3 months later...

Stats-

Jeanne D'Altera

Level 36

Class- Battlemage, lvl 44/100 (45%)

Legendary class- Avenger lvl 42/100 (88%)

Production class- Engineer lvl 77/100 (64%)

Race- Heroic Spirit

Alignment- Chaotic Neutral

HP- 1600 (320 per minute)

MP- 4830 (946 per 30 seconds)

SP- 1600 (320 per 30 seconds)

STR- 510

DEX- 335

END- 160

INT- 483

WIS- 473

CHA- 100

LUK- 175

Stat points (40)

[Due to Strength reaching 500, you have unlocked a new perk!]

[Freight Train- 1/100 (0%)] It's hard to stop a train once it's moving. Momentum and velocity behind attacks now factor in for a damage buff, and you are now immune to knockback from the strength behind your own attacks.

[Due to Charisma and Luck reaching 100 you have unlocked new perks!]

[Community leader- passive] People in friendly communities look up to you for advice. Increased charisma in friendly towns and cities, 10% discount on goods purchased.

[Token wheel- passive] Spin the wheel, take a chance! One free daily spin for a random Gacha token.

}x{

TANG

TANG

TANG

TANG

TANG

The ringing of steel on metal resounded throughout the area, flickering flames painting the walls with shifting shadows and dancing light. The hearth of the forge glowed brightly with heat, shimmering waves of mirage rising from its mouth, distorting the air. A blade of metal was raised aloft, orange with a shimmering haze in the air as it was inspected by the occupants of the room. Golden eyes appraised it carefully before facing a singular blue one in questioning. A nod was given, and the blade was quenched in a barrel of oils, filling the room with sizzling and steam as the steel was cooled. Once that was complete, the finished item was removed and placed back upon the anvil that served for it's creation.

The solitary blue eye gave a critical look over the freshly forged blade. It lacked any and all decoration or handle, but that was the point. The main work had only just been finished, it still needed sharpening and refinement before it would be truly complete. Gloved hands picked up and inspected the sword, eyeing the edge for any warp or cracks. A noise of approval.

"A fair blade," Ellis announced, turning the finished work over in his hands. "Add the final touches and I might even consider selling this in my shop."

I raised an eyebrow. That was high praise, the old smith simply didn't allow anything less than quality works to be sold in his shop, as it was both a matter of pride for him and safety for the users. To quote the old man- 'Ain't nobody getting killed due to a failure in something I made!' Ellis flipped the blade over again before handing it back to me, motioning to one of the workbenches.

"Go ahead and clean up the blade, then you can be off for the day. You're making good progress lass, I'll have to make a better challenge for you next week." He said before taking off his gloves and heading to the front where his granddaughter, Tayla, could be heard talking to a customer. I took the sword and laid it out on the workbench, collecting the right tools and oils before beginning to polish the blade. My thoughts began to drift as I lost myself in the task and thought back to the last few months.

Since I'd finally gotten my base up and running and summoned Dell, things had fallen into more of a normal schedule instead of the frantic pace I'd had in the first few days here. I still made advancements and ran through dungeons every night to farm XP but things had calmed down some at least. For one, Dell's lessons in engineering and science were very useful. Given my new eidetic memory I was able to read the textbooks and recall things perfectly, however...memory was not the same as understanding. I grew to greatly appreciate Dell's tutoring through my lessons because he had one thing that was invaluable- Experience. He had been there and done that and knew the best ways to get things done, and his little nuggets of wisdom paid dividends when put into practice. He also possessed a talent for cutting to the heart of matters when starting a new field, building my understanding of the basics before expanding upon it, something he often used in our joint lessons when explaining the workings of the Intrepid to me, and wasn't that a godsend.

When I had the idea of figuring out how the Intrepid worked and improving on it I really didn't know what I was getting into. We started from the bottom up, going over the general structure and design before going into specifics and subsystems and I quickly realized just how unsuited the Intrepid was for my plans. CV-11 was designed to carry a large crew of around 2,600 enlisted and to be backed by the logistics of a large nation, something I neither had the manpower or manufacturing to keep up with (yet). Maintenance and general staffing could be covered by the Engineering operators and those Gen 1 Synths I had the blueprints for, but it was apparent I would need to build my own design from the ground up if I wanted a suitable aircraft carrier as a mobile base. I brought up my concerns to Dell and he was happy to lend a hand provided I finished my lessons with him first, which was an easy agreement.

