The 10,000 Year Reign of Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown, Part 4, The Age of Exploration
The second millennium changed the direction of the world, so that the third millennium was devoted to exploration, of the seas, of the far flung regions, and of their star system. In the process were built large naval vessels, both surface and submarine. In space, there were bases built on nearby planets that were not unstable or intolerable. These were armed as defensive outposts against potential invaders.
The great discoveries of this period were numerous, first the great island of Papura, with its seemingly impassable jungle mountains, strange ability to inhibit and disrupt magical movements, and its isolated primitive peoples of many races, like ancient ancestors of those that lived in these days, so of great anthropological interest. Quickly placed under the protection of Ainz Ooal Gown to prevent their exploitation, destruction or corruption, visits to Papura were strictly controlled and discreet. "To understand, not interfere" were their orders.
Next was the active volcanic island chain of Hestatia, in the "Hot Sea", the ocean surrounding it made much warmer and acidic from the volcanism. Quickly deemed a planetary threat, extensive scientific and magical monitoring was intended to be emplaced while study was undertaken, which soon proved too little and too late.
The island of Bolb, ancient and weathered, was sparsely populated, mostly with humans and elves, who lived agrarian lives. The adventurers-explorers who discovered them arrived heavily armed, based on indeterminate warnings of great risk from the closest coastal regions. Humans or elves that had traveled there were often exiles, not permitted to return to their homelands, but had made no effort to do so. The truth was disappointing at first, until they realized two phenomena: that there was almost no conflict on the island in living memory, nor were there any undead, or even cemeteries, just a few isolated graves, mostly for newcomers who had died during their passage. The answers to their inquiries always involved the local religious, that were pacifistic and itinerant, who each carried a strange but non-communicable disease that formed large, yellow-orange, blister like growths on their skin, wandering about with their begging bowls, which others generously filled. In turn this led to their holy place, the great caverns within their central mountains. The adventurers-explorers did not attempt to visit the caverns, anticipating a very long quarantine at sea before being allowed to return home.
The island of Underside was vast in size, and mostly desert except for stretches of jungle and wetland on its coasts. Few lived there, but its substantial mineral wealth, plus its exotic and interesting animal life showed great prospects for future development. However, one discovery by the adventurers-explorers caused the most excitement seen in Nazarick in a very long time, followed by the assembly of a gigantic invasion force. The discovery of another guild base.
With gentle interrogation, local humans in the area expressed no fear, referring to the base as "the ruins", and knew nothing of its origins or purpose. They thanked their interviewers for the delicious food and drink, and told them that even children played in the upper reaches of the ruins without harm, though it was too dark below to see except with torches.
It was soon discovered that the guild base had belonged to the World Searcher guild in YGGDRASIL, but it had no signs of ever having been occupied, with no NPCs, traps, or world items such as "Graeae", they were known to possess. World Searcher was best known for discovering the secrets of YGGDRASIL. Enigmatically, on one of its lower walls was scrawled a message whose meaning remained unknown until a drawing of it came to Ainz himself. It had been seemingly written by the NPC of a different guild, to the effect that "Kitty Kingdom was here". It was a calling card message, to let a guild know that they had received hostile visitors while they were not in. Kitty Kingdom was a guild that created NPCs based on cats or other feline creatures. But no other traces were found of either guild for dozens of miles around.
Ainz still kept an occupation force stationed there for a few centuries, on general principals. It eventually turned into a retirement and recreational community, popular with tourists.
While this program was underway on Underside, word came back from a merchant vessel making a routine delivery to the island of Bolb. One of their passengers, an Elder Black Ooze Slime diplomat en route to another destination, was sleeping peacefully in his very large and thick walled glass container, a safety measure because of his acidic character, when he was profoundly disturbed and tried desperately to exit his container. Normally a very dignified creature, he experienced a panic attack and told the crew that he had to get to Bolb at all costs. The ship's Captain refused, and ordered the ship to turn about. Becoming terribly agitated, the glass container could barely hold him in, but it did. Miles away at sea, the Slime finally lapsed into unconsciousness, and nearing the closest mainland port he awoke and seemed to have all of his faculties, though was very unsettled by what had happened. He asked to be taken to the port authorities, as he had vital news for Nazarick itself, which he had visited in past for scholarly reasons.
