Chapter 16 - A great Tomb for great Friends

[3rd Person POV]

For a long time, Nine's Own Goal continued to grow and shrink repeatedly, with new members emerging, and, unfortunately, few of them actually remained within the clan, as they slowly showed their real faces, which for the most part were disappointing to the first nine members. That Clan was created with the simple objective of killing PKers, and saving as many Heteromorph Players as possible, who continued to receive so much bullying and mistreatment. Those who were expelled, seemed to be completely focused on killing Non-Heteromorph Players, no matter if they were friendly with them or not.

This caused Touch_Me to create rules for joining the clan, with failure to comply with these rules being reason enough for immediate expulsion. The rules were: Be a working member in society; Hunt of Players, focusing on PKers and others who were against NOG; And willingness to help group members, with internal fights having to be resolved among themselves. But it was not known how long this would last.

The clan had already been in existence for 5 months, which when converted to "In-Game-Time", was the same as around 2 years (20 months to be more exact). And even though they now have 20 members in total, until that moment, they didn't have a fixed place to live. All weekly meetings within YGGDRASIL were held in different taverns in Niflheim, Helheim, and Muspellsheim, for the obvious reason that the 3 realms were the ones that gave passive buffs to heteromorph players.

But… That was about to change…

It was December 28th, the last Saturday of 2137, Nishikienrai, a rookie ninja Player in NOG, and Peroroncino had made numerous text messages asking most of the members to come meet them in Helheim. Due to the animation and urgency of the messages, this would not be for a weekly meeting as was always. Some agreed to go there without any problem, others only went after the two players explained the reason for the call.

"Argh… Pero… Nishi… are you sure it's this way? According to the maps we have of the region, there is nothing in this swamp…" Punitto Moe said, complaining a little, while the trunks that served as feet for DeathVine were getting stuck in the muddy waters, full of poison.

"Yes! I found it while I was flying around looking for players who needed help! It was an incredible place that could be perfect for our plan!" Peroroncino spoke, still very excited, flapping his wings to move close to the NOG members, without stepping on the mud.

"I can confirm this, after all I was with BirdHead here." Nishikienrai commented, managing to walk over the muddy area with ease, without his feet sinking in due to one of his JobClass passive skills.

"I feel like I've walked through these parts before… I didn't expect them to add it here after the new update…" Touch_Me commented, having no difficulty walking through that swamp due to his World Item, [Compliance with Law].

The update that Touch_Me was referring to was one that happened right after the Halloween event. The event itself had involved a mansion-shaped dungeon, to introduce players to the idea of using Dungeons as a home for Guilds. Because of this, the requirements for forming a Guild had been completely changed.

Before, to create a Guild, what you needed was: a Clan with at least 20 members; a specific amount of Data and Gold; and the need for the Clan to exist for at least 4 months irl. But thanks to the update, there were modifications, such as the need for a specific type of dungeon to be the guild's base, and, if a dungeon was not found, the amount of Data and Gold needed would be increased considerably in an absurd amount. And that was why Peroroncino called them, he and the ninja had found a dungeon that met the requirements to be used as a guild base.

These special dungeons had a chance to appear without appearing on the players' mini map, with the number of floors within them varying from 5 to 20, but being proportional to the size of the floors and the level of difficulty within them. They are simply called "Special Dungeon" by the game system, but players decided to call them other ways, with the most popular name being "Omega Dungeon".

In addition to all these things, there were other details that differentiated them from ordinary dungeons. In the common ones, for example, their name appeared on the player's HUD when they entered it. In Omega Dungeons, their names appear when the player is close, before they really enter. The number of enemies within common dungeons depends on the number of members of the party that is exploring, whereas in Omega Dungeons, the number of enemies is fixed, regardless of the size of the party. But that doesn't mean it's easier, as the fixed amount wasn't the biggest thing to worry about, but the fact that players can only raid it once.

"It's because it was close to this region that you met me for the first time, Touch_Me… I think it was actually to the west of where we are, not even a kilometer away." Momonga made a comment, while swinging a silver staff with a large red orb, which he had purchased a few days ago at the small Christmas event, which only lasted that Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Oh… so a paladin's initial encounter with a necromancer is so remarkable, that you can know about it?" Yamaiko asked, quite curious.

"Well…" A drop emoji appeared next to the necromancer's forehead. "Actually, I marked the place on my personal map as a possible ambush area…"

"Oh, that really is an acceptable excuse…" Tabula replied, then looking at Peroroncino, already bored of walking through that huge swamp. "But are you sure we're getting to that Omega Dungeon you guys talked about?"

"Of course, OctoBrain! I'm sure it's in this region! I wouldn't be stupid enough to bring my sister with us if that wasn't true!" When Peroroncino said this, everyone started laughing.

"Using the fact that I would beat you for forcing me to walk through a swamp… as the veracity of your sentences…? Only you can say that, brat." Bukubukuchagama commented, but even saying that, she wasn't even touching the swamp, because Hikari was there, carrying her on his back, as if she were a huge gooey scarf.

"'Forcing you to walk through a swamp' you say…" Hikari grumbled, because thanks to carrying a player, his boots sank more easily into the poison mud.

"What is the problem, Darling?~ You said you would do this for me~" the Pink Slime used an adorable voice when talking to her boyfriend.

"I know, but don't tell lies here, since I'm doing this job..." Hikari grumbled once again, having a slight difficulty staying close enough to the group, to be within Yamaiko's AoE Skill, the only thing that allowed most NOG members to not be affected by the swamp's poison.

Suddenly, everyone's reaction changed as something came up. At the top center of their HUD, a phrase appeared...

[Welcome to The Great Tomb of Nazarick, player recommendation above level 80.]

"Recommendation ABOVE level 80?!?" all the people, who had been brought there by the birdman and ninja, exclaimed in complete shock.

"Why didn't you talk about this?!? We would have come more prepared!!!" Hikari shouted to the two players.

