Overlord Volume 2 Chapter 1 Part 2

Part 2

The wooden door closed with a thud.

The room was bare, apart from a pair of crudely-made bed frames with accompanying chests. After opening the windowblinds, they could directly feel the sunlight and outside air.

Ainz was somewhat disappointed as he finished his circular sweep of the room. Although he could not expect Nazarick-level furnishings and cleanliness in a godforsaken place like this, he still wanted to get out of here.

"I can't believe he would dare let you stay in a place like this, Momon-sama."

"Don't say that, Nabe. Our aim is to become adventurers, and then increase our fame to the point where everyone knows of us. Until then, it won't hurt to experience the life of a newbie."

Ainz tried to soothe Narberal after closing the window blinds, without expressing his own dissatisfaction. There was not enough sunlight coming in through the blinds to light up the entire room. Ainz and Nabe both possessed darkvision, so it was hardly an obstacle to them, but for a normal person, this room would be so dark that they would have trouble seeing.

"Still… the life of an adventurer is pretty banal."

Adventurers.

Once, Ainz dreamed about that profession.

He envisioned them as people who chased after the unknown and had adventures in various parts of the world. Ainz had previously thought that adventurers were a physical manifestation of the right way to play YGGDRASIL, but after listening to the Guild receptionist, he realised that adventuring was a more realistic and more boring job than he had expected.

Simply put, adventurers were "anti-monster mercenaries."

Although some parts of it fit his dreams of them — for instance, delving into the ruins of kingdoms destroyed by the Demon Gods two hundred years ago and investigating mysteries in uncharted lands — for the most part, they were simply monster hunters.

Every monster possessed different special abilities, so they could only be taken care of by people who knew more tricks than average soldiers.

Just going by that point, one might think that they were heroes who were loved and relied on by the common man, like in games.

However, the reality was somewhat different from that.

This was because the ruling authorities did not smile on the existence of armed groups which they could not control. Therefore, aside from the prices they commanded, adventurers did not have much status.

Another reason why adventurers were not accepted on a national scale was because of the same thinking which made companies look for cheap, local temps than employing expensive permanent staff. Thus, much like how temps were treated by companies who could get by without hiring them, adventurers were held in lower regard in those nations which could eliminate monsters by dint of their own military power.

According to the Guild receptionist, there were no adventurers in the Slaine Theocracy, while life had gotten worse for adventurers in the Baharuth Empire after the ascension of their new Emperor.

Ainz banished his mild disappointment from his heart. It was a common thing in life to find that a job which one admired was hardly as glamorous in reality.

With a brief wave of his hand, the black armor and the two greatswords on his back melted away into nothingness, and a skeleton bedecked in magic items was revealed.

He wore a pair of black mirrorshades and a red targeting sight. The silver circlet on his head was set with amethysts and thorns grew from it, making it look like a rose vine.

Then there were the long-sleeved shirt and slacks, made of a lustrous, gauzy black material. A black belt secured the pants around his waist.

Ainz took off the sturdy gauntlets, and there were rings on all his bony fingers save the left ring finger.

His half-boots were made of a reddish-brown leather, and they were embroidered with gold thread.

A silver necklace with a lion-head pendant hung around his neck, and around it was a red cape.

Magic items in YGGDRASIL were made by infusing an item skin with a data crystal, so it was quite difficult to coordinate their appearance. However, many players disliked wearing a clownsuit, so after a certain update, players were given several ways to change their equipment's appearance without changing their gear.

(TL note: "clownsuit" is the MMO term for a visually mismatched set of equipment only worn for their stat boosts)

The suit of finely articulated black plate armor, made by the 「Create Greater Item」 spell, was one of those ways.

Currently, Ainz was wearing Sure-Hit Glasses, a Crown of Mental Fortitude, Black Widow Spider Clothes, a Black Belt, the Jarngreipr from earlier, a Nemean Lion pendant, Haste Boots, among other items.

In YGGDRASIL, trading in magic items was usually done in the form of data crystals. However, there were people who sold second-hand items in order to make even stronger ones. It was at this point that a problem arose — the names of magic items made by other people might include forbidden language, or it might insult someone. Sometimes, the GMs would ask the players in question to rename the items.

In general, naming items was left to the fancy of the creator.

As a result, items with weird names were not very popular on the market. Although cash items which could rename them were not expensive, very few people wanted to make that expenditure.

Thus, every player racked their brains to give their items good names. Sometimes the names would be in English, or they would come from mythology.

Of course, there were exceptions to this as well.