Rudimentary designs were already being laid out for both an escort fleet and the new carrier, and once I was finished with my lessons I was going to be collaborating with Dell on weapons and autonomous forces, with a heavy focus on nuclear reactors so that I could remove the range and energy concerns of my soon-to-be naval fleet.

Outside of my machinations at the base I was quickly building a reputation for myself in town as a capable and rising solo adventurer in Re-Ulovale, albeit one slightly feared due to some rather violent means used against a group of bandits. After receiving my Iron plate in only a week and a half of adventuring and silver in two months, some people had started to try to recruit me for my talent- which led to a lot of refusals and a few hurt feelings.

Normally I wouldn't have minded making a few friends adventuring but the problem was they would've tied me down. I had places to go, rich nations with vaults to plunder of items, and some connections to make for when things started getting real around here. I couldn't be bogged down taking weekly quests and watching after other weaker adventurers when I had such a grand stake in things, especially when they would never be able to keep up with a Gamer like me. I decided that unless I met someone exceptional, or one of the stronger characters in this world, I wouldn't let myself get tied to anyone else's schedule outside of my lessons at base and in blacksmithing.

Speaking of said lessons, Ellis was a true enthusiast in his craft, he knew all the tricks and had led a long and storied life in his career. It was definitely the right choice to seek him out. He didn't settle for shortcuts, everything was either done right or redone- no exceptions. Starting out it took me a few days of practice to get a feel for how to strike the metal and gauge the temperature when forging, but after gaining the skill [Forging] through practice things started to become much easier. Ellis had been commenting on my growth in lessons and how I was apparently a natural in the craft.

It kind of made me feel guilty at basically cheating compared to natural learning, but the feeling was easily swept away in the feeling of accomplishment at learning the craft. The simple things we started with like knifes and horseshoe nails soon transitioned into more complicated works and longer blades. The sword I had just forged was the second one I had attempted, and Ellis had remarked that I was months ahead of regular apprentices.

I finished up cleaning the unrefined blade and bade farewell to Ellis and Tayla for the day, noting the late afternoon sun and slightly chilly air that blew through the streets. As best I could tell, I had been dropped into the 'New World' almost a year before the summer when Nazarick was set to arrive, and fall was now here. As I trekked out of town and along a trail in the direction of my base I briefly lamented over the loss of one of my most treasured possessions from my last life- My truck.

You truly never appreciate the use of something as common as a vehicle until you have to walk day after day for miles just to commute to places. I missed being able to roll my windows down and just cruise, blasting music and enjoying the moment. The music player feature I had was pretty good quality and helped me retain some sense of normality, but it just wasn't the same. The sound was there in your head but you couldn't... feel it. I had a thing for bass heavy songs and the loss of being able to touch a surface and feel the thrum from a speaker beneath my hand was sorely missed. The same for being able to press a pedal and feel the roar of an engine as you were pressed into your seat.

I couldn't wait to get to a point where I could start manufacturing vehicles, aerial or not.

Ahh, right, manufacturing! I hadn't actually stopped building engineering operators since I made my base, instead dedicating the growing drone fleet to expanding upon the cove and reinforcing it. With input from Dell, there were now a multitude of new sections that were dug out of the rock, like a gun range and workshops dedicated to testing, an armory/munitions room, and an information center for security and general intelligence management. Both Dell and I agreed that this base would end up being a long term holding, and should be built with everything in mind.

Well...in truth, Dell agreed to having extra room for testing his toys, and I was in a productive mood. I.. mayor may not have spent several hours relieving boredom by plotting out future additions, ranging from recreational areas and maintenance tunnels to additional dry docks and even a submarine pen- and Dell, having gotten his hands on my weapons blueprints, went on a little excited spree where he started combining some of his tech with some of the weapons systems I had.

I had to give him credit where it was due, he was a real genius when it came to solving practical problems. The question of automated security was solved with his automated Sentry turrets, now retrofitted and redesigned to have several variants that used different weapons, like the Bofors cannons for anti-armor/ship/air... pretty much anti-everything with the right type of shells. I introduced Dell to the concept of a CWIS/C-RAM system and it didn't take much for him to adapt his existing turrets to cover that job as well. The newer AEGIS turrets (the larger and more permanent counterparts to Dell's portable sentries) even incorporated modified Javelin anti tank missiles, but they weren't much use underground so the stage 3s would be reserved for surface and naval operations while stage 2s covered the indoor defenses.

