"speech"
[spells. skills, martial arts]
{messages}
'thoughts'
"Her defeat will reveal that she was a sleeping Great Old One, and she will then rampage across the world."
"Ehm, ah, um, excuse me, but does that mean that Rubedo is bad ?" Mare was the first to react in his typical shy demeanor, made even more shy by the presence of all the players around him.
"No, its okay sweetie." Buku said and released her hold on the twin floor guardians. "Now go play okay ? Adults have to discuss serious things."
The twins went away, still looking at their creator, as if afraid she will run away.
Once the twins were out of hearing range Peroroncino qiuetly asked; "So what is Great Old One exactly and why is it so bad ?"
"An Eldritch god, just looking at it is supposed to inspire madness in all life, something that could survive in space and usually only comes to planets to feed on-"
"Yeah yeah, sorry to interrupt your ramblings, but we kinda know that everything in Nazarick was created by some power native to this world, so having an interstellar god made by that is kinda unlikely." Nubo rudely interrupted Tabula.
"Or some super-entity that could be on a level similar to 'Gods' from mythologies, maybe stronger. Theoretically it is possible."
"So basically if Rubedo dies she will turn into something like a world-enemy ?" Buku tried to set the scale of what could be the potential threat to them.
Tabula just turned his head backwards to stare at her, quite annoyed that no one quite understood him.
"Bleh, that's gross, please don't do that again." Yui squeaked when she saw the position of Tabula's head.
"So is she world-enemy or not ?" Ancient one tried to steer the conversation back on track before it got out of hand again.
"Well, technically something like the Devourer was supposed to be in the lore, not the nerfed world-enemy we got so that it wasn't too hard to finish the main questline." Admitted Tabula.
"You mean like the Devourer + ?" Asked Momonga.
"What is that supposed to be ?"
"Just a year before Yggdrasil was shut down, devs released update that added that 'variation' of the Devourer. It was basically normal one but tweaked numbers and extreme self healing in order for it to not be such a pushover, they justified it that it was the final boss without Seon's help."
Hearing this Peroroncino only snorted. "Guess that happens when you hype up the main baddie to be world-ending threat but you also want most players to kill him in order to finish main storyline."
"Even that attempt to justify his weakness because another world-enemy was on the player's side was pathetic." Added his sister.
"While I find your opinions on game balance interesting, what do you think Momonga is his power level ?" Asked Ancient one.
"I have never even attempted him for obvious reasons, but only big guilds like Seraphim were able to pull it off. But none were able to do it under half an hour, which was requirement for a world-class item to drop-" The overlord stopped talking, which would not be strange over all, however he hadn't finished the sentence by the correct voice intonation, which tipped off other players that something was wrong.
'OH SHIT, we ARE going to die. There must be a way to stop that mad ritual before the fucking Devourer is transported here!'
"Is something the matter ?" Asked Nubo, all his eyes focusing on the skeleton.
"No. Just wondering what were the exact parameters of the current isekai event were."
"Uh huh." Nubo sounded not convinced.
"Did you figure out anything ?" Asked Tabula hopefully.
"I was just wondering if the entity in question targeted only Nazarick or more, like all the players, all the guilds, or perhaps world items."
"That is a fascinating thought indeed. We have not looked at it from that point of view before." Ancient one hummed in thought.
But before he was able to delve into any speculation about motivations and psyche of god-like beings, Tabula said something first.
"I doubt that us as not even 70 years old mortals could understand the timeless wisdom or madness of some super-entity."
"Guess that makes sense." Ancient one conceded on this point, not showing that he was disappointed to not be able to form at least somewhat accurate opinion right from the start. "I'll still attempt to make a list of something comprehensible."
"Suit yourself, but I would much more like to discuss how we can defend ourselves against Rubedo." Remarked Ulbert.
"The best defense is not having to use her, if she isn't destroyed, nothing will change." Retorted Tabula.
"Perhaps it would be best to not activate her at all ?" Proposed Momonga.
"It's true that we together are slightly more powerful than she alone, but if we added her and perhaps even the guardians together, I believe we would be able to beat even world-enemy." Tabula finished assessing her creation's strenght.
"Yeah, but it's still a risk to activate her, if she turns against us we would have to somehow incapacitate her without outright killing her. Do you think it's possible Tabula ?" Asked Touch me, not liking even a chance at anyone endangering them.
"Well, with guardians it should be. But activating her isn't really a risk. She had set loyalty specifically towards anyone wielding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown." Reminded him the brain eater, he as Rubedo's creator was the most aware of all her settings, backstory and abilities.
"I still believe it would be preferable to first test our abilities a little and note all the changes." Said Ancient one.
"Need a volunteer ?." Rhetorically asked Touch me and equipped a wish ring with one wish left.
A white and blue pillar of blinding light and indescribably complex runes shot into the false sky of the sixth floor. Waves of power and magic bursting forth from one of the most powerful artifacts in the game. Light danced in waves and circles around the world champion as even more runes appeared and began forming giant and impressive magic circles, unmatched in both their number and complexity.
"Are you crazy ?" Screeched Herohero, but was promptly ignored by the ecstatic paladin.
"Oh my god! This is insane!" He shouted and added, "I wish for my wife to appear here well and alive."
As soon as the command left his mouth, the lightshow reached its peak, waves of white began to form at the top of the pillar of bluish light, before it all suddenly crashed apart like a fine glass being smashed apart by a bowling ball.
