Chapter 2 The Two Set Off
1
It had been two days since Suzuki Satoru met Keno Fasris Invern.
Suzuki Satoru had spent this time on exploring the divergences between his knowledge and abilities and this world, as well as verifying the abilities of the items he carried.
After making ample preparations one morning, the two of them arrived at the vicinity of the royal castle.
After taking shelter behind the walls of an abandoned house — it looked to have once been an opulent home belonging to some noble or other — they poked their heads out from time to time to observe the situation inside the castle.
The undead possessed [Dark Vision]. Therefore, when both the infiltrators and watchmen were undead, the night was the ally of neither side. However, certain undead — like Vampires, for instance — were weakened by sunlight, which would diminish their abilities.
If the undead being occupying the castle that they were hunting was an Overlord, then it would not be penalized by sunlight, but the same could not be said for its minions. With that in mind, they had chosen to launch their attack during the day.
The castle had not changed from when they had scouted it out yesterday. While it might still be trapped, one could not do anything when one was afraid of everything,
“Are we really going to enter from the front?”
That’s the fifth time you’ve asked that, Suzuki Satoru thought, and then he answered her.
“That’s the first step. Well, we’ll probably be spotted. However, what the opposition does at that point will be crucial. While we’ll change up our own actions at that point to match our alerted opposition in the castle, it would be best to pinpoint the location of the enemy mastermind the first time around and launch an ambush to eliminate him quickly. After all, the chances of failure grow the more time passes between the first scouting and wiping out the enemy leader.”
Keno knew Suzuki Satoru could use tenth-tier spells and apparently she had assumed that he would strike down his foe from the outside with some powerful spell. However, such a thing was impossible, especially if the enemy was on Suzuki Satoru’s level. It would not fall to a single spell.
After that, once the master of the castle knew there was an assassin coming for him, he would probably heighten his guard. In that case, it would be very hard for Suzuki Satoru, who lacked thief skills, to infiltrate by himself.
Suzuki Satoru glanced at Keno.
She was equipped with various items she had borrowed from Suzuki Satoru. The most eye-catching example was a gauntlet that had large gems set into the back of its hand.
It was a superior piece of workmanship called the Gauntlet of Primary Colors.
It was imbued with three spells: [Body of Effulgent Beryl], which reduced bludgeoning damage, [Body of Effulgent Heliodor], which reduced slashing damage and [Body of Effulgent Aquamarine], which reduced piercing damage. Thus it could be said that it lessened all physical damage taken by the wearer. Normally speaking, these three spells would overwrite each other when cast and so they would not be able to coexist, but this gauntlet stood as an exception to that rule. In addition, each spell could completely negate one instance of the damage they resisted, and this item also retained that ability.
However, this item was not as handy as it sounded.
The item would break if any of the negation abilities were used. Still, if that was all, one might still consider gathering a large amount of them and using them as disposable items. However, it also bore the extreme drawback of not being able to equip any other items to that item slot within four hours of it breaking. In addition, the activation of those abilities was not up to the wearer; rather, it would automatically activate if a certain amount of damage was taken. Frankly speaking, it would be considered a trash item by Players of Suzuki Satoru’s level, and so he had around ten of them in his inventory.
There were probably at least twice that amount in Nazarick’s Treasury.
He sighed as he thought about Nazarick. If only he had the various items in there, he would have more options to choose from and be able to adopt a more spell-heavy strategy.
Pathetic…
The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had vanished when the game ended. All that remained was the legacy of the guild, the character Momonga, the Ring, and this Staff.
“Now then,” Suzuki said, and after regaining his spirits, he cast [Summon Undead – 1st] to conjure an Animal Zombie, specifically a Dog Zombie.
Zombies moved slowly, and the Zombies of this city looked different from the Zombies that Suzuki Satoru had created. While he could not do it in Yggdrasil, it was not impossible to disguise them with clothes. However, in the end he had still chosen a Dog Zombie for its speed.
After that, he cast [Undeath Slave Sight].
This way, Suzuki Satoru could see what the Dog Zombie could see.
