The sound of children playing was the first thing I heard when I came to. Such an innocent sound, sweet and simple. Then the rest came, and I was groaning in agony as I rolled over on… fur? Despite my pain, I opened my eyes, and saw that I was somewhere completely different from our hut. Nor was back in my homeworld it seems.

"So this shit wasn't some sick dream…" I couldn't help but groan out, before I felt my body get pushed down by something. It was just bright enough in here to tell that I was somewhere I shouldn't have been, but I still couldn't see who it was that touched me.

"No, what you went through was no dream dearie. If what old Zarusosa says, then it's a miracle a human as scrawny as you even made it out of that nightmare. Your ancestors must be smiling upon you".

The voice was old and motherly, much in the way my grandma sounded like actually. Still, it did me no good not knowing who this mystery person was.

"Where-?" I began, but was cut off by the sensation of a claw on my lips that gently pushed me back down.

"Hush now dear, you're in very bad shape. I haven't had to treat a case of corpse rot that bad in decades, not since our great migration. Crusch dear, please go fetch some water for our guest, he must be parched".

"Yes ma'am," I heard a significantly younger voice reply, and the curtains briefly flashed open- oh god oh fuck that's too bright.

"Easy now, the medicine I used on you works wonders, but it has a habit of rendering one's eyes sensitive to light. You'll have to rest a few more days in here before we can let you out safely".

"Ugh, fuck… I'm useless as tits on a turtle until then…" I groaned out. "Is there anything I can do in bed?"

The old woman chuckled. "My, you're up and the first thing that comes to mind is how helpful you can be? Having spent yourself down to your very claws just to make sure two strangers you've scarcely known survive such a beast? You act more like our warriors than any human I've met".

I couldn't help but squirm uncomfortably under the compliments. "Er… thank you? It was equal effort, honestly they did all the heavy hitting and-"

I was stopped again by the claw on my lips. Whoever this old bat was she needed to learn something about personal space.

"Dear, you pushed yourself to the brink of mana exhaustion, and rather than use it to help yourself you used it to give that boy the push he needed to finish things. I can't say everyone in the village is too thrilled about a toadman being around here, but they're holding their tongues as long as Zarusosa is here and at least giving the benefit of the doubt. I can tell at least that the boy is good in his heart. Lost maybe, but ultimately good".

"Zaru, Todone… how are they?"

"Mmm, a few bruises and scrapes, but nothing that couldn't be patched up. They marched nearly nonstop to get you here, so the biggest issue was simply exhaustion. If it weren't for this {Protect from Poison} I kept hearing about I doubt we'd all be here chit chatting to begin with".

I sighed, relief washing over me. "Well… I'm glad for that".

I breathed deeply, wincing at the pain in my chest. "Is my heart supposed to hurt?"

"Mmm, a residual side effect. As I said, your case was rather severe. The fact that you're even conscious four days after what happened is a miracle".

"I'm… sorry… did you just say I've been out for four days?"

"In and out mostly, often muttering about your little brothers from what I could gather. They must be blessed to have you".

I was trying to process what I just heard, but was interrupted by the curtains flapping open again, making me wince in pain at the suffering of my eyes.

"I have the water ma'am," I heard the familiar voice of the assistant speak.

"Ah, thank you dearie. Please, could you tell me what those two were up to? I've been busy in here tending to our patient recently".

There was a brief pause of deliberation from the assistant's side before continuing. "Erm, Mister Shasha was busy talking with the elders about something called a 'fishery', and the toadman was sparring with some of the young hunters of our village. Why?"

"Oh, curiosity mostly. One of our young human's first worries was about them, curious if they were 'up and at them' as it were"

"Ah, I see," I heard her murmur.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Sounds like Todone. I could tell at a glance the boy loves to fight. Little bit o' scrapes wouldn't hold him back".

"No matter how many times I tell that stubborn toadman otherwise," I heard the old lady murmur. "Ah, but where are my manners? I believe your name was Nolan, wasn't it?"

