Set sometime after the events of Volume 10. I.E after Ainz has achieved a deal with the Dwarven Kingdom and is commencing with Demiurge's Plan to capture the Roble Holy Kingdom in all but name.
"Damn it all. Damn them all." Wulfstan banged the head table of his Guildhall's Mead Lounge. They had spared no expense in constructing this lavish bar, truly portraying the Dwarven love for Mead and all forms of Alcohol in such a manner that even the most hard to please Dwarf Alcohol Connoisseur would not find a single thing amiss of perfection, let alone a fault in its workings.
But the time of construction was well over half a decade ago. Of the same time wherein all 300 Members of the Winterwind Guild had carved this part of Svartalfheim for themselves, besting many a boss in this underground abode to capture the raid dungeon 'Halls of the Mountain King' in one fell swoop. Possessing an entire 2750 NPC points, its power and prestige were almost equal to the primary guild base in Svartalfheim, the monstrosity called Palace of Gungnir, which had 3000 points.
They had modified it and changed it to immaculately resemble the Halls of what a True Dwarven King should. But not all members of Winterwind were dwarves. No, such mere threads of race did not link their grand endeavour, what truly brought all of them together was their passion for one particular facet of Yggdrasil, the facet of smithing. Every member of the Winterwind strove to find new and extraordinary ways to combine ores to form a perfect alloy, to craft a set of Armour which could hold up against the strikes of powerful World Enemies, to craft weapons which could be held in the same breath as Divine Class data crystal imbued weaponry without having similar imbuement, to craft machinery and golems which could rival the Strategic Siege Golems that the shitty devs were so fond of guarding dungeons with.
But the biggest achievement that Winterwind accomplished was not something outright magical or impossible, but something of utmost secrecy which still had magnificent consequences, they had found a facet of magic that nobody else in Yggdrasil knew of, Runelore.
The class of Runesmith was one many players could go into but did not mainly due to its limited uses, the only use anyone could find for it was that it somehow boosted enchantments by a mere 0.5%, and was definitely not worth sacrificing other more powerful classes like Divine Weaponsmith for. What had resulted in Winterwind discovering Runemagic and Runelore was because he, Wulfstan, the Guild Master had the classes of both Thane and Runesmith when they had gone up against the limited period World Enemies "Heralds of Arkath" three entire years ago.
They had to fight off a swarm of three hundred metre long dragons with molten cores and ridiculous statistics befitting their level 150 with merely three legions, i.e 108 Players was that he was now blessed with the Skill of Arkath's chosen. One Dragon in itself could wipe out a dozen players but they had to fight 7 at the same time. The quest was rumoured to be so hard that even Trinity could not fight them all and had a sound beating, their most and only humbling defeat till date.
But the ridiculous number of cashshop and limited use items which were expended to be able to field three legions outfitted with an insane number of resurrection items as well were worth it. He had gained the class of "Arkath's Chosen." And his guildmates had recuperated many of their losses with ores and materials looted from the bodies of the dragons never before seen in Yggdrasil.
Arkath's Chosen gave him great powers over using lava and magma and assorted skills. It could be held only a small notch below the World Champion, World Saviour and World Disaster classes. But its real power was that it enabled the rest of the clan to further progress their Job Levels in the Runic Field; Allowing them to gain powerful insights into Runelore. Runelore and Runemagic could be considered broken from the point of view of only what effects they caused. But the shitty devs had balanced them in a roundabout way due to their insane cost for utilization. Runemagic was the application of runes for combat purposes which was mainly where the insane cost aspect came into play. Runelore was the addition of Runes to Weapons to further strengthen their attributes by either a small amount or a truly gargantuan margin.
Runelore was the main reason they could achieve many of their goals and maintain their position in the item market. The demand for Winterwind weapons, armour, ore were the only reason they had not been subject to an assault similar to what Ainz Ooal Gown had fought off. It was due to their thanks to Arkath they had even renamed their guild base to "The Great Forge of Arkath" using the one time administrative powers of the Guild Weapon.
Wulfstan stopped reminiscing and teleported to his personal quarters. This was not his personal Thane-oriented Teleportation powers but those granted to him by virtue of possessing his guild ring. The reason he was so angry in particular was due to the fact that out of all 300 of the members of Winterwind, only 10 had shown up today, the final day of Yggdrasil's Runtime. What could be considered the abrupt termination of their cumulative hopes and dreams. These 10 members were thankfully, some of the first to join Winterwind, 3 of them Humans, 3 of them other Dwarves, 3 of them Elves and the final one of them, one of their few heteromorphs, a Nephilim.
