"speech"
[spells. skills, martial arts]
{messages}
'thoughts'
"It's not only racial indifference! I see plenty of that in myself. With Momonga, it is as if humanity is only an afterthought, as if he was undead much longer than human."
"As much as I want to believe you, convincing our guildmates of that would be extremely difficult, to do that you would have to guess how they are changing, and even if you got that right, denial is a powerful tool that humans… perhaps even former humans would use to convince even themselves." Sighed Ancient one.
"In that case please tell me, how would you felt about humans if you met them." Nubo asked him, still scrying but half his tentacle eyes were staring at the illusionist.
"Much more indifferent than I would like, I guess I would have to employ some self-convincing to get at least some of my empathy back."
"Weren't you the one that suggested for us to keep our 'humanity' by changing our bio ?"
Ancient one sighed, while he knew Nubo didn't mean it in a malicious way, being questioned like this was still extremely unpleasant, and anyone who didn't know him would probably be offended.
"Yes, and I also wrote in my bio that my moral compass is the same as if I would be a human. Sadly, it seems that while I clearly recognize what is right and what is wrong, the need to respect it I once had is simply not there anymore. And as we know, humans can also be extremely vile."
He then quickly laughed in self-deprecation before adding one more cutting remark. "Guess I failed to write it perfectly, however I couldn't be sure if the transfer would take into account the fact that we were once human."
"Yeah, you were right about that. I wrote in my bio that 'my humanity is intact'. Spoiler alert; it isn't." Nubo admitted while continuing to monitor and record more and more ground.
"Perhaps it is also affected by our karma value. You were neutral and now you are indifferent. I was on the evil side and my bio changed it to indifference."
"Do you think that's really the case ?"
"I will have to conduct some more tests, but I believe so. But it was possible to override some of our race's negative mental effects."
"Ah, like Buku managed to temper down her slime hunger but Hero forgot ?"
"Something like that. I also removed short violent fuse from my avatar and instead of punching I only use vulgar words, just like I wrote." The True nephilim admitted.
"Holdup, I don't think those racial mental quirks even apply. Yamaiko didn't edit her bio and she isn't that much more violent." Argued back Nubo.
"It probably has something to do with karma value and original personality. She was quite happy about punching Ulbert when we were just transported, remember ?"
"Ooh yeah, almost forgot that. By the way, she's returning." Remarked the Gazer without looking away. "Also, do I have to continue scrying with this much effort ? Didn't Sebas already check this ?"
"Please do so, at least the five-kilometer radius. After that I guess it would be fine to sacrifice potency in favor of range." Said Ancient one as he once again casted the illusions and teleported away.
'Haah, how troublesome. Scrying for more than 12 hours a day is really exhausting.' At first the rush of information and images was fun, but it soured due to repetition. Nubo really couldn't wait to contact locals and get this over with. To that, a systematic approach was needed to find the settlement that was closest to Nazarick.
'Alright, I will finish re-mapping the area five km around in about the middle of next day. After that I will scry with less detail but more range. I think on the fourth to fifth day I will finish scrying 10 kilometer radius around us.'
"I'm back!" Yamaiko happily shouted as she barged into the room with a trolley full of snacks that increased passive MP-generation for a time. And some just for the flavor.
'Could she take this a little bit more seriously ? Well, I guess glooming over this on her part won't help anything.'
"Recharge please." Was the first thing Nubo said and greatly enjoyed how Yamaiko's expression soured with impressive speed.
XXX
Peroroncino gently awoke from his sleep. There was no need to move for now. After all he wouldn't want to wake up Shalltear, who also slept cuddled to his side.
He would have a shit-eating grin on his face if he had a mouth and nose instead of his beak. That was the happiness for having the foresight to at least try to write something like sleeping or a sleep-like state in Shalltear's bio. And other small details that would make both physical and emotional intimacy easier for both of them.
'I did a great job, if I can say so myself. Also even if NPCs find out about our origin, Shalltear's feelings will remain the same after a little crisis.' He patted himself on the back for a bit. 'If I recall, this was my first time doing it in two years. And oh boi it was worth the wait.' He thought and squashed the pesky notion that it was too easy.
After all, it wasn't like his social skills in his previous world were non-existent. He dated girls quite often, well, often for the desolate state the world was in. The only problem was that almost all of them left after learning that he was translating ero games for living. Most assumed that he was some creepy, slimy pervert and simply ended their relationship, never knowing that IRL he was not nearly as bad as his friends in Nazarick believed.
'I bet that annoying pink lump is already badmouthing me. Haaah… I wonder how can I help others right now.'
It was a little of a dilemma for him. While his character build would be ideal if anyone requested scouting of a place that Nubo couldn't see. There were no such places found yet. His translating experience let him gain quite the feel for how other languages work on a structural level, so he could use that for this world's writing once he got hold of them. He had less confidence in understanding talking.
Right now there was nothing that required his skillset, so he could as well assist Tabula in gathering knowledge and try something, but that would take barely half a day. He hadn't had the best idea on what could lead to another discovery.
'Hmm, I guess I could get some ideas from other isekais, there are so many of them in Ashrubanipal. Either protagonists creatively exploiting the mechanics of their world or discovering from the darker ones what could lead one to be transported by some godlike force. Yep, guess thats the plan.'
As he thought that he tried to slip out of the bed without waking up Shalltear. However, as soon as he moved a little the vampire woke up from whatever sleep or hibernation mode she was in just a moment ago.
"Good morning sweetie." The avian greeted her without hesitation.
"Likewise lord Pero." The vampire purred from the bed. "Don't you want to join me in bed for a while ?"