"Well, that was disappointing." Commented Ulbert, earning few glares, especially from the insectoid.
"This is strange. Transportation type requests were able to be fulfilled even through some barriers like Dimensional lock, only world-class item could nullify it, or zone where the devs set it." Commented Momonga, using his ingame knowledge to come to some conclusion.
"By the way, what other options appeared ?" Asked Buku.
"None."
"Huh ?"
"It was like my mind was flooded with information of what I could wish for, things that weren't possible in the game were within my reach like transforming this into a damaging super-tier." This earned more gasps, as the ring was mostly used for cleansing debuffs applying buffs or any utility useful in current situation like revealing all enemies or resurection. "There were no options or limits. I really believed it would work…" The paladin said no more, only being silently comforted by Yui.
"In other words, it should work if the target is in this world, right ?" Said Yamaiko, trying to sound innocent.
"Don't-"
Another super-tier magic shined brightly, filling the arena yet again.
"Great… just… great." Sighed Ancient one and watched another wish spell unfold.
"Yeah, you were right, this is incredible!" Shouted Yamaiko through the hum of her own magic. "I want my sister to appear here in her avatar."
The spell acted and suddenly, bring white waves of light converged on a location beside Yamaiko. New waves were appearing and crashing down on the place, making the outline of a person. Everyone watched with fascination as the spell reached its peak and the outline turned more focused. However, just as it appeared someone would be transported, the light of the spell turned red and then disappeared. Leaving only confused players behind.
"Wait, hold up, where is my sister ?!" Shouted Yamaiko at the now empty space that was occupied by the crashing light just a moment ago.
"It turned red, so probably not enough XP… but that is strange, the ring was supposed to cover the XP cost." Remarked Tabula.
"And one of my wishes is gone." Whined Yamaiko further and showed her ring, where only two blue lines were.
"So it did something, but we don't have a clue what it was, except that it did not transport your sister here." Remarked dryly Ancient one. "I tried to tell you." He shrugged when the nephilim turned to glare on him.
[Create item] The illusionist intoned a basic fifth-tier spell that turned out to be surprisingly useful is you wanted to keep your opponent guessing if what the object in their path is real or not. What could be called a pool of rice appeared out of thin air. He gestured to it.
"You're not serious, are you ?"
"I hoped you would take this seriously but it seems I have to make you remember that we are in this together in the way my dear old friend, Punitto would do." He said with a straight face.
"Well well well." Ulbert sadistically smirked. "Look like our resident hero and law enforcer was the first who broke some rules. What a deliciously perfect twist of fate."
The glares in return only improved his mood as both offenders obediently knelt in the rice pool, waiting a scolding.
"Let's give them privacy and test some changes." Offered Momonga.
Most members usually liked to watch someone being reprimanded, if their heads weren't on the chopping block of course, but the chance of getting to know new abilities were too tempting to pass up.
"So, what are we doing first ? Any ideas what might be different than it was in the game ?" Asked Pero.
"How about agro mechanics and immunities we had in the game ? Are they still working ? They are kinda important for me." Said Buku, who as a tank hoped she would still be able to agro most damage away from her teammates and resist most crowd controls with ease.
While everyone agreed with her, no one was really excited to test it, if they made a bad move it could very well have consequences after all.
"Peroroncino, you are completely immune to immobilization, right ?" Asked Herohero.
"Huh ? Yeah, I guess so."
"Excellent, stay still."
"Hold u-"
[Cohesive shot] The elder black ooze invoked an immobilization skill, one of his with highest rating, but with the downside that it was only for a short duration, and even though his wrestler classes boosted it further, struggling against it would eat away at the timer to make the skill expire faster.
When the skill hit Pero, he got caught in it and flew through the air to a wall of the arena, where the slime sticked, with the avian still in its clutches.
Just when everyone wondered why he was hit by the shot in the first place, the avian's body flashed with with a golden color for fraction of a second and he dashed through the slime back to the place he was standing in just a moment ago.
"Holdup." Tabula started before the poor bird could shout at Herohero. "I thought you sacrificed the dash ability to have improved general mobility."
"I did, this wasn't dash… I don't think at least."
"Seriously ? We all saw you move here in a flash from 0 to 100 instantly and you simply passed through my slime, if that isn't some kind of dash, I don't know what is."
"Yeah I know what I did, but I didn't activated any skill, I just suddenly got… I don't know what. My body suddenly felt like a fired arrow and it went to the place I wanted it to, but now, when thinking about it, I have a feeling that it probably has limited range."
"Alright, for now it looks like immunities work that you are effected only for extremely brief time, but it is still there." Concluded Momonga.
"That kinda sucks actually, I hope there are all kinds of 'payoffs' like the dash was." Whined Buku.
"Well, I guess it would be weird if you suddenly passed through solid matter because you have immobilization immunity." Tabula began theorizing. "Perhaps those 'payoffs' are only when it would look unnatural if you had straight up immunity to something."
"Unnatural you say ?" Nubo's hair tentacles danced in the air as he pointed at the slimes. "What in the world could be unnatural here ?"
"Ok. Point taken, but I mean something that would break the laws of reality even more… more than we are staring at right now. Do you get it ?"
"No."
"Haaah." He slumped.
