Edit#01-Changed the formatting a bit, hope it helps. If anyone knows how to do proper double spacing or increase the space between paragraphs please inform me I am new with this system
AN:As a bit of a preface I will admit that the basis of this fic was meant to be its own original work but I never got beyond the initial planning stage with a little work done on a few chapters but reading through some Overlord Fanfic I got the idea to adapt this to fit. Not that hard since I really only had a rough outline done, not sure how much I can work on this so don't get your hopes up though I do not plan on completely abandoning this unless I explicitly say so. On another note props to the other fics like General Chill, Light's Downfall and Hostis Humani Generis for providing entertainment for me for a long time. Sorry if I mess up some of the lore or romanized words but any mistakes seen just write a review so I can fix it, same with grammar/spelling. If I mess up enough for a plot hole or bad characterization please write a review so I can check it and now to the actual fic itself.
Ahhh if only I could actually taste this sake right now as I take a final farewell sip to this grand game. So many memories were made here over the dozen years it ran but well now that we approach the final minutes of shut down I am left in drown in nostalgia. Just half an hour ago we had the most massive party of the guild in farewell but as people decided to leave before being forcefully logged out I am left alone. I decided to pull the act of a captain on a sinking ship and everyone else decided to leave me be, the young ones were tired and needed a rest from the several hour long final game session and the older ones well... They knew that I needed some time alone to think, it was an unspoken secret but as the oldest person in the guild and possibly the game there are things one wants to do. To them it was a thought in the back of their mind that I would likely not be living much longer, being over a hundred years old.
Certainly a long life but I cannot expect much more, perhaps it is a good thing that the game ends now rather then when I simply drop dead from age in the middle of it even if my avatar looks like an uncle in his prime with no gray hairs. All around me are farewell gifts or bequeathed equipment from people who left them before logging out, not much use now but the feeling counts. We kept this a secret as much as possible from the younglings but this party was also my own farewell party, we would likely not meet again either on other games or even in life as that was just how old I was now.
Frankly no one would be surprised if I dropped dead in the next hour and the dive rig I am in sends a signal of my demise to the retirement home I am in. While I had tried to keep healthy and fit there is only so much one can do after passing 80 so being interred in the dive rig was a more kind fate. Would they bother getting me an actual coffin or bury me in the rig, well whatever I was not that morbid to plan my funeral to such a degree. This was not the first farewell party of the year either since the rest of the family had already come by, better an early farewell in person then one spoken at the wake was the feeling.
I have had enough of sad reminiscence in real life but here I can't help but do so again. Of course that was what I was thinking before the shock kicked in and I do not mean being shocked at the fact that the timer just ticked by and I was still here, I mean mental/physical shock that occurs when something happens. Think of a mix of pins and cushion and very bad leg falling asleep is somewhat close to describing things.
"Valen-san... I mean Soushukyou(総主教)1-sama are you ok, you suddenly became stiff", hmmmm?
Turning my head I see that the npc Sana just spoke to me, well this is just confusing. Ignoring this for a moment I first look around and I realize I can smell things, actual smell and feel all the sensations of the wind and the flowers from the garden. Holding my hands together I can feel the lines and wrinkles of skin, Yggdrasil did not have this vibrant and varied a sensation system as I can feel my own pulse and of course Sana just spoke with facial expressions and an actual voice. It was nice somewhat musical voice like an undercurrent of softly ringing bells was there though tinged of course with worry and deep anxiety matching her face.
"I just need a moment to finish thinking and compose myself, I am the last remaining member of the guild after all" Perhaps speaking my mind out so simply is a faux pas but you can mind the fact that I need to organize my mind around what is going on.
"Souskukyo-sama have the others truly left to never return" Her words are somewhat anxious as much as she tries to compose and keep dignified but I do not feel like lying, the pain should come now rather than later when something may be in jeopardy. She is not vainly trying to deny that they left which would be foolish considering the rather large banner going on about farewells still hanging in front of us and the hours long party that just occurred. She had been on standby behind me on the little raised wooden stage I was on with a pillow so she had a nice view of things. Will fuck it I doubt I am hallucinating right now and if I am whatever I am entitled to a moment or two of craziness, I am certainly old enough that no one will question it.
"Yes, they are not here anymore. They have left this realm for good now and forever, we are left to ourselves. Sigh.. Do not try to bottle it in, it was a joyful farewell. It is not shameful to be shaken by such an event, none of us can help but be hit hard if it is done so suddenly" She trembles a little more and clutches my sleeve but does not show anymore emotion after ducking her head under her hat.
