Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord. That belongs to Kugane Maruyama, and all illustrations are made by So-Bin.
"My creator! What joy it brings to my heart to have you return. How may I assist you, master?" Pandora's Actor twirled and bowed before his maker.
"Thank you, Pandora's Actor, you're too kind." Momonga held in his sigh. "Can I not pay a simple visit to the one I created?"
"I beg your forgiveness, Momonga-sama! I did not intend to question your august self- "
"It's fine. Don't worry about it."
He had made the guy, and while he was a little over the top, he accepted that he had once viewed him as the epitome of cutting-edge NPC lore. He had harangued Tabula on the matter of creating a lore dump as mere flavour text, but had himself fallen into overthinking and overloading his character bio.
"Oh! Such an honor it is, to be in your esteemed presence once more." This time, his languorous limbs swept him into an even higher form of dramatic pose. "Momonga-sama, how may I accommodate you this morning?"
"I had merely wished to gaze upon your visage, and know my creation." Momonga replied in his 'exaggerated, suave, pompous asshole,' voice. "Tell me, Pandora's Actor, how do you fare in your duties?"
"Well, my maker. I routinely take an accounting of all the World Items, as per your orders, ensuring they are present and in a magnificent state fit for that time their awesome powers shall be turned loose upon this world. Has that time come, my master?" Pandora's Actor had somehow adopted the generic yet totally wicked pose of having your back to the speaker while looking over your shoulder.
"Not quite yet, and perhaps sooner than we may think." Momonga thought of all the potential hazards outside that may warrant an immediate World Item level response and found he couldn't really imagine anything short of another player invasion. But the possibility for some unknown crisis always existed, and Ainz Ooal Gown were nothing if not prepared.
"Ah, so that's how it is." Pandora's Actor nodded, seeing to the heart of the matter. "Then I can only wait until that moment when your providence would have these World Items unearthed once more."
Momonga lost his train of thought for a moment, jaw agape at the… words coming out of his creations mouth. He coughed in order to cover up his lingering silence, before cringing internally when he remembered that he didn't—no, he couldn't cough.
"As expected of my creation, then you need only wait until that fateful day."
"It is as you say, Momonga-sama."
"Quite. But what of your other duties? Do you see to all of your tasks with such…vigor, or is that reserved solely for your guardianship over the Mausoleum?" Asked Momonga, truly curious as to his NPC's answer.
In the game of Yggdrasil, Pandora's Actor was programmed for guarding the Treasury, particularly the vault passageway that lead to the Mausoleum. His orders to mind the World Items were nothing more than flavour text as another tidbit he'd tossed in for literal character building, alongside a whole other host of seemingly mundane script. Momonga wondered how seriously the flavour text had become a part of him, like his personality clearly had.
"As ordered, I continue to catalogue the various divine class items held in the Treasury's Armoury, listing them and their descriptions on plaques manufactured from the gold, before having them sorted and stored accordingly." Pandora's Actor saluted his own description of his task, taking pride in his skills as a collector, as written by Momonga. "I also make use of my skills to frequently generate stores of gold, and tally up the new accountings of the Great Tomb of Nazarick's finances."
He continued to recount the course of his daily duties as if he had done them over a lifetime, and not the scant few hours he had been alive. He referred to times when Momonga had visited him previously, as well as times he recalled when other guild members made trips to the vault, which usually happened to be their last once they unequipped their items.
"If everything is in order, then we can move onto why I've really come here." Momonga broached the purpose of his visit. "Pandora's Actor."
"Yes, Momonga-sama?"
"There's no need to stand on ceremony with me. Not when we're alone, anyway. If you'd like to address me in a more informal manner, please, feel free."
"I'm simply overwhelmed! Such a gift have I never expected to receive. I shall treasure these moments greatly, Father." Pandora's Actor swooned with delight, sweeping his cap from his egg head in a deeply appreciative bow.
"As shall I." Momonga responded, only slightly uncomfortable with his NPC's obvious outgoing nature, opposite to his own. He was only thankful that he could endure this task alone and hadn't had his friends present to see this. Peroroncino and Bukubukuchaguma seemed to embrace their creations, but this was slightly more awkward than he had imagined.
He also tried to keep his friends' words in mind, particularly their warnings against trying too hard to seem more than they really are. He was just infected by his NPC's dramatic energy. The overacting, over exaggerating, overachieving, son of an overlord was just too cool not to be swept away by his performance. He couldn't help being ensnared by his theatrics.
"Pandora's Actor, the reason I have come to visit you, is to check the security of the Treasury, and your health."
"Pardon?"
"So, you didn't notice? I see." Momonga added his own little flourish, his cape billowing as he turned to stare gravely at the distant mountain ranges of gold stretching far above.
"I apologise, but I'm unsure of what you mean. Please, enlighten me so that I might assist you in whatever matter has your attention!" Pandora's Actor implored; arm crossed over his chest as one would swear fealty.
"The Great Tomb of Nazarick, along with all its inhabitants, have been caught in an unknown situation." Said Momonga, glancing at his creation, yet unable to decipher any expressions. "We've been transported to another world. One not bound to Yggdrasil."