"Well… we wanted to bring you here to find out about the place's existence and for you to see for yourself if it's an appropriate location." Nishikienrai made that comment, with a fearful emoji appearing over him.

"You could have simply sent more detailed information about what you discovered…" Punitto Moe spoke seriously, not really understanding the motivation of those two showing it instead of simply messaging them.

"We will need to do a lot of things to be able to actually go into this dungeon… one of those would be buying more consumable items, something I can do quickly, but that depends on everyone's personal time…" Touch_Me made that comment, sighing heavily. "I myself have to leave the game in 3 hours, because I need to pack things for the new year…"

"Understandable… We can get together later to do this dungeon…" Hikari said, already being a little calmer and marking the area they were in on the personal map. "We will have to prepare ourselves for this…"

And that's what happened…

Over a period of time, Nine's Own Goal players began to prepare to obtain that dungeon. The location, debuffs and passive buffs of the swamp, and the fact that it is a mostly underground dungeon, were the factors that made them not want to miss this chance for anything. Therefore, they not only forced all members to reach lvl 100 before the raid, but also gradually used Cash Items obtained through the Gacha system, with Hikari sometimes having to sponsor players to be able to buy luck amplifiers.

But this process took longer than expected. It was predicted by Punitto Moe that it would take around 2 weeks in game for all 20 members to be at their current 100%, however some non-heteromorph clans found out about Nine's Own Goal's plan due to a former member who was still in contact with Bellriver. They didn't even know which realm that specific Omega Dungeon was in, but they started to disrupt the group by killing some of the members in surprise attacks, forcing them to go back to farming EXP.

And why do they want to get in the way? Simple…

They used the excuse that humans are good and heteromorphs are evil… It would be better to prevent the "evil" ones from being able to evolve, right?

This was the same stupid excuse for the extensive bullying against those players to exist... This was actually just giving more fury and reasons for the NOG members to want to evolve and crush players like those. Because of this, from that moment on everyone was forced to walk at least in groups of three to be able to defend themselves.

There were times when Hikari and Touch_Me were so furious about other players disturbing their progress that they themselves entered the game and used their World Items to completely destroy the enemies, killing them countless times to return them to lvl 1. The icing on the cake was Hikari's World Item's name, the humiliation of dying by a weapon called [Yamato-Kowaidasai] was immense, it made the attacks lessen and so they really had peace for a while.

There were still human players who reported about the World Champions bullying and abusing their powers, but the Devs knew very well the nature of those two players, meaning that those requests were not accepted and in fact there was a wave of warnings for those who reported countless times players who were not doing what was reported.

That whole situation made Touch_Me, the main leader of the clan, start to feel disgusted at having to organize and manage that type of problem. And the day before the raid, he held a very important meeting, in which 14 of the 20 members were present.

"OI!! Touch_Me! Why did you want us to be here? Did something unforeseen happen again?" Tabula questioned, still being at level 99 due to the recent attacks and lack of time to restore himself to level 100, and that was reason enough for him to be angry at having his EXP Farm schedule interrupted.

"I hope it's not something that serious… it ended up ruining my moment with my darling…" Bukubukuchagama also complained, but in an adorable voice as she hugged Hikari next to her. Hikari watched his old friend, also being confused by the reason for the surprise meeting, not knowing what Touch_Me wanted.

"It's an unforeseen event, but not the kind you think…" The paladin spoke, sitting on the ground, everyone was gathered inside the swamp, in a small wooden room that was created by BluePlanet for that moment of emergency. "The situation with the Players wanting to kill us… This is beyond what I expected people to do to us… and I don't want my name to be seen as a leader of massacres, even if there are reasons for us to attack them so repeatedly."

"Wait… you're not saying what I think you're saying. Are you, Touch_Me?" Momonga asked, holding tight to his silver staff.

"Yes… I would like to let you know that… When we evolve the Clan into a Guild… I will no longer be your leader… I will continue as a member, but I no longer want to take on the main responsibility."

The paladin's words reached the members present in a different way, some understood his logic, others already expected that at some point this would happen due to one of the rules he had set, and the last ones seemed to refuse this, but remained silent. However, there was a more essential question for a situation like this…

"Who do you want to be our leader now?" Hikari was the one to question.

"You, isn't it obvious?" Tabula said, still a little in shock from that conversation.

"He can't…" Warrior Takemikazuchi gave his knowledge. "Hikari works as a non-direct member of the YGGDRASIL DevTeam, he is forced to remain neutral."

"Remain neutral?! But isn't he killing our enemies?" Tabula continued arguing.

"There is a big difference… The situation of being neutral means that I cannot officially take responsibility for any group, which is why Devs don't try to create VIP Guilds…" Hikari replied. "If you haven't noticed, at no point during Nine's Own Goal existence did I call myself a leader, at most I was called as Touch_Me's helper or sponsor, just being a member doesn't interfere... And yes, this is the most I can do within the contract that I signed."

"Tsk… so who would be our leader?" Momonga questioned, looking at the ground and with his left hand resting on his chin. "We would need someone who gives as much confidence as Touch_Me, in addition to understanding the members here and knowing who to choose for the right jobs… If Hikari wasn't someone hired by the DEVs, he would clearly be the perfect person for this…"

Everyone was thinking, but it didn't even take a minute and they were staring at Momonga, blankly. "Eh? what is the problem?" The skeleton questioned again, confused by the reaction of the members there.

"You are literally that person." Hikari and Touch_Me spoke in unison.

"Well... I was already planning on choosing you as the next leader, Momonga... Among these 6 months, you were the member who dedicated the most, I'm not saying that the others didn't dedicate either, but as far as I know you are the one who interacted more with members equally, while others prefer to stay within their small groups rather than generalized interaction." Touch_Me spoke, pointing to the skeleton. "A good quality of a leader is knowing all the members of the group, including all their strengths and weaknesses… since Hikari cannot be, you are literally the person who has the most of this quality."

"I-Is this serious?" Momonga questioned himself, but no one seemed to refuse the idea, in fact there were even some who nodded in agreement.

