(BONUS) 24: Chapter 24: A World Item?
(BONUS) Bonus for 50 PS, next bonus at 100 PS ◇◇◇ Lucien silently infiltrated the underground vault and stopped in front of three adamantite-forged chests.
The security was impressive.
Each chest was secured by multiple magical locks, while several layers of low-tier triggered alarm spells had been placed across their surfaces.
But against a thief with spatial abilities, obstacles made from reinforced metal and low-level magic were meaningless.
Just as Lucien was about to take a handful of gold coins, a private-message notification suddenly appeared in the upper-right corner of his system interface.
[Are you free?
Can you talk right now?] Lucien glanced at the message.
His hand did not stop moving, but something about it felt wrong.
Whenever Ainz normally sent him a message, he always began with a greeting.
Something like, “Good evening, Lucien.” Then he would wait for Lucien to return the greeting before discussing business.
It was a habit left over from his previous life as a working adult.
This message had none of that.
Lucien considered the difference, but he did not interrupt what he was doing.
He activated a skill with his right hand.
[Remote Acquisition] A high-level derivative skill from the thief class.
Back in YGGDRASIL, it could sometimes be used to retrieve quest items from behind the protective barriers of boss monsters.
During chaotic large-scale PvP battles, it could also be used to steal certain special items from other players.
It was the kind of skill people complained about endlessly on the forums.
Lucien pulled a large handful of gold coins directly out of the chest.
He did not bother counting them.
He simply stuffed them into the pouch at his waist and activated another ability.
[Blink] Space shifted.
Lucien disappeared from the sealed vault and reappeared on the street outside the villa.
He quickly scanned the surroundings.
No one was nearby.
Only then did he lean against a thick tree trunk, open the system interface, and start a voice call with Ainz.
“What happened, Ainz?” Lucien went straight to the point.
This time, Ainz did not sound as calm or polite as usual.
His voice was dry and rigid, every word strained.
“Lucien…
one of my subordinates.” “Shalltear Bloodfallen, the Floor Guardian of the First through Third Floors of the Great Tomb of Nazarick…” Ainz stopped.
Then he forced out the rest through clenched teeth.
“She has been affected by a World Item.” “Someone placed her under mind control.” Lucien’s heart gave a heavy thump.
From what he knew, every Floor Guardian of Nazarick was an elite combatant.
They possessed powerful builds, excellent equipment, and extensive resistances.
In many respects, they were stronger than ordinary players.
Under normal circumstances, they should have been capable of resisting the overwhelming majority of abilities.
But if a World Item was involved…
“What exactly happened?” Lucien immediately dropped his casual attitude.
His speech quickened.
“Are you certain it was a World Item that affected her?” Ainz did not answer immediately.
He clearly did not know all the details himself.
His voice remained strained and uneven.
“I’m reasonably certain, but I still don’t understand exactly what happened…” “I’ll send you my coordinates.” “Come here and see the situation for yourself.” There was no point wasting time talking without seeing the evidence.
Lucien ended the call, opened the system interface, accepted the coordinates Ainz had sent, and initiated teleportation.
Light flashed.
Lucien appeared at the designated location.
It was an open wilderness far from any settlement.
The land was flat and empty, with a wide field of vision in every direction.
It was an excellent place for maintaining a defensive position and monitoring the surroundings.
Ainz stood not far ahead.
He had come in his true undead form.
Violent magical energy surged around him, far stronger and more chaotic than usual.
It was obvious that he had entered his highest level of combat readiness and was prepared for an attack at any moment.
Behind him stood an extraordinarily beautiful woman in a pure white dress.
She had replaced Nabe as his companion.
Her black hair fell to her waist.
Black angelic wings extended from her lower back, and curved horns rose from her head.
“Lucien.” After having his emotions forcibly suppressed twice already, Ainz’s voice had finally stabilized somewhat.
He gestured toward the woman beside him.
“This is Albedo, the Guardian Overseer of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.” “Albedo, this is Lucien.
He is a very close friend of mine.” Albedo looked at Lucien.
Her underlying nature made her instinctively disdain humans.
But she had heard Demiurge mention this man.
He was a friend of Ainz.
He was extremely powerful.
In that sense, he could hardly be regarded as belonging to the same category as ordinary humans.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, honored guest of Lord Ainz.” Lucien had no attention to spare for the succubus standing in front of him.
