A figure clad in raven black armor approached an unassuming wooden door, his gait measured and controlled. A crimson cape billowed at his back.

To those who knew no better the man's name was Momon, upstart adventurer and leader of his meager party of two. To those who did know better he was Ainz Ooal Gown, Elder Lich, Guildmaster of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and future ruler of the world. To only one man he was Suzuki Satoru, salaryman of a corporation whose name no longer mattered. That man felt more like a stranger every day.

Trailing behind him, ever at his side, was Nabe, or Narberal as she was known outside of the persona she wore like an itchy old cloak. She wore no armor, just a plane brown cloak draped over a pair of dark brown trousers and a button up white full sleeve shirt. Her face wore a sour expression framed by loose strands of hair hanging free at her bangs. The rest was tied back in a long ponytail that hung idly down her back.

He glowered at the patterns in the wood through the narrow slit of his helmet, thankful for the effect his new found nature had on his emotions. It gave the act an air of profound contemplation befitting a supreme being, rather than the simple hesitation that is was. Still, a part of him knew he should find his new nature disturbing. A part that he dare not entertain...

He couldn't afford to slip, couldn't afford to show weakness lest the paper thin veneer of control he held over his...subjects be dispelled.

Logic told him that all he had to do was utter the words and any one of his subjects would willingly, gleefully take their own lives, happy to commit their final moments to the will of a Supreme Being. But logic was a fickle thing. It also told him that he couldn't he bear the risk, no matter how slim, of what that loyalty could twist into if the veneer was broken... and what he'd be forced to do if it did.

The duality made every moment feel like an endless series of handholds, just waiting for the one that crumbles and sends him plummeting away from the cliff edge that was his new reality.

He remained there, glaring at the door, idly listening to the sounds seeping through from the other side. It seemed that the Adventurers guild was quite busy. Which meant more eyes watching him. More opportunity to make mistakes.

The world dimmed and then revitalized as his nonexistent eyes approximated blinking. The act helped him center himself. He couldn't wait forever. It would be unbefitting of an adventurer to keep respective employers waiting.

The door opened with a slight creek. A cacophony of noise spilled out into the open air, along with thick wall of smell. Sweat, cheap ail, fresh metal, dried blood and all the other marking of a spot where adventures congregate. To Ainz it was just a wave of warm air that halted at the face of his helm. He didn't notice Nabes lib curl slightly in disgust.

The world became a haze once he stepped through the precipice. Waves of noise rolled over him as he walked up to the notice board. Idle chatter of people coming and going, the banter of old friends, biting comments, some of which he suspected were aimed at him. That was fine so long as it wasn't followed by the sound of gore hitting the walls. He made a mental note to keep a very close eye on Nabe.

The realization that he could not read the local dialect was a disconcerting one. As was the guild employee behind the desk's strict adherence to the rules. That could have ended badly if he'd not been approached by a group of adventures. That was a stroke of fortune in its own right, and with their help he may be able to gain a considerable boost to his rank.

His mind had withdrawn to auto pilot during their meeting and he resigned himself to the motions of the tedious but necessary tasks ahead, only returning in full once he showed them a fake face to gauge their reactions. It was a gamble but it seemed to work well enough. They showed no immediate hostility, which was good, and there was no need to restrain Nabe, not even when one of them thought it would be a good idea to hit on her. The poor fool.

He'd committed their names and abilities to memory. There was nothing of particular interest except for the fact that humans of this world apparently were capable of holding talents. A particular interest was the talent supposedly held by someone named Nfirea Bareare. The ability to use any magical item without training could prove quite useful indeed. Had he been physically capable of the act he would have smirked. His plan to infiltrate the ranks of the adventures to gain information was bearing fruit already, and the information would only become more valuable as a rose through the ranks.

The haze continued as he accompanied the group down the stairs. Dispatching monsters did not seem like the most interesting of tasks but at least it would also provide an opportunity to practice his current skill set. He was curious to see how 'perfect warrior' would translate to this new world. Would it merely grant him the ability to use warrior class weapons without penalty, or would it also imbue him with the knowledge of hand to hand combat? If it's the former then at least the encounter would not be boring and if it's the latter then he at least would have learned something useful.