I take my other hand and place it over hers to try to show that she is not alone, not everyone can sort out matters of the heart on their own. The trembling of her hand along with the feel of skin once again assures me that this is real, the feel of the skin is not something that anyone can replicate so easily nor the feel of heat from it.
She stays in this state for a little while before turning to me and asking "What are my orders Souskukyo-sama, what is your will from now on?" Feeling like letting out another sigh it looks like she is falling back on me being the leader to hold herself together, still it is the best I can hope for now I am not a psychiatrist who can help with such things.
"Gather everyone else and explain what has occurred and then have them head to general meeting room#1, I will need to organize a clean up here as there is no need for the grounds to stay in such a dirty state. If you need help or have any doubts you can come to me, I will not get angry or upset about anything you ask" She looks at me and salutes before turning back to follow my orders, yep she has indeed fallen back on following orders and all I can do is pray that she does not break apart considering the trembling in her legs I see. Then again I am not exactly the best case of being mentally fit am I, the fact that I do not feel any panic at all probably speaks to a rather major issue.
Alright now that I have the time to start pondering events I should get out and see what has occurred in my realm. I can already predict the headache I will have organizing what is apparent to be a shift from vr to reality, the amount of paperwork alone gives me shudders as I hope I coded enough of a bureaucracy to exist. Perhaps I should thank the collective rather absurd wish for detail due to boredom and the free time to dig through data archives in this game.
I bothered implementing some policies of law codes and wrote backstory on the dynamics of the guild base with the help of some of the bored historians and lawyers here. That event sparked a debate on proper forms of government, how to streamline red tape, and screaming matches about what are proper punishments. Yep people are passionate at times about things you never knew you could be for.
The guild base itself should be fine still, it helps being part of a serious/not so serious guild in the very expansive game of Yggdrasil where the members were drawn from young rich kids to old retirees that had the money to splurge to do stuff. This guild known as Mystic's Rest had quite a diverse group age wise as mentioned before, we did not really bother catering our requirements to anything other than dedication to staying in the guild and obeying rules.
One derisive name for the group was the Reenactment Otakus as I admit having a group of bored retirees who want a bit of excitement along with the rest of the age group who wanted an escape from the tiring life of the real world we got to do stupid stuff. You would think that as the old generation we would be more responsible, well you know the adage about being able to be free to do what we want with minimal restraint. I fear we corrupted some people but then again they would have been introduced to that stuff in university anyway so might as well get baptised early so that they don't get in trouble in real life.
Certainly being a neutral guild that accepted all was not the best considering the rather charged racial views of the player base in general but we did what we wanted and had enough strength to do so. Not everyone felt like bothering with the pvp nonsense so that we were one of the few points that people were able to gather if they wanted to do stuff and was able to reach our base located in Alfheimr where we cordoned an open space for a market bazaar area with a few speciality items we sold as well. As a note the guild base was an above ground dungeon consisting of a large mountain in a Caldera shaped such that it was a one way entrance.
The mouth had a large forest area and in the forest was the market bazaar space while the guild proper was starting at the valley entrance through the caldera wall which had a large twin fortress built into the rocks with a gate blocking it(LOTR Black gate concept but forts instead of towers). After the Fortress was a very large open plain with various rivers, a lake, along with a glacier and lava area by the caldera wall. After all this a series of small fortified towns and villages along with varous facilities followed by another forest leading to a large the sides of the mountain were more facilities meant for various works with more facilities including something referred to as the Proving Grounds being the main hub for such things. Then at the top of the mountain was a manor complex which was the main living areas.
For fairness sake of the Ariadne system we had a very narrow and treacherous mountain path to ascend. Everyone else had to break through to the dedicated teleporter area and then tp to the mountain pad. Each zone of the Realm had a designated arrival zone for teleporters to prevent absurdities and security sake that was where most of the heavy guard was placed. As you can tell we had quite a bit of cash item use to make this what we want. If one took say an infinite tape measure the length from the entrance to the Manor was roughly say 3.5 km. A dedicated ranged character could plug targets 2km away with 3km being max range on an open area with direct fire though can't expect the target to stay still. A dedicated mage could theoretically hurl an appropriate spell 4km but cannot expect to hit the target for most spells with both base accuracy and the target simply walking away from that spot.
We did admittedly have shenanigans of people not wanting to get ganked trying to hide out on the land but of course that was not received well so we had to repulse them forcefully and get them to pay a nice fine(gank). We avoided being taking over due to being even if barely a high tier guild with two world items and over a hundred members. Any guilds on equal level were taken town the first was a stationary item granted after our unique way of taking over the above ground dungeon filled with magical beasts involving copious magical ritual circles placed around the area to simply bombard everything to death from range. As a nice prize the devs gave us an extra big ritual circle WCI on the central mountain which could be used by the authorized members to input or output xp for storage, increase the range and power of spells cast from the circle, along with allowing us to increase the cap on custom npc templates for the summoning system.
