Harbingers of Change

Chapter 27

With the Dwargon's spy once more out and about, Momonga couldn't help but grow increasingly paranoid about the abilities of the potential adversaries that dwelled in this world. The King of Dwargon was unlikely to just come in guns blazing and try to assault the small monster nation that was taking its shape deep within the forest of Jura, for the simple reason of Veldora still being around as he was supposed to be this kingdom-ending threat scaring anyone trying to lay claim on the untapped forest.

Imprisoned or not, he, at least for now, served as a perfect deterrent.

It didn't mean that there weren't other threats in the world besides the fabled hero king. What if the hero who imprisoned Veldora was still around? How could he truly protect the denizens of Nazarick, his friends, or even Tempest in general against a threat like that? How horrible would it be to see one of them put in the same imprisonment as the Storm Dragon?

The answer to all of it lay somewhere in the Nazarick skill. After all, Veldora found a way out of his prison, at least partly. Unlike his other skills, Dark Sage gave very little information about how the Nazarick skill worked. Albedo had thoroughly investigated only the physical part of the Great Tomb, but the answers likely lay somewhere deep within the skill itself.

Urgently trying to find a solution, Momonga decided to put aside the studies of how to appear as a better leader and dive into the research of his own abilities.

With the daily reports out of the way, he teleported to the spot where it all started, namely the Throne of the Kings. With a dignified movement, fit for a ruler, Momonga sat down on the very heart of the Nazarick, pondering where to start.

As always, his solitude didn't last, Albedo teleported next to him moments later.

"Did something happen?" he asked.

"No, my Lord, but as your assistant, I should be at your side."

"Albedo, we are done for today. You can rest. I plan to investigate my skills."

"Of course, my lord," Albedo said, but remained standing beside him.

'She still thinks Pero and Buku are a threat to me.'

"Albedo, you can go rest. I will be fine. Nothing can happen to me here."

"I would be grateful if you permitted me to remain by your side for a while, Lord Momonga."

"Very well, you may stay." Momonga said and leaned back on his throne. An interesting idea came to his mind immediately. Whether it was because of the Dark Sage skill, or his own intellect, was not important, but he was not about to waste it. If Albedo was adamant about staying by his side, he could use it. Casually, he lifted his skeletal arm and activated Creation. A small elegant chair appeared beside the throne, the perfect size for the Guardian Overseer. "But you are taking a seat. I will not permit you to stand all this time."

"Lord Momonga, I can't. It would be improper."

"This is not an official event. If you wish to remain here, then please sit down."

Albedo shifted around nervously but then followed the order and sat down on the chair made especially for her. Despite her best efforts to hide it, Momonga clearly saw just how happy she was with the arrangement, as a radiant smile didn't leave her face. It was a small step in the right direction, but it sure felt like a major victory. Maybe in the future, not only Albedo but other guardians as well would be able to act casually around him. For now, the only one who at least partly could relax around him was Pandora.

Not wanting to be distracted any longer, Momonga decided to investigate his easier skills first. The Dark Sage skill provided him with the wonderful ability to visualize things in his mind. Starting with the Boundless Storage, he created the visual representation of the skill in his mind. An immense panel resembling a game storage UI spread out in the darkness of his inner perception. Thousands of identical boxes were each filled with all the items he held inside the skill, spreading out in all directions.

With minor strain, the system could be rearranged to his liking, but generally, it wasn't needed. He could instinctively feel where each item was without the need for visualization.

The next skill Momonga decided to test was the Lord of Death. While he started the visualization of the skill, Albedo shifted in her seat.

'Probably getting bored.' Her presence was more soothing than he would have guessed. Almost like it was before…

'She remembers it all. I will have to talk to her. But what should I say?' The intrusive thought distracted him. The investigation of the skills was the priority and he could at least try to talk to Albedo afterwards.

Returning to the Lord of Death, he applied the same visualization technique. The structure wasn't too complex at first glance. There were the big cores of the kill spells and the summons. The Goal of All Life is Death had its separate core as the ultimate expression of the skill. What was most curious about this skill was one thread that seemingly disappeared into nothingness. It didn't end there, but for some reason he could not follow it.

'Does that mean this skill has a portion I do not have access to yet? I guess only time will tell.'

Not that he had anyone to ask how the skill fully worked. Even Veldora didn't fully understand the mechanics of skills, which apparently were created by his older brother Veldanava, the creator God of this world. Unlike his siblings, Veldanava had been gone for millennia, with no one knowing why he had not reappeared yet.

Upping the scale, Godslayer was the next skill Momonga investigated deeper. As a former world-level item, it gave the impression of a chaotic mess. The threads appeared and disappeared randomly, its core weird beyond description. What little he could place together was that it was the ultimate expression of death. No matter the power of the opponent, the skill would assure that all attacks would land, meaning it would be possible to attack Veldora through his shield.

The question was, could the shield itself be attacked? If it came down to such an ultimatum, it may be something to use as a last resort, but not knowing how it would affect the dragon himself, testing it was not advisable.

The countless threads floating around gave him an idea. What if it could be connected to the Lord of Death? Quickly visualizing both skills next to each other, he made a thread similar to the one's floating around and connected the core of Godslayer to the cores of Lord of Death.

|- Ultimate skill - Godslayer and Unique Skill - Lord of Death combined into Ultimate Skill - God of Death. -|

"What!?" he exclaimed.