As of now I was confident our defense systems could fend off anything up to level 50, but what made me worried was I had no idea how our automated systems would handle stealthy beings like the Hanzos, or possible spiritual mobs like shadow demons and poltergeists. The system simply wasn't built for non-humans like that, but it wasn't like I had any to test against either. In the meantime I would have to rely on Dell's targeting data from the few times he's had to deal with the wizard Merasmus and his undead summons. Thankfully I still had months to build up before I needed to worry about Ainz, so Shadow demons were not yet a concern.

Scrying was a valid threat, however, as the Theocracy was practiced enough to see across the continent and into buildings, but as long as their attention was never attracted to me they shouldn't have a reason to look. A countermeasure would have to be created but I didn't have the means or knowledge of the arcane to even attempt that. Anonymity plus the perk 'Not my problem' should keep me safe for the time being, at least until I make my move against those racist bigots.

NMP, or 'not my problem' was a very useful perk I had experimented with in recent days when taking on the bounties for some local gangs and bandits. I found that while it made it so 'weird' or 'strange' abilities and weapons were overlooked, people only stayed passive to me until I wronged them. For example, I could walk into a bandit camp, shoot someone in the head, and people wouldn't question where I came from, the fact I had a gun, what it was, or how I got it, they would only focus on the fact I had just killed one of their members.

Basically, it made people passive until I became their problem. I no longer had to fear people thinking about how I had outlandish weaponry and tech but I could not waltz into a kingdom's vault, steal things, and expect to walk back out unmolested. The perk also did not work against non-sentient beings or magical traps, so beasts would still attack if they were hostile, and I could still trigger defenses and alarms if I wasn't careful. I also had a suspicion that higher leveled beings might be unaffected by it but I didn't have anyone to test that against, and I wasn't ready yet to tempt fate against one of the 6 scriptures or dragons.

About thirty minutes into my walk home I pulled off the road and into the forest, making sure to peel away from any civilization before taking the Eureka Effect from my inventory. Flicking a switch on the side of the silver wrench I raised it into the air and held a trigger. A whirring built up before a surge of electricity from the sky seized my body and I was whisked away to the teleporter set up in my base.


As the blinding flash of teleportation faded away I took a step off the whirring blue hard light platform of the teleporter and exited the newly dubbed 'transfer' room and into the cove proper. Bright lights shone down illuminating concrete support pillars and the expanded dry docks, with a new overhead crane system build into the roof of the cavern above.

The engineering operators had drilled into the sides and back of the cave, creating an aisle or lane in the water that lead to five different dry docks of varying size and one submarine pen, all empty but ready to accommodate any eventual ships, should I get to building them, which I would once my designs were finalized. Really, thanks to the harvester it cost me only time to make them, and the idea of a personal naval fleet appealed to me.

One thing I certainly loved about having a robotic workforce and a large amount of resources was the utter ease it took to build things up. I had never been a lavish person who took pleasure in opulence, but I was very fond of having things of higher standard than needed. It didn't have to be top of the line but I appreciated quality above quantity, and when it came to defenses there was nothing considered overkill.

With the abundance of both time and resources, I dedicated my fleet of robots to making everything in the cove to a higher standard to suit whatever needs I might eventually encounter. Things were organized, refined, and then expanded based on how much use they would see. Concrete defensive bunkers were put in place to surround the sea entrance, housing the brand new Bofors Sentries. Based on the stage 2 of Dell's turrets, gone was the spindly and foldable frame of the portable sentries and in its place was a tougher and armored version. Each of its 'arms' had belt fed 40mm auto cannons, and the central body had better optics and sensors designed to target weak points and customize the feed of ammo sent to the cannons, swapping from armor piercing to high explosive and beyond based on the threat. Truly a deadly piece of work, and I was quite fond of it. Those 40mm cannons were fun to use.

I shook myself from my thoughts and pocketed the Eureka Effect, walking from the main chamber to the testing wing where the newer and bigger workshops were, along with a basic laboratory and the firearms testing range where Dell had perfected his new AEGIS turrets. White walls, metal tables and half assembled sentries and robotic parts were strewn about the workshop on various surfaces, a whiteboard or two set up with a breakdown of some part beyond my current abilities to understand. Dell himself was at a table hovering over the wiring and guts of one of his dispensers, making notes and running calculations on a tablet I had gifted him, something he had eagerly found use for.

I couldn't help but chuckle slightly when I thought back to introducing him to touchscreens. Dell came from a time before solid state drives and smartphones existed, and he was rather gleeful to learn about the advances in tech I was able to provide him. True, Dell had invented things well beyond his time, but he was often limited by some of the available materials and tech he had access to, which made him like a kid on Christmas when I introduced him to a 3d printer. His newfound excitement lead to a few days where he got so caught up in all his work I actually had to check on him to ensure he ate at least twice a day and got some sleep.