'Uh-oh I'm not ready for another round, not to mention I have to do something already.'
"Sure, but this time only to cuddle, ok?" He said as resolutely as he could muster and got back into bed.
When Shalltear crawled to him, he half expected her to ignore his wishes and just initiate another round of sex. Luckily, she just embraced him with her head on his shoulder and didn't try anything else.
"Do you have anything important today ?" Peroroncino initiated smalltalk, while the atmosphere probably wouldn't turn awkward, he felt it was better to say something first. He believed that since it was not even a full day since the vampire was created, she wouldn't have any plans, but also a mild curiosity remained.
"Patrolling my floors, checking on Mare's progress and most importantly," she fully turned to face him, "making sure you are satisfied, my lord."
"T-t-that's nice." Was all the avian got out of himself, taken off guard by her bold declaration.
'Nothing arranged then, I guess it only makes sense.'
After a while of relaxation, a message hit him.
{Pero ? Sorry for messaging you out of the blue, but have you seen Shalltear ? I can't find her on her floors.} Momonga's new baritone was heard in his mind.
{She's with me, why ?}
{I am performing check of all floors, and the first three are the only ones remaining.}
{Oh…} At this the avian felt a pang of shame that everyone else was already working that hard. He decided.
{I'll send her there ASAP.} And cut the message.
"Sweetie, Momo is performing inspection of all floors and yours are the only left." He said while gently patting the vampire with his talon.
He felt Shalltear's body tense as he said it. 'I guess she wants to cuddle with me a little longer. I have an idea about that.'
"Don't worry, you don't have to go right this instant."
"But I cannot make Lord Momonga wait! That would be unacceptable." Came a little panicked answer.
She then rised into a sitting position and tried to get out of bed.
"Listen, I'll give you this so you can travel quicker around the tomb, okay ?" Pero said as he pulled the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown out of his inventory.
When they were outside it was decided that in this emergency all floor guardians and Sebas would get one to be able to move instantly.
"T-t-t-" This left Shalltear stuttering for a while, until eventually "the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown! Is… is it for... me ?" She timidly put the ring on her finger with expression of bliss.
'So Cute!' "Of course sweetheart. As you know with thi-GAH"
Before the avian managed to finish sentence, the vampire straddled his waist and pushed his torso back to bed.
'What the heck is going on ? Wait.' He tried to push her off but couldn't, as ranger and melee fighter had great difference in strength. 'Is she pinning me ? Why ?!'
In his panic, he had caught almost none of her words, and his panicked mind didn't realize what was happening from the instances like: "I do!", "Unto eternity!" or "consummate our union".
'Also I should be immune to this, the dash or whatever should have kicked in by now. I could use AOG ring to get out, but I want to teach Shalltear to control herself a bit more.' He thought as he finally focused on the situation, made vividly clear because the vampire was just about ready to connect them in a physical sense.
"We can do this later! You have work to do right now."
Shalltear froze and after a second jumped out of bed. "Of course my lord, I will quickly finish my work so we can celebrate soon!"
She said and started to dress in her typical dress.
'Celebrate ? Oh, I get it. She think we have been apart for multiple years and wants to catch up I guess.' In this Pero decided that he won't scold her for the very pushy stunt, this time.
'It's almost 11, might as well start testing ASAP.'
The true meaning of what she meant, was lost to him. But he was yet blissfully unaware of that.
And with this, every player had started performing their jobs and silently prayed that contact with intelligent beings from this world would be quickly establish, so that they would have some more free time.
On the fourth day, morning
{Nubo to everyone. Nubo to everyone. I found a human village. Repeat, I found a human village.}
'Yes! Finally!'
{In that case, everyone please gather in the Conference room.} Momonga said his own piece.
'Finally! I can start searching for Keno in earnest. Learning administration alongside Ulbert was no fun at all. I hope I will earn some free time to go adventuring with everyone again.'
He teleported to the Conference room.
Most players were already there, except Tabula and Yui. But she would not participate because she is still not nearly as strong as Touch would be comfortable with.
He also noted that Buku was there, but not looking like her usual self, but as a blond and beautiful elven woman, with moderate to large breasts, who had only casual clothing on herself. But most glaring feature was her 'heterochromia' because each of her eyes were both green and blue in color split in half, that if put together it would be one green and one blue.
{Oh my most august creator!} Voice was heard in the overlord's mind, unbeknownst to everyone else in the room.
{Lord Tabula is currently extracting world items from the treasury, claims it is because we have made contact with the outside, is that true ? Does he have your permisson ?}
'So that's why he informed me, I guess some of my changes were really good, let's encourage him to report to him other important matters.' Momonga sighed gladly that his creation was not just up to his usual theatrics or informing him about someone taking goblin throwing axe data crystal, as it happened a few days ago.
{Yes, we have discovered location of sentient life in this world, Tabula is only doing the correct precautions. But I am pleased that you have informed me! Keep informing me about any powerful item being taken out.} He made sure to highlight the word powerful, hoping his creation would take the hint, then tuned out the usual -i'm not worthy of such praise' routine.
The Brain eater soon teleported into the room with multiple files of papers.
"My apologies for the delay, it took a while to copy all my completed research for everyone to have one."
"It's fine. Well then, I officially begin our emergency meeting on how to handle first contact!" Momonga banged with his conjured hammer and motioned for Tabula to distribute the sheets of completed research.
"Oh come on! There's no need to make this into a reading club, right ?" Ulbert protested. "Just tell us the key points man."
Tabula looked at the overlord for approval, who just shrugged and so he started.
