Chapter 5

AN: The profile picture was made by art_craft21 (Twitter handle)

After their vision cleared, the scenery remained pretty much the same compared to their dreams of the entity. They stood amidst lush woods, under a crystal-clear sky with a cacophony of natural sounds enveloping them like a soothing artificial ASMR sleeping audio. Ainz took a deep breath, the earthly scent filling his lungs, and turned his attention to his wife beside him, who too was doing the same.

They were standing on a dusty, winding road with no visible signs or any other recognizable landmarks, adding to the sense of otherworldly mystery. Such a road would have been near impossible to find on Earth, only reinforcing the fact that they were no longer there.

Buku grabbed his hand, gently squeezing it, her fingers interlacing with his as she smiled somberly, "We made it," she said, her voice carrying a blend of relief and melancholy. "This is our chance. If only Itsuki could be here with us. I want to believe that Artemel wasn't lying…" Buku trailed off.

"We'll need to confirm every piece of information she provided," Ainz stated firmly, his eyes scanning the rustling of leaves in their surroundings. "I don't trust that we're automatically very powerful in this world. For all we know, we may be very weak, and this world is packed with individuals similar to her." Ainz returned the affectionate gesture without worrying about hurting her. Despite his massive size, Buku's physical stats would be higher than his if their avatars had been recreated faithfully, and her skills would cover anything else.

Back in Yggdrasil, she supported the guild as a tank on the front lines. While her character's overall stats were relatively low compared to pure damage classes, her use of first-class defensive items compensated for that sort of weakness, alongside her strength and accurate judgment, born from long experience in the game. Ainz on the other hand, focused on classes and skills specifically involving magic such as death magic. This meant he didn't emphasize his physical build but rather his arcane strength, particularly from range, although he couldn't hold his ground through sheer stats and buffs as a top-tier player melee-wise. Despite this, Ainz's chances of victory in PvP combat were quite high because he was adept at gathering information and gaining tactical experience against his opponents, especially if he had time to prepare. In the game, he oftentimes successfully goaded his opponents while analyzing their strategies and weaknesses, playing them like a fiddle. He would then forfeit the first round of the match, and use this knowledge to secure victory in subsequent rounds. In this manner, he won PvP battles with surprising regularity, regularly crushing those who challenged him.

"Sure, but darling please don't go all tinfoil hat on me." Buku glanced up with a raised brow, knowing her husband's thought process all too well. He would rabbit hole over the smallest of details, pouring over even the slightest possible changes to her schedules and creating plans for backup plans for backup plans in case things went wrong.

Ainz sighed, a mix of exasperation and concern coloring his features. "We need to exercise caution. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. We are in an unknown, potentially hostile world, and we don't know what sort of creatures live here. Other people remade as their game avatars might exist, possibly power buffed further." Ainz added with resignation, realizing they ought to have asked Artemel more questions. If she had created them with their current level of strength, she surely could've done more for others.

It was too late for that and they needed to work with the information at hand. All he knew was that they were their game avatars and in the regular world, they would likely be considered rather powerful, so there was a need for double caution. If they were weak, then showing this fact would invite exploitation, with things going as badly such as slavery, but if the opposite was true and their abilities were considered extraordinary, they might agitate the local powers and paint targets on their backs by merely existing. 'I know I'm paranoid but I need to protect her. Buku often is too reckless.'

"Aha, and if I look away for a moment you'll be building an underground bunker in the forest." Buku teased, pressing her body against his in a playful manner." I know my man wants to keep me safe, but there are limits."

"I won't," Ainz retorted, knowing that argument was already lost. If Buku wanted she could play him like a fiddle and although she rarely exercised this devastating power, she wasn't above it if she thought the situation called for her to get her way. Many times even his logical mind had failed against her schemes, and as others said, happy wife, happy life.

Buku gave him an amused look, her eyes filled with affection. She motioned for him to lean down, and once he did, planted a quick peck on his lips. "I will follow your lead on this. Just don't go overboard with paranoia." She assured her husband, giggling.