His labors certainly bore fruits though, as he had taken the enchanted metals of this world and delivered results that gave great promise... and more than a few ideas that almost made me giddy. Mithril, Adamantite, Orichalcum, these metals were just crazy when put through tests.

Adamantite, the dark metal of Ainz's adventurer armor was without a doubt better than even the toughest tungsten alloy. Through experimentation it was found Mana was needed to forge or shape it, the raw energy of magic providing enough disruption in its natural enchantment that it allowed its molecular bonds to be broken or melted in the right circumstances. An incredible metal but also one of limited use due to its properties, rarity, and forging, though undeniably useful.

Orichalcum was a purple metal and the second strongest of the three, easily tougher than some of the best alloys out there. A metal with strangely very low conductivity suited to act as an insulator against electricity. It's melting temperature was higher than most metals but also the lowest of the three enchanted ones, making it the easiest to work with and a good structural metal.

Mythril, a strangely green metal reminiscent of contaminated copper was the weakest of them all, yet still as strong as depleted uranium, a very dense byproduct from enriching uranium that was often used as composite armor plating for some main battle tanks. Despite its supposed inferiority to the other two, Dell had found a value within it that easily put it in the same tier as Adamantite in my eyes. Mythril was found to be very conductive, almost amplified. Magical energy, electricity, it all passed through it with ease. It might as well have been supercooled gold in how easy it carried a charge, making it more than ideal for electronics and one other application that made me the most excited- when running a charge beyond a certain threshold through it, the metal became strongly electromagnetic, and when it became electromagnetic, it acted weird.

Mithril became even tougher when inside a magnetic field. The natural enchantment on it seemed to both cause and feed off of magnetism, making it harder to tear its bonds apart the more electricity was given to strengthen the field, and that opened up so many options I was damn near drooling at the thought. Mmm... Quantum locked armor plating...

ARMOR LOCK ARMOR LOCK ARMOR LOCK ARMOR LOCK

Ahem*

Anyways, there was also another use for it. In my last life I knew that Railguns were real, they existed and prototypes had been made by the military, but they were also scrapped due to both power constraints on ships in service and the wear projectiles would cause on the barrels, requiring them to need replacements after as few as ten shots. Now, with Mythril, they were a reliable possibility, and if my reactor research bore fruit it would allow my ships to have not only better firepower, but safer hulls and quicker reloads with a lack of explosive munitions needed. That and I was salivating over the thought of making a portable railgun. I just needed a way to convert my mana into electricity and it would become not only a feasible weapon but a potential path for power armor in the future.

Reactive electromagnetic armor plating for ships and vehicles has never been so close! I could practically taste it, and yet my facilities and research weren't up to anything more than theory and testing at the moment. It would likely be months before I was able to put anything more than fixed Railguns into service, and even then I would need Dell's help to nail down those.

I shook myself from my thoughts and grabbed a few textbooks, moving over to the central lab table Dell usually hosted our lessons at. It was just about time for our next session and I wanted to get through Hydraulics soon so we could get started on proper robotics.


I wiped the sweat from my brow in the new custom forge area of the cove, placing a finished piece of armor down onto a cooling rack as I took in my work. Truth be told, I was much further along with my own forging than I let Ellis know of, considering the sheer speed in which all gamers learn things.

As best I could tell, at [Forging] (89/100) I was almost master-craft level, certainly good enough to finish the armor set I wanted to make. Orichalum was used for the base of the main pieces, using a combination of both forging and machining to get them set right before being dipped in molten Adamantine to coat the greenish metal with the desired black look, as well as to seal it for both extra protection and from the elements.

Charge it all up with a boatload of mana for reinforcement with my Engineer skill and throw in some black dyed Kevlar weave for the fabric of the armor and intentional wear and tear along the bottom of the cloak and battle skirt and voila!

[Item creation success! 1x Jeanne Alter Armor set, Gamer edition]

Putting on all the pieces, I couldn't help myself but look at it in a mirror and give it a twirl. I certainly looked badass now, like the fallen and twisted Saint I truly was! Even my grin looked menacing in this new armor. Now, maybe I should get a new melee weapon? Swords are efficient, but I want something more intimidating... perhaps a Halberd?

