Disclaimer: I don't own Overlord or Dungeons & Dragons

The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown

Book : Adventuring with Avatars

Chapter 2: Naughty, naughty Neogi

Beta:


"Alright, everyone." Drau said as the party finished packing up their camp. "Anyone up for some resupply? I know Falgrim and Taana are running low on provisions."

"Aye." Falgrim agreed, looking relieved. While the food situation between him and his apprentice wasn't exactly dire, especially with the supplies that their new party members had brought with them, he would much appreciate a top up. "So we're heading up to the surface?"

"Nope," Drau said smiling mischievously in a way that set the Dwarf on edge. "We'll head to the nearest settlement."

"But the nearest settlement belongs to the Neogi," Taana pointed out nervously.

"Oh, I know Taana." Drau 'reassured' the girl. "I studied your Master's map very thoroughly last night."

"What do you intend to do when we get there?" Falgrim asked warily as he begun to second guess his decision to throw his lot in with these people.

"Simple," Neia answered for their leader. "We sack the town in the name of Lord Ainz Ooal Gown!"

The Paladin's eyes were glowing with religious fervour. Literally. They were emitting a red glow that made it very clear that she was her god's conduit.

"Wha-!? Why!?" Taana shouted in dismay, expressing the fearful skepticism that they both shared.

"Our god abhors slavery." Neia explained in a tone as if it should've been obvious. "And tasks us to destroy it in all its forms."

"That's noble and all," Flagrim spoke up, silencing Taana's more frantic protest. "But this is a whole Neogi town we're talking about. It'll have an army of slaves defending it. There's only six of us."

"That's two more than is necessary." Gauldoth boasted.

Neia shot him a look to be quiet before turning back to Falgrim and Taana.

"Do not be worried friends. Lord Ainz will protect us. We are carrying out his will. He is angry with the Underdark's various slavers for their presumption to attempt to enslave his subjects."

The Paladin had a supernaturally charismatic voice that seemed to dig its way into Falgrim's psyche. It felt almost like the psychic attacks of a Neogi or Mind Flayer but different, more subtle. It didn't even trigger the amulet he'd bought that would ward off such mental intrusions. It also did not force his adherence to her words, all it seemed to do was force him to listen.

It was this fact that allowed him to reply with a skeptical question. "What do you mean by 'his subjects'? Until I met you guys I'd never even heard of your god."

Taana nodded slowly in agreement beside him. By her seemingly slowed reaction, Falgrim was pretty sure whatever effect the Paladin's words were having were a lot more effective on her than it was on him.

If we do stick with these guys and that's a big if at the moment, I've got to watch out for that.

"It's just us at the moment. He's new to Realmspace." Neia admitted with a sheepish shrug. "But our god has issued his command and we obey."

Rather presumptuous of this new god to issue such a command, Falgrim mused. To just up and arrive and declare the standing threat of potential capture and enslavement that having the slaving dark dwellers around poses against his handful of subjects as justification to go on a genocidal campaign against them. I wonder what the other gods think of it.

Yet Falgrim Doomhammer kept such thoughts to himself. He had learned enough in his life to know that even the newest, weakest or most obscure of gods were beings not to be trifled with lightly, preferably not at all, and he was in no haste to call down further wrath upon their heads.

And besides, if this Ainz Ooal Gown had an ax to grind with these damned dark-dwellers, then hock up his hammer, that sounded like his kind of god.

"Alright, we'll try this out this one time." Falgrim allowed. "But we do this cautiously."

"Of course," Drau agreed. "We'll try a sneaky approach first. And re-evaluate from there."

"Drau, you should have led with that." Yorha said with a soft sigh.

Falgrim had to agree. That sounded so much more reasonable.

"And miss out on our friends' flabbergasted expressions?"

"Uh, Master, did Drau just scare us just to get a rise for her own amusement?" Taana asked hesitantly.

Shaking his head in amusement, Falgrim replied. "It would appear so."

Taana pouted and the Dwarf's amusement just increased.

"Alright, enough fun for now. Everyone ready?"

A chorus of affirmatives met their leader's question and so with a decisive nod she turned.

"Let's go then." The armored woman said as she laid them out of the cave that had been their campsite for the night and to the foreboding Underdark beyond.


