danishbhandari30 and Guest: To help you break the tie, know that Yggdrasil has a system called 'Karma' which allows to know the orientations of a player. Every positive act allows you to gain karma, and negative acts cause you to lose karma points. Simple, right? This is what Ainz Oaal Gown's record says on the Karma line: "Negative 500: Extremely Evil". As for being a fair ruler, Kugame Maruyama himself (the author) says he is a mediocre ruler.
Thanks to all the other readers.
Intrusion
Abelion Hills Dungeon,
"Charm Monster and Animal!"
The prehistoric tiger advancing in the corridor stiffened and shook his head violently as if to hunt an insect that bothered him. She frowned... She had failed to dominate him! The will of a simple animal could not be stronger than hers... No... So the tiger already had to be controlled by someone. In fact, it was not really surprising. A Dungeon was not really the habitual hunting ground of a prehistoric feline. However, whoever controlled this tiger was stronger than her. And that was very disturbing...
Rumbling, the giant feline suddenly turned towards Miriel and prepared to leap.
The half-elf had only time to raise her hand, palm facing the threat.
"Magic Shield II!"
A translucent pentacle formed of luminous lines and inscribed with signs of arcane writing appeared before her hand. Esoteric symbols moved within the magic circle.
The tiger leaped and violently hit the obstacle. Pushed back, it fell and straightened itself rumbling with anger and pain.
" Fire Lash!"
With her right hand, she grabbed straps made of glowing red firebrands. She hit the tiger who screamed in pain. Immobilized by the multiple straps that had just wrapped it, the animal struggled in vain, contorting itself for a moment before perishing and shriveling into a blackened and charred form.
The red dot in front of her disappeared from OOO's combat compass screen. But a feeling warned her that the tiger had not come alone...the half-elf turned around when she realized that the interface was signaling the enemy behind her back.
Striped with orange, white, and black, the second tiger was as big as the first, maybe three meters long from the snout tip to the tail end, and probably 120 centimeters to the shoulder.
The powerful animal had already leaped and its clawed leg lacerated the figure of the elf... which broke the illusion. The elf's double disappeared and Miriel reappeared at a distance of one meter... unharmed.
It is not advisable to rely on one sense when fighting an Illusionist of Miriel's talent...
Nevertheless, the tiger turned around immediately and hit the elf with its paw. Violently thrown against a wall, she uttered a cry of surprise.
Normally, she would even have been seriously injured. Except that Miriel had a rather peculiar appearance ... her skin, and her clothes seemed carved in stone. That was the effect of the 'Stone Skin' spell.
Becoming as hard and insensitive as a block of stone, she had no reason to fear the 'affectionate' caress of a big cat.
"Magic Missiles!"
Red rays came out of the finger she pointed at the tiger. The monster collapsed, drilled through multiple holes like some sort of skimming apparatus.
She had been wandering for several hours into this immense labyrinth, descending the stairs, walking through the corridors of masonry stones, the natural caves, and the rooms carved into the rock.
She was not in danger of getting lost. The OOO interface was drawing a map as she progressed. Around Miriel, in a vast circle, even the nearest halls and corridors were displayed. The interface did not detect traps and secret passages... but nevertheless gave valuable indications to locate them. For example, if the interface signaled a hallway that stopped just on the other side of a wall without a door, one could assume that there was a secret passage between them.
As the half-elf had not met any enemies for about ten minutes, her thoughts wandered a little. While inspecting the square stone walls and the carefully paved floor, she thought briefly of the builder of this labyrinth... it was probably not the orcs. Each section of the Dungeon had a different atmosphere, and the colors of the walls - usually very dark- changed. Here, the floor tiles were a pretty pink that contrasted with the walls and the ceiling made of a kind of very dark grey granite. In this location, the side walls were leaning and the plaster bottom was narrower than the ground, so the cross-section of the corridor was trapezoidal. From far and wide, gilded metal torches were lined with resinous torches that burned with an orange flame.
But the architecture and history of the New World didn't interest her very much, in fact.
Ironically the greatest mystery for Miriel was... Miriel herself.