"I'll try," Ainz promised, a small smile breaking through his serious demeanor. He glanced around the forest, the shadows gradually shortening as the sun rose above the tree line in the sky, dawn having slipped past them like an eel. "First, we should figure out where we are and reach the nearest civilization, hopefully humans, since we're currently pretending to be ones."

"We were… we aren't human anymore. How strange." Buku turned her gaze downward, looking at her extended arms and twisting them at the knuckles as if testing her body.

"I know, when I was in my new natural form, all my emotions felt muffled." Ainz agreed, his voice filled with an eerie calm.

"What do you mean?" Buku asked, growing slightly concerned. Ainz wasn't the most expressive person even before being turned into an undead. Taken further, he could even be described as illogically logical if you stretched it.

'You know those mediation videos we tried once or twice?" He inquired.

"Yea…"

"I always feel like I'm in that state. Like I'm supposed to be very calm. It's not like I love you any less, but for everything else … I feel a profound calmness." He gently brushed his wife's cheek to assure her.

"Tests will be needed. I need to know how excited I can make you." Her hands started to wander over the thick cloth robe he wore, reaching for his nether region.

"Ahm, the effect appears to still be the same, but we should get the sense of where we are first," he reminded Buku.

"Right. I think Artemel gave us a map, perhaps there's a landmark nearby to help us determine where we are in this world, Azeroth she called it." Buku pointed at the scroll he held in his left hand.

"Right." Ainz spread out the scroll and brought it before their eyes, letting Buku hold onto one edge. The parchment was old, its edges frayed and the ink slightly faded from use. Despite this, the details were clear, and three distinct continents were depicted. Two vertical landmasses were separated by a vast ocean and a smaller one sat atop the map situated between the two main continents. To the east lay the lands unimaginatively called the Eastern Kingdoms. Its coastline was jagged, with forests and mountains drawn in intricate detail despite the wear. To the west was Kalimdor, a sprawling land filled with deserts and forests; to the north was Northrend, its mountains detailed snow-covered peaks and icy terrain marked by various glaciers.

"It is a safe guess we're in the Eastern Kingdoms since the other two have large patches that are considered unexplored," Ainz commented, tracing the lines of settlements and cities with his pointer finger.

Buku nodded, her eyes scanning the detailed figures scattered across the map. "Perhaps we are near this area." She leaned in close and pointed. "The Kingdom of Stormwind. From the looks of its cities, it's a human kingdom, and it seems mostly covered in forest. I think, at least for now we should head there, in good faith towards Artemel and assume she isn't trying to screw us over. I was growing to like the girl, maybe she likes us too," Buku voiced bemusingly.

"This map is too general to be useful at the moment. There are only seven cities and towns mentioned in the whole kingdom, but if the scale is correct, there should be a lot more settlements for a kingdom of this size," Ainz noted, his finger tracing the rough outlines of Stormwind to the rough outlines of the forests, the vast expanses thoroughly unsettlingly sparse, like uncharted territories waiting to be explored, all the civilization found and documented on the parchment. The map, though meticulously drawn, felt like a puzzle with missing pieces, pieces that were already in the box, they just needed to find and analyze them. "I feel that I have some food in my inventory, so we don't need to worry about hunger, if I can even feel hungry that is. Artmel did say this visage form wouldn't change our true natures," Ainz added.

"I do feel peckish, however, we better leave our food reserves as is for now. I probably can go a long time without eating, and I can eat a lot more now than before. How about we pick a direction and start walking? We should stumble upon locals sooner or later. We need to gather more information at least," Buku suggested.

"Good idea." Ainz agreed. He carefully folded the map back into a square and held it out before him. With a slight gesture, a void opened, its edges shimmering with a dark, ethereal glow akin to the game's graphics. He placed the map into the void and let it go, which closed seamlessly, leaving no trace behind. 'It wasn't probably a good idea to do this in front of others till they confirmed the magic and laws of this world,' he thought to himself.