"Apparently, there is a key difference between anything that was transported in the guild, and everything else in this world. For example, "he continued when he got some quizzical looks, "I had a simple wooden axe made from one tree in the sixth floor. I couldn't swing it once I had the intent in mind to either damage something or even cut into a log, it simply fell through my hands. But once I had an axe completely from materials of this world, wielding it as one might expect was not a problem, even despite class restrictions. Any addition of materials from Yggdrasil rendered the axe unusable for me."
With a final breath, the breath eater finished his lengthy explanation and slumped back into his chair.
"I already clarified this to Tabula, but the trees on sixth floor are not enchanted with anything, they should be ordinary trees." Momonga clarified.
At this everyone in the table finally understood the implications.
"That's weird as hell."
"Why does simple wood have class restriction on it ?!"
"I guess it really does mean that everything in Nazarick was conjured form some weird energy that also restricts our classes just like everything in the game did."
That was the eventual conclusion after a little squabble.
"Another one is that almost everything from Yggdrasil is based clearly on its stats. Even if it wouldn't make sense in a physical reality."
"Almost everything ? What do you mean ?" Asked Pero.
"Well, in the section of ongoing experiments," he pointed at the sheets, "is stated that we are waiting for both Yui and the twins to grow up and see if they will be stronger then, or remain the same."
"I guess you want us to read through it and don't interfere with any of them." Remarked Momonga, prompting a nod from Tabula.
"Will do." Peroroncino nodded his head, but without as much speed as he used to in meetings before.
"Alright, anything else ?" Asked Nubo, who was getting impatient that his topic was being sidelined until the end in favor of reviewing results of Tabula's work. Even if he acknowledged that they are important.
"Immunities also work only in combat situations, or perhaps only if the other side has malicious intent."
"Wow, that's super interesting. Whoever thought of that must have been a genius." Bukubukuchagama asked, quite impressed.
"And now Buku is praising her brother, another anomaly." Touch jokingly added.
"Huh ? He thought of that ?" The pink slime asked in disbelief using her mature tone.
"Yes, I confirmed it works that way later, but Pero pleasantly surprised me that he figured it out straight away." Tabula said matter-of-factly and ignored how every other player turned slowly to stare at the avian.
"Mmhm, I bet you were not the only one pleasantly surprised." Buku added with deadpanned expression on her new elven face.
"Ohhh"
"Eggh"
*giggle*
And more was heard through the room, much to the avian's despair at this unjustified accusation.
"So that's what you meant when you said that you wanted mommy to pat your head and tell you everything will be alright." Yamaiko sagely nodded to herself, convinced that her conclusion about an event during their glory days was correct.
"It was an accidental disc-"
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
Was heard Momonga's hammer.
"Let's get back on track alright ?"
"Alright, I cannot bash my clearly exhausted brother for too long after all…" Buku got in one last jab despite some annoyed stares being sent her way.
To everyone's surprise, the avian held his cool, it was Tabula that was too fed up about being interrupted.
"If you're so chatty perhaps you could share with everyone your discovery."
"Whatever." Buku took the challenge. "Me and Hero were practicing shape-shifting and discovered that it's really possible for slimes, but equip restrictions still remain. I can't equip anything that would count as an armor, only cosmetic items." She pointed out her completely casual dress, while everyone else was wearing their full battle gear. In fact she did too had her full equip on, with the few items she still could equip being either displayed on her, or hidden inside her body. "Still need to test if it works on this world's armor too." Was added.
When it looked like she finished, Tabula gestured for her to continue.
"Also for some weird reason we can only take one shape without having to concentrate all the time on maintaining it. It's like letting muscle be in one default form for long period of time, and then suddenly want it to be in another constantly. It's unusable as disguises without on short-term missions." She added.
"Oh yeah, I can see how much you would fix your insecurities with this form." Pero pointed out at her chest.
"If we are talking about insecurities, how about you would fix yours by letting everyone know what you did when you were twelve ?" She innocently smiled back at her brother, but the eyes were cold and frozen, and not because she would have trouble manipulating them, it was her genuine expression.
"Suit yourself, it's not like anyone in the guild except you will judge me too harshly for it." He said as he casually prompted his head with his hand.
'Because we are in a new world and alienating each other is the worst possible move. Just like Ancient one said.' Was left unsaid, as the message was stronger without it, and also an attempt to lessen her hold over him.
This statement made few players pause, especially Momonga who was about to bang at the table again.
Most suspected it was just a show to make Buku lose her blackmail material, she herself was of the same opinion, but also refrained from sharing it, as it would obviously ruined the whole point of blackmailing in the first place, instead…
"Who said anything about players in the guild ? I meant also the NPCs, especially your dear little Shalltear." She said with a victorious grin.
Only to be met with a confident snort and perhaps that should have been a condescending smile on the avian's face.
"Did you really think I wouldn't take this into account when editing her few days prior ?"
Buku froze a little at this. "Yep, an idiot like you surel-"
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
*Silence*
*BANG* *BANG*
"That was just a remainder to not please try tonotderail this meeting too much okay ?" Momonga lowered his hammer, exasperated. "This is a crucial meeting, so focus, I don't want to bang again."
"Still on the topic of new discoveries, my [constant] racial skill that I could apply on illusions in game can be here applied on buffs, debuffs or a summon." Ancient one announced, partly because he wanted to take the sibling's mind off their squabble.
"Wait, you mean you can do a permanent summon ?" Herohero asked in disbelief, as hat was never possible in the game.
"It's only one summon, and the highest one I can use without XP cost is Cherubim Gatekeeper. So it's not really that useful."
"Aw man." Hero was quite saddened at the realization, that there won't be constantly growing army of summons for Nazarick anytime soon.