Watanabe Haruko had no experience of combat unless one counts as a combat experience having been beaten by a bully's gang without being able to retaliate. However, although she faced monsters, Miriel did not panic. Although the tiger's surprise attack frightened her, she quickly counterattacked.
Nor did she have much compassion for the orcs she killed... no, which she slaughtered in the corridors. In her mind, there was no hesitation whatsoever. She had seen the human skulls that some orcs kept as trophies... For Miriel it was clear if she was defeated, she would be killed... or maybe worse. It was just killing or being killed. Yet she was certain that 'Watanabe Haruko' would not have behaved this way, without any restraint. Haruko was an introverted teenager born in a deeply peaceful country. She was raised to be a polite and submissive Corporate Slave, not to slaughter monsters.
She had changed.
It was undeniable.
—there were also the dreams she had.
Did... Miriel has a personality of her own, a consciousness... and that consciousness was still there in this body?
One thing was certain. The actual Miriel was not simply the spirit of 'Haruko' in the body of 'Miriel'.
She sighed and shook her head... there was no point in thinking too much. She had more important things to do.
"Breadcrumb!"
Miriel held out her finger and a luminous thread unfolded on the ground darting towards a corridor. If the spell worked as in OOO, the parchment she was looking for was at the other end... except that this spell always gave the simplest path from one point to another. That is, rarely the easiest or least guarded way.
In her own way, the orc witch doctor was sexy.
Of course, she had pork-like features. Bur her muscular body was swallowed by an armored bikini with a loincloth of tattered green fabric and high boots that went up to below the knees.
Unfortunately, Miriel had more to do than admire the green-skinned Amazon. The witch doctor held a black wooden stick finished with a red and opaque crystal ball. The female orc directed the mage staff end towards Miriel.
"Fireball!"
The half-elf raised her hand.
"Sphere of Invulnerability!"
The fireball spit out by the staff struck a sphere of translucent white light that surrounded the half-elf Summoner.
The result shook the huge cave. A wave of flames spread in the middle of the stalagmites, boiling a small stream, and carbonizing bats before the explosion escaped by a fracture in the ceiling.
The witch doctor protected her face while a whirlwind of smoke and dust enveloped her. She began to cough, her eyes watering... trying to see the result of her attack.
On the rock floor heated to red, debris was still burning... but in the middle of the smoke, a sphere of white light glittered gently!
Miriel held out her right hand, continuing to power the sphere with her left one.
"Summoning Monster III"
Three creatures materialized in the midst of an explosion of violet smoke: a Death Hound (a war dog with a spiked necklace and red eyes... but a walking dead in an advanced rotting state), a salamander (a large red lizard that left burning footprints on the ground), and an Ogre (1).
She reached for the witch doctor.
"Kill her!"
Stopping next to the shredded corpse of the orc, Miriel opened her inventory... which caused the opening of an additional window in which the witch doctor's equipment was displayed. She selected the 'orc blood' an alchemical component whose properties all appeared in the form of several '?'. She would have to do tests as soon as she had her own laboratory. The Summoner also put into her inventory the Fireball Staff and the money that the female orc had on her.
It was a method that avoided having to search a corpse and in addition... it had allowed her to recover the fur of the tigers without spending hours to skin their hides... a very disgusting work.
When she was playing Obscura Onihime Online, Miriel had never really thought that the interface was a cheat. After all, each player had the same advantages. But since her arrival in the New World, she understood that the inhabitants had to see her Interface as a very powerful magic, a combination of storage space, divination magic, and many other things.
Too bad the 'save game' button was missing...
Miriel had lost interest in the massacre of the monsters that roamed the corridors of the Dungeon. They were so weak that it was easy to eliminate them with just intermediate-level spells. And even holding back, her opponents could not even scratch her.
After securing a room in the maze, she had drawn a circle of invocation on the ground before summoning a minor demon(2).
Thanks to the Ring of the Kings, Miriel didn't have to sing for hours...
The creature that appeared was one of OOO's stupidest minor demons. An uncontrollable brute with a rather classic appearance: a kind of gargoyle without wings with red skin covered with spines, completely black eyes, and a pair of horns.