"Truly? I assume, by your tone, that this was not the will of the Supreme Beings?" Pandora's Actor's demeanor turned serious, forgoing his over acting persona considering the announcement.
"It was not by the will of my comrades or I, no, and neither do we know of how such a phenomenon took place, nor are we aware of any responsible parties." Momonga looked his creation dead in the eyes. "But that does not mean we cannot take advantage of this situation."
"I see." Pandora's Actor tipped his cap again, deep in thought. "So, the World Items are to be readied in case they are needed then?"
"Hopefully it will not come to that, but, if necessary, my comrades must be armed." Momonga nodded. "Have you noticed any abnormalities? Anything beyond your usual inspection of the Treasury."
"Nein, Herr Momonga."
"Nothing at all?"
"Nein."
Momonga wasn't questioning Pandora's Actor's honesty, or his how forthcoming he was with information, but if he had noticed the transition from the game of Yggdrasil to the reality of this new world. Apparently, he noticed nothing at all, meaning his recollection of events was either seamlessly smooth, or his memories further back from the moment of the transition took place were fabricated from the data of Yggdrasil itself. He wasn't sure of its relevance to the matter, but it was only prudent to check.
"Very good, Pandora's Actor. Your work is flawless as always."
"Thank you, my creator. I couldn't imagine failing in my tasks."
'…Is he calling me stupid, or is he declaring that he would do nothing but succeed?' Momonga thought within the privacy of his mind.
"One last thing before I go." Momonga ignored the previous exchange. "When my friends were here with me earlier, what did they say?"
For the first time since he got there, Momonga could distinguish an emotion that wasn't exaggerated happiness or as serious an expression able to be conveyed by a perfectly blank face. Pandora's Actor curled away in embarrassment.
"Forgive me, I was simply overwhelmed by the presence of the Supreme Beings. It seems distant to me, but they were peering into the core of my very being, and were complimenting your licentiousness in my design. That is my recollection to the best of my efforts, Momonga-sama. I will endeavour to not be overcome by the majesty of your comrades in the future." Pandora's Actor vowed in all sincerity.
"Don't worry about it. I was only curious as to your opinion on the matter. It's fine." Momonga replied. Internally, however, he was satisfied that he had laid that dilemma to rest. Pandora's Actor did recall the events moments before he became real, but the memories were distant to him, as if they had occurred a much longer time ago than they had.
"It pleases me that the Treasury is in your capable hands Pandora's Actor. Keep up the good work, and farewell, until next time." Momonga made his departure.
"By your command, mein Schöpfer." Pandora's Actor bowed, being the last thing Momonga saw as he teleported back to the Meeting Room.
Upon returning to the Meeting Room Momonga found that he was one of the first few to return. The only people present were Punitto Moe and Blue Planet, whom to his knowledge had no NPCs of their own.
"I'd ask, but we should wait until everyone is back." Punitto glanced at him from across the Round Table where he and Blue Planet sat. The two were currently observing their bodies under an array of different sized magnifying glasses, and behind them was an absurd variety of large, ornate mirrors scattered throughout the room.
"Sure. What did you guys get up to, though?" Momonga seamlessly ditched his pretentious speech, no longer under the corrupting influence of his evil creation.
"We've been inspecting our bodies. A more thorough inspection than what Peroroncino did, anyway." Blue Planet warbled. While the death vine was peering through a magnifying glass at the bark of his hands, the fae elemental was plaiting together strands of light falling from his headdress.
"Find anything of note?" Momonga asked curiously. "And what's with these mirrors and magnifying glasses?"
"Well, we found nothing out of the ordinary, except for the part where I'm a living tree man and he's a fairy." Punitto responded offhandedly, then waved a hand at the mirrors stood behind them, obstructing most of the available floor space. "Oh, and we made those."
"Made them?"
"Yeah. Created them with magic. Create Item. I vote next order of business is we all explore our abilities extensively. I mean, we take the time to sit down and think this shit through. There might be a bit more to becoming real than we thought."
Momonga grew curious about his friend's foreboding words, but was interrupted before he could ask.
"Momonga, back already? I thought you would have been gone the longest. I imagined you at least would have questioned your NPC thoroughly." Touch Me appeared in a flash of silver.
"Y-yeah. there wasn't much to talk about. Not that I could think of anything without it seeming too unnatural or invasive." Momonga conceded. That did sound like him, but he took his creations words for what they were, as he imagined an honest and devoted son might answer his father. He had cut the guy some slack, and was really biding his time to come up with better questions. It definitely wasn't because he felt awkward and exposed in his creation's presence.
"Exemplary, as always. I hope none of the others treat the NPCs poorly. From what I've seen, they adore us, and taking advantage of their goodwill and kindness seems as detestable as manipulating children." Touch Me sat down, drawing up a chair from the circle. "What's with the mirrors?
"An experiment that turned into another experiment." Punitto finally tossed his magnifying glass on the table, the object making a distinct thunk sound on the wood, but otherwise no dent could be seen on the table, nor did the glass shatter. "I used magic to create a mirror, then I got looped into experimenting with creating different kinds of mirrors.