[Absolute control person] He invoked a 10-th tier mind control spell at Momonga, who as an undead of course was unaffected.
"As you can see, our resident undead was of course not affected at all, just like in the game, because it makes sense if you have immunity, do you get it ?"
The subtle nods did not convince him.
"Hmm, so if we use something that worked on too much game-logic it has that weird moment when it works and then nothing right ?" Momonga tried to appear as if he was guessing.
"Yeah, basically."
"Peroron, please let me make another demonstration on you." The overlord politely asked.
"Fine, go ahead."
"You are fine with being his test subject but not mine ?" Herohero huffed indignantly, but was almost not heard through the noise of [Hold of Ribs].
Again, the avian was inside for a moment, before phasing through the bones in a golden flash. This time there were very small cuts visible on his body.
"Did you had to use something that also deals damage ? Really ?"
"S-sorry, I just wanted to make a good demonstration." Momonga pointed at the prison that was still intact even after someone walked through it, then offered the avian a minor health potion.
"Don't worry, I'll heal." Pero laughed but took the potion nonetheless and stored it in his inventory.
"There is also something I am eager to test." Said Tabula after a moment of silence passed.
"Now that friendly fire is on, can we also cast multiple super-tier spells simultaneously ? The rings don't count, they were items." He proposed, then added; "Also perhaps we should abandon testing disruption of casting through damage, only after we have better grasp on our abilities."
"Agreed." Intoned the overlord, switched some items and activated [Pantheon].
One cash-shop item use later and 6 Cherubim gatekeepers were summoned.
"Don't use the items!" Tabula shouted a beat too late.
"Why not ? I have like 5 thousands of them." Defended himself Momonga.
"And even they are rare because right now we have no method to get more, and eternity is really long time mind you."
"You know boss, I really wonder how were you able to gather so much gold while using items just like candy." Ulbert added while he could and activated [Pandemonium].
Another huge beacon of light appeared just as the remaining three players moved to them.
"May I ask you what you are planning ?" Ancient one asked.
"We are testing if we can use multiple super-tier spells within a party, now that friendly fire is enabled." Tabula eagerly explained.
"That is actually a very good thought." The true nephilim honestly praised them.
"Nice, but don't you feel that some sort of… pressure is coming from them ?" Asked Nubo.
"Pressure ?"
"Yeah, well." He paused. "I don't know how to explain it, when you hear a sound you can pinpoint a place from which this is coming, now its like a very faint physical push is coming from the place they are standing in."
"Interesting… I will have to investigate this." Tabula mumbled, looking intensely at the summoned angels.
"Maybe in a fantasy world, classic tropes like presence and killing intent have also became real." Peroroncino chirped, being the one who knew most about tropes of games.
As he said that Ulbert's spell finished and six level 80 demons appeared. All of them looking almost like an Evil lord of Wrath, but without the flame effects, being the Wrath dukes, basically a lesser version of the Evil lords.
"Glad to see our fighting strength was not only decreased in this world." Remarked Ancient one, already trying to calculate how much stronger they were in a perfectly executed combat, where no spell or strike would hit their ally, than in Yggdrasil.
"By the way, when speaking about the world." Yamaiko started to propose. "How about we finally go and see it ? Sebas said that there is no sentient being there so it should be no problem, right ?"
"That's a good idea, but don't you want to see the fight between angels and demons ?" Ulbert theatrically said while spreading hands.
"Your summons are unlike Momonga's enpowered by classes so the demons would win." Tabula remarked dryly, killing the demon's excitement.
"Fine, you win." Ulbert grumbled and dismissed his demons, before shouting; "[Triple maximize magic: Blast of true dark]!"
Three spheres manifested, so black that it appeared as if they had black aura, all three shooting towards two nearest angels. When they reached their intended targets, they exploded, but unlike normal explosion, it didn't emit much sound, as mostly the dark element was present in this spell, only a minor part of physical damage.
The two strucked Gatekeepers were instantly killed, while the rest suffered only minor damage, before being dismissed by Momonga.
This spell was his strongest attack spell with almost exclusively dark-element, boosted by his negative karma, and effective both against high-karma beings, and also being the more effective, the more the target was immune to holy damage. If this spell struck Ancient one in his angelic form, about third of his HP would be gone, on the other hand it wouldn't even scratch his demonic one.
"You really want to kneel on rice next, don't you ?" A dry voice of the illusionist rang behind him.
"What ? I just tested it, only the summons suffered damage so its ok." Ulbert defended, while looking back.
A finger was pointed somewhere behind him on the ground. There it showed that the ground the killed summons stood on now looked unnatural to say the least. Instead of bring yellow, the sand was completely black, but no damage was evident on the floor itself except a slight depression in the place. The only proof the spell was cast, that in a meter-wide circle around it, the color of the sand was changed.
"Um, does anyone know what it is ?" He asked desperately, with no one having any clue what exactly happened to the sand.
"So now we know that spells also affect the terrain we don't want them to affect, so no duels here probably. Too bad." Herohero dryly remarked, knowing that the whole arena would crumble under their more destructive spells.
"A vote that Ulbert's punishment is to clean this mess alone and also figure out what the heck happened to the sand." Ancient one proposed and nine hands shot into the sky. Only exception was Yui, who couldn't vote, and Ulbert.
"NOOOO!" Ulbert gave his best impression of dramatic grief, but that was ignored in favor of going outside, as everyone used rings to teleport.