A couple hours later and the party was still marching in formation down the Underdark's twisting labyrinth of passages towards the Neogi settlement. Yorha as their primary frontliner took point followed by Drau in her heavy Felmidian mechanical armor and her divinely blessed weapons. Next came Neia and Taana at the center of their formation where the two archers could easily shift to support whichever side needed the most help in the event of an attack. Behind them came Gauldoth whose armor gave him the ability to double as a second string frontliner if need be despite being a mage. Last but not least, Falgrim as their secondary frontliner brought up their rear.

"Drau," Gauldoth hissed suddenly, drawing Neia away from the speech she'd been crafting in her head for when she'd proselytize to the liberated Neogi slaves.

"Yeah, I see them on my sensors too. Looks like there's no avoiding them." Their leader said with an annoyed sigh. "I was hoping to put this off until we got to a more defensible location."

"What's going on?" Neia asked, blinking in confusion.

"We've been shadowed by Neogi parties for the past hour at least. How could you not know that? Drau told us about them when she first spotted them." Taana told her, sounding incredulous.

"I, uh, got distracted?" Neia said, blushing in embarrassment.

"Yeah, well, pull your head out of the clouds Paladin." Gauldoth said, his eyes glowing with the power of a spell she recognized as Detect Life. He used it more than once in the past to help her catch their dinner. "The Neogi are almost on top of us."

"This is a bad place to fight." Falgrim said even as the party closed ranks. "Too many entrances."

Neia frowned as she surveyed the tunnel they'd found themselves in. The Dwarf was right. There were at least six different branching passages within sight alone.

"Gaul, you know Wall of Protection from Arrows and Anti-Magic Cocoon?"

The necromancer's only reply was to cast the aforementioned spells, just in time for the former to deflect a strange crystalline looking crossbow bolt shot by a Neogi in elaborate clothes adorned with many jewels. It rode atop a massive Umber Hulk at the rear of a throng of Human slaves dressed in badly maintained armor and armed with equally poor quality melee weapons of various types that swarmed out of a nearby passageway.

Neia raised Ultimate Shooting Star Super, the longbow gifted to her by Lord Ainz himself and prepared to take the vile aberration out but was beaten to the punch by Drau whose railgun reduced not just the Neogi but the head of its Umber Hulk to clouds of blood and viscera with a single shot. This left the slaves disorientated for a second but they quickly recovered and surged towards them once more.

"I'll take out the Neogi." Drau shouted as she took another shot, taking out another Neogi, its Umber Hulk and a fair few of the slaves it was using as a living wall. Unlike the first Neogi, this one had the sense to have its mount lower itself closer to the ground to make it less of a target and allow its Human slaves to serve as a living wall. Sadly against the sheer penetrative power of Drau's railgun, this was no defense at all.

"Taana, support with your magic." Their leader ordered just as some spell or the other splashed harmlessly against the anti-magic dome keeping them safe. "Neia use your Evangelist skills. See if you can disrupt the bastards' psychic control somehow."

"Got it!" Taana shouted back, a necessity over the cries of agony filling the cavern from the poor group of slaves caught in the area that Gaul had swept with his Ray of Negative Energy. The spell had killed dozens of the Humans outright and made many more violently ill.

"Ball Lightning!" Taana incanted, conjuring several balls of lightning that she sent flying through the mobs of Humans now swarming in from all directions shocking them in the dozens.

Neia was transfixed by the carnage. All around her, their enemies were dying in droves. Drau had killed at least eighteen Neogi with her sniping. Gaul and Taana's magic had slain at least a hundred enemies by now. And that number was set to grow as the necromancer uttered Undeath Army and raised all those slain as Skeleton Warriors that he threw at their former comrades. And that said nothing of the ring of corpses Yorha and Falgrim had made around their position with their sword and hammer respectively.

It was a glorious sight! All this justice delivered in the name of Lord Ainz! It was inspiring!

"Lass, I dunno what Drau asked you to do but start doing it already!" Falgrim shouted as he smashed in the head of a particularly burly looking Human who had somehow made it through the ranks of Gaul's skeletal army. "You're not pulling your weight here."

"Right! Sorry!" Neia squeaked in embarrassment. "I'll get right on it."

Taking a deep breath, the Evangelist of Ainz Ooal Gown did just that.

"Slaves of the Neogi," she spoke with the full weight of her faith in her god, causing her voice to echo supernaturally throughout the whole cavern. "Rejoice! For your liberation is at hand! Soon you shall be free from your vile oppressors! By the will of Lord Ainz Ooal Gown, the Bone Father, the Supreme One, be free of your chains! In life or death!"