Wraiths were incorporeal and could pass through walls. They were thus suitable for infiltration, but he could not use [Undeath Slave Sight] with them. Suzuki Satoru knew that it had been possible once, but it had been patched out at some point. Perhaps the patch might not have applied to this world, so he tested it out, but in the end it did not work after all.
It would probably be best to consider that all of Suzuki Satoru’s abilities were operating under the rules of the latest patches.
In that case, what would happen if Keno used [Undeath Slave Sight]? While the question had crossed his mind, he could not test it out because she could not cast spells of that tier. However, the magic of Yggdrasil and this world were quite similar, so perhaps she would be using the post-patch version of the spell as well. What on earth is with this world?
He could not believe that this was just a game world, no matter how he tried. However, neither could he believe that Suzuki Satoru had met with some accident in the real world and this was a dream he was seeing in the moment before his death.
It might be better to say he had been transported to another world — or reborn into it. Perhaps such an explanation might be closer to the truth.
Well, I don’t have the time to be thinking about questions like this now, do I? If my opponent is on the level of an Overlord, then distraction might mean death for me. I need to utterly destroy him and leave him nowhere to run.
Finally, he had given it a cash item to hold in its mouth.
It was called the Exchange Puppet.
Both the distance that Suzuki Satoru had come and the fact that Keno was here had been carefully calculated with this item in mind. If he could not use this item, then there would have been no need to bring Keno at all.
With that, his preparations were complete.
He gave a mental command of “「Go」” and the Dog Zombie walked forward.
Personally, he would have preferred it to run, but he had checked and confirmed that the Dog Zombies within the city did not run. For that reason, having it run would be very suspicious, and so he had ordered it to walk instead.
It leaped over a ruined portion of the castle wall and walked straight through the castle gate.
Suzuki Satoru had thought that undead minions would have shown up. He felt slightly disappointed when there were none.
According to Keno, the undead creature that had taken over the castle had not brought any minions with it when she had first seen it. However, a long time had passed since it had taken the castle, and so he should have gathered several minions to itself, most likely undead ones.
Well, I guess I’m lucky that there aren’t any… although I can’t be sure that there really aren’t any.
[Undeath Slave Sight] took effect through the vision of the Dog Zombie. Therefore, Suzuki Satoru’s ability to see through invisibility effects would not work. Thus, it was possible that there might be invisible undead around. However, he would not be able to do anything if he kept cowering from everything.
Suzuki Satoru had the Dog Zombie enter the castle. He had already learned from external observation that there were Zombies wandering throughout the castle. Since they had been protected from the weather, those Zombies were better dressed than others, allowing others to see that they were people working within the castle.
These Zombies did not show any hostility to the Dog Zombie, much like how they had treated Suzuki Satoru when he had first arrived in this world. In other words, they were not under the control of the mysterious undead being within this castle.
Still, even if they had the same abilities at Suzuki Satoru, surely they would not employ their limited-use abilities on a mere Dog Zombie.
“…Zombies, then. No, only Zombies.”
“Yes. There are Zombies inside the castle — everyone inside the castle who turned into a Zombie.”
In other words, he could not consider them as defensive forces.
As the Dog Zombie continued forward, Suzuki Satoru began to feel baffled.
There should have been high-tier undead here, standing watch over the entrance and passages. But as he had expected, there were none.
There’s an upper limit to the levels’ worth of undead that one can control. That should still be the same even in this world, so it’s possible that he might have placed powerful undead creatures by his side. Speaking of which… shouldn’t he have at least positioned one such creature near the castle’s entrance?
He continued advancing the Dog Zombie through the castle.
It carried on as though its surroundings were totally devoid of people, although there were Zombies wandering all over the place.
Suzuki Satoru gradually began to feel uneasy.
Things should not have gone this smoothly. He began wondering if this was a trap.
According to Punitto Moe-san’s “PKing For Dummies,” right now I should back off and assess the situation, right? However, that assumes the enemy is on the same level as me and has PK experience. Is it possible that he might not have such experience, which is why his defenses are full of holes and he seems to lack any sense of caution?