He was grateful for them showing up, but he could not lay blame at the feet of those who had not shown up either, many of those present were those who had kept watch on the guild base over the last 2 years, alternating with him to ensure Winterwind did not collapse, and that when he was away, The Great Forge of Arkath was not looted, and most importantly the secret of Runelore was not stolen away.
But many of those who had not shown up had also performed these duties admirably, taking their time from other, more modern games, or their intense work-oriented lifestyles in the abomination of a dystopia they all called home to ensure that the flame of the forge would not be snuffed out. But even they, who could be termed the Final Defenders slowly eroded…. crumbled away. This was mainly due to external pursuits and priorities finally shutting away their once mutual goal of smithing into its lone tomb. He had spent the last 3 hours clearing a few particular raid dungeons with the Final 10, with their best gear that they had never before brought to fore. They had completely wiped all of Svartalfheim's prospective challenges in the last three hours and started the reset timers for the particular dungeons. They had also completed their final scheduled deliveries, to guilds such as the remnants of the 2ch Alliance, Ainz Ooal Gown, Azgard3n Mankeys, and even the Numenorian Horde.
They had then bid fond farewells to each other after assembling all their assorted items in the Principal Throne Room. It was very similar in vein to what could consider the final march of a fallen kingdom, whose heyday was long gone, a countdown to extinction if you would. He had told them they were welcome to stay with him till the very end - 00:00 UTC but many could not, even taking these 3 hours off were due to the respect they held for him in utilizing their sick leave for this purpose. And so the rest of the day had passed and they had left.. But not all, his Nephilim friend, Duncan of Losgos and the high elf Bregas of Mirkwood had stayed. Both could be considered his oldest friends, and the cofounders of Winterwind along with him. They had followed him into his personal quarters and he chuckled.
"That was very rude Wulfstan, just because you're the High Runtling King of our Forge does not mean you can curse the rest of Winterwind so, they can't be blamed" Bregas said cheekily. Runtling being the derogatory term High Elf NPCs were noted to use when brought face to face with Dwarven ones.
"Yeah, you rotund midget, you can't talk about our friends like that, they would surely have joined us a mere 2 years ago as well, but life has progressed. You cannot expect them to be like us, stuck in a near forgotten dream. If anything you should be thankful the other seven showed up." Duncan said while knuckling Wulfstan's head with not inconsiderable force.
"Ow, Duncan, I get it, I get it, I am still of the same opinion as you, but I am a bit miffed more didn't show up. And Bregas, that's quite a statement coming from you noting how I'm taller than you"
Bregas was by no means a midget Elf, his character model was a six foot tall High Elf, more strapping then slender, duel wielding blades of the Holy Element which were empowered with both Divine Data and Master Runes 8 feet in length apiece, giving him near unparalleled reach and power, wearing a blue scarf made from Celestial Uranium enchanted with several agility boosting enchantments, and wearing armour also made of Celestial Uranium more akin to be observed on Djinns then elves, verily suited for combat in desert environments in appearance but possessing near unparalleled ice and water resistance in power. He also possessed the Shoes of Celerity which made him even more agile, bringing his agility to the beyond the limit number of 103. He could be considered to be in the Top of the Top Tier of Duelists.
But the reason why Wulfstan was taller was due to a peculiarity of the Thane class. It dramatically altered his appearance, making him more Giant than Dwarf, he was 8 feet Tall, and possessing strapping muscles, both uncharacteristic of the rotund, midget dwarves known to be 3-4 feet tall at most. His hair and beard were both completely white. His hair neat and short, but his beard extremely long and tied into several braids. His eyes gleamed with pure, unbridled electricity, due to his Thunder Thane Class signifying his immunity to the Lightning Element. He was Equipped with the armour set "Fury of Arkath" which comprised a solitary Pauldron and gauntlet comprised of Apoithakarah which was displayed on his left hand but somehow granted equal resistance to both sides of his body. It granted him complete immunity to Bludgeoning, Stabbing and Piercing Weapon and increased his agility by 5 points. It also made him immune to fire but made him more susceptible to ice and water.
