Chapter 412: 390 A Perfect Homecoming
Thus, in circumstances where he was extremely unwelcome, Reiger successfully entered the Nasalik Underground Tomb.
However, he didn’t manage to make Ainz open the eighth floor as he had hoped.
It seemed that Ainz could no longer bear the cost of opening the eighth floor again, and vehemently opposed Reiger’s barbaric demand, eventually making Reiger agree to step back.
"Fine, don’t open the eighth floor, but you need to let Lubedo out and lend me the Guardians as well as high-level servants, so I can practice with them," Reiger said.
These were the conditions Reiger agreed to as his compromise.
If Ainz still wasn’t willing to agree to these terms, Reiger was prepared to take a more forceful approach.
Perhaps sensing this from Reiger’s attitude, Ainz, although very reluctant, had no choice but to agree to Reiger’s demands.
"...It’s fine to lend them to you, but you’re not allowed to kill them again."
After all, resurrecting NPCs also required a significant amount of resources.
"Done," Reiger agreed readily.
Consequently, Reiger temporarily settled in the arena on the sixth floor of the Nasalik Underground Tomb, engaging in daily battles with NPCs like Lubedo, Shalltear, Albedo, and Cocytus.
The battles were mostly group fights in a one against many format, with Reiger alone on one side and the Nasalik Underground Tomb sending at least three people at a time, never facing Reiger one-on-one.
Besides the NPCs, the Nasalik Underground Tomb sometimes deployed high-level servants, mostly above level 80.
Thanks to this, Reiger fought ferociously in the arena of the sixth floor, and though the noise and commotion couldn’t compare to the unprecedented fierce battle that had taken place on the eighth floor last time, the intensity was no less significant.
Under such circumstances, led by Ainz, the many otherworldly beings of the Nasalik Underground Tomb made the astonishing discovery that Reiger’s strength had indeed increased.
However, it was definitely not a mere slight increase as Reiger had claimed, but rather a transformation, making him so much stronger than before that he could even oppress Nasalik’s strongest individual, Lubedo, in battle.
"...In the future, I’ll die before I cause any more conflict with this monster," Ainz decided quietly to himself after watching for a while, sweating profusely.
As ten days flew by, amidst the fierce battles in the arena of the Nasalik Underground Tomb’s sixth floor, Reiger swiftly adapted to his current level’s body, eliminating that omnipresent feeling of disharmony.
Moreover, Reiger took the opportunity to learn many new magics from the Nasalik NPCs and high-level servants that he had not seen before, effectively ’shearing the sheep’ of Nasalik.
With this trip of Dimensional Travel, Reiger made a fortune. Not only did he achieve his initial goal of leveling up and enhancing his strength in this world, but he also acquired a variety of high-level magics.
Before the Dimensional Travel, Reiger’s swordsmanship had already fully surpassed his mastery in magic.
After this Dimensional Travel, not only had Reiger’s magic caught up with his swordsmanship, but it was even possible that he had surpassed it.
"It seems I can make a perfect return this time," Reiger thought to himself with deep satisfaction, and finally left the Nasalik Underground Tomb, heading back to the surface under the eager gaze of Ainz and the others.
Ainz had continuously monitored Reiger using intelligence-based magic until he was certain Reiger had completely left the great plains; only then did he collapse on his throne and give orders to Albedo and Demiurge.
"From today, all external operations launched by Nasalik are to be suspended. Besides the ’Darkness’ Feifei, which can continue to operate outside, only Demiurge is allowed to take full responsibility for behind-the-scenes operations concerning the Kingdom, the Theocracy, and the Empire."
"Everyone else is to return to Nasalik immediately, and Nasalik will be closed off to the outside."
"Never... never encounter that monster again...!"
"Did you hear?"
The response to Ainz’s commands was an agreement that everyone seemed to wish fervently.
"Understood!"
With their tone indicating a kind of relief, the otherworldly beings agreed in unison.
Without a doubt, Reiger had become a psychological shadow over the entire Nasalik Underground Tomb.
No matter how much time passed, this psychological shadow was likely impossible to erase.
...
"Time limit countdown to zero. This Dimensional Travel is coming to an end, commencing checks."
"Detecting the user possesses unique powers from this world, which can be dissolved and returned at will."
"Detecting the user is carrying unique items from this world. To take them back, the execution may proceed via energy consumption."
"The list of unique items is compiled, please make your selection."
"One: Pyrostone (20)"
"Two: Primordial Ring (6)"
"Three: Flying Dragon Talisman (2)"
"Four: Giant Gloves (2)"
"Five:....."
Having left the great plains where the Nasalik Underground Tomb was located, Reiger strolled through the forest while receiving the long-missed mental message.