"Create Item."
Punitto Moe waved his hand vaguely beside him. There was a brief bright glow of light, and reality bent mirage like as rising heat waves over a hot surface. A twisted, wooden frame appeared with a large, oval mirror held between rotating joints, connected to the arms of the stand. Like the other mirrors, the one trait they all shared was that they were all unique from one another in design.
"Creation magic, it seems, is only limited by my imagination. I have absolutely no idea at all how the magic works, and I don't know how to manipulate the magic itself, but it does work, and I can imagine a change in basic design. This is not how it worked in the game." Said Punitto from across the table, somehow severe in the bright chandelier light. "The possibilities are staggering. Can you imagine what this means? Unlimited creation within our grasp? I just…can't at the moment. We'll wait for everyone else."
Momonga and Touch me glanced at each other before shrugging in unison, too used to this particular friend's mannerisms to be caught in his imaginings. Besides, they may have also had a slight inkling as to just how surreal and awesome coming into real power truly was. They were there too, when they found out they were isekai'd, and that even the NPCs were real.
It took another half an hour before the remaining members to finally arrive, with Tabula and Yamaiko pulling in last. Momonga wondered if they should have allotted more time, once he considered that the two of them had three NPCs each to visit, before recalling that as heteromorphs they had all of eternity to spend getting to know their creations.
Not a daunting thought at all.
"What's up with the mirror- "
"Yes. The mirrors. I made them. Create Item." Poof! The eleventh mirror to be made since Momonga arrived shattered behind the death vine as it spawned tilted amongst the other cluster of mirrors on the floor.
"That's four, now." Peroroncino muttered, counting the mirrors that had smashed under Punitto's demonstrative ire.
"Settle down, guys." Momonga took the stood at the head of the table, beginning the next session. "To begin, summarise the meeting with your NPCs. Go."
Everyone chuckled as he sat down, passing the torch to the left where Ulbert sat a few chairs away. The goat demon nodded and stood to make his report.
"The seventh floor is inhospitable to anyone without high level fire resistance. I have third stage immunity to fire damage, and even I felt that heat. It's a damned inferno in there. So, remember when this was a game, and there was no friendly fire? Yeah, no. That place is hot as shit." Ulbert cautioned his fellow players. "Momonga, Punitto, don't go there unless you want to risk being burnt to ashes."
"What?" Momonga asked, mind having gone blank for a moment.
He had not thought of that.
It seemed like a simple thing. They had even guessed at it now that NPCs were real, and Touch had proved it by slapping Yamaiko and causing her damage, but friendly terrain area of effect status afflictions too? The Treasury was designed to afflict everyone, without exception, requiring specific high-level protection to prevent yourself from being poisoned. This was a precaution against invaders who had managed to steal a ring.
But now even all the generated guild terrain was hostile to them? As a member of the guild, they could benefit from any buffs the environment provided, but were immune to any negative effects inflicted by it as well. At least, that was how it was supposed to go in the game.
"Are you sure?" Momonga asked, concerned. They could have all died horrifically in so many different ways if they weren't careful, and teleported somewhere within the guild that was trapped to hell.
"Yeah, pretty certain." Ulbert shrugged. "I have high stage immunity to fire, not just high-level resistance, but we made that place a literal 'inferno from hell'. It has a higher stage fire damage tick than my immunity. I'm just glad my resistance is also just as insane. I might have been barbequed, otherwise."
In Yggdrasil, a game that incorporated elemental attributes, it was only natural that there were damage modifiers like weaknesses, resistances, and immunities. It was common amongst all games in the fantasy genre, but there was another type of modifier that was very rarely seen in those other games.
Immunity nullification, yet another type of damage stage modifier, albeit exceptionally rare. Weakness made it so that you took more of that type of damage. Resistance made it so you took less of that damage. Immunity, as the name implied, made it so you took no damage at all from that particular attribute attack.
But Yggdrasil was the power fantasy game. A fire aligned creature being weak to water but resistant, or immune, to fire damage made sense. But a low-level fire aligned elemental having complete immunity to max level flames of the tenth tier cast by a superior flame elemental via divine class equipment wasn't as clear cut. In a power fantasy, you wanted to hold that smug sense of superiority as you incinerated flame beasts to ashes, or drowned mermaids in raging seas.
Momonga himself possessed certain abilities and skills that bypassed such immunities and restrictions. But friendly fire from the guild itself? The guild was meant to protect them, not kill them!
"I see." Momonga acknowledged the new information with all seriousness. "Then we must be certain to rediscover Nazarick with all possible precautions. This is a high priority objective."
"That aside," Ulbert continued. "The NPCs of the Seventh Floor were beyond happy to see me. Especially my own creation, Demiurge." The goat demon himself smiled from behind his opera mask.
"So, what's he like?" Asked Amanomahitotsu.
"Exactly as I designed him, of course." Ulbert replied jovially. "Slick. Sharp. Suave. Evil to the core. About everything you might expect from an Arch Devil."