YiiaBaastthaa (since that was his little name) jumped out of the circle as soon as he appeared, screaming and drooling. Without waiting for his Summoner, the demon rushed into the corridor...
Since then, Miriel has been following the demon on the trail... not a difficult task, the ground was littered with corpses and the walls were splashed with blood wherever he went. His fighting style was... simplistic. He'd run into the enemies and hit them with his claws in a frenzied fury. Gore effect guarantees...
YiiaBaastthaa had just crossed a cave defended by a giant scorpion the size of a cow. The poor arachnid had been unable to hurt the demon... who had a shell as hard as steel. It had ended up cutting into pieces...
Only the opponent in the nearby cave was on a completely different level...
Hidden by a spell of invisibility, the half-elf stood at the entrance of the natural corridor that connected this cave to the next... she heard a very violent fight. And, at times, she saw YiiaBaastthaa or his opponent.
The latter looked like a monitor lizard standing on its hind legs, but a lizard wearing particularly creepy black armor. It fought with a mace that looked like a modern art object assembled from sharps and serrated metal. Miriel would have been unable to guess by what end one was holding if the creature had not made use of it before her eyes.
Creature?
No, it was a major demon!
She had never seen such a creature, but Miriel was a Summoner. She felt that this monster could not come from this world... it had been summoned from some hellish plane of existence...
YiiaBaastthaa was fighting furiously (the only thing he knows how to do, in fact), and doubtless, this stupid brute was pleased with the fight against the lizard demon... because the confrontation shook the maze and ravaged several rooms, causing the ceilings to collapse, burying caves under tons of rock.
But in the end, he was just a minor demon...
He collapsed to the ground, returning to nothingness in a whirlpool of violet smoke.
The lizard demon immediately turned its head in the direction of Miriel... it saw her! Certainly, some demons had amazing abilities, but the half-elf was so sure that her invisibility protected her that she lost precious time... maybe three or four seconds... before reacting. In the fluid situation of a fight, four seconds was an eternity.
The major demon screamed and the Summoner felt a sudden pain running through her body, radiating from all her nervous endings.
On the interface... the PM total suddenly appeared in red: 0 points! She could no longer cast a single spell. Seeing her hands before her, Miriel was not really surprised to discover that her skin was covered with glyphs radiating an ominous violet light.
With one cry, the demon cursed her, forbidding her to use magic!
Everything happened so fast that the wizard stood there, motionless, with an open mouth in an expression of unbelief, looking at the purple signs on her hands... What could she do without magic? Before Miriel emerges from her stupor, the lizard demon leaps forward, hitting her with its mace streaked with sharp blades.
Slightly shocked, Miriel took a few moments to recover. Stone Skin completely canceled all the damage of a physical attack... whatever the power of the attack. Of course, the spell only blocked a certain number of attacks before dissipating. And without MP, Miriel could not renew her protection.
Kso!
For a wizard, it was a nightmare to have to fight such a monster!
The demon lizard watched Miriel stand up again and screamed, throwing herself at her.
But the wizard had taken something out of her inventory and thrown it at her opponent.
"Banish the unclean! Strike down the cursed!"
The object was a kind of shuriken with three slightly curved blades as sharp as razors. At its center, there was a whistle and the noise that came out of it seemed unbearable for the saurian. The demon clasped his hands on his ears as the shuriken cut its arm slightly.
The Kahor Star was a blessed weapon forged by the dwarf Kahor to destroy the cursed beasts that haunted the mines surrounding his forge.
The star was able to banish minor demons and inflict intense suffering on the more powerful evil beings. It was one of the Relics in her collection...
Taking advantage of that the demon was in shock, Miriel took out two other objects from her inventory: a crystal wand that seemed made of ice and the Fireball Staff that belonged to the witch doctor.
"Fireball!"
"Cone of Cold!"
She used the two magic objects several times, burning and freezing the demon in turn (3), until it collapsed and did not move.
God, that horror really put her in trouble.
Handing over the items she had used in her inventory, as well as the demon mace (her loot), Miriel used a scroll of 'Remove Curse '.