The Dog Zombie continued past the Zombies wandering inside the castle, as laid out in the infiltration plan. Its wobbly gait from just now was calculated to make the opposition think this was an ordinary Dog Zombie that had accidentally stumbled in.
That said, I don’t think it’s going to be of any use. Still, most unintelligent undead — the controlled kind, who only know how to obey simple orders — probably won’t notice or run off to tell their master.
Yesterday, he had asked Keno, “If you had to position sentries, where would you put them?” and the Dog Zombie was following the path she believed to be safest. It ended at Keno’s father’s room — the biggest and most luxurious room in the castle. If there was an enemy leader, it would most likely be found there.
Fortunately, the floor and ceiling had not collapsed from decay, and the Dog Zombie soon neared its destination. If the enemy had deployed a wide-area [Delay Teleportation] effect, then all his plans would go up in smoke; therefore he had also factored in the maximum radius of such an effect.
“We’re going into close contact after this. Use the crystal in an emergency.”
“Understood — I’m counting on you, Satoru-sama.”
He memorized the scenery that the Dog Zombie had seen, and then had it back off. Suzuki Satoru could still switch places with it by using its cash item if he felt he was in danger, so he sincerely hoped that it could successfully escape. He then began to buff himself.
He could not forget to cast [See Through] on himself. There was a limit to the powers of a Dog Zombie’s vision. There might really have been an invisible undead being along the way, and there was no telling if it was trailing behind the Dog Zombie. Such caution was well-warranted.
And then there was the most important thing — [Perfect Unknowable].
There was no need to change out his equipment. He had already kitted himself out to face a necromancer before coming here.
In the moment that Suzuki Satoru cast [Greater Teleportation], he was taken to his memorized location.
He looked around to see if there were any undead creatures that the Dog Zombie had missed.
—There were none.
He could not be relieved just yet. What took its place was a tension born of fear that filled his bony body.
The idea that he was in the heart of the enemy territory made his nonexistent heart pound, However, that anxiety did not make him stiffen up, probably because he was undead.
He advanced without a sound, using flight to ensure he did not touch the ground.
Slowly, he approached the king’s chamber.
He was almost there. Just then, the door suddenly opened, and he could see an undead creature beyond it.
Suzuki Satoru’s face turned gray.
This was one of the worst-case scenarios.
It was an encounter.
The appearance and equipment of the undead being he saw looked very similar to what Keno had described.
Seeing the undead being that looked like an Overlord did not make Suzuki Satoru feel like his chance had come. Rather, it felt more like danger approaching. The words “fall back” came to mind, but the plan had always been to conduct a reconnaissance in force; how could he leave without seeing a single one of the opposition’s trump cards?
Negotiating with his opposition had never been an option from the start.
Therefore, Suzuki Satoru cast his spell, like a killer from the darkness.
“[Triplet Maximize Magic – Reality Slash].”
He opened with his most damaging spell. This was a good move that allowed him to disregard his opponent’s resistances. However, it would not allow him to gain much information. That said, he did not care much about finding his opponent’s resistances and he did not have the time to use [Time Stop] and similar spells to discern his weaknesses.
The spell, known as the most damaging of tenth-tier spells, struck the undead being, who wobbled.
Suzuki Satoru immediately considered his next move.
I can’t take out an Overlord in one hit. Then what about repeating the same spell? No, the enemy might teleport away and come back with reinforcements. Then should I block his teleportation? [Perfect Unknowable] was dispelled when I attacked, should I recast it and then make my escape? Come to think of it, why did he show himself alone in front of an intruder who could make it this far into a powerful undead being’s territory? Where are his minions? Is he taking me lightly?
As his mind raced, inspiration suddenly struck Suzuki Satoru.
It was all a trap, designed to create an opportunity where Suzuki Satoru would leave Keno’s side.
“Tch!”
Suzuki Satoru could not help exclaiming as the anxiety got to him.
That was very likely.
And then the undead being which lay flat on the ground crumbled to nothing, as though a long time had passed for it, leaving only its gear to roll along the ground. Among them was an important item that Keno had mentioned — a crystal wand.
“Is, is it dead?”
