Chapter 135 - My SI Stash #35 - Chaotic Good by Mister Grin (OverlordXFateElements)

-An Overlord Munchskin SI fic recommended by venomwave~ It will contain some Fate Elements. And also the MC becomes a dragon.

*Munchskinry usually refers to abusing loopholes in a given set of rules, in creative and interesting ways

Sypnosis: The story of a man who just really wishes death would let him be. He tried once. Lived a wonderful life, died at a ripe old age. Yet once more he lives in the body of a young child. Time has torn his life's work away, and his only skills are ones from a time long past. Lost, he stumbles upon a game he recognizes. He asks himself… why be a King when you can be a God? (Contains smut)

Rated: M

Words: 156K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/13351069/1/Chaotic-Good (Mister Grin)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 0+1

Prologue

To all who have made it this far, and to those who are joining us for the first time, enjoy.

I woke up.

Now, ordinarily, this would be a common occurrence. But for someone who just celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday, it was quite the achievement. I had lived a good life, though I had never married due to my job. By the time I retired, I was well past my prime and had no desire to find love. So I continued to live, doing the things I loved. Watching the new anime, reading light novels, keeping up with the otaku culture. It might not be what you think an old man should be doing, but I never cared about those kinds of stereotypes. I might not've been the perfect role model, but at least I spent my life as I pleased.

Which made my current situation a bit of a slap to the face.

I sat up, blinking. My joints didn't ache as I moved, a pleasant surprise. My limbs didn't creak softly as I took my first steps. In fact, I felt younger than I had in years. I reached for my glasses, blinking blearily, only to find the nightstand by my bed to be suspiciously absent. I rubbed my eyes, glancing down at where my glasses should've been, only to see an empty floor. An empty floor, viewed with crystal clarity.

I blinked. Twice.

'Did someone give me glasses or something while I slept? That would explain the room. Am I in a hospital?' I glanced about, immediately discounting the theory. This was a small bedroom, not a hospital room. The design seemed Japanese, with bamboo sliding doors and a simple futon rather than a bed. I didn't know how I missed that bit, with the futon being much closer to the ground than my own four-poster bed.

I stumbled towards the dresser beside me, my hands reaching for something. I pulled out a mirror, examining my face. Sharp features, pale skin, black hair. Asian, to be sure. The odd slant of the eyes was my last clue, tipping me off to my new ethnicity.

I sighed, finally accepting the inevitable. I had died in my sleep. I was in an unfamiliar child's body, so I must've been reincarnated. Some god somewhere must be laughing their ass off at the irony of reincarnating me as a Japanese child.

"I'm not a weeaboo." I mumbled automatically. "I'm an otaku."

All of this was spoken in perfect Japanese.

"…Dammit, I really am a weeaboo. F.u.c.k.i.n.g Kami…" I felt dead tired for some reason. I joked, sure, but deep down I knew this feeling of exhaustion. I wasn't meant to be here, in this time. And I doubted I ever would be.

Old memories rose to my mind, familiar despite their strangeness. They were like an old set of keys—they had always been there, all I had to do was reach for them. I hesitantly accepted them, and had the disorienting experience of living someone else's life.

Keirou. Kitsugiru Keirou. That was my new name. Orphaned at three, taken to an orphanage, left for seven years.

Damn.

I mentally adjusted my age to 'over eighty', slightly amused by the jump. I was surprisingly okay with taking over the kid's life, since the kid didn't really have any dreams or aspirations. He just lived. I, on the other hand, had the benefit of a whole life of work. I was easily one of the best programmers back at my old job, so I should be able to have some sort of head start.

My mind froze as one last detail registered.

Kitsugiru Keirou was born on January 3, 2116.

…F.u.c.k.

'Are you kidding me? Here I was thinking that I had some kind of head start! Shit! Why can't it just work like in anime and let me reincarnate in the modern age? Now I have no f.u.c.k.i.n.g clue how much programming has changed since I worked at M**ros*ft!'

I groaned, slamming my head against the dresser. Something bounced off the top, hitting me squarely on the head. I grimaced, reaching up to pick it up. Upon investigating, I realized it was a headset of some sort. Memories clicked, and I smiled.

This was the Dive Gear given to me for my tenth birthday, only days ago. I hadn't gotten the chance to try it out yet, being too busy with homework, but now that I had the mind of an a.d.u.l.t… well.

My smile became a smirk. The tedious problems that had been hindering young Keirou was hardly a challenge for me. I decided to skip it for now, walking over to my futon next to the wall and picked up a black power cable, which was connected to an outlet. I removed the protective plastic covering on one end of the plug, revealing a plug that was roughly three centimeters across. A silver gleam blended with the liquid glittering of the slippery protective fluid.

I held the cable in one hand and lifted up the hair on the back of my neck with the other. The subdued glint there came from the man-made object embedded in the nape of my neck. With a practiced ease I never before had, I opened the roughly-three-centimeter cover over the data port. The sliding motion exposed the socket hidden beneath it. I pressed the plug home without any hesitation.

I exhaled, closing my eyes. I could feel light moving through my body, as though my blood vessels were filled with radiance. The room hadn't changed, but my field of vision was different now. Several windows popped up within my line of sight, showing me the information flowing into the processor within my brain. I began operating the CPU.

I picked up the helmet that almost covered my entire head as mandated by the computer laws, connected another wire to my neck and linked it to the helmet, then put it over my head. Although it was a full-face helmet, the camera mounted on the outside would transmit its video signal directly to the brain, so my field of vision was still clear.

This helmet included a system that would automatically record everything which went on in the virtual world. As an aside, it would retain footage for a month, automatically deleting it after that. A lot of people wanted to avoid wearing this helmet. It was only natural, since putting it on was something like giving up one's privacy. Yet, almost everyone wore these helmets. It was not just because of the law. It was because it protected people.

The neural nano-interface was a human brain augmentation which allowed it to function as a super high-performance personal computer. It was essential for daily life, but sometimes they were used in crimes as well. Some hackers would use the brains of others as a springboard to commit fraud.

Because of that, helmets like these could prove one's innocence if the wearer was implicated in a crime. One could say this was the safety net of the computing world. In contrast, not having one of these greatly increased the chances that one might be charged when involved in a crime, so only a handful of people chose not to wear them.

I noted the words that said recording had begun, and then operated the console window floating near my hand. I opened several new windows nearby, then brought one of them near my hand and touched it.

I was greeted by a menu screen a moment later, a finely textured wooden wall behind it. It was quite impressive, really. I belatedly realized that these days every game was downloaded from online, reaching out and tapping the 'shop' icon.

Instantly, a gleaming banner stole my attention. I ignored all the thousands of icons, all the beginner games, the anime-based RPGs that I would've loved in my past life. My focus was entirely on a small advertis.e.m.e.nt.

SYSCON, the world-famous gaming tycoon, has finally released its newest masterpiece in an open beta!

The icon below it was a simple one, a large tree with nine orbs surrounding it. It was the name of the game that made me pause, staring at the ludicrously cheap price.