"You'd be correct ma'am. You leave me at a disadvantage however, I don't seem to know your name".

"Mmm, the name's Marscha dearie, Marscha Runo. Though I doubt you can see her, my assistant with me is Crusch Lulu".

Crusch… Lulu…? No… no fucking way…

"A pleasure to meet you, sir!" I heard the impossibility say.

"Er, Crusch dearie, humans don't have darksight like we do. He can't shake your hand".

"Oh! Er, sorry about that…" I heard her mutter, though truthfully my thoughts were starting to wander in a direction of existential dread.

I think the old woman could see the sudden fear in my eyes however, and gently touched my shoulder. "Are you alright dearie?"

I was shaken out of my stupor, and I dumbly nodded. "As good as I'll get. I was just… remembering something. I uh, I think I need to rest alone for a minute if that's fine with you. I need to meditate on something in private".

I couldn't see it, but I could definitely imagine a look of concern and confusion. However, the old woman seemed to be willing to relent to it if her next response was anything to go by.

"Very well dearie… if you need us we'll be within yelling distance. Holler if you need anything".

"Yeah, course I will… Uh, thank you for humoring me miss Marscha, won't be too long…"

I could faintly make out two forms leaving through the door, my eyes squinting hard to make them out. I took a moment of pause before I let my panic attack ensue.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck… no, no that can't be right… once is a coincidence, twice is happenstance, but three times…? Fuck me, fuck my dog, fuck my car's extended warranty, and fuck the horse I rode in on," I muttered to myself.

Strike number one; Tob. Alright, fine, I was willing to give that one a bit of leeway on account of the simplicity of the name. Had bigger fish to fry at the time, so it's not as though it was my main concern. Strike number two; Baharuth. That one was… a fair bit more concerning. Again, I slid that one by on the benefit of the doubt. I mean, there's no way in hell I'd be slapped here of all places, right? Wrong, unfortunately. Strike numero tres; Crusch motherfuckin' Lulu. Honestly, between the lizardmen and the swamp and all the names… I'm fucked. Royally.

"I shoulda asked where my ass was getting sent, cause I woulda just opted to die instead of this shit… of all the fucking places I could have been sent to clean up a problem this was a thing?"

Overlord. The anime where true death is a mercy, and you best fucking pray the protagonist doesn't find you interesting. God fucking damn it, I'm gonna have to deal with an unstable shut-in who can't seem to see the evil in the horrific shit his NPCs get up to. I steady my breathing, curling up in a fetal position and putting my fist against my mouth.

How the hell am I even supposed to compete with this? He's got an entire army, any singular soldier could completely demolish entire nations, hell even his maids would have no problem doing an Irish river dance on my struggling corpse and do it like it was just another night out with the gals. How the fuck am I… no, wait.

Who said I have to get involved with him? My job is… hell, now that I think about it, it's probably to destroy that one Dragon Lord's ancient spell he cast that brought players here to begin with. I have zero mission objectives pertaining to Ainz. Yeah, okay, I can…

Wait, no, scratch that, I distinctly remember my Patron telling me that I would have to 'Work with the next victim' to stop this mess. IE Ainz. Never mind. Alright, not like I didn't value myself or my personal sanity that much. I can try to work with this. Okay, deep breath. In. Out. In. Out.

I breath out one final deep breath through my nostrils, and pull my balled fist from my mouth. Alright, so let's look at the facts, and try to see what I can do. My Patron said it would be about ten years before the next 'pulse'. That gives me plenty of time to grind up, and now I really do have a genuine reason outside of mostly curiosity and helping them grow to unite the demihuman tribes of Tob. One of the things Ainz tries to create is a nation where everyone can live together in peace, even if his subordinates sure as hell don't believe it. Maybe I can… make something he'd look at and not want to attack? Not necessarily because he couldn't, but rather that he just wouldn't see the appeal? Yeah… I think I can make that work. Besides, would be nice to have a nice little 'nation' to run to if I wanna head for the hills from some of Ainz' more fucked up antics. Would be nice to have something capable of actually providing resources and manpower should I need it for things pertaining to exploring and growing stronger too.

