"Corpus of Abyss?"
Hearing a name carrying some Latin in it gave Ainz a bit of a surprise.
"Yes. It's a secret organization made up of a few dozen Elder Liches and Night Liches."
The undead kneeling before him answered with a fearful expression. Something that brought Ainz a fair share of amusement.
It wasn't that he found his fearful expression funny, but compared to how Zuranon had been behaving in front of the Guildmaster just a few minutes earlier, his current expression seemed quite ridiculous.
Not that he would blame him for that.
He knew very well what it was like to be dominated by a necromancer. To have his will completely subjugated by a higher power, leaving his continued existence completely at the mercy of someone else.
Memory fragments of his first few years in that strange magical world that he would eventually destroy surfaced in his mind.
He didn't remember much of the time.
His conscience had been dulled by his death and consequent turning into a skeleton.
The process was simple, but devastating.
His sense of self was shredded into tiny pieces. His mind was scattered, with only vague thoughts coming and going from time to time.
His concentration was worse than a baby's, so he could only, instinctively, slowly piece out a consciousness after many years of effort.
In such a state, memories were a luxury that he couldn't afford, but even then, he could remember the burning, bright fear that consumed him at every moment.
It was as much fear as awareness of the power his master held over him, something that would only fade after he ran a sword through his master's heart.
But it was only after the power shackling him began to leave his body that he noticed how damaged his soul had been.
He didn't know if it was during the process of turning or even due to a mistake as he pieced together his consciousness, but he had lost the capacity to be afraid.
It wasn't ripped from him, and he hadn't been suppressing his fears in any way, but more like it had been left behind in the process, much like most of his memories of being human.
The fear he had felt from his master was something that the man had implanted in him, probably a feature of the spell used to control him.
He hadn't paid much mind to that during his time on that world, but after fusing with Suzuki Satoru, it became clear he had been a somewhat defective soul all those years.
During that time, there had been no fear, compassion, or hesitation holding him back from making his decisions.
Maybe it was because of this that I so readily chose to destroy that world?
It could be related, but he found the act of shifting the blame to be beneath his dignity.
The actions were his own, regardless of the circumstances.
But he had to say that he had been enjoying the qualities brought by the fusion of these two souls.
He even discovered new feelings from time to time.
Is this what they call empathy?
What a curious feeling.
He could relate to Zuranon's fear through his past experience as a dominated skeleton, which made him feel somewhat closer to the trembling lich before him.
Of course, he had no intention of relinquishing his control over him.
"I see. And are all of them as powerful as you?"
"No!" Zuranon yelled, seemingly offended by the question.
"As someone who has reached the 7th circle a long time ago, I am one of the strongest members, certainly superior to all the Elder Liches, comparable to a few Night Liches, and only weaker than a select few who already reached the 8th circle."
His tone carried the pride of the strong and the bitterness of the weak.
Hearing that, Ainz found it equal parts understandable and ridiculous.
It was understandable because of the low power level he had seen in the world.
If 6th-tier magic was the limit for humans, then casting 7th-tier spells was enough for someone to be counted among the strongest beings in this world.
"Is that so? Lupusregina here has almost completed your so-called 8th circle, and is on the cusp of reaching the 9th."
And it was ridiculous because to the beings in Nazarick, his capabilities would at most be classified as low-mid-tier.
Weaker than even the weakest of the Pleiades.
"What?"
Hearing Zuranon's pride crumble into pieces, Ainz began to consider whether he should spend some time capturing the members of the Corpus of Abyss.
It was true that their power was nothing outstanding, but they were still the most accomplished magic casters he had seen in this world so far.
With his ability to control undead, he shouldn't have a problem taking control of all of them and putting them to work for Nazarick.
Since they are undead, I don't even need to worry about their lifespans running out.
They can work without rest for eternity under my control.
Hum… It seems I have another thing in common with Zuranon.
Thinking about a group of liches dedicating all their time to magic research left him in a good mood.
I'm sure Mystra would like it too.
As the image of the golden skeleton obsessed with magic surfaced in his mind, his gaze softened.
I didn't pay much attention to her lately.