YGGDRASIL.

I tapped it, bringing up an info screen about an immersive gameplay experience and a variety of customizable features. The game was still in its' infancy, so all players would be offered the chance to beta-test new features.

I immediately connected Keirou's bank account, containing seven years of allowance. The smallest bit would do, so I transferred the funds to pay for the purchase. The game started downloading, and I was left to ponder the implications.

There were two possibilities, here. First, I just spent under five dollars on a game that would let me beta new features, something most players would kill for. Or second… I had just bought myself a ticket into the world of Overlord.

Not bad. Not bad at all. It would take time for me to discover which of the explanations fit best, but for now…

I clicked the now-loaded game tile, watching as it took me to an avatar design screen.

It's time to play.

—The world changed.

My cerebral nanomachines began their computations, disrupting my field of vision and taking control of my voluntary nervous system, and everything changed. Countless lines of algorithms swept across my vision, and they vanished in an instant. They seemed to have some significance, but since I knew nothing about them, they were meaningless to me. Definitely a subject for later study.

An empty void extended in all directions—no, there were things sparkling in the darkness like stars—like space. Among them floated a gigantic tree that seemed to encompass everything.

—Beginning entry.

This was my chance. My one shot at getting all I ever wanted. At finding my way into a world that I had full control over.

Sorry, Momonga, I might be crashing your game.

—Please stand by.

Part of my visual field flickered, and as I tilted his head to the side, I could see something. An Avatar creation field.

I grinned.

Showtime.

Chapter 1

Act I: Breaking the Game for Fun and Profit

Chapter 1—What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Year: 2126 AD

I hummed to myself, flexing my wings experimentally. "Interesting." I mused, twisting midair. "I can almost feel the wind on my face."

Cool, isn't it? A chat message floated past my face.

"Yeah, it really is." I agreed. "But really, you didn't have to go so far as to design an entirely new race just because I helped out a bit."

You gave us advice that helped stabilize the server and decrease data usage by fifty percent. It was the least we could do.

I hid my smirk. What they had been using wasn't too bad for the indie platform they were, but it still had tons of room for improvement. "I still think creating a Dragon for me to fly in is too far, though."

It was a simple matter of pulling the textures and avatar shape off an unused Boss. The message dismissed. All things considered, you asked for very little. Most players would've asked for a sword with infinity plus one damage or something.

I raised a scaled eyebrow. "And what purpose would that serve? All I'm doing is enjoying myself, after all. You haven't added any Raid Bosses yet, so I've just been grinding my Skill Levels."

You'd be surprised how few people care about 'purpose'. Most players would've asked for the sword just to kill other players.

"That would get boring fast."

…We're getting off topic. How does the flight simulation feel? Is it too rough?

I flapped my leathery wings once more. "Not really… if anything, it's too smooth. If you're going for realism, I'd suggest adding a dip in flight between wingbeats. Especially if you're planning on adding this kind of mechanic for humanoid Races."

That was the core of today's little exercise. As a programmer, even a 'retired' one, I quickly became the Developers' best beta-tester. I actually had experience with coding, so I knew what was and wasn't possible. It had taken a while for me to get familiar with the new lingo and capabilities of the software, but I soon found that it wasn't all that different than what I was used to.

Today I was testing a flight mechanic in a test world. The Developers were considering adding such a mechanic to simulate the Angelic and Demonic races, so they needed to know how it worked before they could release it. After I had helped them a few dozen times, they had pretty much given me a free request as a thank-you.

So, knowing how awesome it would be, I jokingly suggested that they turn me into a Dragon and give me a maiden to guard.

To my eternal shock, they had taken me at my word and turned an unused Boss into an in-game Avatar. They let me customize it up the wazoo, even kept its' Stats as the new Race's starting quota. They eventually lowered the rate of experience gained after they realized how overpowered it would be otherwise, but they insisted I keep the Avatar.

So here I am. Testing a Dragon's flight abilities in a test world.

"I think you should add drag as well." I tried to slow myself by tilting my wings, but my speed didn't change. "Use a basic algorithm to start with, then build off that. I'd suggest teaching a few people how to use a Unity platform if you need help on those kinds of things. The basic download package comes with a sample of a car on a race track that uses the concept of speed pretty well."

Noted. There was a slight pause. Unity, you said? That's some pretty old-school stuff.

I rolled my eyes. Not that my Avatar copied the gesture, of course, but it was the thought that counted. "It's what I used back in the day. Don't diss the old stuff, it still works just fine. Unity was the best 3D rendering software for beginners back when I was in my prime, and if it worked for us, it'll work for you."

Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on old geezer.

I twitched. "Watch it, brat. I might be old, but I can still whup your ass."

…Old codger.

"Shitty dev."

Fossil.

"Greenhorn."

Outdated otaku.

I smirked to myself, coasting down to the featureless ground. "Damn straight, kid."

Heh.

I shifted my stance, eyeing how my form seemed to merge into the ground slightly. "You really should figure out those solidity mechanics."

You really should accept a paycheck for once. You're acting as a professional, so you might as well get paid as one.

I winced slightly. Physically I was still a kid, so getting multiple thousand-dollar deposits into my account would raise more than a few eyebrows.

Unless…

"I've been thinking about that, actually." I shifted again, watching my shadow ripple. At least they had gotten that right. "I don't need the money, but would you mind opening an in-game account and adding some currency to pay for cash items with? I probably won't use it much, but it would make for an excellent backup fund if things ever go sideways. Get what I'm saying?"

An odd request, to be sure, but I'll talk with my boss about it. There shouldn't be an issue with that kind of thing, and I'm sure it will come in useful one day.

"That it will."

Well, the number crunchers have finished running the stats. I think that's it for today, see you later Miyagi-san.

I chuckled, amused as always to see my pseudonym typed out so seriously. "See you, Karate Kid."

…I never get your references.

"Good. It means you're young." I stretched. "Well, I'll be in Midgard if you need me. See you."

I swiped downwards with a claw, watching the menu scroll down. I clicked the 'log out' button, and my surroundings turned black. I tapped the YGGDRASIL icon once more, and the game loaded into an entirely different world.

The world of darkness filled with light.

It was a strange feeling. Though I closed my eyes, it felt like they were still open. The brief disorientation I felt as my mind switched over to a fictional world quickly faded away.

I found myself within the depths of a jungle, sunlight streaming through the branches and creating dappled patches of warmth below. I stretched, enjoying the muted sensation of heat. Even if it was primitive, the system still allowed for a light sense of touch. I wasn't sure if that would ever be improved, but the chances were slim. You never really knew in this game, though.

The most distinctive feature of YGGDRASIL was its flexible system to allow players to freely make choices. Players could select numerous Races, Jobs and various Tools, allowing for customization in the game. There are special Classes, Items, and more that Players could find and obtain through adventures, some focusing on certain Skills like instant death Spells and others on obtaining Prismatic Ores that are of the highest purities in YGGDRASIL.

