[1st floor of Nazarick]
A dark hallway, immediately following the entrance to the Great Tomb of Nazarick-
At the base of a T-junction staircase, wide enough to fit three huge-size creatures, with a thin railing, and suspended from one end to another, behind which a series of double colonnades, jointed by decorative arches, supported the immense weight of the structure-
This was the rendez-vous place set by the adventurers group “Nine’s Own Goal”, at a time long ago, when the deepest floor of Nazarick was the Underground Lake - 4th floor, and the entire size of the tomb was less than a 10th of what it is today.
Having arrived well on-time, Nishikirenai - a ninja covered from head to toe in black bandages, concealing his entire appeal but for his golden blades meant to pierce his enemies, and Momonga - the now guildmaster of Nine’s Own Goal, after the founder, sir Touch Me, had resigned from his position; dressed in near common attire for his ranking, which exposed the top half of his torso-
The two were casually enjoying an unintelligible chit-chat which, due to the nature of their voices, made a deep, sinister echo.
The entrance to the tomb, not yet magically guarded, was suddenly opened wide, much like the swinging doors in western movies, allowing a blinding light to fill the obscured area.
A loud clinket of silver boots stepped down the staircase, each step made with confidence and complete disregard of the noise, similar to a beast demonstrating its authority.
On his piggy-back, a purple coat laid flat over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, with some speck of black hair hanging beneath, cowering away from showing a face.
Despite the mud seeping down from the coat, the armor of the paladin in silver was immaculate, shining as bright as ever, giving the impression that dirt and filth would simply not be able to stick to it, and fell off instantly.
He was way late.
At the bottom of the staircase, the two immediately interrupted their conversation, eager to salute their party member and friend.
Momonga, who was still, in part, recovering from his IRL social anxiety, was currently attempting to open up more to his online friends, and was the first to break the ice, speaking loudly as to be heard across the immense staircase:
“Welcome back, Touch-san! We were just talking about you!”
A commentary followed from Nishikirenai, who was devoted to the way of the ninja which implied, amongst many others, punctuality. This was said in a lower than normal volume, which was the usual way Nishikirenai would speak:
“Took you long enough…”
The paladin replied, as joyful as ever:
“Haha! Sorry, sorry! I had to make a quick stop on my way back.”
As he came closer to the base of the stairs, the ninja sensed the other strong presence by him, and squinted his eyes behind his scarf.
Momonga sensed it as well, but he did not react.
Both this aura, as well as the fact that Touch was using illusionary magic to change his natural appearance, while appearing to hold his actual insectoid face as a mask in his left hand, were signs of slight concern to Nishikirenai.
“So, how was your mission? Did you manage to defeat Zeus?”
Touch was talking about a recent event, for which most of the members of Nine’s Own Goal dispatched.
“A failure, and a success.” - replied Nishikirenai.
Touch’s confused expression was right on mark with this statement.
His face, due to his general lack of imagination, was forged to resemble his real appearance, that of an elder man with short-cut imperial beard. It was, of course, upgraded to a ‘perfect’ instance of his real appearance, being much stronger and more handsome.
This was a trick he would teach Momonga later on.
Momonga cleared his throat:
“Pardon me, allow me to explain. He does that uh… ‘mysterious’ speech all the time (…).
We got our kill stolen by another party. No matter how much we circled around, we didn’t manage to find another Zeus spawning within the spawn area listed in the event info.
In the end, we met a party who had more success than us, yet they were not interested in the reward. I suppose they were already much higher level, given how their mounts looked.
They just wanted to sell it, so, it cost us a good amount, but we managed to get the Keraunos.
They had already fiddled with some settings, so they had to rename it to ‘Keraunos MK3’.”
“MK3? What happened to MK2?”
“Dunno’…”
“Ah well, I suppose it worked out in the end! Don’t tell me how much it cost, I don’t want to know(…) Anyhow, I also got a little something for the guild!”
Touch let Narberal off of his shoulder. She was now looking straight at Momonga, being intrigued by his skeletal appearance.
She was born in an unusual place for a doppelgänger. Her species was typically used to undead, but she had only made contact with humans before.
After scanning him well, her eyes shifted to the staff that Momonga had a firm grip upon. (0f course he would - it had cost him so much)
A silver sceptre, with a noble golden lining all across, dignifying of a king or queen - seeing it made Narberal whisper a simple thought:
“Pretty…”
On the other side, Nishikirenai reflexively opened his eyes as soon as he saw her, a loud bell ringing in his head.
He recalled, about 10 weeks prior (cca. 3 weeks IRL), hunting trolls for components for several potions of regeneration, in anticipation for the event.