He was half way down the stairs, wondering about the significance of the small crowd and guild worker loitering at the bottom, when the sound of rending wood and cursing snapped him free of his haze. Curious, he turned to the main entrance.

A woman struggled awkwardly to keep her footing as she wrenched a large sword out of the door frame, half heard curses fluttered from her lips as ugly shark like teeth lined along the swords edge tore away a chunk of splinters. A braid of platinum blonde hair dislodged from its resting place atop a collar of think white fur that reached down into a black cloak. A jingle of metal rings punctuated its movement as it came to rest around a pair of Grieves secured to her lower legs.

She stopped mid step. Fair skin tinted pink at her cheeks as a pair of piercing blue eyes surveyed everyone in the guild hall. Her features flashed a meek, embarrassed smile that disturbed a number of blue line tattoos splattered across them without any apparent logic or pattern.

She blinked, the smile fell away and her expression solidified into a mask of cold indifference. The sword came to rest atop her right shoulder, one end of its cross guard disappearing down near the center of her back and a gem mounted just ahead of it cast her face in a warm glow and set one eye alight with a deep orange tint. Her other hand came to rest upon the hilt of an oversized dagger hanging from a thick leather belt at her hips. An audible clang of metal sounded as her gauntlet-ed hand met a plane but sturdy looking breastplate that tapered slightly at her waist.

A long moment passed. Everyone watched this newcomer silently as she met their stares, silently daring them to be the first to say something.

"Bryn!" a voice called out, a voice Ainz did not recognize as his own until her sharp blue eyes met his own. His hand jumped to clasp over his mouth to catch the words that had already escaped and clutched impotently the lower half of his helmet.

"Mr. Momon you know this hu-woman?" he heard Nabes voice from behind.

Ainz froze, he did in fact know her but she did not know him as he looked now.

'... Oh shit.'

1:

-Ten Days Ago-

A haggard looking asian woman entered a dark room, she stumbled through the dark before reaching a desk. Her hands fumbled around it's surface before a screen turned on and she flinched back at it's sudden brightness.

She was a rather plain looking woman and her state of tiredness was not doing her appearance any favors. Her shoulder length dark brown hair was falling out of a now very messy ponytail, resulting in free strands in front of her face she couldn't even be bothered to brush aside. She was wearing a very typical business attire, a black skirt that went down to her knees, a white button up shirt with a black coat worn over it and finally a pair of working heels.

The room itself was rather barren, as much as could be seen from the light of the monitor anyway, aside from the desk and it's computer sitting in the very center of the room was a very comfortable looking recliner with something that looked like a VR headset sitting on it.

The woman began to undress, she kicked off her heels and quickly threw off her coat. She then pulled down her skirt and peeled off her hose and unbuttoned her shirt halfway down, exposing pallid skin and a meager bust held by a plain white bra. She then walked off into the darkness and there was the sound of a fridge being opened and a brief light. She returned to the chair and placed the headset on her head at an angle so her eyes were still exposed. After settling into the chair she held up a can of sake and broke the seal.

After a quick 'pssh' filled the air the woman began downing the can. After several long moments of only the sound of her gulping she tossed the can away with a sigh, an empty rattle resounding. After laying back for a moment she reached up and pulled a wire out of the headset before plugging it in somewhere at the back of her head. With that she pulled the visor down and settled in.

A minute later this woman found herself as someone far more imposing -and healthy- standing atop a snowy mountain top overlooking a heavily forested vale.

This woman was Mutsumi Urashima or as she was known in her current form, Brynhild or 'Bryn' to friends. Mutsumi was a corporate salarywoman, a wallflower whom only really bloomed online where one could see clear unpolluted skies anymore. She was currently playing a DMMO-RPG known as Yggdrasil, basically a VR game of such advanced development one could almost completely immerse themselves as their own character, if it weren't for the fact there was laws against actual sensations in VR games one could easily lose themselves in a virtual world, as it was it was only a form of escape as any kind of entertainment was.

Yggdrasil was an RPG that allowed one to become their own unique character, customizable in all aspects. You could be a human, elf, orc, beast man, or even go so far as an actual monster or demon.