"Under these conditions, Momonga really is the best choice, I don't see any problem." Ulbert joined the conversation.

"Same." Yamaiko and BluePlanet responded in unison.

"..." Peroroncino stared at the scene, laughing lightly. "The thought of having a necromancer leader… given that our plan is to take over a dungeon in a swamp, which looks more like a cemetery after being flooded, than anything else…" He made some excited bird noises. "You can feel all of this, Momonga-kun."

Other members slowly spoke their minds, none of them seemed to refuse the idea of Momonga being the person to take on the mantle of leader. With that, Touch_Me clapped his hands, with a happy face.

"With this, our emergency meeting ends… Tomorrow night, everyone has free time, right?" The members present confirmed what Touch_Me said. "Perfect…"

"Doing a special raid… on Valentine's Day… what a crazy joke." Warrior Takemikazuchi chuckled at that thought.

"Speaking of which… you already bought me a present, didn't you?" Bukubukuchagama questioned Hikari, pressing his body against her slimy one.

"Of course, darling… I'll be there irl right before the Raid time…" Numerous sweat emojis appeared around his head, nervous about the way his girlfriend was pressuring him.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

And so it was done, the next day, 9 pm, all members were online for the raid. They were divided into 4 parts, 7 of them were more focused on physical, 5 were focused on magic, 3 were focused on being supports, and the other 5 were players who could find themselves on more than one spectrum.

In the outer garden of [The Great Tomb of Nazarick], undeads began to emerge as soon as they approached. They were all [Ghoul] and [Skeleton] types, with their levels varying between 50 and 60, which was very apparent, as several of them were wearing armor, swords, axes and shields. For that initial wave, the main players were Bukubukuchagama, Ulbert Alain Odle, and Beast King Mekongawa.

The Pink Slime Player focused heavily on defense, stretching her body countless times and using the [Aegis] skill to defend her allies from thrown axes, and then using [Shield Attack], with her slime body advancing in towards a group of undead, as if she was a cannonball. The Demon Player took a silver wand that was hidden on his shoulder, starting to swing it carefully towards the sky, using the skill [Summon Stranger Obstacle] above the enemies, in this way a large sphere appeared, crushing several of them and rolling in the direction of others. The Beast Player rushed forward against the remaining ones, focusing more on the [Ghouls], thus using the [Devilsh Claws] skill to make his large claws to dismember the targets excessively.

Of course, there were some undead that ended up attacking the other members, but Hikari, together with Ulbert Alain Odle, used a skill from the Commander jobclass, [Call of Power], thus attracting the enemies specifically towards them, making they being able to kill the enemies with a few AoE attacks. This way, easily eliminating the first stage of the dungeon, the Ground Floor.

The other stages became more complicated, not due to the increase in the number of enemies, but rather due to the size of the space for battles. When they stepped inside the dungeon itself, the monsters began to make more tricky attacks. The size of the corridors forced the NOG members to walk behind each other, with the possibility of only pairs being able to stand side by side, this meant that the attacks were related to [Skeleton] type monsters appearing from the ground around them, in addition of some [Zombies] and [Ghouls] that appeared from the walls and ceiling, as if the dungeon itself had corpses within the structure.

The first floor was a large corridor with the aesthetics of a Greek temple, with undead always appearing as traps, all enemies being physical type monsters, without many wizards or gunners. With orders from Punitto Moe and Momonga, the members focused on physical attacks were left aside so as not to become exhausted, while the members focused on physical defense and magical attacks were the ones who were most active.

The second floor was a small maze of concrete walls with mud covering half a meter on the floor. The enemies were limited to undead fish and some mimics that disguised themselves as walls and chandeliers. Tabula, the Brain Eater, and Wish III, the flaming Djinn, began using location and identification skills, making all hidden monsters have a golden aura. This way, everyone was able to get through that floor with some ease, as the biggest difficulty being the hidden monsters and the mud that caused a speed debuff.

The third floor could be described as a series of rooms in sequence, in which there were waves of monsters, with each one becoming more powerful and annoying to face. The monsters were limited to things like [Cursed Knight], [Zombie Warrior], [Skeleton Mage] and [Undead Werewolf], all ranging from levels 60-75. The accepted strategy was one that Momonga and Touch_Me had formulated together, where only one person crossed to the next room, and depending on the types of monsters, specific players would enter to help. This way, they were able to fully take advantage of their enemies' weaknesses, without leaving them with little room to fight.

However, after those 3 floors, they arrived at the bottom floor. The fourth underground floor of the dungeon was divided into just two rooms, one where the stairs were, and the other where the Boss arena was. All members of Nine's Own Goal used MP and HP potions to stay at 100%, with JobClassers Commander using buff skills such as [Warrior's Song], [Greater Force House], [Divine Comedy of Defense] and [Hermes' Call]. This didn't stop all the members from activating more and more attribute-increasing skills so as not to waste time doing so during the upcoming fight.

And what was the battle to come? It was very obvious to imagine…

The Final Boss, of that grand home of undead, was a [High Emperor Lich]. A being with the upper part of its body being skeletal, while the lower part still had skin and muscles, the monster was dressed in a grand uniform with red and purple shoulder pads, having a crown made of bluish flames. However, the most eye-catching part of it was a golden staff, large enough to easily exceed 3 meters.

The Boss immediately activated a necromancer spell, causing countless undead to appear across the arena, several of them being [Cursed Knight], [Undead Werewolf] and [Underworld Zombie], with an interesting additional two [Skeleton Dragon]. Thus, the final battle of that dungeon finally began, with several of the physical focused players defending the magical focused ones, who began to use various spells with fire and holy affinity to affect both the Boss and its minions.

The fight was much more complex than expected, from the garden to the end of the third floor, it took them 4 in game hours to complete, but the fight against the Boss was much difficult, taking up to 2 in game hours to put the [High Emperor Lich] with half health. The difficulty was never in the fight against the Boss itself, but rather against its summons, which kept appearing and serving as a shield to their master.