The parchment fell to dust while a white light surrounded the young woman. The purple glyphs on her skin disappeared as her MP began to grow again. To boost the regeneration of her Magic Points, she also drank several blue potions.
Suspicious, Miriel looked around her...
This confrontation with a major demon had rather shocked her. Until then, the opponents met were quite pitiful. This sudden increase in difficulty was abnormal... and in addition, this monster was tailored to kill wizards.
Chance? Bad luck?
No, she felt watched. It was the gift of a caring 'admirer'... the Dungeon Master must have been the kind of sadist she hated.
Feeling a taste of bile in her mouth, Miriel shook her head. She had lowered her guard and this error had almost caused her death. But she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.
The mere fact that the Dungeon Master has only sent only one major demon proved that he had underestimated her... and in great widths. After all, even taken by surprise and deprived of her magic, she had won without a single scratch.
Yes, initially Miriel was scared, but now she was mostly angry.
She wasn't going to run away...
The map of the maze showed that beyond the corner of this corridor, there was a huge room... too large to appear in full. And there were so many red dots that it was impossible to individualize them. The map looked almost completely red.
Miriel had a faint smile.
Well, the mysterious Dungeon Master had decided to resort to the force offered by sheer number since only one powerful opponent was not enough.
The half-elf stopped for a moment, closing her eyes to concentrate. Then she drew a circle of invocation on the ground.
Three steps back, Miriel held out her right hand in front of her. At her index finger, the Ring of Kings sparkled in the light of the torches.
"Come I call you, O Lo'weenn, I have prepared a banquet in your honor. Hundreds of warriors in arms. Will you honor my offering, O Lo'weenn?"
This kind of simplistic invocation would never have worked normally, but at her finger, the strange red stone known as Actorios was increasingly bright, drawing twinkling and swirling constellations of red stars on the walls and floor.
Materializing in a whirlwind of violet energy a monstrosity gradually took shape. The first comparison that came to mind was a hippopotamus. The monster was the size and mass of this animal and its main head also resembled that of a hippopotamus...
But it stood on two short and thick legs and the body was a pink mass of fat flesh covered with a loathsome mucus, it also had a dinosaur-like tail, two short baby-like arms finished with small chubby hands... and more importantly three secondary heads that could pop up anywhere in the body.
The monster turned to Miriel who swallowed but raised the Ring of Kings.
"Hail Lo'weenn, your banquet awaits."
Lo'weenn folded his cruel eyes filled with yellow light, looking at the Actorios glittering at the finger of his Summoner. Then with a disgusting grunt, he turned around, waddling away on his short legs. The different heads began to argue among themselves, cackling in a crazy way.
After the major demon went around the corner of the corridor, Miriel cast two spells.
"Spiderweb!"
"Death Cloud!"
This spell combination was nicknamed 'Noob killer' by the OOO players. Tangled cobwebs would imprison any opponent without sufficient resistance to magic. Immobilized, they were the helpless victims of the clouds of gas.
Sending a horde of low-level opponents against Miriel was a recipe for a massacre...
Miriel waited until the spells defending the hallway had dissipated before reaching the huge hall. She had to step over the corpses of several hideous creatures. Demons of various types, probably. The Summoner had never seen any of them in OOO, but with their bat wings, their forked tails, their goat hooves, and their demonic appearance, what else could they be?
Because of her connection to Lo'weenn, Miriel felt that the demon she had summoned was still fighting. Nevertheless, the violence of the fighting in the main hall had greatly diminished in intensity. The major demon had killed almost all his opponents. But she had helped him well...
In the palm hand of her left hand, a purple flame burned... it was the manifestation of the bond between Miriel and Lo'weenn. Using her magic, the Summoner had constantly healed her creature. And since a lower-level demon couldn't kill a major demon in one fell swoop... victory was guaranteed.
Entering the huge circular room on two levels, Miriel felt like vomiting. It was some sort of butchery with hundreds of bodies lying on the ground. Some were even partially devoured and puddles of acids smoked here and there...
In a nearby room, a few tens of meters away...
Mechanically, Demiurge raised his hand to readjust his glasses. A usual tell for him... but his fingers collided with the mask he wore when he called himself 'Jadalbaoth'.
