Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 9

“We can do this,” Moknach said resolutely, clenching his fist. “By the gods, we can do this! Everything is in place; everything is within our grasp. All we need to do is follow the plan and get our members to standard.”

“This is surely the case,” the Goblin Strategist agreed. “Once their lower level charges were out of the picture, the remaining members had no issues dealing with the ambush. I daresay they had already put their plan into action before that: using the very environment we were exploiting against us. If this can be seen as a representation of what an Adventurer contingent is capable of, they should have few issues dealing with the disorganized tribes that have been observed in the Great Forest of Tob closest to the northern borders of this duchy. The proposed standard of ‘Gold’ seems an eminently fair assessment for the threshold where they can commence local operations.”

Several others around the table voiced their agreement.

“You have reservations, Ilyn?” Ainzach said.

The Platinum-rank Wizard, who had been silent for most of the exchange, started, looking up at the faces around the table.

“That’s, uh…the catch is that it assumes that all the new Adventurers we train up are just like us, right?” She began slowly, her hazel eyes unfocused in thought, “But even if we get them up to speed with hard training, there’s still the matter of learning spells, putting together equipment and picking up other magic items. It takes us years to collect all that stuff, and that’s with E-Rantel being a major trade hub. Merchant traffic from the Empire should pick up at some point, but I doubt the Theocracy or Re-Estize will allow merchants to carry anything valuable that we would want into the Sorcerous Kingdom. Even for us veterans, there are problems: a lot of us are specialized for one thing or another, and we’ll have to learn new spells and gather new equipment sets for what we’re going to be doing in the future.”

Ilyn’s points were all valid ones. E-Rantel flourished as a hub of the land trade between three nations, who were each a gateway to other markets even further abroad. With the current disposition of the neighboring states, the trade in magic-related goods that the city received would be mostly from the Empire. Rather than the trade hub that it had been, the city was now more akin to the end of a small trade route that branched out from the Empire. That it was equipment for Adventurers made it exponentially worse than simply importing utility items for civilian use, as items used by Adventurers tended to be highly customized or at least found suitable for the specific niches that they were sought for.

“We lost a lot in the weeks after Katze,” Ainzach admitted. “Magic equipment, scrolls and other items were purposely moved out of the city by various people, and many of our former members left the city with their own equipment and collections as well. It’s true that restoring that end of things will take a long time if we leave things as they are. Does His Majesty have something in mind concerning this?”

Everyone looked to Aura and Mare.

“Hm? It’ll all work out somehow, won’t it?” Aura said with her arms behind her head, “You should just trust Lord Ainz on this – I’m sure he has something in the works already.”

It wasn’t really an answer, but there was no reason to doubt her words. To those who had a sense for it, all of the subordinates of the Sorcerer King – down to even the Household servants – appeared to be adorned in powerful magic equipment. Securing a reliable source of spells and various items was surely a minor matter by comparison.

Mare looked to his sister and he opened and closed his mouth several times, appearing like he wanted to say something. Aura shot him an annoyed look.

“A-anyways…”

There was a great deal of uncertainty carried in Mare’s voice. Or was that how he spoke normally? Moknach hadn’t seen him speak with much confidence at all in the past few hours.

“We should start as soon as possible,” Mare told them. “The starting sections of the training area are still being expanded, but a few segments for Copper and Iron-rank Adventurers are ready to be used. We don’t have the right Iron ranks to make a proper party, so we should focus on getting the Copper Adventurers to Iron so then they can get going as well.”

It was a straightforward plan that left little room for debate. Copper ranks traditionally experienced the highest rate of turnover in the high-stakes career of Adventuring. Whether they found they weren’t cut out for it, discovered that it did not match their expectations or simply died in some unglamorous way, it was not a rank at which one stayed for long.

As one of the changes to the Adventurer Guild, all members received a stipend for their living expenses in order to keep them as part of the available pool of party members for future expeditions. Though unlikely to happen, it inadvertently created a possibility where one could stay at Copper for an indefinite period of time by not taking the initiative to advance. Moknach agreed that this was a situation to avoid, and thought that filtering out new recruits quickly by pushing them through training was the prudent course of action. They should be put through their paces and advance to Iron as quickly as possible. Those that were incapable of doing so would be discharged and a suitable use for their abilities would be found in civilian life.

Since it was known that Copper ranks generally did not survive attempts at resurrection, it was also actually the riskiest period for the Guild’s members. It was due to this fact that the pace of training for new members would be slow, in order to minimize unnecessary risks and accidentally lose promising recruits. As the Adventurer Guild grew in renown, the influx of hopeful applicants could potentially result in a sort of bottleneck in the training process.

Merry raised her hand and everyone turned their attention to her. It was a strange habit of hers, but it always seemed to work for some reason.

“You got anything for us?” She asked hopefully, “I’m ready to go too!”

The members of Rainbow made groaning noises. Moknach hoped the idea that death was no longer an obstacle had not turned her into even more of a battle maniac than she already was. Being a Ranger that specialized in hunting the Undead, she had driven her team to wit’s end during the tense weeks after E-Rantel was annexed. She would quietly stare out of the window of the team’s accommodations, sizing up all the Undead patrolling the city.

Merry would talk to no one in particular while fiddling with her expensive magical arrows, saying things like ‘See that clueless Lich flying around? One shot’. Or ‘That cocky one with the shield…I can take him’. Even the usually calm Josin was plainly on edge after days of wondering whether she would just start attacking Undead from their apartment window, and Moknach had decided it would be safer to just bring them to the Adventurer Guild every day instead.

