DEMONLORD

by Dimension Distorter

An alternate time where Earth wasn't devastated but thriving thanks to, virtually, a miracle. Alternate forces that work behind in its shadow to bring about its end. And an alternate person who got trapped in the New World 10 years before YGGDRASIL shuts down with no guild or IRL friends to speak of. What kind of changes can a single person make? - MATURE! HAS LEMONS AND SMUT!

1. Transportation Issues

Here is my new story, after being obsessed with a new fav anime of mine, Overlord. After reading stories from the likes of MadDan90, pta917 and Reis Nailo (along with a few others), I've been eager to get to writing my own. I have been planning the initial stages for months and it's about time to try and put all of that planning into action. Understand though that while this is mainly an OC-based Overlord story and all that, there are a lot of other elements that I am going to mix into both YGGDRASIL and the 'New World' as well. A lot of them I think you all will be very familiar with and I can't wait to write them all out…but one thing at a time, heh.

Oh, and before you start reading, let me save you the trouble. Ainz is NOT central to this story. He IS going to be in the story EVENTUALLY but I'm creating an entirely original plotline for the New World. I'm not taking canon out the picture, not entirely, but somewhere down the line, canon is gonna have to take a back seat. Hell, it'll be taking a back seat pretty early in the starting chapters. I'm not even going GIVE you who are only here for Ainz the chance to judge my story. It's OC centric. Don't expect Ainz if that's literally the ONLY THING you care for about Overlord.

Ainz isn't the foundation of the series. The New World is and that's what makes the series amazing. That's what I believe, anyway. So, don't bash because you don't get skeleton boy. I'm telling you this so that you can choose to backspace away and save yourself the hassle. But….if you're willing to stick with my OC, then please enjoy the read. I've worked really hard with MadDan90 this past year to get ALL of my Overlord information correct. I'm still currently reading the LN and just got to chapter 4 in it. I also watch the anime too…just the dub though because that's how I watch it.

P.S. There WILL be smut and sex of all kinds in this story with various kinks and species! Don't like that? I'll put a bold line before the lemon and after the lemon so that you can skip over it. Nothing like that in this chapter though but there will be in the next one, just to give a heads up.

Chapter 1: Transportation Issues

Of all the planets in the solar system of the Milky Way Galaxy, all of the pale in comparison to that of a single world, inhabited by the dominant race, known as humans, along with a vast assortment of other creatures, of course. Earth has seen its fair share of conflicts both natural and man-made through the many millennia, yet it seems that humanity is on the fast-track to rapid growth and consistent evolution among themselves. The current year is 2128 AD, Earth in the distant future of the 22nd century and the advancement of technology has never been greater despite the massive setback that was befalling the planet.

In the past, during the early stages of the 21st century, oil was a dangerous resource for the people around the world to constantly rely on. Not to mention, constant production and use of fossil fuels are what was leading the planet down the wrong path. As more complex machinery was being created, mixed in with mass production of current technology, it required the use of more and more fossil fuels and constant abuse of oil continued to add to the pollution that had been plaguing the Earth for decades. When some oil-wells began to run dry around 2025 because of this, starting in Saudi Arabia, due to it being the world's largest oil producer.

For the next 2 years, humanity was on a slow decline as a multitude of mini-wars around Earth, either against separate nations or in-fighting in some countries, erupted due to fighting over every remaining oil-well within their realistic reach. Those that were already owned wells that continued to produce oil fought their hardest and set up as many defenses as they could afford to keep their means of productivity going. Saudi Arabia suffered badly as they were practically oil-less for those two years so they could not afford to create many new cars, computers, or even mundane things, such as air-conditioners. And due to the resources wars, barely any nation was eager to help supply them either.

This lead to Saudi Arabia becoming more people-productive and savvy with the machines that they already had. China and Russia were willing to spare just enough oil to Saudi Arabia for them to continue to have a decent amount of electricity but only for communications to not go dark among other things. This meant that phones, computers, refrigerators, and even air conditioners were not among the things that were obsolete but cars no longer had a place in their society. If this trend had continued on for the next several decades, then the people of Earth would have turned their world inside-out and make it a horrid reflection of what it used to be, trying to create or mass produce alternatives to oil, destroying the beauty of nature. Some even thought that trying to substitute oil with nuclear power was to be the next solution however this only proved to be even more dangerous than not having any oil at all after various experiments were tested and performed.

This did not come to pass.

It was into the 3rd year when something that could only be described as a miracle had made itself known in America. The discovery of the one-thought to be a fruitless idea, cold fusion. A power that has alluded scientists since the 1900s and practically falling into the realm of myth in the science community which nearly put it into the same category as magic. It practically was, as the main focus of cold fusion is to outperform oil and nuclear fission in every possible way, from constant energy production to little to no waste output into the environment or atmosphere.

Tests were done with newly created appliances and miniature generators and those of the science community were astounded to see the new cold fusion batteries were constantly recycling power, making the machines run smoothly without any issues. These generators were kept on for an entire day and then turned off the next day before being removed, showing that they could still properly function at optimal compacity. This miracle not only set Earth back on the right track in its development but the people of Earth had exceeded what they believed to have been possible during their current age.

Every new machine that was created was outfitted with cold fusion tech in some way and any old appliances were reprocessed and then repurposed to work with the new science that swept the world in the coming years. Old oil and nuclear plants were dismantled before fusion plants took their places, not capable of polluting the atmosphere. Technology jumped ahead several decades thanks to the infinite energy supply that people were slowly but surely being outfitted with. Suffice to say, it was difficult for the people of Earth to imagine where they would be if the technology that they used today was never discovered.

---

America.

The largest cesspool of diversity, innovation, ingenuity, and people on the west side of the world. Due to cold fusion discovery in this section of North America, the U.S. had become a very famous locale for those who did not naturally live within its borders. Not to mention the fact that a good amount of cutting-edge technology originated from America nowadays but to keep good relations with other continents, it would bestow places like Japan, China, or Russia with prototypes of their completed machines for them to reverse engineer and recreate to properly fit their culture.

This did not mean that the rest of the world was behind in any way in comparison as they did have their own creations and such that they were very proud of, such as Japan nearly mastering robot-technology for starters. Even going as far as creating virtual intelligence, or V.I., for the majority of them.

The focus is set in New York City, the 'Big Apple' itself, which had managed to expand itself at least to twice the size over the past century. Buildings were built much higher, the three islands that comprised the entire city all doubled and it was more of a place of opportunity than ever before. Flying modes of transportation, such as people on hoverboards or in hovercars rushed passed on ground level or in the sky. Watching the masses pass was a man, who was sitting at an outdoor café table.

He was African American with brown hair that was a mix of slicked back and ended in spikes. There were a few short bangs that hung from his forehead just above his eyebrows, and the sides of his head had a buzz-cut. He appeared to be in his mid-20s and had an impressive stature of 6'0. His eyes were a surprising shade of dull red, an unnatural shade for anyone to have unless they were wearing colored contacts. For clothing, he wore an open black jacket, a red shirt underneath, and jeans with dark black boots. Around his neck was a dull-grey necklace with a symbol made of onyx hanging from it. It was the design of some sort of key, with the handle in the center of the circle where the necklace was attached, and the key-portion hanging down.

In front of the man was a plate of food, which was a sandwich cut in half, hotdog, and a strawberry smoothie. To his left side was a sketchpad with three pencils beside it. He grabbed a sandwich in his left hand before taking a bite of out it, grumbling a little to him. "Jesus, he's late. What's keeping him?"

He didn't have to wait too long because he heard footsteps rapidly approaching from behind him just a few minutes later. The new arrival was another man of around the same age, except he was Caucasian. His hair was a dirty blonde and his eyes were green. He wore a green and blue shirt, jeans, and black shoes. He huffed as he walked to the table and looked down at the first man, who just deadpanned at him while eating.

"You're 10 minutes late, Jakob. The hell was keeping ya'?"

"Sorry, Gwent, I had to help my sister with something first and she just wouldn't leave me alone until it was done."

The now named Gwent shrugged and said, "Well, I guess it couldn't' be helped. I waited 5 minutes but I just got hungry and had to eat something. Go on an order something. I can wait."

"Sure." He walked into the café to do just that. Thankfully, nobody else was ordering food at the time so he was able to get him relatively quickly, which was a BBQ Burger, some fries, and a milkshake. He came out to the table and sat down on the side opposite to Gwent who couldn't help but smile, thankful that his friend had shown up and the boredom that he was feeling could finally cease.