"And the last thing we spotted is, that cosmetic effects aren't only cosmetic anymore." Tabula said and pointed at Touch me. "This guy accidentally destroyed part of the floor once."
"Sorry again, I didn't know it would happen."
"At least make sure that it doesn't bloat up to Pestonya coming to complain." Ulbert dryly said, silently glaring at the paladin.
"Why didn't you report any incident like this to me ?" Momonga asked indignantly that he was skipped.
"Because it was stupid." Ancient one said as bluntly as Nubo would have normally. "Touch me had cleaned and repaired it himself and only borrowed the maid's equipment for it. The complain was that he didn't let them do it."
Excuse me what ? - Was the thought that run through all of the player's heads at the moment. Only expressed through the facial expression of those who had a face, shock on Herohero could be seen that the streaks of black slime constantly flowing down from his form stopped in place, as if frozen solid.
"Was that supposed to be some joke ?" Yamaiko carefully asked.
Her response was that Ulbert, Ancient one and Touch shook their heads.
"Didn't see that coming."
"We did neither, that was why we thought Touch failed to clean it, only for Pestonya to explain after we summoned him and tried to make him apologize." the illusionist sighed. "Let's not talk about it, it was one of the most awkward moments I remember."
"Alright… moving on, any other changes ?" Momonga asked.
"Nothing too important, everything else is in the file."
"Alright, then moving to the meat of the matter, how do we make contact with them ?" The overlord asked, before quickly mentioning;"Yes Touch, we are not sending your daughter in just because she is a human, I promised it and intend to keep it."
The paladin nodded in acknowledgment as some players snickered a little with remarks like -overprotective dad- being heard.
"Before we start strategy meeting, let's each equip one." Said Tabula and pulled all the World Items in the guild's possession.
Seven world items were on the table.
"I will contact Aureole Omega to hand her world item here too." Said Tabula and activated message.
"Wait! That WCI is important for defending this tomb." Intoned Momonga.
"Yeah but wouldn't it be safer to have one for each of us instead of be vulnerable to their effects ? We already established that whatever brought us here at least held that much power, right ?"
"Then contact Albedo to hand over Ginnungagap." Pointed out the overlord.
The Brain eater froze a little at this. "You know, Albedo's build is really only complete with it in her possession"
"But with eight we can one for everyone of us except me, because I will only scry your position and Touch, who can temporarily gain WCI immunity from his armor."
Normally, items that one received together with world champion title and class didn't provide this immunity. Shitty devs were called shitty for a reason after all. Even though the items, together with world items were essences of world given form according to lore. But as an armor, Touch me's chestplate, Compliance with law, was the sole exception. But even that was an ability on a cooldown.
"Grhr… I don't need the item okay ?" Tabula offered after finding no good reason to object. His completionist winning against rational thinker.
"Rejected!" Ancient one immediately shot down his proposal. "That magic is definitely in this world, and without world class item you will be vulnerable. And we are not taking Albedo with us! Not a chance." He then added after seeing the Brain eater's rejected face.
"Then you or me, as the ones with highest defence, can go without one, we will be fine most likely anyway." Buku pointed out.
"No! Our bodies are made from that magic! For all we know locals may only see us as summons and may forcibly de-summon us if we don't have one. Spells like Greater Rejection were even in the game after all." The illusionist stubbornly stood his ground.
While arguments like those were being thrown around, Momonga just stared, wide-jawed at the insanity of death scenarios Ancient one somehow managed to justify. 'Sometimes I'm glad I don't think about things that much. Honestly this is overthinking it more than myself after nailing that Night Lich in Keno's city. De-summon us… wow. Just wow.'
"That doesn't mean we can be de-summoned! Dark Youngs also couldn't in the game even though they were summons. Not to mention, our data also say that we do not count as summoned creatures, therefore cannot be banished." Ulbert protested.
"Well… that's reasonable I guess…"
"How about you first look at the village instead of making assumptions it's some den of world-class enemies." Nubo remarked and pulled out multiple orbs from his inventory, that started floating towards the middle of the table.
From there, each were depicting a normal, peaceful village. Most villagers were not yet doing any work on the fields. Instead opting for another activity before the day began in earnest.
"They look surprisingly normal." Tabula said out of the blue.
"What did you expected when I said human village ?"
"I didn't mean anything odd about their appearance, the improbability of human life developing here aside. What I meant is, that it looks surprisingly normal to how our feudal history depicted them."
"I also checked their levels, they all have farmer class, but interestingly I cannot see their levels in it."
"Hold on, what do you mean that YOU of all people cannot see their levels ?" Peroroncino asked their surveillance expert.
"It's weird honestly, they seem to not even have the concept of levels honestly, because I triple-checked and there was no interference. Also one has genius fighter class and two have sergeant class."
"Wait a minute, genius fighter is rare class that can be unlocked through only special dungeon with certain artifact equipped. How the heck does some random guy from village have it ?" Touch asked, completely flabbergasted.
"No idea."
Before anyone could be annoyed at Nubo's usual lack of conversation or conversational awareness, Tabula interjected again.
"Maybe it just means that he has a knack for fights, on Earth some people also were better fighters in school even without some kind of special training."
The proposed idea was better pill to swallow than the idea that someone at max lvl 25 completing a quest that was in a level 40+ dungeon. And the dungeon being in this world.
AN:(15 for farmer and 10 for genius fighter)
"That said, we cannot get careless. Perhaps they have no casters among them but it still means they could potentially call on help to some authorities." Ancient one once again proposed to be careful in the face on unknown.
"Then what do you believe we should do now that we know about them ? I personally propose interrogation." Ulbert said before Tabula and Nubo could get another word in.
