NOVEL NEXT Introductions, part one (2)
Chapter 1: Introductions
Now, as one may expect, after he had gotten on the ground floor of the tomb and had triggered the pop monsters to spawn, he would panic. That would be untrue, if he wasn’t panicking. After all, the timer had reached zero.
He looked around and noticed that the monsters were walking without their natural animations. Of course, there were a multitude of animations that the undead of this floor used but these guys stumbled on rocks, bumped into each other. They acted strange to say the least.
Going back to the whole reason he was here in the first place, was the fact that he had tried to solo raid this guild base. That was a dumb idea and he had died. He wanted to see if the owner of the guild base was home and see if he wanted to have a talk.
As he had guessed after he had failed to even take out Shalltear Bloodfallen, the owner of the base was alone, and all his friends had quit the game. That in and of itself was very sad, yet relatable. Kane had a friend group that had left him after they had heard about his money status, which was very stable.
But after they had left, his grandfather had died, and he had no one to talk to. But that was in the past, right now he had more problems than just dead grandparents. He… wait… Why was he thinking like that?
He usually would feel rather emotional after thinking about his grandfather, but not now. As the pop monsters swarmed him and he heard a voice like a seductress’s enter his range of hearing, all he could think about was how strange this was, and why it could be.
He looked up to see her, Shalltear Bloodfallen. If he remembered correctly, she had a multitude of differing classes and such. She had attacks from the cursed paladin class, and abilities of that of a Pureblood vampire.
Now that he was thinking about it, he simply could not for the life of him forget their battle and replay it in his head. It was like he had the mind of a machine. Or rather, that of a automata.
A single line of something ran through his mind. That of the idea of reincarnation. What was also rather strange was that he had stopped panicking. And that was shocking, a level 100 minimaxed NPC was standing in front of him. Of course, he was also level 100 but that wouldn’t change the fact that it would be a hard fight, and he had lost to her.
Shalltear simply looked at him haughtily and turned her chin up. Now, as one may expect from an old game, this NPC was not acting like an NPC. She was moving as if to simply show that fact off.
“What, cat got your tongue?” she asked teasingly.
This was no longer a game, that was for sure. After thinking about how to respond to her taunting, he responded. Of course, said voice was that of Aeskell’s voice. Which was rather shocking to say the least. But it was a thing to think of later.
He, now she, looked around the area and then back at the flat chested vampire. It was as if her ignoring the other girl had pushed her buttons and she stamped her foot on the ground.
“It seems that a cat has gotten your tongue! Answer me!” she ordered in a bratty voice.
It was rather strange to see an NPC talk like this, like it, or rather she had been able to do so all her life. Her gaze seemed rather on edge as she no doubt wanted her to answer the question. And Shalltear had no doubt been able to tell that the automata was level 100. With that probably being the case, she decided to ask a question.
“That depends on what you yourself asked me. I was rather lost in thought for a couple of minutes there,” she explained.
The young girl that had once been ones and zeros scoffed in a haughty mood once more. It seems that Aeskell had fueled her ego somehow. This was already getting tiring, but Aeskell wanted to talk to Momonga, the only player in this guild base. At least, to her knowledge he was.
“No wonder you didn’t answer, this form the Supreme Beings gave me is perfect!” she bragged, “Lord Momonga asked me to bring you to see him after he learned that there was an intruder in the tomb. So, follow me!”
Just as the vampire said that a gate appeared behind the small vampire. The request that was worded more as an order was heeded as Aeskell followed Shalltear through the inky black hole spacetime.
It was rather strange for her to experience magic in real life for real for the first time. Stranger still that Momonga knew she was here right away. Maybe the base had good notification software? That could be it, or maybe he simply sent Shalltear up here earlier before the timer ran out in hopes of someone being here?
Whatever the reason being, they were going to have, hopefully, a pleasant and professional conversation. At least she hoped that would be the case. She had no idea where she was walking to, but she knew that if she had to leave, she could.
To be able to use gate, you have to not cast or use any anti-teleportation spells. That being the case, the simple fact that the NPC in front of her had used it told her that if she was quick, she could escape. Hopefully being the main word here, they could easily caste or turn on any anti-teleport skills or spells that the tomb had up its sleeve.
As soon as the light of whatever room or space the both of them found themselves in was shining on the newfound girl’s eyes, she noticed the NPCs in the room. It seemed like the majority of them were max level. Some of them were simply mercenary monsters, others were fully custom NPCs.