As Jakob ate some of his fries, he looked down to the sketchpad that Gwent had to his side, noticing the new picture that he was working on. He didn't have any colored pencils so it was just a normal sketch but it looked very impressive and detailed. Even though he was looking at it upside down, he could tell that it was most definitely a being that stood on two legs. Most certainly not a person but definitely a creature.

"So, what have you been working on? You did that while I waiting for me?" Jakob asked while taking a bite out of his burger. Gwent looked up from his sandwich, which he was finishing as he took the final bites out of the second one. He turned to his sketchpad and turned it around with his unoccupied hand so Jakob could properly see it. He drunk a bit of his smoothie to wash it down before giving his answer.

"Nah. It usually takes me 30 minutes to do a picture that detailed so quickly, and even then it's not totally realized unless I put, at least about an hour into it. But that there is actually my demon avatar, Inariz Xorgran. You know, from my copy of YGGDRASIL, that super, popular DMMORPG that dropped in Japan 3 years ago."

Jakob's eyes widened in surprise as he kept staring at the picture. The times that Gwent ever talked about what he did involving that YGGDRASIL game were few and far between and each time, Jakob was interested in knowing more about it. He knew that his friend, Gwent Bane, was a guy of various talents and got by in life relatively easily thanks to those skills of his. For one, he had amazing artistic talent and that's landed him to be in a pretty comfortable position financially and socially alone, as he drew various comics, paid commissions, and even works at the Sony Corporation of America (SCA) for those same skills.

If that isn't enough, he was also fluent in Japanese as well and gained a pretty great reputation for being an English to Japanese and vice-versa translator. From what Jakob understood, if his memory served properly, one would have to be at least an intermediate-level speaker and reader of Japanese else playing YGGDRASIL was a pointless endeavor to those who couldn't. Especially considering that, from what Gwent told him, everyone who plays the game only speaks Japanese with the bare-minimum able to speak English. Jakob himself could say with pride that he was good enough in the language to hold a conversation for a decent amount of time with a Japanese speaker but he knew he had a long way to go before he could even attempt to play YGGDRASIL…and that's not counting having the buy the game, the equipment, and them having it shipped oversea's.

He looked back down at the picture, going over every little detail about it. "Your avatar, huh? Well…what is he?" The character, Inariz, in particular, had unruly hair between two impressive horns that weren't dissimilar to a bull's. He had a snout and digitigrade legs with three clawed-toes on each foot but most definitely wasn't an animal. He had on very intricate looking armor with large armor plate that hung over his crotch area. He wore fingerless gauntlets, armor over his feet instead of shinguards and carried two swords. One on his back and one that he was holding his right hand off to the side as if preparing an attack.

Gwent couldn't help but give a small smile of pride before giving his answer. "Inariz is a Demon. A Demon Lord actually but that's just a technicality. Honestly, I've put a whole mess of work into him these past 3 years, especially to get him to Lv.100. It's amazing that I'm able to play YGGDRASIL and also get various kinds of work done when not playing." He was not exaggerating with that statement either. Between personal projects, working at Sony, playing other video games, his social life, along with being called off and on for translating positions, it was a wonder he found the time to manage it all.

"You know, you don't really talk about YGGDRASIL much unless something about it is brought up in conversation. Why is that?" Jakob asked but Gwent just shrugged at him, biting into his hotdog.

"Well, people don't usually talk about games that they have to someone who doesn't have the same game because they can't properly convey the experience. And that's…honestly, the same reason why I don't bring it up…well, that and, it's a whole new kind of experience in of itself what with all the Japanese things. Plus, because it's one of the very few DMMORPG's out there, I think I can only really talk about it to someone who has actually played it. I don't mind telling you things about the game though."

Jakob thought about it before nodding in understanding. Yes, that was true in his eyes as well. He remembered when they were kids and he tried to explain to explain his love for giant robots, such as Gundam and the like. However, it was difficult for Gwent to understand his excitement because Gwent wasn't into large hulking robots that were prone to smash up city blocks by the dozen. He could at least admit that they looked very cool, that was for sure.

"Well, how different is this game from other DMMORPG-based games? America has a few of those too. I mean, you have to admit that some of those are great." He handed Gwent his sketchpad back. Said man took it into his hand, having finished his hotdog and stared intently at the drawing of his avatar.

"I'm not saying the ones we have here in America is bad at all. But…the thing about YGGDRASIL is that it has EVERYTHING that I want and then some. For one, you know how much of a big fantasy nerd I am so that alone got me hooked on it. But for another reason, the number of races you can pick and classes you can pick is just so damn numerous and crazy that anyone who is able to properly play it would spend an hour or two on customization alone. Sucks you can only pick a single character for your entire duration of the game but that's hardly a problem. There's no time limit to picking your race and your classes so you can make sure what you pick is what you want.

A lot of the dive-based games barely have anything like that. It's either you just jumped into a pre-programmed game with already selected characters or the customization and races are highly limited. I've never been a fan of picking human-characters because…I mean, why would I when I've spent my whole life as one, right? I know what we're capable of so I like seeing what other races can do."

Jakob gave him a knowing smirk. "And because you're a furry~"

Gwent gave a prideful smile. "Yes, I am…and so are you. I know you think my character is hot."

Jakob gave a laugh and shook his head. "I'm so not gonna stroke your ego anymore on that." Let it be known that while they both were furries, they were both also bisexual as well. So, in his mind, Jakob did find Gwent's avatar to be quite the looker. And he already knows about his friend's obsession with picking bestial characters over human ones. He can't recall a time where he ever picked a humanoid character in a game where you were allowed to pick another race entirely. Though, Gwent was a bit fickle in that regard too because, in his words, he would have to also be a race that looked good enough that even a human wouldn't mind plowing.

He was so weird.

The artist laughed before drinking more smoothie. After his sip, he continued, "but that's kinda what drew me in at first. I mean when I saw I could be a damn demon of all things, I needed that in my life. And you get to literally explore the whole of YGGDRASIL too. All of the 9 Worlds are in there and each of them is three times the size of Tokyo."

Jakob's eyes went wide at the thought. After having taken a trip to Tokyo a few times, he could say without a doubt that the immensely busy city was huge. But nine locations in a game that was three times the size? He couldn't even fathom.

"That sounds so cool," he exclaimed with a big smile, "seriously making me wanna get the game! I mean, I may not be as good at Japanese as you are but I think I'd be able to get by! I can't believe you never told me about all of that!"

Gwent laughed a little bit. "Well, it IS a game that dropped only in Japan and the only reason I managed to get my copy on the game of release was that of my Japanese pen-pal, Gao, letting me know. Showed me the trailers and everything. And, like I said, I could never really bring the game up properly before."

"Can you tell me more about how the character customizing works?" He asked, fully into the conversation now.

Gwent nodded. "Yeah. There are three types of races you can pick. You have the Humanoids, with the normal humans plus Elves, and Dwarves. Humanoid races are weakest in basic status and cannot have a racial level. Instead, they can learn more classes which provide high status or powerful skills more easily, giving them high potential. They're the most popular races and that sucks ass…I'll get to why later.

Then there are the Demi-Human races, which are the Orcs, Ogres, Lizardmen, which I have to admit, I almost picked that one. The Lizardmen look cool. Anyway, Demi-Human races can get more basic status and have a racial level which you can add onto for new race-specific powers. Demi-Human races are similar to the average between Humanaoid races and Heteromorphic races and I'll explain that one in a little bit. While the Demi-Human races aren't all as easy on the eyes like a human, they can still perform better than Humanoid races. In my opinion, sometimes, it's best to go for the strongest body and skills than the best looks.

Finally, we've got what I said before; the Heteromorphic races. Inariz falls into this category and it's the very least picked out of all three of these."

Jakob couldn't help but ask, "Why is that?"

Gwent gave him an irritated look making him shirk back a little but the look wasn't meant for him. "Oh, you'll know in a bit. Just let me explain. Also, if I look mad, it's not because you interrupted…but that was rude. Don't do that."

"Sorry," Jakob said simply.

"It's because of what the Heteromorphs gotta go through that's pissing me off right now. Let me explain. So, this race has even crazier creatures to choose from. Slimes, Vampires, Werewolves, Angels…Demons. All of that. Heteromorphic races own the most powerful basic status, which can be even more strengthened by increasing their racial level. High-rank races also provide special abilities similar to that of monsters. Besides providing the racial level and special abilities, the Heteromorphic races are able to also gain more ability points than neither Humanoid or Demi-Human races

But what sucks about that is the racial level comes at a cost where it limits the number of job levels one can learn. It's how the developers limited them so that they don't become the most dominant race in the game. A human or demi-human could have up to 20 Job Classes if they wanted but a heteromorph could only learn about half that. That's the first reason people rarely pick them. But the second thing regarding them is what's making me upset. You know how PK'ing is a sucky-thing in open-world games and doing it can get you penalized, right?" Jakob nodded to show that he agreed.

