The sky was growing dark and gloomy with turbulent clouds. Thunder rumbled as lightning crackled against the sky. Rain pummeled down on Isabelle and the Overlord.
Isabelle smiled. She had added the Overlord’s black silver hammer to her inventory! She finally felt like she had a fighting chance against him.
“Why do you look so pleased with yourself, Isabelle?” asked the Overlord. “Have I missed something?”
“She took your hammer, darling,” said Maviel.
“Oh,” the Overlord said with a snort. “That’s cute. Good luck wielding it, there’s no way in hell your str is high enough at level twenty three.”
Isabelle was irked by the Overlord. Where did he get off, being so damn smug? Plus, who cared if she had enough str to use the hammer. Keeping it in her inventory meant the Overlord couldn’t use it!
“Well, since I guess I can’t use my hammer until I’ve killed you, I’ll just whip out one of my many other weapons,” said the Overlord. He equipped a large, electrified ax that looked like it could split Isabelle’s head in half in one hit. “How’s this? Not too shabby, eh?”
Isabelle rolled her eyes. Was the Overlord trying to impress her or something? It wasn’t working. Isabelle was only disgusted by the Overlord. I mean, hell, he’d spent all this time in Beaubinte and what had he accomplished? From what Isabelle could gather, everyone hated him. Even Maviel seemed to hate him! Wasn’t she, like, his wife or something? Isabelle checked the Overlord’s veiny left hand. He had no wedding ring equipped. Clearly she was more of an ‘or something.’
“What? What are you looking at? Why are you looking at my hands? They’re not small!” said the Overlord.
Isabelle was wondering where that had come from. Had her quick glance at his hands really been that obvious? Were the Overlord’s hands really small? Isabelle looked again. They did look quite small, actually. Was he insecure about that?
“Stop looking at my fucking hands, player!” said the Overlord. “Stop it now!”
Isabelle chuckled under her breath. He was definitely insecure. She could see the electricity bubbling up from under the Overlord’s skin. Seemingly, whatever it was that gave him that extra electric ability was tied to the Overlord’s emotions.
“Maviel!” said the Overlord. “Maviel, get over here!”
Maviel walked over to the Overlord. “Yes, dear?”
“Get Babqex to bring the audience over to this courtyard,” he said.
“But, Overlord—” said Maviel, “—didn’t you want the audience to stay crowded around the dragon, so that they can watch you slay it? Also, don’t you have a sending stone? Can’t you just call Babqex yourself—”
“Do it now, woman!” said the Overlord.
Maviel sighed and put her hands to her temples. “There. He’s been alerted.”
“Hey—” said Isabelle, “—that was cool. Is that how you spoke in my head and did a bunch of damage to me earlier?”
“Yes,” said Maviel. “It’s an advanced form of confusion magic. Maybe, in another life, I’d teach you.”
“Stop flirting with the enemy, Maviel!” said the Overlord. “You’re making me insecure!”
“I wasn’t flirting,” said Maviel.
“Sure you weren’t,” said the Overlord. The electricity around his veins was charging up and brightening.
Isabelle was finding it harder and harder to take the Overlord seriously.
“Geez,” said Tahsi, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground and chomping a piece of bread. “This rain sure is yucky. Also, is it just me, or is the Overlord getting harder and harder to take seriously?”
“It’s not just you, Tahsi,” said Sir Jingles.
“Jingles, I’d almost forgotten you were even here,” said Isabelle. “What with all the cowering and hiding you’ve been up to.”
“I mean, I am a cat,” said Sir Jingles. “Can you blame me?”
Tahsi shrugged. “Aw shit. My character sheet! Hate when that happens.”
“Heh.” The Overlord chuckled. “Your party members are a shitshow, Isabelle. You know, if you won’t give up your system, you ought to consider a system merger before you try and fight me.”
“Darling!” Maviel balked. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m dead serious,” said the Overlord. He turned to Isabelle. “Listen, we can fight this out all day. Or, more likely, all of five seconds, because let’s face it: I’m going to crush you in an instant the moment I really start trying. Yes, that’s what can happen, and that’s the path you’re on now. But you have options, Isabelle. Do you even know what a system merger entails?”
“No,” said Isabelle. “But I’m not sure that I want to know, either.” She didn’t want to have a ‘merger’ with this creep! She was hoping to kill him!