"What do you mean under interrogation ?" Bristled Touch me at those words.
"Kidnap one during night and make him tell us anything under mind control spells, then erase memory and return him. See ? No harm done, no need to keep assuming the worst." Ulbert off-handedly replied.
"I personally think that is reasonable." Herohero said to support it.
"And are you sure that Mind-control spells or even memory manipulation will work ?" Tabula asked. "We haven't tested any of that yet."
"I am confident that it will work without fail." Momonga said.
"Really ? And please share with us, what gives you such confidence in this uncertain situation ?" Ancient one asked. Staring at the overlord.
'What… why do I have this feeling ? As if he is waiting for me to slip up.' Momonga tried to remember past days, he believed he hadn't tipped off his knowledge yet.
"Because it worked in my dream."
"Yes, and in your dream also NPCs were motionless unless you activated them by one of the pre-programmed commands. It sure hadn't worked that way." The illusionist had no intention in relieving his questioning pressure.
'Damn, I said that so that they wouldn't worry about being attacked by them and stayed here. Even though it was the outcome I prepared for.'
"Fine, I cannot say for certain that it will work." Concede the overlord.
"I have an alternate proposal." Ulbert straightened himself in the chair and spoke. "how about we simply kidnap the whole village at once ?"
He then waved his hand at some of people who were starting to protest this and continued. "The combined knowledge of them all will be greater than just one of them I'm sure. Also Tabula has already requested subjects for some experiments including the differences between players and new-worlders. Of course we will do only absolutely humane experiments, and afford them acceptable lodgings here in Nazarick for the time, we can decide what to do after that." The last bit was very quickly added before Touch or Yamaiko could jump at him from across the table.
"Why don't we just question them without any kidnappings ?" Herohero started proposing his idea, "There was no magic caster in the village as far as Nubo told us, we can just use illusions and pretend we are travelers and ask for some information."
"That is true but the amount of knowledge we will get will be almost insignificant compared to what we would get by the previous method." Tabula intervened.
"Oh please big brother." Buku used her childish voice to speak up, "I don't think they will know anything of value anyway, just directions to nearby town, mythology and informations about other races will be enough, if you want to kidnap someone, kidnap someone who knows more."
"That's right, we could pretend to be traveling mercenaries or adventurers, discover key personel who knows a lot about magic or other subjects and then kidnap them all at once!" Pero joined, after all, his thought process was similar to his sister, as much as both denied it.
"That all works only at the presumption that we are all much stronger than them." Ancient one reminded them. "Sure, we are much stronger than even that levet at max 25 guy who skipped prerequisite classes, but that is one random human in a village. We still don't even know what magic is used in this world, not how strong are elite human soldiers. Also their weapons, most advanced technology and so on."
The fact that Momonga's dream is unreliable, since one of the crucial differences almost cost Yui her life was left unsaid. Yet the impact it had was noticeable to everyone nonetheless.
"Then we should probably seek to face the villagers in favorable light, so that they will disclose as much information as possible, if we had money perhaps even pay for it, but how to create it ?" Touch asked.
What followed was debate about psychology, potential strenght of humans in this world, resemblance to medieval times, magic, potential technology, money and so on. Momonga was also engaged in some of those, so he hadn't interfered to stop it. For a blissful while, it was just like old days.
"GUYS! LISTEN TO ME!" A sudden shout from Nubo cut through the atmosphere like a hot knife through butter.
As everyone looked at him, he pointed at the orbs, with panic in his eye.
Those orbs displayed the village like usual, at least that was the case close to the forest. On the other end however…
Soldiers in full armor on horses streamed into the village, as if jet of water was breaking on a grid of stones.
Yet the closest orbs displayed only slaughter, armed soldiers were mercilessly attacking the weaponless villagers, who only ran in desperate hope to outrun horses.
"Murderers!" Loud inhuman roar filled the Conference room as Touch me appeared standing, sword and shield in hand, his chair crashing and shattering on the wall behind him. "Momonga transport us there please."
The overlord quickly regained his wit. "I believe we should at lea-" 'st disguise ourselves.' Yet the last part never left his mouth, as another sudden shout interrupted him.
"[Gate]!" Yamaiko said and a vortex of darkness appeared in front of her. She immediately ran through, the colorful aura of all the buffs she placed on herself still shining true and bright.
"Wait-" The sound Ancient one let out was just a beat too late for Yamaiko to hear, and while certain paladin in shining armor heard him, he ignored it and completely without any care in the world speeded through the portal, so fast that only those with high perceptive abilities could recognize it as more than a blur.
"Oh for fucks sake!" The illusionist cursed loudly without any care to let out the inner frustrations. "Monitor the situation! Please!" He said last words to Nubo as he activated his one-day use ability to boost multiple illusion spells casted in a certain duration.
"[Mirror world]"
"[Widen magic: Mirror world overlay]" – This was not another mirror world spell, it was tenth-tier spell overlay, that if used on another one of his illusions could make everything different based on the distance between enemy and caster.
"[Field of Unclean]" – A tenth tier illusion spell that can be used to make anyone lose track of whatever a target, that has not been selected as exception, spotted or detected, as if making vision unclean for whatever the caster chooses.
"[Greater area of projections]" – Ninth tier spell that allowed the caster to create illusions of whatever they want inside it. Limited severely in game by the options. Limitations that he knew were already lifted.
"[Perfect Unknowable]"
And with the final spell, he went into the portal after nearly all his teammates had left.
"Nubo, I leave any strategic decision to you." Said Momonga his last words, as he too stepped to the portal, leaving Nubo, who already activated the message network and now also [Greater planer eye], a 10-th tier version of the 8-th tier spell [planer eye] to watch over the soon to be field of slaughter.
