another short chapter to too keep the story rolling so I don't stall out again.
"My lord, the grand Library has been Transported! Your orders?".
Still I do not open my eyes still taking in the feeling of a new body, unlike Momonga who gain a nearly unfeeling undead body, I have flesh and blood, I have entirely new limbs and I was trying to feel my magic during the transition.
It would have been easier to feel if every sense I had changed at the same time but I will dwell on these feelings at a later time.
Opening my eyes I see a guard on one knee looking at the ground awaiting my response.
Vanith, I believe his name is, He is not the leader of the Surface Guard so he wears a uniform that is not unique and his dull gray armor matches what is worn by dozens of other NPC of his rank and job.
Like the rest of the surface guard he wears a persian inspired set of armor whos helm includes a full face mask modeled after a featureless face, and while not quite a full plate set as his particular caste of guards are ranged gunnery like CZ delta and thus focus on mobility, he still has a dull blue cloth that is slash and blunt resistant covering every part of him that is not already covered in metal, leaving no part of him visible through his clothes.
"Vanith" I finally commit to my guess to his identity. "Go to the roof and contact Laheir the Seer and if he is not already scrying the land around us tell him to begin now. I will contact the Dragoons and the Chapter masters myself."
I begin standing up and Vanith looks up to me from his kneeling position. "On your way to Laheir, order any guardsmen you pass to follow you and secure the area around him while he is vulnerable, you may also bring with you the Archer golem."
Most likely overkill for this world but god forbid we are smack dab in the middle of dragon lord territory. No need to be negligent, and while the guards probably wouldn't trounce over all the World's denizens they are still monsters even compared to what Nazarick could offer since City states could buy as many levels for NPCs as they wish, since once any NPC enters combat it will still enforce the 3000 level limit.
So the guards of Vanith's caste would all be around 85 to 90 while the Archer golem is a 3 armed level 100 Colossus which was one of the first NPCs I ever created and was Min maxed for accurate long range DPS along with the other 29 original NPCs that defended the grand library in the first few weeks of its existence.
"Understood my lord" With that he quickly snapped up and followed me out of the room before darting off to his task.
'Lord' I think to myself. Hardly a lord if I say so myself I certainly don't want to spend the rest of my unnatural life being responsible for any more people than I already am. But this is a problem for another time.
Walking down the passageway I send a message to the Leader of the Dragoons to take flight on their mounts and be in a defensive posture until we get our bearings on when and where we are.
After that message I continue on to messaging the chapter masters who are the leaders of various types of NPC's specialized towards combat, and organize a point to meet at.
After that I message Coeus who became mine as a first attempt reward for clearing the dungeon. But now he heads a very special division of NPC's who I designed to be good at gathering information and suppressing it, I call them the Ikkoth and since their chamber is so deep within the library I doubt any other NPC even knows they exist.
They are given a special mission, They will operate with the assumptions that this is the new world I am expecting, they are given specific locations to look for, certain people to find, and certain countries, and as I thought no questions were asked and the venerable horde of high level demonic and mythical owls vanished from the depths of the library and scattered in all directions after a few teleports and blinks.
Ahh the hustle and bustle around me reminds me of the golden age, but instead of players scrambling to find their friends or sell their items, it is now my very creations scrambling, Oh how I would love to stop and speak with each and everyone of them that I pass but I can't.
It would be irresponsible if I were, for all they know we could be facing attack from thousands of high level players any second now, and I don't want to grow complacent within a single hour of living here.
Especially now that I am so incredibly weak. Before the transition I redid my entire class build to ensure I can bring over the rarest classes from yggdrasil that can not be obtained normally, namely event classes, [World Champion] which requires you to be a winner of the year's tournament, [World Disaster] which requires you to kill one of the previous owners of this class. [Supreme sorcerer of Vanaheim] Which requires you to be rated top 100 with a player base in Vanaheim and 15 levels in other sorcery classes 5 levels of which must be from a rare Sorcery class. And lastly [Acolyte of phanes] which required a 30 part quest chain across 2 DLCs and none of the quests mention they are part of a chain.
All of these classes are considered some of the best the game has to offer, If you have the correct build for them. Which I do not. So I need to figure out how to regain my other classes soon because as it stands now I am barely middle of the middle tier in terms of power and that leans heavily to my racial specs.
Finally arriving at the main doors I Exit to see the night sky, and for the first time in many years I can see the stars.
I carelessly wander forward until I am nearing the edge to the waterways.
Directly In Front of the entrance to the grand library is one of the 4 widest canals that stretch from the central Island of 3 towers to the very edge of the guild, and After that I see... More water. Then a wall. Not a mountain range in the far distance. What an interesting location.
"My lord we have gathered before you, what do you demand?" I hear from in front of me. Only now do I realize that I have been looking to the sky for a bit too long.