Impossible! Suzuki Satoru thought. That single attack could not have beaten an Overlord.
Could it be an illusion?
Suzuki Satoru immediately ruled out that notion. Anything short of special illusions or specialized class skills were useless against undead beings like himself. Therefore, it was most likely not an illusion.
No, wait, could this be something unique to this world, an illusion-specialized Overlord? Something which doesn’t exist in Yggdrasil? If we go by the basic principle of losing something to gain something else, then is it possible that it lost the ability to dominate other undead as a price for its abilities? It’s not impossible, right?
Of course, Suzuki Satoru had also harbored doubts that, “Keno had overestimated the opposition’s strength and they were actually very weak.” However, any losses caused by overestimating the opposition ought to be lighter than the losses incurred by underestimating them.
It would just be a joke if the former was the case, but things would not be that simple if it were the latter. Therefore, Suzuki Satoru rejected the possibility that he had overestimated his foe.
Given the present circumstances, that left only one answer.
“It’s a trap!”
What was the objective of this trap?
Why had the enemy given his double imitation gear? Had it really come out of the room by accident? If that was not the case, then he ought to assume that the opposition was already aware of his plans.
Did word get out? Then this might be a trap targeted at me or Keno — or even both of us!
If the trap was only intended to catch Suzuki Satoru, then this was a place that could seal his doom, and the danger would only grow the longer he remained.
But what if Keno was their target? Or both of them?
Looking around, he saw no sign that the enemy was launching an attack.
Erk!
It was most likely that this trap was aimed at Keno. After all, Suzuki Satoru had only just appeared several days ago.
—No! Wait! Could it be that this undead summoned me to this world? But — could this be possible? Normally speaking, this would be a trap for Keno.
Or perhaps there was some secret to this castle and so he was looking for Keno, who was its key. Perhaps he had been observing everything Suzuki Satoru and Keno had been doing, just as Suzuki Satoru had been observing the opposition. The enemy was probably waiting for his chance to separate Keno from her trump card, Suzuki Satoru.
It’s possible!
After considering that it was very likely it was all a trap, Suzuki Satoru heartily congratulated his enemy.
He had probably been in the palm of his opponent’s hand all this time.
If he went to look for Keno now, it was very likely that he would be walking into a lethal ambush by his enemy’s main forces that had been laid beforehand. Suzuki Satoru — no, Punitto Moe would have done such a thing.
If it was him doing it, he would probably use Keno as a hostage to negotiate with his enemy.
This would be killing two birds with one stone.
Right now, the best course of action for Suzuki Satoru would be to teleport somewhere safe. After that, if Keno were captured by the enemy, he would find some way to rescue her. If there truly was no way to do so, then that would be farewell for her.
From the opposition’s point of view, not killing Suzuki Satoru here was because he was wary of him. If Suzuki Satoru fled right now with his tail between his legs, he would probably not give chase. All would be fine as long as they did not gain anything from Keno.
“Tch.”
Suzuki Satoru clicked his tongue and looked outside, then decided to teleport into the air.
His field of vision suddenly shifted, like it had when he had invaded the castle. It would seem there were no teleport-blocking measures in place. The worstcase scenario, the one that Suzuki Satoru wanted to avoid, was if he could teleport into the castle but not leave the same way.
While one could not teleport into or out of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, there were many dungeons in the game that prohibited escape by teleportation.
Looking down from the air, the outer walls of the noble estate where Keno was hiding were plainly visible to him. Using his improved eyesight after becoming Momonga, he could tell with certainty that there had been no changes from before his intrusion. However closely he looked, he could not see any enemies around Keno.
Is he… using Keno as bait? I see. His plan is probably to wait till I take the bait and seize us both together. Well-played.
Suzuki Satoru smiled.
It was the smile of one who had completely seen through his opponent’s plans. Suzuki Satoru cast [Perfect Unknowable] and looked down from the sky.
There’ll be a good chance to save Keno when the enemy notices me in the air and moves into action on the ground.
Suzuki Satoru observed Keno from the air, in the hopes of divining his adversary’s intentions.