For instance, naming rings was very troublesome, so most people tended to call them Ring1, Ring2, Ring3 and so on. Ainz had even seen someone who called them Thumb Ring, Index Finger Ring, Middle Finger Ring, and so on.

Ainz had a friend called Warrior Takemikazuchi, who wielded two katanas from time to time. He named one of them — the eighth of its line — "Takemikazuchi Mk 8."

The red cape he was wearing had also been named along that line of thought.

Inspired by an anti-hero from American comics, it was called the Necroplasmic Mantle.

(TL Note: in other words, Spawn's cape)

All of these were relic class items. They were two tiers lower than Ainz's main gear, but he had considered that problems might arise from bringing items which were too strong, so he settled for equipment of this level.

Ainz worked his shoulders and savored the sensation of being free from his armor. Just then, Narberal asked a question:

"Speaking of which, how shall we deal with that annoying woman?"

"Ah, the one whose potion we broke? We don't need to split hairs with her. I'd be angry as well if someone broke something important to me."

Or at least, until his emotion suppression kicked in. Ainz paused for a while, before continuing:

"...Well, probably. It's only natural for her to scold me for my carelessness."

"But all that was because a foolish human tried to provoke a Supreme Being. That man is the one who was to blame."

"Perhaps, but I was the one who threw that man. Therefore, I hope that you will be big hearted and forgive her. What we should be doing in this city is becoming a part of this world, to increase the renown of Momon and Nabe. It would reflect badly on us if rumors spread that we could not even pay someone back the value of a single potion."

Narberal nodded, although she could not quite accept what Ainz had said.

"Also, we should give her some face, since she's technically our senior in this field."

Ainz fiddled with the necklace he wore, though he kept his fingers away from the Nemean Lion.

If it's just a simple metal plate, then it can be forged… although that should probably be something for the Guild to worry about.

That small copper plate was something like a set of dog tags. It was what allowed people to know the strength of an adventurer.

Copper. Iron. Silver. Gold. Platinum. Mithril. Orichalcum. Adamantite.

The latter metals were more valuable, which meant that adventurers of those ranks could select more difficult and more rewarding quests. This was part of the system the Guild had developed to keep adventurers from going to pointless deaths.

Ainz, a freshly-registered adventurer, was of the lowest class — copper. That woman was an iron plate. Showing her a basic level of courtesy was the secret of successfully blending into society.

"However, I feel that such soft metals like adamantite are not worthy of you, Ainz-sama. Apoitakara, hihiirokane, or other prismatic metals would be more fitting of yourself. These people in the Guild have no taste at all."

The metals Narberal had named were of the highest tiers in YGGDRASIL. Ainz turned a sharp look on her, and then said:

"Narberal, just to be safe, call me Momon while we are in this town."

"Understood, Momon-sama!"

"Do you need me to remind you again? Call me Momon."

"My, my deepest apologies, Momon-sa—n."

"...Momon-sa—n sounds kind of stupid, don't you think? Forget it, if it's hard for you to just call me Momon, then Momon-san will do. Got it?"

"I understand, Momon-san."

Once again, Narberal bowed deeply at the waist. Ainz tapped at his forehead with a finger.

She has no idea why I want her to call me Momon-san. She's kind of useless… forget it, there's nobody else I can use for now, so I'll forgive her.

"This is our plan for the future—"

"Yes!"

Narberal promptly genuflected before Ainz. It was the attitude of a vassal awaiting orders.

An annoyed Ainz had no idea how to proceed. Though he had locked the door after coming in, gossip would swiftly spread if people saw this scene.

Still… why doesn't she understand the reason that I want her to call me Momon? I even explained it to her before coming to the inn...

With a tone of vague resignation, Ainz said:

"We are here to go undercover as adventurers in this city. This is because we have to collect information on adventurers — in other words, the strongest people in this world — though our emphasis will be on learning about YGGDRASIL players, like myself. Attaining higher ranks will allow us to take higher ranked jobs, which will also allow us to collect more reliable and useful information. Therefore, our first objective is to become successful adventurers."

After Narberal indicated that she understood, Ainz told her about the things she had to do.

"However, there are several problems at the moment."

Ainz withdrew his small purse and opened it, then dumped its contents onto his hand. They were coins, and there were very few of them. There was no glint of gold among the coin.

"To begin with, we have no money."

There were several reasons why Ainz had paid with a potion during the prior dispute. One of them was because he was not confident they could solve this problem with money. Saying that he had no money to pay would be laughable.

