Overlord - Prologue

Part 6

There was a statue in what seemed like the heart of the dungeon. There were glowing magic circles before the statue, and it seemed likely that stepping into them would transport one to the boss.

Since they had made it all the way here, even those shitty developers would not have put in endlessly-respawning monsters, so they had the luxury of changing out their gear for an anti-boss loadout. That said, nobody in this group trusted the developers. Nishiki Enrai carefully surveyed their surroundings while the magic casters used spells to check for secret doors nearby.

Momonga did not have much gear to switch out, so he was the first to finish. Then, he contacted the other parties with a 「Message」.

Since 「Message」 was a spell that created a one-to-one conversation, it was difficult to share information with the rest of the group. While there were certain commander-type classes who had skills that allowed for simultaneous communication with many people, Ainz Ooal Gown did not possess individuals with such skills.

After speaking to everyone and discussing what he had learned with Punitto Moe, Momonga returned to his companions, who were almost done with their preparations. He also carried the sense of guilt which came with knowing something troublesome and knowing that he would have to rope others into helping him.

“How goes it, Momonga-san? Did the other teams all make it?”

Momonga answered Bukubukuchagama, the party leader:

“Yes, the other four teams have reached the dungeon’s heart. They’ve all expended some resources, but they’re all in tip-top condition and ready to fight.”

A small cheer came from the group. However, beating trash mobs and the environment made up 40 % of the difficulty of raiding a dungeon, while beating its boss was the other 60 %. In a way, they were not even halfway through.

Still, one could turn it around and say that that they had completed almost half of the raid perfectly.

“Still, there’s two… three problems. Two teams have already started fighting their respective bosses. Judging by shared information, the bosses they’ve encountered have different abilities, appearances, and boss rooms. The volcanic region’s boss seems to be some sort of dragon with lightning breath, while the party in the underwater lake seems to have encountered some kind of pure white bat.”

“I see… so we can’t use information gained from people who went in first. What’s the second problem?”

“There were announcements once they entered the boss rooms, and judging by the content of those announcements, the bosses get stronger in order of encounter. Which means, the team that fights their boss last…”

The veteran players instantly knew what Momonga was trying to say.

“I see… it would be simple enough if the bosses were even in power, but after several encounters, a strong boss might get even stronger. Is that it?”

“Well, if it’s the shitty developers, they’d probably level up the boss until it’s unbeatable. ‘How many times should we make them fight before letting them win,’ they’d ask with smug grins on their faces.”

“…And without any concrete information, we can’t formulate a battle plan. Hm, I think I know what you’re trying to say, Momonga-san. Come, speak your mind.”

Pushed forward by everyone else, Momonga decided to come clean:

“My apologies. I want to have our team pick the short straw. Can I trouble everyone to bear this hardship?”

There was no hesitation in their answers.

The others agreed unanimously. There was no reluctance or a sense that it could not be helped — only excitement.

“Momonga-san, don’t be mistaken. This isn’t taking on a hardship, but rather, it’s because we’re like this that we can take it on at all. Look, in terms of physical damage dealing, defense, magical damage dealing, healing and support, we’re probably the most specialized members of Nine’s — no, of Ainz Ooal Gown. If I could put a team together to fight that boss, I’d probably pick all of us again.”

After Bukubukuchagama, Warrior Takemikazuchi spoke up:

“I came here because this was what I wanted to do. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I’ve always wanted to predict the foe’s tactics in a battle with no clear means of victory. Plus, if I’m backed up by you guys, that move of mine might…”

“Ohhh! The Bright King[5] Combo? It’s certainly possible, no it’s definitely possible, Ken-yan!” Nishiki Enrai exclaimed in excitement.

“Bukubukuchagama can manipulate karma values, and Yamaiko’s super-tier spell works on people with positive karma too! Come on, Momonga-san, help us out!”

The attacker and attacker cum seeker were practically shouting in joy.

Momonga had heard of the Bright King Combo. If pulled off successfully, it would push their DPS through the roof. It was a move that was worthy of being called an ultimate attack, but at the same time, it could only be used once a day, and the boss would enrage due to the depletion of its health. Therefore, if they got the timing wrong when paring down its health, the move would not succeed.

“We’ll also need to see how much of its health we can burn off in a short time. You can handle that, right, Ulbert-san?”

“Indeed. Since you let me conserve all my MP, I plan to spend it all on damage… but of course, I’ll follow Bukubukuchagama-san’s directions for hate management.”

“Looking forward to it~”

“All right, then next up…”

Momonga continued explaining after seeing that everyone had calmed down.

“…This is probably the most important thing, but we won’t be able to retreat from this fight.”

A prickly sensation of nervousness flooded through him. They had one shot at this. They had to bet everything on that one shot.

Boss battles typically took place in a separate map, and there were some boss battles which allowed players to retreat from the fight. Therefore, most players would do so if they felt things were getting dangerous. Of course, the enemy would recover all their lost HP, so it would be best not to use trump cards and the like before retreating.

“Really, they don’t want newcomers to beat this dungeon in one go.”

“Ah, there’s almost nobody who could beat this dungeon blind anyway.”

“Then, Momonga-san, I have two questions. Did anyone lose their buffs when they went in?”

“That didn’t seem to have happened.”

“I see… then, will we have time to buff up inside?”

“No chance. The boss appears immediately and attacks.”

“So we’re fighting without knowledge or preparation? This is tough.”

“—The battle’s over before it’s even begun.”

“Ohhh! You sound just like him, Momonga-san!”

It was accompanied by a giggle.

“Just so. The deck is stacked pretty high against us. However, I feel our team can do it. Right, guys?”

Bukubukuchagama’s statement was met with approval all around.

In a grateful tone, Momonga announced:

“Then, I’ll let everyone else know that our party will be the last ones in.”