I never really felt bad for getting a custom Race like this, not when I had spent so much time researching modern game structure just to be useful. I worked my ass off to get this far, so it was only right that I got something from it. The Developers balanced it fairly evenly anyway, making it almost impossible to play for the first fifty levels. After that it would be one of the most badass Races in the whole damn game, sure, but until then I would be fighting an uphill battle.

It was technically possible for any Player to become a Dragon, but doing so required one to fully level a character to 100, only to sacrifice it and all its' gear upon facing one particularly difficult hidden Boss. Since YGGDRASIL only allowed one character per Player, that wasn't a sacrifice many would be willing to make even if they managed to meet the nigh-impossible odds to reach it. I did so in under a week as soon as the Devs told me about the Quest, even though they offered to let me skip it entirely.

I wasn't going to skip any steps to reaching my goal.

I started out as a Brawler, not bothering to pick up the specialized gear required to become a different Class. From there I just grinded through the game until I hit Level 100 then beat the secret Boss to death with my fists. It was hard, sure, but damn was it satisfying.

Unfortunately, resetting my character to become a different Race had its' drawbacks, too. Namely that I was suddenly stuck at Level 1 in a Race of Heteromorphs that had such steep EXP requirements to reach even a single Level that it was bordering on ridiculous to even make it past the first ten.

Fortunately, I had long since tracked down a few people to help me while I was stuck as a bottom-feeder.

"Oi, Ancient One!" A friendly voice called.

I turned, enjoying the sinuous movement of my Draconic form. "Ah, Touch Me. Glad to see you could make it."

"We were wondering when you would show up." Another voice, this one much lower.

"Ulbert." I hummed to myself, flapping up to roost on a low-hanging branch. "How are you two doing?"

"Fantastic!" Touch Me struck a pose. "The fires of Justice light our souls from within, never to be extinguished!"

"Shut up, numbskull."

"I will not be silenced!"

"You sure about that? Because if you keep spouting off 'justice' lines and puns, I might try."

"Hah, I'd love to see that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I watched the two bicker with a small smile on my face.

The two would one day both be a part of a certain Clan, the mechanics of which hadn't even been added to the game yet. Nine's Own Goal, the Clan that would one day become Ainz Ooal Gown, hadn't been formed and wouldn't be for some time. All I had was a few friends who I knew well enough to trust.

In the original world, the founding members of Nine's Own Goal were Players named Momonga, Touch Me, Nishiki Enrai, Wish III, Warrior Takemikazuchi, Ancient One, Flatfoot, and Amanomahitotsu. I shamelessly sniped one of their names to take as my own in the early days of the game, not knowing if it would help but figuring it couldn't hurt. So far the game's 'search by name' function had only registered around half of the future Clan members' names as present, meaning the fated gathering was a while off still.

The two Players with me are two future members of Ainz Ooal Gown, not that they know it yet. Touch Me is to be the inspiration for Momonga, a mentor to the young skeleton. Ulbert will join eventually too, though for reasons I don't know he isn't one of the founders.

For now? They're just a couple of Level 15 scrubs I met back when I was topping Level 90. One an Insectoid, the other a Demon.

Admittedly it's quite funny to see Players who will one day top the rankings proudly wearing such trashy gear, but I'll keep the blackmail photos to myself until we actually become a Guild.

"I take it you finally hit Level 20, Ulbert-san?" I tilted my head, enjoying the feeling of gazing down on the goat-like Demon. "That's a pretty snazzy cape you've got there."

Touch Me turned, a surprised emote appearing above his character's head. "Oh, I hadn't noticed! That's incredible, Ulbert-san!"

The goat preened, swishing the red cape proudly.

"Speaking of Levels…" Touch Me's voice had gained a mischievous edge. Touch Me's hand darted out and plucked me off my branch, making me squawk in indignation. "What Level are you now, anyway?"

I scowled.

As cool as being a Dragon was, the Devs are still complete trolls. I asked for something that would grow along with me, and they took me at my word. A game-balancing Racial Trait, they called it.

[Natural Growth].

A simple idea, though one that was extremely irritating. Simply put, my size was based off my Level. For every Level I had, I grew. So, hypothetically, I would be at 100% growth or 'full size' at Level 10 and the size of a small mountain at Level 50. While I agreed at the time that it would be an excellent idea, I really didn't think it through that much.

Then they started basing the rest of my Traits off of that as well, scaling based on my size. My scales would grant increased defenses based on how 'thick' they were, my breath weapon grew in AoE and damage, my physical attacks would gain a boost… it all sounded amazing, really. But like a complete fool, I never pictured what it would be like at the Level I started out at.

After all, this game is brutal to low-Leveled players.

"Level 2." I grumbled, winding around to perch more comfortably on the Insectoid's wrist.

Touch Me burst out laughing. I ignored him, indignantly rustling my scales. I was only about a meter from tail to snout at the moment, which only translated to about forty centimeters of height while I was on four legs. Sure, I had been told I'd be 'fully grown' to the size of an a.d.u.l.t Dragon at Level Ten, but that meant right now I was at a decimal number of that. All of my scaling buffs based themselves off that one Trait, which meant that they were all multiplied on a friggin' decimal.

My total AoE, defense, and general effectiveness as a player were all divided by ten.

That's right. Not only am I a total shrimp, but literally everything can one-shot me.

F.u.c.k my life.

"At least I can fly." I tried, rustling my wings. "I'm totally epic in that sense."

"Congratulations." Ulbert said smugly. "You can perform the same duties as an NPC summon. You must feel proud."

"F.u.c.k off." I may have sulked a bit at that, but I felt well within my rights to do so. "You just keep dragging me into Level 10 zones. We might be in a Party, but I still get an EXP penalty from it.

"Cheer up, little lizard." Ulbert reached into his Inventory, pulling out a tiny piece of meat. "I found one of those rare temporary Stat-boosting Recovery Items. It should give you enough to take on a Level 5 dungeon once or twice."

I sighed again, head darting out to snatch the piece of meat. As soon as my jaws closed around it it dissolved into a stream of light, a new icon popping into existence in the top right of my screen. "Not that it'll help much." I grumbled, settling back. "The amount of EXP required for a single Level in this Race is over six times what anything else needs."

"Your fault when you chose to give up your Levels to get a different Race." Ulbert said smugly. "I warned you to stay as a Brawler, and now look at you."

"Yes, yes, you told me so." I snapped. "Now can we get to the fighting? I want to get to Level 10 as soon as possible."

"Calm down, Ancient-san." Touch Me intervened, voice amused. "Ulbert, stop provoking him. He doesn't have much control over his character right now, but he expected that. That's why he started looking for those World Items back when he was at the top."

I nodded in agreement.

It was well-known from my time as a high-ranker that my dream was to track down one of the World Items capable of allowing direct requests of the Developers. They were only spoken of in quiet whispers, rumors rather than concrete fact. The Devs had spoken about such items on their site so people knew they existed, but one had yet to be found.