The appearance of a World Item meant that an elite force capable of posing a lethal threat was hidden somewhere in this world.
Their entire survival environment might be about to become far more dangerous.
Lucien gave Albedo a brief nod in acknowledgment.
Then he walked directly toward Ainz and looked into his empty eye sockets.
“What exactly happened?” Ainz took a deep breath, organized his thoughts, and began explaining everything in detail.
“Albedo is Nazarick’s Guardian Overseer.
She monitors the status of the other Guardians and manages much of the guild’s daily operation.” Ainz’s voice was low and filled with regret.
“Last night, while checking the guild management interface, she discovered that Shalltear’s name had turned red.” “She immediately had someone notify me.” “But I didn’t receive the message in time.” “I missed the initial incident.” “It wasn’t until dawn, after I finished handling matters related to Momon’s adventurer identity, that I remembered Albedo had something important to report.” “Once I confirmed the situation, I used high-level detection magic to forcibly locate Shalltear.” “But when I found her…” “She had already become an unowned neutral monster.” Lucien’s eyes narrowed.
He carefully recorded every detail as Ainz spoke.
“To remove her abnormal status, I tried using an item capable of invoking Super-Tier Magic.” Ainz raised his left hand and showed Lucien a faintly glowing ring worn on his ring finger.
“The Ring of Shooting Star.” “You know what this item originally did, don’t you?” “Yes.” Lucien knew it very well.
It was an expensive cash-shop gacha item.
He had once wanted one himself.
But the drop rate was terrible, there was no guaranteed reward system, and after resisting the temptation for a long time, he had ultimately decided not to spend the money.
Since Lucien already understood the item, Ainz continued.
“In this world, the ring’s effect changed.” “Instead of drawing from a fixed list, it appears capable of directly granting a wish.” “I used it to wish for Shalltear’s abnormal condition to be removed.” Ainz’s voice became heavier as he spoke.
The final words trembled.
“The magic activated successfully.” “The system consumed one of the ring’s limited uses.” “But the wish itself failed.” “Shalltear remained standing there in the same state.” “She didn’t recover.” Ainz stared at Lucien.
Then he gave the conclusion that had terrified him.
“Lucien, you’re an experienced player too.” “You understand YGGDRASIL’s underlying rules.” “Super-Tier Magic sits at the top of the normal magical hierarchy.” “It represents the highest level of ordinary magic.” “There is only one category of power capable of overriding the effect of a Super-Tier wish.” “World Items.” Ainz clenched his fist.
“That’s why I concluded she must have been affected by a World Item.” “Someone forcibly altered her mental state.” Lucien nodded.
He completely agreed with Ainz’s reasoning.
According to YGGDRASIL’s lore, the great World Tree had once possessed countless leaves, with each leaf representing an entire world.
Most of those leaves eventually fell away.
Only nine remained attached to the tree.
Those became the game’s nine worlds.
The fallen leaves, meanwhile, were transformed into items possessing effects powerful enough to alter the rules of entire worlds.
Those were World Items.
Compared with something on that level, Super-Tier Magic was secondary.
“Once the wish failed, I immediately realized something was wrong.” Ainz continued carefully.
Every word carried lingering fear.
“The enemy possessed a World Item.” “And they successfully controlled a max-level Floor Guardian.” “That strongly suggests the opponent is a player with top-tier resources.” “In YGGDRASIL PvP, using a controlled NPC or a wounded boss as bait to lure out a guild’s main force was a common tactic.” “I was worried the area might still be under observation by hidden players.” “If I remained there, a player group carrying World Items might ambush me.” “To preserve Nazarick’s fighting strength and avoid having everyone wiped out at once, I didn’t stay.” “I withdrew immediately and moved to this wilderness more than a hundred kilometers away.” Ainz sighed and looked at Lucien.
“After that, I contacted you.” “That’s everything I know.” Lucien rapidly broke down the information and began reconstructing possible scenarios.
Discussing it with him was undoubtedly useful.
Shalltear meant far too much to Ainz.
Ainz had made that clear the previous night when speaking about Yuri and the other NPCs.
Because he was personally involved, remaining completely calm was difficult for him.
Lucien did not share that same emotional attachment.
That allowed him to examine the situation more objectively.
“I’m going to base this entirely on player experience.” Lucien warned him before beginning.
“So I may be very direct.” The red lights in Ainz’s eyes flickered.
“That’s fine.” “The situation is too serious for politeness.” “Say whatever you think.