Something to think on. Guns are far too useful for me to not use, and any new melee weapon would require training or at least experience... but what if I could combine the two? The show RWBY came to mind with all of their 'mechashift' weapons. I wasn't about to make a collapsible sniper-scythe, but perhaps I could stick a high caliber gun into the shaft of a halberd?

I'll table that for the near future, now though, I had other things to plan since my armor was finished, such as exploring. I couldn't stay in Re-Ulovale forever, especially not when my plans revolve around me visiting so many places.

I kind of wished that I had the ability to fly, or at least the space to keep and maintain an airfield but it seems I still have to wait for a method of faster transport. Oh well.

Still, the question was where to visit first? There wasn't much in store for me in the Re-Estize kingdom, and the only draws for the Baharuth empire was dealing with a few of their Workers and Archie. The Slane Theocracy held the most value to me because of their treasures and Downfall of Castle and Country, but they were still pretty far away on foot, probably at least two weeks of travel by carriage.

Maybe I should tour through Baharuth, rescue Arche and her sisters, then saunter on down to the Theocracy and strut around their capital in astral form and nick their shit. Maybe get Zeshi? As far as I know, the only loyalty she really had for them was a lack of something better and the memory of her mother. If I can promise her something better, perhaps revenge on the Elf king, that should be enough to sway her to my side, though if I'm not strong enough she might not want to follow me.

Ehh, I'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. Now I need to pack for the trip.


A few days later...

As a carryover of my old life, even with the weird routine I had fallen into in this world, it wasn't enough to satiate my wanderlust. Every month or so I used to just drive someplace to get lost after work, usually finding a fast food joint to grab something to eat before finding a suitably withdrawn place close to nature like a park or pavilion and just... sit there and enjoy the moment.

Such was the case I found myself in currently, minus the driving and plus some mountains. It was the first day of my journey to the Empire and I had grabbed some fresh foods from in town, stuffed them in my inventory, and took a hike up some of the lesser used trails into the mountains I had built my base into. The fresh air and untamed and untainted beauty was truly worth the view once I found a good place to stop.

And finally, for once, the constant, simmering... anger I had at the back of my mind faded somewhat.

At the beginning I hadn't truly noticed how the anger that broiled in the back of my mind seemed to stick, mostly pinning it on my disgust over goblins and their depraved acts, but soon days went by and I found myself unable to calm down. I noticed I was snappier than I had ever been, and I would find myself scowling for no reason almost as if it was my resting face. I didn't like being this angry.

In my last life it wasn't a stretch to say I had the patience of a saint- nothing got under my skin, and I had never been able to hate someone longer than a week or two. Dislike or disdain, sure, but not really hate. I had certainly never felt enough anger to be violent before except maybe in a tantrum of my youth, and comparing my past to my current self left me realizing that I had no reason to be this mad, that I shouldn't be this mad.

It must be my nature as a twisted and wronged avenger that was leaving me with this constant feeling and it was exhausting! I didn't like it. Not one bit, which was another part of my reasoning to try and find some calm place up here. Constantly keeping myself from getting angry at small events or even people was draining me mentally. The most I had been able to manage 90% of the time was a sort of apathy that didn't serve for making friends or connections, which was more than detrimental.

Before I died I was one of the few 'old souls' for my age that people in my last life could never see as being violent, one that most might mistake as older than they are. I was the quiet sort who'd be happy to talk but rarely engaged in conversation first, someone who didn't mind peace and quiet. A few of my coworkers had once jokingly expressed their desire to see the day I snapped, if I ever did, purely because they simply could not fathom it, and that alone made it a sight worthy of any great historical event.

Simply put, I was hard pressed to compare the old, patient me to the new one, who felt nothing at killing people and threw a guy into a table for failing to know when to take a hint. There was the old saying that "Killing, when done righteously, is nothing more than a chore," but it wasn't even a chore to me. I felt no desire to end lives needlessly, but I felt satisfaction at killing those who I believed deserved it, no matter how cruel I dealt their end. Killing, whether it be of humans, monsters, or animals, felt no more of a chore to me than one would checking their watch, hardly worth noting.

To be frank, it unnerved me.

It didn't scare me, but it certainly made me wary. I no longer felt anything over the loss of lives that didn't directly involve me or someone close to me. There were undoubtedly bonus objectives for this world that involved intervening in a few of the unneeded deaths of a few characters, but aside from two, maybe three of them I felt little reason to stick my neck out for anyone else.

