Hi. i wanted to write something involving my character again, and for those of you who haven't read my earlier works, welcome! I hope you enjoy your stay.

Yggdrasil was definitely a pleasant surprise since it's one of my favorite tropes in both art and writing, and the lore for Overlord was very detailed at that. I've spent hours poring over all of the sections and subsections, and although a good chunk of the plot is left remaining I feel like I have a good grasp on all of the characters. I really like reading the summaries, and truth be told it's the detail that I find far more entertaining than the anime/light novel.

Chapter 1

Java woke up in a strange place. She had the vague feeling that this world, in juxtaposition to many others, was especially one that was not supposed to exist.

The first thing she did when she opened her eyes was to clamp them shut again. Light blinded her briefly, and the overstimulation of her eyes made her avert her eyes toward a darker area of her vision, which just so happened to be a large patch of dark red mushrooms.

She was supposed to be prone, as she did not feel her legs supporting her weight, but instead she was still held upright by something that was not of her doing. She could feel it pressing into her, almost restricting in its grasp. There were plants underneath her feet. She got up slowly, struggling, feeling her bones shake as she settled into place and the physical body weighing down on her with all the laws of physics that she so readily allowed to affect her person.

Something caught, and as Java looked down she realized what exactly her form had been through.

Apparently, during her sleep, this appearance had taken its toll.

Her entire body was buried in wood, swirled markings and bark having grown around her fingers, her torso, and her feet. There were roots weaving over her feet and downward into the dark soil beneath her to successfully shackle her, immobile.

Mossy earth blanketed the forest floor, and as she craned her neck to observe she found that she was surrounded by trees, all far taller than she had anticipated. Light came trickling through the leaves, and she felt a strange warmth as one of the rays hit her skin. She tried moving one of her hands and hit a dead end, unable to even flex a single muscle. She did not know why, but she was stuck in a forest with no clue how she'd gotten there.

She gave up.

Java hadn't felt the sun in so long. Realizing this, she looked up, feeling the light pouring over her like a new blessing, closing her eyes in contentment as if she would lay there and remain happy for a very long period of time.

She had not traveled this slowly to another world before. It was disorienting, to say the least. Physical limitations did not stop her, but for once Java was fine with this progression and laid there, watching a thin trail of ants climb their way up the bark and into a crevice of another tree. Small, talented creatures, she thought, spotting one of them carrying a leaf five times its size. They are hardy and overworked, and yet they manage to accomplish many things by themselves. They care for nothing but their purpose.

Despite the situation she was in, being trapped in a tree that had somehow grown around her (sort of like clipping into the wall of a house in a video game, Java thought, snorting), she rested there, taking it all in until the sun moved slightly and the rays were no longer hitting her hair and one of her arms. Java was then just about to start destroying the tree until she looked up and met the eyes of a creature that had definitely not been there before.

Dryads.

They were a small subsection of the fey, creatures who were very attuned to nature and the plants around them, most specifically the tree the spirit emerged from. Their sole source of energy and habitation relied on their birth tree. Forests that have been long-lasting over several centuries are most likely a place for a dryad to emerge, and their longevity is well known to human travelers.

These beings were not very well studied by scholars, due to them being mischevious and very quick to run. It was not that dryads did not like humans; on the contrary, most of the dryad population found humans to be a source for entertainment, but once a dryad was separated from the ebwyn they became agitated, weak, and unable to live very long afterward since the tree was their sustenance.

Travelers attempting to strike a conversation would most likely find themselves rid of their possessions, clothing, and other material valuables once the hours passed. It did not help that fairies often lived close by as well.

Dryads are female-dominated as a group due to a majority of the population being women. However, although rare, male dryads were possible and equal in appearance.

All of them have seasonal changes, just as the trees do: in the summer their leaves are bright and verdant, and in the winter the leaves turn brown and shrivel up. Flowers bloom on their skin and hair easily, and more often than not in the warmer seasons. Most dryads were benign, however, and they did not need to survive off humans as food sources.

Java frowned and blinked, eyeing this figure who was hunched over right in front of her and making direct eye contact. This was definitely a dryad, at least with similar attributes like the near-elven features and the head of green leaves. She had dredged up most of the information she knew about the creatures, and not all of it may be accurate because frankly, she had no idea what this world was or how she acted in it.

Okay. I'd better not anger this one.