The impact of her short speech was immediate. Where before the Human slaves attacked with mad ferocity forced upon them by the psychic power of their Neogi masters, now that power was disrupted as Neia's supernatural charisma stirred in their enthralled minds thoughts of defiance and resistance that they had thought long since suppressed. It wasn't enough to fully break the control of the aberrations, but it was enough to confuse their slaves. Some paralyzingly so. Thus they made easy targets as the party finished butchering them.

The Neogi tried to rally their slaves by pumping out enough psychic energy that the hair on the entire party's skin stood on end. Taana even stumbled, losing focus on her spell and causing it to fade away but was stopped from coming under the aberrations' thrall by a quick Greater Disturb cast on her by Gaul that boosted her magical resistance which psychic power counted as under the YGGDRASIL system they used. Unfortunately for the abominable crosses between wolf spiders and eels, this distracted them from their attempts to avoid getting sniped and Drau began picking them off even more quickly.

"Resist!" Neia shouted at the slaves, continuing her efforts to disrupt the Neogi's efforts even as she raised her bow and took to helping Drau finish off the aberrations. "Do not let these tyrants take hold of your will. Resist and welcome the embrace of death!"

"I don't believe it," Neia heard Falgrim whisper under his breath as she kept talking, kept using her inspirational powers to disrupt the Neogi's control and helping Drau snipe the foul creatures. "We're actually doing it. We're actually wiping out an entire Neogi slave army."

"That we are," Yorha said, moments before she blurred through the ranks of Gaul's skeletons to assist them against a particularly resilient Umber Hulk. The monstrous mix of a gorilla and a beetle had been using its prodigious strength and its massive mandibles to great effect by smashing dozens of the skeletal warriors. Unfortunately for the beast, these helped it nought at all as the mechanical swordswoman shot past in a blur of speed and bisected it the waist with her blade.

"Everyone cease fire!" Drau ordered once she finished off the last Neogi, much to Neia's annoyance.

I wanted the last one.

"But there's still the Humans and a couple Umber Hulks about." Taana said from where she was leaning against Gaul's side recovering from almost coming under the Neogi's control.

"Only Humans left actually." Neia observed as Yorha finished off the two remaining insectoid monsters. One moment she'd been some distance away from them with her sword held loosely at the side watching contemptuously as the two beasts charged at her and the next, she was behind both creatures with her sword raised high. As she slowly walked away, cutting down a few confused Humans that tried to attack her, the two Umber Hulks' neatly bisected bodies fell to the ground.

"Leave them to Gaul's skeletons." Drau told her shooting their resident swordswoman a thumbs up. "Gaul, use another Undeath Army if need be. But take care of the Human survivors that don't resist. Capture where possible. We'll consolidate our prisoners here with whoever we liberate in the town and use a Gate to send all of them to Felmid once we're done."

"Very well," the necromancer said unhappily. "Undeath Army!"

The now bolstered army of Skeletons started rounding up the now much more docile humans, many of whom were weeping uncontrollably or just staring blankly into space now that their masters were dead and they were free from the Neogi's psychic domination. Most importantly, except for a very small minority they had now stopped attacking the party. Taking advantage of this apparent end to hostilities, Drau turned to look the party over.

"Anyone need a healing?" Their leader asked.

"I've got a few scrapes here and there but I'll live. No need to waste a precious spell on." Falgrim said with a shrug.

"Neia, take care of that."

"Yes, Drau." Neia said as she turned to the Dwarf. "Middle Cure Wounds."

"What!? Why waste a spell like that!" Falgrim protested even as his wounds healed.

"We operate on a different system." Neia told him with a shrug. "We don't only have a fixed number of spell slots. Instead, we mostly draw power for our magic from a fixed pool of magic power that recharges over time. There are exceptions but so long as we have magic power left we can keep casting. And this is the first spell I've cast today and it barely touched my pool at all."

Falgrim looked flabbergasted at the revelation.

"How-"

"Our Lord provides." Neia told him with a grin.

The Dwarf just looked at her like she had grown a second head. "Well, I really hope you aren't bullshitting me."

"We aren't." Gaul said, sounding annoyed by Falgrim's persisting skepticism. Which while understandable was unfair. The YGGDRASIL system was very strange by the local standards after all. It would take some time for their friends to get used to it. Neia knew it took her awhile to do the same when she first acquired her new powers.

