Learning a new language was contradictingly easy and difficult. It was easy because Jack learned the language after he absorbed the memories of people he had previously slain. From there, Jack was able to create several translation reports for Lumière to refer to.

It was unfortunate that Jack's enchanting could not be used to enchant glasses to auto-translate languages. Enchanting was an expensive profession to level up so Lumière had only leveled Jack's enchanting through one specialty which was Dalarian. Dalarian was a type of specialty that focused on volatile fields.

It made more sense—to her—lore-wise if Jack knew how to experiment in dangerous mad-scientist-y stuff. In the game it didn't have much practical use—it acted more like an RNG slot machine on what it could do—but the idea of her character being able to accidentally tear holes in time tickled her pink.

Hindsight had she known what was coming she wouldn't have chosen such a dangerous field, but c'est la vie.

At the moment Jack couldn't enchant things outside of his specialty.

Lumière, however, leveled her enchanting in every available specialty—all thirteen.

Including Lovecraftian that included a translation enchantment while leveling up between journeyman and expert. Granted that spell was meant to translate ancient texts of the lost civilization prior to YGGDRASIL. Lumière felt reasonably confident she could apply it to the New World's written language.

After she learned it, of course.

Having the translation guides made it easier than starting from scratch, but the fact of the matter was it was still a completely new language. The symbols were foreign and new to Lumière.

It didn't help that she wasn't properly educated.

Due to her health issues, she was never able to attend classes. She couldn't even type for long without her wrists and fingers throbbing. Her parents didn't want her to be completely uneducated, however, so they tailored what she learned.

She could read very well, but her writing skills were poor. She knew basic math, but they never saw much reason for her to learn anything past algebra. She was never taught chemistry, and what she knew about biology were things she picked up from her doctors or she read herself. Her history was pretty spotty too, she really only knew a handful of facts due to media or comments her guildmates made.

There wasn't much reason for her parents to invest in her long-term, after all.

They did give her tutors for the three most common languages in their world. That was not out of love of education, or because they thought she might one day be able to visit or work in those places. Rather, it made interviewing with foreign reporters easier. The reporters would always be so pleasantly surprised when she replied back in their native language. It made for good press.

Lumière figured she'd have the easiest time learning the new language.

And. Well.

Not like she had anything better to do (yet).

The situation was thus simultaneously easy and difficult.

Good thing she had a lot of time on her hand.

⁽ˇ́˙̫ˇ̀˵⁾

Momonga walked with a purpose. His heavy dark armor jangled with every step, and his dark red cloak billowed behind him in the wind. He might have been embarrassed by how much he stood out, but for once his passive did not activate.

He had a set goal in mind, and that determination propelled him forward.

And, in truth, Momonga was looking forward to the little adventure he had in store.

Momonga had every intention of becoming a top-tiered adventurer. He had four big reasons.

One, high-class adventurers had access to those of equal high-ranks. This would give him a chance to meet important people. People that could either assist Nazarick–in which case it would be good if they wanted to befriend him–or people that could harm Nazarick–which was all the more reason Momonga needed to meet with them so he could assess them himself.

Two, high-class adventurers had easier access to a variety of information. Information was something Momonga, and Nazarick, was in dire need of. He knew Lumière was working hard to set up a spy network, but he thought it would be too risky for them to sit blindly in the dark and wait for her. Jack would work the south, while Momonga would work around the current area. By the time they had the basics down, Lumière should be prepared to launch her network.

Three, a solid reputation could only ever be helpful. The more people trusted and relied on Momonga, the easier it would be to gain things that would benefit Ainz Ooal Gown. This could lead to trade or maybe even potential alliances with Nazarick.

And the last reason was a bit of a surprise for his friend. He knew Lumière would want to expand upon her faction as soon as her temple was built. If he acted under that faction's name and did good deeds, it'd only be helpful for her, no?

If he became famous enough the Silverlight faction would gain a lot of popularity. Recruitment would be that much easier for her.

He wanted to keep that bit as a surprise and asked the others of Nazarick to keep it a secret from her for now. There was some hesitancy from Lumière's creations, but as it was ultimately to make Lumière happier, they agreed.

Momonga couldn't wait to see the look on her face.