"Right…"
"Come now, don't tell me you've all forgotten our time spent here?" Ulbert pressed, clawed hand splayed imploringly. "Remember, we're the bad guys, and so are maybe ninety-nine percent of our NPC's."
Momonga saw everyone glancing around at each other, no one wanting to speak up, or knowing how to voice their newest concern.
"Shit." Punitto cursed. "I forgot about that."
"…That our deeply evil aligned NPCs are now real, and have become living, breathing engines of destruction?"
"No. Just the evil part."
"Will it be a problem?"
"Not if we don't let them leave the Tomb, it won't."
"Then that's settled, then."
Momonga watched Touch Me sit back, arms folded as he pondered over the discussion. Momonga was unsure of what the paladin was thinking, and could only speculate over what the man thought, concerning the evil natures of the NPCs.
He hadn't made the connection when he saw the NPCs with his own eyes, but most of them were monsters. Evil monsters. Twisted beings, written in good fun while they role played as bad guys, had become incarnations of darkness, a hell waiting to be unleashed on any invaders, or set loose upon the world.
"Is there anything further you would like to add, Ulbert?" Momonga asked the demon.
"Nothing more, Momonga."
"Next then. Peroroncino."
The raptor next to the devil stood, tucking his wings behind him, and clasped his hands in front of his waist like a guilty man standing trial.
"I'm just going to preface this by saying that what's happened wasn't my intentions. Okay? I had absolutely no idea that this was going to happen, and that it was only ever supposed to be a joke." Peroroncino spoke like a man staring at the gallows. "We were all making shit up, just having fun. If I knew this situation was going to happen, I totally would have done things differently."
"…How bad is it?" Bukubukuchaguma growled, already having an idea that her brother was trying to preemptively defend himself.
"To be fair, Whitebrim wouldn't give. He was always stubborn, right?" The raptor carried on, heedless of his sister's growing agitation. "It was one line! Or was it two? But I had no idea it was going to become real!"
"Is it something stupid?" Said Tabula drolly before Peroroncino could keep rambling.
"No! But it is a problem, I think." Peroroncino denied. "It's something."
"Spit it out already!" Bukubukuchaguma demanded, having already concluded that it would definitely be something stupid.
"Oh, fine! Back when I was coming up with Shalltear's design, well, I suck at drawing, so I asked Whitebrim to do it for me." Peroroncino explained. "I gave him a bunch of specs, sent him some pics for inspiration, and he drew her based on the info I gave him.
"Except he messed something up." Peroroncino paused, taking a moment to make sure everyone understood it was Whitebrim's mistake. "He drew her chest too big!"
"And this is relevant, how?" Tabula grumbled. Further round the table Bukubukuchaguma simmered in annoyance, while small puffs of steam escaping her bubbles. "If I recall correctly, she was indeed, endowed. Relevant. How?"
"It's relevant, because she's flat!" Peroroncino stressed. "He drew her chest too big, and the stiff wouldn't change it, no matter what I said. So, I changed it in her bio. I wrote that she was flat chested, but she was so ashamed of it she pads her chest to make it look like she had huge t-breasts."
Across the table, Yamaiko stared evenly at Peroroncino until he curdled under her flat glare, whilst beside her Bukubukuchaguma continued to boil away. Peroroncino looked away from the two to continue to explain himself.
"After we split, I went to visit Shalltear in her chambers, where I knew she'd be after her rounds this evening. When I got there, I found her…undressed." Peroroncino avoided eye looking anywhere in the general direction of the two women present, especially his sister. "She was, preoccupied, by her Vampire Brides."
"Okay, now give us the short version." Punitto ordered, stopping the Birdman from making an ass of himself in their first real meeting in the guild.
Peroroncino glared at the Death Vine, but complied nonetheless.
"Sure. Whatever. Short version is I saw her naked. Not my fault, either." Peroroncino explained concisely. "She's flat, now. What I was just trying to say, is that not only is she real, but her character bio is true as well. She was drawn by Whitebrim to have big tits, but I didn't like that, so I wrote in her bio that she has small tits, and covers it up by padding her chest.
"Meaning, that sure the game character model has become a real body, but it was influenced and changed by the flavour text with it." Peroroncino enunciated his words, trying to convey his point clearly. "Everything's become real, but I was pointing out that everyone's character bio's, flavour texts, and whatever half-assed character backstories have all probably become real, too."
"So you're saying that her bio has had a physical effect on her body?" Tabula asked, acknowledging that Peroroncino did have a serious point after all.
"Yep."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I'm following." Touch Me spoke up, raising a hand in interjection. "In fact, I'm not sure I've been keeping up at all. What do you mean when you say her body is different from the game?"
"Not that her body is different." Tabula replied. "What Peroroncino is saying is that he found an unexpected factor regarding how her body and personality have now become real."
"You say 'unexpected factor' as if there was a 'regular' way of being isekai'd from one world, as a video game character, into another world." Said Nishikienrai, making light of the topic.
"I meant only in how we might have expected. The in-game character model has become a real body, and the character bio has become the personality." Tabula clarified. "What Peroroncino was pointing out is that her flavour text also had an affect in the way her body became real."
