An unusually large carriage was heading towards the mountains in the east. It was daytime, yet the atmosphere seemed to bathe in darkness. The sky was covered in thick clouds and trees all wilted and cracking. It gave an ominous feeling to say the least.

In the carriage was one of the two teams dispatched from Nazarick. This one consisted of Ainz, Raphtalia, Shalltear and Solution.

The other one consisted of Pandora's Actor, Mare, Lupusregina and Yuri Alpha. They were heading in the other direction from the forest.

The main objective of both the parties was to gain exp, monster materials and information. And as a secondary objective, spreading the good name of the shield hero. As such, they were to help any humans if that overlapped with their work. The other objective was not really necessary.

The reason these parties had so strong beings was simple. In Ainz's words ,"The world is unknown, and so are the dangers within." There were orders to retreat if they faced an opponent rivaling them, while gathering knowledge about them, if possible.

They had procured the carriages from the slave trader and modified them. They could now easily fit Ainz.

The same was with filolials. They had gotten 16 filolial eggs. All of them had hatched at nearly the same time in front of Ainz. The moment they came out of their shells, they started clinging on him as if he were their mother. Some of them had been nearly killed by the guardians because of that but Ainz had just laughed it off.

They grew at an alarming rate and within 2 days were able to pull carts and stuff. Ainz's filolial especially, grew even more faster. The reason was still unknown.

Now, one was taken by each of the party to pull the carriages and the other 14 were left at Nazarick.

"There is a village up ahead. The village doesn't seem to be very lively."

Solution reported from ahead. She was wearing a black knee-length pencil skirt along with deep blue shirt. These clothes were specifically given to them by Ainz. For him, they were just extra clothing accessories without use. But to her, they were precious and treasured gifts from her master. These clothes were merely decorating items to be worn above armor and did a splendid job in hiding her armor underneath.

They entered the village through the central gates. No guard was present there. They all sensed multiple lifeforms within the houses, one of whom was walking towards them. A middle-aged man approached the carriage. He talked with Solution in an urgent tone.

"Are you a merchant? If so, then its better that you head back right now. The village i...cough... The village is very sick right now."

"I am with the Shield hero. What has happened here?" Solution responded in a calm manner different from her sadistic self.

"Shield hero... uh,eh... Th-there is currently a disease spreading throughout the village. Many people are affected and medicine isn't working. The doctor says that the disease blew down on the wind from the mountains ahead. Please! Please save us."

Ainz thought if healing the villagers would be a good idea. It could certainly help improve his reputation. But, there were not enough resources to do so. Ainz could not utilize an entire village's worth of healing potions. Nor did he have enough of healing scrolls to heal everyone at the moment. In that case, healing no one would be better than to let half of them die. Ainz did have a potion enhancing shield and he had tested it beforehand. That being said, it did not bring any change in its quantity. It was just not worth the trouble.

"Do you know the reason for this?" Ainz's tone might have come as a little rude but there wasn't a problem.

"Uh, the doctor inside might know the reason. I will call him. Please wait a second."

The person rushed back into the building he came from. After a few seconds another person came along. He seemed pretty tired and was sweating profusely. Ainz inquired him about the situation. The response was somewhat surprising.

"Yes, well… about a month ago the Sword Hero was in these lands, and he slew a powerful dragon that had his territory in those mountains. Since then the illness had only been spreading. A few adventurers went to investigate earlier but their are way too many monsters. It is most probably because of the rotting corpse of the dragon."

"A dragon huh? I see. Solution, continue on the path. We were heading that way anyways."

"Understood."

They continued on their path. The two people behind had disappointed faces. Perhaps they wanted him to help the villagers. They were surely thinking of stopping them but in the end didn't.

After starting on the mountain, they had abandoned the carriage as the road had become too steep to continue. Solution was following Ainz, Raphtalia and Shalltear while hidden. Of course, there were five hanzos too. The surrounding now had a lot of crumbling rocks and was completely barren.

