The next day, morning.
Today, the weather in the royal capital of the Re-Estize Kingdom was as bad as always.
Even though it wasn't pouring rain as it had a while ago, dark clouds would occasionally drift by, blocking the sunlight and causing the puddles that had accumulated on the side of the road not to dry up, making the road conditions pretty terrible.
Meanwhile, the street where the adventurer's inn was located had the same bad conditions, making many adventurers reluctant to go outside in such weather.
Moreover, because of the rumor that the inn had recently been hosting several rare Adamantite Adventurers, including the all-female adventurer group, Blue Roses, many adventurers eager to see the highest-ranked adventurers in person had chosen to stay in the inn, making the hall on the first floor much livelier than the day before.
Upon closer inspection, several adventurers in the inn were wearing orichalcum or mithril identification tags—an uncommon sight, especially in E-Rantel, where only Mithril Adventurers were usually the highest rank.
Needless to say, this showed that adventurers based in the royal capital, Re-Estize, were far superior to those in E-Rantel, both in terms of rank and strength.
In such circumstances, Riezel left his room and headed to the hall on the first floor, and, without surprise, his arrival immediately drew everyone's attention.
"Is that him?"
"He's so young..."
"A kid like him... is he really Riezel Brynhart, the one they say is on par with an entire Adamantite Adventurer Group?"
Seeing Riezel, the adventurers started discussing among themselves, some even giving him challenging glares, clearly skeptical of the rumors about his strength.
Riezel, however, seemed to ignore them all, or perhaps he was used to this kind of attention, as he quietly left the inn and stepped outside.
Today, he decided to take a walk.
It was his first time in the royal capital of the Re-Estize Kingdom, and he wasn't familiar with the surroundings, so he planned to visit the Adventurer's Guild in this city to see if he could gather some information about the local monsters. If there were any powerful monsters near the royal capital worth fighting, he intended to face them to gain some excelia.
He hadn't forgotten his purpose for coming to this world, which was to improve himself.
Now that he had learned so many magic spells from Ainz, his magic expertise had improved greatly, making his need for magic less urgent than before.
Given that, he thought it would be a good idea to develop his status and see if he could level up in this world. If he could reach Level 7, his strength would see a major boost.
'It's a shame it's becoming harder than before...'
Riezel thought back to the status he had just updated this morning.
...
Riezel Brynhart
Level 6
STR: B767 → S996
END: B741 → S968
DEX: A815 → SS1055
AGI: A837 → SS1078
MAG: C660 → SS1114
Lightweight: D
Swordsman: D
Mage: G → F
Battle Adept: G
Fast Attack: H
...
After more than two months of effort, Riezel's overall ability proficiency had increased by just under 1,400.
In the world of Danmachi, reaching Level 6 would already be a huge achievement, and having such growth in Level 6 in under three months would definitely be mind-blowing to many.
However, when it came to Riezel, this growth was undeniably small and disappointing.
As for why, there were two main reasons for this.
One, it was because he was already Level 6.
At such a level, further progress was definitely much harder than the previous levels since the required excelia had increased, so his growth rate inevitably slowed down.
Second, it was because there were too few powerful opponents in this world.
Unlike in the Akasha Continent, where he could face opponents usually around Level 3 to Level 4 when accepting challenges from other swordsmen, sometimes even encountering Sword Masters who were Level 5 or Level 6, he often gained a lot of excelia by defeating them.
On the other hand, the natives of this world were pitifully weak, as even those who entered the Realm of Heroes were only around Level 3.
Moreover, given that those with the strength of Level 3 and above in this world were exceptionally rare, his opponents all this time had been either ordinary adventurers or monsters, neither of which had given much excelia.
As a result, after two months, his growth had only reached this point—far from what it used to be.
'Luckily, both MAG and Mage had considerable improvement, or else the gains from these two months might've been even less.'
Maybe it was because Riezel had acquired many magic spells with strange and unique effects in this world that he had used magic more often these past two months.
As a result, not only had his MAG proficiency increased significantly, surpassing his STR, END, DEX, and AGI, but its rank had also jumped straight from C to SS. Even Mage had been upgraded by a rank, so his results weren't too bad.
However, if he wanted to gain high-rank excelia for leveling up, he should pick his opponents more carefully.
'How about I go pick a fight with Platinum Dragon Lord? I still haven't settled the score from before, right?'
'Or maybe I could cause some trouble for Ainz?'
'Now that I think about it, Nazarick should be getting ready for some big moves. Once that happens, those guys won't hold back anymore.'
'In other words, the humans of this world are about to face serious trouble, a big disaster, since those heteromorphs will have a field day with them.'
Pondering the way the Great Tomb of Nazarick operated in the later stages of the original work, Riezel's brow furrowed deeply.
Honestly, he had known from the start that he wasn't on the same path as them, and he definitely couldn't get along with Ainz, the protagonist from the original work.
For now, they were more or less at peace because he had his own plans and Ainz was somewhat cautious about him, not daring to approach him carelessly, but this situation definitely couldn't last long.
Considering he had never fully opened up to Ainz or the Great Tomb of Nazarick and sometimes even considered taking action against them, he bet they probably sensed this, which was probably why they were always wary of him and never relaxed their attitude toward him when he was around.
At this rate, a conflict between them was just a matter of time.
Needless to say, this wasn't something just a few of the intelligent individuals in the Great Tomb of Nazarick sensed, as Riezel felt it as well.
However—
'Heh, so what?'
Riezel relaxed his furrowed brows.
'If our paths are different, we won't be able to work together. If conflict is inevitable, then maybe this is for the best.'
At least this way, he wouldn't have any hesitation and could confidently make a move against the Great Tomb of Nazarick when the time came. If it were them, they would definitely bring him a lot of excelia, maybe even some high-rank excelia for a level-up.
