A.N: Yeah... I bet none of y'all expected lazy Zer0 to update so quickly. But here I am, though it's a short chapter lol. In any case, enjoy reading and leave me a review, they're my fuel for writing this.

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'Heart of the Deus Mechanicus', it roughly translates to 'Heart of the Machine God'.

It's a consumable-type World Item that can be generated, like its relative, the Caloric Stone, albeit with different methods.

It was among the lesser known and even less popular of the World Items of YGGDRASIL, due to its niche uses that made difficult for the majority of the Player base to utilise.

The Caloric Stone, for instance, which is a World Item generated from stockpiling massive amounts of prismatic ores, minerals of the highest value in YGGDRASIL, in one place over a period of time, fulfilling the conditions for its creation in exchange for consuming all stockpiled ores.

And while the cost is often far too great, the rewards reaped would be just as great, as the Caloric Stone could be utilised to craft many weapons, armour and golem cores, that are much greater than many well known Divine-Grade items. And could also be utilised to improve players with golem classes, improving their builds and granting them rare classes or great boosts to their natural stats.

Just like the Caloric Stone, the Heart of the Deus Mechanicus could also be utilised to improve Automaton-class players or NPCs or be used in the creation of their cores.

Unfortunately, that's where the difficulty spike in getting the Heart comes into play.

While the Caloric Stone could be produced through the consumption of prismatic ores, an expensive yet much simpler endeavour…

To get the Heart, you need to defeat the World Enemy of the same name, the Deus Mechanicus.

To many, it was a pointless and fruitless endeavour, even detrimental at one point. This is because even though the World Item in and of itself could at least provide an immunity to the effects of other World Items, over ninety five of all the Yggdrasil players and eighty percent of all the NPCs that it could be used in the creation of, or go upgrade, will have little to no use of it.

Even the Caloric Stone could offset the detriment of being usable only to upgrade or create golem cores by being usable in the creation of weapons and armour usable by any race.

And considering how extremely difficult it was to defeat the Mad Machine God to begin with, requiring ridiculously overly complicated conditions that are needed to be fulfilled to damage it, let alone defeat it, the Heart was considered as one of the least desirable World Items in YGGDRASIL. Especially since while many won't ever choose to face the World Enemy personally to get it, they would much rather ambush the victors for it, putting a target on the backs of any who choose to fight the Mad Machine God for it.

'It was a good thing that Garnet could use it immediately back then.' Ainz mused to himself as he folded his arms in front of him. 'If he couldn't, the ambush party that was waiting for us would've wiped out our surviving members, especially since we suffered many casualties and Touch Me and Ulbert weren't there to help.'

The undead sighed fondly as he reminisced on those exhausting yet irreplaceable moments. 'I guess it's fate that Garnet's personal creation became the second person affiliated with Ainz Ooal Gown to use the Heart, right after the guy himself.'

And just like her creator, Shizu was currently enveloped in a sphere of light as the World Item was doing its work.

A nifty, yet sometimes useless, thing about the Heart of Deus Mechanicus, was that when improving an Automaton being, the upgrade would be personalised, and two uses of it would rarely be the same unless the two are exact clones of each other.

Which means, either the upgrade would be a huge boon to the Automaton, like a huge increased chance in dealing Critical Damage to an enemy, or something unfairly disappointing, like a mere cosmetic change in the design of the Automaton, which could also be irreversible.

'Thankfully, when Garnet used it, he got improvements in his automaton summoning skills as well as greater analyzation efficiency, making him one of the greatest Automaton players yet because of how lucky he was to get those upgrades. Haha, I can still remember him ranting about how if he could bring the latter improvement to his job IRL, he would've been able to overthrow the CEO of his company and reign as the king of programmers.' The former human thought mirthfully, the scene of his suit-wearing, monocled-using robotic friend clenching his fist as he spoke passionate provocative words that would've landed him as a target by the megacorporations if said outside the game. 'I just hope that Shizu doesn't end up with a useless change, the last thing I need is wasting a consumable World Item without being able to get it back.'

And by coincidence, the spherical light orb that enveloped Shizu dimmed more and more, as the familiar silhouette of his automaton maid became more and more visible.

When the light finally disappeared, Shizu looked at him, before bowing her head reverentially, her expression as unchanging as before, with her appearance harbouring little to no difference than before her consumption of the World Item.

"How are you feeling, Shizu? Any issues?" The Undead asked first, while he was curious about what improvements the maid got, it would be pointless if she suffered deep harm because of it.

"None, lord Ainz. I am currently operating within the safe parameters," the maid answered as she looked up at him once again, her hands joined in front of her in a perfect maid like posture.

Ainz nodded, pleased with her answer, before asking her another question, one that he was dying to know.

"Well then, what exactly did the World Item grant you? Any special improvements to be noted?"