And so, three minutes passed.
He heard nothing, besides the wind blowing through the air. Nothing flew over at him, and certainly nothing attacked Keno.
What, what’s this? Why isn’t the enemy doing anything?! Could it be — he’s waiting for me to make a move, and then respond to it?
“Dammit! You’re pretty good!” Suzuki Satoru muttered to himself.
The opposition’s pretty smart. They know we don’t want to die too. In that case —
I’ll do this.
Suzuki Satoru decided to make a move and change the situation.
He would contact Keno with [Message] and then change the location of the battlefield.
“Keno, it’s me, Satoru. I’m watching you from the air. Your present location is now very dangerous. Head to the hiding place in the sewers right away.”
“「You’re lying!」”
And with that, the [Message] was cut off.
“What?!”
What was the meaning of that? The undead Suzuki Satoru panicked at Keno’s wholly incomprehensible reaction.
The [Message] was a lie? …Don’t tell me Keno’s already been hit by an enemy spell? But she’s undead, right? She shouldn’t be subject to mind-affecting effects. No, that’s just my Yggdrasil knowledge. Are the undead in this world vulnerable to mental effects too? I don’t get it! Was Keno in league with the enemy all along? But she was the one who found the hiding place, don’t tell me that was the enemy’s doing too… what should I do?
The PK handbook did not mention situations like this, and Suzuki Satoru had no prior information to fall back on.
Should I just forget about everything and run? Suzuki Satoru thought. He had observed Keno’s surroundings from the air for a full seven minutes and nothing had changed.
Having grown tired of listening to the wind, Suzuki Satoru spoke quietly.
“…There’s no signs of movement at all.”
The pointless wait had banished the excitement of being involved in a life-ordeath battle.
No, this is also an enemy trap. Time means nothing to we who are undead… that said, waiting is hard to bear, but it’s no big deal. The enemy must be waiting for me to get anxious and rush out!
A voice in his heart said, “That’s probably the case,” and Suzuki Satoru abandoned his plans to flee. Instead, he continued waiting.
—Ten minutes had passed.
…This is strange. Something is definitely not right. Anyway, I’ll start by getting the Dog Zombie… ah. That would mean the Dog Zombie with the cash item would disappear… I wouldn’t be able to find the item either. Urgh… He could not have it deliver something to Keno either.
He could not summon or create undead.
I need to consider the possibility that the opposition might have avoided us and entered the sewer, then stationed fairly powerful undead there. If I wipe out those undead now, then I’ll need to worry about being ambushed by the enemy in the sewers while retreating.
As he thought that, he shifted his attention to the Dog Zombie he had summoned with his excess mana. It had already returned to the vicinity of the castle gate to stand by.
Then should I send it over to Keno and show her the way?
Perhaps the enemy had not attacked because he had discovered Suzuki Satoru in the air. Therefore, if Suzuki Satoru was gone, the enemy might decide to take action.
After considering that point, Suzuki Satoru cast [Greater Teleportation] again and teleported to the courtyard of a house not far from Keno’s position. After he made sure that he was not visible from the castle, he ordered the Dog Zombie to move towards Keno.
It would seem Keno was using [Invisibility], because the Dog Zombie could not see her. However, when the Dog Zombie reached the area he had seen from the air, Keno suddenly appeared.
The Dog Zombie tugged at the hem of Keno’s dress.
Keno seemed to understand its meaning and jogged behind the Dog Zombie as it led the way.
After finally emerging from hiding, Suzuki Satoru could see Keno as the Dog Zombie brought her over. However, he could not relax yet. Undead beings with high-level thief skills were not common, but they still existed. Someone like that might launch a sneak attack.
“Satoru-sama! You’re safe!”
It had been far beyond the appointed time, and she was probably very worried.
Keno looked overjoyed, but now was not the time to be happy.
“Come here!”
Suzuki Satoru leapt out and took Keno’s hand. There was no time to explain everything to Keno, whose eyes were wide. Suzuki Satoru immediately cast [Greater Teleportation], taking Keno and the Dog Zombie to their sewer base.