Ainz isn't the only player on the field I'm gonna have to keep an eye on, and I don't mean that in the sense that he's a 'player' of Yggdrasil. Re-Estize, Baharuth, Slane, Roble, Draconic Kingdom… all of them play a part in the scheme of things here. We'll have to keep our development quiet to avoid attracting attention from the more xenophobic factions, which is going to be increasingly more difficult the bigger we get.

Baharuth will… sort itself out. When Jircniv takes over his eyes will mostly be on Re-Estize, so it's not as though he'll consider us all that much. Well, actually, as a nation that's going to consist primarily of demihumans that's actually a bit of a toss up knowing him. But hopefully once he's done his thing with his parricide and noble slaying, should he look at us funny it probably wouldn't hurt to send something similar to a delegate.

Draudillon is… actually pretty respectable as far as some of the rulers go. Certainly because of her lineage, but her constant harassment from demihumans to the kingdom's west might make her leery of us. Hopefully she'll be willing to take us as an ally, as those raids would actually provide an opportunity to level up. For both myself and some of the people here.

The Elf Kingdom… yeah, no, not touching that with a hundred foot pole. King rapes-a-lot is pretty nasty, and I'll help anyone that needs it from that area, but there's no diplomacy there. Same goes for the Slane Theocracy and Holy Roble Kingdom. Those are problems I'll have to keep a pretty heavy eye on.

Re-Estize can just go fuck itself. Between the corruption and the sheer ineptitude of its royals and nobles, I want as little to do with them as possible. And that's not even considering the she-witch of a princess they have. I'll have no problems giving a hand to the villages next to Tob like Carne, but past that there's nothing to be said or done.

I sigh, realizing that all of this would be an incredibly taxing undertaking. I need to grind levels, not build a fucking country. How would I even give them the knowledge necessary to… wait, maybe…

"Maybe I oughta share something with them… I'm sure paper making would be a decent enough idea if I sell it to them right".

Thinking about it from that perspective, if I just show them how to read and write for a little bit between grinding myself on flora and fauna as well as helping out with things, maybe I could actually have my cake and eat it too. Or however that goes, still feeling pretty woozy so some thoughts are muddled. Point being though, if I can give them that knowledge, then they should be able to handle the rest for the most part. I'd have to spend a lot of my free time writing. Ugh, what would I even use as ink? My knowledge pretty much taps out at that point and moves from what I actually know and more into theories and ideas. I'll have to ask that medicine woman, she might know some things.

And honestly, once that's out of the way, hopefully knowledge sharing among the whole village should be a lot easier. By doing that, it should more or less snowball while I put a few ideas in some of their heads. And from there, bada bing bada boom. Kinda. Gonna need to study how I'd record certain things like spells down… oh, scrolls, writing that one down as an argument if I can make those.

{Recipe unlocked! Would you like to learn 'Tier 1 Scroll' recipe?}

Hush. Appreciated, but I'm a little busy right now. Maybe later, once I've leveled everything up. Which is a lot, actually. Damn, how strong was that abomination even?

Right, so making a recap for myself. In the New World, I need a nation's backing to explore stuff, gonna have to make one, and grind myself up in the meantime. Hopefully wrap everything up in a nice little bow so that once the forest gets a little too soft for me I should be okay to leave things be for a bit. Maybe even take up Adventuring for some cash to rake in and get leads on more things to kill. Lather, rinse, repeat until I'm of decent enough strength.

With that done, I might as well take advantage of my privacy to iron things out with my levels.