"Well, when humans and demi-humans kill each other when they are out of a PvP zone, then they get penalized. But, apparently, the developers thought that it would be cool to have it so that heteromorphs could get PK'ed by the other two whenever the hell they want and not get penalized for it."

Jakob's expression changed to that of an irritated one, showing that he wasn't on board with that idea at all. It honestly made Gwent a little happy that his friend shared his feelings. "What!? But that's dumb! Why would they…so..what!? They just don't get penalized for it!?"

Gwent scoffed and resumed adding a bit more to his picture. "I wish it were that simple. Things work a bit different in this game when you die. Experience Points and items are the two largest driving forces in it. When you die, you drop a random item that you've been carrying and it doesn't matter how valuable or worthless it is. Something is gonna gets lost. So, you can imagine that PK'ers just love to farm the heteromorphs for whatever gear they have for one.

For another, some races need to kill heteromorphs for certain powers and abilities and those playing that race are fair game. To add insult to injury, dying costs you 5 levels. So, if you were level 5 and you died, then you'd have to start back from level 1. So…I guess you can say that YGGDRASIL hammered home my dislike for playing as a humanoid character, even more, when I first started playing. Bitch-made motherfuckers."

"Whoaaaa, what!? How is all of that even allowed!? I mean, wouldn't there be a TON of complaints about that!?" Jakob exclaimed in shock but Gwent let an aggravated noise that no one could describe spill from his lips.

"If only it were that easy. I can assure you, practically the whole Heteromorphic community said something to 'em. All of us getting angry or telling them to change the way they just allowed the other two races to bully us like it was nothing and for no reason either. Honestly, that was the only reason. We didn't even care about the limited Job Classes or anything, especially since a good amount of us were in it for the head-canon.

Number of sucks though. I'd have to say about 70% of YGGDRASIL gamers are humanoids. 25% are Demihuman. And we're just that last 5%. I don't even think that the devs would care if they even lost 5% of the game's fanbase because they'd still have the 95% they already got." Gwent nodded to himself as he added some detail to the picture, mainly in the swords and in the armor. He had fully memorized the gear that Inariz wore down the last detail so he had no issue recreating it on paper.

Jakob had a look of disbelief. He leaned back and grabbed his milkshake, taking a sip of his own drink. He loved RPG-style games about as much as Gwent did but he wasn't sure that he would have it in him to continue playing one if, not only the players but the developer's severely handicapped the way he wanted to play. "Jesus Christ, dude. I don't know if I could keep playing that. I mean, I still DO wanna get the game now but…if I wanna pick a Heteromorphic race…"

Gwent used his other hand to wave him off. "Oh, trust me, do NOT let that discourage you at all. If you wanna pick one then do it. The start-off is gonna suck because of the toxic assholes who keep trying to kill you but I assure you, in my opinion, Heteromorphic is the way to go. They technically ARE the strongest of the three, especially when you give yourself classes that compliment each other and invest in your racial classes too. It's…like playing the some of the old 21st-century games. You gotta 'get good' and when you become strong enough with your character, I shit you not, I can't tell you about the number of times I fucked-over gangs of 5 to 6 human players that tried to jump me just because I was a demon!" His mood brightened as he recalled those times, especially back when he managed to get around to Lv. 30.

"Ha! That'll teach those assholes!" Jakob cheered for him, happy that his friend was happy.

Gwent shrugged. "Granted, no matter how strong your abilities, it's still an RPG and those are always based on levels. So…those gangs were people were either a little under my level or around the same but if they were a much higher level than me then I'd have been lucky to get away without dying. I'm serious, in YGGDRASIL, that's one of the worst things you could do to someone. But back on track, you know the basics of what all the three races have going for 'em. So, if you pick heteromorph then just pick one with good racial powers and Job Classes that work well with each other."

Jakob nodded in understanding. At this point, he was 80% sure that he was going to buy the game himself and get it shipped to him at his earliest convenience. So, before that happens, he would at least want to know as much as he could currently handle before that. "Anything else I should know?"

"Well, I can only tell you so much," Gwent said, "you kinda have to experience the rest for yourself. I guess, if you want, then make a party with people. Ones you can trust. And I can even get you talking to my friend, Gao. I kinda talk about you to him occasionally and he's been saying to me that he'd want to play you too if you ever get the game."

"Oh, yeah? Well, it would nice to have at least one person to help me. I mean, would he be fine with that though? You two have been playing for 3 years and I'd be a noob. So, would he help me?" Jakob asked, a little unsure. Usually, players of a higher level wouldn't spend a lot of that time with those of a much lower one. Not unheard of but it's definitely not common.

"Trust me, Gao is a sap for helping other people, even if they aren't his friends. And he'll do anything for those that are, even if he just met them. Says he wants to be the example of what people should be, kinda like the sun." Gwent placed his straw in one-half of his mouth and spoke out of the other half. "I don't fully get what that means but I can at least say it sounds cool. Not only that but he speaks English too. Another big win, am I right? But he'll stay with you for as long as you want until you can get comfortable with the game. At least with him helping you out, you won't get PK'ed if you pick a Heteromorphic race. He'd be too strong for Players in low-level zones." He drinks more of his smoothie, it being half-gone at this point.

He looks at it. He should definitely buy himself another one.

"But if he can do that then can't others?" Jakob asked as he also drunk his milkshake but to below half. Gwent shook his head negative.

"You know how it is with these kinds of games. When you get to a certain level, you stay in areas or do events that can either keep challenging you or get you better gear. Not impossible but very improbable you'll see more level 100s walking around when you start off. They'll be too busy with…well, with what I just said. In fact…" He places his smoothie down and grabs his sketchbook. He turns to an empty page, one not connected with any of his pictures and tore it out. "I'll give you his email. That way, you can get to know each other before you even get the game."

"Yeah, you're right," Jakob agreed before continuing, "when I reached Lv.110 on World of Warcraft, I didn't find myself going back to the lower leveled areas unless there was something there worth my time. Even then, that didn't really happen too much unless there was some sort of festival going on."

World of Warcraft was still pretty popular in the U.S. and was one of the only handfuls of games created in the 21st century that had full-dive tech integrated into it. Those of the 22nd century that enjoyed the game loved it even more due to the fact that they were able to actually be in the game itself and making it even more popular. Granted, not much about the game has changed because of this and a lot of features stayed the exact same. Though the graphics WERE vastly enhanced and all of the characters and races on screen looked as real as could be with modern technology. Though anyone would just love the fact that they could be their actual avatar's, which was all people cared about. Some could say that is even matched YGGDRASIL in popularity and it would be pretty difficult to accurately gauge their claims.

World of Warcraft was a game that had already existed and had multiple guides made for it, both online and in paperback. Anyone would have the ability to just research whatever they wanted to know and whatever they had to do to get this or that. YGGDRASIL, however, was only out for 3 years and, yes, it's information database continues to increase the more the players discover. The downside to that was there is so much about the game and the surface of it was barely scratched and not just as a whole but in individual parts too. Items, racial abilities, Job Class potential, gear, spells, item location, etc. Usually, it would take a decade or longer with the aid of millions of players worldwide to constantly log-in and discover, at least, 80 to 90% of a large-scale RPG's capabilities.

YGGDRASIL was only limited to Japan and because it is a Japanese-only game, with no mention of a worldwide release yet, that alone is a big setback. Japan is very small compared to most countries with only one available language to play the game…unless someone foreign was to use a special potion that makes it possible for verbal communication. But even then, those weren't common to find. The game also had no way of advertising itself outside Japan unless one were to actively look for it, yet that would not do much good in the hands of one who can't properly translate Japanese. While online translators have gotten significantly much better over the decades, that kind of technology is not automatically implemented in video games, especially one where there are no signs of it leaving its country of origin.

Even if every single person in Japan were to buy the game and play it extensively, it would still take at least 5 times the amount of time for the Japanese to learn the same percentage of information about the game compared to WoW. Gwent could only hope that would happen one of these days, where anyone could buy and play the game if it was released everywhere. That also goes back to the whole 'single character' ordeal. People are libel to create more characters in an RPG when they have either made their previous one as strong as possible or learned of new information on how to get the most out of certain classes, events, gear, or race-specific boons.

YGGDRASIL takes all of that away so if you have an unbalanced character then you are either out of luck or you are forced to salvage what you can and make said character balanced with various forms of high-ranked gear, not to mention whatever abilities they may have. There's also the option of starting all the way over but no one in their right mind would start from zero with no other form of recovery, such as another character profile.