But since when did I care about something pointless like that? I already knew everything about the things. Just because the timeline hadn't caught up didn't mean that I couldn't beat the timeline. I knew all about the World Items described in the Light Novels of this very world. And from that knowledge I could plot my moves.

My goal was a simple one. No Spell or Skill allowed a Player to change between Races at will, no matter how high-leveled you got. The Devs had confirmed it with me personally when I asked about it. Since it was part of the existing system before I got there I couldn't exactly ask them politely to change it, so I went for the next best thing. I was going to hunt down two of what would be called 'the Twenty'. Two extraordinarily powerful one-use World Items. One named Five Elements Overcoming, the other named Ouroboros.

Five Elements Overcoming has the power to request the game Developers to change part of the game's Magic system in YGGDRASIL. For instance, according to Suzuki Satoru, while Wands could not contain such a 9th tier Spell like Perfect Unknowable, it was possible with this said World Item. If he wanted a Wand that is Magically enchanted with that kind of Spell, he would need this World Item or Ouroboros which can allow him to make a request of the Developers about it.

As for Ouroboros… well, that one is one that I'm going to be hunting in secret. A sort of long-term goal, if you will. Ouroboros possesses a power which is said to be a superior version of the Super-Tier Magic [Wish Upon A Star]. It can directly contact the Developers and request one wish the holder of Ouroboros wants to be granted from them.

Yes, yes, I know what you're saying now. Why not just ask the Developers to do it for me now? Well, the answer to that is quite simple. I'm trying to keep my relationship with them cordial, and that means I can't really ask them to do anything for me. Sure, I got this sweet Avatar off of them, but that was contingent on me helping them with flight mechanics. If I started making ridiculous requests, in their eyes I'd just become another asshole who wants something from them. No, if I want them to do something for me, I need to do it the proper way. And that means a lot of hunting.

While I was grinding those last grueling Levels to reach 100 in my human Avatar, I made it known that I would pay handsomely for information regarding the location of World Items. I had quite the nest egg built up from constantly running high-tier locations and gathering the loot they dropped. But I wasn't counting on that to work, here in YGGDRASIL information was more valuable than gold. All I really wanted out of that was to give myself an excuse to gather as many World Items as I could while being able to explain my horde away as purchasing from other Players.

How did I plan get the two specific World Items I wanted? The Light Novel never said where they dropped or how they were found, so it should be impossible to retrace those steps, right? So how did I plan to do it?

Simple. By going through as many dungeons as possible.

There's a hidden function in the game, one that literally no one but me knows. I learned it from reading an Extra of the Light Novel telling of how the Guild was first formed. They learned in that Extra that clearing a dungeon on the first try gave special rewards based on the difficulty and type of dungeon. They then proceeded to use this knowledge to become the Guild that held the largest stock of World-Class Items in all of YGGDRASIL. For me to get the Items I wanted, I would have to clear a dungeon with a recommended Level of 80+ on the first try with a party of less than eight members.

If all went well, I would be able to do it with one.

I planned on being the most powerful solo player in this game, just in case things went sideways. When The End comes, I might get separated from Nazerick and have to survive until Momonga gets there. It was clearly stated that several Players arrived before my as-of-yet unfound skeleton friend, which meant it was entirely possible for us to get pulled into two different times.

In the future I'll be a powerhouse, capable of running the dungeons I needed all by myself. I'd be able to contact the Devs, create the Spell or Skill needed to transform oneself into a humanoid race. Who knows, I might even make a tidy profit off doing it.

Unfortunately, that time isn't now.

I glanced at the timer remaining on the 'Goblin's Strength' buff. Less than three hours, it seemed like. "Looks like we have plenty of work to do." I stretched, shaking myself off. There was no dust here, but the compulsion remained. It felt odd to have scales. "It'll become easier as I Level, so hopefully by the time we're done tonight I'll be a decent Player again. I have a few spots ideal for small groups to grind in if you're interested."

Both Players perked up. Though they never admitted it, this was exactly the reason they stuck around me. I was practically a gold mine of information about the ideal places to just camp and slaughter mobs. I had spent over a hundred hours just exploring the game's Nine Worlds, after all, and my ascent to 100 the first time had practically gone down in legend. Most people figured I knew some cheat, but the truth was that was just good at guessing where to look.

"What Level is the area?" Touch Me asked, pulling up a map.

I chuckled. "Level 20. Functionally only half that. It still gives EXP like a Level 20 area, but the mobs are so wimpy and have such terrible Attack Stats that a well-geared pair of Level 4s could take them on." My eyes gleamed. "The best part? It's a bugged area that I never bothered to report to the shitty Devs. You just activate two conflicting Questlines and the game bugs out. Monsters spawn infinitely until you either die or log out."

Ulbert cackled. "Dragon man, you are an evil genius."

I shrugged modestly. "Hey, if the shitty Devs are going to give me a times six EXP penalty, then I feel well within my rights to keep some things to myself." I paused, tone becoming serious. "But you guys really need to keep this quiet. If all the Players start using it at once, it'll crash the server and alert them to the problem. And if you die there, you have no chance of picking your gear back up due to the bug."

"Not a problem, Ancient-san!" Touch Me chirped carelessly, placing me on his head. "Just point the way and we'll be off!"

"So you two are ready right now?" I glanced pointedly at Ulbert's fancy new cape. "You won't be able to enter or leave the location once it starts."

"No problem." A smirk emote appeared above the goat's head. "I have a cape just like this one in my storage. This one just has slightly better Stats."

"And you, Touch Me? Last chance."

The Knight puffed up in pride and reached for his sword. "A Warrior of Justice never backs down from a challenge! I shall meet it head-on with my blade!"

I sighed, opening my Inventory and giving it a once-over. "I have everything valuable stored in my Storage anyway, so the only thing I'd be losing is junk." I shut the window. "Seems everything is in order, then."

"So where are we going?" Ulbert repeated Touch Me's previous question.

I smiled innocently, not that they could see it. "See, that's the thing. One has to activate two very specific Quests and leave them unfinished at a very specific point. You then need to log out at one spot for long enough for the area to reset, then log in again at that exact spot. And even then, it takes a while for the bug to activate."

"How long?"

"Oh… I'd say about as long as we've been talking." My voice practically oozed mirth.

There was a very distinct pause as the penny dropped.

"Ancient One, you son of a bitch." The goat-man whirled, pulling out his staff and beginning to channel for an AoE Spell.

As if on cue, a screeching monkey dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. More fell from the trees, filling the clearing in an instant. Before Ulbert could launch his Spell, however, I tossed the Item I had palmed while glancing through my Inventory. It landed and spontaneously combusted, exploding and covering everyone in the clearing with flammable liquid.

Handy fact about all three of our Races. We were all fireproof. The monkeys were not.

"Ah, beautiful." I sighed, lifting to the skies. "The sound of screaming, and then silence."

"You're f.u.c.k.i.n.g insane!" Ulbert shouted.

