"HUH!"

Ainz was wondering what was happening. At those words his non-existent stomach curled up and he bagan running speculations of possiblities that could have happened but the longer he thought about it, the more confusing it got. He chose to borrow the wisdom of Demiurge, the floor guardianof the 7th floor on this matter.

"Ainz-sama, Is something the matter?"

He was so shaken by the fact that it showed on the outside and even the maid assigned for today's duty wondered if something was wrong and was acting nervously.

He immediately straightened himself up and replied in a manner befitting the ruler of Nazarick ,"No, nothing is the matter."

He answered quickly after getting himself in order. The maid seemed perplexed for a moment but then immediately bowed and backed down respecting her lord's wishes.

By the moment Ainz became more and more nervous. An emotion so intense that he hadn't felt since he was transported to the New World. It seemed his emotional supression kicked in calming him down. He was thankful for that.

Just as that he remembered that he is yet to answer Albedo.

"Albedo. We will discuss this matter in the throne room. I am sure everyone is just as confused. Call every floor guadian to the throne room."

"Yes"

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING? How is this possible? Nobody I had encountered in the New World was even able to use gate. Even in YGGDRASIL, it was impossible to teleport within Nazarick without the ring, that too from so far away. Even with the ring they needed to be near the entrance of the tomb. Was Sebas near Nazarick? But in that case he would have been informed by either Albedo or Demiurge. And what was with the earthquake just no...

"Huh" , Ainz said weakly. This was because he felt his conciousness fall for a moment. the red lights on his eye sockets flickered as he stumbled a step but did not fall as it was just for a moment. He got confused again but decided against prying further for the moment.

He informed the maid of his departure as he teleported to the front of the throne room without waiting for a reply. He slightly touched the door and the door opened all the way on its own. Normally it would be his maid or someone else doing so but he didn't care at the moment.

As he entered the exquisite room he saw all the floor guardians in there. Sebas and the pleades including Solution was present too. The floor guardians, son spotting him, without wasting a moment went on their knees to show their respect to him. He walked past them as this had become quite normal. He sat on the throne and on his cue all the guardians stood up.

PRESENT

"So what was that before?", Ainz asked calmly even though he was panicking inside.

"Ainz-sama, it seems that an unknown phenomenon had occured that had caused an earthquake to happen. We are certain that we had received no notification of an attack on Nazarick, but as the Nazarick denizens were able to be teleported directly into The Great Tomb without anyone noticing beforehand, it would seem we had left holes in our defence. We ask that you forgive our incompetence and plead that you punish us." said Albedo going down on one knee again. the other guadians followed suit.

"Raise your heads, I told you before too that not everything is your fault. Even I make mistakes and miscalculations at times. So don't berate yourself."

At those words the guardians raised there heads and it seemed they were about to deny his claims about him making mistakes but stopped and thanked him for his never-ending generosity as it wasn't the time for that.

At around the same time, it seemed that Albedo received a message. As she listened to the message everyone stayed silent clearly waiting for her to finish. After she received the message she seemed completely shocked and hastily reported;

"Ainz-sama Nigredo just reported that the surroundings outside Nazarick has changed."

"NANI?!"

"Yes, it seems that forest we were previously in is no longer present and it is replaced by another unknown forest that isn't yet known to us."

His mind went blank and he immediately answered instinctively ,"All the floor guardians are to return to their positions immmediately and raise Nazarick's defence to the maximum. This matter will be discussed later on. Also turn on the environment settings of the 4th, 5th and 7th floor."

"YES"

"Before that, has anyone else been having problems related to their status since the happening of the earthquake."

"No Ainz-sama, thank you for your worry but nothing is wrong at the moment."

I see, so was it just me? I should check my status, but first..

"Demiurge, Sebas and Solution stay here but return immediately in the case that an enemy is able to breach the fourth floor, in that case I too will go to the 8th floor to inform the guardians there of the circumstances."

I should hold them back to get more information about what's happening and how they were teleported here.

then he turned to Albedo ,"Call Pandora's Actor here...No, we ourselves will head to the treasury. In the case that someone is truly able to teleport within Nazarick, then that would be the safest option."