Therefore, instead of breaking herself out (and most likely earning the fey's wrath), she asked plainly, "Can you let me out of here, please?"

The dryad jerked back as if surprised and then leaned closer, studying her human face intently. Java tilted her head in confusion, wondering if this dryad was considered young and thusly did not understand human tongue.

She repeated it in every language she knew, waiting for any sign of recognition, until she stopped on one and the dryad seemed to comprehend what she had said: it was in Latin, the olden language.

"The dryad's language has been taught to you?" It asked, wide-eyed. Java whistled lowly, feeling a bit relieved for the small comfort. Language was a good skill of hers, spent through eons of traveling through the world, growing up as humans aged and evolved, and studying every part of their history.

"Yes. May I be released from this..."

She wanted to make a gesture for the wood cocoon encasing, but the bark pressing into her skin made it hard to do so. She wasn't sure if that was a branch poking into her side, but now that she acknowledged it the feeling was becoming irritating.

The dryad released her quickly, much to her relief. The tree shuddered and bent, and with enough force Java pushed herself out the rest of the way. Turning back around she saw the small cavern she had been in close up, covered once again in bark and lichen, until there seemed to be nothing unusual that had been previously trapped within it.

"Thank you," Java said, cracking various joints and rolling her shoulders out.

The dryad was seemingly still very curious about Java. She remained close by without the slightest hint of fear, giving attention to the deep red of her hair, her clothing, the darkened leather bag she did not recognize but still carried on her person. Java opened the bag and dumped out its contents: there were several empty glass bottles, and one was filled with strange blue liquid. Other than that there were small poultices, a knife, and bundles of leaves that Java recognized as herbs.

The dryad ignored the bottles and held up the medicinal plants, intrigued.

"Feverfew," Java intoned, listing them out as she pointed at each of them. "Yarrow, wormwood, burdock. Chamomile."

The dryad looked back at Java, still holding the herbs. "You name them?" She asked. "We dryads do not give names for nature's gifts. We can recognize them at sight, however. These plants grow further in our domain, I believe, but never before have I heard of humans taking them this deep in our territory."

"It's used for medicine," Java replied, a bit interested. "Do you know how humans tend to illnesses or injuries?"

The dryad picked up one of the bottles, the one filled with some of that potion, balancing it carefully in her palm. "The humans use these. The bottles are always filled with this blue water, and they drink it to regain health."

Magic, huh? Java pocketed all of her items. The dryad held up the herbs before giving them back, smiling a little. "You have not harmed the plant when cutting off these leaves," the dryad declared. "I can feel it in the praises they sing. You carry expertise in collecting for your own use, and they say you prioritize the fallen leaves before even thinking of touching the source root. I am glad."

Java had not been the one to cut them, but she bowed her head anyway and continued on with the dryad's guidance.

The forest parted ways, and Java reached a well-worn pathway that led through a clearing, and - in the distance - a town, surrounded by no walls or sentries. A lone watchtower stood. Java felt something within her change a bit at this sight, and with the promise of civilization in her sights she headed quickly down the road at almost inhuman speeds.

There was extremely little she knew about this world, she mused, nodding her head at the driver of a traveling cart as it passed by, moving off the road so that it could continue on unhindered.

If there were people, there should also be information she could find. That was the logical assumption.

A sparse amount of bushes covered the grasslands the town was surrounded by. It was a good location for the civilians there. She could see small groves of trees and a wide expanse of soil further back, lacking any sign of weed or fern.

Fences covered the land, wire looping to prevent animal intruders from scavenging crops. Scarecrows with jagged grins and large button eyes faced her, slightly intimidating and stretching dark shadows to ward off crows. She wondered if there were charms hanging off their clothing to increase paranoia. There had been a rain previously, cleansing the stone cobble of dirt but making earthen paths harder to navigate. Small bugs were finding solace underneath leaves and window panes, the water pooling puddles under sunlit eaves untouched.

The branches were heavy with dew, and from the watchtower golden bells chimed their toll ringing once, twice, three times before fading away. Then sprouting with a burst from crumbling earth rich with rivers of bluets, goldenrod, silver fern, all from the fields toiled with plows.

