The Undead King

by Kugane Maruyama

  “Nnn… I’ll… I’ll take the stairs…”

  “You mean you’re going to keep Lord Momonga waiting even longer?! Get over here already!”

  “Ahh, f-fiiiine… H-here goes!” It was a pretty pathetic little shout for someone trying to psych himself up, but he did hop down.

  Another dark elf. The difference between him and Aura was like night and day, but although he stumbled upon landing, it didn’t seem like he’d taken any damage from the fall. He must have neutralized it with pure physical ability.

  Then, he came running at a speed that matched the sound of his light footfalls. He was giving his all, naturally, but was still hopelessly slow compared to Aura.

  She must have been thinking the same thing, because her brow began to twitch. “Hurry up!”

  “I-I-I am!”

  The child who finally arrived looked just like Aura. Same hair color and length, same eye colors, same facial features—they couldn’t be anything but twins, but if Aura was the sun, then Mare was the moon. He trembled as if expecting to be chewed out at any moment. Momonga was a bit surprised by both of them.

  The Mare he knew wasn’t like this at all. Of course, NPCs generally just stood there rigidly with their fixed expressions; it didn’t matter how long of a bio they were given, it was never reflected in their personalities. Yet here they were before him, two dark elves, with rapid-fire emotions.

  “So this is how Teapot meant for them to be…” BubblingTeapot was the guild member who had set up Aura and Mare. He wished he could show them to her now.

  “S-sorry to keep you waiting, Lord Momonga.” Mare looked up at him nervously. The scales of his upper body dragon armor were more indigo than blue. He also wore a short mantle of dark green that almost exactly matched the leaves of the forest. Most of his clothes were white like Aura’s, but he was wearing a skirt so short it left a little skin showing—only “a little” because of his white stockings. His acorn necklace looked just like Aura’s, but silver. He wasn’t as heavily armed as his sister; in his hands, which wore slender white gloves with a silky sheen, he clutched a gnarled staff of black wood, and that was it. Mare Bello Fiore. He was the other guardian of the sixth level.

  Momonga smiled kindly—not that his empty eye sockets showed it—and took a good look at the two of them. Aura proudly puffed out her chest while Mare trembled under his gaze. Satisfied that they were indeed the crystallization of his guildmate’s intentions, he nodded several times and then spoke. “More than anything I’m just glad to see you’re both doing well.”

  “Yeah, we’re great! Just lately it’s been so boring. It’d be nice if some raiders would come for a change!”

  “I-I don’t want any raiders to come… Th-they’re scary…”

  Mare’s words wiped the excitement off Aura’s face, and she sighed. “Sorry, Lord Momonga. Please excuse us. Mare, come with me a minute.”

  Momonga gave a slight nod, and Aura moved away a bit, dragging Mare by his pointy ears. “O-oww! A-Aura, that hurrrts!”

  Then, she started hissing at him. Even at a distance, Momonga could tell she was giving him a scolding.

  “Raiders? I’m actually with Mare on that one…” I’d at least like them to wait until I get my feet on the ground, he thought as he watched the twins.

  The next thing he knew, Mare was sitting erect with his legs tucked under him and Aura stood before him lecturing. The situation was reminiscent of the power struggle between the two of his former guildmates who were sisters, and he smiled wryly.

  “Geez, but I don’t think Peroroncino made Mare. Maybe Teapot had the idea that one should obey one’s elder sister? …Actually, now that I think of it, both Aura and Mare have died once before… I wonder what happened with that…”

  In the raid where 1,500 men attacked, the huge army got as far as the eighth level. In other words, Aura and Mare died attempting to hold the sixth level, but did they remember it?

  What does death mean for the two of them?

  In Yggdrasil, characters who died lost five levels and dropped one of their equipped items. That meant that characters level 5 or under were destroyed. Player characters were spared destruction by divine grace and stopped at level 1. Of course, that was speaking strictly of the rules of the game.

  In actuality, spells such as Resurrection and Raise Dead could ease the level penalty, and cash store items let players get off with just losing some experience points. In the case of an NPC, it was even simpler. The guild could revive a character with no penalty by paying a fee according to its level.