He wanted to accomplish it by the time Lumière started constructing her temple. Jack gave them an estimate of five months, so that was the deadline Momonga gave himself.

Determined to become a high-ranking adventurer, Momonga moved forward with a strong purpose.

He had chosen E-Rantel as his debut city. It was a Fortress City that stood at the intersection of three borders: Slane Theocracy, the Baharuth Empire, and the Re-Estize Kingdom. It was a uniquely designed city with three layers of walls. The districts enclosed by each concentric circle of walls were distinct from one another.

The outermost district was sometimes used to billet the troops from the Royal Army, and so it was fully furnished with barracks and other military facilities. The innermost district was the administrative area of the city. In addition, the district also contained storehouses for combat rations. Thus, it was heavily guarded. Between these two areas was the residential district, where the people of E-Rantel made their homes. It was also where most of the commercial shops were set up, along with the Adventurer's Guild.

He could feel some curious gazes sent his way. E-Rantel had plenty of adventurers, but it was evident that someone with Momonga's armor would still draw attention. Thankfully, it wasn't strange enough for anyone to stop Momonga.

Momonga wasn't someone comfortable being stared at, he did his best to ignore it.

His armor clinked with each step, a sharp contrast to the silence of his companion.

Momonga had not been able to go alone in his quest. It was the logical choice, even if he felt deeply uncomfortable with it. He was rarely able to be left alone, and he found it exhausting having to pretend to be some all-important leader in front of his subordinates.

He wasn't what they made him out to be, and it stressed him to no end. He was a mere salaryman. His leadership role was really only valuable in raids or mediating between guildmates.

He was glad that his guildmates had the foresight to create the NPCs of Nazarick with RP purposes in mind. He would be at loathe to imagine if he had to manage Nazarick with only pure-combat NPCs, or mindless beasts. Albedo was specially made and well-suited to overseeing much of Nazarick's operations. Demiurge and Jack were equally competent and intelligent men who would handle anything that came up with due discretion.

It was a relief to have those three on their (Momonga and Lumière's) side, really.

Albedo enthusiastically volunteered to adventure with Momonga, but he rejected that. Not only because he was honestly worried what would happen to Nazarick if he or Lumière had to oversee it, but because she firmly believed humans were inferior lifeforms. If he brought someone like that into a highly populated city and then took his eyes off her for just a moment, there was a very real possibility that he might look back to find a gore-soaked abattoir.

With Albedo eliminated, he had to turn to the other options.

Jack and Demiurge were out due to their own missions. He did consider Cocytus, but the Guardian would have had to rely on illusionary potions and while Momonga had a lot of faith in Cheshire's abilities, he couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be a way for the potions to be seen through. They still did not have a good grasp on the kind of enemies they would be regularly facing, after all.

Mare and Aura were assisting with Lumière's spy network so they were out for now. Victim and Gargantua had to remain at Nazarick.

He did consider using one of the standard golem guards, but then he was reminded of the Pleiades.

The Pleiades were a combat maid squad, and almost all of them could pass as human without the need for special potions or illusions.

From the Pleiades Momonga could think of three good options. Yuri Alpha, Narberal Gamma, and CZ2128 Delta.

Because he planned on acting as a warrior—a front liner—a long-ranged support would be ideal. Therefore he had to choose between Narberal Gamma and CZ2128 Delta.

He had originally been leaning toward Narberal since he knew her moveset, but when he mentioned that to Lumière she pointed out that CZ2128 Delta, or CZ, had more stealth and escape abilities.

Momonga could cast almost all of Narberal's spells, but he had no access to the majority of CZ2128 Delta's abilities. She could fill roles that he could not more easily.

Therefore, Momonga chose CZ.

As Momonga had to wear a disguise with his dark armor, CZ had put on a disguise of her own. While she usually used firearms, Momonga thought that would draw too much attention and had her choose a bow. Thankfully, she had some training with a bow and wouldn't have much issue using it instead of her guns.

In addition to her weapon replacement, she had to put away her maid outfit. She was instead given armor for archers. This included pants, thigh-high boots, a tunic, a cloak, and a scarf. The scarf wasn't necessary, but her scarf and eye-patch were such an integral part of her design Momonga thought it was weird to see her without them.

