During the more than a month of fighting on the 8th Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Riezel hadn't always been suppressed, mainly because his opponents weren't as versatile as he was.
Sometimes, they couldn't use magic due to exhaustion of magical energy, other times, they ran out of uses for their special skills, and sometimes their health points would drop to the limit without any way to recover.
Moreover, Riezel would occasionally explode with power and strike back when the opportunity arose, achieving some pretty good results.
For example, Rubedo, who was known as the strongest NPC in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, had already been killed three times by Riezel.
Meanwhile, those among the 8th Floor Hierarchy were no different—some had died at Riezel's hands once or twice, and some even more.
Even Ainz, who had attacked him with all the Guardians not long ago, had been caught off guard and killed once or twice by Riezel.
Especially Shalltear and Albedo, who harbored a deep grudge against Riezel—if it hadn't been for their life-saving special skills being so powerful, they would have ended up lying dead in his hands at least ten times.
In this way, Riezel repeatedly found ways to survive and kill powerful enemies, even managing to break through the attacks from World Items several times.
Under these circumstances, Riezel's goal of gaining high-rank excelia to level up had already been accomplished.
...
Riezel Brynhart
Level 6
STR: S996 → SSS1376
END: S968 → SSS1352
DEX: SS1055 → SSS1431
AGI: SS1078 → SSS1457
MAG: SS1114 → SSS1469
Lightweight: D → C
Swordsman: D → C
Mage: F → E
Battle Adept: G → F
Fast Attack: H → G
...
This was the status Riezel had updated during the fierce battle on the 8th Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Not only had all his basic abilities reached SSS, but all of his development abilities had also been upgraded to the next rank. Just this alone was enough to prove how much Riezel had grown and improved over the past couple of months.
It was also from this status update that Riezel's Falna began to show signs of flickering with a glowing effect, a sign that he could level up, a reminder to evolve and transcend to the next level.
In other words, Riezel was now able to level up.
Level 7.
In the current Orario, only one person had reached Level 7.
Not even Loki Familia, known alongside Freya Familia as the strongest familia in Orario, had adventurers at this level. But Riezel had finally achieved it.
If it weren't for the need to decide which new development ability to learn and the fact that he couldn't afford to think about such things in the middle of a life-and-death battle, Riezel might have leveled up right on the spot.
For this reason, his primary objective in invading the Great Tomb of Nazarick—which was to gain high-rank excelia to level up—had been successfully completed, so it wasn't out of the question to stop here.
Firstly, since his primary objective had already been accomplished, he just wanted to return, level up, and take a break, which was definitely necessary.
Secondly, he didn't particularly want to face the Twenty since their effects were just too overpowering for him to handle.
For example, Longinus, using its user's life as a cost, could unconditionally erase its target, and after being erased by it, no resurrection magic or items could bring them back, and only other World Items of the same level could resurrect them.
Truthfully, just hearing about it made Riezel not want to face it directly.
It was only natural.
What Riezel wanted was a thrilling and intense battle, not being bombarded by something like a nuclear bomb that could instantly kill him. Even though he didn't know exactly what the two of the Twenty in Ainz Ooal Gown's possession were, they shouldn't be that far from the others.
Having made up his mind, Riezel focused his gaze on Ainz and casually spoke up.
"Let me see the World Item first."
Upon hearing this, Ainz didn't refuse but instead readily agreed.
"Sure."
Ainz flipped his hand and suddenly took out an item, causing everyone's attention to immediately turn toward it.
It was a stone that seemed to have flames burning inside it, radiating a fiery red glow and emitting heat, looking like a glowing, red-hot branding iron.
"I'm giving you this World Item."
Ainz tossed the fiery red stone toward Riezel.
As Riezel caught it, he noticed it was indeed radiating heat.
"All Appraisal Magic Item."
Riezel immediately used appraisal magic on the World Item to retrieve detailed information about it.
In the next second, a message surged into Riezel's mind, which he quickly absorbed.
What Ainz gave was indeed a World Item.
In YGGDRASIL, this was one of the hidden World Items that was considered an extremely omnipotent material, with even NPCs stating that there was no material more omnipotent than it in the world.
It could be embedded into weapons or armor to enhance their class and power, and could even be used to modify existing items or serve as the core of a golem. It was said that its usage in YGGDRASIL would allow its holder to make a request to the game developers themselves to create whatever they wanted.
Its name was 'Caloric Stone'.
"Hmm, so it's this..."
Riezel paused for a moment, then looked up at Ainz.
"Good choice using this World Item as compensation. No wonder you were so quick to agree."
It wasn't surprising for Riezel to say this.