Everyone at Nine's Own Goal was getting exhausted, but the part that showed how much they needed to get this over with was Touch_Me having to leave the game, because of a police call he needed to answer. They were taking so long that even one of their world champions had to leave for work. Of course, the paladin didn't really want to leave, and if it weren't for his job, he would have continued the fight for a few more hours, so for him to still be present in some other way, he temporarily handed over his World Item to Hikari, the only one in the group that could use the equipment.

After the 2 and a half hour mark, that's when the strategy had to be modified...

"I want the Yuri-Alpha formation for now!!!" Momonga exclaimed, while still in a continuous battle against the Dungeon Boss, both attacking and repelling the spells constantly, so that the Boss no longer summoned summons compared to the current state.

"Okay! Ready guys?!?" The healer, Yamaiko, exclaimed to some of her friends.

"YEAH CAPTAIN!!" Hikari, Warrior Takemikazuchi, Beast King Mekongawa, and Variable Talisman (a Player that are from the Insectoid Race, as a Spear-Warrior), exclaimed at the same time, all rushing towards Healer to prepare the formation.

The "Yuri-Alpha" formation was something that Touch_Me and Yamaiko designed, with the main factor being that the Healer would use the support magic [Kings and Queens of a Blade] to amplify the slash power of a maximum of 4 players, around 300% each, at the sacrifice of 80% of her MP. Because Touch_Me wasn't there at the moment, Variable Talisman had to take his place in the formation.

Another problem with this formation was that it forced the 5 players to remain close to each other, meaning that Yamaiko had to enter the middle of the battlefield, with the other 4 players keeping her safe while they fiercely attacked the enemies. Hikari, using [Compliance with Law] and [Kuwoi-Muramasa] at the same time, made him extremely agile, and with the additional 300% in slashing power, he made several of the undead enemies being cutted like butter. Warrior Takemikazuchi and Variable Talisman were not behind, both being players who wear heavy and reinforced armor, they did not move as quickly, but this allowed their attacks to have more weight and strength, piercing and slashing enemies with an extremely long katana and a magic-tipped spear, respectively. Beast King Mekongawa was giving several attacks with his claws, which had become shiny due to Yamaiko's skill, becoming more aggressive towards the monsters close to him, but defensive when he saw a monster trying to get the healer. But that wasn't all, after all the main objective of that formation, at that moment, was to assist Momonga, preventing any summon from approaching him.

"I hope everything is going well, Momonga-kun!" Hikari exclaimed, cutting a bone projectile that had been aimed at the necromancer player in mid-air. "Some may not be tired, but you have to remember that I don't use a Neural Helper! At some point I may not even move anymore because of so much mental fatigue!"

"I know that, Hikari-sama, I'm trying my best, but this damn Lich's defenses are too great…" Momonga spoke, clearly mentally exhausted from that fight. "I ordered the formation for you to destroy his shields. He is using [Armor of a Dark Magician] now, which means that only beings with job classes like his can perceive the areas of weakness he has, but all of them…"

"Are these areas that can only be attacked with physical blows…?" Variable Talisman tried to predict what the skeletal Necromancer was going to say, as he attacked a nearby [Underworld Zombie], driving his spear inside the enemy's head.

Momonga just nodded, as he launched another spell that hit another of the Boss's spells, nullifying them both. "Okay, I want you to attack at the same time, on the right side of his torso, close to his left knee, and someone hit the wrist that is holding the staff... I think that this way his defense will drop so much that my spells will no longer be nullified and I will be able to use my greatest trick."

"Okay!"

Hikari ran towards the Boss, who tried to stop him using the tail of one of the [Skeleton Dragon], but ended up failing, with the World Champion dodging the attack at the last second. Beast King Mekongawa began running on all fours towards the Boss, attacking with [Devilsh Claws] any Undead that tried to get in his way. Warrior Takemikazuchi used [Advanced Jump] to go over the enemy, several summons tried to launch projectiles at the player, but the large and dense armor protected him from things like that. Yamaiko and Variable Talisman decided to remain as close as possible to Momonga, so that no summons could attack him, while he seemed to start charging a long-lasting spell.

The [High Emperor Lich] seemed to realize that someone was approaching one of the weak points of the [Armor of a Dark Magician], so he used [Dark Spectral Blades] to disrupt and push that player away. Unfortunately, the player in question was Hikari, who, thanks to [Compliance with Law], managed to not only defend, but completely nullify the attack. Underneath that grand and pure white helmet, Hikari had a psychotic smile of satisfaction at the enemy not being able to inflict even 1 point of damage.

'Thank you, Masato...' Hikari thought, while landing a furious blow with the katana, behind the Boss's left knee.

During that same attack, Beast King Mekongawa managed to get closer, and used his claws to hit the skeletal ribs on the Boss's right side. Warrior Takemikazuchi was still in mid-air during the two allies' attacks, so, in order not to lose his timing, he threw his katana, which fortunately managed to scratch the Lich's right wrist. Thanks to those three almost synchronized attacks, a sharp and loud coin noise resounded throughout the arena, being a feedback that [Armor of a Dark Magician] had been destroyed.

Even though there were no expressions on his skeleton's face, Momonga had a big smile upon hearing that sound. He then hit his staff hard against the ground and exclaimed. "It's Show Time, guys!!! It's better for y'all run!!!!"

Without any hesitation, all the members of Nine's Own Goal began running towards the entrance of the Boss Room, while a large pillar of blue light appeared in front of Momonga, with countless domes of light also appearing around him, as if it were a large spell. Hikari was the last one to arrive at the entrance to the Boss Room, but that was because he threw 3 [High X-Potion] at his skeletal colleague, leaving him at 100% HP and MP.

"Finish him! Do as we practiced!!" Hikari exclaimed, finally arriving close to the other members, with the defense-focused Players activating several defensive enhancement skills for what was to come.