XXX
{I already told you, we are fine, no need to go that far.}
{But lord Momonga, if we cannot perish as your shields, our lives have no value!}
{Sebas reported that there are no potential enemies, on top of that, even incomplete, Ainz Ooal Gown will not be beated so easily.}
{I wouldn't dare to doubt your prowess, but at least allow us to provide each of you guards to make sure you are unharmed in potential conflict.}
{Right now there are no signs of violence, if something happens, I will call on you immediately, alright ?}
{As you wish, lord Momonga, teams that are supposed to establish perimeter around Nazarick will be sent there immediately.}
Albedo cut the connection with the overlord.
'Haaah, why are they all so insistent on babysitting us, this is getting kinda annoying.'
When he and the players teleported outside, he didn't even manage to take flight before the obsessed succubus tried to get half of Nazarick's army to come with them as 'guards'. It seemed that only he was messaged by the panicking NPCs.
Not that the rest of players would respond, they all gazed at the endless sky above them, completely mesmerized.
'I can understand where they are coming from, I was like that when I first arrived too.' He chuckled for himself. 'I am glad my worries about NPCs were unfounded, but if I knew that, would I even call them here ?' The overlord was quite disturbed by this thought.
'The more time I spend with them, the more it feels like I am returning to my old mindset, I still have the memories, but my attachments are slowly changing as if I wasn't even there the first time. Does that mean I am the Satoru from this timeline with memories of alternative future ? Or the old one with fresher memories that hadn't time to wither ?'
If Momonga could blush, he would be furiously red with shame. 'I even forgot the name Nazarick heh… I don't deserve to be leader. But no matter how much I think about it, one thing is consistent in my heart, Keno.' The shining star that was Keno in his mind was quite clear, probably the only one to whom he was still as attached like last time.
On the other hand; Crystal, Nurunuru, Scraea and others. They were very slowly fading from his heart, as the bond to them was never as strong as it was to Keno, not even to the third seat of New Ainz Ooal Gown, Scraea.
This raised a bitter realization in the overlord's mind. Scraea was saved on Keno's insistence. Eventually Satoru realized, that he can allow others too to take some space in his nonexistent heart, not one of them can push Keno out anyway, that was certain.
"Goodbye my friend, I hope death really is better fate than what happened to you the first time." He quietly whispered that on the wind, as if reciting a prayer, not heard even by Peroroncino, as the others were still lost in the near endless beauty of their first time seeing clear night sky.
'The only question is, if I should told the others.' He didn't really liked the amount of benefits to danger.
The only benefit was that he would have explained Keno and why he wants to move this fast, but they already accepted searching for notable individuals, he would just include Keno in that as her talent more than justified it. He would definitely tell them once they found her and lie about losing memories until he had the chance to see her, so it wouldn't be an issue. Also transports are happening once every 100 years according to what he heard, there shouldn't be a problem if they discover the danger of Devourer's transport here a year later.
On the other hand, they could get quite angry at him, especially if they think he is someone else now, someone they don't know. If that really was the case, he couldn't tell for sure, but he did feel like his undead body was his true one, even if he hadn't been born in it, with all the effect on his mind it had the first time. On the offchance of them noticing it, it could pose some issues. It was also true, that doing that would make them move more quickly, but also recklessly, assuming they believe him, there were only 4 things that could potentially challenge them.
Players, the most obvious and the ones to be wary of, also their items or descendants could pose problems, but not as big as straight up other guilds, perhaps only if strong enemies from Yggdrasil were also transported.
Extremely strong magical beasts or beings, those were extremely rare, as he understood it, the place they were in currently was cleaned of anything strong by the Eight Greed kings. But as he knew, beings with level 70 and above could be found in this world, yet they were very rare, and usually well known. But something like level 40-50 was actually quite common, common in the sense that a handful of such individuals were in each country, even a dragon that just reached adulthood was of that level actually.
Sentients with extremely broken talent, he had never encountered anyone with powerful talent to harm him, but the possibility couldn't be discarded.
And probably the most dangerous ones, True dragonlords. Suzuki didn't bother including any lesser dragons to this category, as they were just pushovers for him, he was only thinking about the handful of very ancient ones who could use wild magic. To be safe from them, he needed world items, luckily for him, the guild had eleven of them. And he also knew where was Two Worlds Mandala. It was there quite a long time ago, but assuming it hadn't been moved, his guild could now possess twelve. But even world items were not that important just yet. After all, Platinum dragonlord wouldn't attack as long as anyone from Nazarick wouldn't go on a rampage, Brightness was unpredictable, but also the weakest of the three he had in mind, and finally Cure Elim.
Just thinking about this dragon caused him to shiver in endless rage, that little piece of shit dared to make Keno suffer so much, and was also responsible for his inability to revive her afterwards.
He knew deep down that it was hypocritical, as without him, he also wouldn't met Keno as she would either die before he entered the world, or they would be enemies. After all, he would be just an undead that appeared over the capital of rainbow-eyed people, of course their queen wouldn't ignore that.
"Are you alright ?" An inquisitive voice broke him out of his thoughts. Nubo was staring at him with all of his eyes, and he was not alone. Multiple of his guild members were turned to him too.
"Yes, sorry, I got too lost in the beauty of night sky." He tried to lie through his teeth.
"And thats why you activated your despair aura ?"