And this is exactly the type of thing that she would love to see…
"But she is still weaker than That One."
"That one? Who is that?"
Ainz's gaze fell on the undead, his interest piqued.
"The undead dragon who subjugated all of us with his power."
"Oh? Tell me more about that."
He had heard that there were dragons in this world, but this was his first time hearing an actual account of one.
In Yggdrasil, dragons were always powerful enemies, so I'm curious to see how strong one from this world actually is.
Especially an undead dragon.
"At some point in the last 200 years, this powerful dragon appeared in one of our bases and quickly a fight ensued." As if he had found a foothold, Zuranon's voice regained some of its composure.
"Many of us fought together, but we were no match for that dragon. I thought that would be our end, but unexpectedly the dragon proposed a deal. We would help keep him hidden, and give our research to him, and in exchange he wouldn't kill us all." Zuranon sneered upon reaching this point.
"That dragon is mighty, but also a big coward, afraid of the outside world. Some of us were reluctant, but after the dragon killed one of our strongest members, everyone became more agreeable."
Bitterness tinged his voice as he reached this point.
"And what tier of magic could this dragon use?"
For the dragon to be looking for magic research must mean he was a magic caster himself, so he wondered what level he had reached.
"I don't know for certain. He used a few 5th-tier spells at the time, but his strength didn't lie in Tier-Magic, but in the magic exclusive to dragons, Wild Magic."
***
Time passed as Zuranon continued to explain everything he knew to Ainz.
Over the centuries, Zuranon had amassed a great deal of knowledge and information, giving him much-needed insight into the world.
Zuranon was born as one of the many bastards of one of the 8 Greed Kings.
A human wizard who could kill Dragon Lords with ease.
From his retelling, Ainz was certain that these 8 Greed Kings were a group of players from Yggdrasil.
One that wanted to rule the world, using their power to destroy and conquer nations.
At the time, dragons ruled the continent, so in their campaign, the 8 Greed Kings killed most of them.
Some of the Greed Kings sired many children, most of whom weren't human, and Zuranon was one of them.
His father didn't even know he existed, but his mother told him many things about the battles of the Greed Kings and the Dragon Lords.
Zuranon grew to be a gifted magician, reaching what today would be called the Realm of Heroes, and his biggest achievement in life was creating a method to achieve immortality by turning himself into an Elder Lich.
He wasn't the first Lich, but he may have been the first human to become one.
From that time to the present, he knew bits and pieces of information, most of them from the last few decades, after he formed this group with the same name.
Looks really can be deceiving.
Who would think that this unassuming guy would be a pioneer in necromancy in this world?
Weak as he might be, he is still worthy of respect if only for this reason.
Ainz knew what it felt like to be a pioneer.
In his previous world, necromancy was abhorred almost as much as the undead, so knowledge from predecessors was scarce, forcing him to develop his own spells and methods to grow strong.
Back then, I also developed methods to turn humans into undead, and for undead to evolve into higher species.
Ainz took a black book from his inventory.
On its cover, written in dry blood, were the words: Book of the Dead.
This was an item from Yggdrasil.
A race-changing item that could turn a Skeleton Mage into an Elder Lich if the conditions of use were met.
He had used one back in his early days of the game and had dozens, if not hundreds, stored in the treasury.
In fact, Nazarick had plenty of race-changing items in store. From low-level ones like this to ones that could change someone into an Overlord or an Archfiend.
He flipped through the pages, seeing rows of writing that, as Suzuki Satoru, he considered simple flavor text, but that he was now curious to research.
The existence of a ritual capable of replicating this item's effect leads me to think that creating magic to replicate other race-changing items should also be possible.
He then paused, a thought occurring to him.
If Nfirea's talent lets him use any item regardless of the requirements, could he use one item to directly become a higher race, such as Overlord?
He thought that it might just be possible, and more importantly…
What would happen if he used a race-changing item after acquiring the talent?
"Do you have the schematics for the ritual you use to turn others into Elder Liches? If so, show me."
The possibility was tantalizing, but too risky for the moment.
He turned his attention to the ritual, wanting to see how it compared to the one he created.
Zuranon rummaged through his things and soon gave him an old scroll.