"Yes, Ainz-sama"

As he got their responses he gave each of them excluding Albedo the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown so that they could teleport to the treasury. they all went on their knees and thanked him with trembling voices. It was clear that they were trembling with not fear but excitement of receiving the honor of wearing the ring that was the symbol of their master's complete trust in them. The reaction seemed oddly similar to when Albedo received her ring though he thought the reason for their excitement and happiness may be different.

They all teleported to the treasury with Albedo's guidance and Ainz warned them about the traps in there especially the deadly poison that could kill many within mere seconds if they didn't have resistance or proper equipment to protect them from it.

As they entered the mausoleum like structure, Ainz and the others saw Pandora's Actor standing there completely on guard. Apparently he hadn't already transformed into one of the 41 settings embedded in him as he would transform into someone depending on the opponent's race and weakness. Upon noticing Ainz Pandora's Actor went on one knee and greeted him,

"Welcome, my creater."

After Ainz acknowledged this he went on attention and gave a crisp salute that seemed almost comical. Ainz was drowning in embarassment but decided against his better judgement to ignore this.

This was the first time for Demiurge and the others with the exception of Albedo meeting Pandora so he indroduced them.

" He is Pandora's Actor, he guards the treasury."

Demiurge and the like innstantly started to get a read on him. To them he and his actions might have seemed almost cringy and annoying but not to Demiurge. In one glance he had made his observations and already started to acknowledge the supreme inntelligence of his master, the ruler of the the Tomb Of Nazarick, Ainz Ooal Gown.

Sasuga Ainz-sama. Creating Pandora's Actor in such a way that he would annoy his opponents into possibly getting angry and taking a wrong step, that could turn the tide of the battle. Aaah truly, He is the the most cunning and ingenious master. Truly, he amazes me.

Albedo too, would have noticed this if she were not annoyed and bothered by the way Pandora's Actor treated her all ladylike.

After the certain events, they all sat down and were about to start discussing the possiblities of the happenings that had occured but then suddenly for a moment the lights in Ainz's eye sockets flickered yet again as his consciousness slipped away and he his head suddenly went down and bumped the table as if a very abnormal nod went the wrong way. his consciousness immediately returned and he sat up straight but the guardians did not let this pass.

Not even before had his head touched the table in the front all the guardians along with Sebas and Solution flocked him in worry of something happening to their master. They could not do sommething as touching their master without permission when the cause of the event was unknown. Albedo naturally could not stand having her beloved be like this for even a moment and was just about to hold him up, but Ainz immediately got his back straight.

"Ainz-sama, Are you alright? What happened?", they all enquired in unison Sebas seemed to have lost his composure and was visibly worried.

Meanwhile in Ainz's mind,

Huh, it happened again. What the hell, I thought it was just my imagination. What in the hell! How is this happening, aren't undead supposed to be immune to mind effects like this. Hah, is this because of the earthquake and the teleportaion earlier? Has someone infilterated Nazarick? What could be the cause of this? The only reason this could happen to an undead like is...A World- Class that couldn't be, the whole of Nazarick is under the protection of the Throne of Kings. I myself am protected by one personally so that shouldn't be possible. But what could possibly cause this.

As Ainz was thinking of possible scenerios his emotional supression kicked in and saved him from panicking anymore but he was suspicious that the guardians have already read his body language.

"This happened once before right after the earthquake. This normally shouldn't be possible given that I am a undead; but it could be possible given the occurence of recent events!" Ainz exclaimed calm as a lake on the surface while his inner emotions were like a raging tornado.

Everyone present in the room got worried and terrified looks pasted on their faces.

"Ainz-sama that is...!" Albedo exclaimed in almost a sceam but immediately corrected her way of speaking thinking it would be disrespectful.

"Ainz-sama that is not normal.I dare say, please, I beg you please immediately check your status and if everything is not alright, give us the order, that we could deal with it in your stead even if it costs our lives."

If one paid attention they could clearly see that she was working hard to keep her composure in front of the others while her voice was trembling with fear and maybe negligence even. This vaguely reminded Ainz of the time when he had a talk with Albedo in the treasury just before his battle with Shalltear.

The others in the treasury too agreed with what she said and were visibly wanting to take any action that could possibly help him.

No matter how many times I am in doubt I am always reminded how much they care for me.

"Thank you, Albedo. Thank you everyone but in this case you couldn't have done anything as not even i was able to notice something happening. If the need arises I would gladly call for your help. As for now I guess i should check my status."