"That system sounds so bloody convenient." Taana whined. "I can only cast a maximum of sixteen spells and five cantrips, but I usually use them all on Lightning Bolts, between long rests and I have to mentally prepare for what I want to cast beforehand. And I'm already lucky since I can cheat and not care about most things so long as it's Lightning magic because of my Tome of Lightning Magic."

"As much as I'd like to say we have the time for you to replace the preparations you used up we don't." Drau said sounding apologetic. "If the Neogi attacked us like this-"

"Then it's almost certain they knew we were coming." Falgrim said with a frown. "I wonder why."

"I, um, might have had Gaul send an advance party towards the town last night to weaken its defenses."

They did? I guess that was smart, but-

"And you didn't tell us?" The Dwarf groaned, voicing Neia's unfinished thoughts.

"I didn't want to scare you guys with the fact Gaul was a necromancer."

Falgrim rolled his eyes. "Like that matters. We're on the same side here and that's all I care about. Taana too."

"Yup," the Shadar-kai chimed in enthusiastically.

"So next time," the Dwarf continued. "Tell us when you do stuff. Don't keep us in the dark."

"I would like that consideration as well," Yorha added.

"Me too," Neia said as well.

"Okay, okay." Drau said raising her hands in surrender. "I get it. I screwed up. I'll do better next time alright? We good?"

The rest of the party exchanged looks before they all nodded.

"Since that's settled. Let's go finish off the Neogi shall we?" Drau suggested. "Before they can regroup?"

Lifting his warhammer over his shoulder, Falgrim grinned. "What are we waiting for?"

"Let's go kill us some slavers!" Neia cheered excitedly.

Shaking her head in amusement, Drau led the way as they set off. The party quickly falling into formation as they advanced once more, leaving Gaul's skeletal minions to police the defeated Neogi slave army.


"Why does a Neogi town look so Human?" Drau asked in a whisper, as the party hid behind a small rise of earth and each of them under the Greater Unknowable spell of Gaul's that rendered them invisible to the naked eye and largely erased their traces and sounds. Casting the high level spell had drained the necromancer a great deal but a few mana potions from Felmid had quickly fixed that problem.

Drau's observation was very accurate too. Despite supposedly being a Neogi settlement, the town before them looked pretty much identical to a walled Human town you'd find anywhere along the slopes of the Fimbrul mountains above them. There seemed almost no touch of the aberrations' architecture anywhere. At least as far as Yorha's observations and her comparisons to the data on the settlements in Fimbrul stored in her database could tell.

"That's because the Neogi had their Human slaves bring their whole town down here brick by brick after they took it over." Falgrim told them with a grim look on his face. "They found it amusing and liked the symbolism in rubbing it into the face of their new slaves how completely dominated they now were. Not only their bodies and lives, but even their town was now the Neogi's."

"Sick bastards," Neia cursed and Yorha couldn't help but agree.

"Thankfully, we're about to change that." The android said as she surveyed the town more closely.

The town's main gate, a set of sturdy oak doors, had been knocked to the ground, clearly the work of Drau and Gual's advance party. It was currently being being put back into place by a work crew of Human slaves. Guarding them and the entrance into the settlement were a group of Neogi, Umber Hulks and Human slave soldiers. They would be a problem but not an insurmountable one. The real problem was the sheer size of the town.

"This place is a little too big for us to storm on our own." Yorha pointed out. "Anyone has any suggestions?"

"I have a plan actually." Gaul said, sounding eager. "Let me try something."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Just thinking that those idiots over there look like perfect fodder for some reinforcements."

"So we kill them and you raise them as undead?" Falgrim asked curiously. "That might work."

"Not quite." Gaul countered. "I'm thinking I'd take them out on my own."

"Gaul, that's-"

"Trust me, Drau."

Their leader thought on the matter for a moment before sighing and nodded in agreement. "Go for it but if you get in trouble, we're rushing in."

"I wouldn't expect anything less." The necromancer said dismissively.

With that the necromancer used a Greater Teleportation to transport himself directly into the heart of the Neogi forces standing outside the ruined gate to their town. The aberrations were startled but much to Yorha's annoyance rallied quickly and began casting spells at Gaul.

I hope you know what you're doing. Yorha thought as she gripped the hilt of her sword worriedly.


Greater Teleportation, Gauldoth incanted silently and transporting himself into the middle of the throng of Neogi forces outside their shattered town gate.

His arrival surprised them and they scattered away from him in shock, buying him a few precious seconds.