  Dying to lose levels ended up being a favorite way for people to rebuild their characters. Certainly in a game where an enormous amount of experience was required, losing even one level would be an extreme punishment, but in Yggdrasil it was pretty easy to rack up levels until the upper 90s. The developers set it up so that losing levels wasn’t such a terrifying thing. Their intent was not for people to be so scared of losing levels that they didn’t want to explore, but for them to venture bravely into new territory.

  Under those rules, were these two who had died in the 1,500-man raid now different people? Or were they the reincarnations of those exact characters?

  He did want to know, but he also felt like there wasn’t any reason to wake sleeping dogs. That huge raid might have been a traumatizing experience for them. He also wondered if it was really necessary to prod so much just to satisfy his own curiosity when Aura wasn’t showing any hostility. After all, these were lovable NPCs that his guildmate made. He could talk to Aura about it after all the other pending matters had been taken care of.

  Plus, it was possible that the entire concept of death had changed entirely. In the real world, dying was the end naturally. But what if that were different here? Momonga thought he’d like to experiment with it in the near future, but he couldn’t determine how high a priority it should be until he had more information. It was probably best to just put it on the back burner for now. At this point, he didn’t know how different this world was from Yggdrasil, so all he had was a great many questions.

  While he was pondering all of this, Aura had continued berating Mare. Momonga couldn’t help but feel bad for him. He never said the kid deserved this much scolding. When the two sisters in his guild had fought, he had kept his mouth shut and just watched, but now he was different.

  “How about we leave it at that?”

  “Lord Momonga! But Mare’s not fulfilling his duties as a gua—”

  “I have no issue with his behavior. Aura, I understand very well how you feel, including your thinking that as a floor guardian Mare shouldn’t be so timid, especially around me. But should the Great Tomb of Nazarick be raided, I believe that both you and Mare will fight fearlessly in the face of death to protect it. If he’ll do what needs to be done when the time comes, you don’t need to scold him so much.” Momonga, who had walked closer to them, grabbed Mare’s arm and stood him up. “And Mare, you should thank your big sister for being so kind. Even if I were upset, after seeing her chew you out like that, there’d be nothing I could do but forgive you.”

  Mare’s eyes widened and he looked at his sister in surprise. Aura chimed in hastily, “Huh? N-no, that’s not why I did it! I didn’t think anything like that about you!”

  “It doesn’t matter, Aura. No matter what your intent was, your kindness came through. I just want you to know that I have no misgivings about Mare being a floor guardian.”

  “Huh? Oh, uh, okay! Thank you, Lord Momonga!”

  “Th-thank you!”

  He accepted their bows, but couldn’t help but get the willies from the way their eyes lit up when they looked at him. He’d pretty much never been looked at with such admiration, so he cleared his throat to hide both his hesitation and embarrassment.

  “Ahem, more importantly: Aura, I wanted to ask you about what you were mentioning before. You said you’re bored when no one is raiding us?”

  “Ah, well, no, I mean…” From her backpedaling, Momo
nga could see he’d phrased his question badly.

  “No, I’m not accusing you of anything. Please tell me honestly.”

  “Well, yes, it is a little boring. There isn’t anyone strong enough to train with around here,” Aura answered, looking up at him, poking the tips of her index fingers together.

  As a guardian, Aura’s level was, of course, 100. There were not so many level 100s in the dungeon—including Aura and Mare, nine NPCs. Plus one other.

  “What about sparring with Mare?”

  Mare had scrunched up as though he were trying to hide, and now a shudder went through his whole body. His eyes glistened as he shook his head no. He was terrified. Aura reacted with a sigh again.

  As she exhaled, a sickeningly sweet fragrance filled the air. It was different from Albedo’s, a syrupy aroma that seemed to cling somehow. Recalling her powers, Momonga took a step back.

  “Oh! I’m sorry, Lord Momonga!” Realizing what had happened, Aura flapped her arms around to clear the air.

  One of Aura’s passive skills as a beast tamer was the ability to use both buffs and debuffs at the same time. The effects drifted into the air on her breath and could have a radius of dozens of feet to a hundred or more—using an additional skill could make the range unbelievably huge.

