"Talking"

'Thoughts'

[spells]

'This is real. This is real.'

That was the only thought that was going through Momonga's head.

The undead skeleton, after regaining his composure from his earlier outburst thanks to some strange force that dampened his emotions, was currently sitting on a nearby rock. One hand thoughtfully holding his spiky chin; while the other was toying with another plucked flower that he had picked for a second round of very intensive sniffing to make sure his mind wasn't playing a trick on him.

'I'm not in a game anymore; this is real'

But with the confirmation that yes, the flower had indeed produced a scent that the fleshless overlord could smell. It only brought in a flood of new questions that Momonga desperately wanted to be answered.

'But if this isn't a game anymore why do I look like my avatar?'

This was the most puzzling aspect to Momonga, he was still a 2-meter tall skeleton man, but his middle school education was screaming at him that skeletons don't exist in real life. At least talking, thinking, smelling skeletons don't.

"Uwah, this is so confusing!"

Momonga finally said out loud, and, with an exasperated sigh dropped his thoughtful pose and leaned back in exhaustion, these past 30 minutes finally being too much for the poor salaryman. So Momonga laid there on the rock in silence, just thinking about his current situation while staring up at the otherworldly stars.

'Even if I don't know what's going on, at least I can enjoy the beauty of this night sky… I wish Blue planet was here to see this, I bet he would have loved this view.'

Blue planet was a member of Ainz Ooal Gown; a druid, he was a kind and gentle guy who was obsessed with nature and the sky. Pouring over old videos and photos of what it was like to see the stars and galaxies clearly before all the mega-corporations ruined it by smogging the sky up with smoke. He even designed one of the floors for Nazarick to look like a forest from the past. Spending hours on the sky alone to make it look as close as possible to the real thing. He would have loved the view Momonga was currently looking at. All of his friends would.

'If only you guys were with me now, we could figure this whole thing out together.'

Momonga laid there for a couple more silent minutes, thinking more about his past and the good times he shared with his friends learning about a new creature or exploring a new environment. But those pleasant memories disappeared as a new thought arose in the undead's mind.

'Does magic work here too?'

Momonga sat up straight now, this new idea slowly brought up excitement at the thought of actually using magic. 'It should work' he reasoned; if being a 2 meter tall somehow conscious, walking talking skeleton from a DMMO-RPG game is possible then why not the magic?

As Momonga got up from the rock he graced with the underside of his royal ass, he noticed a half-fallen orange pine tree about 8 and a half meters from him at the edge of the clearing. Deciding to make that his target he summoned the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown back to his hand and made his way over to face the half-fallen tree head-on.

'Let's see if my hunch was correct.'

The undead thought as he faced his 'enemy' and raised one boney hand majestically. Momonga then paused as he considered what spell he should try and cast. Momonga played a spell caster, and level 100 spellcasters in Yggdrasil had a total of 300 spells at their disposal to cast at any time. Momonga himself knew 718 spells, so to choose only one to act as the guinea pig to see if magic existed was quite the task.

After a moment of thought and debating with himself, Momonga finally decided to start small. Fixed his eyes on the target, and with total concentration said out loud-

"[Fireball]"

An expanding globe of flame, about the size of a bowling ball, shot out from the finger pointing at the half-fallen pine tree. With a bright flash, the inferno ball exploded, showering the tree with a powerful wave of fire. Cutting the dead tree in half and lighting the closest ones aflame. After a moment, all that was left was a scorched tree stump and a lightly burning new fire.

"Fufufufu..."

It works, it works! His magic works! Momonga couldn't believe it, he was no longer stuck in a new world alone and defenseless. He had his magic with him!

Just as the undead was about to burst out laughing from all his excitement the force from earlier came back and threw a wet blanket onto his new emotions. Pushing them back down until he was only feeling a mild high.

"Tch, that thing happened again to my emotions. So I wasn't imagining it, is it because I'm undead and they're not supposed to feel strong emotions? Mmmh…"

With his happiness stolen from him, the undead was once again left to think about his situation quietly. With the confirmation of his magic, and presumably his skills, he didn't have to worry as much for his safety. But that only works if he assumes that there wasn't someone stronger out there willing to do him harm. And assuming that was just foolish.

'Umu, I'll just have to be cautious in the future. But for now, what should my next plans be? I'm standing in what I assume to be a forest, I should look for a path of some kind to lead me to a nearby town for more information. I'll have to disguise myself- something's coming towards my location!'

Immediately Momonga's PVP mindset kicked into overdrive. Quickly casting [Perfect Unknowable], a 9th tier spell that makes the user invisible to the naked eye while also erasing one's traces and sounds. As Momonga slipped into the darkness he began to quickly cast a whole list of passive buffs and defense spells as the unknown being finally made it into the clearing.

It was a 2 meter long 4 legged dark-grey animal standing at an impressive 1.5-meter height. It would have resembled a wolf if it wasn't for the fact that the animal's head was wearing what looked like a misshapen long skull, with only holes for the animal's bright green eyes to look out of. At the back of the head near the neck was a ring of continual horns, pointing towards the rest of the body.