Ainz turned to the surprised Narberal, and explained:

"No, I should say that we do have a lot of money, but the currency we have is largely YGGDRASIL gold coins. Therefore, I would like to use those gold coins as a last resort."

"Why is that? Haven't we already confirmed that YGGDRASIL coins have monetary value?"

"Indeed, I learned from Carne Village that each YGGDRASIL gold coin is worth two of the local gold coins. However, if we use YGGDRASIL gold coins here, there's no telling where they'll end up. If things go bad, the news might spread beyond to others, and it'll be a blatant advertisement to other YGGDRASIL players that we're here. Therefore, we have to avoid that situation as long as we do not fully understand the situation."

"Players… entities on the same level as yourself, Ainz-sama, and the villains who once attacked Nazarick."

Ainz frowned as she referred to him as Ainz-sama, but he did not say anything, for the same reasons as just now.

"Indeed. They are people that cannot be taken lightly."

His — Ainz Ooal Gown's — level was the highest in YGGDRASIL, level one hundred. However, to players, being maximum level was hardly a rare thing. It could be said that most players were level one hundred.

Ainz considered himself to be among the upper-middle tier of the game's players. This was because he was focused on taking levels in classes to better roleplay an undead magic caster, and neglected raising his own power. However, given the divine class items he possessed, as well as his numerous cash items, he might be ranked in the middle of the top tier. Still, he could not take things easy. There was always a bigger fish, after all.

Thus, he had to avoid being found by other players, at any cost. There were many opponents Ainz could not defeat if he was drawn into battle.

In addition, there were many players who were human, and they would naturally protect other humans. If these players clashed with people like Albedo, who viewed humans as inferior lifeforms, the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick — or Ainz Ooal Gown — might very well count humanity as enemies. That was why he felt bringing Albedo along was dangerous.

Still, I didn't expect Narberal to feel the same way as well.

Ainz did not view humanity as an enemy, but he could kill human beings with no hesitation for the sake of his goals. Even so, he wanted to avoid conflict with other players.

"Well, that was a waste."

"What was a waste?"

"I'm talking about how we lost Nigun so easily. He had a lot of information, but he perished under such simple questioning."

There were roughly ten people still alive from the members of the Sunlight Scripture captured at Carne Village. The rest died during questioning and became media for Ainz to summon undead with his skills.

As he recalled the information tortured out of his captives, Ainz could not help but mutter:

"Most players would want to support the Slaine Theocracy…"

The Slaine Theocracy was a religious nation which venerated the Six Gods, who descended upon the world six hundred years ago.

In the words of the Sunlight Scripture, the Slaine Theocracy fought to allow the weak human race to prosper, grow strong, and defeat other species. Any player with any remaining humanity would approve of the Slaine Theocracy's aims.

Unlike his own world, where humanity stood atop all living creatures, in this world, humanity was one of the weakest species around.

Though they could build such an impressive city upon the plains, the fact that they had to live on the plains only highlighted humanity's weakness.

That said, plains were also dangerous places. Firstly, there was no place to hide, so it was easy to be discovered by the enemy. Only weak species, who lacked darkvision, would choose to live in a place like this. They would have no safe spaces or living room if they chose otherwise.

There were species who were physically stronger and possessed more advanced civilizations than humans, but they were not in control of the continent. This was because they had ended up fighting the Eight Greed Kings, who dominated this land five hundred years ago. Humanity was one of the few survivors of that war. If not, the human race would long since be extinct.

Any players in this world would want to help out humanity. That was why Ainz was on guard against players and kept his distance from the Slaine Theocracy.

"In any case, I plan to sell off the swords taken from the Slaine Theocracy troops pretending to be knights... but before that, we need to get a job."

"Understood. Then, shall we visit the guild again tomorrow?"

"Indeed. Although I'd like to learn more by walking around this city, we should leave that for after we've earned some money."

"I see. As a battle maid, I shall carry out your orders with all my strength."

"Is that so. Then, I'll be counting on you, Narberal."

Ainz felt a warm glow of satisfaction as he watched Narberal bowing deeply. Then he cast a spell, and was wrapped in his armor and illusion once more.

"I will be inspecting our surroundings. You will stay here and wait for orders."

"Please allow me to come with you!"

"No, I'm only looking around the neighborhood. I've heard of a large graveyard which I want to visit… and the other reason why you're staying here is to ward off intruders. You must stay on your guard and never slack off. While I don't think there's any vulnerabilities in our defenses for the moment, this place might well be considered enemy territory, so you must never relax."