He stole a glance at Shalltear. She was extremely quiet with her head facing down. She had been feeling guilty because of the incident that had happened earlier. Because of the events, that matter was pushed back but now that she had the time to think calmly, she had been sulking about it.

He had told her many times that it wasn't her fault but his own but she still denied that claim saying "A supreme being such as himself" can't make a mistake. She wanted to be punished for her wrongdoings. This had put him in a pinch. He didn't want to punish her for something she wasn't responsible for.

His line of sight shifted from Shalltear to the girl walking beside her. Raphtalia was not much different than her. Her reason was different though.

When they had been levelling up in the woods, she had many chances to kill monsters other than balloons. But, at the critical situation, her blade always stopped and the monster unharmed. Her fear of bloodshed was still the same. As a result, Ainz himself had taken control and killed many monsters in front of her. She had vomited quite a few times and even fainted twice.

Raphtalia's level had raised to lvl-16. Her stats were gradually growing but what was more interesting was her physical appearance. She now looked like a 12-year old. When asked, she informed that the physical growth of demi-humans is boosted by gaining levels. That was one of the main reasons they were discriminated against regarding them as 'half-monsters'. Her stats were as follows-

HP- 384

MP- 304

Phy Atk- 176

Mag- 112

Agility- 192

Def- 128

These were the stats without the additions from the equipment. She was given an armor that gave her high resistance against fire and lightning. The armor was a light magic armor that covered the entire torso until thighs, although it's protection extended to the entire body. It's base was mixed blue and yellow along with a white chest plate. She wore it along with white gloves and brown knee-boots. She was also provided with the Ring Of Sustenance.

She was also able to use the ability "Moonlight Blessing" once a day now.

Ainz too, had levelled up to level-120. All the stats increased were directly added to his YGGDRASIL stats instead of his shield hero stats. But granted the difference between the power levels of the two worlds, the growth was slower than expected. But still, it was not too slow either.

Whenever he levelled up, his HP, MP, Phy Def, Agility and Magic Def. stats went up. All the others were unaffected. But still, if the current growth rate continued, all his defense stats would surpass 100 and his agility would reach to be somewhat in the 80s. In fact, his Mag Def was already more than maximum. This was fabulous. His current stats were-

HP- 71 (60+11)

MP-100+

Phy Atk- 35 (35+0)

Phy Def- 86 (70+16)

Agility- 48 (40+8)

Mag Atk- 90 (90+0)

Mag Def- 100+

Resist- 95 (95+0)

Special- 100 (100+0)

All the new levels he got were directly allotted to 'Shield Hero'. And such, he wasn't able to gain any new job or racial classes. But that was somewhat expected. At maximum level, he must be able to defeat all the guardians 1v1. He might even have more than 50% chance of victory against Rubedo.

He had gotten quite a few shield skills too. Nazarick's monsters especially proved to be the most useful. For example- the death knight's parts gave him the shield 'Death knight shield'. The name was pretty simple but the shield raised his base defense by a bunch and gave him the a skill called 'Air knight shield'. This summoned an enlarged shield similar to the death knight floating around him anywhere in a radius of 10 meters.

At the same time, he was able to use the copy skill of the legendary shield to use different shields with exact same stats. This applied to the tower shield of the death knight as well.

Anyways, the toxic content in the air was rising. Everyone except Raphtalia would have been fine because of their high resistance. He took out a ring out of his inventory and held it towards her. It gave mediocre resistance against poisons. She reached out and put it on without speaking a word. This was indeed a difficult situation for him. How does he initiate a conversation?

Ainz felt that he had to do something. As a superior, it was his duty to keep their morale up. For now, he needs Raphtalia to get over her fears. He had run out of all the options but one. It was the one Cocytus suggested earlier. Forcing her into a situation where there is no choice but to strike to kill.

For now, the monster that was hiding revealed itself. It was two-headed hound. At least that's what it looked like. It had black fur and like every other monster, had completely red eyes. It let out a loud growl that might have had fear effects added in it. That said, it was not any stronger than the monsters in the forest.