Maybe it was natural, since I didn't even know the characters as anything more than names and faces of a show, but the only reason I was even looking at saving some of them beyond the sad ending of Archie and the swords of darkness was simply because they were a bonus objective. Realizing I would be interested in saving others only if it had personal value to me was a bit of a shock. I mean, I had no delusions that I was out to save everyone, I didn't want to be a hero, but the fact that the first time around when I thought of it I had dismissed the thought of even trying to save the 100,000 Re-Estize soldiers Ainz would kill later on was certainly a wake up.

To realize I would sooner let 100,000 drafted, untrained and unwilling farmers die so that things would play out as I expect them to- rather than lift a finger and gain Ainz's attention... I'm not sure if the old me would've done the same, but the old me was powerless, this time I had power, I had weapons, I had the means to change things.. and I was content to sit on the side and let things play out, only intervening out of personal interest. A lot of people would probably condemn me for not using what I had for good but I found I simply didn't care. I was much more content to play the role of a wildcard and a watcher than an active player in things.

Being an active player of power meant stepping on the toes of other powerful people, and I didn't like having enemies, especially ones that could plot schemes much better than I could. I feared people like that. I feared people like Demiurge, because if there is one thing I hate, its things working to kill me that I can't see.

Shaking myself from the wanderings of my mind I settled down onto a rock near the overlook on the trail and pulled out my lunch, focusing on the wind and how it rushed through the trees, causing the noise of rustling leaves while birds chirped in the distance. The simple environment of nature helped calm my thoughts, allowing me to focus on the scene around me to staunch my mind from going in so many directions as it was wont to do.

My reasons to be here were twofold, both to just go someplace new and enjoy nature and to try my hand at practicing meditation. Some people preferred to try and meditate in a quiet room to empty their thoughts, however I had never found this effective.

Silence only gave room for my thoughts to become louder, an absence of everything else left them center stage for my focus.

No, I needed something simple, like the sound of a stream or waterfall, rain, wind, or something like a singing bowl. Nothing with any recognizable pattern or voice, like music. Simple noise to focus on to drown out my own ability to think words and just let me live in the moment, like the wind through these trees.

I wanted control of my emotions, being this angry all the time was exhausting, and I didn't want to turn away people by acting like an apathetic or angry ice queen. Hatred and anger only brought more of itself in return and gained nothing positive for anyone. I didn't want to poison people against me when it only cost me effort to be polite.

I died without any enemies in my last life and I rather enjoyed not having to look over my shoulder in fear. The only thing I would have to change this time is to eliminate any powerful enemies quickly and decisively before they could grow into a problem, and stay out of the way of the ones I couldn't deal with until I could.

A breath was let out, and I felt the air circulate through my lungs. I leaned back into the rock, thankful for the shade of a nearby tree as I closed my golden eyes and just focused on being there, on me, and my body. Minutes passed as I focused on the simple things, feeling the fabric of my armor under my hands as I put them over my stomach, the wind ruffling my longer hair, the scent of pine and various trees around me.

After a bit I was even able to focus within myself and feel my Saint Graph, feeling my mana circulating through the blueprint of ether that made up my form. The graph was dark purple, I think, or at least that felt right. Some parts of it felt... normal, almost clean, while connecting paths smattering the graph were twisted and crossed, with a section here or there that seemed added in. The results of a twisted wish, and a corrupted spirit.

Following the feeling of circulating mana I traced it to my Magic Core, given to me by the draconic aspect the grail had imparted on the original Alter. Part of me wondered if I managed to untangle my own saint graph, if it would change me to be more like the original Jeanne D'Arc... but wouldn't that mean changing who I fundamentally was? My Saint Graph was quite literally the blueprint to everything me, even more so than DNA could attest to because it was part of my soul, part of my spiritual core. Damage to it was the equivalent of a fatal wound, where you would leak mana out like a punctured tire until you faded away. Luckily nothing but weapons of myth and magic could damage that, but in this world of fantasy and dragons that was of less comfort.

Hmm. Thinking of the lore of Fate/Stay night reminds me I should learn reinforcement and structural analysis, but that's for the future. Now is to relax, and to be here, not with thoughts scattered like leaves in the wind.

And so I relaxed, and focused on the simple things that you rarely take the moment to appreciate, like the fresh forest smell, and the soft feeling of the wind.

...

...

...

...

(Skill gained! Through practice you have gained the skill [Meditate]!)

That... wasn't as hard as I thought. Maybe it's because I already knew how? Or at least, because I practiced it on occasion in my last life? Oh, who knows.

