Volume 12: The Two Monsters

Chapter 3, Part 4

After returning to the "GoldenPavilion" where he was staying Marv asked the receptionist how hecould get a hold of Momon. He was told that Momon also resides in theGolden Pavilion, but was currently away on his duties as the enforcerof the Sorcerer King. The receptionist offered to relay Marv's desireto meet to Momon.

Meanwhile, Ainz was agonizing about how toapproach the adventurers from the Holy Kingdom. As he walked thestreets of E-Rantel he was deep in thought.

"I can't justapproach and ask them about their experience, that would seemsuspicious. After all, as a higher ranked adventurer, I shouldn't bethat interested in their performance. Hmm, I could make it seem likeI am asking about it as part of my duty to help calibrate the dungeondifficulty... no, that would make it sound like whoever designed thedungeon, wasn't an all-knowing being... ah, playing an Overlord is sotroublesome."

He was still thinking of what to do when hefound himself in front of the "Golden Pavilion."

"Thisis where they are staying, perhaps I can accidentally bump into theminside?" With that thought, he headed inside.

"Welcome,Momon-sama. There is an orichalcum adventurer of the Holy Kingdomnamed Marv Elen, he wanted to speak to you," Ainz was told by thereceptionist.

"Is that so? And where is he now?" Ainzinquired.

Upon learning that Marv was in his room, Ainz askedthe receptionist to go ask him if he wanted to have that chat now. Aminute later the receptionist came back with a tall and muscular man.

"Momon-dono it's a great honor to meet you, I am Marv Elen,the leader of an orichalcum adventurer group "The Young Blood"from the Holy Kingdom," the man introduced himself.

"I amMomon, the leader of "Darkness," Ainz introduced himself. "So,Marv-dono, you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Yes,Moknak, an adventurer you know, had told me you might be able tooffer some advice. You see, we had attempted the third wing of theAdventurer's Dungeon today. Unfortunately, we were unable to defeatthe last boss." Marv explained. "I was wondering if perhaps youhad some insight on how we can defeat it."

"Is that so? Imight be able to advise you, but first let me hear about your exactexperience," Ainz replied.

Sometime later Marv had finishedhis story and Ainz nodded in satisfaction. It seemed the dungeon wingturned out just like he wanted, despite the issues of being unable tocalibrate the exact difficulty of encounters. He had also learnedsome interesting things, especially about the talent that the magiccaster in Marv's group had.

"That seems like a very powerfultalent," Ainz commented upon learning the exact mechanics ofit.

"Certainly, however, it's only useful when possessed bysomeone with a great aptitude for magic. Such a talent would bewasted on me."

"That's true. It's not just abouthaving useful talents, but also being trained in the art that canbest make use of such a talent. Without a system to identify and thennurture such individuals, it falls upon chance, which would explainwhy there are so few people with properly developed abilities tofully utilize their innate talents." Ainz thought, as his mindraced over the possibilities.

"Truly, I think that demon wasjust too powerful for my group. But I would appreciate any advisefrom such a renowned adventurer as you, Momon-dono."

"Youmight be right about the demon's power, but you did not lose becauseof it, did you?"

"No, at least not entirely. We lostbecause it kept attacking our magic caster, and with its wingsblocking our attacks we could not stop it from doing so. It alsoseized the initiative, rushing our magic caster almost immediately."

"On top of that the demon's defensive move by spinningleaves you at a disadvantage - if you stay close you'll get hit bya surprise attack if you stand back the demon can use the distancebetween you to rush other members or to cast spells," Ainz said asMarv nodded his head an agreement. "The main problem is that youare unable to control the flow of the battle."

"That'sright. Our usual strategy clearly didn't work against it."

"Butyour ranger was able to land some shots, despite the demon's defense.He was able to do so because he attacked at the same time as thedemon. Meaning the demon cannot both defend and attacksimultaneously. Armed with this information you should be able towin, as long as you can control the flow of the battle," Ainzexplained.

"But how? We were unable to do any damage to it,and it mostly ignored us when we... " Marv began.

"Youneed to change your formation. Attacks from the flanks or back won'twork. You need to attack from the front, it's also the mostadvantageous position for you," Ainz interrupted the warrior.