How it worked was beyond his understanding and was left to be a strange flair made by the shitty devs. His right hand was bare, showcasing his bulging biceps and forearm and holding the artefact, Skull of Markal, which boosted his MP by 20 entire Points as long as it was equipped but increased his susceptibility to the Holy Element. His lower Torso was equipped with an Armoured Belt proudly displaying the sigil of the Winterwind and having 30 Master Runes which boosted his Physical Attack by 5 points and granting other myriad buffs. His legs however were equally armoured and increased his HP to his beyond the limit status. All of his armour was a Divine Class Set which also granted him a Set Bonus of having 20% more damage to his Lightning Based Attacks and allowing them to cause 10% of their normal damage to those possessing lightning immunities. His Main Weapon was the World Item cum Guild Weapon aptly named Fulmination. It was originally a World Item termed Mjolnir, whose backstory was that it was the primary weapon of the Fallen God Thor, and its specialty was that it could strike any target and return, and bathe an entire world in Thunderstorms and Lightning, making it one of the weaker World Items in power but Winterwind had embarked on a special forging mission, using Five Elements Overcoming to request upgradation of Mjolnir be made possible which the devs granted. All 300 members then bathed Mjolnir in 300 Runes, one apiece, granting it immensely potent power and near unmatched durability so that it could not be broken by even Top Tier Players on their own. It was reinforced with Arkath's Metal, granting it even more potent lightning powers, and enabling its lightning power to be coalesced and condensed to a solitary point bathing it in lightning equivalent to a world. Despite it all he was not meant for PvP fights and could be considered the Top of The Middle Tier at most without Fulmination and Middle of the Top Tier with Fulmination.
They were the guild, which after all possessed three World Items, the most after Ainz Ooal Gown and its monstrous 11-25 Items, whose authenticity was not confirmed. What the player community was in consensus over was the fact that Ainz Ooal Gown had World Items in the double digits. However, none of Winterwind's weapons were one of the Twenty. The other two weapons were Gjallarhorn, granted to them when they defeated Arkath's Heralds, it could summon permanent Avatars of Arkath, upto seven separate times similar to the Heralds but of Level 200 rather than 150, they were not very special however and could be considered as backup for fighting the immense Level 250+ World Enemies and Bregas kept it on himself all the time; and the other was Graeae, a hammer capable of enchanting items with no limits which was used in Fulmination's reforging.
Graeae was always with Duncan, who kept it within the multi-layered defensive system he possessed, being a 12 foot tall Nephilim Giant, famed for their ugliness. He wore a 4 layer Scarletite suit in the style of European Full Plate which granted him near unmatched defensive potential. He was a pure magic caster who could also tank near perfectly. He could cast 10th Tier Spells in all fields be it Divine, Arcane or Spiritual but this Jack of All Trades role made him unsuitable for PvP, he could be considered to be in the middle of the middle tier of all duelists. And his magical attack was beyond the limits, but his MP was subpar, limiting the damage he could do.
The three chose to go to the Throne room after rounding up all of the NPCs present in The Great Forge. In total there were hundreds of characters, be they elf, dwarf, human, angel, demon, or heteromorphs. They all were smithing oriented and the majority were not beyond Level 50, with the only three Level 100 NPCs being the Royal Mounts, Level 100 Black Dragons, completely Immune to all forms of Magic, and capable of dealing massive damage, but being quite fragile, possessing health and defence only equivalent to level 70s.
Wulfstan spoke "My dear friends of the Winterwind, children of the mastersmiths who have now left us, know that they have not abandoned us, but moved on to a nobler cause, for their fight against the Devourer of Worlds is eternal. They have moved to the world of our origin, where they strive to combat the evils that have occurred there, but we are of limited power there, and do not possess the worldrending power that we do in Yggdrasil, I beg that you bare no illwill to them and forever cherish the sounds of the hammer striking metal."
"The forge's fire… may be ashen cold, but I assure you my comrades, that Arkath will breath fire into the world again, yes, you hear me rightly, Yggdrasil is dying, and will die fully in less than half an hour, but I ask that you bear this separation of loss, you are free to return to any prior homes you may remember, and are allowed to take what you want as means of recompense barring items present on the bodies of Bregas, Duncan and myself for your dutiful, loyal, unwavering and steadfast service that you showed me, Wulfstan Thunderwind and the Winterwind as a whole. I bid you a very fond farewell and hope we will meet again in the next world of Arkath's making."
The NPCs obviously did not move, they could not, nor did they react, but Wulfstan was fond of roleplaying, and he felt he had essayed the role of a Dwarven High King cursed with knowledge of the end to the T. His friends Duncan and Bregas were not unmoved, despite being royally straddled upon the majestic Black Dragons whose flairs stated they possessed Intelligence near unmatched.
Duncan and Bregas stated at the same time, with their voices blending queerly In a strangely melodious tune. "Wulfstan old friend, now you've gone and done it."