"Exactly." Peroroncino confirmed. "Whitebrim drew her with large breasts, I wrote that she was flat and the bio changed how her body became real."
"I see. Thank you, for clearing it up for me." Touch Me said gratefully, nodding slowly in contemplation.
"No problem, my guy."
"So there might be other NPC's that have undergone unexpected changes because of their bio." Amanomahitotsu concluded.
"Yeah. Imagine if someone wrote in something like they carried a gun around in their pocket, or someone had infinite mana. That might become real too." Peroroncino impressed his point. "There's that joke NPC made by Ankoro too, that little shit. Isn't he hell bent on conquering Nazarick?"
Laughter sprang up as they remembered the only other bird man in Nazarick. Ankoro Mochi Mochi had been wanting to design her own cute little helper NPC, and had taken inspiration from and an insult about Peroroncino from Bukubukuchaguma. Momonga couldn't remember what the two were arguing about at the time, but somehow Éclair had been created, as a permanent prank against the other birdman.
"Another excellent point." Momonga stated. "All the NPCs character sheets and flavour texts are available from Nazarick's Source Menu. We should make a point to familiarise ourselves with all the NPCs too, as a precaution."
"That's if the Source Menu is still there. We might have lost that as well, like our own menus." Ulbert noted.
"I hadn't thought of that, but it'll just have to go on the list as well." Said Momonga. He would have grimaced had his face been capable of expression. "And Shalltear, herself?"
"Eh, you'll find out in her bio. If it's not there, I'll just tell you later." Peroroncino waved him off.
"Very well. Next, Tabula Smaragdina."
Peroroncino unfurled his wings, relaxing them lazily as he sat down in order to make himself comfortable. Across the table Bukubukuchaguma was still peeved art her brother, who was adamantly avoiding her gaze.
Taking his cue, Tabula stood with his arms crossed behind him, and began pacing as he made his own report.
"Starting with Albedo, she is as I would have expected. Polite. Intelligent. Cunning. Oh, and as Ulbert mentioned, completely evil, as can be expected from a demoness." Said Tabula.
"Having become real, she takes her role as Guardian Overseer quite seriously." Tabula informed the players. "Once the unofficial Tenth Floor Guardian, she has been born into her role, one which she is well suited to, might I add."
"Role?" Amanomahitotsu asked quizzically. "She's supposed to guard the Tenth Floor and is stationed in the Throne Room. How does she have a role now?"
Tabula sighed, exhaling a dark mist from beneath his tentacle beard. "I get the feeling that the concepts of 'game' and 'reality' are going to be a reoccurring theme over the course of our discussion. Perhaps even the foreseeable future.
"See, all the titles given to the NPCs, their positions, were just things we made up. You know that, right?" Tabula asked, breaking his stride to ask the crustacean.
"Ah, yeah. Sure, I knew that."
"No. No, it seems like you didn't." The illithid pressed his fingers to his head in frustration. "Well, now you know. They were just random titles we gave them. Part of our role-play here. It wasn't a game mechanic, or anything of the sort.
"But since our arrival here the NPCs seem to have taken to their roles, and quite seriously, too." Tabula said, resuming his pacing as he spoke. "Albedo has become the Guardian Overseer, so she's in charge of both the Floor Guardians and the Area Guardians.
"Next, I visited my eldest, Nigredo. This one…" Tabula looked down. "Before the shutdown, I went to make changes to her. She had that gimmick to her, and while it was funny at first, coming back after a year it just… irked me, that I had a prank character laying about.
"Earlier tonight, while it was a game, I made some changes to her settings, disabling that routine. You know the one. The jump scare if you don't hand her a dolly." Tabula explained. "Now, she's just your run of the mill Greater Homunculus, with a whole slew of psychological afflictions."
Tabula turned and slammed a clawed fist on the Round Table, causing it to crack and buckle under his immense strength, despite being a caster.
"This- it wasn't my intention." Tabula swore, anger clear in his otherworldly voice. "These creations of mine, they were meant to be an act of role play. If I had known they would become real, I would have made them differently!"
No one had flinched from his heated expression and display of violence, but the silence in the room was just as telling.
"But it matters not." Tabula straightened, regaining his cool in an instant. "Nigredo is… conditionally kind. Soft spoken, and companionable, but her backstory has given her some mental issues, the depth of which I am uncertain. I had thought that a demoness daughter would have been my greatest worry."
Tabula resumed his pacing, head tilted to look at the shining chandelier above, and continued his report.
"Then, there is Rubedo."
This time, Momonga did flinch. At least, he clenched his skeletal fists, feeling true worry for the first time. This time a very unsettling subject. Around the room, the other players showed their own concern.
"Did you wake her?" Punitto asked, sounding as apprehensive as everyone felt.
"Of course. What kind of question is that?" Tabula scoffed. "Don't tell me you're all afraid of her?"
"She isn't exactly like the others." Peroroncino defended weakly. "
"And I distinctly remember even Touch Me was trashed by your little murder loli." Ulbert added, bewildered. "What madness possessed you to wake something capable of wiping the floor with your face? Did you forget the part where we were being careful and trying not to put ourselves at risk?"