He checked his surroundings after arriving, paying particular attention to the entrance. There was no sign the door had been opened. The Eyeball Corpse floating in the air had not been damaged either. He could be sure that it was safe. “Whew.”
It was only when he returned here that Suzuki Satoru allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief. After that, he remembered that he had to explain things to Keno.
After dismissing the Dog Zombie and picking up the cash item, Suzuki Satoru began his explanation. The main points were that he had wiped out the undead being Keno had been talking about, but the enemy was far too weak, so it was possible that it might have been a body double or something similar. Thus, he had chosen to withdraw.
“No, I don’t think that’s the case. Don’t you think you defeated it so easily because you’re such a powerful magic caster, Satoru-sama?”
“If it had been an Overlord like me, then surely it would not have gone down so easily.”
“The difference between my strength and the enemy’s is too great, so all I could tell was that it was very powerful. Could that be possible?” “I considered that too… in that case, I’ll go check by myself again.” It was very dangerous, but it was also the only way.
Suzuki Satoru could sense the presence of the undead, but he could not sense their strength. Therefore, he had no choice but to evaluate them with his own eyes.
“Thank you very much.”
“The search might take one or two hours, so you’ll need to wait here.”
After ordering the Eyeball Corpse to protect Keno, Suzuki Satoru teleported to the noble estate again. He observed the interior of the castle from there, but there was no commotion or any sign that the alert level had been increased.
He conjured a powerful undead being with [Summon Undead – 10th] and sent it into the castle. However, no battle ensued. Thus, Suzuki Satoru steeled his resolve and followed closely behind it.
He retraced the Dog Zombie’s path to the throne room.
On his way there, he did not encounter any other undead besides Zombies.
The door to the throne room remained open. The robe and gear of the undead being he had wiped out earlier were scattered on the ground.
No way… don’t tell me he was really too weak? —Ah, this is bad, I made a mistake. Perhaps that really was a body double and the real thing fled immediately once he realized he couldn’t beat me. That’s certainly possible. If I’d known this back then, would things have been better if I had opened with [Dimensional Lock] or some other battlefield control spell instead of attack magic?
I made a bad move, he lamented as he directed the undead being beside him into the room. There were no undead reactions from inside, but he could not eliminate the possibility that there were guards inside who were not undead.
After seeing that his minion had not been attacked, Suzuki Satoru stepped in front of the room and peeked inside.
Of the many tables inside, a lot of them had been moved over from other rooms. They were stacked with books, until they formed a heaping pile. Parchments and rough papers were strewn all over the ground, and they were filled with characters that Suzuki Satoru did not recognize.
It looked like the room of a scholar, or a bureaucrat who dealt heavily in paperwork.
“The information’s all here… but there’s nobody around?”
Suzuki Satoru took all the items on the ground into his inventory. While he wanted to investigate them right away, he ought to keep being on the lookout for powerful undead as his top priority.
Suzuki Satoru pretty much turned the interior of the castle upside down.
Two hours later, he folded his arms and began to think.
I can’t find him anywhere! He’s fled… no, I doubt it. Escaping by himself would be one thing, but it would be impossible to flee with all his minions under my watch. More importantly, he left all these document-like things here. In addition, there were no signs that any other rooms were used… basically I can conclude that the opposition was too weak.
Suzuki Satoru fumed over all the time and brain cells he had wasted. One could say that this was a failure brought about by fighting without making appropriate backup plans ahead of time.
If Punitto-san heard about this, he’d nag me all day long about “Things went so well simply because you were lucky,” etc.
In truth, he might have been worse off if the enemy had not been so weak. This place was different from the game. Perhaps he only had one life — after all, he did not know how the resurrection mechanics worked — and therefore, he needed to take better care of himself.
After reaffirming his thoughts, Suzuki Satoru set off to where Keno was.
“Hahhh, the Zombies are still Zombies… as I thought returning them to normal isn’t that easy. Still, that’s why this was such a priority… but when you get down to it, can you really restore them?”
Suzuki Satoru took the wand he had picked up just now from his inventory.
He looked it over, then put it away and cast his teleportation spell.
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