“Well, I’m going to tell you, anyway. Unless you’d rather go ahead and fight me. I can do that, too,” the Overlord twirled his electrified axe. “Of course, I was kind of hoping that we’d get the whole audience here for that, so really I’d prefer it if you humored me.”
Isabelle considered this. Maybe it would be best to allow the Overlord to blather on. He seemed to just love hearing himself talk, and the longer he did that, the longer she had to think of a plan. Isabelle already had his hammer in her inventory, and even if she didn’t have enough str to use it, she had a feeling it could come in handy in some way. Along with the hammer was the knowledge that the Overlord’s powers seemed to increase when he got angry, probably due to some special ability or something. But, was there a drawback? Did that anger-based ability come at some cost? If Isabelle could figure out how, then maybe she could defeat the Overlord.
“Let me tell you everything there is to know about system mergers, and what my offer entails,” said the Overlord. “First of all, a system merger, as the name implies, involves taking whatever you’ve already accomplished with your system and whatever I’ve accomplished with my system and meshing them together. Surely, you must realize by now that our systems, while similar, are slightly different. This is in part by design—the design of the Beaubintian Designer Council, also known as the BDC, which is an acronym you’d probably recognize if you had been lucky enough to be reincarnated with a tutorial. But, as we both know, you have none such luck. So, you can consider my explanation an act of good faith.”
Isabelle rolled her eyes. Was the Overlord really praising himself for telling Isabelle something about the system, when he was the one who’d originally put her in the situation of not having a tutorial? What a jackass.
“The differences in our system would generally be minute. Things like, the different variable error codes you allow your system to display, or the abilities the gods of this world have granted you,” said the Overlord. “Or, from the look on your face, neither of those things, because you don’t seem to have any idea what I’m talking about.”
Isabelle felt terribly embarassed. The Overlord had been right. She didn’t have any idea you could hide system error codes, and she definitely didn’t know you could get abilities from gods!
“But, really, the most important thing about your system versus my system is that it has, for whatever reason, allowed you to proceed in this world without a dedicated class,” said the Overlord. “Undefined class my ass. What a hack job. Makes me almost feel guilty for modding my system. Almost being the operative word here. Really, I just feel guilty that I didn’t think of trying to remove my class from my character sheet. But if I merge with your system, I won’t have to bother with mods.”
Modding his system? What in the hell was the Overlord talking about?
“I can see from your facial expression that you’re confused. Oh, player, you do truly wear your heart on your sleeve. You might want to think about crafting something to protect against that, going forward. If you even survive this encounter, I mean,” said the Overlord. “Have you unlocked meditation yet?”
Isabelle said nothing, but she felt her lip quiver.
“I’ll know if you’re lying,” said the Overlord. “Go ahead, tell me. Have you?”
“Yes,” said Isabelle.
“Excellent,” said the Overlord. “Then this shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for you. I’d assume you don’t yet know of the many states of meditation?”
Isabelle shook her head.
“As I thought,” said the Overlord. “You know, player, I wouldn’t normally go into so much detail. But, I really do like you.”
Isabelle frowned.
“No need to look so pleased with me,” said the Overlord. “Now then, to my explanation. The states of meditation in the system are also states of being, states of vibration. They are based off of your biology.”
Isabelle crossed her arms.
“Not in that way, player,” said the Overlord. “Trust me, I’d be more overt if I were to insinuate something of that nature. I don’t pride myself on being obtuse.”
Isabelle kept her arms crossed.
“Whatever,” said the Overlord. “What I meant by biology was not secondary sexual characteristics, what I meant was the architecture of your spine.”
How did that make the whole thing sound even creepier? Isabelle didn’t know, but it sure did.
“Okay, look, seriously, I think you’ve got the wrong vibe here,” said the Overlord. He set down his axe.
Isabelle focused on it.
[Add ‘Overlord’s Glorious Electrifying Axe’ to inventory?]
Isabelle thought yes.
“Oh, gods damn it!” said the Overlord. “Stop doing that, it’s quite irritating.”
“No,” said Isabelle.
“Fine, whatever, I have plenty of amazing weapons in my vast inventory,” said the Overlord. He equipped a humongous morningstar that glowed with a terrifying purple flame. “This thing saps your int points and gives them to me when I hit you with it. Want me to whack you?”