The maid fell silent for a moment, still staring at Ainz, which worried the undead for a good moment. It was only alleviated as Shizu spoke once more.

"Analysis complete. There are three significant changes to my being. The first of which is an increase in my level from 46 to level 75. With significant improvements in my HP, Physical Defense, Agility, and Special Ability. And negligible ones in other areas."

Silence ensued after Shizu's answer, as the undead was shocked beyond comparison at what he heard. 'This is great… No, this is amazing! That's almost a 30 level increase! Thank God, I thought she would've ended up with something useless as time went by…'

Ainz nodded approvingly of Shizu's answer as a small pleased smile adorned his face. "That's excellent, Shizu, now then, what's the change?"

For some reason, Ainz could suddenly sense a change in Shizu's mood. While the Automaton didn't outwardly show it, her attitude became more depressed all of a sudden. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

The maid answered him almost immediately, her expression unchanged. "I have lost all the levels in my Maid and Housekeeper job classes."

"..."

Ainz blinked at what she said, he expected for her to say something along the lines of losing all her guns, or even her collection of one-yen stickers (even though she could make more). But this?

'...Ahhh, perhaps she's upset because she's a Pleiades? The Pleiades were never made to be like the Homunculi Maids, so they were just added to them in the spirit of roleplay. Guess she doesn't see it that way.'

The man cleared his throat as he placed a hand on the Automaton's head, kneeling in front of her to look her in the eye.

He mimicked a saddened expression on his face as well to match Shizu's, and spoke to her with a similar tone. "I see… that is quite unfortunate, however do not fret too much about it, the changes given by the World Item are not quite randomised, and considering the situation we find ourselves in, perhaps it may be a miracle in disguise."

The maid, with no maid classes, nodded, her mood alleviated as her shoulders stopped drooping slightly. "Thank you, lord Ainz."

The man hummed as he ruffled her hair slightly before standing up to his full height again. "Now then, what was the last change you experienced, Shizu? I presume your lost classes were replaced with others?"

The girl didn't waste time in answering him as she began speaking. "Affirmative. Aside from lost classes, I gained improvements in both remaining classes and newer ones."

With Ainz's nod of approval, she continued her explanation. "The new racial classes are progressions of my original Automaton class, with new levels in the stages called Machina Nexus, and Autarch Core."

Ainz rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he mulled over her words. ''Machina Nexus' and 'Autarch Core'...Should I presume that these classes are specialised and not just general improvements?"

Shizu nodded as she continued. "Affirmative. The classes grant me the ability to form a network of summoning or controlled machines, with me as the head of the network. My new job classes also provide improvements upon this newly created network with minor enhancements to my remaining job classes."

As the last word from the automaton maid was uttered, Ainz sighed internally. 'Honestly… I can't complain. I mean, yeah it would've been better if she got more buffs to her classes related to long-range combat or assassinations, but this is way better than the alternative of her only ending up with more maid related classes or something like Cook… Now that I think about it, could I eat in this form? …I'll think about it later.'

"That is good. Well, while I would prefer to ask more, it's best that we get a move on. We need to head back to our base of operations for now. We've spent far too much time here, and who knows who may be spying on us."

The maid gave a short bow of recognition of her master's order as he opened a [Gate, her eyes then were suddenly lit with a realisation.

"Lord Ainz, what about the machine village we escorted Leo to? Shouldn't I go and spy on them for information?"

The Overlord gave a short chuckle as he shook his head. "No need, before he left, I placed one of my Death Assassins in his shadow. By now, he should be gathering some information about that village from within."

"I see, apologies for the foolish question, lord Ainz."

Ainz shook his head with a smile. "There's no need to apologise, Shizu, in fact I'm quite pleased that you are thinking so far ahead. Now then, let's go back."

And with that, the pair of YGGDRASIL natives left the entrance of the village, the [Gate] spell closing in after them.

"Mama! Papa!" A small machine ran towards a pair of large machines, one of whom had a suit painted on its armour plates, and the other had a bowtie plastered to its head.

"Leo!" The bowtie-wearing machine called 'Mama' ran towards the smaller lifeform, hugging him with her large arms. "You're okay! What were you thinking, disappearing like that, do you know how worried me and your papa were?!"

Leo slumped slightly as he looked downwards. "I'm sorry, Mama… I just wanted to get you more of those flowers you love…"

At that moment, the other large machine, 'Papa' placed his hand on the smaller machine's spherical head as he kneeled to look his 'son' in the eyes. "We know you mean well, son, but remember to tell us next time so one of us can come with you."

Leo nodded, sniffling noises arising from him even though he had no tear ducts. "I'm sorry, Papa."

"The machine hugged both him and Mama before looking at his son. "It's ok, but Leo, how did you come back so quickly? I was about to go and find you."

Suddenly, as if possessed by something, the machine jumped as he spoke with clear excitement in his voice. "Oh yeah! Two kind androids helped me get back! They saved me from a boar and got me here!"