“Thank you. Then, another problem is that we know nothing about the enemy’s attacks… Though since we’ve encountered nothing but undead all the way here, the boss might end up being some other type of creature, right? No, those shitty developers would definitely do something like that.”

“Since we don’t know enough about this fight, we can’t assemble the proper elemental enchants… so how about something that’s wide-spectrum but low-potency? No matter what, we can’t learn without taking a hit. Plus, we have to worry about hate resets…”

“We could use food to buff our basic stats. Would you mind sparing me some for resistances?”

“I’m not making undead to add to the damage rotations, but I’ll be using them as meatshields when the time comes. I won’t use them to attack.”

Everyone loudly discussed their preparations for this battle, and when it was over, Momonga had received confirmation that the other two teams had started their respective battles.

“Then — shall we?”

Bukubukuchagama oozed forward, a shield in each hand.

Various magic items floated into view within her pink body. When slimes were equipped with magic items — with the exception of hand-held items — they were not shown on their exterior, but within their bodies.

Incidentally, in Yggdrasil one could equip magic items in the following slots: head, face, body, three pieces of jewellery apart from one’s rings, underclothing, arms, hands, left and right rings, waist, legs and feet. Even a suit of full plate armor only counted as taking up the body slot.

“Then, we’re going for it. One-sixth of a raid boss.”

“Don’t go into your rotations right away, watch the enemy’s attacks first. I’ll manage our hate, so please listen to my instructions. You guys don’t need me to tell you this, right?”

Five ‘evil grin’ emoticons were their response to Bukubukuchagama’s provocation.

They had played together for a long time now. All of them knew what they could and could not do.

With Bukubukuchagama leading the way, the party entered the magic circle.

They ended up in a room that resembled a colosseum. The walls were high and curved into a dome. Since there was a roof, there probably would not be any flying monsters dropping in on them.

Next, they inspected the ground beneath their feet. It seemed to be regular dirt, with no sign of traps.

Still, they could not be careless. Altering the terrain was a common tactic of raid bosses.

They needed to have a response for anything the enemy tried to do. If they knew what the enemy was capable of from the start, they could take steps to foil the enemy action, or even turn it to their advantage.

One could also use the super-tier spell ‘The Creation’ to directly alter the circumstances to their advantage, but all super-tier spells had an unavoidable cooldown time whenever they were cast. Therefore, the trump card of super-tier magic could only be used when it was absolutely vital.

Momonga and friends turned their eyes in unison, to the massive being that stood in the center of the room like a wrathful Nio[6] statue.

It was a boss which stood nearly five meters tall, with six arms, and it resembled an Asura[7]. From the exquisite craftsmanship of its armor, they could guess that it boasted a strong defense.

Four of its six arms held melee weapons — a sword, an axe, a spear and a club, each wreathed in an aura of fire, cold, electricity and acid respectively. Its remaining two hands held a bow. All this suggested that it was a physical attacker with multiple elemental attacks. Though it did not seem to be undead, it was still a boss monster, and those boasted a plethora of resistances. It certainly did not seem like the sort of creature which could be felled by an instant-death attack.

There were very few monsters in Yggdrasil with attacks that were vastly different from what their appearances suggested. However, there were many enemies whose moves could not be predicted. Still, this boss seemed like a special case.

Most monsters were generated by the same rules used for generating player characters. Even the magic they used was the same. The values derived from their basic stats — such as HP — were also of a similar nature.

In Yggdrasil there were two major patterns of raid bosses.

The main problem with designing boss encounters in Yggdrasil was that the players had the same skills and spells that monsters did, but during raid boss encounters, there would be 30 players facing a single monster. Even if with enhanced stats, one monster would still be obliterated by sheer weight of numbers, which meant that there was no challenge at all.

As such, two main patterns of boss encounters appeared to address this issue.

The first was to meet numbers with numbers. Sometimes the boss would come with minions, or the boss arena would constantly spawn monsters. In this approach, the boss was usually not very strong. In some cases it would only have several times the HP of a player character.

The other method was to send out a single boss, generated with different data from the player characters. This sort of boss typically had abilities which would give a lot of trouble to parties which encountered them for the first time, and it could use those abilities continuously

Judging by the look of the boss, it was highly likely that it fell into the latter category.

“Oh foolish ones who challenged us last, know the might of those who become stronger with every layer of binding removed from us.”

“…There wasn’t any foreshadowing about bindings before this. Here we come!”

Bukubukuchagama leapt forth. She circled around the boss, moving in order not to let the boss’ first strike hit anyone but herself.

The boss thrust its flaming sword, and a dark red circle formed around Bukubukuchagama’s feet, indicating that she was the target of its attack. From the way the circle moved with her, it would seem this was an undodgeable move.

“「Solar Flare」.”

Those words floated in the air as it activated a unique boss skill, which did not exist as a spell which players could access. A burst of fire erupted, centered on Bukubukuchagama.

Bosses with multiple unique skills were very hard to deal with. This was because there was no way of knowing what type of attack or magic would be effective. There was no time to feel the boss out by trial and error either, all they could do now was use all the tricks they had learned during their time as gamers.

Judging by Bukubukuchagama’s HP bar, she had not been badly hurt. However, that was because being attacked was her objective. Having eschewed offensive power, Bukubukuchagama instead boasted immense resistance to all sorts of elemental attacks.

Even so, if the boss focused its fire on her, she might end up being pounded to death. Of course, normal monsters could not do that, but it was certainly possible for bosses, who were designed as solo combat units. After all, they were special beings which were unlike a normal enemy. As such, even light wounds could not be overlooked.

Thus, Yamaiko promptly cast her healing spell.