Instantly, Reiger smiled slightly, and without any lingering regrets or reluctance, glanced at his remaining Dimension Energy.
"Dimension Energy: 353"
Before his Dimensional Travel, Reiger’s remaining Dimension Energy was 203 units.
On this occasion, the Dimensional Travel time ratio was 1:150.
That is to say, Reiger had spent 150 days in this world, amounting to five months.
Therefore, his Dimension Energy had accumulated to 353 units.
"It’s already exceeded 300 units, huh?"
Only then did Reiger feel a slight stirring in his heart.
After all, the Dimension Cube could activate the Dimensional Travel to a designated world.
In other words, Reiger could use this function to return to any world he had previously visited.
However, activating the Dimensional Travel to a specific world required ten times the amount of Dimension Energy.
Whereas 30 units of Dimension Energy were enough to activate one instance of Dimensional Travel, specifying a world would require 300 units of Dimension Energy.
By now, Reiger’s Dimension Energy was sufficient to activate the Dimensional Travel to a designated world.
This made Reiger start to miss the Earth Mistake World, to miss the companions from Loki’s family.
Up to this point, Reiger had traveled through three worlds; specifically, the Earth Mistake World, Demon Slayer World, and this Overlord World.
But, the latter two worlds had hardly left Reiger with much sentimentality.
In those two worlds, Reiger had finished what he needed to do and had gained the corresponding growth and results, so he probably would never return to those two worlds in the future.
Only the Earth Mistake World, only the family of Loki, contained many things Reiger couldn’t bear to part with.
"Should I perhaps make a trip back there?"
The stirring inside Reiger was of such a nature.
But...
"Forget it, there’s no rush."
Reiger suppressed the homesickness-like emotions that were surfacing in his heart.
"With the time difference in place, it’s only been a few days over there, right?"
If one were to account for the time Reiger spent during his Dimensional Travel, he had left the Earth Mistake World for roughly a year up to now.
About a year of time, when cast into a 1:100 time ratio, amounted to just three or four days.
Reiger wasn’t so sentimental as to miss someone so much that he couldn’t bear not seeing them after just a little over a year.
Moreover, going back now would deplete all the Dimension Energy he had struggled to accumulate.
"Let’s talk about it after one or two more Dimensional Travels."
Reiger decided thus.
"I’ll go back and take a look when my Dimension Energy won’t be completely depleted by a single instance of specified world travel."
After making such a decision, Reiger then began choosing which items he wanted to take with him.
This time, he had quite a few items to take.
「Caloric Stone (20)」
「Ring of Origin (6)」
「Flying Dragon Talisman (2)」
「Giant Gloves (2)」
All of these were Magic artifacts that were very useful to Reiger, so he had to take them all, not leaving a single one behind, especially the Caloric Stone and Ring of Origin. One was a world-class artifact and the other a Dragon’s Secret Treasure, both extremely precious. It would be a huge loss to leave any behind.
Even though they required a significant amount of Dimension Energy to take with him, with the Caloric Stone alone needing a full 20 units of Dimension Energy, given their value and functionality, Reiger chose to take them without any hesitation.
And so, Reiger consumed 30 units of Dimension Energy in one go.
「Dimension Energy: 323」
After confirming the remaining Dimension Energy, Reiger concluded his selection.
「Selection complete, commencing execution.」
「Item assimilation successful.」
「Dimensional Travel concluded, beginning return.」
With the will of the Dimension Cube flowing into his mind once again, Reiger’s body in this world was dissolved.
His tangible consciousness reverted to its original state and returned to the original world through the Dimension Channel in his mind.
Reiger Brillhaut, the mighty adventurer who had suddenly appeared and left not too many footprints in this world, thus departed.
However, his influence on this world did not vanish.
At the very least, the Nasalik Underground Tomb lay dormant for decades because of him, and only after several decades did it take its place on the world stage, still abiding by the agreement once made with Reiger to not harm innocent humans, engaging only with high-ranking officials and enemies they faced.
The renowned adamantine-class adventurers of [Crimson Rose] also frequently mentioned a powerful human, saying he was the strongest being in this world and leaving behind numerous rumors and tales.
A powerful individual also emerged among the human races, who was said to be most adept at a lethally efficient lightning strike. Not only did this person surpass the Heroic Domain, but also Abnormals, and could even hold their own in confrontations with the vampire nobility known as the [Destroyer Kingdom].
This individual had also defeated Gejiev Storunov and won the title of the strongest Swordsman, yet always claimed that the strongest wasn’t them but a youthful figure they had pursued for decades.
The name Reiger Brillhaut thus spread wide through these individuals and remained spoken of for hundreds of years afterward.