When Death Walked the World

Chapter 14

How long has it been? How long since he had last seen the outside world? Ainz did not know. His days were spent in experimenting and brainstorming ideas on how to strengthen himself as well as to try and find a way around the curse inflicted upon him. He was desperate and paranoid. He didn't dare venture out from his safe haven. He only had around 1% of his Hp and every corner there could be danger lurking, waiting for him to let his guard down. He didn't dare risk it.

He glanced at the various sparkling rings adorning his fingers. They each had their properties, designed to help him bring out the best from his build and character. He knew it well, that in actuality he had a ring which could grant wishes, and maybe in doing so his Hp would finally be filled.

He recalled how hopeful he was when it first came to mind, however his despair was way deeper after his initial expectations. It was useless.

Whatever they had done to him it couldn't be so easily nullified that a super tier spell could achieve it. He desperately hoped that one day Nazarick would show up, with the contents of its bottomless treasury, so he could get his hands on a WCI to clear his status afflictions. He also had some auto-resurrect items, but he was not confident that they would work in the same way as they did in Yggdrasil. He didn't risk it, he would be the laughing stock of Ainz Ooal Gown if his comrades found out that he had killed himself in hopes of replenishing his Hp.

He glanced up from a dusty old book, which he had picked up during his travels.

"Oh, how I wish I could see the outside world." Ainz sighed.

It was a good idea to plunder those dragon nests back then when he was on his grand journey to explore the world, now to pass the time it proved to be useful.

...

Though his Hp did not move up in the slightest, but his Mp thank Lord was intact. As such he used it. He practiced his spell casting abilities day and night, always burning through at least half of his mana reserves to try and improve his abilities. Through hard practice he managed to make several breakthroughs. He could stack up several strengthening spells, much more than should be feasible. After he improved his new technique he could use not only triple, but ninefold maximize magic.

However, there was a problem. It was like this, after he tried to overcome the curse's effects by using {Greater Lethal} to try and heal himself with negative energy, a lash back occurred. It tainted his magic, and every time he used a spell its effects would change slightly, as well as it had become more volatile. First, he found it frightening, though not enough for his emotional suppressor to kick in. Then it was a little unnerving, but his inner gamer was intrigued by the new possibilities this strange ability opened.

He was max level in Yggdrasil, and thus he could no longer gain new levels in the new world. However, through a random course of events he noticed something. Something else about him has also changed.

He cast several spells meant to gage his abilities and parameters. He almost made a double back as the readings which showed up inside his mind exceeded all expectations. His mana pool had exponentially expanded in the past century or even before, due to the continuous use of spells, or due to some other effects he did not know.

After decades of experiments, he had come to an indefinite conclusion. It appears that the regular use of magic, and depletion of mana points one could expanded and improve their total amount of mana, which they could store and utilize for magical purposes. Though, it crossed his mind that this new property of his could be a side effect of him trying to meddle with the curse.

Since then, through the thrill of improving his abilities Ainz had trained more feverously and roughly. He had depleted his mana pool to 0, just so he could use items which instantly recovered his Mp. After weeks of doing this he had realized that should he continue doing so he might run out of mana potions, so he switched to a gear which focused on mana recovering properties.