"Anti-Magic Cocoon." He cast quickly, just in time to protect himself from the myriad of spells thrown his way by the Neogi spellcasters of which there just so happened to be a few within the crowd opposing him.

Amateurs. Gauldoth thought derisively as their spells splashed harmlessly against his protective dome of anti-magic all whilst he also prepared his next spell.

"Widen Magic: Cry of the Banshee!"

At his invocation, a piercing otherworldly howl sounded in his immediate area even as a dome of magical energy exploded from him and spread to encompass an area of a hundred meters from where he stood. Everything it touched immediately dropped dead. Well, everything unprotected against instant death at least.

A lone Neogi had survived and stood atop its now dead Umber Hulk mount staring in shock at the scene of bloodless slaughter around it.

"Create Middle Tier Undead!"

As his spell, one granted to him by his levels in the job class Master of Death, took hold one of the Human corpses and proceeded to consume it in a puddle of black goo which within seconds reshaped the body into a monstrous undead. Standing at two meters tall with a crooked body, the newly created Death Knight was equipped with a massive flamberge, a huge tower shield, and armor made of black metal with sharp thorns sticking out everywhere and red lines that looked like they were engraved in blood. Two demonic horns protruded from its helmet, with a disgusting, rotted face whose empty eye sockets are filled with hate and killing intent, glowing with a flashing red light being visible underneath.

"Kill it," Gauldoth ordered his creation absently.

The Death Knight nodded and promptly cut the terrified Neogi survivor in half with its huge sword. Not that its creator paid it any mind, he was too busy raising two more of its ilk with the last uses of the spell for the day that his job class granted him.

"Three Death Knights are more than enough I think." Gauldoth thought aloud. "But best to be safe than sorry. Undeath Army!"

Using a good chunk of his remaining magic, he raised the rest of the corpses around him as Skeleton Warriors. Including, he just noticed, a small contingent on the walls of the town itself.

I shouldn't have been surprised, my Cry of the Banshee did reach into town. Gauldoth mused even as he fished out a mana potion from his magical pouch. As he did, he began barking orders to his undead minions.

"Go in there and kill any opposition and Neogi you find. Spare the Humans and other slaves if they surrender but not the aberrations. All the Neogi deserve is death."

Sending a mental acknowledgement of his commands, his minions turned as one and rushed into the streets of the Neogi town to enact his will. It left him vulnerable, standing alone in the field as it was and chugging down a mana potion. He wasn't worried much however. As much as they annoyed him, he did trust his party to keep him safe.

"That was nicely done," Drau said as she stepped up next to him, the Greater Unknowable spell he'd cast over her fading away. "But you really should ration your magic a little more carefully."

Gauldoth shrugged.

"I'll work on it." He said noncommittally as he finished the mana potion and pulled out another one.

"We'll need to get more of those from Felmid at this rate." Neia observed with a wince as she and the rest of the party also appeared around him, slowly forming up in a defensive formation with him at the centre. "I think you might you'll end up finishing the last of the mana potions Lord Ainz gave me when he gifted me with my gear."

"We'll be creating a Gate to Felmid once we finish with this place," Gauldoth said nodding towards the town from which the sound of desperate fighting was drifting towards them. "We can ask for some then."

"You make a good point." Yorha told him with a nod.

"You done recharging your mana?" Drau asked as Gauldoth tossed the now empty vial of the second mana potion to the ground.

He just nodded in reply.

"Then let's finish this."


The party's march through the town was largely an easy affair. Gaul's undead minions made sure of that. More than once, a Neogi or two tried to ambush them but were quickly cut off by what Neia helpfully informed Taana were Death Knights and their growing entourages of Death Squires or mobs of his Skeletons. Sure they had to take out an Umber Hulk or Neogi here and there to help out, but it seemed the undead had the situation in control.

"That's the central keep?" Drau asked incredulously as they stopped about ten minutes later in a square in front of a strange amalgamation of a typical Human keep with its stone walls and towers as well as Neogi aesthetics such as arches that resembled spider legs and urchin shaped objects studding its surface at seemingly random locations.

"Yes, the only place in this whole town where the Neogi decided they wanted to show off their architecture. Or what passes for it anyway." Master Falgrim said with a shrug. "It looks like crap to me to be honest."

"I must agree." Yorha said. "Though I don't think we should waste time on examining the merits of the tastes of a race of aberrations."