However, playing as the Heteromotph classes came with some caveats, one of which being a literal target painted on your back. You had higher base stats and gained more skill points per level but humanoid players could put every single one of their skill points into job classes, many of which were locked off to you, along with certain locations within the game, and many of those skills required players to seek out and kill players of your class. A feat made easier by highly exploitable weaknesses.

Needless to say the Herteromorph classes were the least popular classes in the game, but for the few players that managed to stick it out they became a force to be reckoned with. And when word spread of just how powerful those classes could become the Humanoid players redoubled their efforts to make the struggle as daunting as possible.

When she had been starting out Mutsumi was hardly the most aggressive type of player and decided to avoid most player killers by being the most boring race in the whole game, human.

Humans possessed no racial bonuses but neither were they subject to maluses. They started with the most balanced stats of any race and could become anything, and get good at it quickly, however they also had no special classes only they could spec into, and being a living mortal race they were subject to the hunger, thirst and sleep mechanics of the game, leaving the choice of expending precious skill points into cooking stats or forever keeping close to someone able and willing to do it for you.

In retrospect being only human was almost a dumb decision when a dwarf or elf offered the same protections on top of offering their own special attributes. Not that she ever came to regret it in all her years of playing the game.

She smiled though her avatar's face remained ever stoic. It was sad to see it all ending after all of her time investment, but there were other games to play, more memories to make in a different world. Memories like the one held here. The place she took her first swing at another player instead of avoiding PVP. She couldn't remember the players name, but she still had the weapon he dropped in her inventory. The first of many...

She gave the distant trees a slow lingering glance, and with a mournful nod, Mutsumi opened her inventory.

Casting Greater Teleportion she crossed worlds in an instant. After that instant she found herself in a forest clearing of shimmering golden grass and trees of purest white bark and vibrant colorful leaves, the smallest of which were easily a hundred feet tall but unnaturally thin while others were so thick you could carve an apartment complex out of them.

'Alfheim.' Mutsumi thought as she wandered over to the center and kneeled down to prod at the ground. 'No sign of that old fight, of course there wouldn't be but I figured something would have been left behind considering it was a battle over a world item.'

Thinking of world items brought up a certain group that had managed to get nearly a dozen of them and more specifically said group's guild leader.

'Momonga put so much time and effort into his guild after everyone left.' Mutsumi thought as she stood back up. 'If anyone would be around to stay till booted it would be him, I should message him.'

Being a player with a human character one would think Mutsumi would have an antagonistic relationship with the Guild Ainz Ooal Gown, since one of their main recruitment rules was that you had to be playing a Heteromorpth to join. that was only partly true, Mutsumi had fought the guild several times, she even joined parties simply because she knew they would fight the infamous Guild. However Mutsumi was also of the opinion "It's just a game" and never thought of Ainz Ooal Gown as an enemy, more of an opposing team whom she enjoyed competing against for the thrill of it. The "Supreme Beings" of Ainz Ooal Gown must have realized in some way since they didn't block her when she started messaging them out of the blue. She couldn't say she was friends with everyone there, by the time she started talking to the Guild several people had already left for good and even with those she talked regularly with she felt more comfortable thinking of them as friendly acquaintances. In fact the only person she could confidently think of as a friend was Momonga himself and that was after they started talking about work experiences.

With all that in mind Mutsumi was far better informed than anyone else of Ainz Ooal Gown's decline in active players. When numbers fell below the point when Ainz Ooal Gown could mount high level dungeon raids let alone the end game stuff Mutsumi no longer felt comfortable picking fights with them. She stayed in contact though, even when most of the time Momonga returned her "Hello" with a singular "Hey" and offered no further conversation. She hoped that with circumstances the way they were Momonga would at least talk with her a bit.

"Message." Mutsumi commanded and immediately starting hearing a ringing tone. With bated breath she half expected a "Player Offline" from the line when suddenly the ringing stopped.

"Hello?" Came a familiar voice.

"Momonga! It's Mutsumi," Mutsumi said with some relief before shaking it off. "I knew you would be still on. How are you doing? Did anyone else come on for the last hurrahs?"