"Of course… The same way we trained together…" Momonga whispered to himself, and looked at the [High Emperor Lich]. "I will take your place from now on, failed necromancer… This is what happens when you only fight with summons and not real allies…"

The Boss clearly didn't understand that sentence, as it was an artificial enemy in the game, but Momonga still felt amazed and incredibly powerful saying things like that. And with a deep voice, he activated the skill he had obtained a short time ago, thanks to his training with Touch_Me, Hikari and Ulbert.

"[FALLEN DOWN]!"

The Boss Room's ceiling began to shine, as if it were the sky on an extremely beautiful and sunny day. The pillar of bluish light seemed to become denser and expanded exponentially, reaching the members of Nine's Own Goal, who were doing everything they could to defend themselves, with the Undead Players needing help from their allies, due to the natural effect of that spell of dealing great damage to anyone, with the undead suffering much more from this.

Everything turned white, as if the entire world ceased to exist and became just pure light, but slowly the place began to appear again in the eyes of the players. That arena had some ash scattered across the floor, which seemed even cleaner than before, due to the secondary purification effect of that high tier magic. Momonga was in the center of the arena, using his staff to remain standing, looking quite exhausted by it all, but it wasn't over yet, one thing was missing...

A grand system message, with countless confetti, appeared in the center, in front of Momonga, symbolizing that the Dungeon had been successfully completed in a single run. Not only that, but below that message, another appeared, asking for the name of the group, that had completed the place, to be entered, in addition to asking for a quantity of data crystals and gold.

"Wait… so we should pay immediately…?" Peroroncino said, approaching Momonga and seeing that message, the birdman player had very worn armor and of the 4 bows he carried on his back, it seems that 3 of them had broken during that entire raid.

"Of course, that was another reason we had to prepare, idiot." Punitto Moe was the next to speak, observing that system message. "I think Hikari has all the necessary items, right?"

"You are very lucky that I was the person who was entrusted with guarding the Clan's treasuries, if the person was Touch_Me, we would have to leave someone inside, waiting, until he gets back online." Hikari said in a tired voice, still wearing Touch_Me's world item as he walked towards everyone there, placing his hand on the system message, sending all the necessary Data Crystals and Golds. "I think…. that everything has already been paid for… and since only one person from the group is not here, we will not be prevented from founding our guild, in addition to having this dungeon as our home…"

"So… what name did you choose? I kind of wasn't at the name decision meeting." Bukubukuchagama commented, as she got off her boyfriend.

Slowly Momonga started typing the name of the guild, while he answered the Pink Slime. "It was something that Ulbert, Punitto Moe, and other members had an idea for… And then we accepted it as something that we would officially be known for…"

[Congratulations! Now The Great Tomb of Nazarick belongs to the Ainz Ooal Gown guild!]

"Good job… Oooh, Guild's leader…" Tabula spoke, clapping his hands as he observed all the commotion in the center of the arena. "Now, we need to fix this whole place up so that it can actually be a Guild base…"

"I have already written down the minimum things we will need to stay well here." Punitto Moe said, taking out a large scroll and opening it, there were several things written on it. "But due to Momonga's tiredness, I don't think we can resolve this now… unless he grants us advanced permissions."

"Okay… I'll do it…" A system screen appeared in front of the new guild leader, it didn't take long for notifications to appear for some specific players. "I gave you almost all the permissions, with the exception of some that are only for guild leaders... Now, if you'll excuse me... I want to wake up in the morning to at least have a quiet moment to relax... You know very well how my boss keeps asking extra things even on the weekend."

The players looked with pity at the skeleton, and soon he left the game, quite possibly to sleep.

._._._._._._._._._._._._.

._._._._._._._._._._._._.

{2 irl months after - Inside Nazarick}

"Today is the day!!! Today is the day! Yeeeee!!!"

"Yes, I know today is the day… Did you forget that it's not just what you've achieved that deserves celebration?…"

"Oh? Why do you say that?... AAH! True! I forgot today is your birthday, I'm sorry!!"

"No need to apologize… Professor Planet. I would also forget a friend's birthday if I was extremely excited to show off a project as big as the one you did…"

Hikari and BluePlanet were talking, walking on the 9th floor of the grand base. They both seemed very happy and calm about what was happening at the moment, as today was the day on which everyone would get together to decide the next steps for the defense and use of the place they call home.

Since the day Nazarick was obtained, the members of Ainz Ooal Gown have been improving, turning that place into a true dungeon, worthy of being their domain. To achieve this, many Data Crystals and Golds were spent to increase the size of the dungeon, which originally had only 4 floors, to a place with 10 floors completely underground. Few members had permission to create whatever they wanted on those floors, one of these members was BluePlanet, who had taken the 6th floor to make a complete environment, formed by several forests, an idealization of what Earth would be like without the existence of humans, a complete garden for a university professor fascinated by nature, which no longer exists in the real world.

But there was more to it than floors. Some resources had also been spent on creating NPCs, which would help, not only with things the members wanted, but also with appropriate defenses, in case a player invaded when no one was online. Most thought a lot about the multi-utilities that each NPC could have, with the main thing being to try as much as possible to make NPCs suitable for battle.

"Oh… you are there! Amazing!!! I was waiting for you inside the Round Table Room, but only Momonga is there now…" Tabula was the one speaking.

Next to the Brain Eater Player was a woman with black hair so long that it hid her face, in addition, her skin was extremely pale, she was dressed in a black dress, and she had a large pair of scissors in her left hand. Hikari approached that being, noticing that behind her long hair, there seemed to be a skinless face, pure exposed flesh.

"Ooooh, I see you liked my NPC." Tabula said, giving a laugh.

"I'm just surprised to see this… As far as I know we agreed to hide NPCs until the matter related to them be discussed during the meeting…" Hikari spoke, still analyzing that woman. "But yes, it's an interesting design and it goes well with the things you talk about all day… What's her name?"

"Oh! Her name is Nigredo! My very first creation!" Tabula said, boasting. "I created it as an emergency measure while I don't make an NPC worth being a Floor Guardian."