"Aye, I am going to miss you terribly my friend, perhaps Yggdrasil 2 shall happen, and we can all meet again, all 300 of us, if not we can hold some sort of reunion in your homeland, Norway, reminiscing about all we've been through. You've made me tear up right heartily." Bregas said.
"No doubt, if only those shitty devs weren't concerned with revenue, we could have had more time together, but I guess this is when the light fades from the sky eh? When dusk finally falls upon us. But I am not ungrateful, do not mistake me, the time we spent, the memories we have shared, every single one of them were truly and completely worth it. I hope we shall meet again, Bregas' plan to meet in your country may just be a good one, I shall see what we can do about it."
Wulfstan teared up too, and they all proceeded to wait in silence, for all that could be said was already there, unspoken but known. The memories they shared had made them more than accomplices, more than friends, more than brothers, but truly, Guildmates in a deeper sense of the word then afforded by any English dictionary or lexicon.
And so the server countdown neared to an end
23:59:58
23:59:59
00:00:00
But then, things were set in motion which were not set to happen, the clock continued on.
00:00:01
00:00:02
Wulfstan opened his eyes, confused, for he had been counting the seconds mentally and was shocked to find himself in a deep chasm, rather than the ostentatious and fantastic Great Forge. He did not understand if he had been teleported away to some form of deep pit in Helheim due to the server shutdown causing glitches or whether this was part of the shutdown screen. But then something happened which should not have happened, the dragon mount he was on, Brythigga, spoke. "Wulfstan, where are we? Did the world not end? Or has Arkath breathed life into a new world so soon."
"Impossible…. how the fuck are you speaking? This is not possible. Perhaps I must have ran out of nanomachines. And I'm hallucinating inside my dive gear."
Brythigga chided him "What are you saying? I've always been able to speak, being as I am one of the daughters of Malassa, the true Black Dragon, I'm gifted with intelligence far beyond even the greatest geniuses, let alone animalistic lesser dragons."
Wulfstan considered the possibilities, AI development was long outlawed, and the hijacking of a player's mind to perform experiments were not allowed mainly due to profitability being impacted. Plus while Yggdrasil quite definitely had a basic manner of Touch and haptic feedback and residue, he could feel the weight of his armour, the crackling electricity in his eyes slightly singing his eyebrows and healing simultaneously, each particular scale of Brythigga, her distinct scent which reminded him of…. Shadow. A darkness which made even the black abyss around him pale in comparision. He could smell, and feel everything keenly. No developments like this would ever be possible even in the next two decades, even if all available military research and development was focussed on doing so, the megacorporations would never allow it. He distinctly felt something in his nether regions, which was stirring due to the recognition he had offered it, which was clearly an 18+ action, banned in Yggdrasil. He vaguely recalled an Japanese Animation from a very long time, which Duncan had made him watch wherein which people from a videogame were trapped in a world which was no longer a game, but reality.
Wait… DUNCAN! Where were Duncan and Bregas, he tried using the Message skill, but could not reach them, did that mean they were not transported to this world along with him? Or were they transported, but to a different part of the world, or perhaps the message skill itself worked completely differently? There were too many variables to the world itself changing to consider this.
There was no hint of the console, no blaring announcements, no unread message notifications, no anything. He only felt…. Reality. He considered that perhaps he needed more light when Fulmination suddenly activated, producing a bright Lightning effect which somehow did the impossible, turn the nigh-totally black void into just another well lit cavern, He could feel the immense power within his hands and as if something had clicked in his mind he realised the fact it was a lower tier World Item meant nothing, he truly felt the fact that there was the power of an entire world in his hand, and that its enchantments and upgrades had truly made it a monstrosity in terms of power.
Then he wondered, did he possess an inventory? He thought of an item in his inventory, the Infinite Meadworks Pitcher, he gasped "OOH", for when he reached out his hand in response to some compulsion, it no longer was present in the current dimension, or realspace, but had somehow entered what could only be described as a pocket dimension, or a pocket universe, where everything which had been stored inside his inventory could be found. He pulled the Pitcher out and tasted it, it tasted like the best Hefeweizen he had ever had and then some, confirming that Taste was also present in this … reality further solidifying the idea that this was infact a real world and not an imitation or a sequel like 'Yggdrasil 2.0'.
Just to confirm one last time, he tried using the GM call. But to no avail, there were no higher authorities it would seem. "Damned GM call isn't working" he muttered. Brythigga responded, rather blithely, "Have you gone senile you old coot? Have your seven hundred years finally caught up to you? I don't know what this GM call is, but you seem to have difficulty processing that I am in fact real which is strange seeing how many times you've rode me into battle."