The boss began pursuing Bukubukuchagama, while Momonga approached from the opposite side of the boss. It swung at Bukubukuchagama with its gigantic sword, but she deftly blocked it with her shields.

A top-class player could not only deflect a boss’ attacks without harm, but even respond with a counterattack of their own. However, Bukubukuchagama could not do that. Within Ainz Ooal Gown, the only person who could was Touch Me. He was a super-tier player who could serve as a tank even though he was an attacker.

The two frontliners advanced. Like a rubber band stretched to its limit, they snapped forth, reaching the boss in an instant.

“「Shadowbind」[8], 「Hobble」[9].”

“「Razor Edge」[10], 「Rasetsu」[11].”

As the textboxes popped up above their heads, several black blades flew through the air. Those were attacks which lowered evasion and movement speed, and now that the boss was presumably weakened, the physical attacker Warrior Takemikazuchi slashed wildly at the boss.

Multiple slashes appeared on the boss’ body, and Momonga saw the boss’ HP bar waver, thanks to his ‘Life Essence’ spell. It had taken less damage than expected, and it was this, more than anything it said, which made them think that this was really a raid boss.

“「Arm Slice」[12], 「Headshot」[13].”

“「Rasetsu」[14], 「Slash-All」[15].”

More words popped up above their heads, and their chained attacks mauled the boss’ body.

They could still chat while fighting mooks, but against a boss they had no time to banter. However, their teamwork would break down if they did not indicate what they were doing, so they used macros[16] to create those text boxes.

The acid-wreathed club swung at Nishiki Enrai. Thanks to the debuffs he had inflicted, the boss’ hate for him had gone up beyond Bukubukuchagama’s ability to manage.

Although the blow should have struck home, no damage numbers appeared. He must have used some sort of ninja skill.

“Watch your hate! Stop attacking!”

“R[17]!”

“R!”

Bukubukuchagama used the shield on her left hand to protect herself, while she attacked continuously with the one on the right.

The text boxes above her read 「Shield Attack」, 「Shield Stun」 and 「Mega Impact」. This was also known as the Hate Combo, which built hate towards her quickly.

After that was 「Knight’s Challenge」. Normally, hate increased along with damage done, but Bukubukuchagama did very little damage. As a result, she could not generate hate quickly, which was why she compensated with a skill that built hate twice as fast as normal.

The boss once more targeted Bukubukuchagama, and began attacking.

The two frontliners matched their movements and attacked, while Ulbert and Momonga cast their spells.

“「Boosted Magic — Magic Arrow」!”

“「Penetrate Magic — Slow」!”

Ulbert’s first-tier spell, which had been temporarily boosted in tier, streaked toward the boss, leaving a white trail in its wake.

Doing too much damage made hate management difficult, and it would be hard to control the flow of the battle. In order not to build too much hate, he decided to use a weak spell.

As usual, Momonga was casting debuffs. Breaking through the enemy’s resistances was difficult, but if the debuffs managed to connect, it would greatly help his team.

The battle was progressing smoothly. The vanguards suppressed the boss while the rear guards whittled it down. It felt like they were off to a good start, though they did not let it go to their heads. Just as Momonga was thinking that, a 「Message」 notification appeared in his line of sight.

Don’t you know I’m fighting a boss, Momonga grumbled as he tapped the notification and took the 「Message」.

“Sorry to bother you in the middle of combat, Momonga-san.”

It was Punitto Moe’s voice.

“Ah well, it happens. I’ll talk to you in a while—”

“How much longer?!”

How should I know? Although Momonga wanted to tell him not to disrupt his concentration, he could sense a growing anxiety in Punitto Moe’s voice.

Momonga had already cast a 7th-tier spell, 「Focus Magic」, on Ulbert. While this buff would end after the next spell Ulbert cast, that spell would do over twice the normal amount of DPS. Plus, only Ulbert’s hate would go up, so Bukubuchagama would have an easier time managing hate.

Because of this, Momonga had a little bit of breathing room. While he kept an eye on the boss’ movements, he replied to Punitto Moe.

“It should be a fair bit, we haven’t even brought him down to 75 % health.”

Normal parties would take roughly 10 to 15 minutes to defeat a boss. Not even a quarter of that had passed so far.

“Could you hurry it up a little? Three teams have already beaten their bosses and moved on to the sixth floor—”

Momonga did not congratulate Punitto Moe because he had a bad feeling about what came next.

“They ran into a constantly-respawning horde of monsters and are currently fighting. They might have to fight until everyone wins and reaches the 6th floor.”

What the hell is this?!

Momonga resisted the urge to exclaim out loud. This was a dire situation for the teleported parties. Being forced to fight even more monsters after expending their MP and limited-use skills against the bosses was an arduous task.

The proper way to clear a dungeons like this was probably to learn which bosses would get stronger, and in which order. Then, the parties would simultaneously enter their boss fights and beat them at the same time.

He cursed the shitty developers in his heart. Did they really hate first-time clears so much? No, it was because of traps like these that first-time clears were so difficult.

“So, please hurry!”

After terminating the 「Message」 to Punitto Moe, Momonga shouted, “Finish it quick!”

“R!”

They replied in unison, and nobody asked for the reason why.

“Uwah, time to spend! Damn cash shop!”

“3000 yen! No more than 3000 yen! Those shitty developers must have done this to force people to use the cash shop!”

As Momonga heard Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi shouting, he also heard Ulbert lament quietly, “I’ll have to use cash items too…”

Momonga could empathize with him. Right now, it would probably be best to make a minimal investment in cash items. They were in a team, after all, and it would not do to hold everyone else back.

Although he did not know what kind of cash item the frontliners had used, the boss’ health was dropping faster than before. Because of that, the boss used a new attack — it brought the freezing axe above its head.

“「Neptune Lightstorm」.”