There were tables Java could see through the windows, laden with cups of tea and baked bread, cookies, fruits cut and sliced with care, and a collection of silver utensils. The houses were almost pristine, pastel colors and vibrant hues of curtains pushed aside as shopkeepers yelled their produce. Next to her, an old lady was watering her plants, humming a tune without lyrics, throat rumbling like the sound of thunder. An apothecary she normally would have had great interest in was growing plants outside their door, but instead of stopping to browse Java skipped past it all, eyes dead set on a building far bigger, knowing that she could find what she was looking for there.

Human interaction was quite hard, in her opinion, and as a stranger she was even less likely to learn anything of use. Books were a safer option.

The library door creaked open, its hinges old and squeaky, the paint chipping off the frame, but inside the lighting was warm and amber, filling her with anticipation. The inside was slightly dusty, with light filtering in from the back near the shelves, and an NPC sat reading, ignoring the sound of the door.

She burst in and began to search almost maniacally, poring over the text on the shelves.

It was an even stranger language than Latin, not one that she had seen very often, but she had learned this before as well. It was from a time where many groups of various ethnicities banded together to form one universal language called "common." The term had been used often, especially in tabletop adventures.

Java started to collect an absurdly enormous amount of reading material, stacking them up one using one arm while reading the spines intently. One of the librarians there took one look at her, paled abruptly, and buried his head back into the book he was reading. He did not want to deal with that adventurer, sadly.

She focused primarily on documented history, though she also found a few topics relating to lore. She learned there were a multitude of regions, mainly human ones, that had warred with each other for over a century.

The Bararuth Empire had been a feudal state like the Re-Estize Kingdom, but had been turned into a monarchy. The Slane Theocracy had a church system while the Roble Holy Kingdom primarily split into two different nations, neighbored by numerous hills. They preached of the Six Great Gods and converted others into devout followers.

There was a section of another book that focused on writing the non-human creatures that civilians frequently encountered. Surprisingly, there was also a section that adventurers could use, those for monster-hunting quests and possibly high-leveled areas where they could harvest materials.

Java thought for a bit, a small shard of hope coming briefly to life, then she flipped through the pages, looking for one creature in particular. She closed it upon finding nothing, then moved through the other ones as she absorbed information like a sponge.

There were stories of the lindworm, of houses still like stone that moved when people blinked, cypress oaken casks cloaked in red velvet that swallowed men whole, of vines that moved and attacked anything that walked. From the fae, the war-ridden and hungry creatures, the monsters residing in the dungeons and the badlands, beings of the dark and the deep, Java consumed them all with an ever-increasing fondness.

God, she loved these pieces of folklore, and somehow they always seemed to remain universal.

The human race was the weakest of all groups, low in innate skill and magic. Most heteromorphic groups had some sort of advantage due to their race, whether it be dark vision, strength, extra mana capacities, transformation, or the power of winged flight. Java flipped through the pages, reading the attributes of one of the most common creatures that were looked up.

There were many subsections of species, over 700 in their listed categories and sorted out in demihuman and heteromorphic titles: Elf, Fairy, Slime, Death Vine, Lessor Demon, Greater Demon, Undead, Lich, Vampire, Ghost, Angel, and so on. They had racial skills attributed to them as they evolved into greater versions, some more powerful than others.

Java looked through their names and did not find anything that seemed out of place from what she already knew, so she sighed and closed the book shut. To tell the truth, this whole thing reminded her a lot of a very good video game, Java mused, thinking a bit as her eyes caught another book detailing the quirks of this world.

She saw the Yggdrasil tree.

Java felt her heart stop beating for a moment as she scrambled to pick it up, hands shaking, reading it over again. Yggdrasil, the World Tree. She had not seen that name in a very long time, let alone heard of it in any other universe except in fairytales.

However, after reading the serial code number and glancing up at the shelves, it seemed to have come from the same section where she found the historical writings. She cracked it open, almost afraid of what she would read inside.

Apparently, this universe was split into nine worlds, each of them being one leaf from the tree of Yggdrasil: Asgard, Álfheimr, Vanaheimr, Niðavellir, Midgard, Jötunheimr, Niflheim, Helheim, and Múspellsheimr. The remaining leaves were destroyed by the World Eater or turned into extremely powerful tools known as World Items.

Each of these worlds were vast, impossible to travel by foot, and their landscapes ranged from icy mountains to expansive forestlands, volcanic terrain to dark, deep caves of the underground. Subsequently, there were telltale hints of regions so holy or so dangerous that no human had dared come to explore it, but these places were known as 'dungeons', hidden away and opened only in special ceremonies.