"So you actually did what Ulbert recommended, about first creating something for the upper floors, and then thinking about protecting the lower floors…" BluePlanet questioned.

"But of course! According to the agreement we made with Punitto Moe, I am responsible for creating the 10th Floor Guardian!! I still need a lot of Data Crystals to make something appropriate for this mission!" Tabula said, moving his arms and tentacles in a theatrical and exaggerated way.

"I understand… But wow… doesn't she seem to have… really nice curves?" Hikari raised that point.

"The idea is that she distracts the invaders by being a beautiful girl who hides her own face… That and I was inspired by some Old Net horror movies." Tabula gave an embarrassed laugh.

"You said Momonga is already inside, right?" BluePlanet remembered that fact, and soon the 3 players entered the mentioned room.

It was a large hall with an equally large oval table, having chairs for each current member of the guild, behind each chair, a small flag that represented each member's mark. Momonga was standing next to his chair, while he seemed to touch and adjust a being that closely resembled a mannequin, with its uniform being extremely military-looking. When the Skeletor noticed the presence of the players there, he waved in a friendly way.

"Hikari, Blue Planet… I'm glad you're here early…" He paused for a few seconds and then continued. "And before I forget, happy birthday Hikari, I hope the day is going great for you."

"It's a Friday and the Devs seem to have given me a complete break, so yeah, it's a great day." He replied, then sitting down in his chair, which was next to Momonga's. "By the way, what an interesting NPC you have. What is it?"

"Oh… it's a Doppelganger, his name is Pandora's Actor. I will assign him the role of protecting the Treasury." Momonga said as a matter of fact. "Talking about this… what about your NPCs? Did you have any problems making them?"

"You know I said I would create a very simple NPC so as not to be left out of this 'everyone has their own NPC' thing... since I'm focusing more on the 6th floor." BluePlanet scratched his own face a little. "It'll just be working at the Bar that Luci★Fer made on this floor… It's a simple Myconid."

"I didn't have any problems creating my NPCs, the biggest thing I had problems with was connecting the floors…"

"Oh! Hikari, don't talk about it now, if you're going to talk about the project you did, better talk about it when everyone is here, I want a complete surprise. After all, I wasn't restricting myself to just staying on the 9th and 10th floors for nothing! I want to be really surprised by what y'all were preparing." Momonga said quite excitedly.

"So I will be forced to not talk about my NPCs until such time, as they are quite connected to what I did." The smile of the World Champion made Momonga laugh loudly.

They talked a lot about basic things, keeping a complete roleplay. Slowly the room filled with the 35 members that Ainz Ooal Gown had at the moment, everyone seemed excited about this meeting. Meanwhile, Punitto Moe was just sorting out the paperwork, being the guild's greatest strategist, he was the person who organized all the functions of what each one should do, all the players there had freedom to do various things, but everything had to be in agreement with their tasks.

The Death Vine Player took a large dark wooden staff, which he had as his main item, and banged it hard against the ground, drawing everyone's attention. "Guys! Today is the first meeting after the Dead End of the first Guild construction phase! As many here know, we should all be prepared for any brainless idiots who try to invade and destroy us! To achieve this, one of the things we kept in mind was the creation of guild floors, with the first ones serving as a fake dungeon, others being a real dungeon for those who managed to get through our initial defenses, and the last floors being our own areas, with various things that we love, so that we don't need to leave Nazarick, unless it's something impossible to have here... Are we on the same page?"

All players agreed, and so the cleric continued "Great… Let's go in order, then, the first 3 floors, the place known as 'The Catacombs', or in a more simplified way, the 'fake' dungeon. I asked some of you to set up numerous traps, as the main function of these 3 entire floors is to disorient, disrupt, separate and trap any invading player who tries to enter... The structure of the 3 floors was inspired by the original 3 floors before Nazarick was taken by us… And due to the nature of these floors… I only asked for the existence of a single Floor Guardian…"

He took the paperwork and read aloud some things and others about the 3 initial floors, such as the area where countless insectoid monsters would be placed to the horrors of some unwanted players, and another area where it would be a simulation of a church without any windows. But finally, he returned to the important point. "Peroroncino! I gave you the role of creating the Floor Guardian which will initially be located on the 2nd floor. Can you show us?"

The Birdman just waved his wings, happy and using an item so that an NPC appeared on the table. She was a girl of short height, long white hair with a ponytail, extremely pale skin, large eyes with red irises, and a Victorian-era styled outfit, with the biggest thing that caught attention being a nearby umbrella and that pompous dress. "I present to you, my creation, Shalltear Bloodfallen, a true vampire!" A system window appeared next to the NPC, showing its attributes, as well as its JobClasses.

Everyone seemed to look at that NPC as if something was missing, and Punitto Moe was the first to actually ask. "Peroroncino… Where are its Settings?" That simple question made the birdman stop getting excited, with a slightly scared look, but since he didn't do anything about it, the Cleric asked once again. "Where… are the Settings… of your NPC? I gave you complete freedom to do whatever you wanted, as long as it was within the limits… so… show it."

And as requested, Shalltear Bloodfallen's Settings have appeared for all members to see. Everyone's reaction was very different, some covered their eyes after reading a sentence or two, others were just incredulous, but players there, like Bukubukuchagama and Hikari, just stared at Peroroncino as if they were mentally asking 'Why the hell do we give freedom to this pervert?'. After Momonga had only read half of those Settings, he simply caught everyone's attention with a loud clap of his hands.

"L-Let's go talk about the next floor…" Those were the only things said by the Skeletor, from that moment on, Peroroncino's NPC wouldn't be mentioned at the meeting, with Shalltear simply disappearing.

Everyone agreed, and Punitto Moe returned. "Yes... uh... 4th floor is the 'Underground Lake'... I didn't ask anyone here to create an NPC to be the Floor Guardian, as we are using one of the NPCs that the system gave us as one of the rewards for conquering Nazarick, the one stone golem 30 meters high. Any questions about that?" No one seemed bothered by the decision, so they continued to the next floor without delay.