{Name: Nolan Potts}

{Race: Human}

{Levels: Brawler (4), Ranger (3), Druid (2), Clothier (3). Total Level (12). Unspent Levels (3)}

Hmm, level fifteen. That would put me at around Todone's pace now, assuming he hasn't leveled up from the fight either. Which, considering how much I leveled up, is very much unlikely. Still, at least I should have some new bags of tricks. Which ones should I spec into… maybe Druid, that would certainly give me more tricks up my sleeve, but Brawler would also give me something to work with in actual physical combat if needed. Hmm… two in Druid, one in Brawler. Yeah, that oughta cinch it.

{Levels Spent. Brawler raised to 5, Druid raised to 4 (Total Level 15)! Your spell cap has been raised by six slots! You now have three available spell points! Notice: You have now reached the sufficient threshold, Tier 3 spells are now available!)

Tier three? Scrumdiddlyumptious. Lets sift through some of the new spells I have access to now. And honestly, as I look at the new spells I have some damn good options. There are also a few additional spells in the second and first tiers as well I wouldn't mind grabbing, but as it stands I need to be a little picky unfortunately. A shame, but it is what it is I guess.

{Water Breathing: This spell allows up to ten creatures you can see within range to breathe water for a duration of up to twenty-four hours}

If I wanna keep up with these lizards and frogs, that'd certainly be a nice little choice to help me with the water. Would also give me an opportunity to explore the waters around me thoroughly and join in on certain activities that would be nice if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't hold my breath for shit.

{You have now learned: Water Breathing (Tier 3)! Two spell points remaining}

Alrighty, up next to bat should be something to help me see more clearly the deeper I go, though it should definitely help out with other areas nevertheless. Would be nice to give the old medicine woman a spook I suppose.

{Darkvision: You may grant a willing creature the ability to see in the dark for a duration of up to eight hours}

Bingo, hit it.

{You have now learned: Darkvision (Tier 2)! One spell point remaining}

Now that I have those two… what else? I should realistically grab something useful for actual combat, something that would definitely grant me a hefty helping hand with things. Should I go for an actual combat related spell? Aside from Frostbite I don't really have much that could help me. Maybe another ice spell then, Ice Knife does look pretty enticing. Would work pretty nicely against the forest and swamp creatures in all honesty, but I should probably look at my other options first. Oh, wait a second, I spy with my little eye something fascinating.

{Sleet Storm: Cast a storm of freezing rain upon your enemies within a twenty-foot circle, heavily obscuring the area and adding the 'Slippery' modifier to terrain as a result of slick ice forming. All flames are doused within the area of this spell's effect}

Whelp, I guess I'm choosing an ice spell regardless. Ah well, at least it's a pretty good one. I'll just have to make sure I'm careful about using this one around my friends, I know they both mentioned that the cold isn't something either of their species can mess with.

{You have now learned: Sleet Storm (Tier 3)! Zero spell points remaining}

Ah… I think I've done about everything I can in privacy for now… except wait, maybe I should unlock a couple of enchants in advance for the next full moon? Would certainly make for an interesting little thing to have in advance, plan things out more thoroughly perhaps. Depending on how big this village is I should probably hike if I want to be able to do that though, I can't let anyone know the specifics of how I can enchant things. Gotta keep the {World Item} a secret and all that.

Unless there's alternative ways of enchanting other than Data Crystals. Hmm… a thought for another time. I'll have to spare that for an actual walk to clear my head of some things, I'm starting to feel a little iffy. Let's see what the damage report is, yeah?

{Status Effect: Poisoned (Healing), Mana Exhaustion (Moderate)}

Ach, that won't do at all. I may be sore as hell, but I can tell that a few days of rest brought me at least some of my mana back.

"{Lesser Restoration}," I murmured out with a hand to my chest, feeling relief as though a heat had been relieved from my body. Huh, I hadn't even realized I was sweating.

Thump.

Huh?

I noticed I'd fallen back after casting my spell, the energy seemed to sap right back out of my body. I could scarcely wiggle all that much, and it got just a little harder to breath. What the hell's happening, I cured the poison right?

