Yggdrasil, true to its name, was the World Tree, so this game put special emphasis on the word “World” itself.
World Champion, World Calamity, World Guardian, World Boss, and so on.
And naturally, that included the most core element of all: World-tier items.
In the early years, Roy stayed completely out of the race for World-tier items, because it was directly tied to whether his crossing would go smoothly.
For that reason, he absolutely couldn’t interfere ahead of time, not even by buying items up.
Who knew exactly which World-tier items the Dragon Emperor was after, or which specific ones surfacing were actually necessary for a successful crossing?
So he stayed hands-off.
Right up until the game was about to shut down, he never bought a single World-tier item.
Instead, he went out and found them himself.
The items that never surfaced in the game even by shutdown, those were the ones fate had set aside for Roy.
In the original story, when the narration described the Great Tomb guild’s founding, it mentioned that fifty World-tier items had already been discovered by that point.
That clearly didn’t include the Throne of Kings, or any of the others the Great Tomb found later.
Through the backend, Roy knew exactly how many had been found by now, thanks to the combined effort of countless players, right as the game approached shutdown: a hundred World-tier items total.
Some World-tier items were never publicly known, just quietly hoarded away by players who kept them secret.
Take the Eight-Greed King’s crossing party, for instance.
The Nameless Book of Spells they carried with them was never made public knowledge.
Roy wasn’t about to take any of the hundred that players had already found, not even if they were handed to him for free.
Two hundred World-tier items existed in total, and he only wanted the other hundred.
Was that really so unreasonable?
You could even call it downright generous of him.
Roy had even run the numbers with AI, checking whether any player might stumble onto one of these remaining items.
The answer: impossible.
There was no scenario where someone else found a World-tier item right at shutdown and crossed over because of it.
Because the remaining hundred items were, frankly, disgustingly hard to find.
Aside from the World Crown already in his hands, it would’ve been perfectly normal for the other ninety-nine to go unfound for another decade.
“Isn’t that right, Megaera, Goddess of Vengeance.”
“Damn you.
Damn you.
Why won’t you just die!”
“Obviously because you’re going to die before I do.
Goodbye.”
Roy taunted her, then unleashed Kingdom-Toppling Silver Bullet.
Despite the name, what actually rained down from the sky was an endless torrent of golden ammunition.
A world-ending force that shook the entire dungeon to its foundations.
The goddess of vengeance’s body turned translucent, then hollow, and finally vanished entirely.
Kingdom-Toppling Silver Bullet could wipe out an entire group, or focus everything on a single target.
Against a single target, its power just kept climbing.
Megaera had no way to stop a finishing move like that, and was erased from existence.
“Congratulations.
You’ve completed the tenfold revenge against the Goddess of Vengeance for the first time.”
“Reward: the World-tier item, Blood Oath of the Erinyes.”
Roy’s first reaction to seeing the item wasn’t joy.
It was—
disgust.
To unlock this item, a player first had to be killed by one of the three Furies, and then set out for revenge.
From there, following the principle of “you kill me once, I kill your whole family ten times,” they had to clear the dungeon thirty times in a row.
Ten kills against each of the three, and in a strict order too.
And that wasn’t even all of it.
The quest also required using a taunt skill on the target right before every single kill.
Only then could the special quest be completed and the World-tier item claimed.
What in the hell kind of petty, obsessive lunatic hunted down the three Furies over and over like that, cost be damned?
And even if cost was no object, you’d still need to actually know your ancient Greek mythology to realize you had to hunt the whole family, all three sisters, in full.
That’s right, the three Furies came straight out of ancient Greek mythology.
The three goddesses were Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera.
Together, the three were known as the Erinyes.
Which was exactly why the item was called the Blood Oath of the Erinyes.
Genuinely disgusting.
Clearly designed so nobody would ever actually finish it.
Of course, the lead designer, Matsuno Hideaki, had once explained:
“Honestly, we did give players a warning about this one.”