Momonga's worried mind was lessened slightly as it was made clear that the wolf-like being was not in the clearing after the undead. But instead, appears to be investigating the strange occurrence of fire in its territory. But he remained cautious, there was no telling what this animal could do. He needed more information.

"[Life essence]"

"[Mana essence]"

[Life essence], and [Mana essence] are two spells that allow the player to discern how much health and mana a creature has. Though they can be worked around through the use of spells like [False Data: Life] and [False Data: Mana]; which allow the user to fake their information respectfully, they're still two very vital spells for any caster.

Using these spells, Momonga can see that the wolf-like creature is comparable to level 15 creatures health-wise and has no mana. With that Momonga relaxed, he was a level 100 necromancer and couldn't be hurt by any attack under level 60. This level 15 wolf-like creature could swipe at him for 100 days and not even scratch him.

'Umu, but this opportunity does let me do some critical tests'

After casting a few more spells to make sure his information was correct, Momonga dispelled [Perfect Unknowable]. And at that moment the wolf-like being, who was facing away from the undead, spun around very quickly to face Momonga. Head low to the ground, teeth bared, with its hairs standing on edge, and its small eyes fixed on the newly materialized overlord.

Momonga was taken aback by its sudden flurry of action, ready to cast a spell at any sight of movement. But the wolf-like creature didn't make any move, it seemed to know instinctively, just like Momonga, that it had no chance to win this fight; but stood its ground nonetheless from its fight or flight instinct.

And there the two stared each other down; the skulled-headed wolf, and the mighty overlord of death. Neither made any move or sound, letting the uneasy silence stretch to infinity and beyond before.

"[Fireball]"

As if an invisible starting pistol was fired, the wolf-like creature made a flurry of action; trying desperately to get out of the way of the newly summoned fiery projectile that was coming towards it. Unfortunately for the animal, the fireball was faster, catching it in its hind legs.

"YYYAAWHOOOOOO"

In a fiery explosion; the skull wolf's left leg was blown clean off. Leaving behind a hairless scorched stump that was rapidly leaking blood.

"Mmmh, as expected. So it seems the powers of my spells haven't changed a bit."

With the confirmation he was looking for Momonga went to end this test, casting another [fireball] in the downed skull wolf's direction.

But the skull wolf seemed to have anticipated this action as well. As soon as the fireball made it halfway towards its destination, the skull wolf opened its jaw wide and released a powerful screech that caused the fireball to explode midair.

"WHAT?!"

Momonga, out of panic with this new display of power and information, reacted by casting his favorite instant death spell "[Grasp Heart]". A partly see-through heart appeared in Momonga's casting hand; which he promptly crushed, and in that instant the skull wolf dropped dead, having not resisted the instant death spell.

The newly made corpse did not help ease the undead overlord's mind though, which was currently running a mile per minute trying to figure out what it had just seen.

'How did it stop my [fireball]? What was that sound blast? It kinda resembled the 3rd tier spell [soundwave], but it couldn't have been a spell the wolf didn't have any mana. Could it have been a racial ability? The only creatures with any skill like [soundwave] are banshees and Vanashier bats. Maybe the wolf's racial ability was to block any spells that viewed its mana count? Or maybe the environment itself blocks mana view? Or maybe it wasn't magic at all and was instead someth- ah there's that emotional damper again.'

But even with this calmer state of mind, Momonga still couldn't figure out what that wolf-like creature did to block his fireball. Nothing in Yggdrasil had acted like that and his mind couldn't figure out an answer with so little information.

"Seems like this world was stranger than I thought, umu."

Deciding to not stay on the ground anymore, lest there be another wandering creature around to break his mind. Momonga cast [perfect unknowable] again and [fly] to get a better view of his surroundings and to be safe from any danger.

But as Momonga began to rise above the tree line and into the night sky, there was still one more surprise waiting for him. A surprise that made the overlord completely drop his jaw at the sight of it.

'This landmass is a corpse?'

Indeed that was the best way to describe it. A corpse, a massive skeleton laying on its back in the ocean. The white mountain peaks Momonga had seen earlier turned out to be the titan's many ribs into the sky. The titan also had one of its knees bent, which shot high into the sky, with the top having visible snow.

The titan had to be at least a couple of thousands km standing straight up and clearly, would have been a sight to behold. But instead, it slays here dead, with land forming along and inside its skeleton, clinging to it like parasites. Momonga himself appears to have been on a little patch near the titan's left foot.

'Incredible, this makes Gargantua look like an ant. Are there more out there? This being has to be a world threat, I don't even know how many levels 100 players it would take to take this thing down. But it's been here for a while, aahh another set of questions I'll have to answer later.'

Momonga was starting to feel excitement slowly rise through him. This was a whole new, magical, wonderful world he could discover and learn more about. The adventurer inside him was almost screaming with joy, it'll be just like the time he first started Yggdrasil.

If only his friends were here to discover it with him. But maybe they are, he couldn't have been the only one to have been summoned here magically. There had to be a chance, no matter how small, that one of his guildmates was brought to this new world too. And if they were then Momonga would find them to share this experience.

"Umu, alright then. Let's see what this new world has to offer!"