Six hundred years ago, the book read, the beings known as the Six Great Gods appeared in the New World. They prevented humans from being on the verge of extinction and saved them from the monsters ready to destroy most of their population. They were people of great power, wielding and teaching the highest spells known as Tier Magic. They then became inhabitants and died, leaving descendants who were known as demi-gods and a legacy of magic that was unparalleled. The Six no longer existed due to them being humans and lacking a long lifespan, but the Slane Theocracy and their descendants still hold out the will of what they believed the Gods wished for.

Java closed the book shut with a satisfying thump, sitting back in disbelief.

Yggdrasil was alive, and more importantly, something she was surrounded by all along. Her eyes looked up and past the shelves through a parted window, the hinges locked but still trailing rays of sunlight.

She closed her eyes and felt it again, that warmth, the comforting presence: she knew where it came from now. It had always been there, waiting.

Java suddenly heard a noise somewhere close to her ear and jumped to her feet, looking around. "The hell?"

It had sounded like a notification.

Lines of text materialized out of the air in glittering black and blue letters directly in front of her eyes. Java could only stare. They reformulated themselves, now saying along with a quiet mechanical click: Welcome to YGGDRASIL, an online multiplayer designed for all experienced and non-experienced players alike. We hope you enjoy the game!

"What," Java said dully, and suddenly a map appeared before her in a shower of realistic sparks, along with an added sound effect for show. "The fuck."

As if the introduction had not been enough, Java was then given several more pings of achievement, all showing her unlocking of items, of guidelines for the game, and a small virtual handbook that practically gave no information at all, before everything disappeared once again, completely out of sight. The map returned.

Quest: the extra text read as the scroll unrolled and pinpointed several spots on the map, some including the regions from where she'd read the history about minutes before, destroy all World Enemy monsters. 32 remaining.

Java stared at the sparkling gaudy letters, uncomprehending, before slowly looking up and making eye contact with the befuddled librarian. He quickly buried his head back into his book, pretending to read and desperately avoiding eye contact.

"Yggdrasil...?" Java tentatively called out once the mechanical, non-Yggdrasil-sounding voice had finished speaking and she had turned away from the librarian, keeping her voice to a minimum. "Are you there?"

There was no response other than the small gust of wind lightly tapping against the window, rattling the stained glass.

She reached up slowly and tapped the words again, and their status refreshed, the disembodied voice repeating cheerfully, Destroy all World Enemy monsters. 32 remaining.

She hadn't seen Yggdrasil in so long, hadn't felt its presence, that she had taken a glimmer of hope in getting the chance to even speak to the divine entity. And now, a cold, foreboding feeling was starting to creep up on the back of her neck, ruining her giddiness.

Java had remembered the glowing tree and the creatures that lived under its guidance, adoring, young and old alike gazing up at the source of the universe that had so benevolently given them life despite everything. She had been there, once. Eons ago, she had looked down upon each of the beings given Yggdrasil's blessing and watched them, each wrapped up in one gift after another: the gifts of fire, of sound, of breath and of light, of all the things of claw and fur and tooth and bone.

Her name had not been Java, but it had been countless others. She had been an aide, a guide, a messenger. She was Time, the maker of universes but the destroyer as well. She would have followed this being forever.

She was never so mighty to think herself godlike. Once upon a time, nothing existed but the inky blackness of the universe and the sky tree, floating on the structures of the dead it grew from. There was no land or sea or sky to appreciate, no form of existence, and death was a constant. Then bloomed Yggdrasil, golden fruit that the world coveted, turned into lands vast and unyielding with everything to spare.

The tree was kind, it lived long, and its very appearance glowed with strength, being the one that held the fabric of the universe together. Java could weep with joy. And once the old Yggdrasil perished (avoidable death, the back of her mind whispered, she could have avoided it), Java could not stand the thought of being alone.

It was not the same, she thought, the revelation digging into her like a vice. This world had been broken off from the remaining universes, stretching lines of code in the image of a computer game.

This quest, she realized, these pop-up texts and the characters and the language, they were all not real. Or it was an alternate universe, at least, one where Yggdrasil's voice was replaced with that of an automaton.

"This is a fake Yggdrasil!" Java scattered the remaining books, hanging them in the air like puppets on a strand of thread, forcefully shoving them back into their place using a few uncoordinated movements of her hands. The librarian, who had been dutifully avoiding eye contact for as long as possible, squeaked and hid behind his chair. "Screw it! Fine! I'll take this stupid quest!"

