Side Chapter: Theta
Momonga looked at the NPC in front of himself, while stroking his chin. Today had been a rather strange day. First, his friends were oddly put off today. Maybe it had something to do with the new voice changer that had been added to female avatars?
After all, he himself used one, so it stood to reason that they weren’t used to the new female voice coming from his mouth. The next was strange thing that had happened, was the unannounced game update that altered how Voidborn work. Sure, it wasn’t the largest change, yet it still was strange.
The shitty devs rarely did anything like that. Usually, they announced the stuff they were planning and made sure to spread as much misery as possible. Of course, that was how the fans and players saw them.
So when he decided to make an NPC that day, he didn’t exactly know what to make them. His friends had made some Battle Maids and had designed lore around them and all that. He himself wanted to add to the little group.
So when he decided to make a Voidborn, a character born out of the void, which was an actual place in Norse myth called Ginnungagap, he decided to make her cute. He walked around the NPC as she stood there, the user interface flickering on and off as he got closer and further away from her.
They were currently in the great hall, where all the banners hung. The battle maids weren’t here, though it mattered little. He paced around the NPC he was making.
She had been designed to look kind of like Narberal Gamma, the doppelganger that Nishikienrai made. Yet, he had added some baby fat to her face, and made her about a year younger. Her black hair fell behind her back like a curtain of silk. Her eyes, which were black, were round and more relaxed looking than that of Narberal.
She stood at about 5 foot 7 inches. Her chest was in between a C and a D. Other than that, she looked like a rather normal girl. Her waist was slightly skinny, but he thought she was at least somewhat normal looking. Well, at least as normal as a girl that had skin as pale as ceramic was, with thin cracks running up and down her whole body.
These cracks were filled with a Vantablack material. These were supposed to represent the cracks in her unnaturally made body. The race of Voidborn was supposed to be some sort of Lovecraftian monster taking the form of a natural thing. As such, they had low health pools, but high defense and magical defense.
When their health was low, they emanated a AOE effect that damaged their enemies around them. It was supposed to represent reality breaking as they were killed. It was really cool, in his opinion. She also did more damage to her foes the larger the level gap was in her and her opponent.
He didn’t know why that was the case, but it was useful. He had fully leveled her racial levels, reaching a solid 45 in them. He then gave her 25 levels in halberd use. Well, the first 15 of those levels was fighter, then it moved onto polearm use.
He nodded his head, satisfied with the changes that he had made. He then gave back her clothes through the menu. Having her be as naked as the game allowed let him customize to the fullest as he could see everything.
As he looked at her with her maid uniform on, he smiled. He had outdone himself making her. He was proud. Her maid uniform had one of those archery covers for one’s chest, the half plate thing. A pauldron covered her right shoulder, a gauntlet covered her left forearm.
The design for her uniform itself was inspired by some google images he had seen that weren’t overly sexualized. It had been slightly annoying doing those searches. The piece of clothing that he had taken from the most was a Dirndl.
The one that she wore was mostly colored black, white, and a deep purple after his own robes colors that he wore. He nodded his avatar’s head as he looked over her. He clicked her interface, then frowned as he looked over her blank flavor text.
“What to name you?” he questioned out loud.
He hadn’t a solid plan going into this when he had made her. He knew he wanted to make a Voidborn. He knew he wanted to give her a name that sounded cool. He simply didn’t know what to name her. He didn’t even know what came after eta in the Latin number system.
“What comes after eta, I wonder?” he spoke his thoughts out loud.
“Theta, theta comes after eta,” spoke one of his friends from behind him as he looked over her stats and text.
Satoru whipped himself around in slight panic at the voice. It was then that he noticed who it was. It was Nishikienrai and Tabula Smaragdina, two of his best friends. He smiled underneath his headset again, and let them come to him as he explained what he was doing.
“Hey guys, I’m just finishing this new NPC I made. I wanted to add her to the battle maids. But I was wondering what to add as her flavor text?” he explained, and the other two nodded their heads.
“Well, Theta comes after eta, so you should add that to her name. Maybe start her first name with a “Th,” sound?” Nishikienrai proposed.
Satoru nodded his head, inspired by his friend. He turned back to the screen and began to type. As he did so, he noticed something shift in the NPC. He brushed it off, but he couldn’t help the shiver go down his spine as he noticed that Tabula was looking at the NPC like it owed him money.
“Thaelia Theta,” he intoned as he nodded his head.
The other two players nodded their heads as well. It seemed like a good name. Yet something changed in the NPC when he wrote that name.
…
Ryder Vrede opened his eyes once more. Life had changed, for better or for worse when he had died. It was very different, being not able to act on his own without aid from the people that called this virtual place home.
He had died in a police shootout. When he, a police officer, had been fired upon by a bank robber. Said bank robber hadn’t made it out with anything, but he had killed someone trying to flee the scene.
He had been only 22 years old. 22 years of life gone in an instant. At least he was fairly certain that the man himself had been arrested. That was a plus. Though, it didn’t matter now. Now, he lives in Yggdrasil, the game from the anime Overlord.
He himself was a change from what he knew. An NPC made by Ainz, or Momonga rather. He was a she now. Her new name was Thaelia Theta. She was a battle maid.
Another thing was different in this place, when compared to the canon of the show, the light novel, and the manga. It was Ainz, or Momonga rather. He was playing a female overlord character.
It was starling to see such a character that he rather liked, and see them in a female body with a female voice. The only reason that he was sure that Momonga was dude on the other side was that he called himself a he. Other than that, he acted like himself from the anime.
It was even stranger when to Thaelia, was when Tabula would just stare at her. In those days, Tabula would simply stare at her, for half an hour or more. It was a rather weird thing at first, but then she got used to it.
Yet, those were the abnormal days. The days when more than just half a dozen people logged on to play the game. The normal day were when she would just stand there, listening to the footsteps of people as they walked by.
She stood besides her sisters. He back straight as an arrow, her eyes roving over all that she could see. Sometimes, a player would walk by, and move her to a better or just different location.
She had been a fan of Overlord in her past life. Yet this was pushing it a bit. She had started to some fanfics that had the POV as an NPC, but she hadn’t read all the way through.
The days went on like this. For unknown hours and unknown hours, the days passed on by. Yet, until one day that she heard something. Something from her maker himself.
…
“A raid is coming! Oh my god everyone, prepare!” Momonga shouted as he stood in front of the guild hall.
They had brought the battle maids over, so that was good. Thaelia could see what was going on. All of the players that were currently on were standing beside the guild leader. The raid was here, the raid that consisted of 1500 people and NPCs.
Thaelia smiled as thought back to the lore of the show. The invasion would fail, and she wouldn’t even have to fight anyone. She continued to think about what was probably going to happen as the player kept on talking.
She was fairly certain that the players wouldn’t make it to the location where she was at. That location being the doors to the guildhall. She was also fairly certain that her being there meant something had changed.
It was a little weird, being so excited for this. Who knew, maybe she would get some action after years of not fighting at all. She might even see her dad fight.
She paused in her thoughts, mind shutting down slightly. What did she mean, when she thought about dad? Who was she talking about? She glanced over to the one she thought of, the one she imagined.
Her eyes landed on Momonga. Strange as it was, she had started to think of him as her creator, then as her father. She sighed in her mind. It looked like her current state of life had altered how she thought.
She smiled in her mind. Now wasn’t the time to think about such things, yet she couldn’t help but think of it. It was such a wholesome thing that she had noticed about herself that she couldn’t help but smile.
…