They started moving westward, the road stretching ahead of them through the dense forest, twisting and turning here and there. The scenery changed little for half an hour, save for occasional side roads leading into the woods until the towering trees and undergrowth created a green tunnel around them, glittering with more green than they had ever seen combined in their past lives. The air was filled with the scent of pine wood and damp earth and the occasional rustle of small creatures moving in the foliage, pleasant to the nose and ears. The silence between them was comfortable as they were very much attuned to each other's presence, moving in peace. Ainz's mind was filled with strategies and possibilities of what was to come, while Buku kept a keen eye on their surroundings, her senses alert for any sign of movement or danger. Eventually, the road began to widen as the trees gradually thinned out and the underbrush shrank as they reached a crossroads. They spotted a four-way road sign with symbols recognizable to neither of them.

"This must be a landmark," Ainz mused, stepping closer to examine the carvings. "Hmm, this may prove to be a problem. I can't read this," he added, sighing.

"Neither can I. Any bright ideas, darling?" Buku's eyes sparkled with curiosity as she walked up to the sign and inspected it, circling around. It was made out of wood in a rather crude style, the wooden surface bearing the marks of a hasty craftsman and was weathered with age.

"I have just the thing! Translation glasses. They should do for now." Ainz remembered the rather useful object, opened his inventory, and a dark void stretched just an arm wide before him. Reaching into the abyss, he fished out a pair of ornate spectacles, having instinctively felt the item appearing in his grasp. The glasses appeared delicate and intricate like the thin wire frames of old, with lenses that shimmered like liquid crystals under the rays of the sun. He perched them on his nose with a dramatic flourish.

"That way leads to Stormwind," he declared, pointing northwest, his finger tracing the path of other names etched into the wood sign while he continued, "Goldshire, Northshire, and Eastwalle."

"Stormwind was on the map," Buku commented, becoming aware that a small group was gradually approaching them. With a heightened sense of caution, she tensed up and immediately took a battle stance, motioning for him to do the same. "We've got company," she noted three humans heading in their direction while chatting among themselves without a care in the world. Ainz quickly sneaked away the translation glasses inside his robes as he followed Buku's gaze.

All three were young, barely out of their teens and into their adulthoods. The first, a young man, was clad in an outfit strikingly similar to Buku's, a sturdy shield across his back and a sword strapped to his belt. He had short brown hair and slight sideburns framed a face etched with casual ease. His demeanor was the most relaxed and confident out of the three.

Next to him stood a softer-looking man cloaked in a flowing white robe and clutching a wooden staff elegantly carved with intricate designs that spiraled up its length, worn with use. His long blonde hair was tied in a neat tail with delicate, silver-threaded ribbon. His expression was tranquil and his entire body seemed to glow softly, as if he radiated a gentle, ethereal light.

The last one was a girl riding a large boar, armed with a finely crafted bow slung over her back, its polished wood gleaming even from a distance, and the string taut, ready for swift action. She had a brown bob cut framing her narrow eyes that watched the treeline with predatory determination. She was clad in a full leather set that hugged her slender form, accentuating her agility. She wore large boots covered in fur that hinted at her rugged, wilderness prowess.

"Humans. They don't seem hostile. Let's talk to them." Buku perked up, her eyes sparkling with relief as she eased her stance.

Ainz silently nodded, and together with his wife, they approached the trio, who only now took note of them and stopped in their tracks. She was a good judge of character and if she deemed them worth approaching he didn't see a reason to protest. But he did keep his hands close to his weapons, just in case.

"Hello, my husband and I are a bit lost!" Buku greeted the trio with a warm, disarming smile and a friendly wave. "Would you mind helping us?"

"Not from around here, are you? Sure, we'd be happy to help. Which town are you trying to reach, folks?" The man in the heavy armor replied with a question, his voice friendly but cautious.

Buku paused, realizing they needed a cover story to explain their unfamiliarity with the area. Drawing on her skill of 'making stuff up on the spot,' she began to spin a tale, her mind racing to weave a believable narrative.

"We need to reach the nearest town to stock up on supplies and look for job options. We come from a small island nation and our ship crashed in… aaa… you know, those plains to the west. With no way home, we're now trying to find work and settle here."

