Quote Originally Posted by Munsu View Post
I was honestly confused throughout the whole episode. Couldn't really connect what was occurring with that of Ains' goals or directives he might've had to this point in the series.

So in all, not sure what's really going on.
He must have sent Shalltear out to find people with genuine martial art skills (skills like perks in an RPG). Apparently Ains doesn't really know melee combat and such so well, so he must study them in order to put them to use or oppose them successfully. I reckon Shalltear is trying to provoke such people to step out of the shadows and then take them to Nazarick for interrogation and examination. To be honest that plan seems quite inefficient, but I'd assume he tries only to learn the very basics this way, without anybody noticing.