"Here it is, and I dare say that the Spiral of Death is probably the most advanced ritual in the world. I have spent hundreds of years researching and perfecting it."
There was pride in Zuranon's voice, which raised his expectations, but upon looking at the piece of paper, he was left with only disappointment.
"Sloopy."
He uttered the only word that came to mind.
The Spiral of Death was an ingenious ritual that proposed using the negative energy provided by the death, and consequent undeadification, of thousands of humans to power the transformation of a single magician into an Elder Lich.
The idea is good; I'm gonna give it to him.
Turning a human into an Elder Lich while putting their soul under your command is a very creative concept.
But the execution is so… messy.
For someone at his level, looking at the inscribed ritual was like reading an essay riddled with obvious grammatical errors.
"W-What do you mean?" Zuranon asked dumbly.
"Exactly what I said. I don't know where you get the courage to brag about such a poorly made ritual."
"But the Death Spiral has a great success rate…"
"How high is it?"
"About 50%."
Ainz looked into Zuranon's eyes to see if he was joking, but the man seemed serious.
Is 50% really considered high in this world?
If anything, the fact that the man seemed to genuinely believe that such an atrocious spell was something to be proud of was the most surprising thing.
Should I try to educate this fool?
"Look. A spell is a sophisticated response to a given problem. The better the spell, the less wasteful it is and the less strain it puts on the spellcaster."
"If the problem your Death Spiral was trying to solve was a fire, then its chosen method is the equivalent of having someone take fistfuls of water from a river before running, while letting the water spill through their fingers, and throwing whatever water remained in their hands towards the fire, repeating this cycle many times before possibly putting out the fire."
"Death Spiral is a very inefficient spell that only works as much as it does because of the sheer amount of negative energy you generate. If it was a bit more efficient, you wouldn't need to kill an entire city to fuel it; a village would be enough."
"And if the spell was truly refined, you wouldn't even need to kill anyone."
As far as he could see, this ritual was simply brute-forcing the process of turning someone into an undead.
It channeled loads of negative energy into a magician's body, asking them to conduct it as best they could until they became an Elder Lich.
Not only was it wasteful, but it also demanded more of the magician. If they lost their focus through the process, it would result in failure, turning them into a mindless undead.
"Different undead have different roots for their unlife. Liches are rooted in their bones, zombies in their flesh, vampires in their blood, and ghosts in their souls. So, to create an Elder Lich, you need to channel negative energy directly into the target's bones. Just by doing so, you should improve this success rate by 25% or more."
Ainz drew a human skeleton, then continued.
"The target needs to be a magician because the ritual needs to bind their mana directly to their bones. Throughout the ritual, the magician needs to use their mana to envelop their bones, maintaining the negative energy inside of them until the process is finished."
"By the end, their mana should have successfully mixed with the negative energy and taken root in their bones, turning them into an Elder Lich. One that should be stronger than the ones you created using your Spiral of Death. If you do it like this, not only will you need way less negative energy, but the success rate should be close to 100%."
Zuranon stood there with his mouth open, his expression one of enlightenment.
Ainz's few words answered many of the questions he had struggled with for centuries.
But Ainz wasn't over.
"Why didn't you use the negative energy of undead for the spell? It would be much easier than whatever you're trying in this city."
Back in his days as the Demon Lord, the living population was in constant decline while his undead grew in number, so at some point he gave up on using living beings to enhance his army and instead used his own undead to fuel his spells.
"I-I didn't think of that," Zuranon muttered, but then, as if finding a problem, he continued, "but wouldn't that require a lot of powerful undead? I think that even by the metrics you gave, we would need at least 10 Elder Liches to make this work."
With a wave of his hand, Ainz used the bodies around him to create 20 Elder Liches.
" I don't think that will be a problem for us."
If there was something Ainz didn't lack, it was low-level undead.
But I'm not sure my magical knowledge translates perfectly to this magic system.
I should probably ask for a specialist to help me out.
But would it be safe to bring her here?
Looking around, he didn't find anything threatening, but he still chose to call for help just in case.
[Demiurge, I ask that you come to my location with Mystra in 10 minutes.]