“The first clear gives a generous reward.
Every clear after that pays out less, and after the tenth run, it drops to nothing.”
Listen to that.
Was that even a reasonable thing to say?
Even a player with a serious grudge wouldn’t cross three dungeons back and forth for thirty kills, especially while eating negative returns on the reward the whole time, and taunting the target right at the edge of death every single kill.
Only a madman could ever actually finish that quest.
If Roy hadn’t had special access, just reading the quest script alone would’ve made him want to curse someone out.
[World-tier Item: Blood Oath of the Erinyes]
[Effect: Activates upon the holder’s death.
Choose either to wipe out every enemy involved in the siege, or condemn a single designated target to die ten times in a row.]
[The Furies never forgive.]
The trigger condition was brutal, only usable after the holder’s own death, essentially a lesser substitute for the Saint-Slaying Spear.
Either it wiped out everyone involved in the siege, or forced the mastermind behind it to die ten times over.
Factoring in that most players carried revival items, killing someone ten times in a row was genuinely a way to inflict serious losses.
Still, once Roy crossed over into the New World, he probably wouldn’t be the one wearing this particular item. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Handing it off to a dedicated tank NPC, though, wasn’t a bad idea at all.
When that NPC died, it would trigger a scorched-earth retaliation, taking everyone down together in one wave.
Not exactly overpowering, but not weak either.
Roy stowed away the Blood Oath of the Erinyes, and with the most disgusting quest of the bunch out of the way, moved on to the next leg of his journey.
Seven days wasn’t much time at all.
Roy had deliberately timed everything this tightly to guarantee no other player could accidentally stumble onto a World-tier item, keeping the crossing conditions exactly as they were meant to be.
Some people might’ve assumed he could just hide out inside the Great Tomb and cross over alongside Ainz.
But that wasn’t a safe bet.
What if the actual crossing condition required sitting on the throne in the guild hall itself, alongside holding a World-tier item?
He could easily get treated as an outsider and shut out entirely, unable to cross over at all.
So Roy had kept himself in check this whole time, keeping the world exactly as it should be.
The second World-tier item: the Valkyrie’s Hall of Heroes.
Getting this one was just as disgusting.
It only became obtainable after the major expansion, The Valkyries’ Fall.
As for how you actually got it.
You had to take on a guild quest to wipe out the fallen Valkyries.
Every top-tier guild had cleared that quest before, and not a single one had ever gotten the item out of it.
Because it had a brutal hidden requirement: a solo duel.
A solo fight, sure, some of the biggest whales could probably manage that.
But there was an even crazier requirement on top: you had to use the exact same weapon type as the Valkyrie herself.
For example, if the Valkyrie was a gunner, you had to be a gunner too.
Gender wasn’t restricted, at least.
The Valkyrie class came in several variants.
Valkyrie (Gunner), Valkyrie (Lancer), Valkyrie (Swordswoman), Valkyrie (Archer), Valkyrie (Axe-wielder), and so on, plus the most unusual one of all, Valkyrie (All-Rounder).
That last Valkyrie, the expansion’s final boss, wielded every weapon type at once, so she didn’t restrict what weapon the player used.
Come on, then.
Come duel me.
That was the Valkyries’ pride talking.
Only by clearing the quest for the first time, meeting every single one of these conditions, could you actually claim the Valkyrie’s Hall of Heroes.
For any other guild, this was simply impossible to pull off.
For Roy, though, none of it mattered.
World City was packed with powerful NPCs, and he could always bring in top-tier AI to help grind, dressed head to toe in godly gear.
And if even that wasn’t enough, there was always more cash-shop firepower to throw at the problem.
Under normal circumstances, nobody would’ve expected a duel with restrictions this strict.
Especially since the dungeon had thirteen Valkyries total, and the last three, Brynhildr, Hrist, and Thrud, were all nearly on par with World-tier monsters.
Even a World Champion wouldn’t have dreamed of dueling them solo.