"This is very interesting..." he whispered in a low voice.
He looked at the oval mirror floating in the air in front of him. A scene appeared on the reflecting surface, a fight between an unknown demon, a mass of perfectly disgusting pink fat, and several of the demons Demiurge had summoned.
The main head of the pink monster spat an acid jet on a Gazer Devil, the demon collapsed on the ground and contortioned a few moments before dissolving only leaving behind its smoking bones.
At the same time, a tentacle sprang out of the pink demon's shoulder... the feeler ended in a greedy, drooling mouth. In one bit, he crushed a little Imp who disappeared while uttering a cry of terror.
As a Hell Hound jumped on the unknown demon to bite him the result was inconclusive. The dog demon's fangs slipped on the fat without piercing... With his dinosaur-like tail, the pink demon projected the Hell Hound against a wall.
The outcome of the battle was hardly in doubt... This unknown demon did not seem as powerful as an Abyssal Lord, but he was not really far behind, at least in terms of physical power... because he did not use magic. In case of a fight against an Abyssal Lord, this weakness would be fatal to him.
Losing his interest in the pink demon, Demiurge... finally, Jadalbaoth made some hand gestures to reorient the Mirror of Remote Viewing.
He looked at the still silhouette at the entrance to the hall.
At a fierce glance, it was a light brown stone statue depicting a woman wearing an Elven Chainmail and a cape whose hood was folded down hiding her face.
Except that the 'statue' took a few steps, looking around her not to step on the corpses.
Leaning forward, Demiurge smiled under his mask. In the beginning, the Floor Guardian of the 7th Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick had no interest in the intruder who had dared enter the Abelion Hills Dungeon.
But he was wrong, she had overcome all obstacles. This wizard was very interesting... she used a magic unknown in Yggdrasil and controlled very powerful demons.
Was she one of those 'players' his master was looking for? If that were the case, he absolutely had to avoid killing her... he had to bring her back alive to E-Rantel and give her to the Wizard King.
Demiurge watched with a clinical detachment the pink demon slaughter the last defenders of the throne room then he rose.
He entered the huge circular room and lifted a finger.
"Hell Flame!"
This 7th Tier Spell created a small flame that left Demiurge's finger heading for Lo'weenn. The demon retreated, seeking to avoid contact but the flame followed him and... At that moment the demon was wrapped by black flames which spread into the throne room in a roar of apocalypse.
The pink demon was instantly cremated.
Demiurge had a mocking grin... without effective protection against magic, even the most powerful brawler was just a target for a spell caster.
The powerful demon looked at the intruder... Miriel was already getting up. She had not been hurt. Under his mask, the 7th Floor Guardian smiled. It was time to test the limits of this form of invulnerability. Whatever the power of the attack, the wizard suffered no damage... either. But how many attacks could be stopped by this 'Stone Skin'?
In a crack, Demiurge's back widened as black wings came out of his shoulders. Each feather was very long, so long that they looked more like tentacles than feathers.
Seizing Miriel with his tentacle-like feathers, Demiurge struck her against a wall, once, twice... at the twelfth time the layer of stone covering her skin and clothing cracked, and crumbled in tiny fragments that fell to the ground.
Releasing the intruder, Demiurge watched her stand up.
Her hood had slipped on her shoulders, and without the layer of stone protecting her, she had regained a more normal appearance...
A flood of black hair framed her face. She had emerald green eyes, freckles on her cheeks... and pointed ears. An elf or half-elf, probably. She wore a palm-sized silver amulet around her neck. But her most remarkable jewel was the crown-like band of gold and silver interlaced, adorned with two sapphires and a large emerald that adorned her forehead. the wizard cape was very dark blue and her very tight form-fitting chainmail seemed woven with moonbeams.
Demiurge bowed one hand to the heart.
"Welcome, dear intruder. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Jaldabaoth, the Demon Emperor."
The 7th Floor Gardian looked carefully at the intruder's face and smiled under his mask as he saw the twinkle of her eyelid... Apart from that, she showed no reaction. He stroked his chin. Well... she had heard about his 'exploits' at the Re-Estize Capital... but controlled her facial expression enough to hide surprise and fear.
