Shrouded in the night, the empty plain was suddenly lit up as lightning shot out from Riezel's fingertips.
It wasn't just a brief flash tearing through the darkness, but it also streaked straight ahead for hundreds of meters, slicing through the blackness as if splitting it apart with precision—the sheer brightness made it stand out even more.
If a knowledgeable magic caster were here to witness this scene, they would definitely be shocked.
Why?
It was simply because the 3rd-Tier Magic, Lightning, shouldn't be this powerful.
'Seriously... the range, the power, and even the casting speed are way better than before... I'd say this could rival 4th-Tier—no, even 5th-Tier Magic isn't that far off...'
Riezel confirmed this as he continued testing other magic in the empty, pitch-black plain.
Teleportation magic—the distance he could travel was now much greater than before.
Instant death magic—the success rate seemed to have increased quite a bit.
Defensive magic—he wasn't sure if it could withstand stronger attacks, but the duration of the magic had definitely lengthened.
Even creation magic, like Create Greater Item, had significantly improved, as the sword Riezel created with this magic was now sharper and more durable, while the quality of his clothes had also become better, making it harder for them to end up tattered as they had last time.
After trying out one magic after another, Riezel finally started forming a theory.
'No doubt, the power and effectiveness of my magic have increased a lot. It's not just because I leveled up, but also because of Magic Chant, right?'
Magic Chant seemed to be a development ability with an effect similar to Swordsman, yet also different.
'When chanting magic, I can clearly feel a surge of power building up inside me... that must be the effect of Magic Chant.'
While Swordsman was a development ability that enhanced the user's status when they held a sword, where the higher its rank, the greater the enhancement, Magic Chant enhanced the user's magic-related abilities whenever they chanted magic, but its effects were limited to magic-related abilities, unlike Swordsman, which had a broader range of enhancements.
For example, among the five basic abilities, Swordsman would enhance all of them whenever the user held a sword, whereas Magic Chant would only enhance MAG while the other basic abilities remained unchanged.
However, the enhancement from Magic Chant was actually much stronger than what Swordsman provided, and it also didn't just affect basic abilities but also affected development abilities.
In conclusion, when someone possessing Magic Chant chanted magic, not only was their MAG enhanced, but all magic-related development abilities also received an enhancement.
For example, since Mage was a development ability that granted various magic-related support effects, such as increasing a magic spell's power, expanding its range, and improving the mind usage efficiency, Magic Chant would enhance these effects whenever magic was chanted.
As a result, the power enhancement, the expanded range, and even the mind usage efficiency from Mage would all be significantly improved.
What was even more surprising was that certain skills Riezel possessed, such as Pioneer of the Sun, which had one of its effects as doubling the power and effectiveness of specific attributes of magic, also seemed to have been affected.
In other words, light and heat magic no longer just doubled in power but increased even more, as evidenced in the empty plain where a massive, charred crater nearly a hundred meters wide, with smoke continuing to rise from it, marked the result of the ground being struck by Riezel's recently cast 3rd-Tier Magic, Fireball.
'My Fireball probably isn't just on par with 6th-Tier Magic anymore but might even be stronger than 8th-Tier Magic...'
Riezel silently looked at the still-smoking charred crater on the ground, and for a moment, he had the urge to unleash Fallen Down just to give it a try.
However, considering the consequences of using that magic, he pushed down this devilish urge.
Even before leveling up, Riezel had been able to use Fallen Down to destroy nearly a third of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, where the 1st to 3rd Floors were destroyed, despite the many defense systems in place.
One should know that the place was a guild base painstakingly built by Ainz Ooal Gown, one of the top guilds in YGGDRASIL. Now, considering not only had Riezel leveled up, but he had also gained Magic Chant, a development ability that greatly enhanced all magic-related abilities, if he were to use Fallen Down again, he might even be able to wipe out the first five floors of the Great Tomb of Nazarick now.
Needless to say, if Riezel were to unleash Fallen Down on this plain, the people in E-Rantel or even the entire Re-Estize Kingdom probably wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
Feeling the sheer power that gave him such a thought, Riezel muttered to himself.
"Did I... already reach the level of Strategic-Class Magician?"
He honestly wasn't sure, but if he had indeed reached that point, things would undoubtedly get interesting.
'Destroying an entire city with a single strike, huh...'
Riezel didn't know whether to be happy or concerned, so in the end, he just forced himself to stop thinking about it for now.
'I should focus on figuring out what's going on with my new strength first.'
Riezel moved his body a little, only to feel that every action was filled with unnatural stiffness. As usual, the sudden surge in power after leveling up had made his body uncoordinated.