CZ was, thankfully, a quiet maid. And, even better, did not dislike humans.

Momonga felt great relief that he could turn his back from her and not need to worry about immediate carnage.

Momonga had two goals that day.

First, to take his first mission.

Second, to establish connections with three professions; alchemy, inscription, and enchanting. All three of those professions required YGGDRASIL ingredients, things that Momonga and Lumière were doubtful existed in the New World, and consequently, they had to look for alternatives. Learning how the inhabitants of the New World used those professions would be vital.

Momonga figured it would be easier to approach them after he made a name for himself, but he also thought that establishing an early first contact could be useful too. He didn't want to wait around on them if he didn't need to.

Thanks to the wisps sent in the previous night from both Momonga and Jack, Momonga had a good idea for the layout of the city. Jack was able to read the language of the new world, and had spent the previous night marking key locations on the map they had. He also provided a list of nouns Momonga memorized.

Momonga didn't have the greatest memory, so he had to work hard in the privacy of his bedroom doing flash-cards with them. As he did not require rest, he was able to devote several hours to it.

Momonga stopped short a small side building with a sign that read Apothecary.

The bell mounted on top of the door rang surprisingly loudly as he pushed open the front door.

"Welcome," a young man greeted them. He was dressed in a beat-up set of old work coveralls that were stained with juices from crushed plants. His blond hair covered half his face, so it was hard to guess his age, but from his height and his voice, he might have still been a teenager.

"Good day," Momonga politely greeted.

"What can I do for you, Mr... ?" asked the boy with a polite smile.

"Erebus," said Momonga.

He did ponder for a long time on if he should use the name Ainz. He and Lumière agreed it would be good to find any other players from YGGDRASIL, but the two disagreed on when and how.

There was no telling on if there could be enemy players, and Ainz Ooal Gown was a fairly hated guild. If another player came to the New World with their max-level raid-boss NPCs they could launch an attack on Nazarick.

While the two were reasonably confident in Nazarick's defenses, if there were too many enemy players each with their own NPCs...

And it wasn't like Ainz Ooal Gown was on good terms with many other guilds. In its prime, it was the villainous guild. There was a reason why a thousand players got together to raid Nazarick, and it wasn't for the challenge.

It didn't help that a good chunk of his guildmates could be a bit toxic in PvP. Lumière and Bukubukuchagma spamming /giggle over dead bodies was the mildest form of it. Over half of his guildmates were petty enough to camp until the enemy player logged off.

Momonga could vividly recall a time when Ulbert literally enraged someone so much they destroyed their headset.

There was a time when his guild was split between the PvPers and the PvErs. Momonga wasn't much into PvP–although he did join if it was a group of friends–and the PvPers had macro'd GGEZPZ and would spam it in battlegrounds or dueling sites.

It really came as no surprise his guild was so hated.

Lumière had an excellent and valid point.

But Momonga did not want to lose out on an opportunity to find any of their guildmates.

Momonga hemmed and hawed over it until he finally relented. If there were any YGGDRASIL players, the Silverlight faction would draw their attention. Silverlight wasn't a hated faction, just not commonly used due to its passive. It was well-known enough because players with a high enough reputation–without needing to join–could obtain a popular pet.

Making Silverlight famous would not only make his friend happy, but also be a way to catch the gaze of any players in that world.

And, Momonga had admitted with great reluctance, it would be safer to wait until after the spy-network was established.

All of that, however, was subject to change if Momonga found any sort of lead. Both agreed that if Momonga saw a hint of their friends in that world, they would reassess the risk.

"Mr. Erebus," the boy repeated the name. "I'm Nfirea Bareare. Is there something I can help you with today?"

"Yes, I have a friend interested in alchemy," Momonga said. "He's always wanted to meet with a professional alchemist and I promised him I'd find one when I came to E-Rantel."

Nfirea's eyes shined. "Oh? Has your friend had any experience in making potions."

"A little," lied Momonga. "He's tried to make health potions."

"I see! Did he—or you?—have any questions for us?" Nfirea kindly offered.

"Would that be alright?"

