“Ah, ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’. Did you find it interesting?”

“Yes, it was very fun! I was wondering what I should read next.”

“Then I have a recommendation for you. It’s a book that will make you laugh non-stop. It’s about murder— Ah, this way.”

“Thanks.”

Mare opened the door it pointed at.

The room was wide open, but the humongous bookcases at all sides of the room radiated an invisible pressure.

Inside the bookcases were countless catalysts such as minerals, precious metals, stones with special attributes, gems, various powders and the organs of animals, all arranged in a neat fashion. Besides those items, there were countless parchments both rolled and unrolled.

All these items were materials to make scrolls with.

Of course, these were not all of the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s resources. The Treasury contained several hundred times the amounts of the resources here. What was in this room was purely for what was needed here and now.

In the middle of the room was a big drawing board with a parchment on top of it. In front of it was a skeleton of something that looked like a hybrid between a human and an animal. It was not that big, perhaps 150 cm tall. It had two horns resembling those of a devil coming out from its skull, its hands each ended in four fingers, and its feet were hoofed.

This strange figure was robed in a saffron-coloured himation. Also there was one himation on its head, wrapped like a hood so the horn would not rip it, and there was one on its waist as well. There were other accessories, such as a silver bracelet embedded with seven differently coloured gems, a necklace with a golden ankh, various rings that looked like twisted fingers and gems on the himation that served as a waist belt. They were all magical items with considerable mana stored inside them.

Although its appearance and equipment were strange, it was actually one of the first undead species, a skeleton mage. It would be a step below the elder lich he had just met. But this skeleton mage was the Chief Librarian of this humongous library, Titus Annaeus Secundus.

It was an NPC created by a Supreme Being for crafting skills rather than combat skills. Its overall levels were also higher than the elder lich from before.

“Greetings, Guardian Mare. I welcome thee.”

“Hello, Titus-san. I have a favour to ask.”

“Of course, of course. I shall heed thy request.”

“Y-yea. Uh, you know, I was wondering if you could lend me some servants over level 75 from here.”

“I understand. Thou seek’st to go outside.”

“Huh? Y-yeah. You guessed it.”

“…Mine ears hath never forgotten a word from the Overlord, Ainz-sama. Also considering thy position, ‘tis an easily deducible conclusion — Good!”

He made a decision in a flash.

“I shall lend thee the Overlords of this Library: Cocceius, Ulpius, Aelius, Flavius and Aurelius.”

“Eh? Really?!”

“Of course. Verily, their presence here is an extravagance. They would rejoice having the chance to defend thine person as opposed to these ancient tomes.”

“T-then, uh, thank you very much!”

“But that doth not mean it shall be for free. I shalt ask one thing from thee; to aid in the creation of a scroll.”

“Ah, yes! What do I need to do?”

“Be at ease. When I speaketh so, activate thine 4th tier magic towards the scroll.”

“C-can it be any kind of magic?”

“The decision shalt be thine to make.”

Mare frowned. It was most difficult for him when he needed to make a decision. He wondered if a regular spell would be fine.

Titus reached for a small table besides the drawing table with a parchment laid on top. There was a mound of gold coins gleaming on top of the small table — they were gold coins from Yggdrasil.

Some of the Yggdrasil gold melted under the skeletal hands and flowed onto the parchment as if it had a will of its own.

The golden fluid flowed to a point on the parchment before spreading out. In the time it took to take a breath, there was an intricate golden magic circle on top of the parchment.

“Ready.”

Mare quickly cast the spell after waiting tensely and he could feel his magic being sucked into the magic circle.

A regular scroll would have been complete at that stage, or so Mare thought.

Until—

There was a scarlet flame.

Something that should not have happened occurred. As Mare watched on in panic, the parchment burned up like high alcohol content liquor and vanished within the blink of an eye.

There was no trace of what had happened, as if it had been an illusion all along. Not even the smell of burning remained. But there was one piece of evidence that spoke of what had taken place.

It was the ashes from the parchment.

Titus picked up the ashes as if he had expected it to happen.

“T’would seem, it cannot hold a 4th tier spell. The puissance of the wonderworker changeth nought about the outcome.”

Titus wrote down a memo saying “Heat — ten year's old skin cannot withstand” while grumbling.

“Uh, w-why was it like that? Did I?”

“Thou doth need not mind. Mine experiments with the bounty of this world hath been devised to limit the depletion of Nazarick’s reserves. But surely this harvest must be of a base quality.”

There were limits on what kind of materials could be used for scrolls, depending on the tier of magic they were intended to contain.

For example, regular parchment could be used to store 2nd tier magic, but nothing above that. A scroll made with materials of the highest tier, like dragonhide, could contain even 10th tier magic.

Of course, dragonhide was an extremely rare item that could not be obtained except from killing a dragon. All the members of Ainz Ooal Gown used to hunt dragons together back in the past, but that was back in the days of YGGDRASIL. Because of that, Ainz limited the usage of dragonhide until they could confirm the existence of dragons and other creatures in this world.

There was bound to be a moment they would need the materials, and it was foolish to use their supplies without being able to replenish them.

“No, not my dragons!”