“Literally never,” said Isabelle.
“Fair enough,” said the Overlord. “Well, let’s get back to what I was explaining to you. It was something about meditation, wasn’t it?”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Beats me,” said Isabelle. Was the Overlord boring her? The Overlord that she was supposed to be so terrified of? The answer was indubitably yes.
“Yes, it was meditation,” said the Overlord. “I just had my system check for me, so I know for sure.”
Isabelle rolled her eyes.
“So, the thing of it is—” said the Overlord, “—is that any given meditation enters different states as you’re going through it. These states center around different sections of your spine, each of which concentrate on a different structure of your psychological being. The easiest way to picture it is that a long, thick snake is wrapped around your spine, doing unspeakable things to your bones.”
Isabelle grimaced.
“Yea, sounds rough, huh?” said the Overlord. “But that’s the best way to explain it. And each state of meditation moves the snake around, or gets the snake to focus on a different part of your spine. And when you’re really, really advanced at meditation, when you’re a really motherfucking high level meditator, you can actually make the snake release your spine for a little bit. It’s almost like a form of death, but it’s more like a moment of transcendence.”
“What… exactly is your point?” asked Isabelle.
“I’m glad you asked,” said the Overlord. “I was worried that I was boring you.”
Isabelle sighed.
“The point is, in that transcendental state, you have the option of traveling as a sort of specter to different mental realms. Communing with gods is common, as is other things. Other things, such as visiting the Nexus,” said the Overlord.
“The Nexus?” asked Isabelle.
“Yes—” said the Overlord, “—the Nexus.”
“…And what the hell is this Nexus you seem so pleased about?” asked Isabelle.
“You really are green,” said the Overlord. “Never even heard of the Nexus. Ah, player, you really remind me of a much younger, more feminine me. I used to be like you. So deliriously naiive.”
Isabelle frowned. “You’re incredibly condescending.”
“Yes, I’ve been told so before,” said the Overlord. “Now, can I get back to explaining the Nexus to you, since you obviously have no idea what it is?”
Isabelle rolled her eyes yet again. “Sure. Whatever.”
“Excellent.” The Overlord cracked his knuckles. “So, the Nexus can be thought of as a physical place, and as a mental state. It symbolizes the core of the world of Beaubinte, and some people say that it may actually be found at the core of the world, though whether that’s accurate is anyone’s guess. I definitely don’t know, I’m the fucking Overlord, I don’t have time to dilly dally around in the world’s core looking for a Nexus, especially when I can reliably visit the Nexus through meditation alone.”
“You’re not very good at explaining things,” said Isabelle. “You keep getting distracted.” Maybe she could use this distraction to her advantage, Isabelle thought. But how? What did she have? Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 242.4/282
Item
Traits
Overlord’s Black Silver Hammer (enchanted)
+50 damage, +50 str, +10 const, +8 stm, +13 carry weight
Overlord's Glorious Electrifying Axe (enchanted)
+45 damage, +48 str, +18 const, +15 stm, +12 carry weight
Stealth Drainer (enchanted)
+5 stealth, +10 damage, +1 carry weight
Vial of Cauldron Goo
n/a
Abbreviated list based on prior use. Focus to see more items…
Hmm. Wait a second, 282 carrying capacity? Hadn’t Isabelle had significantly less than that?
[Clarification: The system automatically equipped your ‘Ring of Hoarding’ when you stole the Overlord’s weapons, as they would have left you over encumbered]
Wow. That was nice. Isabelle looked back at her inventory. She loved the idea of using the stealth drainer again, but she couldn’t picture an oportunity she’d have to use it again. Plus, unfortunately enough, it seemed to be near impossible to strike the Overlord with it after connecting that most vital first hit. The Overlord’s two weapons were probably out of the running if what he’d been saying about her str levels was true… then again, what if it wasn’t? Isabelle tried to equip the black silver hammer.
[Error: Your str is too low]
So much for that. Isabelle regarded her inventory again. What was the deal with the vial of cauldron goo? It could be used to send someone’s abilities to the Overlord, sure. But what would it do if she flung it on the Overlord?