But Roy had insider knowledge as his cheat code, on top of an absurdly broken cash-shop item, Wish Upon a Star.
One that weakened the enemy.
And strengthened himself.
Not to mention every other paid item he threw money at like water.
His NPCs cleared the first twelve Valkyries without any real trouble.
Roy went on to trigger the thirteenth Valkyrie, the proudest and strongest of them all, the All-Rounder Brynhildr.
“Now that was one exhilarating fight.”
“Thank you for freeing us from the depths of our corruption, great warrior.”
“Indeed.
You’ve earned my respect, Brynhildr.”
Roy answered with a completely straight face, even though he was seconds from losing it.
The fight had opened with him using Wish Upon a Star to control her.
Then he’d spammed Kingdom-Toppling Silver Bullet relentlessly, sending her straight to the afterlife.
Whenever she broke free of the control, he’d just teleport around the arena, weaving in and out.
By the time the fight ended, Roy had used Kingdom-Toppling Silver Bullet a full hundred times.
If the designers hadn’t temporarily lifted the skill’s usage cap, he never would’ve been able to finish her off.
Which said everything about how strong she actually was, strong enough that it normally took thirty max-level players to have any shot at taking her down.
Requiring a solo duel to get the item at all was honestly inhumane game design.
Too bad Roy never lost a single point of health the entire fight.
The whole fight had been absurd from start to finish, and yet Brynhildr delivered every line with total sincerity.
Don’t laugh.
Hold it together.
Feeling Roy’s respect, Brynhildr nodded:
“You have treated us with the dignity befitting fallen heroes.
We shall follow you, my lord!”
…
“Congratulations.
You’ve won the Valkyries’ devotion, freeing them from their corruption.”
“Reward: the World-tier item, Valkyrie’s Hall of Heroes.”
[World-tier Item: Valkyrie’s Hall of Heroes]
[Effect: The thirteen Valkyries you saved pledge themselves to you, becoming NPCs equivalent to thirteen level-100 players, summonable at will.
Guild members may each individually contract one Valkyrie for their own use.]
A guild-oriented World-tier item, a genuine group-combat powerhouse!
The thirteen Valkyries’ stats got scaled down to level-100 player standard.
But they were still nothing to underestimate, effectively giving thirteen guild members each their own Valkyrie double.
During guild wars, every single one of them could be unleashed at once.
If a Valkyrie got killed, there was no gold cost to revive her, just a one-day cooldown.
An incredibly powerful item, one of the strongest even among World-tier items.
Whether it counted among the absolute top twenty was up for debate, but it was still stronger than most of them, no question.
From a long-term development standpoint, a free, powerful fighter like this held far more value than something like a summoned demon.
Thirteen players, each one gaining a skill to summon their own level-100 fighter, doubled their combat power outright.
A smile crossed Roy’s face.
With a full set of insider knowledge in hand, farming World-tier items took him roughly half an hour apiece.
Getting all one hundred of them, seven days was more than enough time.
The third World-tier item: Mimir’s Well of Wisdom.
Its difficulty ranked a bit lower than the Hall of Heroes.
But it had an extremely sneaky trigger condition.
You had to already own the Valkyrie’s Hall of Heroes, and your guild had to already have a well on its grounds.
With both of those in place, you summoned a Valkyrie and invited her to drink from the well with you.
Brynhildr would remark:
“This water’s not bad.
Shame it’s not the Well of Wisdom.”
Since most players simply killed the fallen Valkyries and called the quest done, they never triggered this hidden follow-up.
Only someone who’d actually freed the Valkyries could trigger the expansion’s hidden boss, the Cursed Odin.
In Norse mythology, Odin gave up one of his eyes to Mimir in exchange for a drink from the Well of Wisdom.
Odin drank from the well and gained all the wisdom of the world, but lost his ability to smile in the process.
Desperate to win back his smile and recover his lost eye, Odin used that very wisdom to scheme against Mimir.