Nfirea smiled. "I'm not an expert like my grandmother, but I can try to offer guidance for a beginner. There's already so few alchemists in the world, I would hate for anyone interested in the field to become discouraged."

"You are quite kind," Momonga mumbled. "Very well. My friend attempted to make a health potion. He was curious to what kind of ingredients he should be using to increase its potency."

"Hmm. Do you have one of his potions that I could take a look at? If I knew what he did as a base..."

"Certainly."

Momonga placed the red vial on the table. It was a very modest, low-quality health potion made by Cheshire. Cheshire was one of the three Guardians with an alchemy profession. The other being Jack and Pandora's Actor. Cheshire was a lot easier to reach than either of those two and nowhere near as exhausting, so Momonga preferred asking Cheshire for the potion.

It was a good plan, Momonga thought.

He would start by showing a low-grade potion and hopefully steer the conversation about potion ingredients for other potions–if the alchemist wasn't too cagey.

If Cheshire could figure out which ingredients were used in that world to produce the same potion, he could start experimenting on his own.

It was a harmless conversation. Momonga wasn't using anything impressive, so it shouldn't draw any attention. Health potions were standard, and something so unremarkable as a low grade health potion should slip under the radar.

That was the plan.

Things did not go according to plan.

The atmosphere changed.

Ehhhh—? Why does it feel like I stumbled into a hidden side quest that's going to be a huge hassle?

Nfirea swept his hair away, revealing a deceptively handsome face. He had steely eyes that sparkled with excitement. He shook the potion bottle several times. "Forgive me, would you mind coming further into the shop?"

I do mind.

Nevertheless, Momonga complied.

Nfirea lead Momonga and CZ through the lobby and into a back room with some odd machinery. In the center of the room was a table filled with round-bottomed flasks, test tubes, distillation equipment, mortars, funnels, beakers, alcohol lamps, balances, a bizarre-looking pot, and various other items. The shelves on the walls were filled with mysterious herb and mineral samples.

Standing by the table was an old woman, both her face and hands were heavily wrinkled. Her hair, which reached to her eyebrows, was pure white. Her work clothes were stained with even more green residue than Nfirea's.

Nfirea loudly called out to her, "Granny."

"What is it? I can hear you even if you don't shout. My ears are sharp, you know."

"Come take a look at this."

The older woman accepted the potion Nfirea offered her. Her gaze was keen and focused. She mumbled as she stared at it, "This potion... did you bring it here? ... A legendary potion? No, could it be... God's Blood? What on earth is this potion?"

God's what?

"Where did you get this?" the elderly woman asked.

"Mr. Erebus' friend brewed it," explained Nfirea.

The woman sat the potion on the table and rapidly cast, "[Appraisal Magic Item] [Detect Enchantment]"

After casting both of the spells on the potion, a look of incredulous appeared on her face. She cackled. "Fuahaha!"

Momonga felt uneasy from their reactions. It wasn't enough of a panic to trigger a forced reset on his emotions, but enough that he considered wiping their memories.

How many people saw us come into this shop? It was a pretty busy street—urk.

"Your friend... they're very talented," the older woman said, turning to address Momonga.

"Mm-hmm." Momonga thought that was a fair assessment. Cheshire was max-level in alchemy, so perhaps his potion was still considered impressive? Maybe it was the difference between an artisan alchemist crafting a potion compared to a journeyman, something only fellow alchemists could notice?

"They'd do well if they pursued a career in alchemy," she continued encouragingly. "You should send him our way, we could always use the extra hands."

What?

That one potion impressed them that much?

Hmm...

Momonga didn't know the alchemist well enough to say if it was a suspicious offer or not. Momonga did not have any passive skills to make others feel inclined to be gracious to him, nor did he have any established credibility. They had no reason to want to help him unless that potion was considered truly extraordinary.

"He is very shy but I'll be sure to pass the message along," Momonga said carefully.

Let's leave for now. I'll come back once I know more. Ugh, I feel like this was nothing but a mistake. I should just go to the guild and stay clear of vendors until I know more about this world.

"Ehh—? You don't need—"

Momonga was already out of the shop, CZ silently following him.

⁽ˇ́˙̫ˇ̀˵⁾

Lumière wiggled her toes in the grass, a silly smile on her face.