Unknown to the overlord, as soon as he took step through the gate, a [Nuclear Blast] was triggered at point-blank range near the surveillance chief.
XXX
Enri Emmot was running through the village towards the forest. She knew inside that both her parents had already used their lives to distract the knights from her and her little sister.
She heard sound of stomping the ground behind her. Looking around, she saw two knights pursuing her.
But something was off, it was as if her vision couldn't focus. Her eyes simply refused to lock onto their position, as if they slipped her sight anytime she took a step in her run.
Looking at Nemu, she realized it was the same with her.
'I am exhausted already ? No, I can't be that weak! MOVE!' She ordered herself mentally and continued to run towards the forest.
Just a little more and she could enter the forest. Granted, the forest was not the safest place, but at least there was a chance of escaping the current threat.
'Just a few more steps! Move your legs!' She shouted in her mind just to stomp down the traitorous thoughts of using her little sister as bait that were creeping into her mind. Just the same as ignoring the weird sound as if shattering glass coming from the sky.
Suddenly, the ground before her seemed to turn black and swamp-like. Her instincts seemed to tell her it was a dead end. A brief look to both sides revealed that it encircled the whole village. It was at least five meters wide.
'But how ? Magic ? Who could be powerful enough to encircle the whole village ?'
As the sound of footsteps behind her threw her out of her thoughts, she tried at least one last attempt to get her sister to safety.
Without any thinking, she picked Nemu up and jumped with all her strength into the black swamp, sword swinging at the place her back has been until now. In the middle of the jump, she threw her little sister all the way to the other side, losing momentum in the process. She knew she will likely drown in the swamp, but it didn't matter, at least Nemu would survive.
Or that she thought, until she saw the black mass rise up and catch her sister, not letting her leave.
'It's over, we will die here.' Was her final thought as she sunk into the black swamp.
Or that should have happened at least. But in reality, for her the black surface acted like ice and she slid away to the other side, away from the knights.
When she tried to get up and run again, she realized it is not possible. A black goo clung to her feet, just like to Nemu's. Whatever this was, it would not let them past it.
"What is this Enri ?"
"I don't know, can you run ?"
"I can't get it off!"
She looked in despair towards the knights that tried to approach them. When she did that, she realized another peculiarity about this black goo. It let her and her sister move freely, but would only prevent them from leaving the village completely. On the other hand, the knights had sunk in just as they took their first step. They looked completely immobilized and couldn't even throw their swords, as their weapons were also under the surface.
"By the six! What magic is this ?"
From their panicked shouts, a strange realization welled within her chest. Those were not soldiers from Baharuth empire, this was a false flag operation from the Slane Theocracy, the only country who also worshiped all six of the Six Great Gods.
This realization however was swept away the next instant, as her attention snapped, as if on command, to a gigantic angel suddenly materialized above the village. It was made even more odd, because it was the only thing her sight didn't slip on like feet were slipping on downwards ice.
XXX
Boosted by her buffs, her steps were unusually large and her feet pushed her at a speed she had never dreamed possible back before the transfer.
"Get away!" With inhuman shriek, she struck the armor of a soldier with her giant fist. After all, when the soldier is about to split apart a little girl, there is no time to hesitate or strategize.
The iron under her gauntlet felt like paper, paper that protected butter. She struck him with all her might, but the adult man with iron armor on top of him was not heavy enough to absorb all that momentum and was send flying with her almost tripping after the unusual feeling of not feeling almost any resistance. The body inside the armor had, of course, long since exploded into bloody pieces from being hit both by the physical punch, that by shockwave from her gauntlet.
'So weak.' Was the first and only thought that she allowed to run through her mind, because another soldier, not yet registering the death of his comrade, was chasing another child on a horse, about to behead the poor boy.
[Silent magic: Temporal Stasis] She aimed the spell not at the soldier, but at the child, the reason for silent metamagic was because there would not be enough time to utter those words, yet thinking it was as fast as speed of the light.
The boy froze, after all it was much more probable that it would succeed in affecting him, instead of someone ready for battle with possible resistances.
The swordsman cut his sword forward and into the neck, until he discovered he could not push it an inch more. However –
*GAH*
– by the time he realized it, he was already pushed off his horse by the centrifugal force of his right arm being stuck. He rolled multiple times through the air, even when he hit the ground.
Yamaiko meanwhile punched the air to create a shockwave, that had dismounted another soldier, that was chasing villagers, and send him tumbling to the ground, likely with a broken bone or two.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Touch me as he cut down 2 knights in half at once, who were about to murder an elderly couple.
She jumped, with her inhuman speed further enhanced by the buffs, on the man she dismounted with the 9-th tier spell and aimed her fist to punch him too.
An alien sensation ran through her, as if realizing, there is no need to take another life. She wanted them all to suffer. She perhaps wanted them all to die. But now that some of her rage retreated, she realized they would be much more useful alive.
So instead she stomped on his leg, breaking bone and muscle all as one. Then punched the other one, this time gently enough to not torn it off. Not that anyone will thank her for having his legs brutalized and crushed beyond belief instead of simply ripping it off, it was unusable all the same after all.
{Get back here! I have a mirror world set up and a plan.}
At those words, instinct overcame her body from the years of gaming and she jumped into the invisible mirror world before she was even informed that it existed.
Almost everyone was in the mirror world, completely invisible to anyone outside it. This 10-th tier spell was better at hiding than perfect unknowable and not everyone, even among the players, would be able to detect it with counter-stealth.