A beat later he already turned it off. 'Damn it! I knew that I learned to control it, but I got too lost in my rage. Heh, I forgot that I am more emotional now, as my human side is stronger than it was before. Not that it's a bad thing, Keno liked that side more after all, however it's not like I have any attachment to my human side anymore.'
"Yes, when thinking about what the greed of those assholes on top took away from us, I couldn't help but shake in anger, I probably lost control of my passives, sorry about that." He lightly bowed his head.
"That's more than understandable." Ancient one said. Then, just for a hearbeat, he looked surprised, before his face resumed neutral expression.
The old Momonga would have missed it, but experience teached him what to look for.
'Did it contradict whatever I said ? I don't think so, bu-'
"Hey guys, I have an incredible idea!" Ulbert's loud and excited voice draw attention of all towards him.
"Oh boi, that's gonna be something dumb." Buku said in her high voice, and was promptly ignored.
"How does 'Ainz Ooal Gown, rulers of the world!' sound ?" The words were said, as if the World disaster was tasting the finest alcohol in existence, obviously reveling in that idea.
"Like a suicide." Dryly remarked Herohero.
'You don't even know how true that is for me. Not that I would want it either.'
"It sounds like you need to be taught a lesson." Touch me said, deathly calm, but with an angry aura around him.
"It's clear that you hadn't paid attention," Tabula said and continued, "something in this world created whole Nazarick and our avatars, how do you expect us to have enough strength to conquer this world ?"
"We don't know if it even is in this world, it could have been someone from this world simply summoning us like that, also one-time ritual, or some entity that is not even in this world did it. We have no clue." Ulbert argued.
"Listen my friend," Ancient one joined the discussion, "if you want so much to conquer this world, then start training for it, and what I mean is doing the paperwork of Nazarick."
"Holdup, what ?!"
"Did you think that once your army conquers territories, every citizen will just do their own thing or what you want without any management ?" He asked, sarcastically.
"Well… I mean…it would be nice to have few cities under our control, right ? Besides, I can task my dear Demiurge with it and give him few demons as administrators or public servants."
"Over my dead body." Touch me viciously said.
"What is wrong with you ? Wouldn't it be nice to have some public standing in the world ? With a few cities where you can do your own projects and make sure there are no crimes."
"My problem is the demon administration." Clarified the paladin. "I can already see it; 'To keep both streets and houses clean, all citizens are required to stand barefoot on hot iron for a minute, before going in or out of houses, to remove all unwanted filth from their feet, magically heated iron will be provided to every house.' Or something like that."
"No! Why do you insist on painting me as some sadistic monster ?" The incensed demon snarled.
"Not you, if you leave administration to your demons, it will happen. You'd have to do the lion's share yourself." Touch me finished his argument.
"Um, I'm sure I can talk them out of it ?" It was clear Ulbert was wavering between wanting authority and not wanting to bother with paperwork.
"Anyway, who is going to do paperwork for the guild ?" Momonga jumped into the waning debate.
"I have some moderate experience, and as a supportive comrade, I will let you be my assistant to get experience." Ancient one grinned at the slumped demon.
"Tch, fine, I will rise to the challenge! Let it never be said, that Ulbert Alain Odle cannot do some meager paperwork!"
"And so the Disaster of bureaucracy was born." Snickered Buku.
"Don't you dare call me that."
"Excuse me, but there are more pressing matters." Tabula mentioned matter-of-factly. "We still know nothing about this world, so we should try our hardest to find more about it, at least until we can get a general grasp about our surroundings."
Momonga noticed that most of the looks the players sent at each other agreed with it, but they also wanted to do their own stuff.
*Cough* He faked a cough to get their attention.
"I'm inclined to agree that gathering more information right now takes priority, but I believe there is no point in working ourselves to death like it was in the old world. I would like to propose a vote, that we will all strive to gather more information both about our surroundings and new mechanics of the world, then, once we have established at least some contact, if this world is as weak as was the case in my dream, we can be more relaxed and work on our own projects if we have any in mind."
"I have a question." Bukubukuchagama said. "I'd like to learn to take human form as soon as possible, could I work on that if you won't need me specifically ?"
"That's weird, I was under the impression that you enjoy looking like melted pool of bubble-gum." Her brother predictably took a jab at her, but the slime seemed to take it in stride.
"Oh, you mean to learn it from Solution ?" Ancient one connected the dots.
"Yes, she can somehow do it so that we can hopefully be able to replicate it."
"Fine, I'll try it too." Herohero added his own piece.
"You know, I thought it would be better to save this for after we meet beings from this world." Momonga tried to object.
"Well, I guess we could make that under the gathering information about our current mechanics, how about it ?" Tabula proposed.
"I think that could be acceptable, who approves of the original suggestion ?"
"""Ay"""
"So it is decided." Momonga said when it universally passed again. "Let's prepare for work tomorrow."
Herohero woke up to the feeling of complete relaxation, as if he was just melting into the sheets of his king-sized bed.
'Holdup'
He shot from the bed to look at what is going on and why is his small mattress suddenly so huge.
That was a mistake, as his senses were suddenly assailed by the feeling of omnidirectional sight, not to mention it was not even his old room anymore, but something even the most wealthy VIPs couldn't afford regularly. It was the room in Nazarick, his new room.
"Argh" The overload of senses quickly shot a burst of pain through his nonexistent spine into his perhaps existing brain.