Having such a thought, Riezel actually started anticipating it and couldn't wait to have a good fight with the Floor Guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Naturally, regular excelia was important too.
Before going into full-blown conflict with the Great Tomb of Nazarick, looking for powerful monsters as opponents was also a good option.
Coming to a decision, Riezel left the inn and headed toward the Adventurer's Guild to gather information about the local monsters.
Unfortunately, his plan was immediately disrupted when he reached the street in front of the inn.
"Lord Brynhart!"
An unexpected person appeared before Riezel and excitedly called his name.
It was none other than Brain Unglaus.
Yesterday, this genius swordsman had been utterly drained, his spirit completely crushed, but today, he had transformed—his disheveled appearance was gone, and he had cleaned himself up, looking neat and proper.
From the look of it, Brain seemed to have been waiting in front of the inn for a long time, as the moment he saw Riezel, his face lit up with joy, and he hurried over to greet him.
"How come you're here?" Riezel asked, completely surprised.
Surprisingly, as Brain gazed at Riezel, his expression was full of respect as if he were not facing a junior or a much younger man but rather a life mentor or a role model who had walked a path ahead of him—his attitude was incredibly humble.
"I came specifically to find you, Lord Brynhart." Brain replied, bowing respectfully.
Clearly, his demeanor was completely different from yesterday, a far cry from the weary, broken man from before.
"If you were looking for me, why not go inside?" Riezel asked, not sure what Brain wanted. "You could just tell the staff at the inn, and they'd come to notify me in my room."
"No, I couldn't possibly trouble you with something personal like that." Brain quickly shook his head. "Such matters would be too rude to impose on you. I thought waiting for you here would show my sincerity."
At this point, Riezel started to get an idea of what Brain was after.
No choice.
As Brain spoke, his eyes kept drifting toward the sword at Riezel's waist, giving Riezel a clear hint of what he wanted.
"Speak then. What is it you want from me?" Riezel asked calmly, hiding his surprise.
Brain immediately straightened up, becoming more serious.
"I'd like you to teach me your swordsmanship, more specifically the sword technique you used before, Lord Brynhart." Brain responded earnestly. "Yesterday, your slash was so incredible that I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I mustered up the courage to come here and ask you."
What he said was undoubtedly his true feeling.
After the confrontation with Riezel yesterday, he had regained the confidence he once had and no longer felt hopeless. Instead, he thought about picking up his sword again, starting from scratch to train himself.
Now, he was convinced that, with hard work, he could achieve a level of skill he had never known before—perhaps one day reaching the same level as Riezel, to be able to face the kind of battle Riezel had shown in the northern forest of E-Rantel.
In truth, just thinking about the slash Riezel had made that time, he hadn't been able to sleep at all last night—it was truly impossible.
Riezel's slash had been so astonishing that he now felt his once-proud Martial Art, Wind of the Great Forest, looked like child's play, something to laugh at, not even worth showing anymore.
When Climb saw Riezel's Thunderclap and Flash, he was filled with admiration, a yearning for that kind of power, but when Brain saw Riezel's Thunderclap and Flash, it struck him in a much deeper way.
It couldn't be helped.
Thunderclap and Flash was very similar to Wind of the Great Forest—both were designed for a single, decisive blow, the ultimate strike.
From Riezel's Thunderclap and Flash, Brain saw many things.
He saw the shortcomings of his Wind of the Great Forest.
He saw his own ambitions, the ultimate form of his sword.
If he could learn Riezel's Thunderclap and Flash, he knew his Wind of the Great Forest would be transformed, and his sword would never be the same again.
Such a realization was what drove Brain to act.
As a result, after learning from Gazef where Riezel was staying, Brain quickly came to the inn to ask Riezel for guidance.
"Can you please grant my humble request?"
Brain, with an unusually sincere attitude, bent deeply in front of Riezel as he made his request.
Such a humble posture caught the attention of the adventurers around them, who couldn't help but look over with puzzled expressions.
It was understandable.
In the eyes of others, it must have seemed odd to see a middle-aged man like Brain bowing so respectfully to a youngster under twenty.
Luckily, they didn't know that Brain was the genius swordsman from the rumors who could stand toe to toe with the Re-Estize Kingdom's Warrior Captain. If they had, they would probably have been shocked by this scene.
"Get up."
Riezel had already guessed Brain's intentions, so upon hearing the expected request, he immediately spoke up.
"I won't waste your time!"
Brain, thinking Riezel was rejecting him, quickly added.
"They're just cheap items, but I do have some magic items with me. If you don't mind, I can offer them as payment!"
Saying this, Brain started introducing his magic items to Riezel.
"This one's called the Necklace of Eye. Its effect is to protect vision, enhance resistance to blindness, and grant dark vision along with light correction. It really works wonders at night."
"This is a magic ring that lets you infuse low-tier magic into it. Right now, it contains Lesser Protection Energy, which can resist energy damage like fire magic, ice magic, and even magic weapons with elemental attributes."
"And this is the Wyvern Amulet. It's made with powdered eyes of a wyvern, and when worn, it reduces the wearer's weight and load while also improving speed and agility to some extent."
"If you don't want magic items and would prefer magic potions, I've got those too!"
Brain went on, eagerly introducing each magic item he carried, sometimes a necklace, sometimes a ring.
"I didn't mean it like that—"
Riezel, a bit troubled, was about to tell Brain he wasn't interested in the magic items when, suddenly, he paused as his attention was caught.
"Wait, that Wyvern Amulet, what does it do again?" Riezel asked urgently, noticing something crucial. "Reduces the wearer's weight and load?"
Was there such a magic item?
If that were the case, wouldn't it be a perfect magic item for a development ability like Lightweight?