She stomped off in a rush. The NPC librarian who had cowered behind furniture got up slowly, looked at the still-open door, and vowed never again to anger an adventurer with knowledge on the line. She must not have found what she wanted here.

Her race was human.

That was what it said on her character sheet: the design was like that of a game in Dungeons and Dragons, her stats listed below one grim picture of her unamused scowl. Which was the expression she had on now, Java thought, looking at her racial skills but finding a blank [Not Available] in its place.

This was expected, since being human was all she ever needed to interact with other humans and being one made it easiest to do so.

She did not find any problems with lacking the abilities of demihumans and heteromorphic creatures. Humanity was seen as weak, yes, but one thing Java knew about humans was that they were resilient, much like ants. They had survived this long under the gods they so believed in, and they were sure to do so now.

Java scrolled back on the main data page, gathering all the information about these so-called "players" she's heard of in daily NPC conversation.

Players were often taken through the game as 'adventurers', whether human or not, and they performed quests and leveled through monster hunting to gain experience and gold. The Yggdrasil gold coin was rather thin, easy to bend but very valuable. Java had seen a blacksmith sell one impressive-looking obsidian weapon for only ten silver pieces, so Java knew that the exchange here was quite different.

Talking to people took a while, at first. She was very unsure whether she should start by approaching an NPC in a way that she felt most comfortable with.

These people were alive, right? They looked human enough.

The fae had been unusually friendly with her where they normally avoided humans, but Java was unsure whether or not she had been a neutral creature or a pop monster spawned close to the dungeon they were protecting.

Java eventually did catch one woman who seemed to be hanging laundry and asked several nondescript questions. She was rewarded with an enthusiastic reply and a free apple to consume.

From the first time she had ever tried interacting with a human, far before this game and the other worlds she'd experienced, she had not done it well. She almost flew at times without thinking. Gravity could not contain her, and neither did shadows and footsteps. She had to observe them for an absurdly long time before obtaining their mannerisms, their thoughts, making a crude imitation. They ran screaming the first several tries.

It had been slightly amusing in retrospect.

She went back to the apothecary after storming out of the library, in need of money and deciding to trade both the bottle and herbs for coin. And at the same time she spotted several odd-looking customers dressed in clothes, bantering outside.

They were heteromorphs.

One was a slime, bright pink and somehow held together in an orb but oozing a long mess beneath it.

The other was a birdman, dressed in golden armor and containing a long mass of dark hair that billowed out behind him. They both drew quite a bit of attention, judging by the whispering of NPCs, but not for the reasons that she had been thinking of.

"Both of them are adventurers," one of them spoke excitedly in hushed tones, "players, at that."

Java's full attention had been caught at the last part, gaze darting back over to the two characters in interest.

The two of them seemed to quiet upon seeing Java, and she wondered if her name would materialize right above her head. She definitely could not see theirs. She remembered something else she had read, not in books but through code.

Apparently, heteromorphs were quite the unpopular choice in-game for many players due to their high PK rate. There were no repercussions for killing heteromorphic characters, which was why they were mostly targeted by humans and ganged up on.

Java, consequently, was a human.

Due to this, she decided to keep a respectable distance and turned towards the NPC, who seemed to also be distracted by the non-human customers. She placed all of the items from her bag onto the table. "How much can I sell for these?"

"Hmm..." He picked up the bottle first, standard material for those not of player class, and resolutely said, "three coppers. As for the poultices-"

"What's her level...?" The birdman whispered to the slime during the conversation, maintaining eye contact the entire time.

The human's back was turned, and so Peroroncino took the opportunity to gaze at her unabashedly. The age seemed to be set quite young, somewhere within adolescence, and with bright red hair that reminded him of one of the fae creatures. "It's not there. I can't see it."

"Me neither. What the-" The low muttering was returned in kind, the slime - Bukubukuchagama - moving a bit so that it stood higher, but the voice seemed female despite the deeper tone. "Her levels and her title are changing so fast, I can't read them! Is she hacking?"

"The Almighty, The Law of All Worlds, Creator of Universes, Concept of Time," Peroroncino read aloud, then shook his head resolutely. "What are these names, did a ten-year-old make them? Alright, she's definitely cheating. Telling the devs would probably make her mad and bring any guild members she has along, though, if she even has any."