I swooped lazily down to knock a survivor into data pixels. "We all are, flamebrain, so you might as well enjoy it."

Then the world jerked, and a second wave of monkeys arrived. Then a third. Then a fourth.

"Look alive, folks!" I cheered, activating my breath weapon with great relish.

The shouts and choice words of my companions as they were swarmed with monkeys were promptly ignored. It wasn't my fault they couldn't fly.

Suckers.

"[Rabbit Foot]." I chanted, my speed increasing slightly as I began setting random monkeys ablaze with bursts of my flame.

"[Shock Wave]!" Ulbert finally finished, knocking back the enemies around them.

"[Thunderlance]!" Touch Me added, a crackling bolt of electricity frying a line of monkeys.

...Technically, there was no need to speak when casting Spells, but one's friends couldn't know what was going on if nothing was said. thus, it was considered polite to announce Spell names as a sort of courtesy. After all, it wouldn't do to have others charge headfirst into friendly fire, would it?

As the battle wore on, I was acutely aware of how little I was really doing. Sure I was gaining tons of EXP, but I was a Level 2 against a horde of Level 20s. At most I debuffed a few of the monkeys, but most of the damage was being done by my companions.

I couldn't really find it in me to care, though.

I hummed in satisfaction, tossing assorted First Tier Spells at the horde from my spot on a branch. The branch abruptly began to creak as I felt my form shift, the Level-up taking instant effect. "Hey guys, I'm Level 3 now!" I cheered.

"F.u.c.k off!" Ulbert shouted back, bashing a monkey. "[Shock Wave]! Can't you bloody help?"

I shrugged, smirking internally. "I dunno, you two seem like you're handling it."

"Asshole!"

"Fine, fine." I sighed, pulling an Item from my Inventory. It sailed into the midst of the horde, activating and sending all of them within radius into a deep sleep.

Even the polite Touch Me gave me an offended look at that one. Ulbert growled, sending a bolt of fire to incinerate them all. "You could've done that… the whole time."

"Oh, yes, of course." I could feel smugness dripping from my scaled snout. "I'm an expert in area clears against hordes. How do you think I did so many dungeons on my own back in the day?"

I dodged a well-deserved [Thunderlance], cackling. It was almost adorable to see noobs suffering like this. "Don't waste too much Mana on meee~!" I sang, diving back into the fray.

The next wave hit, and the two were buried in monkeys once more.

I stretched, thoroughly enjoying my eighteen-meter-long form. I hadn't quite made it to Level 13 before we had to leave the area, but I was pretty close. Pretty nice for the first run. "I think that went rather well." I said brightly.

"Asshole."

"Oh, calm down." I straightened, examining my blue scales. No obvious glitches in the texture quite yet, it'd seem. "You probably netted at least five Levels off that, no?"

"I used all of my potions and had to fight off rabid monkeys for three hours." Ulbert snapped. "I think a little righteous fury is deserved."

I sighed, turning around. "All right, then we'll see if this will change your mind. Follow me."

I stepped forward, ignoring the startled shouts of my companions. The brief loading screen flashed, then I was back.

I entered into the clearing that had been the site of our three-hour grindfest, smugly amused at the sight of what lay within. The instance change had fixed the bug, and now that the encounter had finished I would have to wait another two hours before beginning again. I could endlessly repeat the exploit until I completed one of the Quests, not that I was planning on telling my friends that. Now that I was big enough, I would be able to grind to at least Level 30 on my own on this very spot.

Ulbert and Touch Me entered behind me, relaxing once they realized there were no monkey swarms to make their lives a living hell. No gold or Data Crystals littered the ground, that all would've disappeared once we left had I not collected it first. No, something else was left sitting on the ground. Something odd.

Ulbert spoke up first, leaning down to poke at a pile of silver. "What's this?"

There was a pause as Touch Me and I looked over at the stacks of silvery substance. "Oh, that." I said lightly. "That's an extremely rare item that was the object of a Quest. We're supposed to deliver it to the King of Aren, the Queen of Shiba, or the Duke of Yore. They all give us a shitload of EXP and a permanent Stat boost if we bring it to them, or we could sell it to a vendor for a ton of gold."

Another pause. "But there's stacks of them." Ulbert stated.

I shrugged. "Well, each of the potential benefactors gives different rewards. Aren gives one percent of Life Regenerated per second, two percent additional Physical Defense, and twenty percent increased Physical Damage. Shiba gives five percent Mana Regenerated per second, plus twenty percent to Global Critical Strike Multiplier, and plus fifteen percent to all Elemental Resistances to a max of seventy-five percent. Yore offers six percent increased Attack and Cast Speed, an extra three percent chance to dodge attacks, and six percent increased Movement Speed."

"So you're saying we can get all of that?" Touch Me asked incredulously.

"No," I corrected, "I'm saying we can get all of those rewards multiple times. You have to drag the item into their item box in order to get the reward, and sixteen of those items fit in that box."

"Bullshit." Ulbert said, still staring at the piles of silver necklaces. "There's no way the Devs would leave something like that in."

"Oh, definitely not." I agreed smugly. "But a single Player can only do the Quest once, and I'm the only one who would think to exploit the game this way. I won't tell if you won't."

It was a moot point anyway. You had to have two different Quests at a specific point in order to get the bug, and I had been careful not to tell them which other one was needed. The one that gave necklaces was well-known, though, so I would have to reveal that one at least.

Ulbert picked up one of the silver necklaces. "The Stat gains on this are shit." He muttered.

I shrugged. "Hey, you're not meant to keep it. You're meant to give it to one of the three. Hence the name of the Quest."

"'Deal with Royalty'. I've heard of this one." Touch Me remarked, picking up a necklace of his own. "You're saying we can boost ourselves multiple times with these?"

"For sure. Unfortunately it only works sixteen times, so the rest of them are just free gold." I waved towards the stacks, subtly beginning to pile some into my Inventory. "You can only hold so many, though, and this place will despawn after we've been gone for five minutes. So carry what you can now and hope for the best."

"These necklaces take up four Item Slots in my Inventory." Ulbert noted, bemused.

"We weren't exactly meant to carry a ton of them." I snarked back.

"Fair point." The Demon sighed, beginning to scoop up silver strands with his clawed hands. "I hate to admit it, but that suicide run might've actually been worth it."

I chuckled darkly, rubbing my claws together. "Oh, buddy, you have no idea."

I scrolled smugly through my Stat Screen, feeling completely vindicated for the fifty-some hours I had poured into it thus far. I would have to take fifteen Racial Levels in Scale Knight, another fifteen in Serpent Mage and a final ten in Snake Priest before I could finally start learning the Dragon Race's truly overpowered Skills, but this was a good start. It was a long climb that ensured I had plenty of work to do, but it offered a lot of juicy rewards in the form of various Skills. Not to mention the Movement, Attack, and Cast Speed bonuses I picked up from giving the necklaces to the Duke of Yore.