Wulfstan chuckled, but the fact that she had acted in exactly how her text flair had described her and the fact she described him to be of seven hundred years of age would mean that a lot of his questionable flairs were real too. He said "Ah yes, as sarcastic and lively as ever old friend, I'll explain to you sometime later, but we need to get out of this ditch, fly us out of here would you"
In truth he did not even know what 'as ever' would mean seeing as this was the first time he had heard her speak. But he could not let that on or she might get mad at him, or god forbid, abandon him.
"Finally, something of sense comes from your mouth. And to think you were the High King of All Dwarves. Come, it has been a while since I, no, we truly enjoyed flight."
And so she rose, with tremendous celerity and precision, she navigated the chasm, performing acrobatic manoeuvres to clear several obstacles like cliff edges and such, using her Black Dragon senses to find the best way out of here. And Wulfstan rather than holding on for dear life was somehow riding Brythigga truly gracefully, like she was no more an extension of him, an inky, 45 metre extension, but an extension nevertheless. Wulfstan ceased thinking for a while and allowed the breeze and thrill off flying to truly make him feel like a god.
He spoke when they had been flying for what seemed to be 5 minutes "There seems to be slightly more light up there, perhaps its an exit, go there Brythigga."
She said "Sure, I was going there anyway."
And so they emerged from the Abyss, and landed in front of, by all manner of coincidences, the Dwarven Surveying party from Feo Jera which had ventured to see how Feo Berkhana could be re-incorporated into their society due to the Sorcerer King having subjugated both the Quagoa and the Frost Dragons.
"AIEEEEE, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? IT CAME FROM THE ABYSS? ARE THESE THE RELATIVES OF THE FROST DRAGONS LIVING IN THE ABYSS? ABYSS DRAGONS? SHADOW DRAGONS? VOID DRAGONS? MAYBE THEY CAME TO KILL US KNOWING THE FROST DRAGONS ARE NO LONGER RULING HERE. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" screamed a Dwarven Soldier, but just when Wulfstan was going to calm them, a notably better dressed Dwarf said "Shut up, NORI, there's a man on the dragon's back, we can assume he's in control of it, but we better ask him who he is and what he's doing here."
The man continued "Who are you stranger? By what manner of sorcery have you tamed that apex predator. For I know of only one man whose might is sufficient to tame a dragon and he is definitely not as well bodied you, Dare I say the Sorcerer King is quite a bit more disembodied than you are, being a skeleton after all."
Wulfstan spoke, amused at this interaction "It would seem I have been away for too long if fellow dwarves do not recognize who I am."
At this statement the dwarves widened their eyes, in disbelief that this 8 foot tall man, who did not fit the word dwarf in any manner possible claimed to be a dwarf.
Wulfstan continued in the most regal voice he could muster "Very well, I am Wulfstan Thunderwind of Clan Winterwind, Arkath's Chosen, Lord of Lightning, Grandmaster of the Runemages, High King of the Runelords, and High King of the Dwarves. Well met, brethren, now would you kindly tell me where I am?"
The dwarven party members' eyes bulged forward, and their mouths were agape, mouthing the words, "Lord of Lightning", "High King of the Runelords" and "High King of the Dwarves".
The commander composed himself first and said "Those are a lot of titles, and powerful ones at that. I can believe the Lord of Lightning, seeing how your eyes crackle with what can only be divine lightning, and the mighty axe you wield. But the rest of your titles are to be verified. However, I graciously invite your lordship to Feo Jera."
Wulfstan continued "Very well, and this Sorcerer King fellow piques my interest. I will accompany you."
Character : Wulfstan Thunderwind
Race : Humanoid Race - High Dwarf
Job: Thunderthane,
Grandmaster of the Runemages,
High King of the Runelords.
High King of the Dwarves
Residence: The Throne Tower, Great Forge of Arkath
Alignment: Neutral Good Sense of Justice : +150
Racial Level: Human Races do not have racial levels.
Job Level: Weaponsmith 10 Levels
Armoursmith 10 Levels
Runesmith 10 Levels
Runemage 10 Levels
Runepriest 10 Levels
Runelord 5 Levels
Runemaster 5 Levels
Thane 10 Levels
Thunder Thane 5 Levels
Lord of Lightning 5 Levels
Arkath's Chosen 5 Levels
Axe Saint 10 Levels
Einherjar/Axe 5 Levels
Statistics:
HP 110 (Exceeds Limit)
MP 10
Phy. Atk. 85
Phy. Def. 100
Agility 25
Mag. Atk. 65
Mag. Def. 100
Resistance 85
Special Ability 100
Total 680