceless trove. The only ones currently in the vicinity of the table, however, were Ainz, Shalltear and Baroness Zahradnik.

The weapons Ainz had ordered crafted did not have Quickswap crystals added to them, so it grew bothersome taking them in and out of his inventory by hand. Annoyed, he cast Create Greater Item to conjure the table and organized everything upon it before continuing with their investigation.

So far, the elemental damage tests had not produced any unexpected results. Like many Undead, the Baroness was immune to cold. Various debilitating conditions that stemmed from necromantic effects did not work on her. She did not have any additional resistance or weakness against bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage. She had no improved defences against ranged attacks and took regular damage against non-elemental energy attacks.

With all of the things Ainz considered ‘safe’ to test out of the way, he moved on to the damage types that were generally seen as being effective against the Undead.

“When confronted with an opponent that possesses regeneration,” he said, “a prepared combatant will seek ways to disable it. How much do you know about this, Zahradnik-dono?”

“Trolls can appear on the frontier,” she replied, “so everyone is taught that fire and acid damage will interfere with their ability to regenerate for a time. I know that certain Fiends and elemental creatures possess regeneration, as do Vampires. That is as far as my knowledge goes, however – I’m not sure how to stop the regeneration of those others that I mentioned.”

In this respect, she seemed about as ignorant as most of the local population. Trolls were well-known for their regeneration and everyone knew what was needed to stop it.

“Elemental creatures are fairly straightforward,” he told her. “Damaging them with their opposing element or separating them from a source of their element will halt their regeneration. For instance, removing a Fire Mephit from the lava or fire they have placed themselves in will keep them from regenerating. Fiends that regenerate will generally be hampered by the materials that can damage them, so if you have a weapon that bypasses their damage reduction it will also stop their regeneration. As for Vampires…”

“Holy Water is the go-to answer for Undead regeneration. The next set of tests will use forms of damage that Undead are commonly vulnerable to. Are you ready to begin?”

The Baroness frowned down at the vial. He couldn’t blame her – even if one was Undead, one naturally still did not like taking damage. Ainz unstoppered the vial, and the noblewoman held out her hand.

Hmm…she’s around Level 15, so even if she takes double damage it should only be about a quarter of her health at most.

He carefully tipped the vial over, emptying its contents. The Holy Water pooled in the Baroness’ outstretched palm.

Eh?

Several seconds passed, but nothing happened. There should have been an acid-like reaction when Holy Water came into contact with the Undead. He double-checked her health – which hadn’t moved – then turned to look at Shalltear, who shook her head in response.

“Do you feel anything, Zahradnik-dono?”

“My hand is wet.”

The corner of her lip twitched. After a moment, a pleased expression filled the noblewoman’s face. She raised the Holy Water to her lips and took a sip.

“Ridiculous,” Shalltear said.

Unable to tell what the Baroness was thinking, Ainz could only imagine that she was gloating in some way.

An Undead being that’s immune to holy damage? Or possibly…

He walked over to the table, picking up a sword that blazed with radiant light. Seeing that he would be interacting with Paladins from the Holy Kingdom, he felt that the holy blade would be the most prominent in their eyes. Several rune-like letters were etched onto the blade, and Ainz was quite proud of what he had come up with.

The Baroness stared at the weapon as he returned to her. Ainz grinned, holding out the blade.

“What do you think?” He asked.

“It’s like a legendary blade from the tales of heroes,” she answered. “But won’t all that light turn the wielder into a target?”

“Perhaps,” he smirked, “but wouldn’t it also be seen as a beacon of hope?”

Despite what he thought would be an inspiring notion, Baroness Zahradnik’s dubious look remained. He held the weapon out towards her. Without the relevant proficiency, he could not wield it.

“Cut yourself with this blade,” Ainz told the Baroness. “Make sure it’s a light cut, just in case.”

She reached out to grasp the hilt of the weapon, holding it over her free hand. As she drew the edge over her palm, she released the weapon with a cry. Blood dripped from a long gash, but it closed shortly afterwards.

“So you are not affected by Holy Water, but holy damage still works fine…”

“I…why?”

Baroness Zahradnik’s voice was a mix of confusion and horror. Ainz looked down to see her eyes brimming with tears. He examined the sword on the ground, wondering if he had accidentally used the wrong data crystals.

“Did she take extra damage from that?” He asked.

“It didn’t look that way, Ainz-sama,” Shalltear answered.

“But why did I take damage at all?” The Baroness’ voice was distraught.

“Huh?”

“It’s holy damage, isn’t it? Does…does that mean that I am no longer acceptable in the eyes of the gods?”