'How did I even manage to fell asleep with this ?' He briefly wondered before realizing it. He slept completely under the sheets and turned off his darkvision skill, so all that he could see was darkness like when human closes eyelids.
'Guess I can sleep with the ring of sustenance, that's good to know.' He tried to remove it first, but the hunger was extremely distracting, so much he was confident he wouldn't succeed in falling asleep.
"Lord Herohero, is everything alright ?" Was heard through the door to his room with knocking.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"May we come in ?"
"Um… sure ?" 'Why the heck do they want to come in, who is even there ?'
The door opened and Solution walked in, followed by Foire and other maids made by Herohero. Most of them were carrying cutlery, eating plates filled with pastries and sweets, bottles of wine, glasses, and the last even a full hand trolley filled with meals, each and every one of which would make him salivate if he was capable of it.
"Lord Herohero, your breakfast is ready, will you like to eat it now or after the bath ?"
"Now." There was no hesitation, any thought that it may be better to bath first was squashed by the delectable selection of food before him.
The maids squaled in delight and the player found himself completely encircled by them, some even got on the bed behind him, all carrying various plates, glasses or bottles, all of also wore bright smiles on their face, which only made their beauty more noticeable.
Herohero was not really a shy person. When he had some personal time, before being forced to work overtime to maintain his livelihood, he used to talk regularly to women, even dated some. That said, being surrounded by stunning maids, who looked at him adoringly with bright smiles, was enough to make anyone extremely shy and self-conscious.
He nervously wriggled and tried desperately to maintain his semi-humanoid shape he had been practicing before sleep. His 360 degree vision making everything that much worse, as he saw his creations on all sides as they prepared to hand-feed him.
"Say Aaah." His attention was grabbed by his best creation as far as he considered, Solution Epsilon, who was holding a spoon already close to where his face would be.
He obediently created a jaw in his body and accepted all the food, making sure not to corrode the spoon on accident.
Then, as if on signal, all the maids started to feed him. This went on for a few minutes, after quickly figuring out how to make enough maws for all maids, all he could do was close them once the food was in to avoid making mess on the bed and floor. The giggling and sometimes even cooing of the maids didn't help his concentration.
But it was worth it. After all, he was being fed all the food that was on the trolley, and each bite was an explosion of flavor once the food got to the inner portion of his body where he digested it. Drinks were the same, he was equipped with rings that granted high poison resistance, so he wouldn't be able to get drunk. But they nevertheless tasted fantastic.
Buffs from food kicked in halfway in the feeding and made concentrating on the feeding process even easier, so he could enjoy the exquisite flavors surging through his whole being.
However, it also made his senses sharper, therefore he finally realized, that in the feeding frenzy he was being subjected to, some of the food ended on the bed and floor.
"Girls, slow a little, some of it has fallen to the ground." He tried to make them stop.
"It's okay lord Herohero, we will clean your whole room for you during your bath, also we will be happy to bring you another portion of food should you request it." Solution calmly said, not even slowing down the feeding tempo.
"But I don't want to pile up even more work on you." He said, and immediately got surprised, when all the maids simultaneously looked a little more sad.
"But lord Herohero," Foire started, "it is our utmost duty and pleasure to serve the Supreme beings."
"Okay, but there are 11 of us, there is no need for all of you to be wasting time with me here, won't the rest of maids get angry at you for not doing your regular chores ?" He finished his sentence and carefully focused on Foire's face, searching for the familiar tick that he programmed her with whenever she lied.
"But lord Herohero, we are not wasting time by attending to your needs." Solution said firmly.
"Indeed," Foire then argued even more, "not to mention the 26 remaining were more than happy to be able to clean even more rooms on the ninth floor." She finished without any tick.
This, understandably, disturbed Herohero. 'What the hell ? They are happy to clean even more. Wait a moment, from the 41 I made 12, that is 29 left… oh right! The three that Yamaiko created. Good luck with them.'
"But won't they be tired after working so much ?" He tried one last attempt.
"No, the food in the canteen is superb. It always fills us with energy." Another maid, Lumiére started.
"And when we are working together like this, it feels like we're not even getting tired." Cixous finished the sentence.
(AN: Lumiére and Cixous don't have confirmed creators out of the 3 who designed most maids, but they had breakfast together with Foire in S3E1 so I'll just assume they were also created by Herohero.)
"I-In that case, I don't mind it if you spoil me for a while."
Only giggling and happy smiles were his response, as the maids continued with their process of hand-feeding him.
"Well well well, what have we here ?" Amused voice suddenly called from the door. In the door stood Bukubukuchagama, smugly leaning against the door frame with two tendrils crossed in front of her.
Herohero involuntarily gasped in horror, which made even more food go straight down to the bed.
The pink slime only giggled, sounding just like she did before the transportation.
"Lady Bukubukuchagama, lord Herohero is having a breakfast, I will inform you when he has finished his morning routine." Solution frowned a little, yet kept polite demeanor.
"Oh yeah, I can definitely see he is attending to important matters right now." Amused sarcasm dripping from every word as she closed the door, leaving the room.
'Oh shit, she will definitely tell about this to everyone, I will probably get scolded that I made them do something like this. But I didn't do it!'