He remembered falling back after seeing the embers of a doppelgänger forming, since he knew they were incredibly annoying to fight due to their smart mechanics that were counter-intuitive to a player’s typical fighting pattern.
It was also, now, clear to him, why sir Touch was concealing his appearance. He wanted to appear more friendly, as heteromorphic races were perceived as threatening, even amongst each-other.
Narberal, however, did not seem to mind Momonga’s appearance.
“I suppose I can cancel [Disguise Self] now. It was a good use of a leftover item.”
As in any MMORPG, players would acquire many items which became obsolete later in the game, or were not useful to them from the start. A [Disguise Self] spell scroll was one such item, which was much lower level than the spells that Nine’s Own Goal currently regarded as useful in combat.
Nishikirenai suddenly leaned on one knee, with an arm casually placed over the other.
“Say, what’s your name?”
Narberal was still in shock after almost dying to another spawn NPC.
She pumped up air in her cheeks and replied with an insecure yet powerful shout:
“You’d better remember this! My name is Narberal! I am going to be the strongest wizard in Yggdrasil!”
Nishikirenai laughed, a rare event given how keen he was on maintaining his character.
“Greatest wizard? You don’t look very wizard-like to me! Come with me… perhaps some new clothes will change that(…)”
[dark hallway in Nazarick]
Lupusregina had the smile of someone waiting for their turn to say something amazing and really smart.
Feeling the pressure of Lupi’s presence, Nabe felt pressed to ask:
“What is it? Did I say something wrong?”
Lupusregina giggled with a closed mouth.
“You’re strong, you know?”
“Eh?? What are you… trying to say…”
Narberal blushed as her voice fainted out. Beta knew she’d react like this. That was her plan! And so, she kept pressing:
“You have to be so high standing and proud to use your powers, yet look at you now! You’re so shy-su, hehe!”
Narberal’s face turned red as she made an awkward noise:
“Mmm-mmmmph!”
“But, you know, you’re still the best wizard I know! You’re kind and considerate with your friends, yet fearful and threatening in a fight - you’re amazing!”
Narberal was now covering her face, peeping through the gaps between her fingers.
“S…stop it!”
Beta laughed forcefully and diabolically, proud of her victory and trying to exhale all the air in her lungs in a satisfying manner.
Solution turned around to warn the two, but it was too late.
“Keep it down, you w-whaa!(…)”
Squirming, ebony tentacles emerged from the inappreciable darkness at the side of the wide corridor, snatching her away into nothingness.
Lupusregina rushed to the wall, which she could vividly see with her darkvision, yet there was no crack or opening from where something could have crawled through.
She slammed heavily into the wall to get the creature’s attention, but there was no response, and the incoming sound resonated of a closed space, rather than an open room on the other side.
She didn’t wait too long before grabbing her crosier and slamming it at full force into the wall.
After several consecutive slams, there was merely a small crack left in the special-made stone wall, reinforced with magic that would prevent intruders from forging an escape route.
“Stop it-”
Narberal tried touching her shoulder to calm her down, but got snapped back at:
“Then what do you expect we should do!!?? How can you be so calm?”
Narberal wanted to answer, but she stopped herself, looking the other way.
(…)
In complete darkness, Solution could sense herself inside a wardrobe-size enclosure with no apparent way out.
The walls began to close in on her, yet this was of no concern for a slime.
Slimes and oozes were able to change their shape at will, depending on their level of practice and the species.
Some species had a more fluid consistency, which allowed them to stretch more, but limited them from creating strong shapes for attacking.
Other species were more dense. They had little potential to shapeshift, but their damage output and defence were superior.
Higher level races were able to alter their consistency at will. Shoggoths - Solution’s rare genus was one of those.
The reverberant, discomforting gurgle of a sack of air sliding through the vortex of a drainage pipe echoed in the small chamber.
Through her thick armor, Solution could sense something cold building up at her feet, not feeling any moisture due to insulation her boots provided.
Once a slime changed their consistency to be more fluid, they would more rapidly dissolve, risking to lose control of their shape if submerged in a large volume of water.
The succession of these events was now clear in Solution’s mind. She knew it was not just a trap, but one designed specifically to strike at her weakness.
In other words, whoever or whatever was doing this was well informed of her abilities, and, most likey, of all the other battle maids. There were two options at hand: One - there was a spy inside Nazarick, guiding the movements of the mastermind, or leading the operation themselves. Two - the attacker had already seized control over other NPCs, and was using them to extract information.
A skinny hand with sharp fingernails emerged from the agitated water. The being emanated a powerful, evil presence.
Solution’s eyes looked directly at the source of the mana, which she perceived as hot red through her [true sight]
(…)
One down.
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