Starting from Ainz Ooal Gown, simultaneously traveling through time

"Finally, I've finished dealing with today's official business."

Lei Lin put down his pen and stretched lazily.

In fact, the total amount of government affairs is not much, and with his efficiency, he finished reviewing them all in less than half an hour.

This was mainly due to the fact that the Kingdom of Inberia was not a highly centralized state, and its governance structure was closer to the traditional Western feudal system:

The king directly governs the high nobles, who in turn govern the lower nobles, who in turn govern the commoners within their own territories.

With power delegated layer by layer, the king no longer needed to concern himself with every detail of local affairs.

"Fortunately, the kingdom's territory is not large and the population is limited, so this system can still function. However, if the territory expands and the population increases dramatically in the future, this feudal system will definitely not work, and a thorough institutional reform will be necessary."

Lei Lin pondered his future plans to himself.

Then, on a whim, he activated [Teleport] and left the government affairs hall.

A moment later, Duke Caius entered carrying a stack of new documents and found the room empty.

"His Highness has disappeared again..." He shook his head helplessly, his gaze falling on the stack of neatly arranged documents on the table that had been reviewed.

"But at least everything that needed to be dealt with has been taken care of. This prince has been acting very mysteriously lately; I wonder what grand plan he's up to..."

He put away the documents and gently closed the door.

..............................

Raylin's teleportation destination was a massive underground cavity more than a thousand meters deep, located directly beneath the capital city.

This place was originally a dense rock formation, a secret space that Leylin had driven his controlled Deadpools to dig day and night.

"At a depth of over a thousand meters, it should be well concealed and not easily detected."

Leylin looked around at the vast, dark, silent void with thin air before him.

In such an environment, ordinary organisms simply cannot survive.

"It's just a rough draft now, but once I finish remodeling it, it will become the most solid fortress."

Leylin's goal was to transform this underground cavern into an absolutely safe rear base.

The Kingdom of Inberia is located on the surface of the earth. Although prosperous, it is also exposed to various threats.

Those powerful beings or terrifying monsters with the ability to move mountains and overturn seas can easily bring devastating blows to the kingdom.

A base buried more than a thousand meters underground would be much safer.

"Unless someone uses [teleportation] to enter directly like I did, it's incredibly difficult for outsiders to find the entrance, let alone break in."

Leylin's vision extended far beyond just an underground bunker.

He gained knowledge about Nibelungen from the shared memories of the dragon clan Leylin—

That was a different dimension created by the Dragon King with his powerful spiritual energy, attached to the real world. It could store items and also accommodate living beings, essentially an independent small plane.

Leylin had always envied the impregnable bases of the player guilds in YGGDRASIL.

Now, he intends to use the Dragon King's authority he has acquired to create his own Nibelungen, as the kingdom's ultimate refuge and strategic hub.

"Although places like the Three Gorges Bronze City and the Beijing subway station in the original story seem like anyone can break into Nibelungen... that's because of the protagonist's halo. Under normal circumstances, the Dragon King's lair is definitely a graveyard for intruders."

Leylin was very confident about this.

His construction plan consisted of several steps:

First, creating space:

Using their own spiritual power as a foundation, they anchored and expanded the area of ​​this underground cavity, shaping it into a stable prototype of an alternate dimension.

Second, fortifying the city:

Command Deadpool to mine vast quantities of metal ore, which he will personally smelt into sentient "living metals." Use these metals to construct a massive, self-defending mechanical city within Nibelungen. The city itself will possess the characteristic of being "alive," automatically attacking invaders.

Third, deploy guards:

Arrange for an elite Death Servants unit to be stationed in the city, serving as patrols and guards.

"This is destined to be a massive project that will take several years... but that's okay, we can take it one step at a time and get it done eventually."

Leylin looked at the spatial base that had begun to take shape in the void, gleaming with a cold metallic light, and his heart was filled with anticipation.

"This place will be my and this kingdom's strongest support."

Not far away, many humanoid lizard-like Deadpools, with vacant eyes but immense strength, were still tirelessly chiseling rocks and transporting materials.