Grass.

She was barefoot in grass.

She couldn't stop smiling, marveling over the simple sensation of walking barefoot over soft, springy grass. She had spent the majority of her morning trying to learn the New World's language.

Lumière had spent all morning memorizing the words written. From what she could gather the new world's language was something of a Frankenstein's Monster.

It was clear that Players had come to the new world. In addition to verbal Translation Konnyaku they must have had a hand in shaping the written language.

The core symbols were foreign and weird, but how they were structured were remarkably similar to Japanese. Each symbol related directly to a syllable, and at a glance some of their written books showed a very weird fusion between English and Japanese. They read left to right cross-way like Anglo-Saxxon, but their noun-adjetive-verb placement was very East Asian.

She was happy to find some similarities, but it did make her nervous thinking about those other players.

She wondered where were those other players. Were they hiding?

Or... did they die?

She hoped it was the former. A lot of the races in YGGDRASIL were immortal and could not die unless directly killed, or at least were very long-lived. That coupled with the standard resurrection spells... Lumière did not think there would be a good reason for a player to die of natural causes.

Then again, what would make a player hide...?

Or maybe they found a way to return and they chose to do so. Lumière could not fathom anyone wanting to give up such an epic fantasy, but perhaps if they had family or a reason to go back...?

No, even then... who would want to give up such a dream come true?

There was even an Elf Country!

Lumière adored elves. She had quite a crush on several elven characters in other stories. She'd love to visit the country and see what it was like. She didn't know much about the elves in the New World, aside from the fact that they existed.

Dark Elves? Wood Elves? Or maybe something else entirely?

She'd find out once her network was up. She'd send hoards of her sentries into the country to observe.

The angel stretched her wings, enjoying the sunlight on the 6th floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. She had taken an abrupt stroll, wanting to give her mind a break from studying the New World's language. Without much thought, she naturally teleported to the 6th floor's forest. She kicked off her shoes and meandered around the grass barefoot.

She had no real destination in mind, simply treasuring the sensations she felt.

"My lady."

Lumière's cheeks burned, her heart fluttered in a pleasantly excitable way. She shouldn't have been surprised that Jack would come to find her after she had left when he went to get snacks. He was so good at staying at her side during the day.

That was another reason for her stroll. Since Jack started to bathe her she felt... odd around him.

Not bad. Certainly not bad.

Just... very aware of him. She tingled every time he touched her. Sometimes it got overwhelming and she had to step back. Other times it was overwhelming in a different way and she found herself clinging to him without much thought.

She might have been lacking in experience, but she wasn't dumb. She knew what what they were heading towards.

Lovers.

It made sense. She did program Jack to be her lover. It was in his flavor text, and part of his history. Even if the two had never actually slept together, she figured it was natural that he would want to.

She liked Jack, she really did, and she couldn't imagine anyone else as a lover... but that was also the issue. She couldn't imagine anyone as her lover period. She was so new to—to all of it. To hugs. To kisses. Hell, even hand holding was something she was still getting used to.

Nothing he did was bad, or upsetting to her, just... a lot. It was a lot to take in.

Was it weird she wanted that connection with him? Was it weird she was also scared to make that jump?

She didn't know.

But he seemed to have a good idea on her limits. He was well-tuned to when she needed him to stop touching her, and when she craved him to hold her.

Honestly, it sometimes felt like he knew her better than she knew herself.

Lumière smiled adoringly at Jack, running across the grass to reach him. "Hello, Jack!"

Jack offered her a bow, placing his hand over his chest where his heart would be. "Good day, my dearest lady. Enjoying your walk?"

"Yes," she said. She held out her hand and he accepted it. "I want to walk for a bit more. Would you please keep me company?"

"I will always be with you, my lady," he promised her.

Her smile softened. "Yes... I know."

⁽ˇ́˙̫ˇ̀˵⁾

Since Momonga seemed fond of Greek mythology, I went with Erebus which means a personification of darkness. Certainly can't use Momon. :P

Answer: Pandora's Actor seems to be the least stressful option, although I think Aureole could be fun.

Question: Favorite character from Overlord that was not originally part of Nazarick?

Reviews are love!