The Skills I got for finishing Scale Knight's Racial Levels were almost all defense-oriented, allowing the use of passives that blocked a lot of Physical Damage before it could reach me. I was still incredibly vulnerable, but I stood a much better chance against the rest of the world.

…Full disclosure, though, I died at least twice trying to grind for these damn Levels. Dragons are weak as shit for their Level until they hit 50. I needed to learn a shrinking Spell to avoid alerting PKers, and fast.

'Fuggin' madmen will try anything for EXP…'

I studiously ignored the hypocrisy of that thought. I did what I did for the sake of eternal Godhood. They did what they did because they were complete d.i.c.ks. They killed for laughs and loot, nothing else.

To be perfectly honest I could have gone completely solo. I could've done all this by myself, conquering a Guild Base for me alone and stuffing it with NPCs of my own make. But I had one issue with that. No, two, really. First… if I made an army of Level 100 girls who adored me and fawned on my every wish, would any of them be truly special? No. I would tire of that sort of life, leaving me in an eternity of boredom. Second, who would I talk to until the server shutdown? I still have years to go, what am I going to do until then? Make more NPCs? Hoard loads of treasure?

No. It'll be a lot more amusing in the long run to throw my lot in with Nazerick. If nothing else, I can make it my life's goal to get poor Momonga laid. He might have literally nothing down there, but if I can get the World Item that might allow me to create a human transformation Spell, well. I suppose I might just have to pop me some popcorn and enjoy a show full of Momonga getting periodically jumped by thirsty women.

Mehehehehe.

In a battle between him and thirsty women… poor skellibones doesn't stand a chance.

"Are you certain this is a good idea, Ancient One-san? I'm an assassin build, and you don't really have much gear on."

I sighed. "It'll be fine, Flatfoot. I just need you to scout for me. I have enough Racial Skills blocking Physical Damage that this place isn't really a problem.

Flatfoot, another of the original nine members of the fledgling Clan. Even if said Clan hadn't even been formed yet. He was referring to my Race's main flaw, which not too many Players knew about. In return for incredible natural defenses, Dragons were incapable of equipping most items. Rings and amulets were pretty much the limit of what I could wear, which wasn't exactly the best news for someone hoping for a stealth run. With my tremendous bulk, I'd have to have some insane armor to get enough of a bonus to conceal me from monsters.

Of course, I had a bit of a trick up my proverbial sleeve.

"[Size Down]." I mumbled. The Spell was a buff that made one's evasion rating skyrocket, but it had the side-effect of shrinking them. I made it my personal mission to abuse that mechanic well enough to let me fit through doors.

Seriously, though. F.u.c.k doors. Damn Developers never bothered to make the things Dragon-sized. I tried to get them to help, but they seemed to find the problem more funny than anything.

Believe me. Doors are no laughing matter when you're a thirty-meter-tall quadruped.

"You ready, Flatfoot?"

The assassin raised Tsururinpettan, his custom weapon. "Whenever you are."

We slipped into the mineshaft, me trailing in his wake.

We spent some time wandering, avoiding monsters and working our way steadily downward. Dead end after dead end, monster den after monster den. Without Flatfoot, I would've been long dead before we finally found what we were looking for.

"I… don't get it." Flatfoot deadpanned. "A bunch of rocks?"

Correction. What I was looking for. "It's a very special crafting material." I muttered, eyeing it excitedly.

"How much is it worth?" He glanced around. "Because from the looks of it, there's nothing else down here."

I held back a laugh. "Not much unless you're planning to make a Golem. But I'll tell you what. If you keep quiet and watch for trouble while I mine all this, I'll pay you five gold per Inventory stack of the stuff you get me."

He visibly perked up at that. "Hey, you have yourself a deal."

Free gold for standing guard? He was sold. More importantly, though, I had access to an untapped vein of the Prismatic Ore Celestial Uranium years before Players discovered its' uses. No uber-powerful Golems for me, though. No, I wanted it for something else. Something better. See, Celestial Uranium is the main component in a recipe to make a World Item known as Caloric Stone.

And if I remembered correctly… this stuff was the shit.

For starters, it could be used to create a Golem's core. Nice, but not too useful to me. In addition to that, though, the World Item was said to enhance the likes of weapons or armors. Very useful for when I eventually get my own humanoid form and gain the ability to use such things. And finally, similar to Ouroboros and Five Elements Overcoming, it's one of the Items that allows the holder to make requests to the game developers.

I'm not quite sure what kind of requests, but I'll iron that out once I've stripped all of the Seven Hidden Mines. After all, this is an entirely undiscovered location in YGGDRASIL, and the Mines would slowly recover and be ready for further harvesting by the time anyone found the place.

Flatfoot walked away that day a happy man, but I walked away with a priceless treasure.

"He's over here!" A loud voice shouted.

I sighed. I had been relying the [Size Down] buff thus far, but evidently my luck had run out. "No shit, sherlock." I grumbled, spreading my wings for extra stability.

Seventeen Players charged into the clearing, all armed to the teeth. I raised an eyebrow. "Aaand you brought friends. Lovely."

"See, I told you there was a Player who actually had a Dragon Avatar!" One said smugly.

"Yeah, it would almost be cool if it didn't stick out like a sore thumb."

I twitched. "Oi. Do you have any idea how hard this thing was to get? Show some respect, will you?"

Predictably, they ignored me. "I've got the place surrounded with my Summons. You guys corner him, I'll close the circle."

I sighed, preparing for a fight.

I wish I could tell you that I stood a chance against a mob of Players determined to kill me. I wish I could say that I nobly stood my ground, fighting them off against all odds.

Unfortunately, video games don't work like that, no matter what SAO might have told you. Any given build has at least one flaw, which usually can't be fixed until you get to the endgame content.

My Dragon Avatar was lovely, but I had optimized it for clear speed rather than actual combat against other Players. Sure, I might be able to fight off a Boss or two, but Players were a different issue entirely. I tended to stay out of the human realms if at all possible, but sometimes it was unavoidable. I had numerous goals to achieve while I was still in the game, many of which not possible without venturing out on occasion.

Like exploring the map, or finding new dungeons with handy exploits. Little things like that. I did have the long-term goal to explore the entire map of YGGDRASIL, but at this point I'd settle for a handy dungeon to duck into.

No such luck.

"[Penetrate Magic: Slow]." I cast in their general direction, spreading my wings and lifting off. Hopefully that would give me a chance to get the hell out of dodge while they were still debuffed.

"Hey, he's getting away!"

"Is he flying? How is that possible?"

"Uaah! Did those shitty Devs give him flight before the rest of us!"

"Dammit, this isn't the time! Everyone, at once! [Scorching Ray]!"

"[Scorching Ray]!"

"[Scorching Ray]!"

My HP dropped like a stone as no less than twelve laser beams caught me in their crosshairs.

"Shitshitshitshit—" I blurted, flapping backwards. It was times like this that I wished that [Teleportation] wasn't so high Tier of a Spell. "[Dimensional Move]." I tried instead.