I won’t take offense.” Only a few seconds passed before Lucien’s brow tightened.
He had already noticed a serious contradiction in Ainz’s account.
“You said that after she was mind-controlled, she became a neutral, unowned monster.” “That doesn’t sound right.” Ainz looked at him.
“What part?” “Under YGGDRASIL’s game mechanics, an NPC’s faction status should have two absolute outcomes.” “Either they’re loyal, or they’ve defected.” “Item effects haven’t changed much in this world.
I’ve tested that repeatedly.” “I’ve even tested World Item interactions.” Lucien began analyzing it piece by piece with the logic of a professional player.
“If Shalltear had been fully mind-controlled by another player through a World Item, then the system should have forcibly removed Nazarick’s ownership over her and assigned her to a new master.” “If the control was complete, her name should have disappeared from Nazarick’s character management interface entirely.” “Because she would no longer belong to your guild.” Lucien looked directly at Ainz.
“But according to you, her body remained where it was.” “She stopped attacking.” “And she became an unowned neutral monster instead.” Lucien paused before giving his conclusion.
“That means the new master who gained control over her suddenly lost the connection after the item took effect.” “That’s why she ended up stuck in an intermediate state, disconnected from Nazarick but not properly bound to anyone else.” The red light in Ainz’s eye sockets flickered rapidly.
He followed Lucien’s reasoning.
“You’re right.” Ainz slowly nodded.
“If the enemy recognized Shalltear the way you would, then after successfully controlling her, they should have immediately taken her away.” “Or they could have ordered her to enter Nazarick and contact me.” “Leaving her standing in the wilderness after successfully gaining control really doesn’t make sense.” Albedo, who had been listening quietly, offered a possibility.
“Lord Ainz, could Shalltear have resisted before the control was fully completed and wounded the person using the item?” Albedo continued.
“Shalltear possesses the strongest one-on-one combat ability among the Floor Guardians.” “If the enemy was merely a weak individual who happened to possess a powerful item, perhaps Shalltear injured them badly enough to force them to flee.” “That might have interrupted the connection before the control process fully stabilized.” Ainz considered it.
“If that happened, then it would explain the situation.” But Lucien remained standing with his arms folded.
His frown did not disappear.
He did not believe that explanation held up well in actual combat.
World Items were all absurdly powerful rule-breaking mechanisms.
Without exception, their effects were unfair by normal standards.
And their activation delay was generally somewhere between instant and only a few seconds.
In that amount of time, Shalltear might land three to five attacks at most.
A player capable of carrying a World Item was obviously unlikely to be beaten into critical condition by only a few strikes from Shalltear.
Even Lucien, whose build was among the most fragile at max level, sometimes used skills that further reduced his own defense.
Yet even under the harshest self-inflicted defensive penalties, he could still survive several exchanges against a warrior.
An ordinary player in a normal state should fare even better.
Unless the enemy was extremely low level.
But how likely was that?
There had to be another important clue they were overlooking.
“Guessing won’t get us anywhere.” Lucien shook his head and looked at Ainz.
“Where did you find her?” “I want to inspect the scene myself.” Ainz hesitated.
“I’d rather you didn’t.” “There may still be hidden threats in the area.” “I’m fairly confident in my ability to detect ambushes.” “…” Ainz thought for a moment.
Then he sent Lucien the exact coordinates where he had located Shalltear.
Lucien immediately activated his highest-level stealth ability.
His body disappeared into the air.
The area where Shalltear stood was a badly devastated clearing in the forest.
Still invisible, Lucien landed lightly on the trunk of a broken tree.
He did not approach immediately.
First, he activated several reconnaissance abilities.
[Detect Concealment] [Magic Detection] He carefully examined the entire surrounding area.
Trees had been shattered.
The ground was scarred by battle.
There were no hidden combatants.
Lucien could even detect traces left behind by Ainz and Albedo, along with residual fluctuations from the Super-Tier Magic Ainz had used.
Not far from where Ainz had stood, there were also traces left by the activation of some kind of unusual item.
The holder of the World Item had probably used it from that location.
There was one more thing.
Aside from Ainz and Albedo, something draconic appeared to have been here as well.
Lucien checked the area repeatedly and in detail.
Eventually, he confirmed there was no ambush and no magical trap.
Only then did his attention settle on the small figure standing at the center of the clearing.
Shalltear Bloodfallen.
(To be continued.)