"You poor souls. May the light guide you home," the man in the white robe murmured, his voice filled with genuine compassion as he bowed his head slightly, his blonde hair shimmering in the light.

"They look like adventurers, Right Mr. Oink?" The girl on the boar patted her mount affectionately. The boar, a massive creature with coarse, bristly fur and seemingly intelligent eyes, responded with an enthusiastic oink.

"That pig doesn't understand you, Annie," the man in the heavy armor groaned, rolling his eyes. He adjusted the shield on his back and glanced at the duo. "Anyway, if you're an adventurer or hired muscle, there's always plenty of work in Stormwind. If you want to start with easier jobs, you can head to Northshire Abbey. We are heading there, Goldshire offers more options, but you might end up facing Kobolds or bandits."

Annie gave the boar one last pat and then turned her narrow, predatory eyes towards Buku and Ainz, "Stormwind is always bustling with opportunities," she declared. "Mr. Oink is smart. He picked me." the girl retorted, glaring at her comrade. She dismounted the pig with a huff and stomped the ground angrily, her bow rattling. The boar snorted and pawed the ground as well, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"Oh, I think we could start in the Northshire." Buku pondered aloud, her mind racing with possibilities. "I'm not sure how dangerous local wildlife is. It was quite tough at our home."

"You said you three are heading there as well?" Ainz asked, his tone playing as polite but inquisitive.

"Yes. Oh, I am Robyn Tropp, a warrior," the heavily armored man introduced himself with a slight bow, then gestured to his two companions. "This angsty one is Annie Wither, a hunter with a knack for taming any animal she comes across," he proclaimed, pointing at the girl, "And this cheerful fellow is Leoroy Wheatley. He claims he's a priest, but no one has ever seen him in church."

"I prefer to travel and help people instead of sitting in Stormwind Cathedral copying tomes and praying. Many people are hurt or ill or need protection from wildlife, monsters, and bandits, away from church grounds. Our home is not as safe as it used to be," Leoroy explained, ignoring his friend's jab. Ainz could see how his eyes gleamed with a sense of duty and compassion, reminding him of one of his close friends from Yggdrasil.

"That is a very noble goal. I had a friend who always said, 'Helping people in trouble is the right thing to do,'" Ainz commented, his voice tinged with admiration and nostalgia as he recalled his guildmates.

"Sounds like a righteous man. Was he on the ship with you?" Leoroy enquired, his expression softening with concern, worried that their new friends might have lost a lot of friends and loved ones in the shipwreck.

Buku's eyes momentarily clouded with sadness before she regained her composure, "No, he wasn't with us…" she replied, her voice trailing off to a murmur.

"We parted ways a long time ago. He had his own battles to fight," Ainz added with a bitter smile. The old memories of how all the guild members had abandoned him had resurfaced, they weren't as painful now that he had Buku in his life, but the old scars had never fully healed. Memories tainted with endings, nostalgia cracked with time.

"I am Buku Ooal Gown, and this is my husband Ainz Ooal Gown. I am a warrior as well, and he is a caster. Perhaps we can tag along and ask some questions about these lands along the way? The island we lived on was rather isolated from the world." Buku offered, extending their introductions as Ainz reached within his robe from the neckline and covertly retrieved the map he had stashed in the inventory.

"Sure, the more the merrier, but you'll have to ask such questions to Leoroy. He's the learned one among us. Annie and I only know about our villages and where the capital is." Robyn agreed, his armor clinking softly as he nodded.

"I will help how I can, though admittedly my knowledge of the world is limited. I am but a young servant of light who has only studied for a few years," Leoroy replied, stepping beside Ainz and noticing the large man holding the map of the world.

"Any information will help," Ainz replied, his voice steady and appreciative as he unfurled the paper.

"Very well. We are roughly here," Leoroy stated, pointing to a spot south of Stormwind. "The Kingdom of Stormwind is where we are at the moment. As you can see by the coloring, our kingdom has four major provinces. Elwynn Forest is this large central area; to the west is Westfall. It's mostly farmlands, but from what I have heard it's not safe there anymore. The area crawls with Defias thugs - lowlives that prey on honest people."