Wait. Is this something to do with the mana exhaustion? Is this one of those things where after a particularly heavy exercise you need to let your body rest or you're in for a world of trouble?

"Well this fuckin' blows…" I murmured. Ah well, looks like I can't do much of anything just yet. "Alright, if y'all can hear me you can come in!" I shouted out.

It took a moment, but the old lady came back in with her assistant in tow. I couldn't see them, but I could at least imagine Crusch in my head now that I knew it was her.

"Well then, whatever was it you were… you cast magic on yourself?" She began mirthfully at first, though I could practically hear her eyes narrow at the end.

"Er… yes ma'am," I admitted, and I could hear a sigh of disappointment.

"Well, at least you're honest about it, that's better than what could be said about some of the males around here, but honestly! You're a second tier caster if what Zarusosa told me is anything to go by, you should know better by now when dealing with mana exhaustion! What in the name of the ancestors possessed you to do such a thing?"

"Purging the poison out of my system ma'am, didn't want you wasting medicine on that ma'am," I muttered weakly.

Another sigh came from the lizard, though I could hear a bit of a chuckle at the end. "Old Zarusosa was right, you are a strange human. Very well, I suppose I should thank you, we were starting to run low on that particular herb anyways. It would be nice to preserve what supply we have, but as my patient you must take better care of yourself. Am I clear dearie?"

"Yes ma'am," I replied meekly, somehow feeling ashamed even though deep down I was satisfied with myself for at least saving them resources. Speaking of resources, maybe I should strike up a conversation to help them out. "As an apology ma'am, I'd like to offer some-"

"Ah-ah-ah!" She cut me off, "No nothing dearie! You need to get some rest! If you're truly intent on helping the village, you can do so at your best shape. Relax and enjoy some water, I need to inform the others of your waking. Crusch, keep an eye on the poor thing, I'm going out".

I hear the rustle of leaves, and though my vision is certainly better, I can see a bush of all things with a pair of legs and a tail step out through the curtain and outside. I sigh, realizing I'm not going to be able to do a whole lot. I stare off into the darkness of the hut, realizing I didn't have much to do. Thankfully, Crusch seemed about as bored as I was with this situation.

"So, erm…" She began slowly. "... What are the human lands like?"

Nolan Potts, Human (Karma: 50 [Neutral]) [17/21 Spell slots used]

Classes: Brawler (5), Ranger (3), Druid (4), Clothier (3). Total Level (15).

Spells (Druid): Frostbite, Entangle, Create or Destroy Water, Guidance, Jump, Cure Wounds, Dust Devil, Protect from Poison, Hold Person, Spike Growth, Lesser Restoration, Water Breathing, Darkvision, Sleet Storm

Spells (Ranger): Animal Friendship, Speak to Animals, Ensnaring Strike

Gear: Canvas Clothes (Sturdy, Weathered), Oak-Handled Brush-hook, Canvas Coyote Pack of Holding, Bundles of Herbs (Medicinal), Bundles of Chitin, Pot of Tannin, Bundles of Smoked Bug Meat, Dried Deer Hide, Bones, Bone toolkit

Items of Note: {Humble Beginnings}, {Emerald Moon}

Party Members are as follows…

Member One: Todone, Son of Kodrotti, Toadman (Karma: -30 [Neutral])

Classes: Toadman Warrior (9), Brawler (8), Total Level (17).

Member Two: Zarusosa Shaha of the Greenclaws, Lizardman. (Karma: 110 [Neutral-Good])

Classes: Lizardman Hunter (10), Warrior (9), Ranger (6), Total Level (25)

AN: Well, who said our protagonist would have an easy time of it in the aftermath against such a foe? Surprisingly stronger than expected, yet they managed to whittle down their weakened enemy through might and spite. The sudden burst of levels more or less came from the sheer level difference between Nolan and the Corpse Hydra, but on the same note the beast was already pretty softened up by traps and the lizardmen, as well as no longer having the element of surprise on its side. Though it does beg the question of how such a creature came to be in the first place...