"Agreed. Sorry about that tangent." Drau said apologetically. "Any ideas on how to deal with this? My sensors are reading that outside of a few groups of stragglers in the rest of town, the last of the Neogi and their slave soldiers are huddling inside the building,"

"I could use the fresh corpses around town to raise more undead and use them to storm the building."

"I think you've summoned enough undead today, Gaul. Besides I'd rather you save your mana for other magic. We might need it."

The necromancer crossed his arms in irritation but didn't fight their leader on the matter.

"We could bombard the place, I guess?"

"With what siege equipment?" Falgrim asked with a frown before turning to Gauldoth hopefully. "Or does our resident armored mage know any spells that fit the bill?"

"I might."

"I know, but save it." Drau said as she drew and began taking aim with her long gun. "I've got this covered."

"What do you have in mind?" Taana asked curiously.

"Well, my Ispetus Mark 3 here is an anti-materiel rifle. Shooting through a few feet of stone is totally doable." Drau explained, causing Taana's eyes to widen in shock. One that Master Falgrim shared by the quick look she shot him.

Ignoring the response she'd elicited, Drau pulled the trigger on her weapon and sent one of her lightning fast bullets shooting out of her gun and into the keep where it created a small crater in the wall around a neat little hole into its interior.

"Got one," Drau said, sounding pleased with herself. "A few dozen more to go."

The Neogi weren't about to just sit there and let themselves be shot to pieces though. Thus after the sixth kill, they swarmed out of the building and at the party. Of course, this was exactly what they expected.

"Rain Arrow!" Neia shouted, pulling back on her bow and launching a downpour of arrows at the charging mob.

"Twin, Maximise Magic: Chain Dragon Lightning!" Gauldoth incanted, unleashing a pair of Lung Dragon-shaped lightning bolts that swam through the ranks of the Neogi forces, electrocuting scores of them.

"Grasscutter Sword!" Yorha whispered as she swung her sword horizontally and unleashed a powerful wave of energy that cut through anything it touched, decapitating whole ranks of the enemy in a single stroke.

In comparison, Taana's own Lightning Bolt and Drau's sniping of the last of the Neogi were little more than minor add ons to the carnage their teammates unleashed. Heck, Master Falgrim didn't even get to do anything. They were all dead before any of even got within range of his hammer!

"Any more inside?" He asked Drau, sounding disappointed at not getting a chance to kill some enemies.

"A few. Give me a moment." Drau said before taking a few more shots. "There we're done here."

"Finally." Gauldoth said with a groan.

As the party relaxed, Taana just looked at her new teammates with fearful awe. Did they know what they'd just done!? They'd just sacked a Neogi settlement that would have needed a small army to manage! All by themselves! Six of them had just done something that should have needed an army!

"I know lass. I know whatcha thinking." Master Falgrim said in a whisper as he came over and squeezed her arm. "It's a good thing we chose to sign on with them, aye?"

Taana could only nod. With the kind of power her new teammates had, maybe, just maybe, their talk of ridding the local Underdark of slavers wasn't just empty boasting after all. Maybe they could make it happen. And if so…

I want to be a part of it.


An hour after their victory, the party were happily looting the town. Gauldoth having already used a Gate spell to summon reinforcements from Felmid to handle the newly liberated slaves, the adventurers were free to do what they did best: plunder the conquered 'dungeon'.

Which was why Yorha, Drau, Neia and Falgrim were currently in the armory picking out what they wanted to take for themselves and what they wanted to leave for the Momons that came through from Felmid to take back with them.

Yorha had made her selection easily enough. Until now, she had been completely reliant on the Aeldari-class holofield cloak built into her dress to blur her form in battle and make her difficult to hit. While effective, she really wanted some actual protection and so had quickly taken a dragonhide buckler from the town's amory with a minor arrow deflecting enhancement as her own. Drau had likewise made her selection easily enough. Lacking a close combat weapon, she'd picked out a dagger that poisoned with every nick of an opponent for her own. Falgrim too had quickly picked out a pair of rings. One to enhance his strength and the other that boosted his constitution.

The problem was Neia. Like Drau she'd lacked a melee weapon and was set on picking out a dagger. Unfortunately, she was having a hard time making her pick.

"Should I go with the exotic Psychic damage in this one? Or maybe the higher damage per strike of this Lightning dagger instead? Oh! Which should I choose?" The Paladin cried out in dismay.

"Looks like she'll be here a while." Falgrim noted with a chuckle as he began unbuckling his armor.