"Not at all. I'm simply not afraid of my own creation." Tabula shrugged off their concerns. "Besides, this is something that should have been mentioned before we went to speak to our NPCs. Not after its already done."
Momonga felt that Tabula's rebuke was justified, since they hadn't specified leaving her alone. To be honest, Momonga had completely forgotten about Rubedo in the moment, and admitted that it was a mark of shame on their part for being afraid of the little monster. The difference in strength between Touch Me and the rest of the guild was mostly a matter of ability, but Rubedo easily compensated for that difference through sheer power. All of that power unleashed, if she ever turned against them, would lead to their sure destruction.
"But is she loyal?" Momonga questioned Tabula, staring the illithid directly into his eyes until the murky grey film cleared into a fiery orange haze.
"Loyal enough that she obeyed me." Tabula confirmed. "Although, I suppose she would be more loyal to you, Guild Master. However, that might require testing, and asking her questions we might not want to hear, giving her ideas we might not survive to regret."
"Is she awake still?"
"No. I put her back to sleep. She prefers it, actually."
"Oh. Why's that?"
"She enjoys dreaming. Or so she said."
Momonga struggled to think of what a murderess loli half golem would find pleasant to dream about, but decided it wasn't worth bearing to consider. Tabula let the matter lie and sat down again, waving a hand at Nishikienrai to stand.
"I wasn't sure how to find my NPC, Narberal Gamma, so I had a message relayed by the maids." Nishikienrai began. "That's not a problem, is it? Giving them basic orders, I mean."
"Hmmm, no, don't worry about it." Momonga waved off his friend's question after a moment of thought. "The NPCs appear almost eager to serve. So long as we aren't taking advantage of them, it seems to be what they want."
"Cool. So I had Narberal brought to the Ninja Mansion." Nishikienrai continued, ignoring Peroroncino's sudden snickering. "She's fine, if a little shy, but we have 're-forged old bonds', or whatever Momonga said."
"I was under pressure!" Momonga insisted, convincing nobody.
"Were there any notable differences about her?" Punitto asked in the flustered Guild Master's stead.
"Nothing of note."
"…"
"…"
"Get out." Punitto Moe's eyes flickered brightly, irate.
"That's all guys. Next." Nishikienrai whistled innocently, the sound managing to sound like a flute crossed with an air compressor.
"Are you half troll or what?" Peroroncino snickered at the half golem's dry humour.
"Next!" Punitto Moe growled.
"Everybody already saw my twins." Bukubukuchaguma shrugged her little blobby shoulders. "They're cute, but I might need to spend some time with them. Aura is fine, if a little aggressive with her brother. It's Mare that worries me."
"Wait. Didn't you make him some kind of submissive trap?" Peroroncino asked, feigning anger. "And you rag on me for Shalltear. Tsk tsk."
"What's wrong with Mare?" Punitto Moe asked, sighing as another possible fault was uncovered.
"Nothing's wrong with him! He's just a little shy!" Bukubukuchaguma defended her boy before sighing. "It was a silly joke."
"I also get the feeling we're gonna be spending a lot of time fixing joke characters, or dodging lethal pranks." Blue Planet commiserated.
Bukubukuchaguma bristled at hearing her creation being referred to as a joke character, but she had to concede the point. It had been a joke. A poor one, in hindsight.
"Aura and Mare are supposed to reflect me and my brother. Aura is the confident, responsible one, while Mare is shy and obedient." Bukubukuchaguma said, shrinking as she did so. "But Aura seems like a bully, and Mare is too shy, almost scared, and I don't think they can be changed now."
"Then you'll just have to teach them to behave." Yamaiko supported her friend. "I get the feeling they'll listen, and now they're real, they have the chance to grow."
Punitto and Tabula sat up straight in their chairs before they both slumped over and groaned in unison.
"There's just so much we need to keep track of. Are the twins' immortal dark elves, or will they grow? They're still children. Will they grow stronger as they age? Will age affect them?" Tabula muttered to himself. "And that goes for the entire guild!"
Momonga thought these were all good points and decided that he definitely needed to find a ledger and make notes. There was too much to check.
"Very well. We'll move on. Yamaiko?"
"My girls are just fine." Yamaiko stood slowly, dwarfing everyone with her height maxed avatar. "Yuri Alpha. Increment. Decrement. They were overjoyed to see me, but I think some of the other maids were a little jealous of them, the Homunculus and Pleiades maids both."
"Jealous?" Asked Momonga.
"Mhmm. That I returned, and their creators had not." Yamaiko confirmed. "Did you see anything like it, Nishiki?"
The half golem shook his head.
"Nothing like that. But then I wasn't paying attention to the other maids." Nishikienrai said.
"They're so precious, though." Yamaiko clasped her hands together in a poor imitation of cuteness. Whether it was about the other Homunculus maids or her own creations, no one else could tell. "All the maids are such darlings.
"I'm not even exaggerating in the slightest." She emphasised her point. "They are so insanely cute, both in looks and personality. The Homunculus maids are so sweet I felt like I was about to become diabetic."
"Sounds like an exaggeration to me." Peroroncino hummed quietly.