'I need to get used to this strength and make sure I can fully control it.'
As Riezel thought this, something suddenly crossed his mind, making him grin.
'Looks like we're gonna be dealing with each other for a while, Overlord...'
===
The next morning.
In front of the Shining Golden Pavilion, Riezel, Brain, and the members of Blue Roses gathered once again.
"Well then, we're heading back to the royal capital."
Lakyus, along with Evileye, Gagaran, Tia, and Tina, stood before Riezel and Brain, seemingly bidding the two farewell as they planned to use teleportation magic to return directly to the royal capital.
5th-Tier Magic, Teleportation, allowed for long-distance point-to-point travel and could teleport multiple people at once, but it required a pre-established marker at the destination—a so-called teleportation point.
Evileye possessed this magic and had already placed a teleportation point in the royal capital so she could instantly return there with the rest of Blue Roses without wasting time on travel.
7th-Tier Magic, Greater Teleportation, also had the same effect as Teleportation but could teleport more people and had almost zero chance of failure. Unfortunately, no native in this world was capable of using magic at this tier.
Meanwhile, while Riezel had mastered these two teleportation magic, he hadn't set up a teleportation point anywhere in this world.
It couldn't be helped.
Riezel hadn't visited many places, and he never really planned on returning to them either since, to this world, he was just a passerby. Unless he had a strong reason, he generally wouldn't leave teleportation points behind.
Of course, this was also because Riezel possessed the highest-tier teleportation magic, Gate.
Gate was not only a teleportation magic that didn't require a pre-marked teleportation point, but as long as the caster knew the location and had a rough idea of the surrounding terrain, they could create a portal that allowed anyone to freely travel back and forth for a certain period.
Moreover, this teleportation magic also had unlimited range and zero chance of failure, so even if one wanted to travel to the ends of the world, to the farthest reaches of the planet, it would still be possible.
As a result, Gate was considered the highest-tier teleportation magic and the most reliable space-shifting ability.
Naturally, it still had drawbacks, like the time it took to cast and the fact that the created portal couldn't be moved, making it completely useless in combat.
Nevertheless, Gate was undoubtedly a great teleportation magic, with even within the Great Tomb of Nazarick, only a handful had learned this magic, including Ainz and Shalltear.
It was precisely because Riezel had mastered Gate that he hadn't set up teleportation points anywhere. If there was ever an emergency and he needed to travel, he could just use Gate to instantly reach any place he had previously visited, including the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Unfortunately, since the Great Tomb of Nazarick had anti-teleportation mechanisms in place, the most he could do was teleport to the graveyard on its surface.
Meanwhile, since Evileye could only use Teleportation, which required teleportation points and had a limited carrying capacity, if Riezel and Brain wanted to travel to the royal capital with them, she probably wouldn't be able to bring everyone along and would have to use another means.
As a result, knowing that Riezel and Brain didn't plan to go to the royal capital with them, Evileye and the rest of Blue Roses decided to use Teleportation to head straight back to the royal capital.
"Are you sure you two won't come back with us?"
Evileye asked Riezel and Brain again, just to make sure.
"No, we'll meet again if fate allows it." Riezel replied, calmly shaking his head.
Upon hearing this, Evileye sighed lightly and didn't say anything more.
Just then, Brain also replied.
"I'm staying behind to learn swordsmanship from Lord Brynhart for a while. Anyway, I'm just a nobody in the kingdom, so it doesn't matter whether I go or stay."
Like Riezel, Brain also intended to separate from Lakyus and the others.
He was, after all, just a wandering swordsman now, with no desire to serve the Re-Estize Kingdom, so his time with Blue Roses had naturally come to an end.
Lakyus and the others understood this and nodded in understanding.
Seeing that everything was concluded, Riezel spoke again.
"Go ahead and do what you wanna do."
At this, Lakyus and the others nodded again, this time more firmly.
"Teleportation."
*Swish!*
As soon as Evileye finished her magic chant, she and the other four immediately disappeared, teleporting to the royal capital.
Riezel gazed at the empty spot where they had once been for a moment before turning his head to Brain.
"We should go too."
"Yes!"
Brain stood straight and responded loudly.
And so, after seeing off the members of Blue Roses and leaving only Brain by his side, Riezel went to an empty plain outside of E-Rantel with Brain to teach him the first sword form of Thunder Breathing—Thunderclap and Flash.
Several hours later, Brain left, leaving Riezel alone.
With a faint smile on his face and a sword in his hand, Riezel once again headed toward the vast grassland.