He was adamant that no Slime being, undead or other strongly negative creature be permitted anywhere near Bolb, as the island had a profoundly attractive positive force to negativity that would overwhelm and take control of them. It finally answered the question of why Bolb, with few dead, had no undead, for had they been created, they could not have resisted such an overwhelming force. Ainz, deciding that knowledge of this was important, directed that a survey, solely of living beings and no Slimes, explore the island to determine the source of this possible threat. Overall, it was a balanced group of explorers, attached to whom were several powerful casters and six specially trained mind readers and controllers whose skill as a group was impressive. They had been bred over generations for, and in training their entire life for the purpose of large scale psychic warfare, and this was their first major test against what could be an incredibly powerful psychic force. Their greater purpose was of yet hidden from them, known only to the top leaders and few outside of Nazarick even knew of their existence.
The leader of their group was an attractive young girl, whose mental abilities were far beyond those of the other members. She had created for them, and they had memorized, her mental template of how to increase psychic power and studiously followed it to advance their own abilities, hoping that someday to achieve her level of excellence. Yet she was terribly alone in the world, a super genius mind in a world full of mental infants. Her skill was such that she could enter the mind of another and follow, or modify, millions of thought pathways in their brain, yet cause no obvious harm and leave no trace of her visit.
It was she who detected and alerted the other explorers that some mind of amazing power was following their movement, still many miles out at sea. And that a welcoming committee was waiting for them at the port. Yet try as she might she could detect no hostility or trace of deception coming from them. Mysteriously, they seemed to have their individual minds, but also to some degree an opaque collective mind. Enigmatic but very interesting. "Are they so confident in their power that they do not fear us?" The superstitious ship's Captain and crew were agitated and made ready that if anything went wrong, the ship could leave with haste with minimal guidance at the helm.
The meeting on the dock was...unusual. Six elderly people wearing the simple garments and carrying their begging bowls of their religion, seated at a large table provided with snacks and the local wine by the townspeople, who were in view, and just curious, peeking at the visitors. Their most noteworthy feature of those in the group were the large, blister-like orange yellow growths on their bodies. Their mutual courtesy was to those with the most growths on them who were first to speak.
"We will gladly answer any questions you have," their leader said, "but none can quite grasp our way until they visit the holy caverns inland. Once you have seen what lies within, then we can explain it in detail. But to start, what you see on our bodies is not a disease, but the means by which we find unity."
Retiring to the ship for a time to discuss things, the leader of the mentalists was certain that somehow her detection skills were being deceived, because she could not find so much as a trace of duplicity, deception, guile, fear or anger. The lack of normal darkness and fear was an oppressive silence.
She demanded of two of the fighters in the explorers party that they help her, by embracing false feelings of hatred for each other, though they were close friends. They were able to muster such feelings and she detected them loud and clear, along with the rest of their mental chatter, and that of everyone else on board. "So how is it even possible that the people we met are free of all the edges of their humanity?" It was decided that only some of the mind readers and casters should travel to the caverns. The rest should be prepared to repel boarders as well as to escape the island before they could be captured or subverted if necessary.
The away party were well provisioned for the trip, and the locals admired their rapid means of conveyance on self propelled mechanical vehicles. They were even equipped with radios, in case telepathic communications were blocked, as well as rifles and ammunition.
As they approached the caverns they noted that the people they saw on foot had far more of the growths covering their bodies. These people wandered about with a beatific gaze, sometimes approaching one of the large baskets of food brought for them to eat. One old woman, with half her head and back and an entire arm covered with the growths, approached the mentalist leader, and continued the conversation the mentalist had with a different person at the port, as if they were the same person. "Welcome to the Cavern of the Maatha-mose, which can be seen if you look inside from the entrance. Take a glance so you can see it, then you can back away. I will then be glad to tell all of you about it, and you will know what I am talking about. It is safe."
With great trepidation, they first saw a great staircase inside the entrance, leading down to a very large observation deck below ground. Beyond it was the Maatha-mose. A gigantic, filling the cavern, yellow and orange, with some patches of red, amorphous thing. It had to be some type of slime, and though it slowly moved, it seemed firmer than other slimes. And then, contained within, they saw several human or elf skeletons.
Joining the slowly retreating mind readers and casters, the old woman said, "Now you will know what I am talking about." She explained that the Maatha-mose began as a monstrous thing with the creation of the New World itself. A tarry ooze, it consumed minerals for sustenance. Then its first great evolution came after the consumption of microorganisms. Consuming them gave it primitive impulse to consume more of them. Eventually decomposing plants, insects and dead animals that were washed underground gave rise to its first low level intelligence. It finally learned to be motive enough to capture living animals, and by absorbing them it rapidly changed into a predatory and evil thing.