At that moment, a question popped into Jakob's mind. "Hey, I forgot to ask, what race is your friend Gao anyway? And I don't mean which of the three categories but what is he playing as?"

Gwent smirked and contemplated telling him, even opening his mouth to respond. He stopped before he could speak and decided to give another answer. "I think it'd be best if you found out from him yourself."

Jakob huffed and sat back fully in his seat in mock disappointment. "Sure. Why tell me anything yourself?"

Gwent laughed a bit at his friend's antics. "I think I told you plenty. Don't go making up stuff like that to my face. At the very least, I can tell you that he picked to be a Heteromorphic race so that kinda narrows it down, but it's still quite a bunch of various species one could be," Jakob huffed again but nodded, "so…what race are you thinking about picking?"

"No idea. Maybe I'll be a heteromorph too?" He asked this question more-so to himself. "I mean, you and your friend, Gao, are both that race and even though I know you guys have the minority from both the players and the developers, I think it'd be cool if the three of us were a full set, you know? And you did say he'd help me out when it came to the game, so…I don't think I'd have too much to worry about."

Gwent nodded with a small smile, glad that his friend was figuring out his eventual plan of action. It's not like he was trying to steer Jakob away from being a heteromorph or even towards being one either, he just felt that it was best to let him know what he'd get into if he did, both the good and the bad. There'd be no reason for him to have to try and challenge himself so extremely, so he'd be free to pick a Demi-Human race. And yes, Gwent knows what Jakob would pick, at least, among their kind because he also picks non-humanoids to play as during other RPG-based games if he had the choice too.

In the Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim emulator, he had picked Argonian over and over as his race so he has a feeling that Jakob would probably go with Lizardman for all he knows. But there was also reptilian Hteromorph's as well, besides Dragonoids or even straight-up dragons. And with how vast the customization is, both for race and Job Classes, for all Gwent knows, Jakob could make himself out to be like the crocodile Egyptian God, Sobek!

'God, I can't wait to hear and see his expressions once he finds out about how intricate customizing is. And if he turns himself into Sobek, I'm gonna celebrate!' Gwent grinned to himself before he looked back to Jakob and nodded.

"You're right. You don't have much to worry about. Not if you're smart at least and since you'll be playing with Gao and me, you'll be able to play as much as you want and not feel the need to have to look over your shoulder the whole time. Then before you know it, you'll have caught up with us."

Jakob gave a big smile, glad at the encouragement. He always appreciated how Gwent could just talk and say things that could just make people wanna pick themselves up. He isn't a therapist or anything but maybe he picked up some tricks from his grandmother on his mother's side, who was a certified one. "Once again. Thanks."

"Yup," Gwent said before he decided to change the subject, "so, besides YGGDRASIL, you got any other things planned?"

Jakob nodded with a grin. "Yup. I actually got a Buddyfight shop tournament coming up at our local card shop."

Now it was Gwent's turn to be interested in a different reason. Future Card Buddyfight was one of the card games that had been released in 2033 and had been pretty popular since then, among other card games, of course. He was into it, as well. "That's great! I haven't had the chance to enter one of those for a while, what with me being pretty busy and all. But I have been tuning some of my decks in the meantime."

"Been practicing against V.I.'s on some of your downtimes?" Jakob asked, looking to Gwent's Holoband around his right wrist. The metallic-silver band was a high-grade yet basic piece of technology that was capable of acting as a watch, a phone, connect to the internet and had a sleuth of other features and functions. All of this was projected through holographic screens with a small mix of hard-light implementation that can allow a dull sense of feeling for interactions with said screens. The screens were 10 inches in width and 5 inches in height.

Each Holoband was implemented with a V.I. that was capable of handling substantial commands and had little to no mishaps. Granted, you couldn't ask anything complicated such as 'what is life'or 'what do you think', else the V.I. would just not register an answer before asking if one required anything else. It was also possible to adjust the voice and language settings on the V.I. as well, with a few hundred different voices and tones to boot. Even if this kind of technology was pretty basic in this day and age, Gwent found it to be pretty essential and believed that life was so much more convenient with it. They were also water, fire, and electric proof while being amazingly durable due to the thin titanium-substitute coating.

"Yeah, I have. But even a V.I. can only do so much compared to going against another person." Gwent said.

Jakob nodded. "Yeah, I see what you mean. But they still make for great practice."

Gwent smiled again. "You know, Gao also loved Buddyfight. Like, a whole lot. Maybe you two should play some games or something." Gwent downed the rest of his drink after that statement, already wishing he had more.

Jakob closely followed suit. "That's cool. Now I wanna meet him even more! Anyway, since you asked me, I've gotta ask you back. Got anything planned for the rest of the day?"

Gwent looked down to his sketchbook, to the drawing of his avatar and mulled over it for a bit. "Hmm….not that I can think of, besides the usual, of course. Though my dad's birthday is in 3 days, so he's gonna be flying in from Denver to celebrate it. I have to say, I can't wait to see him. You can join in the festivities if you want. I know he'd love to see you too."

"Sure," Jakob said with a smirk, "your dad is super cool! He gave you your necklace, right?"

Gwent fingered the object in question hanging around his neck, smiling just a bit. "Yeah. Says it's been in our family for a very long time and it's very important. And…well, I don't wanna call him a liar and I don't see a reason too. But in my opinion, it just a necklace as far as I can tell. Even had it appraised too. Besides being pure silver, there isn't much to it."

"Ever taken it off?" Jakob asked.

Gwent fingered the jewelry. "Once, yeah. It was when I was in the shower and I just wanted to see what it felt like not wearing it for so many years. I have to say, even being naked, I never felt MORE naked not wearing it. Guess it must've seriously implanted itself on me, huh?

"It's not totally weird. A lot of people have things that they get very attached too." Jakob said which Gwent obviously agreed to. That was how they spent their next hour; buying a few more frozen drinks and food, chatting up video games or other topics, even playing co-op on a couple games on their Holobands. When they were done hanging out, the both of them said their good-bye's before heading off in their own directions.

However, when Gwent was making his way back home, someone was looking at him from afar. Not much could be seen on this person as they wore a black hoodie with the hood up, blue jeans, and brown shoes. The hands gave their complexion to be Caucasian even their face was mostly hidden as they sat at a table across the street from where Gwent and Jakob had been sitting. The person brought out his Holoband and dialed a number. They waited for a while until someone picked up, a male voice speaking.

"Yes?"

"Sir," the figure spoke indicating that it was also a male, "I've been tailing him like you asked and it sounds like he's about ready."

The voice on the other line laughed a little. There was no malice of any kind in it but genuine pleasure. "Already? It's only been a few years! He's gotten that far, Cole?"

The man, Cole, nodded lightly as if the man on the line could've seen it. "Yes, I heard his conversation with his friend. Sounds like he is to me. However, sir, I have to ask again, are you sure that you wish to go through with this?" The man on the line was silent for a few moments which allowed Cole to get back to speaking. "I'm…not trying to question you or anything. You've always done things for a reason ever since I've known you. Though I'm just wondering if he needs proper training first. And our enemies won't mobilize until-"

"Yes, I know, Cole," the man said, "but the way I see it, this is an opportunity that was given to us. It's best for us to use it to our advantage."

"Even if the kid doesn't know himself?" Cole rose an eyebrow when he asked this.

"He may not know…but it's not about him knowing. Not yet. We'll eventually cross that bridge but now, he needs to learn of his abilities at his own pace. Hehe, knowing him, he'll be doing that proper training without us having to tell him too. Just let me know when he's inside the game. I'll take it from there."

"Sure, thing, Sir. I'll message you and let you know." He swiped the screen away, making it vanish before Cole got up and tailed Gwent through various crowds of people, easily making his intentions unknown while keeping his distance just far away enough.

---

Gwent had a very uneventful walk back to his home but it wasn't a boring walk. He was always interested whenever he walked out and got a look at the world around him. He remembered videos from a century in the past before the surprising discovery of cold fusion, which was basically the thing that had stopped their world from going on a downward spiral after oil began running out. During those times, people always speculated where the world would be in the next hundred years, especially since they were advancing pretty well with what they had at the time. Nothing super extravagant in comparison but anyone can claim that being able to create robotic prosthetic limbs, no matter the time, was a feat.