"Power... still needs more time to accumulate and transform." Leylin muttered to himself, his figure slowly merging into the shadows of the space.

..............................

"Who are you?"

The Great Wizard of the Dead, Grote Astor, stared warily at the uninvited guest before him.

The other person was completely shrouded in a large gray cloak, and their face was covered by a pure white mask with no expression.

Only a pair of pupils, gleaming with an eerie dark gold, were exposed.

Grote is an "undead".

In his lifetime, he was a great mage obsessed with the mysteries of magic.

After death, due to his strong obsession and regret over not being able to fully explore the truth of magic, he was transformed into an undead creature under the corrosive influence of massive negative energy.

However, even as an immortal, what he hated and craved was not the flesh and blood of living beings, but rather the deeper knowledge of magic. He had no interest in slaughtering the living.

He established his own magic workshop in a remote, desolate mountain and devoted himself to research.

After an extremely long period of time, he finally succeeded in mastering the power of [Sixth-Order Magic].

This thrilled him and made him even more eager to explore higher levels of legal principles.

Today, he had just collected several human test subjects and was preparing to bring them back to the workshop, but he was stopped on the way by this mysterious gray-robed man.

Grote instinctively felt threatened. He questioned Grote, trying to extract information, while secretly gathering magic to prepare a spell.

"You who block the way, state your purpose!" Grote's voice echoed with the hollowness characteristic of the undead.

The gray-robed man remained silent, as if he were mute. Only his dark golden pupils gleamed with a faint, cold light.

The next second, the gray-robed man moved without warning!

He drew a simple yet chillingly sharp longsword, his figure closing in like a ghost, the blade aimed straight for Grote's neck!

"Won't talk? Then arrest him and interrogate him slowly! Let's see who dares to ruin my research!" Grote snorted coldly, neither dodging nor avoiding, his withered finger pointing forward—

"Third-tier magic [Fireball]!"

A blazing fireball roared out, meeting the oncoming blade head-on.

However, the gray-robed man's blade flashed simply, and the scorching fireball was cleaved in two like a fragile bubble, sparks flying everywhere before it was quickly extinguished.

"What?!" Grote's pupils shrank.

The opponent was clearly no ordinary person to be able to destroy a fireball so easily, so he immediately abandoned his contempt.

"【Dimensional Movement】!" Grote's figure vanished from his spot in an instant, reappearing more than ten meters away, narrowly avoiding the blade light that followed.

"Fly!" He then cast a spell to ascend into the air, attempting to create distance and gain the advantage in casting spells.

"You cowardly coward, let me show you real magic!"

Grote began to chant hoarsely, and dark, negative energy ripples surged around him.

"[Negative Energy Enhancement]! [Dark Hand]! [Vicious Magic]! And then—"

He raised his staff high, and surging magic gathered at its tip, emanating a chilling aura of death that sent shivers down one's spine.

"[Ultimate Magic Enhancement • Fifth-Tier Magic • Death Ray]!"

A beam of negative energy, condensed to its extreme and as black as ink, tore through the air and shot towards the gray-robed man on the ground with a destructive force!

This is the strongest single-target destructive spell that Grote can currently cast, and he is confident that it is enough to severely injure or even kill most powerful enemies.

However, when faced with this deadly ray, the dark gold pupils beneath the gray-robed man's mask shone brightly!

An extreme speed, far beyond Grote's comprehension, suddenly erupted!

The gray-robed figure seemed to flash through a crack in time, so fast that it was impossible to catch with the naked eye, and even exceeded the limits of sound and Grote's nerve reaction!

That was not magic, but rather the manifestation of a more primal and violent power—[moment]!

Grot only felt a blur before his eyes. Before the deadly ray of death could even reach its target, a dazzlingly cold blade of light had already bloomed horizontally in his field of vision.

"Sizzle—"

After the soft sound, Grote felt a cold, disorienting sensation.

He looked down and saw that his lower body was still in the air, while his upper body... was falling to the ground.

He was cleanly and neatly cut in half at the waist, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.

(Like a certain teacher with the surname Gojo, it was broken in two.)