The world shimmered, and suddenly I was a good half a kilometer away. To most low-Tier casters, this was an extremely handy escape Spell used to put distance between themselves and their adversaries.

Unfortunately, unlike Bosses, Players could prepare for this sort of thing.

Several shimmers signaled the arrival of the same Players as before, making me swear colorfully. They had likely used [Lopsided Duel], a Third-Tier Spell that bound the caster to the target such that whenever the target tried to flee by teleportation, both caster and target would appear in the same place.

F.u.c.kers.

"Is this absolutely necessary?" I shouted, taking to the sky once more. "Seriously, I'm exploring for God's sake. I'm not carrying anything worth a damn in case I run into a strong Boss or something. Killing me won't do you any good."

"You're a Heteromorph who walked into Asgard. The hell were you expecting?" Another Player called.

I winced. 'Well, with any luck, a nice place to camp and grind EXP… but it seems that's not happening anytime soon.' "[Freeze]!" I tried, a biting wind flowing from beneath my wings. "[Stoneskin]!"

A chorus of laughter from the gathered PKers. "Does he think we're a bunch of mobs?" One snickered to another.

"I know, right? Doesn't he have anything we aren't immune to?"

'No, debuff Spells are all I have at this Level and I already used up most of my Skills for the day.' I grumbled to myself.

I knew I was dead. They knew I was dead. The only factor was how hard I made them work for it.

I felt something puncture my neck, and my already dangerously low HP plummeted. With my last second of life, I made a choice. "[Storm of Vengance]!" I bellowed, burning all of my remaining Mana at once.

My Life hit zero, and I died.

You have died.

'Yeah, no shit.'

Would you like to respawn at the nearest checkpoint?

'No. I would like to be an unstoppable killing machine. But that doesn't seem to be happening, does it?'

Answer not recognized.

'Oh, sod off. I'm bitching about my death, here, it's a tradition amongst gamers. What's the point of dying if you don't get to complain about it?'

Answer not—

'Fine. Sure. Respawn me.'

Respawning in: 00:01:00.

'Oh, lovely. And apparently there's a respawn timer in Asgard for Heteromorphs. Note to self: don't come back here until you're at least Level 90. Then hopefully I can find a way to burn it to the ground.'

You have gained 14903 EXP!

I grinned, satisfied. At least my dying Spell had killed the f.u.c.kers, so I no longer had to swear vengeance against them and their entire family line.

They're still going on my shit list, though. Them, the lawyer who screwed my sister over last life, and Chad Bradley. Because f.u.c.k Chad Bradley.

I guess now that the option of exploration is out, I should check on my hidden supply of Celestial Uranium. With any luck, it's been long enough for it to become Caloric Stone.

Respawn complete.

Alert! For violating the law against Player Killing, you have lost five levels!

"Oh fffff—"

"Oi, Ancient One-san! I want to introduce you to someone!"

I woke with a start, giving a jaw-cracking yawn. I could do that in this world, at least. "Come on in, Touch Me."

The door to the cave swung open, admitting an Insectoid Knight and… a small skeleton? Oh my, it would seem that canon is progressing faster than I thought.

"Hello little one." I greeted, leaning down to peer at Momonga. "And who might you be?"

"Touch Me-san, did that mob just talk?" The startled salaryman whispered.

I chuckled to myself. Noob Players like him always reminded me of tiny spooked squirrels. "Yes, he did. I completed a Quest line at Level 100 that allowed me to become what you see now." I shifted smugly. "I don't regret a moment of it."

"Oh? I could've sworn I heard you cussing up a storm in chat when you were just a wimpy little—gurk!" I slapped the Knight upside the head with my tail, glowering.

'Asshole better wait until I trot out the pictures of him in starter gear. We'll see who's laughing then.'

"Aha, I suppose I deserved that." Touch Me admitted, rubbing the back of his helmet sheepishly. "Anyway. Momonga-san, this is Ancient One-san. He's a very old player from the beta days. If you ever need advice on where to power-level, ask him. He knows all of YGGDRASIL like the back of his hand." He paused awkwardly. "Er, claw. The back of his claw."

"Really?" The skeleton ignored the confused stumble, tilting his head to look up at my towering forty-meter-tall form. "I thought most of it was unexplored."

"It is, but I like to think myself an expert at flyovers." I said, spreading my wings in demonstration.

"You should ask around sometime, hear all he's done. He made it to Level 100 in a week one time, you know." Touch Me boasted.

"That's incredible!"

"I know, right? I don't know why Ulbert-san doesn't like his advice, it's always amazing!"

"Probably because my advice is largely suicidal." I said drily, my tail swishing in a lazy rasp of scale on stone. "I may have made it to 100 in a week, but no one mentions how many times I died to get there. I think you guys are better off not trying my approach."

"Fair enough." Touch Me relented.

"Um, Ancient-san… if I might ask… why are you laying on a pile of rocks?" Momonga asked, pointing.

I glanced down. "Because they're divinely radioactive and I'm waiting for them to turn into treasure."

"What?" If a skeleton could look confused without expressions, Momonga nailed the image perfectly.

I chuckled. "You'll understand one day. Let's just say I have a knack for finding bizarre loopholes in the game and leave it at that. Besides." I puffed out my chest. "I'm a Dragon, aren't I? It's only right that I hoard treasure."

"Weren't you planning to go mapping today?" Touch Me prodded jokingly.

I huffed at him. "I'll have you know that someone else is there already and it's annoying to have to fight over a dungeon. I'm waiting a few minutes for a new instance of the dungeon to open up when the reset timer runs down."

"Ah, Ancient-san," Momonga interrupted before we could begin to fight in earnest. "If you're going EXP hunting, could we tag along? Touch Me-san needs one more Level to equip a piece of gear he likes, and I need to get strong enough to survive PKers on my own."

I snorted a plume of smoke at him. "Just call me Ancient One, everyone does. And I'd be more than happy to bring you along. I'll start up a Split Party, it should evenly distribute EXP regardless of the gap. Just leave the clearing to me and Touch Me, it should all be over fairly quickly."

The salaryman nodded. "I'm a Skeleton Mage at the moment, if it helps. I'm grinding to become an Elder Lich."

"Fantastic." I shook myself off, rising. "Just let me set a few Spells to guard this place, then we'll be off."

The two waited patiently for me to rattle off a long and paranoid list of Spells. In my mind, it still wasn't enough, but I had nothing worth stealing in the eyes of today's YGGDRASIL. I reluctantly left it alone, and we took to the skies.

Side note, these days I can fly at breakneck speeds faster than most people can stand. Momonga learned that today, all the while screaming at the top of his nonexistent lungs. Touch Me had been wise enough to learn Fly as soon as it came out a month ago for this very reason.

I snickered.

Totally worth convincing the Devs to add flight in early. Really brings the experience together.

I landed at the mouth of a gorge a short while later, slowing to a halt. Touch Me glided down beside, and a shaken Momonga dropped off my back. No words were spoken while the Skeleton Mage soundlessly kissed the ground. He straightened, and we all pretended I hadn't just scared the man half to death.