And in today's day and age, those with such limbs could claim to have real 'superpowers' if they wanted to be so crass. For one, the designs were so much sleeker and more tech-based yet barely showed much of that technology on the outside as to keep their semi-normal appearances, even going so far as to perfectly emulate the length, shape, and sie of a person's previous arm, leg, or even their eyes. Those with the arms had improved strength in the prosthetic(s) allowing them to do a thing like lift small cars. Those with the legs had improved speed plus leg strength, and you can imagine that those who had fake eyes allowed them to see much clearer than normal. The more expensive the prosthetic, the more 'perks' once could give them, within' reason of course. Examples being able to see infrared, heat signatures, or having night visions with one's fake eye(s) which can be controlled through simple thought commands. And even if some crimes did happen because of things like this, a plasma gun was much deadlier than a chrome arm.

Besides the limbs and all other amazing advancements in medicine, they had things that people dreamed off in the past. Tall buildings that could practically reach the clouds, higher than any convention 21st century New York skyscraper, hovercars, boards, and bikes, and, as stated before, V.I's. and A.I's. Now, many people wouldn't be so amazed at these things in this day and age and for obvious reason for when one is living during a certain time. You get used to what is around you and take it as is, but Gwent just couldn't help but dive into the past and consider what a massive jump humanity took. Even though it's been 100 years, it might as well have been a 200-year jump, technology-wise.

He got a ping on his Holoband, which made him look at it. He brought up the screen and found a message from another one of his Japanese penpals and someone that he met over YGGDRASIL.

*Akemi-chan*

He smiled and as opened up the message and started to read.

*Konichiwa, Gwent! How have you been today? Good, I hope?*

Gwent smiled as he looked at the simple message, especially at how she seemed to be enthusiastic. Akemi was someone Gwent had met in his earlier days when playing YGGDRASIL, his second friend after Gao, to be honest. Granted, he didn't really have a whole lot of friends to play the game with, especially since he was more of a solo player but she had helped him out on more than a few excursions, and he was even more impressed that she was an Elf in the game. Elf is one of the humanoid races who usually hunted his kind in-game but she was such a nice person who was friends with practically everyone. She even got him to cooperate with a guild of nothing but heteromorphs, even though he was strictly against playing in guilds.

Ainz Ooal Gown, the name of the guild with the guild master being an Overlord known as Momonga. They had a strict 'no humans' joining the guild and they didn't even play with other human characters because of all of their treatment at the hands of them. The only reason Akemi was allowed into the fold, even though she wasn't a member herself but a frequent guest, was because her older sister, Yamaiko, was part of the guild. Gwent can admit that their help was very appreciated on more than a couple of boss raids or dungeon delves, even if he butted heads with a small few of them, they were pretty chill.

Still, he'd much rather play with Gao or Akemi by themselves. Heck, sometimes, all three of them played together even though Gao never once worked with Ainz Ooal Gown and only had them mentioned to him. He was okay with that though, as Gao was someone who likes to get things done with a smaller group than 41 members, plus Akemi and Gwent. Even Gwent never showed his full hand to the guild either, in that they didn't know about all of his accomplishments in the past year and a half. Not that he was avoiding them but it was stuff he wanted to do on his own is all. You can only really enjoy everything around you in a DMMORPG if you're by yourself.

He jerked from his memories and replied back, through verbal reply, the words popping up on his screen.

"Hey there, Akemi. I've been doing fine today. Think I just converted one of my closest friends to getting YGGDRASIL just a while ago and am now heading back home."

*Oh, that's amazing! It would be fun to have more of your personal friends to play with, even if he would be starting from scratch. I always noticed how you seem to 'change' whenever we're playing with just us or with your friend, Gao, compared to Ainz Ooal Gown.*

"Well…I mean, he's also a close friend of mine and he helped me a lot. Same with you, Akemi. Nothing against the guild or anything but it's impossible to 'connect' with 41 people. Not to mention, I already don't wanna be in a guild anyway so it's a bit harder for me to cut loose in some situations 'cause I don't want them all to know what Korik or I have in our back pockets."

*Hahaha! Korik, that's right. How is it that it's been 3 years and yet I can't get over the fact that you've made a Goblin for an NPC. Your ONLY NPC at that. You could've made anything else a lot more intimidating.*

"Hey, don't underestimate the Goblin. He puts in work and has come through quite a bit. It's better than having a bunch of NPC's in a guild and barely any of them even do anything, RP'ing or not."

*Heeeey, I like some of the NPC's in Ainz Ooal Gown. Even if they...aren't really all that active or anything. But they aren't supposed to leave the guild with their creators like Korik does with you. They're-*

"-Supposed to stay and protect the tomb, yes, I get it. Anyway, I'm guessing you're messaging me because you wanna do some YGGDRASIL stuff?"

*Yup! You got it! I talked to Gao and he won't be able to make it since he's got an akijujutsu tournament. So, it'll be me and you for the most part.*

"Don't wanna go to the guild, huh?"

*Hey, I don't go to them ALL the time, you know? Besides, I think it'd be nice if it was just you and me playing together.*

"Ahem."

*[Rolls Eyes] I mean the THREE of us. Seriously, you treat Korik as if he was another live person or something. I'm starting to think it's unhealthy.*

"Akemi, RPG's are all about imagination. If I wanna treat my companion like he's my best friend, I'm gonna do it. He doesn't have to talk or anything but I like to imagine that he listens and pay's attention to everything around him."

*Oh, you're just so weird! Anyway, let me know when you're ready to get on the game! Surprisingly, Yamaiko is also busy so she won't be playing either.*

"Okay."

He dismissed the screen as he continued on his trek home. Eventually, he came upon a white house that was three stories tall, complete with a driveway and a garage, where his car lay hidden behind the steel-mechanized doors where his vehicle lay hidden from the world. He strolled up to his door since he had no porch but a single step with a doormat, and undid his door with an electronic key. Said key wasn't actually a conventional 'key' but more like a miniature keycard instead. A green light flashed on his door before he pushed it open and then closing it behind him.

Air-conditioned wind assaulted him as he took in the breeze that washed over him. Granted, he was never bothered by heat all that much and would even wear his jacket out on a summer day like this but he didn't mind that at all. The living room was very spacious with a polished wood floor, a white table made from a sleek material that was non-scratchable and comfortable couches with a recliner chair of beige coloring around it. There were bookshelves filled with books he's read, which was amazing in of itself since most people did their reading digitally nowadays, but Gwent felt that bookshelves in the past gave rooms a more 'home' appeal to them. So, he got a few himself. There was no TV, at least, no visible one. That is because television was holographic.

Oh his wall, facing the couch parallel to it was a chrome rectangle frame that one could reach through and touch the wall behind it but if Gwent wanted, he could use his Holoband as a makeshift controller to his television, since his was keyed specifically to all of the TV in the house. This really gave rise to the slogan 'Holobands are omnitools.'

But he didn't spend any more time in there for he was walking up the stairs and heading to his room/main studio. When he made it to the top of the steps, he turned left until he reached the room at the end of the hallway. Opening that door, he graced his eyes to his master bedroom, completely adjusted to his liking in all things enjoyable. First was what made it a bedroom. To his left, again, was his bed, in red-colored sheets and an off-grey thick blanket with pillows in black cases. Despite it being a master bedroom, the bed looked like it was able to hold three people at the most. Gwent giggled to himself.

"Well, that and the people I managed to bring home with me."

Let it be known, Gwent was no virgin.

Just a few feet on the wall across from the bed was his personal bathroom, complete with a shower. On the wall to the left, a few feet from where the foot of the bed was, was a window that showed the outside perfectly. The fun, however, was on the right side of the room, where Gwent put his heart and soul into everything. The elephant in the room…the technological recliner that was by itself, close to the same wall the door was attached too but not touching it completely. Beside it, hanging from a mini stand was a helmet with an eye-visor and a mounted camera on the outside. The recliner was connected to the game YGGDRASIL, which Gwent was going to have fun within a minute.

On the wall parallel to that was a desk with another chrome rectangle frame complete with a mass of game cases in the three shelves under it. In front of that was a blue beanbag chair for him to plop his lazy ass down and chill on those video games. On the left of the TV and shelf was a very high-end looking desk-top that did not have a stupid-large hard drive but one that was the shape of a cube and the size of a small box sitting on the desk. The keyboard connecting to it would actually be fashioned from hard-light technology which was basically holographic-'touch' tech. There was also another helmet similar to the previous one but black and more angular, sitting on the opposite side of the desk.

The final thing was on the wall parallel to the only window in the room, where his art and design workspace was. Another monitor that could fold in on itself and be drawn on with a hard-light pen. There were shelves and mini bookcases beside the desk where he kept his various work. Comics, personal drawings, things like that. This was actually where he came up with a good majority of the designs for things he customized in YGGDRASIL. His character, his companion, Gwent, and the various clothes or items that game allowed you to change the texture of if one had the artistic creativity or imagination. Of course, anyone could do these changes in-game but Gwent felt more comfortable drawing out his vision first and he works faster with paper or on the computer in creating things then using game controls, no matter how complex and intricate they were.