"... Yes," Momonga said after a pause. "Herohero answered my request for everyone to come back for the server shutdown. But… he was really tired and had work in the morning so he had to leave… not that I'm bitter or anything, I appreciate the fact Herohero could spare the time to say goodbye to everything we made together, even if he had to leave before it was all gone."

"I know… I could kinda say I feel the same way." Mutsumi replied. "I mean I was never part of a guild, never really made contributions to the construction of some grand guild base but I've still made things that meant a lot to me. I've been doing a bit of retracing, remembering old paths I've followed, old battles I've fought. Just been doing a lot of reminiscing before the end."

"Yeah… wish I could do that," Momonga replied. "But I thought maybe someone would make one last try to raid Nazarick and I figured if they did then I as Guildmaster would be here to meet them, alone if I had too."

"I doubt anyone still has the player numbers to make it through the first three floors even with just you defending." Mutsumi said but could understand the appeal of the thought. "It would have been glorious though, one last battle, a last stand against an invading force before it's all over."

"I really wish it happened, honestly." Momonga sighed. "I mean I don't like the idea of Ainz Ooal Gown being destroyed but if it's going to end anyway I would have liked it to be a memorable end, I would have logged out tonight with a smile on my face. Instead I'm just…"

"I know…" Mutsumi said quietly and let a comfortable silence hang for a short while. "Listen, have you heard of 'Nine Worlds'?"

"That sci-fi ripoff of Yggdrasil?" Momonga immediately scoffed.

"I'm planning of playing that, after Yggdrasil shuts down tonight." Mutsumi pressed on. "I know you probably have this whole list prepared about why it's just a shameless rip off with nothing to make it stand out from Ygg but…"

"You want me to play with you." Momonga cut to the point.

"Pleeeeeese!" Mutsumi pleaded, actually clasping her avatar's hands together in a begging manner despite the fact he could not see it. "Come on Momonga I know this game was the only thing you had lined up for your free time! And who knows if they'll even make Yggdrasil II or how much longer into development it'll be if they are! Cmon, Nine Worlds has mechs!"

"Mechs that require the work of a whole guild to finance if we want anything even half decent." Momonga pointed out

"Well it's a good thing one of us has experience with running a ragtag band of misfits and turning them into one of the best guilds in the whole game huh?" Mutsumi replied.

"I thought you liked staying a freeplayer?" Momonga asked.

"Kinda?" Mutsumi shrugged. "If it weren't for your strict "No normies allowed" policy I probably would have asked to join Ainz Ooal Gown."

"Hey now! We strictly ask that only normies join the guild." the master of the monster guild retorted. "No poop socking or piss bottles allowed. And you know you could have just asked me to turn you into a revenant?"

"Yeah but I like Brynhild the way she looks now," Mutsumi said with a shake of her head. "And the idea of some puny human smashing in the faces of all these powerful monsters and even gods really grew on me."

"I suppose that means you'll play a plain ole human again when we play together." Momonga asked.

"You'll play with me?" Mutsumi gasped with delight. "That's great!"

"Yeah, I've looked at Nine Worlds once or twice." Momonga continued conversationally. "I figure I'll make a rogue savant."

"Once or twice he says," Mutsumi muttered aloud. "You already know the name of one of the specialized machine races."

"I was waiting on a raid timer and looking for something to read!" Momonga defended himself.

"Of course you were." Mutsumi smiled to herself, glad she had definite confirmation her friend would be with her when they roamed the wastes of Earth and sailed through space. "Listen, as much as I really do want to keep talking to you I want to go over a few more places."

"It's alright, I was going to go make one final walk around the guild before I was booted for the shutdown." Momonga replied. "But… tomorrow after work we should get together and see about getting into Nine Worlds."

"Then it's a date!" Mutsumi laughed.

"Tch, don't make it weird please." Momonga sighed but added with audible amusement. "I'll see you tomorrow, Bryn."

"Good bye for now, Momonga." Mutsumi said with a happy voice before taking note of her surroundings.

Apparently while she had been talking with Momonga some wandering mobs of Dark elf raiders and their slave beasts had aggroed on her. Though it was hardly an issue, she hadn't noticed their presence because the area was fairly low level, typically mobs in the level forty four range spawned here which meant all possible attacks were utterly nullified.