Despite being on a rock I'm kinda in a comfy position, I guess I'll just spend half an hour on this before I start moving again. The sun is warm and the breeze is cool, nice weather for a nap.

It has been a long while since I last let myself sleep... Maybe just for a while?

}x{

(Luck Event Triggered!)

Everything was hazy, like wading through smoke. There was no light in this sky of grey, yet it was just bright enough to see.

I found myself walking through what looked like a desert of red and brown sand, the smog covering everything but a few feet in front of me.

Fumes and ash brushed at my face, irritating my eyes as the air felt choked and old, like a wasteland after a fire.

Eventually I came upon a hill and crested its peak, catching a break in the endless smog that pervaded this world.

What laid in front of me was a graveyard. Not of man, but of metal.

Piles of scrapped mechanical objects and vehicles littered the ground, towering effigies of decay and erosion laid to rot upon this field.

A tortured groan of metal echoed across the land from some settling wreck as I took in the sight.

An overwhelming sense of loss and regret filled me as I gazed. I looked at my hands, stained with oil and grease, and then at the ground beneath my feet.

What I had thought was sand was actually rust, fine particles of eroded metal covering the ground like a blanket.

Ash continued to fall from the sky around me like a twisted parody of snow in this monument of ruin, mocking me for some failure, I was sure, but what failure?

As I pondered that thought, I couldn't help but feel something was wrong.

This scrapyard was... true, yes, but... there was more than this, right?

The air and land was filled with regrets and mistakes, missed chances, but... it felt like a correction, a reparation had already been made?

Yes, there was redemption to be had, I just had to...

}x{

Abruptly I was startled from my dream by a poking sensation on my face. Sitting up and flailing my arms (and not at all panicking for a second) I ended up dislodging and scaring away the bird that had decided to land on my head as I slept. Scowling at the misfortune I blew a feather off of my nose and reflected on my dream, or was it even a dream? A vision? If it was a dream is the only reason I can even remember it due to my perfect memory?

But... that was unlike any dream I'd had before. Oh, I've had a few crazy ones I could remember like throwing flaming lanterns from a bargain bin at a ship of pirates set up on display in the middle of a bass pro shops, but none were as... vivid? While I wasn't truly controlling myself and it felt like I was watching it through a haze, I knew it was real in a way that dreams could never match.

Whatever that was, was interesting for many reasons, and I was inwardly kicking myself for having literally never slept since getting to the New World in the off chance I would've had that dream under better circumstances.

Well, now that I knew that could happen, (whatever it was), I could set aside some proper time to sleep every now and then. Not every night though, I still had a lot to do and lessons to learn. I wouldn't be satisfied enough to slow down until I could finish my new aircraft carrier and have at least one escort ship, nothing of less tonnage than a destroyer. There were grumblings and rumors of a new pirate force encroaching on Re-Ulovale's waters and I planned on taking them down in the future.

Eyeing the position of the sun in the sky I got up and dusted myself off. The meditation and rest helped soothe the anger in my soul, but I needed to get moving again if I wanted to keep a decent pace on the road. I could run faster than any regular human now but even at a jog it would take me a day or two to get to the nearest city in Baharuth, and then probably 4-5 days to get to the city where Archie and her worker group stayed at.

}x{

Eight hours later...

Y'know when I thought about it, spending a few days walking on the road didn't seem that bad but now I get why they have carriages. Not only did it let the people traveling have rest, but it also gave them something to do in the form of talking or driving the horses!

As for me? I'm fuckin bored! I even bought more music to listen to and it's not enough. I could deal with ten hours straight driving cross country in my last life but walking for the same time is entirely different!

I haven't even come across anyone else traveling so far, just a single carriage that was going the opposite way. Nobody to complain to, or to talk to, or even just share company with. I'm starting to dread what tomorrow will be like. I'll find someplace off the road in a few hours to run through some dungeons until the morning, it'll at least break this monotony and give me targets to vent my frustrations on.

}x{

Dungeon complete!

[Level up! All Hp, Sp, and Mp restored!]

Stats-

Jeanne D'Altera

Level 37

Class- Battlemage, lvl 46/100 (86%)

Legendary class- Avenger lvl 45/100 (64%)

Production class- Engineer lvl 79/100 (17%)

Race- Heroic Spirit

Alignment- Chaotic Neutral

HP- 1630 (326 per minute)

MP- 4970 (947 per 30 seconds)

SP- 1630 (326 per 30 seconds)

STR- 524

DEX- 344

END- 163

INT- 497

WIS- 487

CHA- 100

LUK- 175

Stat points- (10)

I look over my stats with a critical eye as the dawn's light breaks over the trees in the distance. I'm becoming more and more of a magical powerhouse but so far I have no skills or spells aside from the one to truly make use of it, leaving me in a sort of odd spot where I am unable to make use of my best abilities for more than crafting and reinforcing my own inventions.

