[An : had made a round of updates to the first 2 chapters for consistency with the canon. Thanks for spotting them ;)
…
Entering the sewers reminded Wololo of the earlier beginner level tutorials of various MMOs, and as such it always excited him a little. It had "new beginnings" written all over it.
He transformed himself into his wolf form, and summoned two animal companions. The first was a lvl 45 devil bat, nicknamed "Screech" and the other was a lvl 52 warrior giant rat named "Fury swipes". In dark sewers the bats echolocation abilities and the rats sensitive whiskers would alert him to any potential foes. He then casted a beastmaster skill [of one mind] that allowed him to share his thoughts directly with his 2 summoned creatures and see the sewers the way the 2 summoned creatures could.
The first level into the sewers was absolutely harmless. Encountering only regular critters such as rats and various tiny insects, there were no monster-level creatures that confronted them. Following the energy lines, he soon found it ended at a wall, on the deep end of the first level sewers. Despite being walled up, sewage water still flowed beneath it, and the texture and color of the walls are different from those before them. It suggested the walls were made at different times.
Placing his hand on the wall, he activated his druid spell [move earth] and made the walls moved aside like swivel doors, revealing a path that heads deeper underground. Unlike the level 1 sewers, the walls on this path look really worn out of neglect, and there were thick cobwebs along the edges of the walls. He wondered whether there are spiders on those webs, and noticed just a few under the darkness. [Night vision] assisted in having a sense of where everything was, but it still is less detailed than being able to see under sunlight.
Fury swipes' whiskers moved slight, seems to detect there is some strange movement in the air. About 30 feet into the second level of the sewers, larger hostile spiders start appearing. He wondered what they fed on since its shut off from the rest of the world, but squashed them with his hammer anyway, and flicked the remains off.
And more spiders kept appearing. The spiders were black with small red spots over their back, and had multiple eyes. About 2 feet in size, they are slightly larger than your average household cat, and probably would make the cats as food too. From the behavior of the spiders they are merely reacting to the movements detected by the cobwebs, and do not appear to possess intelligence. He estimated their levels to be between 5 to 8, and so they are no match for Fury Swipe's magical gauntlets or Screech's metal claws.
After about another 40 minutes of descent, the pack approached what appeared to a disused shaft that went vertically down. Perhaps there was a lift or a mining cart that used to be here. From Screech's echo he estimated the shaft to be about 30 meters deep, though the darkness suggests that it went down forever.
[Shapeshift] Wololo transformed into a giant basilisk, and started climbing down the shaft walls, making use of its 4 large claws to hold the walls. While Screech provide air cover, the giant rat too joined the climb down. He decided on a basilisk form as it allowed better control and stronger combat abilities if he met an enemy while descending. (He considered just jumping down since he could easily survive the fall, but decided against it as he didn't want to make too much noise).
About 5 minutes later, at the floor of the vertical shaft, bones of various animals and humans was scattered all over it. Rather than scare Wololo, it just reminded him of another of those mining cave quests, where a monstrous dragon would often pile up bodily remains to demoralise any potential intruder. Well, for someone with negative karma such as Wololo, this was just like a human passing by a lovely garden.
At the bottom of the shaft, there were 2 pathways, and it looked like their design reminded him of old secret passageways. There was no decorations on the pathway, except for more cobwebs, and about half a minute later, Wololo and his 2 pets detected movement from the the 2 passageways.
It sounded like a constant wave of shrieks that gotten louder after each wave, and he figures it would be a whole lot more… spiders. It poured out of the pathways, spilling into the small circular-ish shaft they were in. Fury Swipes activated his battle frenzy mode, where its rat eyes turn glowing red and its claws turn longer, and swiped at all nearby spiders in a frenzy, slashing multiple spiders into pieces with each swipe. Screech on the other hand was less competent at multi-unit combat, but still tried its best to slash every nearby spider with the claws on its two feet.
Wololo casted [Massive Fire Resistance] on himself and his 2 pets, and then [Summon Fire Elemental]. From the void, emerged an incarnation of fire (Lvl 55), and it radiated an intense heat that charred the nearby spiders. It then blasted out a wave of fire that filled the entire shaft with flame, and also blasted 2 separate jets of intense flames into each of the 2 pathways, and fried the wave of spiders. About 1 minute of cooking later, all that lefts of the shaft was the ashes of spiders.