"5th Floor is the 'Ice World'. It is a large area that is always snowing, with several icebergs and freezing rooms. The 'Internal' areas are the hall for the Floor Guardian and a prison. This floor as a whole causes a speed debuff and inflicts ice elemental damage to those who are not part of the Guild." Punitto Moe commented, looking at Warrior Takemikazuchi. "I asked you to create this floor's Boss."

"Yes." Warrior Takemikazuchi simply made his NPC appear, unlike Shalltear, it was large enough to have been summoned on the ground and not on the table. The NPC's attributes and settings appeared for everyone to see. "This one is Cocytus." He pointed to that Big and extreme bulky Ice Insectoid that had some blades in its hands.

"An Insectoid with the JobClasses [Sword Saint] and [Knight of Niflheim]... And really focused on physical attacks, with a good magical defense…" Touch_Me analyzed, clapping his hands. "A great job."

"Thank you… The hardest part was deciding which JobClasses were perfect for him…" Warrior Takemikazuchi looked slightly embarrassed to see someone clapping because of his job, so he sat back down and made Cocytus disappear.

"Now… for one of our stars…" Punitto Moe said, slamming his staff on the table, having to create a hologram of the next floor to show everyone. "The 6th Floor is an immense forest… The largest floor in Nazarick in size, being 200 meters high with an area of 4 km²… There are several areas and sub-areas within this place… uh… I'll let Blue Planet talk about his creation…" All the players there clapped when the Druid stood up after being called, he seemed quite surprised that he had been called to talk about the very floor he gave countless hours of his free time to build.

"T-Thank you, Punitto… ehn… As he said, it's the biggest floor we have… and I created it to be a way of showing the natural beauty that many of us cannot observe in peace, because most of these landscapes within YGGDRASIL are in realms where they want us harm... In it we have an artificial sky and sun, to give the greatest possible impression that we are not underground... There is an immense tree to represent the great world tree that gives the game its name... It will be the home of Floor Guardians… As for the other areas and subareas that were mentioned. There we will have an amphitheater, inspired by the Roman Coliseum, where several teleportation traps will be connected, so that we can see all the players that invade Nazarick, being teleported there so that we can provoke them and fight, showing that we are the sovereigns here."

Several people clapped at what BluePlanet said, with Momonga clearly fascinated by the idea and quite pleased with it, but soon the druid continued speaking. "In addition to the amphitheater, there is also a hidden area that will have an NPC that I bought from a friend, a parasitic insectoid, whose function is to attack NPCs from other players that invade our base. For leisure, I created an area that is a flat and flowery field, perfect for if any of us want to relax and lie down in the flower beds, another important area to talk about is one that I created together with Hikari."

"Yes, it is a Casino that we can access from both the 6th floor and the 7th floor, I have already created two NPCs that will remain there, one is just an Area Guardian, who serves as the manager, while the other is an assistant to the Floor Guardians assigned to these two floors." Hikari said, causing the two aforementioned NPCs to appear behind him.

They were both blonde women with long hair. One dressed like a Maid, having dragon wings and tail, in addition to a penetrating gaze, her settings revealed her to be a dragon and an angel focused on melee attacks. The other didn't seem to have legs, it just floated, having a beautiful greenish dress and blue eyes like a clear sky, with the settings revealing it to be a Poltergeist, with JobClasses focused on magic. The dragon was called Belindo Dracul, while the ghost was called Mary Necry.

Everyone looked interested at Hikari's NPCs, but right after that, Bukubukuchagama spoke. "And well, coming to this matter. I was assigned to create the 6th Floor Guardians, due to the large size, I made two NPCs to perform this role. I present to you, my babies, Aura Bella Fiora and Mare Bello Fiore."

Two NPCs, dark elf children, appeared standing on the table, with their information appearing next to each one. In the settings they were categorized as being twins, with the boy dressed in a female uniform being a druid focused on magical attacks, and the girl wearing a male uniform being a ranger specialized in dominating monsters and using them for combat.

"My God! They are so cute!!!!" Yamaiko spoke, stretching out her arms, as if she wanted to squeeze the cheeks of those two NPCs, but unfortunately her sudden joy disappeared, with a deep look from Punitto Moe.

"Now is a serious moment… if you are going to do something like this, wait for the meeting to end…" The cleric soon looked back at the 3 main players responsible for the 6th floor. "They are perfect as I had asked, really, a good job for you, a huge place like that needs several NPCs to protect." This way, the 4 summoned NPCs and the holographic map of the 6th floor disappeared.

"Now the 7th Floor, the counterpart of the 5th Floor, the 'Hell World'... A floor completely filled with lava, a simulation of the hell of the Christian religion. This floor is made up of a flaming temple and countless rivers of lava, the floor and the floor guardian were both created by Ulbert." Everyone clapped for the Death Vine Player's words, while Ulbert Alain Odle stood up from his chair, with an NPC appearing next to him, with the settings and attributes appearing for everyone.

It was a tall man with dark skin, in an impeccable red British suit, with a silver tail full of spikes, and according to the settings, the NPC was from the Arch-Devil race. "This is my son… Demiurge… I created him with the intention of being able to adapt to any fight."

"I can see that he seems very balanced, with the thing that stands out the most being you maximizing its Special and Resist attributes." BellRiver made that slight comment.

Soon after that, they talked about the following floors, the 8th floor was the last line of defense before the true house of the guild members, so everything about it was dangerous and desperate, even the Guardian Floor there was desperate, as it was an NPC whose main function was to kill itself to lead all enemies to death. But not everything seemed terrible on that floor, as one of the areas on it was a Cherry Blossom Sanctuary, which would be commanded by an NPC with the race class of Immortal Human, being the leader for a complete group of Battle Maids who would be hanging around the 9th and 10th floors.