"Androids?!" Papa and Mama spoke in unison, their voices filled with shock. "Are you sure about that, son? You remember that androids see us as enemies, right? You don't think they could've been tricking you?"

Leo shook his head at his Mama's question, before showing her the back of his hand, which Shizu placed the one-yen sticker on. "No! Miss Shizu and Mister Ainz were super nice! And Miss Shizu even gave me this because she said I was 'cute'!"

Papa gently took his son's hand and observed the sticker for a moment, a flash of awe appearing in his eyes as he looked at his 'wife'. "Dear, it's a sticker. It's one of the many inventions the humans made!"

At her 'husband's' explanation, Mama kneeled beside him as she looked at Leo's metal hand, with the boy in question getting both quite nervous and curious at the attention his parents were giving him, especially when Papa mentioned the ancient human race.

"You're right…" Mama muttered with awe. "Androids would never give up anything their creators made to others, let alone to a machine. But if they did…"

The implied explanation was left unsaid, but was one Papa seemed to agree with as he grasped his son's hand more firmly. "We need to tell Pascal about this. This could be a sign of better times ahead. I'll go find him and tell him."

Mama nodded, her eyes shining a bit brightly than before as she stood up, watching as Papa hurried away, leaving the pair alone as he disappeared around the great tree that supported most of the Machine Village.

"Uhh, Mama? Am I in trouble? Should I have given it to Miss Shizu back?" Leo asked nervously.

The mother machine chuckled as she patted her son's head. "No, Leo. You're not in trouble for that. If anything, you bringing this here might help a lot of people."

"Really?!"

"You're still gonna get grounded for sneaking out of the village."

"Aww…"

"Shizu?"

"Yes, lord Ainz?"

"Am I perhaps mistaken, or has the sun never set or even moved since we were transported here?"

Upon hearing her master's query, the automaton moved towards the window he was looking out from as she gazed at the bright yellow star.

"You are correct my lord, it hasn't moved a single degree despite more than 16 hours having passed since our transportation."

The undead gave a small 'huh' as he continued staring at the large celestial body in the sky. While it might've damaged his retinas, fortunately, he's an undead, thus it would have little to no effect on him.

'I was honestly hoping I could finally see the stars here. But I guess it's a pipe-dream for now… Maybe I can go to space and see them there? It's not as if I need oxygen to breathe in space anymore.'

Ainz nodded to himself, seemingly pleased with his latest plan, when all of a sudden, multiple streaks of light flew across the sky in his peripheral vision.

"Shooting stars? Seen now of all times?" He whispered to himself as he saw a group of six streaks of light moving fast around the sky.

"No, lord Ainz," Shizu answered him, her hands in front of her, her visible eye looking at the six streaks of light without squinting or blinking. "These are machines of sorts, similar to the powered suits of YGGDRASIL."

Ainz blinked at this revelation, his mind running at a full marathon as he chewed over her response. 'Seriously? This is worrying, if these really might be the powered suits of YGGDRASIL, then it might be someone else like us who got transported to this world…'

Ainz squinted as he looked at them with scrutiny, almost seeing hints of black against the blue sky. 'No, she's definitely right. Hmm, how troublesome, I would prefer to not engage with anyone right now until we are assured of our power in this world, for all I know, being level 100 is very common for the stronger beings here in this world. Could at least explain why this planet seems so abandoned. Still, it's better to take the initiative, if they really are hostile, then we might end up as sitting ducks here.'

"Shizu," Ainz spoke with authority, which made the maid somehow straighten her already faultless posture. "Prepare to move, we'll be tailing these powered suit users from afar. Make sure to utilise as many of your abilities as you can so we don't end up being seen."

The maid nodded, instantly materialising her futuristic rifle and holstering it. Her eyes glowed a bit brighter, a tell tale sign of her using her natural abilities.

And with that, the Automaton and the Undead mage, having casted [Perfect Unknowable] and [Mass Fly] on himself and his maid, began following the group, never too far, yet never too near.

Name: CZ2128 Delta

Epithet:

- Sneak & Charge Maid

- Shizu

- Hyperion Overmind (New)

Job: Battle Maid

Residence: Abandoned City Temporary Camp

Alignment: Neutral Good

Sense of Justice: 100

Total Level: 75

Racial Level:

Automaton (Level 15)

Machina Nexus (Level 10)

Autarch Core (Level 5)

Job Level:

Gunner (Level 10)

Sniper (Level 5)

Assassin (Level 10)

Stalker (Level 5)

Puppet Lord (Level 5)

Neural Integrator (Level 5)

Tactical Overseer (Level 5)

Approximate Status:

HP: 60

MP: 21

PHY. ATK: 70

PHY. DEF: 50

AGILITY: 70

MAG. ATK: 9

MAG. DEF: 44

RESISTANCE: 35

SPECIAL ABILITY: 72