"Lord Momonga, is something wrong?" Albedo asked, jumping up from her seat.

"N-no. Everything is fine, Albedo. I am sorry for making you worry."

"You don't have to apologize, my lord."

With a deep breath, he tried to visualize the new skill. It now looked even messier than before and there were a lot more threads connecting the various parts of the skill.

'I guess the Voice of the World did the job for me once I made the initial connection. I better be careful when I connect skills. Who knows what can happen?'

The most confusing part of the result was that, unlike before, where individual cords disappeared into nothingness, now there was a whole lot of them weaved together with a rope-like structure, going into a single direction beyond the doors of his perception. There was this innate feeling that he was not yet ready to see where it went.

The final one to explore was the Nazarick skill. Thinking it would be similar to the previous ones, Momonga used the Dark Sage to visualize it fully. The moment he did so, impossibly chaotic madness assaulted his mind. It wasn't much of a skill but rather more of a Frankenstein creation of data strung together in an incomprehensible mess. The amount of data turned out to be too much, even for the Dark Sage.

There had to be some kind of solution to all of it. As useful a tool as the Dark Sage was, it could only work with what it fundamentally understood, and Nazarick clearly fell outside of that category. Not wanting to give up, he tried a second time, concentrating only on parts that were closest to his own soul. The result was only marginally better, with the impossible net of threads appearing and disappearing, but there were few elements that were recognizable. Namely, his friends and floor guardians, as they were the closest cores to his own.

'If only there was some kind of search or sort feature.' He mused as the dutiful tool gave a sudden idea. Nazarick's library was connected to the skill as well! Maybe making a rudimentary search ability was possible? Going by what he knew, Momonga imagined a panel similar to the basic internet search tool and tried to find a piece of information that could help him visualize the skill better.

To his amazement, the answer was as fast as it was unexpected. A book of mathematics. In particular, mathematical description of higher dimensional spaces. What was the greatest feature of this discovery was the fact that he could use the newly found ability to search for information in the immense library without physically traveling there and collecting the necessary books.

Dark Sage quickly absorbed the contents of the book, letting him understand the concepts he would find all but impossible to conquer in his previous life.

With the newly gained knowledge, Momonga made another attempt at observing Nazarick, this time trying to visualize Nazarick in 4D space. Mind-blowing didn't even begin to describe the results of this attempt. What could not be described by human languages now was made clear for him to see. It was a structure of non-euclidean geometry with cores beyond counting and an even greater number of connections between them. Every denizen of Nazarick, each goblin, and every single wolf named by him or another member of Nazarick was connected in a vast and indescribably beautiful structure.

His mind strained to fully comprehend what it was observing, as even with Dark Sage, the task was too much. Nazarick wasn't just a skill. The voice of the world had called it an Ultimate Skill because it was the closest approximation it could give to the metaphysical structure. It likely would take lifetimes to sort through all of it.

Even in the fears of inadequacy, Momonga knew there was no way back. To understand it was the path he would have to walk from now on.

Somewhere deep inside, the answer lay hidden. Moving through the structure of Nazarick, he located the cord connecting Veldora to him. Following the cord, he found the prison and the mighty dragon's core within it. As unbreakable as the prison was, it still was firmly ingrained in three-dimensional space. The connection simply went around it in the fourth dimension.

Seeing the way out, he grabbed the core and tried to move it around the net but unfortunately was met with failure. Despite its clearly inferior structure, it still latched onto the dragon, not letting him fully go.

'I am still missing something. What if I tried to stretch the net?'

Creating a hand to operate in this imaginary space, he pushed his fingers into the net's hole where Nazarick's cord went through it, trying to stretch it to the point the core could pass through. The more he tried, the fiercer the resistance became.

{ Hey, Momonga! Are you doing something to my prison? }

{ Yes. Did something go wrong? }

In response, Veldora laughed loudly in his mind, adding,

{ On the contrary, you made my connection with Nazarick stronger. I can sense my power seeping through. }

{ Unfortunately, it is still not breaking. }

{ For an immortal being like me, time is not important, but keep working on it, chief. With your help, I will be out much faster. }

{ I'll see what I can do. }

Setting the task of breaking the prison aside for now, as he felt he needed to know more to make a greater hole in it, Momonga returned to observing the greater structure. Same as the God of Death, a lot of strings went nowhere, even when considering the four-dimensional space he was looking at.

'It probably goes into an even higher-dimensional space. It may not be the best idea to even try that yet.' The strain to comprehend it was enormous, to say the least. Going any higher would probably just fry his non-existing brain.

Another thing bothering him was the underlying sense of something being etched into it. It felt like… like the presence that transported him and Nazarick to this world. As a faint afterglow, it permeated the structure. Unsure what to make of it, Momonga continued to look around.

The various cores of the skill gave at least some understanding of how to start utilizing it more. There was one that served as an energy source for it, generating all the resources that the Tomb was receiving daily. From the regular magicule regeneration, to the raw resources, and even pop monsters. Another one held the structure of the Tomb itself. Momonga looked at it for a moment with a revelation hitting him like a hammer.

'It lets me change the layout of the tomb!' The question was how to actually do it… Were there certain rules to abide by? Could he add more floors and expand the existing ones? What were the limits of its size?

The pile of possible directions to expand upon Nazarick just grew with each observation.

Realizing that his mind was growing exponentially tired, Momonga stopped for now and set a plan to take careful steps on how to study Nazarick after some rest.

Edited by Edgy