It turned out that, although Ainz was no longer human, he still seemed to value the most basic sense of integrity.
As night fell, Riezel received a message from Ainz about his payment.
"Your payment is ready. Come and get it."
Following this message, Ainz provided the location of the meeting.
It wasn't just any random spot—it was the vast grassland where they had first met, right near the borders of the Re-Estize Kingdom, the Baharuth Empire, and the Slane Theocracy, close to the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Apparently, Ainz was still ridiculously cautious, thinking it safest to hand over the payment to Riezel near his own stronghold.
Riezel naturally had no complaints about this, as, after receiving the message from Ainz, he immediately used Greater Teleportation to leave E-Rantel and head straight for the grassland.
It was around midnight when Riezel successfully arrived at the designated spot.
Waiting there, as if he had been standing by for quite some time, was Ainz, who had brought along several people whose true appearances were concealed by illusions. When Riezel arrived, they greeted him with a polite, though somewhat tense, formality.
Riezel cast a brief glance at the treasure chests before scanning the area around him for a moment and then turning to Ainz.
"You really go all out with this whole setup every time we meet, huh? Don't you think it's a bit over the top?"
Riezel was, of course, referring to the hidden heteromorphs surrounding him, just like during their first encounter.
In fact, it wasn't just their first meeting.
Even during the daytime confrontation when Ainz had sought him out in the Adventurer's Guild, he had once again been encircled by these invisible heteromorphs. Because of this, when he stepped into the meeting room of the Adventurer's Guild with Ainz and Narberal, he hesitated slightly before walking in.
Now, for the third time, he found himself subjected to the same overcautious and overprotective routine from Ainz.
"Can't help it... When dealing with you, I can't feel at ease unless I've made all kinds of preparations and taken every precaution."
Ainz admitted honestly, quickly moving past the topic and gesturing toward the treasure chests.
"Anyway, these chests contain the items I've prepared to make up for any gaps in the magic I'll owe you later. You can look them over when you have time."
As Ainz spoke, he directed the people he had brought along to open the chests.
In the next second, Riezel saw what was inside.
Needless to say, the treasure chests were filled with all sorts of items.
Some were stacked neatly with magic scrolls, others held sealing crystals, and a few contained wands and staves of varying lengths—though the quantity varied, overall, it could be described as a dazzling display.
Among these, magic scrolls made up the bulk, filling several treasure chests, while the wands and staves were the least numerous, not even filling a single chest.
All of these items could be used to cast magic.
As for sealing crystals, they required no further explanation.
Similar to what Nigun had used before, they were single-use items that could store any magic from the 1st to 10th Tier, and of course, each of these sealing crystals contained different types of magic.
Magic scrolls also served a similar purpose to sealing crystals.
They were crafted by melting gold onto parchments, drawing a magic circle on them, and then imbuing them with magic.
Once used, while a magic scroll could cast the magic it had been imbued with, the power of the magic released from it was usually at its lowest, which made magic scrolls much cheaper than sealing crystals, as proven by how they were relatively common in this world.
Wands, on the other hand, fell into a different type.
They were reusable items that could cast the magic they contained multiple times, akin to reusable versions of sealing crystals or magic scrolls.
Regardless, there was still a main difference between these two types of items, which lay in their usage requirements.
In YGGDRASIL, when using a wand to cast magic, only magic casters proficient in the system from which the magic originated could successfully use it.
For example, a wand infused with 1st-Tier Magic from the divine system, like 'Light Healing', could only be used by divine-based magic casters, while magic casters specializing in other systems wouldn't be able to use it successfully.
Such a restriction was also applied to magic scrolls.
If one wanted to use the magic from a magic scroll, they had to either already be capable of casting that magic or have it within the list of magic they could learn, or else the scroll simply couldn't be used.
Compared to magic scrolls, although wands had slightly looser usage conditions, they were still not universally usable by everyone.
In contrast, staves didn't have such limitations.
Staves were precious magic items that could be freely used by magic casters of any system, making them significantly more valuable than wands.
Nevertheless, they still had drawbacks—the power and duration of the magic they released were fixed, with the duration lasting only about half of the normal time and the power reduced to three-quarters of its original strength.
Such limitations, while not devastating, were certainly inconvenient.
"I've brought along a few people who can use some magic that even I can't. Combined with the magic I can personally display, we should be able to meet the agreed quantity without any issues." Ainz explained.
Riezel nodded absentmindedly in response.
Today, Ainz had asked Riezel a total of twelve questions, so, at the price of one hundred magic spells per question, Ainz needed to display a staggering 1,200 magic spells to Riezel.