{Listen, I don't want to sound insensitive and deny you the rest you needed for a year already, but I really want to get started training soon and waiting isn't my favorite activity, so finish quickly please.} Buku's high pitched voice sounded in his head.
{W-wait! I can explain this! I didn't order them to do this, th-}
{I know.}
{-ey just showed up once I woke up and… Wait, you know ? How do you know ?}
{Well, basically when I tried to have a breakfast with my children-}
{You mean your NPCs ?}
{Yes. Anyway, I went to the cafeteria with them and as soon as I got there, everyone there froze and then they tried to leave, because 'if supreme being wishes to eat in cafeteria, mere servants have no right to be there'. Haaah, so annoying.}
{Wait, doesn't it mean that they see us like CEO's that are too stuck up to eat with low-level workers ?}
{Huh ? Oh yeah, I guess. When I told Ancient one about it he just answered it is one more item on the big list of things that need to be taken care of. So I guess we should hurry our training up.}
At this point Herohero finished eating the feast maids tried to pass of as breakfast and Solution led him to the baths.
{Be right back.} He messaged his guildmate and followed the shogoth maid to his private bath that was right next to his room.
He didn't need to take his clothes off. As slimes didn't have any in the first place.
"Haaah." He let out a sigh as his body submerged in the perfect water. 'So good. I could soak in this forever.'
It seemed like his slime didn't have any problems getting too diluted, so there was no worry, he could just let the water softly flow along his body and it would automatically clean. Not that it wasn't clean in the first place, as he could just melt any dust or grime that fell upon him in the first place. However, 'there's no point in thinking about the point of bathing, it feels nice so I'll just treat myself.'
{Buku, if you don't mind, would you tell me what others are doing ?}
{I kinda do mind, but being the information courier is better than waiting anyway.} She answered still in her high pitch, making it clear she wasn't getting angry.
"Lord Herohero, please relax as I help you get clean." Solution said and massaged his creator's 'shoulders' while Buku told him what other players were up to.
{I guess you were wondering why I went to cafeteria on the 9th floor and hadn't had breakfast with the twins on their floor.} He didn't, but that didn't matter. {That is because Touch is forcing his daughter to level up.}
{Level up ?}
{Yeah, turns out that players can get XP in this world, and we can also order pop-mobs to travel up to the sixth floor. If they are ordered to fight Yui just as they would fight an invader, she will get XP after killing them, Touch originally just brought almost all pop mobs for her to kill in the Powered suit from Amanomahitotsu.}
{That is fine, but it would take a long time killing mobs up to level 30, won't it ?}
{Well, kinda. She is not using her level points just yet, just storing them to have that XP gain boost newbies always used when being power-leveled.}
{That works too ?}
{Yep, and oh boy she will need it, as Ulbert came and took all the Elder liches for himself, that he will train them to be secretary assistants.}
{Heh, lost interest fast didn't he.}
{Yeah, kinda. Ancient one is teleporting all over the tomb trying to not only teach him something, but also to assist Momonga with general inspection of our base and all that has changed, and he is also using his illusions to protect Nubo from anti-scrying magic further, not that it's that needed, Yamaiko is there with him and is fueling him mana so he can use every tool he has in his disposal to scry and map all he can with all his fancy protection spells.}
'Wow, sounds like everyone is really busy, huh ?' At this realization Herohero felt a little bad that he was the only one enjoying himself and not working to map all the changes.
'Well, I earned one decent sleep I guess, no point in feeling sorry now, I'll have to learn shapeshifting fast and then help them. I just hope that Momonga doesn't catch wind of Nubo's suspicion, that could turn ugly.'
"Solution, let's make sure this bath is quick okay ?"
"As you wish lord Herohero." The maid obediently nodded.
At this the black slime closed his eyes and sighed in bliss. 'I am sure that if I leave this to Solution, the bath will be completed in no time and we will move to shapeshifting.'
{Hero ? You still there ?}
{Yeah, I was just hoping that the others aren't too mad at us that we are not working as hard as they are.}
{Well, as soon as we start the training soon they won't be, it's in the category of exploring possibilities of this world after all.}
{Well, the bath is almost fi-hyaah!}
At this moment, Solution started to clean Herohero in the most efficient manner she could think up. Dissolving all the grime and dust with her own body.
"So-Solution! What are you doing ?"
{'Fi-hyaah ?' Don't tell me that you are like my perverted brother and are already fucking your NPC.}
"Of course cleaning you my lord in the quickest way possible." She said with smile that was somehow both innocent and extremely seductive. At least it looked that way to the (un)fortunate black slime.
"Well stop it! I am already clean!"
{N-no, of c-course not.}
{Finish quickly and the bath even quicker.} She growled in low tone and ended the message.
Herohero simply slopped into the bath. 'Great… just great, now she will tell everyone that I'm just like her brother, haaaah.'
Solution stopped and got out of the bath, reforming in the process. Which of course meant that Herohero saw her naked. And couldn't turn his head away because he saw in 360 degrees. So he at least focused his attention away.
After the maid got dressed, he also got out of the bath and dissolved all the water that was stuck to him, making himself perfectly dry. Or as dry as slime can be.
"At least you were fast." Bukubukuchagama growled when they exited Herohero's room.
"I told you I wasn-"
"Yeah yeah whatever, do you have any training spots in mind ? If not maybe one of the training areas we had here for roleplay would be great."
"We could as well look how it translated here I guess." Agreed Herohero and they went there.