The only one outside of the mirror world was Touch me, who had activated his 'justice has arrived' cosmetic effect, making behind him spring into life the written message that was happily bouncing back and forth.
Unfortunately, as Touch was directly before the Mirror world, the bouncing letters were almost always hidden in the spell. And one of them also hit Ulbert right into the nose.
{Alright everyone, turn off your anti-divination.} Nubo said through message system, sadly the second part of the message didn't register for one of his guildmates.
"Oh my god you little…!" Was all the demon said as his claws shredded the letters to pieces.
*Kraaach!* A sound like shattering glass was heard in the sky above the mirror world.
{OUCH! Ulbert! I said turn it off! I didn't ask you to fire a Nuclear Blast to my face you fucking lunatic!}
{W-what ? Ok. Done.} The Demon post-haste turned off his anti-divination that just blasted the guild's surveillance chief. {But it's Touch me's fault! If his stupid letters didn't distract me-}
{You should have paid attention, don't you try to push it on me.}
{I'm not pushing it on anyone, just telling the truth you wannabe hero.}
{Listen you overgrown chun-}
{CAN we all please stop arguing like retarded clowns and focus! This is fucking important!} Ancient one angrily shouted. Which shook Momonga from zoning out into deja-vu of old times.
{I think we are losing impression points.} Tabula pointed his elongated finger at the knights and villagers. The villagers were still mostly concerned on getting away from the knights, and the knights that saw their comrades being killed were looking at Touch me, who to his credit didn't move when arguing with the demon.
But he also wasn't saying anything, so the knights were looking at him, then looking at each other and shrugging. They clearly had no idea what to think. No idea why is this strong paladins standing still, and no idea where he even came from. Not to mention some weird symbols were behind him before vanishing.
{Alright, got the map of the village and sending it to you now.} Nubo's voice was heard, accompanied by a whole map of the soon to be battlefield, with both knights and villagers, their positions upgraded in real time as Nubo was diligently updating it every second.
Herohero has already prepared a skill just for this situation, and now with the map in his mind, positioning his [Swamp of the elder] enhanced by various range buffs was quite easy.
'Alright, that will stop everyone from escaping.' He thought with quite the self-satisfaction. He after all made it so that it will also help the villagers run from knights while not letting anyone into the forest. That would create lots of loose ends after all.
{Alright, no one will leave this village now if they fail a strength check, and based on what we have seen from Yamaiko's performace, the knights are quite weak.} He said to his team.
'Well whatever, better than if they heard our argument, they would laugh so hard probably. Now thanks to Hero we can get this show started.' Ancient one thought and gave the signal to start action.
{Ok, now.}
At the order, Buku activated [Attention grab], which targeted both hostiles and neutrals.
Touch activated 'shining' cosmetic effect, which cast light over him to accentuate his armor, although it had no additional effect than making him look cool and impressive, it was exactly the intention this time.
And Ancient one used his already activated [Greater area of projections] to project a giant angel floating above the sky.
"Villains who prey upon the weak and innocent!" The angelic projections thundered. "Surrender and you just may escape with your lives intact, but if you continue this futile struggle, you will meet your demise." At this the illusion drew its big flaming sword from the scabbard.
Not that it could do damage. But it would inflict unimaginable pain on anyone that it would hit. Ancient one's illusions after all were affecting all five senses, and in game if you were brought to 0 hp through illusionary dmg you thought was real, it would give you serious serious debuff to defense and also stunned effect. The devs said that the mind had to realize the body was actually alive still to do something. There were some exceptions to this, but it was true for most of all illusion spells.
The show seemed have at least some effect, before-
"HAH! Nice trick. The angel didn't move its mouth when it was talking, so it must be your illusion, knight." A cocky looking guy with revealed visor shouted at Touch me before giving order. "Kill the knight!"
{Oh…}
{You didn't move its mouth ?}
{First off, it's incredibly hard and second, how was I supposed to know that they speak Japanese ? I hoped they would think the angel is projecting the words into their head, it was our best shot without the knowledge that we can understand each other's language.} Ancient one was hurriedly defending his actions that busted their disguise.
'Nevermind, time for second dramatic effect.'
He lifted the first mirror world, simultaneously canceling the angel illusions, and the whole present guild was suddenly on display.
"I will repeat it one last time. Surrender now and you just might be spared!" Ancient one in his angelic form boomed, floating above the rest of his guildmates.
Only few of the attacking knights stopped, most still believing that this was just another illusion, even the guy who was supposed to be commander has already lost interest in them.
{Alright, lets show them hell. Yamaiko can resurrect them for tests, so no worries.} On Momonga's order, all the players sprung into action.
Touch me sprung forth, cutting through two knights with a shockwave skill and bashing third with his shield, with just enough strength to not kill, the pursuing others.
Bukubukuchagama used her widest AoE aggro switcher, to make the knights attack her instead.
Peroroncino flew into the air and fired five [Shadow-sewing arrow] skills at once, taking care of the knights most far away. After all, he could snipe safely with true aim even up to three kilometers, the few hundred meters were just a triviality.
Ancient one was flying through the air, making sure with his ilusions that none of the knights had clear sight of the ones they were trying to slaughter just a minute ago.
Tabula and Herohero were working together, the brain eater hurling few attack and disabling spells on groups of knights, while Herohero would use [Slime cocoon] to incapacitate anyone either too close or those who survived Tabula's attack.
Momonga was only watching the spectacle, with pretty much all the enemies in his sight already eliminated, he heard just a few voices behind few houses and decided to investigate.
Yamaiko was standing there, looking extremely angry but not attacking.
"You damn cowards! Let them go and maybe I won't crush every bone in your body!"