The 9th floor, where they were at the moment, was the absolute place of leisure for all members, having among countless things: two dormitories for players (members and visitors); Spa; Dojo; Theater hall; Canteen; A HUGE part of the things created on this floor were just roleplay, completely decorative, with no real use, but at least there were areas like Tabula's laboratory where they could manufacture potions and alchemical items without having to leave Nazarick. They had even considered making the Casino on the 9th floor instead of something between the 6th and 7th, but as Hikari was in charge of that specific area, he decided on a more usable alternative, in addition to him loving the roleplay of his and his girlfriend's creations "interact" whenever they could.

The agreement with Punitto Moe meant that this floor didn't have a Floor Guardian, instead, there were several NPC maids of the Homunculus race, with their leader being Pestonya Shortcake Wanko, an NPC who in appearance resembles a beautiful woman, but with a dog's head instead of a human one. However, the closest thing to a 9th Floor Guardian was an NPC created by Touch_Me, a completely human-looking dragon called Sebas Tian. When the World Champion showed the NPC, everyone who knew his face was extremely confused, as it was literally the same face.

Finally, the 10th Floor, is the bottom floor of Nazarick, it was there that contained the final hall, the place where they placed the World Item that had been won among the various rewards for obtaining the dungeon. [Throne of Kings] is a throne that whoever sits on can see all the statuses of all creatures affiliated with where it is, in the case of Nazarick, anyone who sits on it will be able to see all attributes and statuses in real time from absolutely all members and NPCs of Ainz Ooal Gown, regardless of whether the being in question is inside or outside Nazarick.

The 10th Floor Guardian did not exist yet, so Tabula still needs to gather many Data Crystals to create something that would be "a perfect wall", in his definition. However, the last thing to be shown at the meeting was the group of battle maids named Pleiades, apart from the one that would remain as Area Guardian on the 8th Floor, there were 6 of them that would be positioned right at the entrance of the 10th Floor as the absolute final line of defense , which exists at the moment. Due to them being battle maids, and Touch_Me's NPC being an extremely powerful butler focused on physical attacks, it was decided that, indirectly, T_M's NPC would be considered their leader.

The meeting was coming to an end, with the majority of members deciding to leave the game to enjoy the Friday. The few who remained decided to walk around, as some of them had waited for that event to happen before going to see the floors in person, among them was Momonga, who couldn't contain his excitement for the floors besides the two he was on.

"Hikari, what do you think about going to the 6th floor together?" The skeleton said, with smiley face emoticons appearing above him.

"Of course. The girls and I were thinking about staying there for a while." The human world champion referred to his girlfriend, the healer and the cooker, a newbie who had joined Ainz Ooal Gown 1 week after the conquest of Nazarick, called Ankoro Mocchi Mochi.

"Yes! Let's go! I want to squeeze those dark elves' cheeks a lot!" Yamaiko said happily, making the people there laugh a little.

To go to the 6th floor, the 5 players used the [Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown], an item made by Momonga, Punitto Moe and Luci★Fer to allow guild members to walk freely around the dungeon. In this way, they teleported, disappearing from that oval meeting room and then appearing in a place covered by full and tall vegetation, having a small trail that led to some of the sub-areas of the floor, near them.

"Hihi! It's so beautiful!" Ankoro Mocchi Mochi said all happy and cheerful, walking with her friends to one of the areas mentioned in the meeting, being an open and flowery field, very colorful, giving a good feeling that seemed to improve with the soft and eternal breeze that runs throughout the floor.

"I agree… BluePlanet really did an excellent job…" Yamaiko said, gently touching the flowers on the ground.

It didn't take long for a portal close to them to appear, with three homunculus maids emerging from it, who brought with them a marble table and some chairs. Ankoro was the first to sit down, and soon after her friends followed her actions.

"Nothing better than being rewarded with this landscape…" Hikari said, with a simple smile on his face.

However, the human player's expression soon turned into one of joyful surprise, upon seeing Ankoro's NPC, Pestonya Shortcake Wanko, bringing a large 4-tier cake to the table. Not only that, but his girlfriend's two twin NPCs seemed to be bringing some well-decorated rose-themed gift boxes. While behind Yamaiko, her NPC, Yuri Alpha, named after her great success in one of the guild's raid formations, also appeared with a tray of juices, placing it on the table as well.

"G-Guys… you didn't need to do that… seriously…" Hikari said, still smiling, making a slight headpat to one of the dark elf twins.

"You deserve even more than that, darling... Unfortunately, we can't do something like this irl, but here in the game, we will do our best for your birthday." Bukubukuchagama was the one who responded, bringing her slime body closer towards her boyfriend, as if she was hugging him, and he reciprocated without any problem.

"I agree, I wish we could do more for you in this regard, you help us a lot… I mean, we only managed to make a few NPCs within Punitto Moe's time limit, because you sponsored us with several Data Crystals." Yamaiko revealed that, as she seemed to pull Aura Bella Fiora close to her, gently squeezing the dark elf's cheeks.

"It was nothing. This is all for our guild." Hikari laughed heartily, cutting a piece of that digital cake and putting it there for everyone, even though it wasn't a real cake, the taste simulation created by the YGGDRASIL system was still usable.

"No, you really need a lot more than that so we can reward you for everything you've done for us." Momonga made that comment while making his NPC appear on his side.

Pandora's Actor started humming 'Happy Birthday to You' as if it were an MP5 playing, doing several theatrical poses, which caused Momonga to facepalm, while the other 4 players laughed happily at the scene. It didn't take long for the female players and Momonga to start singing the song, clapping lightly and softly. Hikari soon followed them, and in the end, the human player created a small flame on the tip of his index finger, extinguishing it with a simple breath.

"Happy 22nd birthday, darling!" the Pink Slime said, wrapping her body tighter around the birthday boy.

"I want Nazarick to witness countless happy moments like this!" Momonga said, raising a large glass full of juice.

"Glory to Ainz Ooal Gown!" Hikari said, also raising his glass.

"Glory to Nazarick!" The three female players also raised their glasses, with the 5 of them toasting and starting to grab more slices of cake between themselves.