"Understood."

"I'll leave the scheduled call-ins to you as well."

♦ ♦ ♦

As Ainz left the room, Narberal sighed deeply.

Then she rubbed the corner of her eyes, and her eyes, previously filled with a keen expression, drooped powerlessly. Her face looked completely relaxed. Even her ponytail seemed to have lost its energy and hung limply down.

However, she still recalled her supreme master's orders.

Though Narberal was dying to look around outside the room, she was a magic caster and had a lot of trouble replicating the feats of thieves. Therefore, she used the skills she was familiar with to make up the shortfall.

"「Rabbit's Ear」."

A pair of adorable bunny ears grew from Narberal's head as the spell was cast. The quivering ears immediately picked up all the sounds around her.

This was one of the three spells known as "Bunny Magic" to the players of YGGDRASIL. The other two were 「Rabbit's Foot」, which boosted luck, and 「Bunny Tail」, which reduced monster aggro. Casting all three of these spells at once would change the appearance of a female character's clothing, and so they were very popular. However, Narberal did not cast the other two because they were not needed.

Most of Narberal's spells pertained to combat. This was one of the few exceptions.

After listening to the sounds around her, she made sure it was safe before casting the 「Message」 spell. As she expected, a pleasant female voice spoke within her head.

『Narberal Gamma, is something the matter?』

"Yes, this is the scheduled report."

Narberal was speaking to the Guardian Overseer of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, Albedo.

She described every detail of the situation to Albedo, and finally she mentioned the news that Albedo was dying to hear:

"Ainz-sama mentioned you, Albedo-sama. He said that there was nobody else he could trust apart from you."

『Kufu—!』

A strange cry of delight resounded within Narberal's head.

『Good — very good — Narberal, you're a good girl! Keep spreading that news for me! This is an order from Nazarick's Guardian Overseer!』

Narberal wondered, Is this really worth an order? However, she realized that this might be a move in the struggle to better serve the Supreme One. Thus, such an order made perfect sense.

Just as Narberal was about to express her doubts, she heard Albedo's excited voice once more.

『I'll slowly decrease the distance between myself and Ainz-sama while Shalltear is out on business! Although the objective is hard to breach, as long as I keep up the pressure and gain a beachhead, I'll be able to bring it down one day! On that glorious day, Shalltear will weep bitter tears of regret!』

Albedo's cry of delight made Narberal furrow her brows. That excited voice was starting to annoy her.

With a voice that suggested she might burst into dance at any moment, Albedo continued babbling about what she would do next, and how things had to be, and then suddenly, she asked in a calm voice:

『Still, why are you helping me? Why did you choose me and not Shalltear? Could it be that you want something from me?』

"The answer is simple. If someone asked me whether Albedo-sama or Shalltear-sama was more suitable to sit beside Ainz-sama, I would definitely answer with your name, Albedo-sama."

『Kufu—! Wonderful. I didn't think you'd be able to see the future of Nazarick. I'm impressed.』

"Also, Yuri-neesama has a hard time dealing with Shalltear-sama."

『Oh, Yuri Alpha. I see, so that's how it is. Are the others on my side as well?』

The faces of the assistant leader Yuri Alpha as well as her other comrades appeared in Narberal's mind.

"That is hard to tell. Lupusregina is with you, Albedo-sama, but Solution is on Shalltear-sama's side. As for Entoma and Shizu, their allegiances are not yet known."

『Can Solution be won over?』

"It would be very difficult, because her tastes are very similar to Shalltear-sama's."

『Oh, I see… what crude hobbies she has.』

Narberal agreed with Albedo's words. She had no idea why Solution liked what she did, and she could not help but tilt her head in puzzlement.

Although all human beings were inferior lifeforms — with one exception — none of them had the hobby of tormenting humans. However, they would kill any humans who got in their way, even if doing so was tedious. That said, they would not go out of their way to kill them.

『Well, it can't be helped. Then, move quickly and bring the other girls into my camp. Start with Entoma and Shizu.』

"That should be fine. Solution and Entoma both like eating humans, so if we bring Entoma to your side, Solution might end up becoming an ally as a result."

『That's right… I've got it. Then, onto something else… can you tell me in detail what my beloved Ainz-sama has been doing?』

"Yes, I understand."

The scheduled communication with Albedo ended up being very heated — when Albedo heard Narberal and Ainz were sharing a room, she made strange noises and kicked up a fuss — to the point where she had to cast the same spell four times. Ainz was mildly annoyed when he returned, but that is a tale for another time.