The freezing vapors flowing from the axe formed a sphere of bluish-white energy over the boss’ head.

This must be some sort of super move. With that in mind, Momonga immediately ran over to Yamaiko’s side. Lasers sprayed in all directions from the blue-white orb. Although most of the beams seemed to fly at random, some of them seemed to follow a specific pattern. Of course, it was impossible to tell what that pattern was on the first encounter.

Momonga was hit by a bolt of light, but he was unscathed. As expected, that attack was a cold-elemental one. Since he was immune to it, he was not affected by its negative status effects or debuffs either. However—

“「Haste」.”

Momonga cast the spell on the frontliners.

The three vanguards were under a Slow debuff, which should have been because they were struck by the lasers. That being the case, he could counter it with the appropriate, opposed magic. At this level, one could negate a lot of elemental attacks and debuffs with innate elements or resistances, but it was impossible to eliminate all flaws in a character. The problem then became where a player allowed themselves to be weak.

In all likelihood, the frontliners left themselves vulnerable to Slow effects because they trusted in Momonga to help dispel them. Momonga in turn, promptly tended to them. This was the true meaning of teamwork.

Just as they thought they were through it, the boss began another round of attacks.

The shrinking interval between the usage of skills was a sign that the boss was picking up the pace.

“「Venus Monsoon」.”

Heavy clouds appeared above the boss’ head, blanketing the battlefield. The boss raised its corrosive club. It would seem it was going to call down acid rain.

“「Shark Cyclone」.”

A gigantic hurricane whirled into existence as Momonga cast his spell, but it did not disperse the gathering clouds overhead.

“Shit!”

Momonga muttered “Shitty developers” over and over again, until it became a sort of mantra.

If the boss used a spell which players had access to, he would probably be able to counter it in some way. However, if it was a skill, all he could do was guess.

This time, his guess was off.

He should have used a defensive spell instead, but it was too late. This was not the sort of opponent that would give him the luxury of a second move.

A torrential rainstorm filled everyone’s vision. It made them think of the acid rain in the real world. However, since this was a game, the rain vanished immediately. The puddles left behind on the ground did not inflict any DOTs (damage over time effects).

This was a surprisingly mild attack. Since he had acid resistance, he had not taken much damage. Of course, his equipment durability had decreased, but that was not a big problem. This might have been the sort of attack which would have extra effects if the Slow debuff remained on them.

Yamaiko ran over to him, and the moment he touched her, a text box with the words 「Greater Lethal」 appeared. This was a spell which caused damage with negative energy, but it had the opposite effect on Momonga.

Momonga also had the ability to infuse negative energy by touch, but it could not heal the undead. Apparently it could heal undead by touch during the first week of the game, but it was immediately patched out. The ray of hope which shone down on undead magic casters was snuffed out, as though it had been nothing but a dream.

“Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

Yamaiko cast healing spells on the front liners, whose health had been reduced almost by half. Bukubukuchagama was still very energetic, so her spells were focused on the other two.

The boss raised its lightning lance.

Because its health was going down very fast, the delay between each attack was now very short. There were good and bad things about this, but since Bukubukuchagama kept quiet, it implied that it was fine.

Judging by the weapon the boss raised, it was most likely some sort of lightning-elemental attack. If that was the case—

“Yamaiko-san! Ulbert-san! Heading up!”

There was no time to wait for their responses. Momonga cast a 「Greater Teleportation」 spell. His destination was the sky. Just as the view in his eyes shifted from the teleport—

“「Jupiter Tempest」.”

— Streaks of blinding white lightning raced across the ground. A simple 「Fly」 spell would not have allowed them to make it up here in time.

Normally speaking, flying up was a bad move. However, Momonga had ascended because the boss’ previous attack descended from above. He guessed that there would not be two consecutive attacks which came down from the sky.

He was lucky.

“Going down.”

“Okay!”

They were of one mind. After all, there was a chance that the next attack would heavily damage anyone in the air. Of course, he was quite nervous about his descent, but his body was supported by the 「Fly」 spell as he returned to the ground. Once there, he did not forget to cancel the spell. The truth was, using 「Fly」 in combat was quite difficult, only a few people were capable of it.

Still, if one planned out a simple course and let the spell’s autopilot handle things, one could fight in the air. Landing, in particular, was an easy task.

When the boss swung its weapon, the shockwave it produced ripped through the area surrounding it. However, only Bukubukuchagama was hurt. Judging by their text boxes, the two attackers had used some sort of technique to withstand the damage and continue their attack.

As Momonga, Ulbert and Yamaiko descended, the boss raised all four of its weapons, and used some sort of skill.

“「Great Ore of Mercury」.”

It would seem the boss had buffed itself.

“So hard!”

That voice belonged to Warrior Takemikazuchi. His damage output had dropped to 1/10th of normal.

“Meteoric Turtle!” Bukubukuchagama shouted, naming a boss they had defeated in the past. Momonga immediately understood the meaning behind those words. The Meteoric Turtle had a move where it enhanced its defense, then took to the sky before crashing down again like the meteor it was named after, dealing a party-wiping amount of damage to everyone in the area.

The countermeasures to this move were: unbalance the boss and forcibly break its defensive stance, take to the skies and halve the damage taken, or to continuously use defensive spells or skills to endure the onslaught.

Warrior Takemikazuchi and Nishiki Enrai began using their unbalancing skills, Momonga and the others coordinated with them and cast debilitating spells on the boss as well.

A prickly sensation hung in the air — about 15 seconds later, the boss swung its weapons, as though remembering that it had forgotten to attack while its defense rose. The sense of relief that came from disrupting the boss was replaced by the pressure of knowing that the boss was going to make its move.

“「Lunar Sword」.”