With the spider problem resolved, Wololo thanked the Fire Elemental for his service, and the fire elemental de-activated its [Burn Aura II]. Now the little party of 4 made its way down the left pathway, where he observed the jet of fire seemed to travel further.
The pathway is reasonably large, enough for a 10 feet tall elephant to pass through it. Its walls are a mix of dirt and rock, with occasional columns of stone placed at certain intervals to support the roof. As the path went further down, he could hear the shrieks of more spiders in the distance, carried by the echos of the tunnel, and the flow of energy that he saw earlier at the sewer entrances seem stronger.
It's getting close.
About another 10 minutes later, they soon came across another shaft that headed further down. With the light of the fire elemental, he could see it was about another 50 meters down. And this time there were a different species of spiders. They were larger, about twice the size of the earlier spiders, and it's feet had additional claw like appendages. Its fangs looked a little poisonous too.
The fire elemental leaped from the ledge they were on, and landed on top of one of the spiders. It's [Burn Aura II] activated, the spiders too started to get cooked by its heatwave, but they took noticeably longer to get burnt by the aura. And then it repeated its' earlier skill of blasting out a wave of flames and cleared the shaft floor of the spiders.
Wololo wondered the origins of the tunnels, but from the surroundings it gave few indicators. The wear and tear on workmanship of the tunnel columns suggested they were probably made about 30 to 50 years ago, and the rocks used to make the columns appear to be from elsewhere. Perhaps it was some kind of secret smuggling tunnels that has since fallen into disuse and now occupied by spiders.
There was another pathway down from the shaft, again. From all the walking so far, he estimated that he is now outside the capital's walls. Perhaps this tunnel leads to a river? There seemed to be some background noises that suggested of the presence of moving water, and a few steps into the pathway was a small rock bridge that had flowing sewage beneath it. It stank, so they quickly went ahead.
About 10 minutes of walking later, they came across a large chamber, probably large enough to fit a fully grown dragon with its wings stretched out. Its walls were covered in much thicker cobwebs, and they soon saw its red eyes.
A giant spider, about 12 feet in height quickly swipes its two front legs at the party. Fury Swipes quickly jumped to the party's defense, sending out a blast of air with its swipes that collided with the spider's air slash.
"WHO DARES INTRUDE ON THE LAIR OF THE SPIDERQUEEN ARANA!" A loud womanly voice echoed in the chamber.
Wololo laughed. 'What a clichéd dungeon boss greeting.'
He estimated the giant spider before him to be about level 25 to 30, not a match for the 3 summoned creatures. The fire elemental which swiftly repeated its wave of flames that scorched the cobwebs, depriving the Spiderqueen of its' mobility. Fury Swipes and Screech then rushed towards the Spider Queen, and its' Fury Swipes [Heavy Slash] was parried by two of the Spider Queen's legs, which broke from the impact. Screech came from another direction at about the same time, and it's claws were blocked by another 2 legs. Screech's claws then grabbed hold of the 2 legs, holding the Spiderqueen in place.
[Fireball] x 2. The Fire Elemental then shot out 2 fireballs at the Spiderqueen, hitting it squarely in the body.
Sensing itself not able to defeat the intruders, the spider begged for her life.
"THE SPIDERQUEEN ARANA SURRENDERS! SPARE ME!"
…
…
About this time, Momon and Nabel just completed their mission of saving Nfirea Bareare from Kajit and Clementine in the graveyards of E-Rantel, wews of their glorious success made them famous in E-Rantel overnight. The success also earned the duo a promotion to Mythril rank adventurers.
"Ainz-sama, I have grave news." Albedo messaged. "Shalltear Bloodfallen has rebelled."
For a moment, Ainz was unable to process the news that he just received. So he just blurted out
"Huh?"
"Huh?!"
When Albedo messaged, relaying the same message that was given to Ainz, Wololo too, was too shocked for words.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, Wololo-sama."
…
Back in the throne ball together with Ainz, Albedo briefed the two supreme beings of what information she has collected so far, and where she was last seen by Sebas. Ainz, back in his familiar dark cloak seemed baffled by the rebellion. Ainz activated [view master source] and indeed, for Shalltear, her name was in a darker shade, suggesting either rebellion, or under the influence of some kind of status effect or mind control.
"What do you think happened?"
"Maybe Shalltear was feeling jealous?" Wololo tried to lighten up the serious mood, but all he got was the stares of the two others. "Never mind."