No wonder she looked happy when the Holy Water didn’t do anything to her – she thought that her gods still favoured her. Aren’t I supposed to be some sort of god to her, too? Why would I express my disapproval in such a roundabout way?

That she could be otherwise rational and level-headed was a strange notion to him. In his mind, religious people tended to be arbitrary, zealous, and prone to both illogical and extreme actions.

“Unless it’s an attack with specific conditions attached to it,” he told her. “Holy damage is simply another element type. Have you not seen a Human struck by a holy damage spell?”

The Baroness shook her head. That was probably to be expected: Human divine casters usually didn’t run around nuking other Humans with holy damage spells in this world.

“Well, to be clear, Humans take full damage from holy element attacks. Between your current Undead existence and your former Human self, you are not taking any more or less.

“…really?”

“Really.”

She wiped her eyes, blushing in embarrassment. Ainz returned the holy damage weapon to the table, considering what they had discovered so far.

Damage Reduction, Regeneration, Immunity to cold and lightning, Turn Immunity, normal damage from holy, unaffected by Holy Water…

“Kukuku…”

“Does something amuse you, Ainz-sama?”

“I believe I’ve figured it out.”

“As expected of the Supreme One! What is she?”

As suggested by her Turn immunity, she had become something that was very annoying. It was to the degree that Ainz became annoyed thinking back to fighting them in Yggdrasil. Except she was on their side, which probably turned it into a massive plus.

“Shalltear, do you have Peroroncino’s Encyclopedia on hand?”

“Always.”

She reached into her inventory and produced the thick tome, looking up at him expectantly.

“First of all,” Ainz said, “I’d like to see your guess as to what Baroness Zahradnik is.”

Shalltear opened the book, reverently leafing through the pages. About two thirds of the way through, she showed a page to him.

“Hoh…how long ago did you settle on this one?”

“As soon as I discovered she had become Undead.”

“Is there any particular reason? It doesn’t seem like you had enough clues to come to this conclusion.”

“I thought it was just like her to become something like this.”

The crimson points of Ainz’s eyes moved back and forth as he read the entry. Since Peroroncino had deleted his notes from the encyclopedia, all that was left was the basic lore and flavour text that was added when one encountered a new mob. If his notes had still been there, Ainz imagined it would be full of curses and frustration.

Rather than systematically determining the Baroness’ mechanical traits to narrow down the possibilities, Shalltear had used the mob’s flavour text and associated lore to accurately determine her race.

To his surprise, as he finished reading through the basic information, Ainz found additional notes written down in elegant cursive.

“Hm? I thought all of the manual entries in this Encyclopedia had been deleted.”

“Ah,” Shalltear piped up, “those are mine, arinsu. Since Peroroncino-sama once filled this Encyclopedia, I thought I would try and restore some of his work.”

Ainz looked up to the glittering stars above, the waves of emotion that rose with Shalltear’s reply suppressed.

Peroroncino-san, it looks like your daughter is following in your footsteps in more ways than one…

He continued staring up at the sky, cloaked in bittersweet thoughts. That was until it occurred to him just what most of Peroroncino’s notes were probably about, and why he had deleted them.

“How come you didn’t share your suspicions with her?” He asked.

“I-it was just a guess, arinsu,” Shalltear answered. “She’s one of my vassals, so I didn’t want to accidentally mislead her.”

“Hmph. I see that you have cultivated your prudence,” he rested a bony hand on her head. “You’ve done well, Shalltear.”

Shalltear’s eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open. After a moment, her expression of surprise transformed into a radiant smile.

“T-thank you very much, Ainz-sama!”

He chuckled softly at her joyful response. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw that the Baroness was smiling as well. It wasn’t the smile that nobles would so often wear as a mask, but one of genuine warmth over the happiness of someone that she cared for. If Peroroncino was around, he might have said something along the lines of her affection meter being maxed out, then go on to make all sorts of depraved speculations.

After several moments, he lowered his hand and turned back to the table.

“Let’s finish up here, shall we? We’ll be confirming what I suspect that you are.”

Ainz reached over to pull a staff from the table. Greenish acid roiled along its length, yet the droplets that dripped from it disappeared before hitting the ground no matter the distance. The Baroness dutifully held out her hand.

“You should be immune to this…” Ainz said before he touched her with the staff, “…and it appears that you are.”

He went through several other elements, finding that she had no resistance against or weakness to any of them. Nodding at the expected results, he took the final weapon in hand.

“This last one,” he told her, “you will not enj–”

Even before he finished speaking, the Baroness’ expression turned wary. She stepped back as he presented the flaming weapon.