Gwent placed the bag that contained his artwork on the chair where his workstation was. He took out the latest picture of his character that he drew and placed it on the table before leaving his bag there. Kicking off his shoes and removing his jacket, he got comfortable in his own environment before looking at the recliner.

"Alright. Ready." After sending a quick message to Akemi to let him know that he was going into the game, and then getting a reply, he grabbed the helmet connected a wire, which was also connected to the machine, into the back of it. He then placed the helmet over his head and then turned it on. He felt a small prick in the back of his neck as the helmet connected itself to his nerves. This was actually Mk. 2 of the original helmet, where one had to connect a wire directly into their neck and then connect that wire to the helmet. Gwent much prefers this method where the helmet does most of the work and the connection to his brain stem was barely noticeable or dangerous.

He laid back as the words 'recording had begun' popped up in the left corner of his vision. Once said words vanished, he rose his hand and a few holographic windows came into view around it. He clicked the window that said YGGDRASIL and placed his arm at his side before his the scene before him changed. And he laid still in that recliner, consciousness fading from the real world, he was now looking at a dark void. Said void began to light up with a vast assortment of white lights before a tree, larger than large, filled up the whole of the space.

With a small flicker in his vision, he turned to the right to see a red being standing there. Gwent gave a big grin, as he did every time he saw said being. It was his demonic persona, Inariz Xorgran, and the thing that he was as close as he was going to get to be a real demon or any supernatural being with awesome powers. But he'd take what he could get. He reached out and touched him before a wave of code flew past his eyes, and just as quickly, it stopped. He saw a line above his head to indicate that the game was loading. Looking at his hands, he found they were not his human ones but red with white, sharp, claws.

His hands looked very strong, too. Looking over his body, took in his new appearance, being that he was now his demonsona and never stopped amazing himself at the perfectly sculpted work he put into creating this body. Now Inariz wasn't some super muscular demon but he had muscle where it counted. His biceps were strong and pronounced, he had pectorals and a muscle gut that wasn't fat at all. His legs were digitigrade with three toes on each foot, said toes being white claws as well. Then there was the triceps, which were perfect for kicking and the thick 5ft tail behind him. He reached up and touched his large white horns on his head, feeling a dull sensation, which was implemented so people could perfectly distinguish reality from the game.

His horns initially jutted outwards but then curved inwards, sort of like a bovine. Lastly, he had a snout, red eyes, black eyebrows, and black hair between his horns. It started wide and then thinned out until it was a line in the back of his neck while having a spiky appearance. The game finished loading and once he saw 100% in front of him and several icons appeared. He clicked the HOME button which was a triangle attached to a rectangle. It asked "Are you sure?" and he clicked the big YES button under it. Then a female generated voice sounded.

-Beginning entry.

-Please stand by.

After about 10 or 5 seconds of waiting, the world went dark for the last time before there was more light. Except, this light gave way to a location he found himself standing in. He found his clawed feet were on a wooden floor but very unlike his polished floor back home. It was the kind one would find at a tavern or old-school inn. He was actually in a wooden cabin once he looked around and saw the abode. He sighed in comfort as he took it all in; there were three doors in the one-story compact house. One door was for entry and the other two, which were closed were bedrooms. There was a fireplace on the wall across from him with no fire running and a bear-pelt rug before it. There were two comfy looking chairs with a makeshift couch between the two. There a few tables that held some items like a glass of flowers or the table near him to the left, where supper and other meals would be held.

There were, again, some bookshelves but nothing as extravagant in his home. They didn't nearly reach the ceiling but just about 1/4th of the walls. Behind him was a stone stove, where people slid food into the open hole and a small cook pot which had a smaller chair near it.

This was Gwent's cabin, something he created just for the sheer fun of role-playing. He always felt that, even in an RPG where your character usually does not require rest, food, or any necessities besides what you need for adventuring, you always needed a place to call home. Or somewhere to go back too once you're done having your rounds against the rest of the world. And what better place to call home than a cozy cabin? Granted, it wasn't anything extravagant and, hell, it didn't have a second floor but it was definitely something Gwent poured his heart into making. Technically, he didn't 'live' alone either.

He went to the door and opened it up before he was greeted by sunlight hitting his features. It wasn't an unbearable kind of sunlight hitting his features. He would've smiled if his avatar would've shown the expression but he knew he was. He stepped out onto his small porch with a roof and gazed out at all of the greenery around him. His house was surrounded by thick and very tall trees, with various sounds of birds chirping adding more to the ambiance. This house was located on the outskirts of Midgard, which was basically the main world humans inhabited.

Was it smart for a heteromorph to have made a house out here, especially where human would no doubt dismantle it AND attack the two occupants staying in the house? No, it wasn't smart…but this location wasn't a normal one either. It was actually a separate space that was accessible only to the first person who entered it. If someone were to walk this way, they would go right through the illusionary space and not realize that there was anything here. To make it better, Gwent was the only one to decide who could enter and who couldn't, giving them 'visitor rights in a way'. Besides, Gwent is a LOT more powerful than a good amount of other people anyway, and with good reason.

"Gwent! Hey there!"

Gwent looked over to where the feminine voice came from as a smiley face emoji popped near his head. Closing the door behind him and walking down the steps, there were two beings in front of him. The first, the one where the voice came from was from the Elf woman. This woman stood at 5'5, which was a full 7 inches shorter than Gwent, who stood at 6'0, even in his avatar body. She had fair skin with blonde hair and a circlet with a green gem in the middle on her forehead. Her eyes were a baby blue and her ears were easy to see. She wore a green, hooded, cloak which was tied around her neck to stay in place.

She wore a black bra that was very good at hiding her cleavage, even though she had C-Cups. This showed off her toned belly, which didn't have highly visible abs. She wore a thin, black, dress that went to her knees and said dress opened at the front to display the green shorts she wore underneath. Around middle fingers were gold rings which had a blue, square gem in one and a red square gem in the other. On her back was a staff of polished wood that seemed to have several notches going from tip to tip. Between the notches were twisted vines.

The second being was the talked about Goblin NPC that was spoken of earlier, Korik. As with all characters in this game, facial expressions didn't change, so he looked pretty indifferent with a slight scowl on his features. Unlike the common goblin, who would stand at 2, maybe 3 feet, Korik was 5 foot even. His eyes were a unique shade of purple with tusks coming up from his lower lip. His pointed ears weren't really large but shorter and thinner, which was a trope among all very high ranking goblins. His right ears had two silver earings, in it. He had a scar between his left eye and ear, which Gwent put there for headcanon reasons after Korik was grazed with an arrow. He hair black, rugged hair that slicked to the back of his neck. Appearance wise, he looked closer to human, even though he obviously wasn't.

He wasn't decked out in heavy armor or weapons but he did wear black fingerless gloves with an ice-like metal plating on the back of them. He wore a chrome mesh armor, which hugged tightly against his impressive muscly arms and a black karate gi over that. There was a red belt around his waist and he wore black boots with the same ice-like alloy on the toes and on the bottoms.

"There you two are! Especially you, Akemi," Gwent said as he walked closer, "how ya' been lately?"

Akemi sighed, which actually fit the expression her avatar always had. Virtually, the look of someone who was going about their day and having no real features to show off but a frown emoji did pop near her head. "Busy, and I mean it. I had to do a very important entrance exam to get into this university I want to go to and I've been studying non-stop for a few weeks. After that, I had a karate tournament to try and get my black belt."

"Awesome job, Akemi!"

Akemi crossed her arms and gave Gwent a stare and he could feel her pouting at him. "And what if I say the exact opposite? I just said I was trying to get it."

Gwent nodded and he knew that she could feel him smiling. "Aaaand, I also know that you're amazing at something whenever you just put your mind to it. And you've shown me videos of your karate practice, remember? I know you got that black belt."

Akemi uncrossed her arms and laughed with a smiling emoji popping next to her. "I guess that makes sense….but please, drop the whole prodigy thing. Anyone can do what I can do if they try hard enough. Like...like math."

Gwent snorted and raked his claws through his hair. "Yeah, right. I tried my best in math class in college and I JUST passed. And in several situations when I was playing this game, I had to use my fingers or other methods for math situations. I can't math, Akemi. And the worst part of it is, Korik has seen me blunder like that a lot."

Akemi rolled her head to show she rolled her eyes. "I don't know WHY I put up with you and your insistence on talking about him like he's gonna give his opinion." She then noticed Gwent's state of the dress after looking back to him, having realized that he wasn't wearing….anything but a loincloth that seemed to work more like a fundoshi and wrap around his crotch. An eye-twitch emoji popped near her head. "And WHY exactly are you not wearing clothes….AGAIN?"