"But not really. They are just… so… they are unbelievably adorable." Yamaiko pouted, the expression twisting her grotesque's grotesque face. "I get that they became real, but why did they have to be perfect?"
"They were modelled by Whitebrim. Quite understandable." Peroroncino replied with a grin.
"It's just… never mind. I'll look into it later." Yamaiko sat down, gesturing for Amanomahitotsu to stand.
It took a moment for Momonga to remember who Amanomahitotsu's NPC was, but eventually recalled that Chief Blacksmith was his assistant in the forges.
"The Chief Blacksmith was happy to see me as well." The crustacean gestured with his overly large appendage. "The Forges are good, too. Didn't know how that would turn out, but it's pretty neat."
"Really?" Touch Me asked in his insectoid voice. "The Forges are real too? How does that work?"
"No idea, but I can't wait to check it out properly." Amanomahitotsu replied giddily, an unsettling sound from the massive beast.
"Huh? What's the forge like?" Momonga asked, confused.
"You've never been to The Forges?" Amanomahitotsu asked curiously.
"I-I never quite had the need." Momonga admitted, growing curious. "What's it like?"
"It's something you have to see for yourself." Amanomahitotsu waved him down.
"Now I'm curious." Said Punitto, the golden glow of his eyes shining intensely.
"You haven't been either?"
"I have no crafter classes, and I just asked for things. Never been." Punitto shrugged.
"Who hasn't been to The Forges?" Amanomahitotsu asked the guild members.
Touch Me was the only one who didn't raise a hand.
"Not one of you have been?" He asked incredulously.
"Now I want to go." Ulbert leaned on his hand, elbow braced on the table.
"The Forges are awesome. You have no idea how long that place took to build, and how damned expensive it was. How did you lot think we crafted so many divine class items?" Amanomahitotsu was almost offended. "How the hell did you think we made the Guild Weapon?"
Silence greeted the craft's master.
"No appreciation at all. Bloody bottom feeders, the lot of you." The crab grumbled.
"Hehe. Sorry, Amano-tan." Bukubukuchaguma giggled apologetically, the strange sounds made sense coming from the skilled voice actor.
"…You're lucky you're cute."
Momonga was also intrigued about the forges that he had never visited. He made a note to himself to visit later, but forged on with continuing the meeting.
"Lastly, Touch Me."
The silver clad insectoid paladin stood with all the grace befitting a world champion class warrior. The man turned player turned god shined brightly, one of the more annoying effects of his armour. While it didn't inflict the status blindness, that didn't mean anyone enjoyed staring at the walking lightbulb.
"I should mention that there's something everyone should know about my NPC." Touch Me confessed.
"Oh god." Punitto muttered
"This is either going to be something fantastic and amazing, or you've doomed us all." Ulbert commented, slumping in his chair.
"More like something stupid." Touch Me admitted.
"Really?"
"I never wrote my NPC a backstory."
Ulbert's elbow slipped off the table, and the demon smashed his jaw on the edge.
No one really noticed, because they were too stunned for words. Touch Me was one of the hardcore role players, but one who had somehow lucked into one of those unbeatable builds. That, and he was awesomely skilled. But first and foremost, he was a role player. How was it possible that the man hadn't given his NPC any flavour text?
"Your joking?" Peroroncino blurted. "You?"
"Yes, me." Touch Ne accepted the unspoken criticism and questions. "It was never quite right, so I never got around to writing him one at all."
"An NPC without flavour text." Tabula stroked his tentacle beard again. "Now that's interesting. What's he like?"
"There's nothing much to be said, but I think he's like me." Touch Me described. "I mean, he reminds me of myself. Quite eerie, actually."
"And that has nothing to do with the fact that you made him look like yourself?" Blue Planet raised a brow at the bug.
"That only makes it worse." Touch Me replied, emphatically. "He looks like me. He acts like me. He sounds like me."
"And now there's two of him." Ulbert said smarmily.
"It was almost disturbing. It's uncanny."
Nishikienrai pointed a silver and black gauntlet at the paladin.
"That could be it. Uncanny valley."
"Perhaps. It just… got to me, that someone that looked and acted exactly like myself could exist." Touch Me agreed. "Seeing someone exactly like me, a reflection, doing things I'm not doing. He was very polite, quite proper."
"But that doesn't sound like you at all." Ulbert jabbed, grinning.
Touch Me glared steely at the unrepentant demon.
"If Sebas' personality mimics Touch Me's, then that could be an indicator of their baseline personalities." Tabula speculated. "The foundation of their beings is modelled after us, then are modified by their flavour text."
"What does that mean, though?" Bukubukuchaguma asked, bewildered. "And how do you come up with this stuff?"
"Their personalities came from somewhere, and it wasn't just from their bio's." Tabula explained. "None of them had text like 'was educated in public school', so they gained their basic knowledge and behaviors from somewhere. That Touch Me's NPC, one without flavour text of his own, is a copy of Touch himself shows where they draw primary sapience from."
Peroroncino snickered.