"Looks like." Drau noted. "What are you doing though?"

"I dunno if you noticed, but I'm a Runesmith." Falgrim explained. "So my armor is full of all kinds of runes that help me in battle. But they burn out after a while and need replacing once the charges run out."

"So you're gonna replace them now?"

"Might as well." Falgrim shrugged as he removed his gauntlets. "It'll take a while too, so I can keep our resident indecisive cleric company."

"Fair enough." Drau nodded. "Then we'll go check up on Taana and Gauldoth up in the town's magical library."

"Sure thing. Just tell Taana to came down once she's decided what spells, if any, she wants to snag from this place. She likely needs to replace some of the runes on her armor too and I don't trust her to do it on her own yet."

"Got it." Drau agreed as they left the armory.

"Taana seems to be tipping her toes into a lot of fields isn't she?" Yorha commented as they headed towards the magical library in the upper portions of the keep they were currently in. "Magic, archery, and rune magic?"

"And swordplay." Drau added. "She hasn't used it around us yet but she does carry around a short sword too. And a dagger."

"Even on the YGGDRASIL system someone with such diverse skills would be stretched thin, what more someone operating within the stricter systems governing the locals?"

Drau nodded. "Yeah, it's worrying. Thankfully, Falgrim seems to notice it too."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, notice how he's not letting her apply her own runes? He's doing them for her."

"Ah! And the archery and swordplay are simply fallback options when her spells are depleted." Yorha reasoned. "If that's the case then things sound a lot more reasonable."

"Exactly. I reason he doesn't tell her to not dabble in runes because he knows she'd just do it anyway."

She is a teenager. And she did already run away from home. Rebelliousness is clearly one of her character traits. Yorha reasoned. So by playing along, as it were, with teaching her rune magic he can keep an eye on what she's experimenting with.

"-what is the meaning of this!?" Gauldoth's agitated voice echoed down the corridor from the magical library.

Exchanging a worried look, both women quickly sprinted to the door. Pushing it open, they were greeted with the sight of the armored mage clutching onto a parchment and glowering down at Taana.

"What is going on here?" Drau demanded as she and Yorha stepped into the room.

Strangely enough it was Taana not Gauldoth who flinched at Drau's tone.

"Many things are going on here Drau. First off, our little Shadar-kai here is cursed to be unable to comprehend the written word. So has wasted our time by 'helping' me up here?"

"Taana, you can't read?" Yorha asked as she took a seat next to the skittish looking girl.

"I can." Taana insisted as she pulled out an ornate looking tome from her hip pouch. "Just only what's in here. This is the Tome of Lightning Magic I mentioned earlier. It's a family heirloom of mine that I kinda stole and got cursed for."

And this curse makes it impossible for you to read the written word, yet you want to learn runic magic? An art revolving entirely around the use of written words as a catalyst? Taana! What are you thinking!?

"That explains why you use lightning magic." Drau said with a sigh. "Gaul, I don't see why this is a problem to be honest. You can't be faulting her for stealing and while she might have not helped you with reading through this stuff, she's still a mage so surely bouncing ideas off her helped with your selection process."

"I suppose it did." The necromancer growled out reluctantly. "But that's not the real issue here."

"Okay, then what is?" Yorha asked, spearing him with a cold glare whilst patting the Shadar-kai's arm comfortingly. "What has you so upset that you would explode on poor Taana here?"

"This!" The armored mage said flashing the parchment he was holding at them. "This is a list of all the spells she knows! Can you see how long it is?"

"Yes, but what's the problem with having a wide repertoire?"

"It's 'cause I only really know how to use like maybe half of them."

"More like a third." Gauldoth countered.

"So she hasn't mastered all the spells she knows, what's the problem?" Drau pressed, though by the furrowing of her brows she had an idea. Yorha did too.

"And how pray tell will she master her spells and master her runes and combat on top of that!?" Gauldoth hissed, confirming Yorha's suspicions.

"What are you suggesting Gaul?" Yorha asked. "That she give up one?"

Taana recoiled from the idea. "I can't! I need to learn my runes! If not how can I be Master Falgrim's apprentice."

"He teaches you combat skills as well, doesn't he? And general adventuring skills too." Drau offered with a shrug. "Just because you put your runic studies on hold doesn't mean you need to give it up entirely either."

"Exactly," Yorha said offering Taana an encouraging smile. "I mean with that curse of yours, you basically need to focus on your magic. And you can't exactly be an adventurer and not know how to fight, so you can't neglect your combat skills either."