The other item we got through a complete blunder and kept quiet about to use for ourselves as it was a utility item and not a direct battle item. For the ritual WCI that was what gave us the advantage, if an enemy could break through the fortress than they are well within range thanks to the ritual circle and even dedicated long range mages. A rain of magic was an apt description for those that tried as even if they dodged we had players or npcs blocking the front to attack. Word got out but unless they were dedicated tanks making up a large portion of the force it was pointless attrition so most gave up halfway considering they had to go through an ambush forest zone and the fortress. As a nice note the forests are enchanted with a variety of debuffs and illusion effects to drive people batty but we usually keep the exterior forest defenses turned off for travelers. For obvious reasons a guild raid is rather visible and thief characters would need absurd numbers to actually make an impact but without support get crushed.
If several guilds tried or bought WCi then we would have trouble but we kept a low enough profile to avoid this. Most conflict was one on one guild battles when we did not have enough members online and they knew it but defensives allowed us to survive. They were one off not dedicated attacks not 'these guys must be purged' so after enough died that things became simply not worth it they left. We got our hand on a bit of loot from this but nothing reliable, now that I think about it having a hundred odd players leave everything behind is a rather massive stockpile.
Well enough of rambling I should start putting away this stuff that is here around me. Excellent that is good to know as I start poking around to find that the inventory system still works. Putting away all the good food or drink around me as I do not know for right now if they can spoil but it would be a waste if the open sake bottle I had was not finished. Still putting everything else away first, thankfully any major fireworks or explosions should have been confined to the designated proving grounds but random party debris from items being used is still here. Summoning checks show that indeed I still can make minions as I make a clutch of House Spirit Sprites to start cleaning. These minor utility creatures are disembodied patches of fog that float around and can carry small objects as I watch them get to work.
Watching them float around to clean up I decide to start trying out my Scryer skills, I can feel the spells that I know as I search my mind and decide to use a basic Arcane Eye spell. This thing creates a view screen like a hover drone that I can direct but here there is no screen but I can see both it and my own view like looking with one eye through a binocular. I can see both at once but the fov is a bit weird. After that I decide to try out my items and take out my important item of the trade which is fashioned to look like a tablet. In actuality it is supposed to be a mirror but well data crystals, this thing is an adjustable interface that boosts scrying, farsight, divination, etc type magic used and allows projection onto the screen.
Deciding to check for sure whether we have lost the proving grounds I manage to instinctually shift my view to there and see a rather large amount of still smoking craters and various magical effects like fire and ice. In disorganized piles by the side I see the equipment of the erstwhile testers who decided to leave their stuff here as a memorial. A bit sad looking at the piles of equipment that range from low class joke stuff to divine items, to see the things that we worked so hard to make lying on the floor is well melancholic. Still at least some had the decency to place their stuff on either simple display dummies or weapon racks they put down but the other scattered things speak of 'heightened' emotions. Well that can't just be lying around so casually so I decide to see if my message spell works as well.
I hope that there are no incidents with the items there but for now I better get someone on that, the first of the major clean up for making sure all of what I assume to be awakened npcs are safe. That display of emotion by Sana even if I trivialized it back then was quite real, if I have to do something like that with everyone else... I don't think my heart could take it, I can handle one nervous breakdown for someone that is rather strong willed and could get up after a bit. If it is a more serious case then...I just have to wing it then as even my life did not prepare me for such an ordeal.
Searching through the list which I am thankful showed up I go to the overseer of the testing zone and our inputted lord drill instructor pair. From the look there is no one else that is not a part of the guild npc base I can contact and by extension the GM call as well, better check hearth and home first before going elsewhere. Linking to the minds of the first of the two I want I start the conversation.
"Can you hear me Fallatina?"
"Yes Soushukyou-sama, what is your will?" I can hear the gruff female voice of Fallatina the overseer of the proving grounds and regional defense commander.
"I assume that you can see the piles of items scattered across the proving grounds, leaving those items there is not acceptable so I must trouble you to arrange for them to be stored in the armory. Make sure they are organized according to what should be the owner's set but if that cannot be determined organize them at your discretion, ensure they are guarded well. I will be there to sort them out personally once I am able to"
"Yes as you will...may I ask a potentially improper question Soushukyou-sama?"