"We are grateful."

As Ainz reminisced remembering his past friends in the NPCs created by them , he checked his status.

As he started checking his stats from the point where his level was shown to his skills and then finally the status to see if he was under any effects but he saw that he was under no effect what-so-ever.

"Eh? What's that? There was nothing like that before."

What he saw was something that under normal circumstances would have gone completely unnoticed. There was a small icon blinking in red and green periodically. He showed that icon to Albedo and the like but none of them had seen that before.

He was reluctant to but he clicked on the icon anyways without wondering much about it. He did so before the NPCs could have the time to raise any objection and by the time they spoke, the deed had already been done. Even Ainz himself was shocked that he had done so without any insurance.

On clicking the icon he saw something that of all things he would have never thought he would see in his status that too in an unknown format.

what was displayed was a semi-transparent display with the words "Lvl.0-The Shield Hero" written on top in a mixture of pure and black with the depiction of a Shield beside it. below it was written some other stuff but it was unreadable. It seemed to be in Japanese so he should normally have been able to read it but he just couldn't. He wasn't able to specify the reason for that either.

The Shield Hero? True, there were job classes for Hero in Yggdrasil but there was nothing that connected Hero with equipment. And why is this here along with my stats. And..

One thing that seemed even more out of the ordinary was the text written in air next to "The Shield Hero" that was written in pure and radiant bright red as if it was supposed to specifically draw people's attention. It read the words in bold and it seemed as if it was a button.

"LEVEL RAISE BLOCKED- LEVEL CAP REACHED- PERMISSION REQUIRED TO FORCEFULLY EXTEND LEVELS"

Extend levels? Does this mean my levels will increase? But that can't be possible. In YGGDRASIL it was completely impossible to raise one's level over the cap. Wait, wait, wait, this is not a game anymore. But still the New World has so many similarities with it, that seems almost impossible.

As he was thinking that there was an eerie silence in the room nobody in the room even dared interrupt the thoughts of their master. Still there was a mood of impatience in the room but that was completely understandable.

The Overlord was completely lost within his thoughts and so was everyone else.

What should I do? Should I ask the others for advice.? What will happen if i give it permission? Will my level raise? Oh man, there is not enough information. Aah, this is beyond me. What do i do? I have both a good and a bad feeling about this? Well its not like we have a choice, this is the only lead currently possible. Well I need to be careful anyways. Should i do that? but!? Ah, that is the only thing i could do. But what if something happens? Ah dammit...

The decision was made.

All right i am gonna do it.

As he thought that the text on the button changed to bright green and the text too bacame ,"Access Granted".

He was surprised and shocked, of course, that goes without saying but not only at the fact that permission was granted without him pushing the button but also that he felt a little power welling up inside him and that his vision blacked out yet again. this time his consciousness was active the whole time that was around 3 seconds.

As his vision came back, he saw an unfamiliar room with a certain robed man with his back towards him. He quickly cast 'Perfect Unknowable" and starting wearing his mask and gloves, he saw that he had a unknown shield-like equipment on his right hand.

Back in the Nazarick's treasury chaos was filled to the brim.

Little did everyone knew that the charade was just starting...mysteries and surprises that were about to unfold in the near future would be even more shocking.

Devastating too, perhaps, but not for Nazarick...

At The Time Of The Strange phenomenons Occuring In Nazarick, At A Certain Place Somewhere-

In a room were a few robed people standing staring at three people standing in front of them on some kind of Magic circle. They stood there in silence for a while before the silence was broken by one of the robed men. he spoke in a hoarse voice that seemed to be quite surprised.

"Hmm? Where is the Shield hero? Did the summoning of all the heroes failed? But during the ritual it seemed to quite successful."

"It is said that everything happens for a reason it seems quite fortunate for us that the Shield Hero was not summoned. There will be less problems for us and the kingdom.", This was said by the same man under his breath so low that no one could hear it.

The three men in front of them each had a weapon with them.

One of them had a sword that in a way resembled Japanese sword, while the other had a bow hanging on his shoulder, and the last one had a glamorous spear with him.

"So, are you guys going to tell us where we are?", the guy with the sword called out to one of the robed men.

"Oh! Honorable Heroes! Please, save our world!"

"...Huh?"

They all replied in unison