She gazed at the kind of nervous looking overlord that sat on the world class item, the “Throne of Kings”. He seemed nonchalant sitting on the throne like he was the strongest one here. Sure, while on the throne he was, but off of it. Well, she had heard that he was purely a roleplay build. But then again, he was very good at PvP.
“Hello, I am Momonga, the last member of the guild “Ainz Ooal Gown”. May I ask why you came here, to the home this Guild built together?” he asked with bravado.
He seemed to have been under some false info, or maybe he was simply in a confused and frustrated mood now that the world seemed to have changed in some strange way. But it was rather strange, he didn’t seem overly annoyed or angry. It was like he didn’t feel any overly strong emotions. Or maybe he was simply good at hiding them? It was rather hard to tell with him having a skull for a face.
But how had she been able to tell that? How was she able to pick up on the small movements of his gown, his cape and limbs? Was it the new eyes and senses that she had obtained after this rebirth or summoning or whatever it was?
Time would only tell if these hunches were correct. It seemed that her thinking had put him on edge. Maybe he was simply socially anxious. That was pretty relatable.
“Sorry, I was simply lost in thought. This day was going to be rather straightforward, but now it’s gotten really weird. I’m sure you can understand,” she explained.
“Oh, of course. This day has taken a turn for the strange and unexpected,” he reciprocated. “Now guardians, you all may leave and attend to your given duties while the two of us are going to talk about what has transpired,” he ordered.
The NPCs that had stood around the throne kneeled, then swore with a “lord”, and left the throne room. At least, she assumed the room they were standing in was that of a throne room. She had seen and heard that the guild of Ainz Ooal Gown was a roleplay guild.
“Anyway, can we talk about what has actually happened? Your Guild NPCs seem to have fully gained sentience. I don’t know what is up with that, but I do know that it’s impossible,” Aeskell explained.
“Yes, I agree. But first I think we should introduce ourselves first. My player name is Momonga, may I ask your player name? it would be weird if we just suddenly started using our real names, right?” he asked.
“Of course, my username is Aeskell Peregrinus Walker. But you can simply call me Aeskell. I was a dude IRL, so it is rather strange to hear a woman’s voice,” she told him.
He tilted his head to the side and inclined it forward, “but I thought it was illegal to use an avatar of the opposite gender? Or is that simply a hardware issue?” he asked.
“It is a hardware issue, my family was rather well off, so I was able to get a high-end interface with said money,” she told him. “But it was mostly my grandfather that had the money in the family, you have him to thank for that knowledge.”
He nodded his head, “umu, I was thinking that that was the case. In any matter, I have not the faintest clue on what happened, do you?” he inquired.
“Well, the outside world is different. All the land that could be considered the ground floor of the tomb is instead, a plains biome,” she said much to his inquire.
He tilted his head the other way and tapped his temples multiple times with his fingers. He seemed to be lost in thought and the red pits in his eyes dimmed for a couple of minutes. Aeskell would have slunk into her own thoughts as well, but there really was nothing other than the smallest of ideas on what was happening.
“Well,” he picked up the conversation again, “what can we do to 100% prove that this is no longer a game world?”
She thought for about a minute and then some more. There was a for sure way of realizing the truth of their situation. She could grope her own chest. Adult actions were strictly forbidden and any action that fell in line with that was punishable by banning the account.
“You could grope my chest?” she offered with a bit of curiosity in her voice.
He then fell backward after her preposition. He nearly fell off of his throne with that statement. He seemed to start to panic, but soon seemed too unnaturally calm down. It was like an outside force had made him calmer.
“Why would you other something like that? What are you thinking?” he asked in a hurried tone.
She looked right at him and told him why she had asked him that. She didn’t really feel any strong embarrassment from the question, his or hers. She felt more intrigued by it in all honesty.
“Well adult actions are the top priority when someone is banned. So, I thought about groping myself, but that seems just strange for some reason. So, I thought about another way,” she paused, “and you groping me seems like a better idea given that you are an entirely different person than myself,” she explained.
He face palmed and sighed. It seemed like this had driven him over the edge for craziness for today. He then seemed to think to himself for a minute. Then looked at her with the blankest stare a skeleton could give and grabbed her chest.
It hurt, probably because of the negative energy touch that all undead had. His rather large skeletal hand squeezed her a bit, then he pulled back as if satisfied that her offer had nothing more attached, and he could stop.
“Happy now? We now know that this is not instead a game world, but real,” he said as Aeskell looked at him after she straightened out her clothes.
“Yes, now we know that this is no longer a game world,” she reciprocated.
They both looked at each other as if they had done nothing wrong. They then both nodded. It seemed like they had both come up with a nonverbal agreement that this was to be never brought up again.