My endurance, even when doubled by wearing my armor, is still the weakest critical stat I have, and I'm sensing that later on down the line it's going to cause problems, turning me into a fragile heavy hitter. I'll need to start brainstorming ways to either use my mana as a shield or create something else to cover that role because I'm not comfortable being the glass cannon when my life is on the line.

Something to think about on the trip I suppose. Ugh. I am not looking forward to this. At least I should be in a town by the end of the day.

}x{

Three hours later...

I paused at the crest of a hill. Hmm. You know I never realized, but lollipops just flavor your own spit for you to drink. Strange.

Five hours later...

Yknow, Jesus and floppy discs have something in common, they both died and became an icon of saving.

Eight hours later...

I wonder what it's like for non English speakers to find out the difference between a butt dial and a booty call.

Twelve hours later...

(Wii channel playing on a loop) Head empty. Nintendo music.

Much later...

I finally see a town up ahead and I can't stop the explosive sigh of relief that follows because this nightmare is finally over!

I am never doing this again. Fuck walking everywhere, if I don't learn a spell to fly or find the blueprints to a helicopter I'm going to start the industrial revolution early and build a network of railroads just so I don't have to deal with this shit.

Hell I should do that anyways, I would make a killing providing fast transportation around the continent for the nations. Except for the Theocracy, fuck them.

... Actually, now that I've thought of it, that sounds like a feasible idea. Steam engines are rustic enough that it isn't too much of a stretch to introduce them, and I can manage and regulate everything through synths. Not much that can threaten me could be reverse engineered from steam powered tech and it might just give this world an economical boost!

I keep bouncing around the idea in my mind as I enter the town, flashing my silver adventurer's plate at the guards as a pass to get through the gates. The only problems with setting up railroads is I need permission from landowners, in other words the nobility and royalty of the nations, which would be a pain in the ass.

However, what if I could impress the rulers enough that I could go over the nobility's heads? It would take a convincing demonstration, probably an audience with the king or the emperor, but what could I do to get that?

As I ponder this question a poster near the town square catches my attention, featuring exotic depictions of beasts and almost carnival style festivity. "Grand Fair at the Capital" It read, going on to list a sales pitch asking for entertainers and merchants to appear and sell their wares and perform shows, with a prize from the emperor himself for the best entertainment.

Well now, what a perfect way to introduce myself! Maybe I should set up like at the original world fair and build a track around the entire event, give people rides for a fee, provide people with proof of a better way to travel? Certainly something to try.

The poster listed the date of the fair as the last week of October, so I have a month and a half to go there and get set up, but I probably need to convince the organizers to let me in. A small scale model should do the trick, then I can make a smaller steam engine for the actual fair. It doesn't need to be fast or very large, just enough to do its job and show off.

Well, I can put a hold on rescuing Archie from her parents for a while and see this through for now, she's not in mortal danger or anything, just in debt due to her parents. I take a look at my map again and plot a trail to the capital, taking care to note where and who the poster said to contact about setting up at the fair.

Let's see, with the closest trails, the walking distance from here to the capital will be... 5 days.

I feel my eye twitch as my previous good mood gets doused like a cat dropped into a pool. Come on, me, you can do this. It's all so you don't have to do trips like this again!

Somehow, that didn't make me feel any better.


A/N: Yep it's been a while, the revolving door that is my interest in writing comes and goes, and since I try to get these chapters to 8-10k words that sometimes means it takes a bit to get it to a satisfactory state, especially when 95% of my time on fanfiction is spent reading other fics rather than working on my own.

I'll tell you, I have so many ideas on scenes to write, worlds to visit, and challenges to make that it's hard to actually restrict myself to the pace I have for Overlord, though in the next few chapters once I get to the start of the actual series, things will start speeding up. I'm honestly kinda eager to have the next world be something like RWBY since I both really like that world, and because I want to completely derail it before volume 3, which is honestly rather easy to do.

Anyhow, Enjoy this chapter and feel free to give me suggestions for powers or magic because to be completely honest I've never really played many games with magic in them, so my inspiration is running dry in that department, and thus restricting my development of Jeanne in that aspect.