Gwent laughed and threw his arms back to stretch. "Because I love the feel of the breeze on me~." Seeing that he wasn't gonna get away with that at her deadpan, he just shrugged. "What? It's not like the game allows a character to remove all their clothing anyway. And it's not like I've done anything illegal and sexually assaulted, anyone. I'm just allowing my inner nudist to come out when I play this game," he slid in close and elbowed her side, "though I have to admit, you never cease to amaze me with your beauty, Akemi-chan~."

Akemi gave a small laugh and pushed him away, a sure sign that she was used to this kind of teasing. She also knew that even though Gwent was American, he never really used Japanese honorifics unless he was teasing others or being genuinely respectful to other Japanese players. "Well, Mr. Open Pervert needs to get through his horned head that this is just an avatar and fantasizing about it is creepy. Besides, I don't look anywhere near this pretty IRL. You know that."

"All the more reason to admire what's in front of me," though Gwent walked back over and patted her shoulder, "but don't get too bent outta shape. I fantasize about myself all the time."

She deadpanned. "Now that's just creepy."

"But it's not you so there are no problems." Gwent clarified for her.

"And this conversation is over. Look, let's just get to play, okay? And can you PLEASE put on some damn clothes!?" Akemi yelled, a blushing emoji popping up near her face as she pushed him away again. "Oh, and I suggest putting on something good. We're gonna be doing something pretty cool." Gwent laughed again and moved his finger in the air, making a menu pop in front of him. He went to his inventory and selected some of his equipment before pressing the equip button. In an instant, he was no longer nearly naked and wearing a full suit of armor with two large ultra greatswords on his back.

The armor was as black as night, with a kilt-like covering of the same over that ended at the thighs and looked partially ripped on the bottom. Embers wafted from the armor continuously while the armor accommodated Gwent's legs by having armor plating over his thighs and then around his feet, his toe claws showing through. The most noticeable part of this armor was the flaming eclipse that was on his chest. The greatswords that crossed over his back were a twin set and seemed to go hand and hand with the armor.

The handles were long and grey with hammer-like pomels. There weren't guards of any kind but a mass of black tendrils that were harder than steel and stood as still as stone. The actual blades themselves were gigantic and it seemed impossible for anyone to be able to lift them, each blade being as long as Gwent's body, cracked and ashen black as well, with the tips of the blades having a similar appearance to scimitar tips.

"My [Ringed Knight Armor] and [Ringed Knight Paired Greatswords]. Think this is good enough?" Gwent asked he showed off his gear to her. She's already seen it several times already, along with the guild of Ainz Ooal Gown, but he couldn't lie and say that it DID accentuate his demon features.

"I'm very sure [Divine Class] gear is good enough for what I've got planned. I mean…look at me." She was right. The notched staff on her back and even some of her equipment were also [Divine Class] as well with the rest of it being [Legendary Class]. Akemi then turned around and turned her head to him, "now if you're ready, let's go have some fun!"

"Okay," Gwent said as they chose, what Gwent seemed to think was a random location at least, a random location and started walking. Korik followed behind his creator as well. "So, what are we gonna be doing?"

Akemi looked back to him. "I was playing a week ago and found out from some other friends of mine that there will be an event mini-boss that will spawn only here in Midgard, and only players who are Lv.90 and up can take part. There are two kickers though, that you won't believe. The first is only twenty people can enter it."

"What!? Just twenty people!? But a usual battle with an event boss is around twenty-five to thirty!" Gwent exclaimed with an emoji popping near his head to signify his surprise.

Akemi rose her arms and shook her head. "You know how the shitty-devs are. They just make up whatever rules they want."

"I still think calling them shitty is too good for them. Ugh, maybe I should wear my stronger armor just to be on the safe side?" Gwent shook his head and pouted before he looked at her," what's the second kicker?"

"Well…half of those 20 people, not including NPCs, HAVE to be heteromorphs or the event won't start." She heard Gwent give a highly obnoxious snort behind her and she could understand exactly why he did that. "I'm glad you get why that's a ridiculous requirement."

Gwent placed his hands on his hips. "Ridiculous? More like fucking impossible! Making an event in the heart of the humanoid territory that requires 10 heteromorphs? If this info is as hush as you say, which information in this game usually is, then not only would as few Humanoids or Demi-Humans as possible try to spread the word but they won't get any kind of heteromorph to believe that they actually needed them for an event. And telling them it's somewhere in Midgard, the home of humans, who usually want nothing more than to PK them for their own [Job Class] enhancements or items? Good luck. How long has this event been announced?"

"A month…and, including the two of us, we have just enough people for the requirements. I couldn't bring anyone from the guild into this because they'd NEVER agreed to it and I couldn't talk to you about it because while I knew you'd still be up for it, I wasn't sure people would be able to gather the numbers. Luckily, I do have more friends than just the ones in the guild. Or….more like acquaintances, I guess. But they aren't heteromorph PKers." Akemi explained.

"How'd they convince the other Heteromorphic's who will be there? Also, did ONLY humans and demi-humans get this message?"

"Possibly? I'm not sure of the finer details but even if heteromorphs DID know about it, they wouldn't show up. The more rational players would more than willingly skip on an event boss if it meant not getting jumped by a bunch of humans who didn't know about this event. And the same vice-versa. Humanoids would rather stock up on free items from heteromorphs coming in."

Gwent placed a finger to his chin. "And, it's a 20-man entry. It's like those dumb-fuck developers knew that the race they gave the shortest stick too wouldn't give any kind of fuck to do this event if they heard about it so they minimized the number of players to a more possible level. And even then, the number of heteromorphs required to enter? Just goes to show that they KNOW they screwed our race over and they're just laughing at it!" Gwent ended with a roar of anger.

She looked back at him and raised a hand. "I get how you feel. I was able to deduce that myself, too. But, in a way, I think this is their…well, I won't say apology because it's not. It's more like they're throwing Heteromorphic's a bone for whatever this boss is. I say we get there as fast as possible. Me leading, of course."

"Okay!" The three of them began to run to their location I question.

A fifteen minute run later as they were overlooking a hill. At the bottom of the hill were a group of other players, who were all standing in either a very large pond or a small shallow lake. The land around them was as green as before but there were no amazingly tall trees and the water was surrounded on all sides by cliffs. Akemi pointed down to all of the players who were various races, with some NPC's.

"There they are!"They then ran down the hill and made their way to the group who took notice of them, some humans even waving to Akemi as they were probably the friends that Gwent was talking about, who was looking at the gathered group. Once they got into the water, which came up to their ankles, they got a much better view of everyone.

5 humans, 1 Ratman, 1 Orc, 1 Goblin, and 1 Minotaur. This was the group of 9 Humanoids/Demi-Humans that were in this event. Akemi would be the final one for 10 humans. As for the heteromorphs, there were 1 Fallen Angel, 1 that looked human but hiding its true form, 2 Demons of varying looks, 1 Werewolf, 1 Vampire, 1 Skeleton and 2 insect-people. Gwent would be the final Heteromorphic player in this line. Gwent took notes of the few NPC's that were there. Beside the Goblin, who looked like a druid as well from the ashen branch on his back and nature-based armor, was a human female, who seemed to have had an [Archer] build. The Minotaur, who was wearing white light blue and green-etched robes, had a second Minotaur beside him. This NPC Minotaur was female, and she was most definitely outfitted to be a warrior.

As he was analyzing the other people and non-people, Akemi was talking to 2 of the human girls and 1 human male. One girl appeared to be a [Ninja], the second girl was obviously a magic caster of some sort due to her magic staff in her hands, various rings, and her own robes. The male seemed to be a [Paladin]. Gwent didn't take much interest in their conversation and chose to mind his business…until some of the Heteromorphs walked over to him. This was the werewolf and one of the demons.

He was just as tall as Gwent, with midnight black fur. The Werewolf wore a cloak of the darkest night on his back and a scarf around his neck of the same color. He wore very high-grade looking dark gray light armor, gauntlets, and grieves. He had knives strapped to his legs, a short sword on his hip, and bow on his back. From this kind of build, Gwent deduced him to be a [Rogue] which was one of the best classes for a Werewolf in all honesty.

The other Demon looked significantly different than Gwent did, while also being a few inches shorter. While Gwent went full out to show-off his demonic, inhuman visage, this one DID have the look of a human. He wore very dark armor, had slicked-back black hair, a spiky black tail, and red horns that arched backward from his head. He had a large shield on his back and a large silver greatsword just under it, with the face of a skull in the guard.