Momonga mulled the thought over and found the concept reasonable. The NPCs were sentient beings now, but they hadn't received any kind of education or anything like it, yet they were clearly intelligent. It stood to reason that they gained it from somewhere, and the theory that they drew upon their creators as a base seemed logical. And awfully frightening.
"They don't seem to have our memories, however." Touch Me continued. "I asked Sebas. Discreetly, of course. Although he did have faint memories from the game."
"Oh shit." Peroroncino winced.
Momonga could empathise. Shalltear was the primary guardian to the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and had seen combat countless times. Had even died often, too.
"I hope she doesn't remember everything. Some of what I did with her was pretty bad." Peroroncino cringed.
Momonga empathised less.
Bukubukuchaguma, on the other hand, turned molten.
"Brother, dear, we should have a chat after this about Shalltear. Just us, okay?" The elder sibling ordered sweetly.
"Yeah, sure." Peroroncino reluctantly agreed.
"Good."
Momonga catalogued the information in his brain- in his mind, his thoughts organising themselves more swiftly than he had ever recalled. Maybe it was this situation, maybe it was the hype, but Momonga had never felt so awake than when they arrived in this world, so hyper aware.
"If that concludes the topic of our personal NPCs, then we can move onto other matters." Momonga moved the meeting forward. "Is there anything else?"
No one answered, allowing the guild master to continue.
"Excluding the important information concerning our personal NPCs, there is an issue that concerns me. That being the other NPCs." Said Momonga. "Yamaiko mentioned that the others may be jealous of our own creations, being that we are here, and their makers are not."
"The best course in this case would be to treat the other NPCs respectfully, maybe even preferentially." Tabula offered. "Understandably, we might favour our own personal NPCs, but it wouldn't be an issue to make time for them. Simply speak with them often, or we could arrange activities and the like. Inclusivity is the easiest way to manage discourse amongst colleagues."
"Where does he learn this stuff?" Bukubukuchaguma stage whispered to Yamaiko, who shrugged.
Momonga and the others considered the approach and found it to be agreeable. Unarguable, at least.
"They may be upset that their makers aren't here, but there is also another issue in this regard." Punitto added sternly. "We are planning to find out how we got here, and eventually we're going to try to pull everyone else here, but we can't give the NPCs any false hope over it."
"So we're not to tell them our plan to summon our friends? Their makers?" Blue Planet asked pointedly. "Why?"
"Because we have no idea how it happened to us, or why, or how we're going to do the same for our friends." Punitto explained. "Giving the NPCs false hope is one way to make them lose trust and faith in us. They seem loyal, but relying on a bit of code to ensure they don't murder us in our sleep is foolish."
"You're always a right ray of sunshine. You know that?" Nishikienrai commented to the druid.
"I'm psyched about being in a new world too, but we have to always be on our guard." Punitto the Paranoid retorted. "We have an effective knowledge base of zero. The likelihood of us getting ourselves in over our heads is extreme, and the consequences can be deadly."
"About that." Peroroncino interrupted, raising a golden hand. "Momonga used magic earlier, and our guild rings allow us to teleport, but what about everything else? You know, eating, sleeping, resurrection, and do we even know that we're immortal? How do we confirm any of that?"
"I was pretty hungry when I logged on, but that went away after the transition." Yamaiko supplied, removing a hand from her massive gauntlets.
She raised her hand and showed a ring of sustenance that she had equipped. As a max level nephilim she didn't need any food, water, or sleep, but the ring gave her a bonus to her already absurd base regeneration.
"I don't know if it's me or the ring, but I'm not hungry anymore." She continued. "Not tired either."
Momonga accepted the explanation and added his own piece.
"I was exhausted today. I was late logging on because I was called into the office, and I had a pretty shit day to be honest." Momonga shared. "I feel fine now. Perfect, actually."
"Alright." Peroroncino nodded. "But how about resurrection?"
Momonga had an answer to this as well. From within his inventory, and he had no idea how that worked, he drew a Wand of Resurrection from a void. Laying the wand on the table, he cast identification magic on it, speaking aloud for the benefit of his friends.
"All Appraisal Magic Item." Momonga cast the magic, feeling a stream of information appear in his mind's eye. He saw text in his mind, heard the words enunciated by an abstract voice similar to his own, and intuitively learned the effects of the wand in its entirety. Range, cooldown, area of effect, cost, price, rarity, make, ownership, and countless other facts and figures were absorbed by him in an instant.
"Amazing!" Momonga yelled in excitement, before he gathered his wits about him and calmed himself. "This really is a Wand of Resurrection! Unless this doesn't work where all other magic does, then there is no reason to doubt that we can live forever."
"Did that work?" Amanomahitotsu asked curiously.
"Try it for yourself. Such a rush of knowledge!"
After a moment, most of the players were identifying items left and right, making exclamations of excitement or astonishment as they experienced the rush of pure information.
"Okay, all in favour of going to practice magic say aye." Ulbert declared, eyes bright as he leapt to his feet.
"Aye!"
In a chorus of agreement, everyone abandoned any thoughts of careful planning and safe operations. There was much cooler shit they'd rather be doing.
"Back to the Arena?"
"Hell yeah."