"You at the front, Shola behind you, then ranger and thenmagic caster. It puts the magic caster behind the three of you,making it impossible to rush him. Shola behind you can either heal orengage the demon when it gets past you, giving you time to recoverand re-engage," without noticing it, Ainz got more and more intothe strategy aspect of the encounter.

"Ranger and Magiccaster can assist you and distract the demon when it tries to attackyou. Additionally, it solves the issue with its defense - if ittries to spin you can just step back and let the magic caster unloadon it. It's spinning wings defense should prove useless againstspells. Your job isn't so much to do damage, but to block it fromattacking your party mates or letting it cast spells. If you can dothat, you will win."

"Ohh, that's truly astonishing, youwere able to come up with such a clear strategy, identifying ourstrengths and weaknesses in such a short time... even amongstadamantite adventurers your strategic insight is unmatched,"praised Marv, his voice full of admiration.

"Think nothingof it," replied Ainz, after a quick glance to make sure theadventurer was not mocking him.

"Will you be challengingthe dungeon tomorrow?"

"I wasn't"t sure, but now, armedwith your tactical insight, how could we pass up the chance?" Marvsaid, with a smile on his face. "By the way, the third bossencounter was rather difficult as well. Two Elder Liches... Moknakmentioned that you've offered him advice on how to defeat it. I'dlove to know what it was."

"Ho, indeed. However, Moknak'sgroup is still lacking in power to properly execute it. On the otherhand your group..."

"It's simple, the Lich's main strengthis its formidable magic power. However, once engaged in a meleecombat its capability decrease tremendously. In this way, the shortdistance inside the dungeon puts it at a disadvantage."

"Indeed,attacking two Elder Liches in an open field would've been a suicide,"Marv nodded.

"This weakness also makes it very tempting touse a strategy where you tie up an Elder Lich in melee combat. Thiswas the strategy you've used. However, it leaves you exposed shouldanother opponent appear. Even if it works in this dungeon, what aboutthe world out there? What if a powerful enemy which requires theentire group to defeat appears? You can't leave the Liches alone, butyour group also can't survive without all its members engaging thenew enemy. The goal of the dungeon is to teach adventurers how tobest handle various situations, not to fine-tune them to handling aspecific one. That's why the encounters change."

"I see,so you would suggest we try to take one of the Liches out as quicklyas we can before the encounter gets more complicated."

"Exactly.Now, given your group's composition here's how I would go aboutit..." Ainz said as he once again began to explain variousstrategies one could use.

He didn't realize it, but SuzukiSatoru had really missed dungeon crawling with his friends. Thisconversation had reminded him of the time long ago after he metTouchMe-sama. Back when he and the other member's of "Nine's OwnGoal" adventured together as newbies through low ranked dungeons.Strategizing over encounters and the various tactics to beat them.Speaking to the adventurer in front of him Suzuki felt nostalgic.

It was quite sometime later that the two of them parted ways.

After Momon had left, Marv went to collect the other membersof his group to inform them that they will be taking another crack atthe Adventurer's Dungeon the next day.

Next day inside theadventurer's guild

Marv had come to the Adventurer's Guildto have Ainzach accompany his group to the Dungeon once again.However, upon arriving at the guild a receptionist told him that theguild master was currently busy, and asked them to wait.

Whilethey spent the time looking at the equipment displayed for items onecould get with the Dungeon tokens, a door opened upstairs and twopeople walked down. As expected one was the guild master, PlutonAinzach, the other one was a dwarf.

"Next time I visit you Ishould have some real beauties for you," the dwarf said.

"Oh,I look forward to seeing your newest creations, Gondo-dono. Although,the ones you've shown me today are quite impressive already," - theguild master replied.

Once they had descended the stairs thetwo shook hands, and the dwarf left.

"Oh, there you are.Here to have another crack at the dungeon, are you?" Ainzach askedMarv after greeting him.

"We are. Would you accompany us tothe Dungeon again?"

While the five of them rode to theAdventurer's Dungeon Marv was talking to Ainzach about the dwarf. Helearned about the runesmiths coming over to the Sorcerer Kingdom, aswell as the dwarven kingdom, becoming an ally. Apparently, the dwarfhe saw earlier was the point man between the runesmiths and E-Rantel.He had come over to deliver a new batch of equipment for theAdventurer's Guild.

"Since we don't have any adventurersranked over mithril, except "Darkness" who don't need newequipment, we focused