"You may, I promise not to get angry about anything you ask"
"Are the lords not returning to retrieve their items, these are precious regalia of the Enlightened Ones yet after the display they put on they discarded everything and vanished"
'Hmm Enlightened Ones?' "We will be addressing that shortly as Sana is going around to give the first part. Once she has spoken head to general meeting room#1 as she dictates for I will explain further there"
"As you say so Soushukyou-sama" after the disconnect I switch lines to find my drill instructor.
"Delfi I require your services, has Sana spoken to you yet?"
"No Soushukyou-sama, has something come up that requires my expertise?" is the reply in the bark of Delfi the drill instructor and field commander of the troops.
"Give the word that I require security to be maximized, defense against full scale assault preparations and I need observers and scouts to explore. Have you received any messages?"
"No I have... wait I just got a report about displaced terrain...Soushukyou-sama is this?"
"Yes, that is what I was worried about, prepare for any contingencies. I want a full scale muster to readiness but do not send outforces besides the scouts yet, there will be a meeting later wait for Sana to come to you first. For now do what I wished for first and also prepare plans for an expansion of our forces, no need for something realized just have a few ideas"
"By your orders Soushukyou-sama"
The initial security finished up I predict that I have a few minutes at least so I should check my equipment and I suppose the guild artifact. Right now I have what I call the casual wardrobe consisting of kosode, hakama, and haori. Well this is not actually that casual but I had appearances to keep and I did not have to deal with switching clothes in the game but now I do. As a full meeting of the officials of the guild I should probably switch to even more formal clothes for this, I better check my room then.
Heading over to my room in the eighth level I check around and see that the wardrobe and other storage areas are still good to go. What is more I see that the custom golems I have are here as well, a bit of a nice set up to add flavor but they are still labeled as golems meant to help dress and arrange my attire. They are only blank manikins slightly more inclined to the female side but not really any actual parts that one would do anything with. Deciding to try to see if voice command works as I give the order to retrieve my military official wear2 and they actually obeyed. After getting stripped of the previous wear and then having the new outfit put on I check in the mirror as the rest of the accessories are presented.
Normally swords are worn with this but I have wands, fans and extendable staffs instead to wear. Just because there is an old tradition to these clothes does not mean I have to go out of my way to have a sword as a wizard though that could just be sophistry considering how in depth I went with this. Though now that I think about it can I use other weapons instead? Well that is for later as right now I have a meeting to go to and speak of the devil I feel the other accessory of mine activate, basically a comms system with voice chat in the form of a slip on earpiece which was pretty common in the guild for short range work without needing to concentrate on a spell like message but more prone to interference.
Activating the item I hear the voice of Sana come through as she states that the meeting will soon begin and asks if I am prepared, I acknowledge that I am ready and head out of the room. Time for the very first meeting to deal with this quite a debacle of a situation, old habits died hard considering the surprising amount of quiet guild rules about dress despite usually being rather casual. Passing through the halls I pass by the maids and butlers dressed in various forms of servant's clothes depending on who created the servant, thinking about this I suppose it was part of the appeal for dress up to events with the parade of various forms of wear both npc and player as a bizarre mix of european and asian styles. The women especially had fun though those who liked cosplay in general or were fashion designers took the time to create things to wear and get vetted on the look.
Well enough of the escapism as I see the doors of the meeting room, besides the doors are the guards who in this case are dark elves dressed like if I recall from when they were made late 19th century prussian cuirassiers though without the spike and with rifles as well. The guards stand to attention as they open the doors to the meeting room and I am greeted by the sight of the npc heads of office turning to face me. This is certainly going to be an interesting discussion about the circumstances to come.
Footnote
1-Meant to be patriarch as a title, I want to write it as Soushukyou Valen-sama for a slightly less formal feel but any other ideas are welcome, by the way Valen is the personal name not the family name.
2-Hitatare (kamishimo) sugata, edo variant
AN#2: Hope you enjoyed and if you guys have suggestions on how to improve then go ahead.
I would like for personalities to be made for the character sheets I will be posting next. I gave them stats but want to leave it to the readers who would like to see the character personality they want in the story. The ones with placeholder are open to names and the last ones are completely open for anyone who want to submit a character freely other than the stated restriction for race and I want at least one character to be a merchant like figure and another to be a scholar. Even if your character for the templates cannot be one of the guardians I have spots for other executives so they can still be taken into the character group as another official.
If anyone has suggestions for events they want to see include those in the reviews so that I can compile a list. I will accredit whose ever idea it was when I write it in if it fits. This will be more of an interactive fic with the readers then just me writing what I feel, I will be doing that but I want you guys to be involved with this to a degree.