  In Yggdrasil, buff and debuff icons would pop up so players understood clearly when they were in effect, but in their current situation, they problematically did not.

  “Umm, it’s okay now. I turned it off!”

  “Oh…”

  “But Lord Momonga, you’re undead, so psychic stuff shouldn’t have any effect on you.”

  That’s the way it had been in Yggdrasil. Psychic abilities had neither good nor bad effects on the undead.

  “…Was I in range just now?”

  “Urk.” Aura scrunched up her shoulders in fear of the coming rebuke. Even Mare shrank a bit.

  “…I’m not angry, Aura,” Momonga said as kindly as he could. “Relax. Did you think you could affect me with a skill you weren’t even using seriously? I’m just asking if I was in range or not.”

  “Got it! Uh, you were in range.” From Aura’s voice, filled with relief, Momonga realized how terrible and awe-inspiring he was to her.

  A prickling pressure assailed him under his clothes in the area where his stomach would have been if he’d had one. What if I end up weaker because of this? The thought of it made him want to run away at full speed.

  “And what was the effect?”

  “Uh, I think the one from just now was…yes, fear.”

  “Hmm…”

  He didn’t feel fear. In Yggdrasil, friendly fire had been disabled, so players couldn’t harm members of their guild or other teammates. Here, however, there was a high possibility that that had changed; he knew it would be good to confirm one way or the other right away.

  “I thought it used to be the case that your powers couldn’t have any negative effects on people in the same guil—Group.”

  “Huh?” Aura’s blank expression was matched by Mare. Momonga gathered that it hadn’t been the case.

  “Must have been my imagination?”

  “Yes, but I can control the range of the effects at will, so maybe that’s how you misunderstood?”

  So friendly fire was on. The reason Mare hadn’t been affected was probably because he was equipped with an item that could neutralize psychic effects. Meanwhile, Momonga’s god items didn’t have any psychic resistance data in them. So why hadn’t he felt fear?

  He had two guesses: basic resistance based on his ability points or psychic effects immunity due to a special undead ability. He decided to dig a little deeper, since he wasn’t sure which one was correct.

  “Can you try out some other effects for me?”

  Aura cocked her head and made an odd questioning noise. She seemed like a puppy again, so Momonga reached out to pet her in spite of himself. Her smooth, silky hair was delightful to touch. When she didn’t seem to mind, he wished he could just stay there petting her forever—except Mare’s glazed stare freaked him out, so he stopped. I wonder what he’s feeling…

  After thinking for a moment, Momonga released his other hand’s grip on the staff and stretched it out to pet Mare. Absentmindedly thinking how the texture of Mare’s hair seemed somehow better than Aura’s, he petted the both of them until he was quite satisfied. Then, he finally remembered what he’d gone there to do.

  “Now, then, I have a favor to ask. I’m testing out a lot of things at the moment and…I want your cooperation, Aura.”

  At first the two of them looked like they didn’t really know what to do, but by the time he took his hands away, they seemed self-consciously happy and willing.

  “Okay, understood! Leave it to me, Lord Momonga!” Aura gleefully replied.

  She was enthusiastic to get going, but Momonga held her back. “Before that—” He grabbed the floating staff.

  Okay, just like before. As he had done when he used the ring’s power, he focused his mind on the staff. Of its countless powers, the one Momonga chose was contained within one of its jewels—inside a god artifact, the Moon Orb.

  Summon Moon Wolf!

  As the summoning magic activated, three beasts oozed into existence out of nowhere. Nothing about this surprised Momonga, since that was how the animation had looked in Yggdrasil.

  The moon wolves were similar in appearance to Eurasian wolves, except they gave off a silvery light. Momonga could sense a strange connection between these monsters and himself that clearly indicated who was in charge.

  “Moon wolves?” Aura asked, her voice implying confusion at why he would summon such a weak monster.

  Moon wolves were extremely fast, so they were often deployed as key units in sneak attacks, but they were only level 20—too weak for Momonga and Aura. But for their purposes right now, these were fine. Weaker was actually better.