The apothecary owner opened one of them up by cutting off the twine, observing his contents, and immediately his face paled, then turned red with his eyes bulging, and then he turned still, all at once. "Are these-"

"What?" Java hadn't looked at their contents herself, so she peered over and looked in them. There were several golden leaves, all of them glowing with an ethereal light, like a mysterious power-up or a buff spell had been placed on them. Other than that, they looked quite small and ordinary.

"Are they bad?"

"Th-this is a-" The man seemed to be having trouble breathing, and his hands were shaking as he held the cloth wrapping carefully around them, as if he were holding the greatest treasure in existence within his grasp. "YGGDRASIL Leaf. These are YGGDRASIL Leaves, I don't know how or when you obtained them but you cannot just-"

"What?!"

The slime seemed to have overheard their conversation and bounded toward them in an instant, peering over at the counter as it stretched higher to 'see'. Java wasn't quite sure how slimes worked, but she knew it was definitely not by eyesight, considering the thing lacked an eye. It did seem quite spherical in shape, though, so maybe there was an eye somewhere within its body.

(Now that Java was able to observe the being more closely, the slime seemed to be more orange in tint, with odd muscle-looking texture rather than a gelatinous and translucent feel.)

"Oh my god, are these a new item? A rare ingredient? What monsters drop these - oh my god, is it from the World Eater? No, that's impossible, it's so strong..." The slime turned to her, and above its head was a bright and cheerfully smiling emoji. "Hey! What's your name?"

"Don't-" The one behind her sighed, placing one hand on his face just above his beak. "Oh, ok, here we go."

"[Appraisal: Magic Item]," the man said, and the further whitening of his face was confirmation enough. The slime squealed, excitedly wiggling about as she looked at the items hungrily. Java wasn't quite sure how that translated, but the body movement was enough for her to pick up on it.

"I'm Java," she told them, bowing her head slightly. "Nice to meet you."

"My name is Bukubukuchagama-san," the slime parroted in a high-pitched, rather cutesy tone. "And this is Peroroncino, my not-cute brother. We were looking to start monster hunting in one of the level 40 dungeons since this is the once-in-a-while time he comes online with me to play. I rarely get to go into the harder areas, too, because I haven't quite found a party to join yet."

"I see," Java replied, glancing over at Peroroncino. The guy seemed vaguely uninterested, looking away and towards one of the shopkeepers on the opposite side of the road. He seemed to be not great with human characters, or maybe just people in general.

Java kept her attention focused on the sister instead. "Then, if you don't mind, is it alright if I ask a few questions? I'm new to the game, and I don't really have a good way of finding information on specific things."

"Go ahead!" Bukubukuchagama-san chirped, eager to help. Java started off by asking a question that seemed most pressing, regarding the quest given to her by Yggdrasil itself.

"You wanna know about World Enemies?" Peroroncino asked, sharing a glance with his sister. "Well, there are 32 of them, all of them are strong as heck. There's the Lords of the Seven Deadly Sins..."

"Ten Archangels of the Sephira, Celestial Lord of the Sixth Heavens, Five Rainbow Buddhas, Devourer of the Nine Worlds, and the Eight Dragons," Bukubukuchagama added on, voice bubbly and energetic.

Java had the vague feeling that her tone switched often when handling her brother, and that Peroroncino was often cowed from saying anything too out of place. He seemed like he wanted to say more sometimes but refrained from doing so. "By the way, where did you find those Yggdrasil leaves? What do they do?"

"Probably fake ones," Peroroncino snorted, joining in. "No way they can be that good of an item, especially because this one's a noob who didn't even know how to-"

"Hey!" Bukubukuchagama gave a scowling emoji, and Peroroncino laughed nervously.

"H-heh, I mean, yeah, they're probably really good items!"

Java chuckled and shook her head, waving the matter aside. These two were a surprisingly endearing combination, she thought as she shoved the leaves back into her bag. She'd figure out a use for them eventually.

She hadn't found much interest in them, even after the item had been appraised by the keeper, since she already had a lack of mana or hp bars available.

And it was true: Java glanced up again, trying to open the settings that would show her the menu and her stats, but all she could hear was a faint click and then nothing.

She wasn't sure if that meant that she had either infinite health points or none at all - well, the latter didn't make sense, since she was still alive and breathing.