“…have you perhaps already taken fire damage?” He asked.

“No, Your Majesty,” she answered. “I moved before I realized it. Now that I think about it, I’ve been more cautious than usual around open flames since I changed.”

An instinct? When it came to his Spells, Skills and Abilities, Ainz had discovered that he ‘instinctually’ knew how to use them. He didn’t feel any of the strong wariness that the Baroness displayed over his own weaknesses unless he actively thought about them, however. Was this yet another difference between beings from Yggdrasil and those from this world?

“Shalltear, prepare to heal her just in case there’s more damage than expected. This should disable her regeneration, as well.”

“By your command, Ainz-sama.”

He brought the club down to touch the Baroness’ wrist, and her arm exploded into flame. Ainz winced as her wails rose into the night sky. The fire engulfed her head and torso, and the odour of burning flesh filled the air. His Life Essence spell displayed the loss of a quarter of her health, but her anguished reaction made it seem like so much more.

When the flames receded, her skin was charred and blistered; flakes of carbonized flesh fell to expose muscle, bone and organs. She raised the hand that Ainz had struck with the flaming club in front of her, and her one unruined eye widened in horror. With blackened, half-skeletal fingers, she gingerly touched her face, then turned away from him.

A twinge of guilt ran through him as he watched her shuddering shoulders.

“Shall I heal her?” Shalltear asked.

“No,” he answered. “Her health is stable, so we should find out how long it takes for her Regeneration to return.”

About a dozen seconds after the flames had receded, her health started to tick up again. The Baroness watched in wonderment as flesh was restored over bone and only unblemished skin remained. A half-minute later, she turned back to face them, fully recovered.

Her regeneration is a bit over half that of a Vampire? And that reaction…

Ainz thought about offering an apology for her suffering, but decided that it was better to offer some advice instead.

“As you’ve already noted,” he told her, “pain to the Undead is not like pain as a Human. Reacting in line with your notions of pain will not stop your enemies from striking you down. As one of the Undead, you can fight through debilitating injuries and crippling agony – your mind will remain clear if you do not allow it to become clouded, and your ability to make decisions and act is not affected. It takes roughly twelve seconds for your regeneration to kick in again, but any additional fire damage that you receive will reset that counter. You must buy time to recover, use some method to heal yourself or destroy your enemy before they destroy you.”

He abruptly prodded her with the club again, lighting her aflame. This time, she stood her ground and did not cry out. She did, however, turn away until she regenerated to full again.

“Much better,” Ainz nodded. “Even being damaged like this is an opportunity for the Undead, Zahradnik-dono. The experienced and overconfident will frequently believe that inflicting this sort of damage will elicit a reaction like your first. This will create openings that are often fatal.”

“I understand, Your Majesty.” She replied, “Still…would using fire resistance items help?”

“Umu. Customizing equipment for fire resistance is one way to prevent your weaknesses from being exploited, but know that even the slightest amount of fire damage that manages to get through will disable your regeneration. There also exist classes and spells that can bypass resistances to varying degrees, and an opponent that possesses these is essentially your nemesis. In addition, relying entirely on equipment would be foolish – there is nothing that stops you from stocking up on preventative consumables and recovery items at the same time.”

Baroness lowered her head.

“Thank you for your instruction. I am ready to continue.”

“We’ve covered about as much as we can by casting spells and poking you with various weapons,” he told her. “I’m fairly certain of what you are now, so all that’s left is to explore any new Skills and Abilities that might have manifested with your Racial Class Levels. Since nothing notable has appeared during all of this testing, it seems safe enough to continue deeper into the plains. It’s high time we begin our adventure in earnest!”

“…adventure?”

“Were you told otherwise?”

“Not exactly, Your Majesty. Lady Shalltear mentioned something about your desire to explore the Katze Plains.”

“Then you disapprove?”

Ainz leaned forward slightly. The Baroness blushed and hurriedly looked away.

“I-it’s not my place to say.”

“Do you believe that kings, nobles and others in positions of authority never become curious over anything?”

“Of course not, Your Majesty,” she replied. “It’s just that kings, nobles and those with wealth and authority usually hire others to investigate things for them.”

“So Adventurers, Workers and such.”

“I wouldn’t hire Workers, but the Adventurer Guild does train for their expeditions in my demesne.”

Ainz drew himself up, crossing his arms as he spoke.

“Well, I do not believe that the Adventurer Guild is suited for an expedition of this nature,” he told her. “Besides, there is no greater Adventurer in this land than Ainz Ooal Gown!”

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