“Excuse me, can you stop staring at your inventory for a second and listen to what I’m saying?” asked the Overlord. “Or would you rather me go ahead and kill you? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s cute that you’re trying to weasel your way out of certain doom, but it’s just not going to work.”
Isabelle balked. How had the Overlord known she was looking at her inventory?
“Seeing as you were just completely ignoring was I was trying to tell you, let me reiterate. When one first visits the Nexus, they come upon many wondrous and terrifying entities,” said the Overlord. “Nexus entities, they’re often called.”
Isabelle rolled her eyes. What a blowhard.
“The first time the Nexus entities meet you, they’ll kind of be weirded out. They’ll be all like, ‘what the hell is this guy doing here at the Nexus,’ of course they won’t think ‘this guy’ because you’re a woman, but the point still stands,” said the Overlord.
Isabelle sighed. The Overlord sure did seem to love the gender binary.
“After you introduce yourself to the Nexus entities—and you must be polite may I mind you, for they are terrifying, ethereal beings—they will require you to do something that is known as a mental authentication, whereupon you allow the Nexus entites to tap into your psyche and into your system. Once that have done so, the fun can really begin, because, you see, what the Nexus has in spades is something known colloquially as mods,” said the Overlord.
Isabelle yawned. This was getting convoluted.
“Of course, you have to do what is known as a ‘system root’ to install them, and if you aren’t careful you can permanently brick your system and end up in a vegetative state, but obviously that didn’t happen to me because I’m the Overlord and I knew what I was getting into ahead of time. I always make sure to have all my buffs prepped before heading to the Nexus,” said the Overlord. “Anyway, once you’ve got your system rooted and you’ve authenticated yourself at the Nexus you can browse for hours through their wondrous vault of system mods. There are all sorts of things you can do to change and tweak your system for your benefit. There are always, however, inherent risks at play—and that’s even if you’re authenticated and successfully root your system.”
Isabelle wasn’t sure where this was going, but she was sure that she was sick of hearing the Overlord talk. Along with that, she was also sure that the Overlord was clearly not sick of hearing himself talk, because he showed absolutely no sign of stopping.
“With each mod, your system picks up little mistakes, little errors here and there. It’s nothing to make a big deal out of, really, but the more mods you install, the more vulnerable your system gets, and the further it gets away from the original intentions of the system’s designers. The more corrupted and damaged your system becomes, the more dangerous it gets—not only for yourself, but for everyone in your party. And, though my system is glorious, it has been scarred by more mods than I would like to admit,” said the Overlord. “I’m sure you’re wondering where in the hell I’m going with this, player. Well, the direction I’m taking is two-fold. See, the one thing that can help a somewhat corrupted system like my own is a fresh, pure system like yours. Unfettered by mods, you’ve got a system that, while immature, is fresh, maleable, and full of powerful potential.”
Isabelle felt nauseated. Something about the way the Overlord talked about her system made her feel disturbed.
“You probably understand my point, now,” said the Overlord. “The point being that, whether you like it or not, I’m going to absorb your system, and it’s going to fill in all the gaps and cracks mine has developed over the years.” He cackled. Lightning struck, adding a bit of a dramatic effect.
Isabelle could hear the hustle and bustle of a crowd. She realized that the captive audience (literally captive, there were skeleton warriors flanking the cluster of common kobold folk) that the Overlord had taken to watch him slaughter Frimri were now circled around herself and the Overlord in the courtyard.
The Overlord looked around and chuckled. “Ah, yes. It looks like it’s finally time for the fun bit.” Then, he paused, and cocked his head. “Actually, Isabelle, you know what? You’ve been a good sport so far. You’ve sat here and listened to my explanations. So I’ve got a bit of a treat for you. An act of good faith, if you will. I’ll let you level up one last time before I kill you in front of this audience.”
[Combat mode deactivated]
[Armed Combat increased to level 12]
[Armed Combat increased to level 13]
[Sneak increased to level 7]
[Sneak increased to level 8]
[Speechcraft increased to level 10]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
“Go on—” said the Overlord, “—level on up, player. We’re all waiting.”
Isabelle felt nervous and fidgety. This had to be a trick. A trap. Either that, or the Overlord was just so confident that he was willing to open himself up to the risk. Either way, Isabelle felt wildly uncomfortable.
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Still, what else could she do? The Overlord nodded slowly as Isabelle prepared to start the leveling process.