Such a number clearly far exceeded the amount of magic Ainz personally possessed.
Moreover, Riezel specifically requested that the magic spells be from different systems, have different effects, or come from different types, adding yet another layer of difficulty for Ainz.
It couldn't be helped.
Ainz was, after all, a magic caster specializing in necromancy.
As a result, while he wasn't incapable of using magic from other systems, those magic spells were clearly insufficient for fulfilling Riezel's demands.
Left with no choice, Ainz had to go to great lengths and considerable expense, even enlisting the help of several NPCs from the Great Tomb of Nazarick to demonstrate magic he couldn't use himself.
As for the remaining gaps, Ainz resorted to paying with items containing various types of magic to make up the required 1,200 magic spells.
"All that's left now is the Super-Tier Magic." Ainz continued, tossing a piece of parchment to Riezel. "I've written down all the Super-Tier Magic I can use. Pick one."
Riezel took the parchment without hesitation and began browsing it immediately.
Sure enough, the parchment listed several Super-Tier Magic, a few of which contained familiar names—Super-Tier Magic that Ainz had used in the original work.
For example, there was 'Fallen Down', a Super-Tier Magic that unleashed extreme heat, incinerating everything within its range and leaving the ground crystallized from the intense temperature.
Next was 'Creation', a Super-Tier Magic capable of altering the weather and atmospheric conditions.
Lastly, there was 'Ia Shub-Niggurath', an AoE instant-death magic that caused any living being within a certain area to die as sacrifices, with the number of sacrifices directly determining the number of monsters, known as 'Dark Young', to be summoned.
Each of these Super-Tier Magic possessed terrifying power or effects capable of deciding the outcome of an entire war in an instant, living up to the name of magic that surpassed the 10th Tier.
Truthfully, Riezel was pretty tempted, especially by Fallen Down—it seemed almost tailor-made for him.
From the description alone, it was evident that this magic probably belonged to the light and heat attribute. If he were to wield such magic, it would be amplified by Pioneer of the Sun, doubling its effect.
Needless to say, the sheer destructive power it would unleash was easy to imagine.
If he didn't have any other favorite options, he would definitely choose this magic, but in the end, he resisted the urge to choose it right away.
Why?
It was for two reasons.
One reason was that he knew Ainz would eventually use Fallen Down in the future, so when that time came, he could just learn it for free, making it unnecessary to waste the current opportunity by choosing this magic now.
As for the other reason, it was simply because he had already decided which Super-Tier Magic to select this time.
It was a magic that he and many others who knew the original work considered extremely broken.
Wish Upon a Star.
In YGGDRASIL, 'Wish Upon a Star' was a Super-Tier Magic that had a random nature, producing various effects upon activation.
Even though its activation required the consumption of experience points, the more experience points consumed, the greater the number of effects that would appear. By using it, the user could choose one of these effects to bring to reality, essentially granting their wish.
What made this magic great was that, after coming to this world, it had transformed into something truly extraordinary—capable of making the impossible possible, depending on the amount of experience points consumed.
Yes, Wish Upon a Star was a Super-Tier Magic that could grant wishes!
Even though it came at a price, was there any magic more worth learning than this one?
"I'm picking this."
Riezel, without any hesitation, pointed to the words 'Wish Upon a Star' written on the parchment.
"Hmm... alright..."
Ainz glanced at the parchment and then cast a somewhat peculiar look at Riezel.
At this point, Ainz had yet to use any Super-Tier Magic in this world, so he had no idea how extraordinary Wish Upon a Star had become in reality.
As a result, Ainz didn't hesitate too much before nodding his agreement.
Before long, Ainz, along with a few of his subordinates, began showcasing various magic spells in front of Riezel, a demonstration that lasted almost the entire night.
By the time the sun was about to rise, not only had Riezel learned all the magic spells displayed overnight by Ainz and his subordinates with Almighty, but he had also taken several treasure chests filled with magic scrolls, sealing crystals, wands, and staves that contained various types of magic.
Since Riezel had obtained detailed information about the magic contained in these items from Ainz, as soon as he used any of them, the magic within them would be learned by him as well.
One Super-Tier Magic and 1,200 magic spells from various tiers—all of them now belonged to Riezel.
Clearly, Riezel had truly hit the jackpot this time.
"Oh, right..."
Before leaving, Riezel, seemingly having remembered something, turned to Ainz.
"Later, I'll probably drop by to watch your battle with that vampire of yours. Don't leave me out, okay?"
Leaving these words behind, which left Ainz frowning, Riezel finally departed, thoroughly satisfied.