"Can I get an autograph?" she responded. "I collect autographs from the worst madmen in history."
With her finger, she pointed to the human bone throne and other furniture made of bones and tanned skins... the 'art objects' made by Demiurge as a hobby.
" I would frame it between Dr. Josef Mengele's signature and Jack the Ripper's."
Surprised by the aggressiveness of the answer, Demiurge was happy to wear a mask. Without it, he could not hide his surprise and disgust. The young woman was furious... but he didn't really understand why. He had found a use for humans. They were now works of art. It was more than they could hope for, wasn't it? Besides, Demiurge didn't understand half of her answer... the demon had never heard of the people she had mentioned.
Demiurge tried to remain polite. But it was difficult, these mortals were so unceremonious. She had entered his home... at last, his house on a temporary basis... had killed his servants and the creatures he had summoned, and it was he whom she called a monster! These lower creatures were so irritating.
It still showed the immense superiority of a Supreme One, over the creatures they had created.
While he, Demiurge, felt nothing but irritation and loathing dealing with these weak and stupid mortals, Lord Ainz felt a meekness that could only be divine to extend to these so inferior beings.
"May I ask your name" he demanded.
"You didn't give your real name, why would I give you mine?"
Demiurge's eyes narrowed...
"And what makes you think that Jaldabaoth is not my name," he asked with a velvety voice.
Looking at the blue mask adorned with a complex drawing of gold that hid the face of 'Jaldabaoth', Miriel tried to regain her composure. In her anger, she almost told him that she knew that his real name was Demiurge except... on the one hand, she wasn't really sure. And on the other hand, if Jaldabaoth was Demiurge then the Demonic Disturbance was actually an action of Ainz Ooal Gown to weaken the Re-Eetize kingdom.
In other words, she would have discovered a secret that would place her at the top of the list of enemies of the Sorcerer Kingdom, because if she communicated her suspicions to others, Miriel could jeopardize Ainz Ooal Gown's plans.
"Demons never give their true names," she simply replied.
"Oh?" the demon paused a little and then resumed the speech with a more natural tone. "I am not subject to this rule."
Phew... she had narrowly avoided a potentially deadly odd.
"You seem angry with me, may I ask why?"
"These pieces of furniture..." the half-elf pointed to the throne of bones and the other 'work of arts'. "These are the Re-Estize's missing persons?"
"Yes... from here and other places. I see. Yet there is no reason to be angry. I can guarantee you that they died without suffering."
Miriel felt like she was punched in the stomach.
Her vision becomes completely white.
He... he... that monster... he said what? ... without suffering... oh, they died without suffering and... and... that excused EVERYTHING?!
The lovers separated forever?
Parents looking in vain for their missing children?
The surviving children crying in an orphanage?
The families destroyed?
The deserted villages?
The fields of wheat that were once again fallow with brambles?
She exploded with anger, a rage stronger than anything she'd ever felt before.
"Double Lightning Bolt!"
Two lightning came out of Miriel's palms, striking Jaldabaoth simultaneously. Unfortunately, the demon was not even shaken.
"I see," he muttered, nodding his head. "I wish we had behaved like civilized people do. But if you want to make it difficult for both of us... let's do it that way. Don't worry. I'm not going to kill you. The Supreme One will want to meet you."
As Miriel was preparing for the imminent attack, she realized that Jaldabaoth had literally admitted that he was someone else's subordinate... and it could only have been Ainz Ooal Gown.
Nevertheless, it was not the right time to think about the implications.
A massive shockwave erupts from Jaldabaoth's body, burning everything within a radius of several meters...
(1) The OOO Ogre resembles a large caveman, dressed in animal skins and coarse-looking. It's a different creature from the New World Ogre.
(2) Be careful, don't make the mistake of believing that Miriel has just summoned a weak creature. Even 'minor', an OOO demon is capable of slaughtering a group of beginner players.
(3) Under the OOO rules, a burned and then frozen individual must make a jet of resistance under the Constitution characteristic, in case of failure the ice attack damage is doubled (cold shock).