At those words the overlord could only roll his nonexistent eyes. From the situation it was clear that this approach is not going to work, as three soldiers took hostage whole family.
'This is not how negotiations work you know Yamaiko…' was his thought process, before he decided to step in.
"And what do you think a human life means to the undead ?" He asked a rhetorical question as all three men in armor turned their terror-stricked gazes upon him.
"W-what ?"
"W-wait. H-hosta-"
He didn't had the chance to finish the sentence, as Momonga activated [Silent Triplet magic: Death]. All three soldiers simply stopped moving and plumeted to the ground, and while that shook the hostages, none were gravely hurt. The overlord truly didn't care if the humans lived or died, but he genuinely respected Yamaiko, and so chose a method that did not hinder her opinion of him.
"You know Momo, you sounded pretty scary there for a moment, I must admit." Yamaiko hesitantly admitted, before giving him thumbs-up. "But great role-playing! You definitely improved in that department."
'If only you knew…' Was left unspoken, as the overlord was still not sure how his friends would react.
Unknown to those two, Ulbert was having the time of his life.
He just walked straight to the commander, as his cloak was doing all the work, destroying any enemy that tried to get close to him.
"S-someone help me! I'll give you money!" Was all that guy was able to shout as the demon was coming straight to him. When no one tried to help him anymore, he tried to run, however.
"[Greater teleportation]"
Ulbert appeared right in front of him and used his regular arm to lift him to the air by the throat.
"P-please wait! If you don't kill me bafolk, I-I'll give you money! 1000 gold pieces! You can have whatever you want for that much!"
"Right now, I want YOU to SUFFER." With those words Ulbert started choking the flailing knight by the name Belius until he passed out. He briefly considered disemboweling him while he was still alive, but had a feeling that wouldn't be nearly enough.
He wanted this human, who so resembled his bosses, to suffer for much longer than any death would grant him.
As this thought ran through Ulbert's head, he paused and tried to think for a moment. Looking around, he saw few houses with scared villagers still inside, and a few outiside. He tried to imagine what he would feel if he killed them all for no reason.
'Nothing… huh…' There would not be any part of him stirred by murdering those he considered innocent, neither his sadness, nor joy. Only complete apathy reined supreme.
'I guess I owe Ancient one for warning me. There is no purpose to gaining power if I lose myself in the process after all.'
Just as this thought was running through his head.
{Great work everyone!} Nubo send his message. {All hostiles are either dead or captured by Herohero's swamp, even those that tried to run.}
Joy filled Ulbert's heart as he knew there would be more humans to toy with soon, co he lazily turned in the direction the soldiers tried to run and went there.
{That said, I am picking up some interference as if someone watching, but for some reason even Super-tier magic doesn't reveal what it is.}
That was so serious problem that Ulbert almost forgot to put his leg forward and caught himself from tripping by a hair breath.
He also agreed with the few people who were wondering what it could be if even Nubo couldn't discern the strange interference.
{Momo, I need you here to calm down the NPCs, they are getting slowly out of hand.}
XXX
Nubo opened a gate for the overlord and took Hygiea's chalice from Entoma, who dutifully delivered it to him.
'There you are! Gotcha!' As soon as he touched the world class item, he pinpointed the interference.
"Great work Entoma! Please inform Momonga of all that happened while he was away." 'Especially the mess Albedo tried to start…'
'Alright, the battle is over, co I cannot wait even a second as the one watching might cease it.'
He activated his trump card. [Mental duel] He got this only from a class that could only be obtained by a Heteromorph with full specialization into scrying and information gathering, both in job and race.
When activated, it would pull both the user and a target into a pocket dimension resembling a black void. Once there, all stats and abilities are rearranged. The participants get only a stat 'HP' and a stat 'Mental Energy', which would be attack power and mana of sorts. Once there, they would duke it out using a series of special attacks that couldn't be used anywhere else by shaping said mental energy into magical attacks and throwing it. Punches would cost the least, homing missiles the most. Once ME or HP of one side was empty, the winner could decide the loser's fate, including death, where HP of the character would be instantly zeroed and treated as any other death by damage.
The amount of HP and ME would depend on classes, which warrior-oriented classes would get the least, mages the intermediate amount and scryers the most. For each level of the original character, a small amount of stat would be obtained. Naturally a Nubo would get extremely high both resources once there.
The weakness was, that the duel couldn't be canceled by any in-game mechanics except death of character that was in one currently. Both in the duel and outside, as the normal avatar was vulnerable while fighting a mental duel. Also it could only be activated on someone who was scrying in the moment through their own abilities or items. If external equipment, like Mirror of Remote Viewing was used, it couldn't be used.
The familiar black void spread from Nubo's avatar, that began powering up and raced unto the other side. The reason for the gazer's confidence was, that he lost only one duel before, against a world-champion magician.
On the other side of the arena appeared something, that Nubo was not expecting in the least. Something he had never seen in game.
A giant dragon head was floating there, coated in platinum-colored scales with whites instead of eyes.
"You dare attack my mind like this, foolish player ?!"
AN: Oh yes, some good old overlord over-the-top overthinking. I enjoyed writing it, actually one of the reasons I wanted everyone but Momonga to go in blind at least into Carne village.
I also really enjoy writing those cliffhanger things at the end.
Also a quick note: I expected to have this finished by the 25th in the latest, however I basically didn't touch this for the last week due to the fact I started watching the new release of Mushoku Tensei. And since then, it was all I could think about as it is really a masterpiece in my opinion. Due to that, this is quite 'hot off press'. I was proof-reading it even before finishing, so there shouldn't be any mistakes except the part where the players come into Carne village. I will try to make it to the next release date, but no guarantees.