"So annoying." Mutsumi muttered and opened an inventory window as the elves wailed away at her with their skinning blades and their slave beasts tried to pin her with a maul attack. After a moment she found her main weapon and extracted it from her inventory, with a flash of light the toothed monster that was her two hander appeared in her grip and she instantly obliterated everyone in one casual spin of her weapon. "That's one thing I won't miss about Ygg, their weird damage null trait and just terrible balancing in general. I mean just the fact their stats are so low that they could only do scratch damage should be good enough, just outright having a "fuck you" damage nullification for anything level sixty and below feels so arbitrary."

After slaughtering hapless mobs in a single blow she looked over her blade. The sword's name was 'Bloodhowler' a straightforward name referenced on the fact it was basically a giant magical chainsaw. Bloodhowler was made out end game materials as well as a rare demonic soul drop that had been a total and utter pain to collect. Mutsumi had been content with using a zweihander for the longest time up till the Valkyrie's Downfall patch released, suddenly Yggdrasil had robots and guns and all many of other technological things running around. When that happened Mutsumi decided if fully automatic rifles were perfectly fine in Yggdrasil she would kick her own ass to master the modding tools to make a massive chainsaw sword. Bloodhowler had ended up becoming such a time sink to create that Mutsumi had quickly grown very attached to it, going so far as to write a bio for it, giving it this whole fictional backstory where the soul used in Bloodhowler's construction was honorably won. That the demonic soul itself had willingly agreed to become her weapon after being defeated in a duel and found kinship in her warrior spirit. Bloodhowler was an honorable warrior demon who lusted for battle and in Brynhild he found a friend who shared those some views and warrior's code.

Thinking of backstories Mutsumi had found herself thinking of her own chracter, 'Brynhild the Wanderer'. The initial idea behind Brynhild was just to make a norse warrior woman and so Mutsumi made a blonde blue eyed woman that was there was to it all those years ago. However as time went on Mutsumi found herself thinking up random details and bits of history, adding them to rarely used character biography. Before long Mutsumi found herself adding a couple paragraphs now and then, cleaning up old entries generally refining the idea of just what kind of warrior and person Brynhild was.

'I could probably wax lyrical all day about what kind amazing person Brynhild is,' Mutsumi thought with a sheepish smile. 'Such an obvious power fantasy but who wants to be some boring ole normal person? I'm already boring enough as it is in real life, I want to pretend to be someone awesome not just a version of myself that just knows how to fight.'

Quickly bringing up her HUD again Mutsumi saw she didn't have much more then an hour before final shutdown of the servers. Grumbling a little at not having the time to visit the outskirts of Valhalla where she had ground for Bloodhowler's soul drop. She decided to settle for the last great attempt to take the Warrior's Cloak from her.

Pulling out another scroll Mutsumi traversed whole worlds once more and an instant later found herself in a woodland of Midguard.

'This was a good battle… it was the last great one,' Mutsumi thought with a nostalgic smile as she slowly circled the area. There were no marks, no scars of some vicious battle, as could be expected of a video game. Only so much permanent change could be allowed to the worlds of Yggdrasil, that wasn't to say players hadn't changed the landscape of the game forever from time to time but those were few and far between. After all as amazing as it could probably be to stumble across some virtual history it could also potentially screw over people, no one wanted to head to a biome to grind rare mobs only to find out it was now a barren hellscape after someone spammed nukes.

'It's not like there hasn't been good fights since then but the waning months of this game has been very quiet.' Mutsumi continued in thought as she slowly made her way towards a tree stump. 'I think everyone saw the writing on the wall and no one cared enough to keep fighting over what used to be important. Still despite the quiet last few years it was still a good game, I've made plenty of nice memories and ready to make a lot more in the next game to sink all my time into.'

Mutsumi sat down on a tree stump and with a satisfied smile leaned Bloodhowler against her shoulder. She ran a hand down it's length and looked into the eye like glowing gem sitting near the crossguard.

"Well Bloodhowler it's the end of our story and our time together," Mutsumi said to her blade. "It was a kick ass journey after I made you and the only thing I regret is not imagining some kind of ending for you and Brynhild. Ah well, it's not like you both are going to be gone forever, I can just get started on putting together an actual novel… maybe, ugh the creative publishing license would be so expensive though."