Mimir was killed as a result, his head severed.
Odin himself hadn’t been the one to strike the blow, but he kept speaking with Mimir’s severed head, all in pursuit of getting his eye back.
Mimir saw through the whole scheme, and returned the eye to Odin anyway.
What Odin didn’t know was that the lost eye had always been the price the Well of Wisdom itself was meant to demand.
By reclaiming it, he lost his grip on the world’s wisdom entirely, and fell into madness.
Mimir’s revenge succeeded, and Odin’s divine throne was destroyed.
That was the story behind the major expansion, The Valkyries’ Fall.
It was only through Brynhildr’s wistful remark that Roy was able to pick up the follow-up quest at all.
This quest was no joke.
Fail to actually resolve it, and the player would lose the Valkyrie’s Hall of Heroes entirely.
Which was why Brynhildr issued a solemn warning:
“Even if it costs you the Hall of Heroes, are you still willing to help us and save Odin?”
“Of course.
I’m willing.”
Roy agreed with equal solemnity, and the thirteen Valkyries opened the gate to the fight against the Cursed Odin.
Failing the fight meant losing the Hall of Heroes.
And there was one more requirement to actually claim the World-tier item.
You couldn’t land a single hit on Mimir’s severed head during the fight against the Cursed Odin.
Only then would he finally let go of it all.
No wonder none of these items had ever been found by any real player.
Trigger conditions like these, were they even meant for actual people to complete?
By comparison, Ainz’s group clearing an 80-level dungeon on their very first try and just getting the Throne of Kings handed to them felt like a free bonus item.
But Roy had a way through.
He called in ninety-nine NPCs, every one of them a max-level warrior.
Then he stacked ninety-nine uses of Wish Upon a Star, cranking their combat power to the absolute maximum.
Even then, it burned through two hundred revival items before Odin finally went down, without a single scratch on the severed head.
No wonder no player had ever found this.
If Roy hadn’t looked through the backend editor himself, even he wouldn’t have believed the game could be this twisted.
As Odin died, he said in a low voice:
“Young one.
Wisdom always comes at a price.”
“Thank you for freeing this old man.
The Hall of Heroes is yours to keep from here on.”
The Valkyries held their farewell to Odin, and with that, the expansion’s hidden cutscene officially came to an end.
Seeing Odin restored to sanity, and having been kept safe from harm by Roy the entire time, Mimir finally decided to gift him the Well of Wisdom.
Without insider knowledge going in, anyone else would’ve missed the Well of Wisdom forever.
[World-tier Item: Well of Wisdom]
[This spring holds all the world’s magical knowledge, but whoever drinks from it must sacrifice a part of themselves to offset the curse.]
[Effect: Up to thirteen people may drink from the well each day.
If their MP isn’t full, it tops off completely.
If it’s already full, MP is temporarily doubled instead.]
In Yggdrasil, there were no MP potions.
Players could only recover MP by waiting it out.
That was meant to keep combat from happening too often.
Burn through all your MP, and you were in for a long wait.
Which made the Well of Wisdom’s effect an absolute game-changer for PvP.
Carrying double the MP was more than enough to grind an opponent into the ground, at least doubling total output.
Someone might argue the Well of Wisdom wasn’t as good as the Hall of Heroes.
So why would it end up being the last item he needed?
Because it had a special use of its own.
Only thirteen people could drink from it each day, and those thirteen were, in practice, the Valkyries themselves.
All thirteen Valkyries drinking from the well together could unlock a joint special skill, Valkyrie’s Bloom.
At that point, all thirteen Valkyries would shift from a player-level template to a boss-level template, their combat power shooting straight up.
On their own, they could pin Ainz down inside the Great Tomb and keep him from ever getting out.
And that still wasn’t the Well of Wisdom’s absolute limit.
The reason Roy had gone after the Well of Wisdom in the first place was that it was tied to another, far more important World-tier item.
And that was—
a sapling of the World Tree.