The air pressure from the strikes turned into slashing shockwaves which tore through the air. It made no difference whether one was in the sky or on the ground, there was no hiding from it.

“「Wall of Jericho」.”

Bukubukuchagama used her area-defense skill to become a wall behind which everyone could hide. Even so, she had still been heavily hit. It was unclear whether unbalancing the enemy meant that they had taken less damage, or if the damage taken was evenly distributed throughout the group, or if they had taken damage at all because they failed to evade the attack.

As he was being healed, Momonga went to his console and looked over his spells, at the same time considering how to proceed given the attack they had just taken. Now that the boss had lost quite a bit of HP, its attack patterns were becoming more aggressive. There was a chance it might use that attack repeatedly.

In the meantime, the boss’ HP was decreasing steadily. Although the boss had abnormally high HP, the attackers’ firepower was more than up to the task.

Suddenly, the boss pointed its bow to the sky and drew it back. There was no way of telling how it would attack since it had not used its bow and arrow before now. They hindered it as much as possible, and let the backliners take care of the boss’ target.

Should I have checked the bow’s element? Momonga thought as he clicked his tongue.

“「Saturn Meteor」.”

The boss fired toward the sky. The arrow flew to the ceiling, and an inky black void appeared — the void of space — which swallowed it without a trace.

The sudden void expanded to cover the entire battlefield. It would seem that the range of this attack was as large as the previous one.

Momonga immediately selected 「Wall of Skeleton」 from the control console, deploying it above himself like an umbrella.

“Momonga-san, let me in!”

Ulbert, the offensive specialist, had to conserve every scrap of MP he had. Thus, he ran over. Yamaiko was in a similar situation as well.

“「Field of Force」.”

“「Sanctuary Protection」.”

As Yamaiko put up another layer of protection, Momonga cast yet another defensive spell. This was because they had no idea what kind of attack was coming next.

Just then, a shrill screech rang through the air, and countless meteors flew through the air at them.

The initial impact shattered the 「Wall of Skeleton」 which had been further reinforced by the 「Sanctuary Protection」. After that, the shockwave broke the 「Field of Force」 and damaged Momonga, far more than the previous 「Lunar Sword」 had. Half of his previously full HP bar vanished in an instant.

However, that was the end of the attack, and Momonga was still alive. Nobody had died, and Bukubukuchagama still had more than half her HP left.

If the tank was fine, they could still fight.

Yamaiko used a powerful skill to heal everyone quickly. However, this did not include Momonga, since normal curative methods did not work on him.

In addition, Yamaiko’s big skill spread its healing among its targets, so there was no benefit for including Momonga.

If Momonga took another attack from the boss, he would die. Therefore, Momonga watched the boss’ movements as he made a Death Knight and had it await orders. If the boss attacked the weakened Momonga, he would use the Death Knight as a shield.

“I’ll heal you, Momonga-san!”

After healing everyone else, Yamaiko announced her next move to the vanguards and then cast 「Greater Lethal」 on Momonga. While Momonga was healing up, the frontliners stopped attacking and took defensive stances, healing their wounds with potions. This was so that they did not complicate the hate management.

All the weapons the boss was holding rose into the air, orbiting around it.

Given these special effects, there was no doubt that it was preparing for something big.

“To think you have made it this far! It appears I have underestimated you! In that case! Come forth, my minions!”

The floating weapons arranged themselves into the points of a five-pointed star, and then thrust themselves into the ground. Five monsters appeared from those places.

Level 87: Primal Fire Elemental

Level 87: Primal Water Elemental

Level 87: Primal Air Elemental

Level 87: Primal Earth Elemental

Level 90: Primal Star Elemental

Each of them was the same size of the boss, and they were monsters of equivalent level to Momonga and the others.

The six of them, including the boss, would surely crush the party into a paste.

Momonga laughed.

He had not expected the boss to be this powerful.

We might have gotten the sequence wrong. The boss in this arena is the kind which won’t relent right until the end.

“Or are you saying the other bosses are this strong? If that’s the case… then we made the right decision.”

As though answering Momonga’s muttering, a man’s voice gave a great cry:

“Roar, my secret arcana! Descend, o ultimate disaster! Flow, ye tears of despair and regret! — 「Grand Catastrophe」!”

This speech, which was completely unlike his usual style — incidentally, the preamble before the spell name was different each time — was the naked expression of his soul.

When Ulbert Alain Odle mastered the class of World Disaster, he gained this power, which outstripped the might of even super-tier spells. It was an ultimate move which required 60 % of his MP.

The fallen leaves of the world tree had a malice of their own, and now that curse was given a physical form. Pure destructive energy surged through the battlefield.

The five elementals, which should have been at full health, were instantly annihilated. The boss itself lost an alarming amount of HP.

At the same time, Ulbert ran toward the boss.

Thanks to the hate generated by 「Grand Catastrophe」, the boss would not stop attacking until it hit Ulbert at least once.

As though to switch with him, Bukubukuchagama ran to the back.

In the moment where Ulbert was hit by the boss, Bukubukuchagama — who had run to the back — immediately exchanged places with him.

A text box reading 「Transposition」 popped up from Bukubukuchagama, and then vanished.

The boss’ weapons returned to its hands.

It might be that the boss would lose access to a weapon as long as its corresponding elemental was on the field. In that case, it might have been better to leave the appropriate elementals alive — possibly two of them, one left-hand and one right-hand weapon — but of course they could not know that on a first encounter.

“‘「Solar Flare」.”

The boss opened up on Bukubukuchagama with the move it had first used.

“Everyone! Kill it quickly! It’s starting its rotation again!” Bukubukuchagama shouted.

Now that Ulbert had used his trump card, they had no way to beat the elementals quickly if the enemy summoned them again. In other words, they would be defeated. Therefore, they had to bring it down before that.