Shalltear without wasting a moment went in front of him and Raphtalia took out her sword.

"Shalltear, do not kill or harm it. Only restrain it."

"Understood Ainz-sama."

She took off at incredible speed and held both the heads of the beast in her hand from behind. There was no struggle against her. No matter how many times the power of guardians was witnessed, Raphtalia was always left fazed.

Now was the hard part.

"Raphtalia, kill it."

She abided and approached the monsters. She took the sword backwards but as expected was unable to bring it down. She just couldn't do it. This was the moment Ainz had to do something.

"Hit it!" It was a stern and cold voice. She jumped upon hearing it and shivers ran down her spine.

"B-b-but..."

Shalltear's brows twitched. She was definitely furious at her behavior.

"Do it. I can only keep you if you are useful to Nazarick. Think for yourself."

Her face twisted in horror. She thought of her previous days as a slave. The days of terror where she and her friends were tormented. Compared to that, the life she got now was oceans apart. She was well fed and was treated way better than before. All she had to do was fight. And she was not even able to do that. She was not even able to pay back her savior properly, even if he was a monster himself. To her, he was no monster but her kind savior.

She remembered her resolve she had shown a few days back, and how she herself was denying that determination. She was scared yet, the only way out of that fear was to face it directly.

The blade was yet again taken above her head. This time however, it descended down on one of the monster's head. Blood sprayed all around the surroundings and her body. The monster whined and growled in pain trying to break out of Shalltear's grasp.

The blood stuck to her face and clothes. She raised the blade again and this time, the other head was cleaved off completely as the monster fell down lifeless.

Raphtalia's face, apart from the blood, was covered in her own tears. Shalltear stood there with her usual expression seeing her crying face. Then Raphtalia said something that made her almost lose it. Solution must have been the same too.

"Master... May I call you Ainz-sama?"

Ainz immediately realized the feelings of Shalltear with one look. The thought of someone from outside Nazarick addressing him such would have quirked them. That said, they were two of the cruelest of Nazarick who regarded humans as even lesser than pests. So probably their reaction was justified in their own rights.

"Y-yes. You can. You can, address me as such."

"Thank you."

As Ainz had acknowledged it, no one raised objections. Shalltear cleaned herself of the blood as she knew too well that activation of blood frenzy would be a no go. He too, casted the "clean" spell on Raphtalia, cleaning her clothes and skin. She flashed a sweet smile that suited her age. This was the first time, she had shown such a natural smile.

"Then, let's continue. Shalltear, go ahead."

Shalltear opened a gate that sent the dead monster directly to Nazarick. This way, he would get ample time to salvage its parts later. The remainder could be put to use some way or the other.

They proceeded towards the top while encountering many monsters. Most of the small ones were restrained by Shalltear and killed by Raphtalia. Shalltear didn't deal damage as to not take the bonus exp. Also every time Raphtalia killed a monster, the delays of hesitation became shorter.

Other monsters harder to restrain were dealt with by Ainz and Raphtalia together. Shalltear was only to interfere when things got dicey or an insanely powerful monster was encountered. There were monsters like poison frogs, poison snakes , poison trees, and a few others poison oriented monsters. There were few like that two-headed hound that relied on physical attacks.

By the time they reached the top, Ainz had levelled up to 132 and Raphtalia had reached lvl-33. There were a lot of monsters and many of them were stronger than in the area near Nazarick. The forest's monsters were left for the demi-human army to gain levels. Upon reaching the top, the dragon's corpse came into view, just that it, wasn't a corpse.

'Life Essence' Ainz cast the magic and

"It still has some HP left."

Yet it is not alive. It is an undead. Do undead really exist in this world too? Seeing from its outwards appearance, it seems to be a zombie-type undead.

Ainz cast the spell 'Discern enemy'

It's level is more than 50 in this world's standards. Considering dragons are a stronger species than others, this could be a troublesome opponent in this world. I guess I should do that.