"Ainz-sama, I recommend we form a team to take her down immediately. I recommend that I'll lead the team, with Cocytus as deputy commander and Mare as the third team member. With the 3 of us taking charge of a team of servants, we can take her down."
Ainz placed his fingers on his jaw, and contemplated Albedo's suggestion, but then asked. "Where is she last seen, Albedo?"
"I'm sorry Ainz-sama, but we do not know at the moment. We are unable to contact any of the vampire brides that accompanied Shalltear on her journey." Albedo said, bowing. Her wings seemed a little droopy. "We've raised the security level of Nazarick to the maximum, and placed additional servants at the doors in case we are attacked."
"Let's speak to Nigredo and find out where she is."
The frozen prison on level 5 was where the enemies of Nazarick was kept, and tortured. Though Nigredo appears somewhat insane, Ainz is able to pacify her with a doll, which returned her to normal and got her to locate Shalltear.
…
News of the presence of a ridiculously powerful vampire spread through E Rantel. Merchants and caravans diverted their routes away from the areas close to the vampire, fearing that they may fall victim to it, as many adventurers that wondered too close had.
In panic, the city of E Rantel called for a meeting of local guilds of magicians, warriors and adventurers to discuss a response to the monster that faced them. Momon and Nabel who, as mithril ranked adventurers of E Rantel were invited as well, though their peers did not view them positively as their swift rise has caused tremendous jealousy.
Wololo, disguised as a tiny fly, joined the meeting by resting on Momon's shoulders.
The meeting went nowhere for the first 30 minutes as the mayor went through the formalities of introduction and narrating the events that have now unfolded. And it was followed by a survivor's account, Brita. As she narrated her story, her voice still visibly shaken and her spirit broken, another mithril ranked adventurer interjected.
"Why were you spared? Everyone else died!"
"I don't know! It stopped when the vampire grabbed me and all my things fell out. Then it asked me where I got my potion."
Then Brita turned and stared at Momon.
"You! You gave me this potion! What relationship do you have with the monster?!"
It was at that moment everyone turned and stared at the Ainz. Narberal instinctly became defensive, and reached for her weapon, ready to defend her master.
Ainz raised his hand, asking Narberal to stand down. "Yes. I know of the vampire."
Murmurs and whispers were heard all around.
"It is one of the vampires that I am pursuing, and I would like to apologise for not letting everyone know earlier. From what the lady described earlier it seems that the vampire is Henupenko."
"I see. We earlier speculated that this turn of events is related to Zuranon and the undead mess that occurred a while back, which you had resolved."
"No they are not related. I have been chasing this vampire for some time now, and have been trying to do difficult quests to hope to find her and her kind again."
"Momon-san, while you are indeed powerful, over reports suggest that this vampire is significantly more powerful than an ordinary vampire. We have confirmed that this vampire is able to use the third tier magic of [call undead] which places it at least at the platinum level."
"We should fortify our defenses before the vampire attacks us."
"That would be difficult as from what the reports suggest, it will be difficult to stop the vampire should it attempt to infiltrate the city."
"Then someone should get some reconnaissance on the vampire to see where the vampire is headed next."
"That's a suicide mission."
"We volunteer."
"Huh?"
"We have been chasing the vampire for some time and this is our golden opportunity to defeat it as it chose to reveal itself. We will go as we are most familiar with its behavior and abilities."
"Confidence is good, but how do you hope to defeat it?"
"I have a trump card." Ainz took out a spherical jewel containing the sealed 8th tier magic, and everyone gasped. The magician amongst them was most interested and screamed out.
"Can I see it?" Ainz nodded and passed over the crystal, to which the adventurers and magician present stared in awe. "This is amazing!" The magician Rakesheer casted inspection magic on the little jewel and went nuts, as if he had seen the object of his greatest desires. The other adventurers too held it, sensing the unusual magics that are hidden within it.
"Yes.. Can I have it back now?" the magician reluctantly parted with the jewel, as if a part of his soul was given away.
"Where did you find it?"
"Very far away. In some ruins."
"Anyway, we should leave towards where Henupenko was last seen soon. It's best if we make use of daylight and attack it while it's weaker." Ainz was bullshitting, as the effect of daylight was miniscule on someone at Shalltear's power level. But it sounded believable for everyone else as it is an inherent attribute of vampires.