There was no reason to hold back now.

“「Triplet Maximize Magic — Reality Slash」!”

Momonga could feel the boss turning on him now that his hate had gone up. Or rather, it was only to be expected after hitting it with three maximized 10th-tier attack spells at the same time.

The boss closed in swiftly, but it was exactly as Bukubukuchagama had predicted. It was natural to expect the enemy to attack someone who attacked it.

The proof of this was that Bukubukuchagama did not rush over to him, but reapplied an expired buff instead. This was because she firmly believed that Momonga could deal with it, and could respond as a player should.

“Death Knight!”

He sent a command to the Death Knight with a macro. The Death Knight roared, and took on the hate that should have been borne by Momonga.

At the same time, in accordance with the orders given, the Death Knight ran to Bukubukuchagama.

The boss paused, and turned on the incoming Death Knight.

Its attack swung down on the Death Knight.

It went without saying that given the gigantic level difference, the Death Knight should have been destroyed.

That was what should have happened if a level 90 being attacked a level 35 opponent, unless the attacker held back a lot. However, the Death Knight’s skill activated. It took the hit and survived with 1 HP remaining, and continued running toward the frontliners. Or rather, it tried to run — the boss’ next blow obliterated the Death Knight.

However, it had fulfilled its purpose.

“You’re the best, Death Knight-kun! Now look at me, you son of a bitch!”

Bukubukuchagama raised her gelid arms, probably trying to get the boss to target her. The boss, which had been planning to charge the others, changed its target to her.

All these were the movements of the switch attack, which Momonga was skilled at executing.

“Push it!”

“R!”

“R!”

The boss raised its freezing axe, and used the 「Neptune Lightstorm」, which Momonga had already experienced before. As he shielded the other backliners with his body, he dispelled the debuffs on the frontliners.

This was when the boss began attacking in earnest.

Until now the boss had followed up all its skills up with simple auto-attacks. However, at this stage, it was using its skills back to back.

Was it because it was low on HP?

The implication here was that it would summon the Primal Elementals after using each skill once. In other words, they were running out of time.

Can we deplete its HP fast enough?

Despite his growing anxiety, Momonga operated his console with speed and precision. This was what they meant when they said “the frontline was a sports meet, while the backline was a theatre performance.”

A single mistake would disrupt his rhythm.

Momonga groaned as he thought of the boss’ attacks and watched its movements. They might not be able to beat it in time.

However—

“—How about it? Can we kill it in one shot?”

“I’m in range! We can do it! Everyone, we’re going for the Bright King Combo!”

“Ohhh! I’ll leave it to you.”

“Roger! Then let me begin! 「Sacrifice」!”

The boss hit Bukubukuchagama, who had both her arms spread wide. Bukubukuchagama took a huge amount of damage, even through her extremely high defense. At the same time, a black mist enveloped the boss.

After that, Bukubukuchagama activated the 「Aegis」 skill. HP restoration should have been Yamaiko’s job, but they no longer had the time for that. All she could do was minimize her damage taken and try to push through this with her current HP.

Momonga cast a spell, targeting it on Nishiki Enrai.

“「Conflict Karma」!”

Yamaiko watched as Momonga cast his buff, then crushed the hourglass-like cash item in her hand, instantly activating her super-tier spell.

“「Judgement of Osiris」[18]!”

Scales appeared over the heads of everyone on the battlefield.

On one side was a heart, and on the other was a feather.

Yamaiko, Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi’s scales pended down on the feather’s side. In contrast, Momonga, Ulbert, Bukubukuchagama, and the boss’ scales weighed down on the heart’s side. In that moment, the heart was promptly devoured by a beast that appeared out of nowhere.

Momonga was not hurt.

However, his karma value plummeted, reaching -1000 in an instant.

This super-tier spell could manipulate karma values — it reduced negative values, and increased positive ones.

Karma values affected the damage inflicted by certain spells and skills. The reason Yamaiko cast this spell went without saying — it was to intensify the effects of the combo which relied on karmic imbalance.

Warrior Takemikazuchi was all smiles as he began the Combo.

“Here I go! 「Acalanatha」! 「Fudo Kensaku」!”

The form of The Immovable One, Fudo Myo-o, appeared behind Warrior Takemikazuchi, casting forth a lariat from his hand.

The first blow of the Bright King Combo, 「Acalanatha」, had two attack components. The first, the 「Kurikara Sword」, did more damage the lower its opponent’s karma score was. Without the appropriate countermeasures, it would be fatal. The second was the 「Fudo Kensaku」, which reduced the evasive abilities of opponents with low karma values. This decrease was directly proportional to the amount of negative karma its target had.

Perhaps the boss’ karma was never that high to begin with, but Bukubukuchagama’s skill made sure of that.

Bukubukuchagama’s 「Sacrifice」 greatly decreased defensive power, but in exchange the damaged party’s karma dropped to the absolute minimum. And then, Yamaiko’s super-tier spell lowered it even further.

“「Trailokyavijayarāja」!”

The Conqueror of Three Planes, Gozanze Myo-o appeared behind him as well and ran the boss through with his lance.

“「Yamāntaka」!”

After that, The Defeater of Death, Daiitoku Myo-o materialized, smiting the boss with his massive club.

“「Kundali」!”

The Dispenser of Heavenly Nectar, Gundari Myo-O released a serpent from his hand, which suddenly expanded and coiled around the boss, further locking it in place. If this was not done, the boss might be able to escape its bindings in the delay between strikes.

“「Vajrayaksa」!”

The Devourer of Demons, Kongo-Yasha Myo-O, mauled the boss with his electrically-charged vajra-sword.

And then, while the boss could not evade, the five Wisdom Kings charged it. They surrounded him and as one, they took stances which pointed their palms at him.