He cast the message spell and connected to Solution behind. He had not directly talked as loud voice could possibly aggravate the dragon. Especially if it's zombification was still en route.

"Solution. Are the surroundings free of any creatures?"

"Yes. There are none in the vicinity."

Ainz's armor disappeared as the overlord revealed himself. His reasoning was that this dragon could be a troublesome foe. That was indeed true but it would have been easy to take out the zombie dragon with the armor on too. His main reason was, his curiosity. His old YGGDRASIL habits of experimenting were surfacing. That was certainly not a bad thing as it helped him learn more about the world.

"Shalltear, Raphtallia, stay careful. I would like to check something. So stay alert just in case."

"Yes" A reply in chorus.

Ainz slowly walked up to the laying dragon and it just flinched. This strengthened his theory that this was an incomplete undead. It was somewhat similar to the ones in the previous world. It started moving but before it could jerk its head away, Ainz had already cast his spell.

"Undead Domination"

The dragon stopped moving for a second then immediately all hostility disappeared. All the while, his organs, wings and tail were regenerating to be like an undead's.

"It still works on undead of this world. That is good news."

Ainz cast another spell.

"Repel Undeath"

A barrier came forth from his body and extended towards the dragon. The barrier broke upon contact with the dragon. This proved that it was more powerful than a low-tier undead.

He now cast the spell 'death' but it did not have any effect on it. This may prove that undead of YGGDRASIL and this world had similar abilities.

"Fireball"

A ball of fire conjured at the tip of his fingers and attacked. The zombified dragon took double the normal damage. This was all the more reason to believe that the resistances and vulnerabilities were similar too.

He tried out a few more spells and theories until his curiousness settled down. The dragon had almost no HP left now and was barely holding on.

He considered making it an addition to Nazarick. But the demerits outweighed the merits and ultimately decided to kill it off. He cast 'Magic Arrow' and killed it. This time they gained massive exp. Ainz reached lvl-138 and Raphtalia lvl-37. Shalltear again, opened a gate and sent the corpse to Nazarick.

After the dragon died a few more small monsters showed up. By the time they reached the carriage Raphtalia reached lvl-40 and Ainz lvl-140. Ainz had put on his armor back. He checked his party screen and a star was displayed next to Raphtalia's name. There was also a black star next to Shalltear and Solution from the starting.

Raphtalia needed to rank-up. Ainz thought about the trouble they would have to go through to get a rank-up for all the demi-humans. Was there no other way...

"Huh! Shalltear, open a gate to Nazarick in a safe place. Everyone is to retreat back to Nazarick for now."

"Yes."

Shalltear opened a gate behind a big rock. Everyone including the filolial went back to Nazarick.

X-X-X-X

They all went to the sixth floor where all those of this world were there. Aura, as always, came to greet him.

"Ainz-sama. Did you come to checkup on their progress?"

"Aah. Something like that. Bring everyone here. If I am not wrong, these filolials have levels too, right? Bring them too."

Within 10 minutes, the Colosseum was filled with over a couple hundred demi-humans and a few filolials.

"Bow down before the supreme being."

Everyone went down. Raphtalia had went ahead in front of him too. Maybe they were taught this beforehand.

"Rise. Shalltear, Solution and Aura, go and stand at the front too."

They went ahead with no objections. Now was the time to test it out.

Hopefully this works...

Ainz was ready to cast the spell. He was not gonna use his ring because of his XP bar. There were only two more uses left for the spell in the ring. In that contrast, his current exp bar was that of a lvl 40-41 of this world. So, using exp would be a more efficient method than the ring which can cast the spell without exp.

Dense blue magic circles with engravings appeared on the ground originating from Ainz. They spread in a radius of about 5 meters. After around 60 seconds, the circles extended a few more meters. The casting finished and he raised his hands and spoke in his deep voice.

"I WISH UPON A STAR-"