"I know. I know. But-"

"Are you listening to us?" Gauldoth said with an exasperated sigh. "We aren't asking you to give up your runic studies. Just postpone them until after you've mastered all your current spells."

Taana considered this for a long moment.

"Look at it this way Taana, which is more of a force multiplier in a fight? Your magic or your runes?" Drau said, trying a new tack.

"Magic," the Shadar-kai admitted in a pained whisper.

"Then which will be most helpful to Falgrim and the rest of us if you master it?"

"Magic," Taana repeated sounding defeated.

"So which should you focus with for now?"

"Magic," the teenager conceded at last.

"I'll hold you to your word." Gauldoth said, looking down at menacingly.

"I'm sure you will, Gaul." Drau said with a roll of her eyes. "But in the meantime, Taana why don't you head down to the armory. Falgrim is replacing the burned out runes in his armor. He can help you do the same for yours. You probably should tell him what you decided too."

The Shadar-kai gave a pitiful nod and practically bolted from the room. Yorha moved to follow her, but Drau shook her head.

"Give her some space. She needs it."

Yorha frowned but nodded. She hoped the other woman was correct.

"So Gaul, pick out any useful spells?"

"Nothing. Everything the Neogi have is too niche or weak for my taste." The necromancer said with a frustrated shake of his head. "It's why I had time to draw up that list."

"So this place is a bust for you?" Yorha asked, doing her best to move the volatile spellcaster away from the topic of Taana.

"Not entirely. I did find a decent upgrade to my staff hidden up here. It has a slight vampiric effect. I thought it fitting considering my specialty."

"Well, if you like it." Drau said, hiding her distaste at the weapon's magical property.

"We're going to check on the refugees." Yorha said as she stood, fishing for something to once again move things away from a potential landmine. "You want to join us?"

"No, I think I want to study this list for a while. Work out what spells will be most helpful to us and that girl should focus on mastering."

"You do that then," Drau said with a tired sigh. "Come on Yorha."

"That went well," Drau said sounding disheartened as they made their way out to the town square where the Gate spell's portal was located.

"At least that confrontation happened now." Yorha offered with a wince. "If we had left it to fester longer, it would've been worse."

"I know." Drau agreed. "But it's not like Taana wasn't pulling her own weight. Coming down on her so hard, is just a little-"

"Too much? I suppose it was, but it was Gauldoth that did it. We might not have known him long but I think we both know he was probably the worst choice to do it."

"Maybe," Drau said wonderingly. "Or he could be the best."

"You can't be serious."

"At least he won't coddle her."

Yorha frowned but had to agree that Drau had a point.

It was at this point that the two women exited the keep and walked out into the square. It was full of terrified or insensate humans both those rescued when they liberated the town and those they'd freed when they'd defeated the Neogi army. They were all being herded by the various undead of the Momons' legions through the Gate portal to Felmid. A replacement created by one of the Momon spellcasters after the one Gaul had initially used to bring them from Felmid in the first place had faded away.

"We did well today, huh?" Drau asked as they watched the scene, all her concerns about Taana apparently set aside for the moment.

"We did," Yorha agreed as she likewise focused on what they'd achieved today. "We destroyed a city of slavers and liberated hundreds of people."

"And this is only the beginning."

"Indeed it is."


Done!

I hope the action scenes were acceptable. I still think something is missing from the D&D side of things but I'm working on it. Hopefully, things will get better as this story progresses.

And like I said these avatars of Ainz are pretty damned OP aren't they? Well, as children of the Father of OP himself they ought to be. But with the Neogi getting stomped does that mean that all opposition will basically just be rolled over by the party? Well, if they're mortal then more than likely. But they're plenty of immortal things down in the Underdark to pose a challenge for them between their stomping of the local slavers.

As for Taana's problem with stretching herself too thin. I think I covered most of the issues quite clearly in the chapter itself, so I'll just add that she'll work on it. As for the curse. Yeah, it'll come up again later. So I'm not going to spoil anything.

If anyone is wondering about Taana's current level, she's approximately a Level 11 Wizard. I'm not following D&D mechanics religiously so this is just a rough approximation. Also note her Tome allows her to ignore spell slot level limits in regards to Lightning Magic. Class restrictions too. So long as it's lightning magic and she's in possession of the tome, she can use her spell slots to cast it.

Well that's it for the chapter. Till next time proshchay!