Before he spoke, Gwent toggled his voice to that of his modified avatar's voice, instead of his usual one. His voice sounded deeper and gruffer as if he was a 35-year-old drill, Sargeant. "Uh….hey?" Gwent asked them in Japanese, wondering why they had approached him.

The two looked to each other before the werewolf pointed to him. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be….you know. That guy, right?" His voice had a slightly gruff tone, making him sound as if he was in his late 20s or early 30s. Granted, no one was too old for video games. The name for his avatar read Worgen.

"Um…elaborate, please?" Gwent asked. This time, the demon spoke his name reading Hathem.

"You're…the guy from the Helheim World Tournament, right? Your name kinda stood out. Inariz Xorgran? Aren't you, like, the freaking [World Champion] of the main realm for our race!?" He exclaimed a little bit, louder than he meant too. His voice was no doubt that of a young adult. This drew the attention of the others since they weren't all that spread away.

Gwent laughed a bit, a smiling emoji popping near him. He wasn't expecting that to come to light in such a manner. "I…wasn't expecting any fans or anything. Yeah, I'm THAT guy."

Worgen balled up his fists and threw his arms down, giving a small laugh. "We knew it! You ARE him! Man, we watched that tournament and saw how you were running through the competition! You were freaking unstoppable! And you're even wearing the same armor you wore back then! If you're helping us, then this is gonna be one kick-ass mini-boss!"

Hathem cupped his chin. "But…why aren't you wearing the armor you won from the tournament? Wouldn't it be best to always wear that gear, especially, for a boss?"

Gwent rose his hands and shook them. "Well, I don't like boating about my status to the non-heteromorph realms. If I did, then they'd just come at me in bigger waves each time I came to places like this. Well, the ones that try to PK me. So, I kinda just wear my [Divine Class] gear and let them think they got me. If I can take 'em out with my crazy abilities, then cool, but if not, I'll spring the armor on 'em. It's like my own personal joke."This got a laugh from them and even from the other heteromorphs. A couple of the demi-humans' laughed too while Akemi walked over and lightly bopped him on the chest.

"Okay, okay, that's enough boasting. We got a boss to fight." She said, which was when Gwent asked something he should've asked a while ago.

"Oh, yeah. Um…how is this boss even triggered? Do we wait or something?"

She didn't answer, for the [Paladin] she was talking too did. "We actually wade further into the water. Not too far but the water has to come to our knees, at least. That's when it'll start." He looked to everyone else. "Is everyone ready? Got your items ready and the gear you wanna use equipped?" He got a collection of agreements which had him turn his own head to Gwent. "If you really are a [World Champion], are you sure that you don't want to equip your armor? It would be the smart thing to be at your best."

Gwent nodded to him. "Yes, I sure. This isn't my first mini-boss and I've faced other without the armor. So, I'm unsure as to whether or not the gear is even needed for use." He reached back and grasped the handle of one of his swords. "Besides, even my [Divine] gear is special. When I'm wearing the set with the paired swords equipped, it makes an effect where they all get a buff to their natural skills. There's a chance that'll be good enough for this."

"Alright then," the [Paladin] said, "I'll take your word for it. I mean, you 'do' have more battle experience than me so who am I to argue? Alright then! Let's start!"

They all wadded deeper into the water and, like a switch, there was a rumbling roar in the distance. They looked up and saw a mass of black rushing through the clouds. The sound of powerful wing beats flapped over and over as the clouds were blown away. Flying down towards them at a ridiculous speed was….they couldn't believe it at all. They all collectively back-peddled as a massive quadrupedal figure landed in the deeper portion of the lake, the water coming up to its own knees. The beast was coated with black scales which were also highlighted in gold. The wings on it's back had a wingspan of 100 feet. It had a long snout, a red glowing gem in the middle of its forehead, golden slit eyes and 2 large horns on the back of its head.

The mini-boss ….was a fucking DRAGON!

"SHITTY! FUCKING! DEVS!" Came the collective cry of those who weren't stunned at the sight of the beast, who was staring them all down like pieces of meat for it to snack on. Gwent was one of the stunned ones, honestly. He couldn't believe that the devs were THIS ballsy! Dragons were, literally, the hardest bosses in the games because of their MANY resistances, their MANY attack patterns, and their MANY areas of magic. There had never ONCE been a dragon mini-boss in existence! Now, he could admit that this dragon was much smaller than the conventional ones. Half the size, actually….but this was still crazy.

"We can't do this!"

"We're gonna get taken out so hard!"

"Dammit! Shitty Devs are more heartless than I thought they were!"

Multiple yells of anger rang through the lake while the dragon stood there. It wouldn't attack unless aggro'ed but that didn't make anyone feel better. They were preparing as much as they thought they needed but to prepare for a dragon with only 20 people and few NPC's? Now, this was just something else altogether and it was kinda getting on Gwent's nerves. He groaned and yelled to them, "Shut up! Come on, you guys! We should've figured the devs would be bitches and not play fair! I mean, they don't EVER play fair, right!? Also, look at the size of that thing! He's HALF the size of a normal dragon! Maybe he's got half everything else, too! Try to be optimistic here!"

They weren' looking to sure about that but Akemi piped up as she thought it over. "So…you mean, it isn't anywhere near as strong or as tough as a normal dragon? Just half of that?"

Gwent shrugged. "Hell, maybe LESS than half! It's a mini-boss required for 20 peoples of specific types. So, while I won't say it's not gonna be strong, it's most definitely not something we can't take out. We just gotta fight to our best abilities and seal this win…right, you all? It's too late to back out now. We're here and we're doing this."

Let it be known that Gwent wasn't one for motivational speeches. He was just talking from his own optimism, common sense, and irritation. He honestly didn't expect his words to do too much to ease their spirits, as long as he got them to stop complaining and start fighting. But, apparently, it did more than he was expecting. The Goblin player looked to him his….Gwent is just gonna call his weapon an Ash Branch, his Ash Branch, in his hands as he clenched it.

"You really…think we can win? I mean, not all of us are on your level, you know?"

If Gwent could narrow his eyes, he would be. "Hey, [World Champions] can die to dragons too. I won't get cocky and say I can do this myself. All those other mini-bosses, I fought? I never did it alone. I always had someone watching my back. And IF you need me to watch your, I'll do that, too."

The Goblin gave a smirking emoji and then laughed before placing his Ash Branch on his shoulder. "Well…damn. How can I speak against something like that? Guess we're doing this thing then. Thanks for the pep talk, Inariz."

"Just call me Gwent. And I just basically said to stop bitching. Don't thank me for it." Gwent said while removing his swords. This actually got the rest of them laughing a bit too. The goblin stopped laughing and nodded.

"Well, I'm Connor. My avatar is Concord."

"Both of your names are cool," Gwent said as everyone else got ready to fight. Those who cast magic began to apply as many buffs to themselves and their allies as Gwent walked forward. Korik was right behind him, as he looked behind him to the others. They nodded to him, showing they were ready while Gwent saw the bar of health and mana this dragon had, along with his name above the bar.

"Black Dragon, Kalameet, huh? You're going down." He said, simply as he waited for the buffs to finish. When it was all done, he gave a battle cry and ran forward with everyone else following behind him. Gwent and Korik since they were first, entered Kalameet's 'attack range' and thus, began the fight. Kalameet roared and rushed at them with a flap of his wings, mouth spilling flames of inky blackness as he got ready to blast them to kingdom come. Yet, at that moment, time seemed to come to a crawl…and before the clash happen a red magic circle appeared right under Gwent, who was currently in mid-jump, ready to slash at Kalameet with one of his swords. The magic circle then rapidly expanded, covering Gwent's vision in red before there was nothing else but the same visual sensation similar to when he entered the game.

Darkness.

---

Well, that's that. Chapter one of my newest story. Yes, it's, once again, OC centric. Yes, Gwent goes to the New World earlier than Ainz and yes, he does know Ainz and is on good terms with him. They ARE NOT best friends. Just on good terms. But don't be too grubby and expect Ainz to just pop in around the corner because this isn't about him. This isn't just 'OC in canon', I'm making a whole new plot down the line that isn't in the LN's or anime. It's my original thing. Now, Ainz WILL show up but don't expect that for a long time, because, like I said, this isn't about him. Also, If you paid attention to the year in the beginning, and learned of the year of YGGDRASIL's shut down, then Gwent is 10 years ahead of Ainz. So, you all better be in this for the long haul.

Also, if you wish to imagine Gwent's voice in his avatar body, then imagine Batzz's DUB voice from 'Futurecard Buddyfight X'.

Now, I'm signing off.