The training itself turned out to not be really necessary, as once he visualized the form he would like to take, it was only making the slime remember the form, like practicing muscle memory.
What was strange, that he would need this practice for every other shape as well, as if letting the proverbial muscle adjust to a new default position.
Just after the first day, any more training was only to make himself used to taking a shape. Unlike Buku, he had no intention of taking other forms, being content in his default form, but it would be nice to have a new skill that he could use for disguises.
Solution also turned out to be a decent teacher. While she probably didn't have the qualities most people would think a standard teacher needs, her explanation about how the slime works and how it can assume shape and change color was really detailed and easy to understand after a few basic exercises that made her terms clear and easy to understand.
The most intriguing finding however, was that even when transformed into a fully human shape, it was impossible to break through the class restrictions of slime. Whenever he tried to equip anything that classified as an armor, it simply appeared beneath him on the ground after anything touched it, not even weakening the attack a little. However, anything that was classified in the game as purely cosmetic could be worn by them and it didn't vanish when under attack. He was happy at least some important findings could be reported to Tabula.
XXX
Nubo was feeling tired from the constant exhaustion that he felt when his mana was low.
"Recharge please."
He almost sighed bliss as he felt mana surge into him. Of course, it would be better to have mana high permanently, but that wasn't nearly as efficient.
After all, Yamaiko could transfer it in multiple ways, each had certain benefits. However this time, the amount of mana recharged to him was the only metric that had any value. Therefore Yamaiko was using touch-based transfer that actually gave the target more mana than caster expended and this additional amount was increasing the longer it was being cast. Therefore in order to be most efficient he had to deplete his mana completely and then wait for Yamaiko to recharge him to the point of herself running out of it.
"Done, I need to regenerate." The nephilim said in a tired voice next to him.
'Only about 40%, sure even my mana pool is bigger than Yamaiko's, but this is less than I expected honestly.
He absentmindedly reached to a nearby plate that was filled with MP-regeneration buffing snacks. His hand closed on an empty space.
"Are we out of candy again ?" He said in a disappointed voice.
"Yes, I'll go and bring another one." The giantess mumbled and took the plate, stretched and turned to leave.
'It would be faster if you would allow maids to do it.' Was left unsaid. While on one hand he understood that Yamaiko wanted to teach the maids that there was no need to spoil the players rotten, he would really appreciate some delivery service right now. And normally he would complain like this again and again, no matter how many times the nephilim would lecture him about the need to look after the NPCs and teach them how to function on a healthier mindset than workoholismus. However…
{Ancient one, the air is clear.} He send a message and continued scrying.
A familiar sound like a soft shimmer filled his ears ad the illusionist just teleported next to him with the ring.
"How is it going ?"
"I am spamming skills and spells with highest reveal values, so the area is abysmal, therefore the progress is as well. Anything new ?"
"No, Momonga is acting like I would expect him to, are you sure your abilities just hadn't malfunctioned suddenly."
"Even you weren't able to lie to me right ?"
"That doesn't mean your second new ability works on the undead just as well as on the living."
The new abilities in question came from description of Gazers. In their race description was that Gazers were beings capable of recognizing the soul of anyone they saw and no lies could make it past them undetected.
"You can confirm it when we decide to confront him, I imagine you already have a plan to convince others, don't you ?"
"Yes, but do I need to remind you, that most of your 'evidence' is depending upon that weird soul reading thing ? You have caught him lying only a few times, haven't you ?" Reminded him Ancient one.
The true nephilim was not even trying to hide it, that is how Nubo knew that he was both sceptical of his soul-reading and also nervous that it could be true. Emotions like those were not readable to him after all, only a whole character of someone he gazed upon, and the most interesting thing was that he could only see it in himself and the other players. So far theories were that it either worked only on players, and the more probable one, that Nubo had to know a person certain amount of time for this ability to take effect. Looking at someone and instantly determining if they are trustworthy or not was most likely impossible even with training. This only increased the illusionists paranoia.
Not that the anti-mage could blame him. The only one who knows this except them was Herohero, who while was quite likely to keep his mouth shut, also wasn't not guaranteed to do it. All this secrecy didn't sit well with him. But in order to gather more evidence, it was needed.
"I tell you, the difference between our souls and his is like that of a sun and moon. The faint light that I believe is our humanity is still the most dominant part in all of us, even Ulbert, but in Momonga it is different. The light was almost entirely choked out by a darkness."
"Are you sure that you just can't see Ulbert's demonic sadism just because he redirected it all towards those that will remind him of his old bosses ?"
"It's not only racial indifference! I see plenty of that in myself. With Momonga, it is as if his humanity is only an afterthought, as if he was undead much longer than human."
AN: A little announcement: Due to the length it takes to not only write this, but to also proof-read it (and change it for the better), I have decided to set a schedule in which I will be releasing the chapters. You can expect new chapter every first day of a month. Sometimes I may add a secondary chapter in the middle, or do double release, but that will happen really rarely, since it would mean I am really far ahead in writing the story than I am in publishing it.
Also a little hint: I really didn't like the idea of buffing the already overpowered Nazarick with 10 (10+ ?) more level 100 beings, including Touch and Ulbert as the strongest warrior and mage, so buffs for the new world are in order...
But don't worry, there will be plenty of Nazarick flexing on weak new-worlders in more ways than just military power.