"Is it some sort of crime syndicate?" Ainz inquired, his eyes focused.

"Yes. They have spread throughout the kingdom and caused a lot of suffering. This area to the south was once called Brightwood, but after a terrible curse fell upon it, shrouding the province in perpetual darkness, it was renamed Duskwood. Strange monsters lurk there," Leoroy explained, his finger tracing the shadowed region on the map.

"They do make a great moonshine," Robyn commented with a chuckle.

"Great? That stuff will kill you! Those people in Duskwood are crazy," Annie protested, shaking her head vehemently. She was walking beside her pet pig, which periodically wandered into the trees and returned with a mouthful of who knew what, chewing contentedly, occasionally petting it.

"Those people fight the darkness; a strong drink helps keep the spirits up," Leoroy added, his robes swaying gently as he lightly tapped the ground with his staff. "Elwynn Forest is the safest area in the kingdom, but there are more opportunities to earn coins in the borderlands, more opportunities to strike it rich."

"What about other nations?" Ainz continued eagerly, hoping to learn more about this world. It did surprise him how freely these people were willing to share information, given how YGGDRASIL worked by essentially throwing its players into the deep end with only basic controls, but as one used to say until Earth's 21st century, 'Don't look a gift horse mouth in the mouth.' He and Buku had given no promises to help these people with anything - it was better this way. Once they reached a town, they could decide their next steps on their own. And if these humans wanted to give more information of their own free will for nothing in return, the more the better.

However, this encounter sparked memories of his guild's adventures; telling jokes, planning ambushes, and the thrill of plundering tombs and other structures. Those days seemed distant now, but perhaps they could be repeated in this world before he and Buku settled somewhere. If there was a chance to bring Itsuki over through encounters like these, it would become their main, unspoken quest.

"I only know about the Kingdoms of Khaz Modan and Gnomeregan to the north of Stormwind. They're a dwarven kingdom and a gnomish kingdom respectively, and they've been allies with humans for a long time. There once was an elven kingdom here on the tip of the continent, but I'm not sure how many remain after the scourge invasion," Leoroy explained.

"I see, what is this scourge that you speak of?" Ainz inquired, his mind already cataloging each new term for future reference.

"Undead.. They swallowed the human kingdoms southwest of elven lands and now nothing lives there save for those monsters. Abominations!" Leoroy spat in disgust, his expression darkening as his hand tightened around his staff.

"I see," Ainz nodded thoughtfully. It was a start. For now, they needed to be vigilant and avoid revealing their true selves while living among humans and dwarves. If the priest harbored such a hostile disposition towards the undead, revealing his true self would sever all possibilities of communication and likely pin a target on his back.

"What about other races?" Buku interjected.

"There is the Horde, but most of them live in Kalimdor now - orcs, trolls, and I've heard they have cow-like creatures called Tauren that live with them. They are seen as enemies of humanity. The Horde are enemies of the Alliance and a lot of soldiers are sent to fight them even if there isn't a war going on right now, given how dangerous they are and have been." Leoroy explained, his voice carrying a weight of historical enmity.

The more Leoroy spoke, the more questions Ainz had; the Alliance, as it turned out, referred to humans, dwarves, and elves, which were the civilized nations. In contrast, the Horde comprised more savage, monstrous races united under a Warchief, in direct contrast and conflict with the former. Their original species would probably fall under the latter though.

The forest around them seemed to listen to their conversation, the ancient trees casting long shadows as sunlight filtered through the canopy. Buku and Ainz exchanged glances, their thoughts aligning on the importance of learning the local languages and gaining access to the nearest libraries as quickly as possible. The top priority had now changed to figuring out how to navigate the complicated world, where so many diverse races co-existed with deep-rooted animosities. They had nary a bit of knowledge of this world's common sense, which had to be amended, fast.

Editing by NabeisWaifu and aidan_lo.

Proofreading by Ainz-sama, NabeisWaifu, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, miraculous-trash, fvvck, and aidan_lo.

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