Looking now at the 5 people before me I see a pair of Vampire Lords, a man and woman, the patriarch and matriarch of the vampiric clan, as well as the lords of Vanith the guardsman, Then I see Orcinus a draconic sea serpent which killer whale colorations who leads all the being in the depths of the water around the Library.
Then Finally I see a Seraphim Empyrean and Arch demon as representatives of the celestial court.
"Vlaria and Orcinus, gather those under you and search the surface and water, the Dragoons will prevent any new invaders but let's first be sure that there was no one who was here before the transition. If you find anyone who should not be here, kill them." I order coldly, I'm not sure when such words became so normal to me but this certainly isn't the first hit I put out.
I think the Politician in Japan who was gathering good support for Anti dive VR bill was the first one that I didn't lose sleep over.
"Is that the wisest course of action my lord? Would capture not be preferable to gather information when we have none?" I hear the demon from the celestial court ask.
The celestial court is less of a combative force and more of a gathering of powerful peers with widely varying morality and views. And since I am the personal creator of all the beings here, they are much more capable of informality and questioning, not out of disloyalty or doubt but rather out of familiarity and closeness much like Pandora's actor and Momonga.
They are supposed to be an informal check, lest I end up solving all my problems with ever increasing violence or should I lose my spine and refuse to use the violence necessary.
I felt that It would be most healthy to atleast have to hear questions about my actions.
I turned to the demon who asked and already everyone except the angel and demon looked uncomfortable and almost offended that I was questioned.
"I am sure. Any intruder already here would have come from Yggdrasil and would be just as lost as we are about our destination or method of transition. I would rather maintain our speed, surprise and act with overwhelming violence to insure our safety rather than risk anyone in a conflict that will gain me very little." I answer.
The seraphim then turn and sarcastically adds to her colleague "There, is it not enough that he prioritizes our safety over invaders, will you be questioning him further?".
Ah it seems the angle is the one with negative morality of the two, and it seems there is quite the rivalry between the positives and negatives of the court.
The demon doesn't cower before the angles words and still stands with their back straight, but there does seem to be a hint of shame in her expression.
Well that is a problem for another time, initial awkwardness is too be expected considering they only had free will for about 2 minutes now.
Then I receive a message, Apparently from Laheir. "Lord The scrying is complete, Our great home was transferred to a lake that formed in a large caldera surrounded on all sides by the ridge of the former volcano, from horizon to horizon I see nothing but mountains around us, I see no immediate danger and I shall scry further to find whatever if anything dwells around us."
Hmm, well the only mountainous area explicitly mentioned is the dwarven mountains, but there is no snow around at all, and it is certainly not cold, if anything it is quite warm as far as nights go.
"My lord? Is everything alright?" asked Sanguine, the patriarch of the vampire clan, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Ah, Yes everything seems well, Laheir has scried the surroundings and saw no immediate danger, Remain vigil however and continue the sweep of the guild with the rest of the denizens." A series of 'yes's' and 'sirs' and other affirmatives follow me as I turn and reenter the Library.
Walking past the main lobby of the entrance I continue delving deeper and deeper before I reach a small dark hall.
"Have you found what I desired?" I speak to no one in particular while walking ahead.
Then without any prior indication that a being was their an owl like biped if following in my footsteps as if they were there all along.
"We have identified several flags that you have shown to us, the nearest population to us is a middling town to the north east, it held this flag" as he mentioned the flag he immediately produced a piece of paper with the iconography of the Empire on it. "It is over the horizon several times over so it is unlikely we are to be found by them as there is no traffic or roads that lead this deep in the mountains."
"And the southern expedition?" I ask still looking forward walking at a leisurely pace.
I already have a rough Idea of where we must based on maps I remember but such maps were hardly accurate and one can never have too much information.
As I finish my words the first owl creature takes a half step back and another replaces him who then starts their brief report. " The southern expedition Has also Identified a Flag, To the South East, A small village significantly further than the northern town, it appears to be at less than half capacity, nearly all women and children, with only elderly men and a single injured adult man."
It seems about right for the Draconic Kingdom, Constantly pressed by beastmen to the far east all of the fighting age men must have been marshaled and sent away.
"Then I take it that to our west lies ruins and undead?" I ask verbally but my tone makes it clear that I already know the answer. And Yet again a third owl appears and simply affirms with an "it is as you say".
"Hmm" I idly hum. Moments later I emerge from the dark hall and enter a massive octagon shaped room with a central desk manned by a Throne, an angel of multiple rings covered in eyes and wings that floats ominously in the center of the room.
It says nothing to me and simply looks at me in anticipation as it is not a custom NPC and I approach the desk and on a piece of paper I begin writing.
In a few short minutes I have several pages of titles and hand it to the Throne and it simply levitates up to him and he gazes over it with much curiosity.
"Have your underlings gather all these titles and summon Every professor and academic to this room" I flatly state.