Every time someone said Tomb, he was afraid to look in her direction, imagining her excitement over having an unlimited source of Undead to destroy for ‘training’.

“Well,” Aura replied, “there is something, but the floors have been arranged for parties of six. If just the four of you go into an area meant for six mithril ranks, you’ll probably die.”

She looked over their team, her eyes pausing at each member before moving on again.

“Except for her,” she motioned to Merry. “She can probably get away. The rest of you are dead for sure, though.”

“Er…do we really have to die?” Blair asked, “Seems a bit extreme, being training and all.”

“Hah? You think anyone out to get you when you’re on an expedition is going to go all easy on you?”

“Well, no, but…”

“How much does resurrection magic cost, anyways?” Utrecht asked, “If I recall correctly, Lakyus from Blue Rose charges quite a lot for it.”

“A lot,” answered Ainzach. “You really don’t want to know. If it wasn’t for the subsidy from the Sorcerous Kingdom, you’d be paying back the cost of the cheapest resurrection over years with the earnings of a Gold-rank. ”

Utrecht swallowed upon hearing the Guildmaster’s words.

“What do you mean by the ‘cheapest’?” Ilyn shifted in her seat slightly and leaned forward, “What’s the difference?”

“Well, it’s not exactly a secret for Raise Dead but, if I have it right, it’s a pretty big hit to your effectiveness as an Adventurer that you’ll have to make up for with training. As I understand it, the effect is significantly reduced the higher the tier of the spell, but it also becomes exorbitantly expensive at the highest tier. We settled on 7th Tier Resurrection as the best balance between cost and rehabilitation time – it’s around twice as expensive as Raise Dead, but it also comes with fewer restrictions in case something unexpected happens.”

The absurdity of Ainzach’s words only seemed to be matched by the ridiculousness of how smoothly the members around the table digested everything…though it was probably more likely that no one truly could. A couple of months ago, not in Moknach’s wildest dreams would anyone be ‘settling’ for a 7th tier spell – a realm of magic considered beyond Human reach. Now, magics beyond what one would consider Legendary were being incorporated into the Adventurer Guild’s planning, and the only points which could be discussed were the results of such magic and their budgetary concerns.

Even when presented to their faces, the power of the Sorcerous Kingdom was so far removed from their previous reality that Moknach thought only Legends could appreciate the full weight of everything: the more ignorant one was of such things, the more insulated they were from the truth. Never mind what went into being able to cast Resurrection or True Resurrection, Moknach’s mind could only frame it the same way Ainzach had – more expensive versions of the only spell they could relate it to, with fewer downsides.

By and large, the people of the Sorcerous Kingdom were all in a similar state of mind: they were like ants building a nest in the cracks of a city street, uncomprehending of the civilization towering around them.

“At any rate,” Ainzach told them, “try not to die; it’s expensive. If the administration sees a spike in resurrection costs, they’re going to start wondering if we’re being frivolous with their subsidy. We’ve also considered using Raise Dead for people repeatedly dying in stupid ways that they shouldn’t be: we’ll be putting them through hell and back to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“I wonder what Blue Rose does to get their members back up to full fighting strength,” Utrecht wondered.

“Beats me,” Josin said. “It’s probably not a stroll through a garden, though.”

“If it’s really that expensive,” Ilyn said, “shouldn’t we try to avoid training deaths? You can do a lot with that kind of coin.”

“That’s true,” said Ainzach. “The money could go to securing magic items through trade channels, or something along those lines…what do you think?”

Ainzach turned his head to look at Aura beside him, whose lips had formed into a pouty frown.

“I-I think they have a point, big sis…” Mare said to her side.

“Ah, whatever!” Aura threw up her hands, “I don’t know why I’m the one that has to answer everything anyways. The tomb is Mare’s job – I just came to help out.”

She rounded on her brother with a hand on her hip.

“Just make sure you don’t keep Lord Ainz waiting for your results.”

“Wha–! Saying that isn’t fair, big sis!”

As his sister got up and turned to leave, Mare looked down to his lap making a worried Uuuu sound.

“Well,” the Goblin Strategist said as he slid off his chair and onto his feet, “I believe I shall take my leave as well.”

“When’s our next match?” Moknach asked as the Strategist walked around the table.

“Hoh…you wish to challenge us again?” The Strategist responded, his mouth hidden by his fan.

“Leaving it at this would be unsatisfying,” Moknach smirked. “Next time, we won’t be such poor hosts.”

“Well, it would be best if you reach the standard that you’ve outlined before we face each other again.” The Goblin Strategist nodded, “I have many more new recruits that would be glad for the chance to test their mettle, and I believe there will be much to learn for both sides. I will look forward to our next match.”

He descended down the stairs lightly, leaving Mare with the members of the Adventurer Guild.

“So…what was the takeaway from all that?” Josin wondered.

“That we’re on the right track,” Ainzach said. “Now, all we need to do is follow through and prove it. I’ll get a Copper team together. We can start after dinner, if that’s alright with you.”

“I-I’ll be waiting,” Mare nodded.

“I’d like to watch how things go,” Moknach said. “Is there any way to do that?”

“There’s a place where people can watch what’s going on,” Ainzach replied, “I wanted you six to come along, anyways. We can meet there when everything’s ready.”

Ainzach looked around at the remaining members.

“I trust that no one wants to miss this? Good. We’ll meet in a few hours – I’ll send out runners after I figure out what this team’ll look like.”