Their foe would not be able to move if it had so much as one point of negative karma.

“Ossha!”

Nishiki Enrai switched out his weapon in that moment.

This was his trump card, Susanoo. It was a weapon that was over three meters long, and due to various penalties, it swung very slowly. However, that hardly mattered when his opponent could not move. Perhaps it was a loophole in the system, or a deliberate decision by the developers, but the attack power of this gigantic ninjato far surpassed that of even a special being like this boss.

The instant that slow-moving blade touched the boss, a frightening series of damage numbers that looked like they came from a multi-part attack spewed forth.

Momonga could not help but laugh as the boss’ HP went down in his eyes.

And then—

— Cracks appeared all over the boss’ body.

Light flowed out from between the gaps, followed by a great explosion.

Momonga was stunned for a moment, and then the overflowing joy in his heart made him cry out.

This might be a game, but jubilation from overcoming a great difficulty was universal. Nor was he the only one rejoicing. The other members of the party, who had beaten this dungeon alongside him, were cheering as well.

An orb floated in the place where the boss used to be. It did not look like a data crystal, nor did it resemble an artifact. They had to take it and get the group to the 6th floor. Momonga wanted to grab it, but was it really all right for him to do so, given that he had not contributed that much?

“Momonga-san, the boss dropped an item.”

“In that case, the two attackers should—”

“Momonga-san, it’s not like that,” Bukubukuchagama said.

“Things ended up like this because everyone did what they had to do. The attackers are supposed to damage the boss. The tank should control hate and bears the boss’ attacks. The healer has to heal the group’s wounds. And of course, the wildcard uses buffs and debuffs, guiding the flow of the battle.”

She panted, and took a breath.

“Therefore, everyone played their part!”

Something along the lines of “What she said” came from Yamaiko’s direction.

“Momonga-san, you protected us in many ways, didn’t you? It’s not just the front liners who shone in this fight, don’t you two agree?”

“You’re right, Yamaiko-san. However, I feel a little embarrassed to have someone say I was shining. We’re just the ones who entrust our backs to the rear guard and focus on attacking.”

“Yup, yup. Come on, go take it, Momonga-san. Didn’t you say we had to hurry?”

Nishiki Enrai urged Momonga on after Warrior Takemikazuchi spoke.

There were no facial expressions in Yggdrasil. However, Suzuki Satoru knew that his friends were smiling happily.

“—Thank you, everyone! Then, don’t mind if I do!”

With that, Momonga reached out for the floating sphere — and touched it.

In that instant, the world blacked out.

By the time he could see again, he was in a wide-open space, completely different from before. These were ruins, perhaps. They seemed to be in a slightly-elevated place, at the top of a flight of stone steps. The ruins were located within a sprawling expanse of wilderness, but there seemed to be something glowing in the sky which cast enough light that they could not see beyond 200 to 300 meters away.

The sound of cheering came from below them.

Looking down, he saw his guildmates. They were holding weapons, and it would seem they had been fighting until just now.

“The auto-spawning enemies vanished, so I was pretty sure that you and the others defeated your boss, Momonga-san.”

“Yoshaaaa! Damn we’re good, beating an unknown dungeon in one try! How about that, you shitty developers?!”

“Oi oi oi, if you want to take a toilet break, you’d better go now! Don’t miss out on what happens next!”

When he heard their shouts, Momonga suddenly understood what they had done, and he laughed. In truth, he had been laughing since just now, but he could not help himself now.

Momonga and the others descended the stairs, bathed in everyone’s praise. These were their accolades for beating the strongest boss.

“Then, Momonga-san. Put that in there.”

Momonga looked in the direction Touch Me was pointing, and saw a stone plaque. There were four orbs like the one Momonga was holding, and one empty slot. There were no clear directions, but he knew exactly what he had to do.

He headed straight for the plaque, and slotted his orb into the final depression. The orb fit into the indentation as though it had been sucked in, and then all the orbs glowed gently.

Momonga gulped.

A scroll descended from the sky, landing beside Momonga. In its place, the plaque vanished, replaced by a throne made from a single gigantic crystal.

There was no doubt that the scroll was the ownership deed, which meant that the throne was some sort of artifact. Usually, the dungeon reward was one or the other, but this seemed like an exceptional case. An artifact of this class ought to be pretty useful. If not, they could probably still sell it for a pretty penny.

However, certain artifacts were weird, and he prayed that this was not the case.

“Huh.”

Momonga, who was very worried about the throne, looked up to the sky. The glowing scroll was falling at an almost insufferably slow speed.

Although this sort of forced dramatics usually annoyed him, he had to be grateful for them this time.

Momonga extended his hand, and grasped the scroll from mid-air.

He had been thinking that he would look terribly lame if he fumbled it at a moment like this, so he had to keep the relief he felt when he took it into his hand a secret from everyone.

“Congratulations! For conquering the Great Tomb of Nazarick, you have earned the ownership rights to the Guild Homebase: Great Tomb of Nazarick.”

As though urged on by that calm male voice, Momonga opened the scroll, allowing everyone to see the contents of the title deed.

There was a cry of surprise as they looked through the data on the guild territories and income.

“This…! We can make up to 2750 levels of NPCs!”

“Ehhhhh? Really? It’s true!”

“Why is it so high?”

Everyone anxiously went over the contents again, Momonga included. He accessed his console and went over the number of NPC levels. When he realised what was going on, his eyes went wide.

There were only nine places in the game which offered more NPC levels, at 3000. Was this homebase location a place on par with those? It had not been discovered until now, so was this the result of something like points accumulating?

Was there any reason for this? If so, it would be very helpful. They read through the guild homebase details again, and the person who had first discovered it exclaimed again.