"This place is actually a Level 80 dungeon." I began, spreading my wings. "So in ordinary circ.u.mstances, we would be screwed beyond measure. But the creatures here are all Stone Golems of some sort. I can run this place backwards in my sleep with a few frost-based Spells. They're slow as sin, and if you defeat the Boss it counts as a win even if you never kill a single other mob."

Momonga tilted his head. A question mark emote popped up above his head. "Wait, what? Why would you want to only defeat the Boss?"

I smiled. "Because the Boss has the best loot, of course." I shook my head, forestalling his response. "We are actually going to be killing the Golems as we come across them. But because of how big the Level gap between us and the recommended Level, the EXP is going to be much smaller than one might expect. You might get five Levels or so, but beyond that I don't know."

The mage took a deep breath, shifting his grip on a wooden staff. "All right. Freezing Spells. Let's go."

I turned, chuckling, and entered the dungeon.

Now, this game is not one meant to be played solo. In fact, it would be considered downright suicidal for me to march into a normal Level 80 area at my current Level. But this place? Please. Stone Golems are extremely weak to frost-based status effects, so if one just hammers them with enough Freezing Spells, they can remove all their defenses and kill them with one blow. And while normal dungeons have a variety of monsters to challenge players, the Devs thought an army of Level 80 Stone Golems was challenging enough as it was.

Fools.

I cackled madly as I shattered Golem after Golem like sugar glass, my high Physical Attack combined with their Frozen status killing them instantly. I suspected the Devs might fix the area's obvious exploit sooner rather than later at the rate I had been grinding the dungeon, but hey. I wasn't complaining right now.

Momonga, on the other hand… well. He wasn't looking too hot. A bit terrified, actually. He had died twice on our way here, rejoining a moment later to pick up his stuff and chase after us. Touch Me was laughing as loudly as I was, leaving the Mage as the only sane member of our Party.

I wasn't too worried. He would crack eventually. They all did.

We finally reached the Boss room, not bothering to go around cleaning up like we normally would. Touch Me had backed me enough times to know I prioritized the Boss above all, even if he had no idea why.

With any luck, he would learn today.

I braced my four-legged bulk against the door and heaved, my Racial Levels allowing me to push open a door one might need Level 80 Stats to open ordinarily. Inside was a small mountain of boulders.

"Look alive." I ground out, moving into a combat stance. Wings spread, tail lashing, Mana gathering. "This is going to get ugly."

The stones rumbled together, slowly forming a larger behemoth. It groaned, a haunting noise that always sent chills down my spine. The combat began, his HP bar filling up above his head. "[Sheer Cold]." I barked instantly. "[Frost Breath]. [Purity of Ice]."

Crystals grew across the construct, slowing it to a shuddering halt. "GO!" I barked, tackling it. It reformed around me as I began to wail on it, my heavy limbs becoming battering rams. It was taking more damage from the wall I was beating it into than me, but that was expected. It was always like this.

No one ever said beating a Boss a solid fifteen Levels above you was easy. But even if my build was shit at PvP, it was second to none at Bossing.

As far as different runs went, it wasn't the quickest. Momonga's Mana ran out three quarters of the way through, which left me to tank half my HP in pure Physical Damage. Fortunately I had long since learned that the Resist Stat did more for mitigating damage than any of my Defenses and had tracked down an amulet that converted half of both my Magic and Physical Defenses into pure Resist, giving me Resist that Exceeded Limits. I probably would've been one-shot when it broke through the second time, the half-health Damage boost all Bosses got kicking in at the worst possible time.

I never claimed my build was the best, merely that it let me challenge dungeons a good twenty-five Levels above mine. And that was with good solid tactics, ignoring the possibility of lucky hits.

I survived the blow, my solid bulk working in my advantage and keeping me from taking the Knockback damage a smaller creature would've. Touch Me took on the leading role for a bit while I recovered, spamming combos while I debuffed the giant Golem.

The Boss died at last after a solid twenty minutes of Freeze-hit tactics. It fell with a mighty crash, shaking the ground below us and making the cave rumble dangerously. We mostly ignored the Boss's lengthy death animation, knowing it was pointless to watch. We had already gotten the EXP and now we just needed to wait for the animation to finish in order to get our reward.

"I-I Leveled eight times!" Momonga shouted in surprise.

I raised an eyebrow, stretching. "Yeah. That's kinda what happens when you kill a high-Level Boss. You would've Leveled a hell of a lot more if the Devs didn't make an EXP penalty for being too high or too low Leveled for a certain dungeon."

"Huh." The Skeleton Mage blinked down at the Level notifications. "I never knew that."

"Most sane Players don't." Touch Me said in a moment of rare cynicism.

…He may still be holding a grudge about the monkey thing.

"It's a complicated equation that creates a huge curve in the Level spectrum. The higher-Leveled you get, the harder it is to find dungeons that still grant 100% EXP. I don't even bother, instead going for quantity over quality. I could run one dungeon at my Level for 100% EXP, but it's ten times as profitable to run this dungeon four times at 25% EXP. You get what I'm saying?"

Momonga nodded, glancing to the side. "Hey, it looks like the death animation is almost up."

I followed his gaze. Sure enough, the stones composing the Boss had almost completely dissolved into sand. A marble plinth rose up, and the long-awaited drops fell from seemingly nowhere. Gold, Data Crystals, a few weapons, a few potions…

A message window appeared before me, accompanied by a soft chorus in the background. I broke into a wide grin, ignoring the drops in favor of reading it.

Congratulations! By completing a dungeon with a recommended Level 81 on the first try with a party of less than 8 members, you have received the World Item [Five Elements Overcoming]!

I began to laugh. After all this time farming this Boss, it finally drops a World Item. And not only that, but the exact one I've been looking for this whole time. Sure I've gotten four others this through other Bosses, but I couldn't equip any weapons or armors as a Dragon, so those particular Items were useless to me. This dungeon has never before granted me its' bounty… but now it's mine.

The World Item appeared midair and floated softly down into my outstretched claw, gleaming in the light. It was a five-pointed star, woven from multiple shades of glass. One for each element represented in Taoism, my mind noted absently. A little detail told by the Item's flavor text.

"What is it?" Momonga whispered.

"This," I rumbled, tucking the Item into my Inventory, "is exactly what I have been looking for." I turned my head to look at the two of them. "How would you two like to be able to disguise yourselves as one of the Human Races?"

A/N:

The time-skips might be a bit disorienting now, but they'll get much more readable in the future. YGGDRASIL was released 2126 AD and went on until 2138 AD, so I have to stuff twelve years worth of gameplay into a few chapters while still maintaining some form of cohesion. This chapter summarizes the first year or so of gameplay, though I elected to leave some of it out due to it being fairly boring to read.

I'm releasing this chapter a bit early. The first one was pretty well-recieved so I decided to give this one a shot. I hope you all enjoyed!