"I will go too!" It was one of the mithril ranked adventurers that wasn't too happy with Ainz's Swift rise.
"You may not come back alive."
"That's fine."
"Very well, gather your men and we will meet in one hours time at the city gates."
…
Wololo spent the hour retrieving his equipments from the Treasury. He too had his own unique equipments, and readied himself to assist Ainz on his battle with Shalltear. For now he will remain hidden, and only appear when the pesky adventurer team has been disposed off.
Ainz sama came to the forested area, and saw a lifeless Shalltear that is in full combat gear, armed with her lifedrain weapon, Spuit Lance. Aura, and Mare had earlier came to set up the surveillance eyes and bring Ainz's equipment for the upcoming battle.
Wololo too brought two floating box of crates next to him.
Ainz's bony jaws seemed to curve upwards, forming what could be described as a smile.
"So what was in those boxes, Wololo-san?"
"It is for your battle, Ainz-san."
"Then let us go." Ainz planned to fight Shalltear alone, as it was he who decided to send them out. In some ways this was how he wanted to take responsibility for his mistakes.
Observing Shalltear from afar, Ainz started by using [Wish Upon A Star], in an attempt to dispel the mind control. It didn't work.
"Seems like that confirms it is a world-class item, and combat is our only choice. I have made the preparations, Ainz-san."
"Yes, Wololo-san. I'll go ahead." Ainz nodded, began casting his buffs. He mentally went through his fight plan, and readied his super-tier skill [Heaven's Fall]
"I'll be right here." it was Ainz pride that led to him putting this on himself.
The explosion from Heavens fall created a huge crater that destroyed almost all life in the area…. Except her. "Kakakakaka. That was pretty painful Ainz-sa-ma-!"
"How do you like my boring gift, Shalltear?" He stood in an imposing stance, seeming to beckon the vampire to come at her.
"It was amazing! Can't believe I have to kill someone with such amazing power as you, Ainz-sama"
Ainz laughed. "Why do you still refer to me with such honorifics. Who is your master now?"
Shalltear was visibly frowning a while, struggling to understand why she did what she did, but after a while she put that thought aside and readied herself for battle. "It's you, of course. But no matter, I'll think about it after this battle is over."
In her mind this was going to be a battle of endurance between Ainz-sama's spells and her ability to outlast them. Or so she thought.
She charged at her master, with her Spuit Lance thrust straight at him. But an explosion followed by two more explosions pushed her away, sending her back a few steps.
Ainz casted a spherical ball of energy [Maximize Magic: Gravity Maelstrom] at her, and she blocked with a magical wall, [Wall of Stone]
But somehow the stone wall magically dissolved, and the sphere hit Shalltear. Ainz grinned, and sent out another sphere with black spirals at Shalltear. Instead of defending with a spell, she used her MP to dodge the attack instead.
What happened just now?
Deciding to fight in close quarters instead, Shalltear teleported close to Ainz in hope to pressure him to use more spells in response to her attacks. But the teleportation was delayed, and found drift mines closing in on her.
She transformed into her Astral form, in order to avoid herself from being damaged by the drift mines. But it failed. Something sucked her back out of her Astral form, and it was too late to avoid the drift mines that exploded right before her.
"Arghhh! What was that again?!"
Ainz didn't give her a chance to retaliate, and sent out another Gravity Maelstrom, and she casted the [Wall of Stone] to defend herself, and the stone collided with the spherical maelstrom and disappeared.
Eh, it works now? Why did it fail before?
But another Maelstrom came, and she went offensive with a teleport. This time there was no drift mines waiting for her, but instead Ainz somehow was able to predict where she was teleporting to and had casted some form of binding spell on her, which she broke free.
"Ainz-sama, you know very well I'm immune to motion restriction spells." But the binding held on to her longer than she expected it to. Something is not right.
She lost quite substantial HP from the few repeated hits from Ainz-sama, and casted [Regeneration].
"I expected you to have that."
The regeneration failed. She had 35% HP left, and from the hits she gotten so far, she felt she wasn't going to last much longer, and her plan of trading HP for Ainz-sama's MP was collapsing terribly.
HUH?!
"Ainz-sama, what is going on!"
"Wololo-san came earlier before I did, and have used the effect of the divine class item [Eternal Bleeding] on this area. It negates all regeneration abilities and spells in this area. Both yours, and mine."
That explains why regeneration failed. But doesn't explain why my some of my magic doesn't work?