Even though Caloric Stone was an incredibly powerful World Item, it was a consumable item, just like those from the Twenty—once used, it would disappear.
Meanwhile, the difference between Caloric Stone and those from the Twenty was that Caloric Stone could be obtained by gathering large amounts of special ores of various types in a single place, fulfilling the conditions to spawn it in exchange for consuming all the ores.
As for the kinds of special ores they were, they were a series of highly valuable minerals found in various locations in YGGDRASIL, known as 'Prismatic Ores', which was a grade for seven high-class minerals that originated from YGGDRASIL, of which only four were revealed in the original work.
In this world, ores were classified by strength and rarity, ranging from copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, orichalcum, to adamantite. Adventurers used metals made from these ores as identification tags, with their ranks determined by the strength and rarity of the metals.
Mithril was considered a very rare metal, orichalcum was regarded as super rare, and adamantite was recognized by the natives as the strongest and rarest metal. Most of the highest-class armor or weapons in this world were made from adamantite, making it quite precious.
Prismatic ores, however, were ores that surpassed adamantite in both strength and rarity—expensive materials that were considered high-priced items in YGGDRASIL.
Being a World Item obtained by consuming large amounts of various types of prismatic ores, Caloric Stone could be repeatedly obtained as long as the method to obtain it was known.
In the past, Ainz Ooal Gown had, by chance, obtained a Caloric Stone, but it was eventually used up.
Many who had read the original work believed the Caloric Stone was likely used in Rubedo's body, one of the key resources used to create the most powerful NPC of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Ainz Ooal Gown had once considered getting a second Caloric Stone, but after losing access to the prismatic ore mines, they had never been able to gather enough prismatic ores and thus never acquired another Caloric Stone.
Who would have thought that now, Ainz would suddenly pull out a Caloric Stone and offer it as compensation?
"Actually, this is a World Item I obtained after coming to this world." Ainz said while shaking his head. "I was able to get it thanks to Shalltear's trip to the Slane Theocracy."
Ainz's words made Shalltear puff out her chest and glare at Riezel.
Now, Riezel was starting to understand.
'So, she found a large amount of prismatic ores when she messed up the city of the Slane Theocracy?'
Riezel's guess was correct.
Shalltear had indeed accidentally discovered a large amount of prismatic ores beneath the city she attacked. It wasn't clear whether the prismatic ores had been deliberately hidden or had simply formed naturally in that city, but as soon as she found them, she immediately informed the Great Tomb of Nazarick, drawing Ainz's full attention.
Afterward, Ainz sent people to bring the prismatic ores back, and after some attempts, they successfully obtained a Caloric Stone.
"Sadly, the prismatic ores we brought back were all used up in obtaining this Caloric Stone, so obtaining the third one won't be so easy." Ainz continued with a regretful tone.
No matter what, the Caloric Stone Ainz had given to Riezel had now become the perfect World Item to be used as compensation. Since Ainz knew how to obtain it, as long as he had the materials, he could obtain another one at any time.
Moreover, since the Great Tomb of Nazarick had already used a Caloric Stone in the past, losing another one wouldn't be too painful. More importantly, by using this Caloric Stone as compensation, Ainz wouldn't need to use any of the other World Items that couldn't be obtained again.
In this way, the World Item stock of the Great Tomb of Nazarick would remain almost unchanged, minimizing the losses, which was clearly the calculation Ainz had in mind.
"While it's a World Item that can be repeatedly obtained, a World Item is still a World Item. I think it has enough value to serve as compensation."
Ainz spoke with a solemn tone, gazing seriously at Riezel.
"With this, our grudge is settled, right, Riezel Brynhart?"
Upon hearing this question, Riezel showed a nonchalant expression before responding indifferently.
"Whether it's truly settled or not, I think that's still up for debate."
Before Ainz and the others could change their expressions and respond, Riezel quickly shifted his tone and added,
"But you're right. We don't need to keep fighting."
In front of Ainz and the others, Riezel put the Caloric Stone into the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube.
*Scwhing—*
With a slight metallic friction sound, Riezel returned Hermit to its scabbard, ending his combat stance.
"Still, while I can stop now, you should understand that if your Nazarick doesn't change the way it does things, we'll end up having another big conflict sooner or later."
"Hope you can really do what you said and not go too far with the human race anymore."
After saying these words, Riezel paid no attention to Ainz and the others' grim expressions and, with a twist of his body, flew off into the distance.
"Open the teleportation gate and let him out."
Ainz ordered in a deep voice.
"Yes."
Someone responded to Ainz and went off to prepare.
Ainz watched Riezel fly away, the red glow in his empty eye sockets flickering frequently—it was unclear what he was thinking.