Anyway, she could figure that out later, and not in theory, she decided, shrugging internally as she set off with the bickering siblings. She already had a list of questions to go, and since these two seemed well versed in all the things she couldn't find in the text manual she would use their helping hand to its utmost capabilities.

Java learned a lot during their mostly one-sided conversation.

Firstly, there were monsters called raid bosses, with skill sets far stronger than the average player attempting to defeat it. Around 30 players were needed to take one down, which seemed a bit overkill in her opinion but she nodded in understanding.

Secondly, there were two groups that she could join with other players, one being a dungeon and the other a guild. Guilds could take a dungeon as their own once it had been defeated, giving ownership rights over to the group. However, there was a ranking system in all nine worlds that could affect the overall ranking, and the difficulties were not all similar.

Guild members, Bukubukuchagama mentioned excitedly, could create NPCs, beings that could be programmed to defend their dungeon.

Lastly, there were three categories for NPCs that guild members could use. Spawn monsters, known as pop monsters, who ranged from levels 0 to 30 and had costs for maintenance. They did not revive when killed, making them rather unappealing.

Mercenary NPCs were those hired by the guild to help in aid or protection, but their skills were uncoordinated when playing with them as a party.

Custom NPCs were the best option to go for. They could have their appearance and skills customized to their liking, and commands could be programmed into them, making them the easiest to use as offense or defense characters.

Java asked about magic, which neither of them knew very much about. Bukubukuchagama was a tank and a shield, while Peroroncino used a bow as his primary weapon and dealt elemental damage. They did have the basic cast of spells, however, which they gave her pointers on.

"How did she even survive without using basic spells?" She heard Peroroncino mutter to his sister. Java did not see Bukubukuchagama's reaction, but after a flurry of emojis that looked vaguely like death threats when compiled together he seemed placated.

Specializing in specific classes or skills were important as well, the slime stressed. She made a list of the ones she knew, even including the racial skills of other races in case Java ever came across any of them in the future.

Java felt a little touched at that: they were both honestly, legitimately trying their best to help her, thinking that she was simply a player that didn't know very much about the game. Bukubukuchagama then added on that class changes could be made, but the stats also had to be rearranged accordingly.

There were prerequisites to learn magic, Bukubukuchagama mentioned. Classes could unlock certain traits of magic, or there may be items that must be used, or there might be other criteria that needed to be met.

Java wondered if now was the time that she should say how she had never used a spell before (at least not in this world), and as the landscape changed so did the difficulty of the monsters spawning near the dungeon, in which they killed any hostiles in their way. Java then made her statement.

"Hey," she finally spoke up, and her companions turned to her with matching questioning emojis. (Peroroncino laughed. Bukubukuchagama simply snorted.) "So I haven't used a spell since I entered the game, and I was wondering how I can check spells."

"Tap the air with your finger and go down to the drop-down menu," Bukubukuchagama said, and Java mimed the effect.

Nothing happened except another faint clicking sound, which Java found interesting.

Was her system locked, or was she simply unable to access the player menu? She was not a player, after all.

"Try and cast one right now, then," Peroroncino replied, gesturing towards the empty space behind them where they had just murdered several small vine enemies, which had shriveled up after their attacks and turned into husks. Java outstretched her arms, aimed toward the sky, and fired.

A blinding halo of light illuminated the area, blasting all of them with a force of unparalleled power as the sky - the sky, a part of the map that was supposed to remain untouchable - parted above her, clouds disintegrating as her beam stood starkly for everyone to see.

Because neither of them had been expecting it, both Peroroncino and Bukubukuchagama could not withstand the magic that she unleashed and took a slight amount of damage. And by 'slight', she meant a majority of their health, which had dropped extremely low in a matter of milliseconds. Java felt the two get knocked back with the force alone, and with her area of effect (burning, the light damage had set all the neighboring monsters on fire) came a glowing aura that shimmered about her person, small glitters of magic that eventually fizzled out and disappeared into nothing.

All three of them could not move an inch as if spellbound, each of them looking at each other, disbelieving.

"What the fuck," Bukubukuchagama said, not even bothering to use her voice properly.

Then Peroroncino coughed, lowly. "Well, I guess that settles that."

I'm finally done! Thank god chapter one is over time to finish another project I've been doing. School is almost over and I'm starting to focus all my attention on the things I like doing, because study for finals who?

(Just kidding I'll probably take a look at some of my notes sometime this weekend)

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a great day!