“The base amount is 2250, with a bonus of 500… has anyone heard of anything like this before?”

Everyone shook their heads. Then, someone had an idea.

“Could it be that if you successfully beat a guild homebase location in one shot, your maximum NPC levels increase?”

Silence fell across the group in an instant, and then someone shouted angrily:

“Uooooohhh! You shitty developers! As though anyone could do that!”

“Damn shitty developers!”

“Is that what you mean by seeking knowledge with no fear of death, you bastards?!”

Momonga joined in as well. This was to cover up the joy overflowing in his heart. The truth was, the people who had vented their emotions were now laughing.

In fact, everyone was laughing.

They slapped each other on the back, patted their shoulders and their heads, all to celebrate the achievement which they and their friends had won. From the corner of his eye, Momonga even noticed Ulbert and Touch Me patting each other on the back as well.

“—Then, is this an artifact?”

Punitto Moe stared at the throne.

“How nice of them to provide a throne for us. Then, please take your rightful place, Guildmaster Momonga-sama. After that, let’s take a commemorative picture with him in the middle!”

“Sounds good! Sounds great! Come, come! Guildmaster, come have a seat!”

Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi’s words were met with general approval.

He could no longer put this off. Momonga did as he was told and sat on the throne. In that moment, a voice which only Momonga could hear spoke to him:

“Congratulations! For completing a dungeon of recommended level 80+ in one attempt, you have received the World-Class Item, The Throne of Kings!”

As the notification slowly sank into his mind, Momonga felt his heart clench tightly and shrink.

It was a shock that took his breath away.

One of the greatest treasures in Yggdrasil now rested beneath him.

Suspecting that he might have misheard things, he touched his console with trembling hands. As he looked at his status display, Momonga realized that the voice he heard was not some blissful hallucination that was the product of his own mind.

He saw a buff on his status screen. It was the same as that time when they had once obtained a World-Class Item, but then lost it.

That was — WORLD. It implied an entire world, and the ultimate protection it bestowed.

“What’s wrong, Momonga-san?”

Even in a world without facial expressions, anyone would find it strange if someone suddenly froze and did not move.

“Is it a nanomachine depletion message?”

“No… This… this is a World-Class Item.”

Silence fell across the guild members, who were lined up for the photo shoot. They could not understand what Momonga was saying.

“Hey, it’s true. Seems to be a reward for clearing the dungeon on the first try.”

It was a calm voice that startled the listener himself. Nor could Momonga properly express himself due to the magnitude of the shock he had just received.

A great commotion erupted from his friends. At first, it was only the phrase “World-Class Item” that fell from their lips — and then it was thunderous cheering.

Just like before, great shouts of “shitty developers!” rang out.

“I knew it from the start. Clearing this dungeon in one shot would give us a World-Class Item.”

“As if you really knew that.”

“Awesome! How about that?! You Seraph bastards!”

“Yahoo~”

As everyone began dancing strangely, Momonga decided to rise from the throne and vacate it, so anyone could sit down. He moved to a quieter, more distant place.

Soon, Touch Me and Ulbert came to stand before Momonga.

“Well, that was amazing, Momonga-san!”

“That’s right! A guildmaster who gets us a World-Class Item in our first guild event — that’s crazy, right? Seriously!”

As he mused about whether “crazy” should be used as a form of praise, Momonga nodded to Ulbert and Touch Me.

“What are you saying, all this was because everyone gave freely of their resources to help us clear this dungeon.”

“There’s no need to be so humble. Takemikazuchi-san was right. I couldn’t have done something so wild. I would’ve been afraid of our first guild activity failing and suggested a safer and more sensible monster hunt instead. This is something only you could do, Momonga-san.”

“No—”

Momonga wanted to say that it was a miracle that happened because everyone tried their hardest. Saying that it was all thanks to himself made him feel guilty.

His friends touched the throne all over, arguing over who should be next in line to sit on it.

It was because of them.

“Nonono, Momonga-san. There’s no need for that. If the venture failed, you were willing to bear everyone’s disappointment and unhappiness, weren’t you, Momonga-san? If that’s the case, then you should accept the praise that comes from succeeding. Otherwise it would be strange, no?”

It was hard for him to accept those words, even if Ulbert said them.

“Aw, don’t be like that. I regretted this thing so many times. I’ve been psyching myself up to be a guildmaster who handled communication, coordination, and other odd jobs.”

He spilled his guts in a thoroughly exhausted voice.

The two of them seemed to find it amusing, but their laughs were not those of scorn.

“Got it. For all we know, this reluctance of yours might make you a good guildmaster. Though I think it would be good if you were more of a take-charge kind of person—”

“What are you saying? Isn’t that one of Momonga-san’s virtues? I mean, aren’t we all following him because he’s like that?”

“That’s right… yes, indeed, it’s just as you say,” Touch Me said in a self-reflective voice.

Was he thinking about the person who withdrew from the game?

“Oi, oi, what are you babbling about over there? Come quick! We’re taking the photo now!”

“Come, come! Guildmaster! Have a seat on the throne!”

Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi practically pushed him onto the throne. His other friends were already lined up and waiting for him.

“All right! We’re going to take the photo!”

Everyone struck a pose of some sort. They used their bodily motions to compensate for the lack of facial expressions in the game. Momonga touched his console, and selected a smiling face from one of the emoticons.

“Here we go! Three, two one!”

The floating orb-like camera before them was a cash item, which made the sound of a shutter clicking. At the same time, a ding-dong rang in Momonga’s ear.

He knew without looking that this was the chime of a received message — a picture of Ainz Ooal Gown and the prize they had won in their maiden venture.

Momonga smiled.

He let his thoughts wander to what he and Ainz Ooal Gown would do now, and in the future…

THE END