Very suddenly the once quiet room begins buzzing with activities as beings of all sorts flood into the hall and begin gathering books on various shelves. And the first of the "professors" enters the room.
Learning from the Mistakes of Momonga and unshackled by the limitations of total levels I have made various NPC's whos skills lie outside of combat, this amounted too having NPC's of all different kinds including an entire academic "caste" whos flavor text define as various masters of different disciplines of science, mathematics, language, art, and arcana. It also includes several younger NPCs who would instead learn these subjects and grow as sentient beings rather than simply being created with such knowledge.
The once massive room begins to shrink and feel claustrophobic as more and more of the greatest minds I could create gather as well as many of their apprentices.
Its at this point I realize that I run less of a city and more of a campus. Even in both of my past lives I don't believe there was ever such a dense gathering of knowledge and expertise.
About twenty minutes pass and all the denizens and books are properly gathered and I can begin the first big project of my now eternal life.
I summon a staff from my inventory and with firm tap on the ground a thunderous *CLACK* resounds throughout the room with the echo only dulled by the massive crowd of soft creatures as opposed to the hardened stone walls.
Immediately the room falls silent.
"If you are unaware of the situation we find ourselves in" I say solemnly "Then I must applaud your diligence to work through such a jarring transition" That joke earns a few suppressed chuckles, mostly from the older professors as the young apprentices simply seem confused.
"For the sake of being on the same page I will state the are no longer In Vanaheim. We are no longer in Yggdrasil at all." The first part seemed to be common knowledge by all, the second part seemed to surprise most, even the professors.
"We are in an entirely new dimension, Which offers us, as scholars, the highest of honors by offering us limitless unknowns and opportunity for discovery. But discoveries are meaningless unless grounded in truth, and as yggdrasil is no more, our very foundations have been ripped from under us. What we know, no longer applies, Our once stalwart truths have eroded to nothing and we must start again." I pause and slowly move towards a venerable mountain of literature stacked on a table and begin speaking once again.
"Behind me lies nearly all arcane and scientific conclusions reached over the countless millennia that our books have been sourced from."
"Our job now is to verify all of it" Excited murmurs ripple through the room, apprentices excited to be a part of a project so grand, and the professors eager at the challenge all express their mood in a literal buzz throughout the room.
*CLACK* I once again tap my staff and the room quiets down.
"The era of reading and studying is over, and the era of writing and research is here, and it begins now" I state with finality and once again the energy of the room shoots up sharply.
I begin explaining the various tasks that are ahead of us, talking about the books I have gathered and why I gathered them, carious other books and tomes are recommended to contribute and the Throne's as wells as their underlings whizabout collecting ever more material.
For the next 38 hours the air remains electric and I speak to nearly everyone attending in what can only be described as the greatest collective intellectual effort every attempted since putting a man on the moon.
After so many years I finally get to speak to the greatest minds I could conceive as actual people, every single one of them genuine savant, not only supernaturally talented but incredibly hardworking and passionate about not only their own area expertise but others as well.
It was one thing talking to other scientists and mathematicians, As I was one for all of my adult life in my first life and they speak my language so to speak and I could contribute more than I take often connecting the dots between the disciplines of various experts while being surprised by some hot takes and insights that truly shaked me up and changed my perspective on my problems.
But it was talking to the masters of magic that I learned the most from and grew the most in. Genuine archmages, wizards, druids, and sorcerers.
As a beginning of nearly pure magic and myth myself of course I instinctively know How to use magic but it is the why magic works in the first place that made these moments so incredible, learning actual secrets of the arcane, taught by archwizards and sorcerers, from an ancient tome.
I knew that this is what my life would be like, I knew this is where I would end up. But actually being here. Surrounded by my peers and doing some of the most ambitious research ever proposed. I simply feel content.
Every one was whipped in such a frenzy that even though many did not have a ring of sustenance they still went nearly 40 hours of intense non-stop work just to organize this endeavor before the Vlara entered concerned for us and bring the new that the entirety of the the library was sweeped and no one found.
That turned out to be the break we needed and everyone quickly dispersed, some to get food, others to sleep, some who came prepared with rings of sustenance, began work at their own quarters.
I myself went teleported to my room on one of the higher floors and decided to rest.
Sighing I can only comment on what a dumbass I am. I couldn't have waited a day? Over 40 years of non-stop work in my first life, another 20 in my second, and the second I get into my third I set myself up for a dozen lifetimes of work in this project alone.
Shaking my head as I finally enter a private bathing area and get cleaned up taking a minute to enjoy the warm bath after a shower, and then changing into a robe before splaying out my 6 wings across a bed finally relaxing.
And of course I have to finish correcting my level and fixing my god awful build, as it stands now I am still at level 100, and the final item I prepared for the new world still has yet to be used.
But that can wait one more day. I would finally like to rest.
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