  “Yes. Include me in the range of your breath, too.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  Aura didn’t seem okay with it, so he insisted, “It’s fine.”

  Things weren’t operating completely like they had been in the game anymore, so he couldn’t ignore the possibility that Aura’s powers weren’t working correctly. In order to rule it out, he needed to be hit with her power at the same time as a third party, hence the moon wolves.

  Aura huffed and puffed for a little while, but Momonga didn’t feel a thing. Partway through, he turned his back to her and relaxed his mind, but there was still no effect. The moon wolves did seem affected, though, so her power must have been working. Therefore, it seemed Momonga was immune to psychic effects. In other words…

  In Yggdrasil, when subhumans and grotesques reached certain race levels, they gained specific racial abilities. Momonga, who had reached the elite race of overlord, had the following monster powers: Create Upper-Tier Undead (four per day); Create Middle-Tier Undead (twelve per day); Create Lower-Tier Undead (twenty per day); Negative Touch; Aura of Despair V (instadeath); Negative Guard; Dark Soul; Raven-Black Halo; Immortal Blessing; Impure Providence; Black Wisdom; Evil Language Proficiency; Ability Point Damage IV; Stabbing Weapon Resistance V; Cutting Weapon Resistance V; Greater Repel Resistance III; Greater Physical Damage Immunity III; Greater Magical Damage Immunity III; Chill, Acid, Electric Attack Immunity; Magical Vision Boost: See Through.

  Add to that the abilities from his class level: Boost Instadeath Magic, Master of Dark Rites, Immortal Aura, Make Undead, Control Undead, Fortify Undead, etc.

  He also had the basic undead special abilities: Critical Hit Immunity; Psychic Effect Immunity; No Hunger/Thirst; Poison, Sickness, Sleep, Paralysis, Instadeath Immunity; Resistance to Ghost Magic; Physical Penalty Resistance; Breathe Anywhere; Ability Point Damage Immunity; Energy Drain Immunity; the ability to recover from Negative Energy; Night Vision, etc.

  Of course, he also had weaknesses: Justice, Light, Holy Attack Vulnerability IV; Battering Weapon Vulnerability IV; Holy, Justice Area Ability Point Pen
alty II; Double Fire Damage, etc.

  It seemed extremely likely that he still possessed both the basic undead abilities and the special abilities he had gained from leveling up.

  “I see. That’s good enough for now… I thank you, Aura. Any issues on your end?”

  “No, everything’s fine.”

  “Okay. Return!” The three moon wolves disappeared as if time were rewinding.

  “Lord Momonga, was that why you came to our floor today?” Aura asked, but Mare nodded that he was curious, too.

  “Hm? Oh right, no—I thought I’d do some training today.”

  “Training? You?!” Aura’s and Mare’s eyes practically popped out of their heads. What was this most elite caster, the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick who dominated all manner of lesser beings, talking about? But Momonga had expected this.

  “Yes.”

  The tap of the staff on the ground accompanying his simple reply was enough for them to understand. Momonga was inwardly pleased that their reaction matched what he’d anticipated.

  “I-i-is that, uh, the legendary you-know-what? The most elite weapon only you can touch?”

  What does she mean by “legendary you-know-what”? Momonga wondered, but it didn’t seem to be anything bad given the sparkle in Mare’s eyes.

  “That’s right. This is the Guild Weapon we all created together, the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.” He lifted it into the air and it sparkled beautifully in the light. It was such a gorgeous display it was almost as if the staff was showing off—except it was still exuding that ominous black shimmer, so it was hard to see it as anything but evil.

  Momonga didn’t have a body type that could burst with pride, so to speak, but the passion was clear in his voice. “The jewels held in each of the seven snakes’ mouths are all god artifacts. Since the items are part of a series, collecting them all yields great power. Gathering them took serious effort and an immense amount of time. In fact, there were many times we thought to quit. How many mobs did we hunt for the drops…? Furthermore, the power contained within even just the staff itself surpasses god tier and is on par with a World Item. Most impressive of all is its automatic intercept—Ahem…”