Ainz launched another maelstrom at her, but she then used her special skill [Unholy Shield] and blasted the gravity sphere away. She then charged towards Ainz, creating a glowing spear [Purifying Javelin] and flung it at Ainz, "Did you know I have such skills, Ainz-sama?"
"No I don't."
The glowing spear flew towards Ainz at incredible speed, and pierced through Ainz.
"Urgh!" He staggered a few steps back. "That hurt."
But since Shalltear wanted a melee, she's going to get one. [Reality Slash].
Shalltear did not expect Ainz-sama to enter into a melee with her, and the Spuit Lance's life-drain function was impaired by the [Eternal Bleeding]. It seems a melee was not going to turn out well for her either. Even though she is down in terms of HP, she felt she has better physical defense than Ainz and should probably come out ahead if she kept up with the [Purifying Javelin] and [Unholy Shield].
And if it's a melee, she activated [Einherjar].
"Ainz-sama, you won't win close combat against me." As an exact replica of Shalltear appeared next to her. But Ainz looked confident. "Do you have a plan against me, Ainz-sama?"
It was then Ainz activated his special Eclipse class spell [cry of the banshee] and a loud howl spread around Ainz like a ripple. But there was an activation time and he had to still Dodge both Shalltear and the Einherjar's attack.
Then time is up.
In an expanding sphere everything in it died, trees wither, the earth loses its ability to support life, and air seemed to lose moisture. The Einherjar crumbled into dust. An area measuring 200 meters turned into a desert. Everything, except Shalltear.
Resurrection potion. I expected it, but damn, its still frustrating to see it turn out this way.
That wasn't prevented by [Eternal Bleeding]. He cursed the smarts of Peroroncino-san, thinking so far ahead and even included a counter for this.
"That was amazing! As expected of Ainz-sama, but Peroroncino-sama has prepared a countermeasure! Hahaha! This is my win, Ainz-sama!" Shalltear laughed.
It still is going to be a melee then.
They both closed in, and Shalltear laughed. "I still have the superiority in close combat."
She casted purifying javelin repeatedly.
And Ainz responded with reality slash.
[Reality slash]
[Purifying javelin]
[Reality slash]
[Purifying javelin]
[Reality slash]
Something was strange. She was hurting more from the exchange.
[Purifying javelin]
[Reality slash]
Before she could land the next purifying javelin, Ainz seemed to be surrounded in a reddish glow.
[Reality slash]
Ainz is faster than me! And it hurt! How could this be!
She tried to steady herself and noticed Ainz wielding a weapon she had not seen. Each slash seemed faster than the one before.
[Purifying javelin]
[Reality slash]
[Reality slash]
She's losing the exchange. She took 2 hits for every one she landed.
"This is [ Rage of the lost ] . A legendary class weapon that invokes a bloodlust and battlefury for each successive hit landed, and also boosts speed based on hit points lost and damage taken." Ainz commented, readying himself for the next slash.
[Reality slash]
Stunned at how well prepared her master was, she gushed. "As expected of Ainz-sama!"
With her HP quickly whittling away, as each slash cut deeper than the ones before it, she knew she had lost it.
" It is my win, Shalltear. We too expected this to end in a melee." Then the timer on Ainz's wrist rings, "But I have my pride as a mage, and it is only fitting for me to end you with a spell."
[Heaven's fall]
"Glory to Ainz Ooal Gown! Ainz-sama is amazing~"
A huge explosion incinerated everything, and Shalltear crumbled into ashes.
…
…
After the battle, he had a lot to think about. About the concepts of control and loyalty, about the structure of power in this new world, and there were a few theories he wanted to test.
The new world clearly did not follow the rules of Yggdrasil, although here certainly were similarities. There were opportunities in this world, and he had a hearty laugh when he thought about it.
Did the concept of a guild still apply?
Are the guild restrictions still in force?
If this was a sandbox, what would he do with it?
Ainz-san is just going along with the flow, trying to keep Nazarick together while figuring out their place in the world, and hopefully find any other guild members. It is indeed rational for him to do so, but clearly there are certain forces out there that had some measure of ability to challenge Nazarick.
While they are guildmates, they both are individuals, with their own minds. Perhaps when offered the same opportunity in this new world, they may have different visions of what they would do with it.
END
[AN : Thanks for reading! I am hoping to diverge from the original from here, but let's see how it goes =)]