The current Maatha-mose underwent a major metamorphosis when a large band of dwarves decided to mine the caverns of Bolb, to get minerals and metals untaxed by their government. In doing so they broke into one of the lateral chambers of the cavern of the Maatha-mose, which trapped and consumed them before they could escape. This consumption of evolved beings flipped the character of the Maatha-mose from a negative to a positive thing, and substantially increased its intelligence. The undead, and other slimes that lived on the island, because of their negativity. were attracted to it. As more and more of them were consumed, the Maatha-mose because increasingly positive. And it ceased being predatory of living beings, achieving a sublime mind.
Much later, a violently deranged human tried to hide in the cavern, and near starvation broke off a small piece of the Maatha-mose with the intent to eat it. But clinging to his hand, suddenly his mind cleared, his insanity stopped, and he was filled with great peace and fulfillment. Within a short time, he felt a loving connection, a unity, with all those it had consumed before. They shared thoughts and feelings, and he had a great desire to tell others of his discovery. The Maatha-mose had its first supplicant. Through the slowly growing substance on his hand, he could teach the living the wisdom of the dead, and how it was possible to join them in unity forever. Others soon did the same, putting pieces of it on their forearm, thigh, or head for the best connection. Eventually it would cover so much of their body that they would be compelled to insert themselves into the greater Maatha-mose and be consumed, and by doing so to become part of the greater mind. Though it was possible to remove the growth from their body, none had ever chosen to do so.
The minds of people and elves soon dominated the Maatha-mose, a shared intelligence of thousands of humans, elves, undead, dwarves and slimes. Yet the strongest minds led it all and made it bend to their will, personality and purpose.
In her goodbye to the other mind readers, the leader praised them and wished them the best in whatever the future held for them, but she said this was an opportunity that could not be missed, to put such amazing power into the hands of their master, Ainz Ooal Gown. Horrified at her intent, they raced to the cavern only to find that she had already embraced the Maatha-mose. Yet her superhuman intellect was quickly able to command it and all the minds within completely. She was even able to fashion a greater than life sized version of herself from slime, standing erect, to speak with them face to face. The message she wanted delivered was that she would apply herself to discovering the many ways the Maatha-mose could serve Nazarick. A particular explorer named Katlici, with no detectable psychic ability or talent, neutral karma, and of low skill as an explorer, but reasonably smart and a good listener, was selected to be her liaison with Nazarick, communicating solely by radio, relayed by ships at sea. It didn't hurt that in the brief time they knew each other, he had fallen in love with her, which she enjoyed like having an affectionate pet mouse.
Her first message was that the prohibition against undead and slimes should be made permanent, as this astounding amount of positive energy would be their doom. Soon the Daughters of Nigredo built a mental institution on the island, more a hotel for the soon to no longer be mentally ill, as an application of the Maatha-mose was found to not just heal the mind, but damage to the brain as well. Even those born incompetent would not just become rational, but be made more intelligent, to catch up on the education they had missed.
There was an insistence that after their healing they be taken from the island, because beyond a given distance, the pieces of Maatha-mose affixed to them, and any other sample of it, would wither and die. And few could resist the enjoyable, but ultimately lethal attraction to such a feeling of unity with so many others. Many races thus had very long debates about whether their aged and infirm members should "make the travel to Bolb", knowing that in a real sense they would continue to live; or did they want to die among those they loved at home.
In time, the great mind provided many treasures to Nazarick, including the location of several valuable sealing crystal mines, that would answer some of the great, unanswered questions of the New World. While most were whitish or clear, like diamond and quartz, some were red like rubies, blue like sapphires, green like emeralds, or purple like amethyst. Most importantly, each type performed a very different function. The great mind proposed that if these different types were all gathered in the same place, they would join together to create a "device" of great value, as they seemed to be of complementary purposes.
From Ainz' point of view, it sounded vaguely like prismatic ores in YGGDRASIL, joining together to, in the case of Celestial Uranium, create Caloric Stone. But in this case, the various sealing crystals would be able to create a device to do what? In YGGDRASIL, only white or clear sealing crystals were known, with the brilliance of the bluish white light contained within as indication of the potency of the spells they contained. He guessed that this type were somewhat like computer memory, where data would be stored until it was summoned by a spell subroutine, which would explain why they were perhaps the most common kind of sealing crystal.
But if that were the case, the function of the device would be based on the data stored within that particular sealing crystal. He generally knew, or could quickly determine what was contained within the sealing crystals in the treasuries' sealing crystal room. Except, he thought to himself, the recently arrived "gifted" sealing crystals put in there. He should make it a point to pay it a visit and use his All Appraisal Magic Item skill on them. With considerable caution.