Mutsumi stretched through the action did nothing for her and brought up the clock. It was a mere five minutes before the server shutdown. She decided to spend it relaxing and let her final moments of the game be her calm and at peace. She planted Bloodhowler into the ground beside the stump and leaned back, supporting herself with her hands. As the minutes bled away into seconds she smiled and closed her eyes, mentally counting down and awaiting the boot from the game.

Mutsumi's eyes snapped open when the clock ticked past midnight and she wasn't booted…

2:

"Ohhhhh…" Mutsumi whined as she walked through the woods, dragging Bloodhowler limply behind her with one hand.

The sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze that rustled the leaves of the forest canopy, birdsong filled the air. It was honestly a beautiful day outside and it was completely alien to Mutsumi. No one went outside if they could help it and it was real easy to help it, the vast majority of humanity lived in arcologies now and it wasn't rare to live an entire lifetime without having seen sunlight. The world on the outside was so polluted and toxic now that it really was better for your health to simply stay indoors, everyone just took vitamin-d supplements and visited a walk-in terrarium whenever they could afford to do so. However…

"Wow…" Mutsumi sighed, her nervousness died down and was replaced by wonder of her surroundings. She had never been outside, never felt the wind through her hair and even if she had been outside it wouldn't have been without a mask to protect from the polluted air. The fresh air, the wide open spaces, she was only now realizing how much the terrariums of her acology fell short of what reality had been. Of course that brought up another issue.

'I'm not supposed to be able to feel anything.' Mutsumi thought with rising concern. 'The laws surrounding DMMO-RPGs are strict on this and punishments are harsh, no sensations allowed. But when has the law ever stopped a corporation from doing what it wanted?'

The world wasn't in a pleasant state, both environmentally and politically. The environment wasn't ruined over night and there had been plenty of pushback if in the very least for the destruction of beautiful vacation sites. However the rampant consumption economy ran by the corporations had become far too entrenched, as far as anyone was concerned the big corporate giants ran the world. The nations could make decisions and wage wars but in the end the people who controlled the money called the shots and anyone who threatened this absolute monopoly 'disappeared'.

As could be expected of this kind of reality there was urban legends and stories abound of corporate abuse and assassinations, people who just ended up in the crosshairs and become slaves in all but name.

'I-I… I thought by keeping my head down I could avoid that kind of attention!' Mutsumi thought with a quickly racing heartbeat and found herself stumbling to a halt right next to a tree. 'Who could bother with the quiet girl who just pushed papers all day… oh no that must have did… no one would miss the quiet girl if she just disappeared one day, anyone would just think she was laid off, not like my job was important or hard to do. If that's true then does that mean I got randomly cyber napped to be used as some test subject!? What if they don't bother to let me go?! Just have me run through VR settings over and over again till my real body fails and I die!?'

Mutsumi actually had heard of what happened when someone died while in-game. All recordings of the event had been taken down and Mutsumi simply didn't want to see something like that, she still heard plenty of details though. The dying person's game avatar had started glitching like crazy and the audio had apparently been something like the dying radio call of someone out of a horror movie, seeing a glitching avatar was normally a funny event but knowing it was because the player was dying… simply hearing about it had disturbed Mutsumi and she couldn't imagine what the people who had seen it felt.

The salarywoman now in the body of a mighty nordic warrior woman began to pant as she steadied herself against a tree. She didn't want this, she just wanted to go home and curl up in bed before she had to wake up for another soul grinding shift at work. She… suddenly felt angry, very angry. The anger was so intense she just had to express it physically.

With a snarl Mutsumi balled the hand she was using to steady herself into a fist, she then gave the tree she was leaning against a hammer blow. So angry was she that she didn't even notice the loud snap and creak as the birch tree immediately toppled over, broken in twain from the blow. She began to stalk forward, notably stomping her feet as she went and leaving indents in the earth.

'What am I doing?! What's wrong with me, anger isn't going to solve anything! If anything they'll punish me for acting out!' Mutsumi thought in response to her spike in anger. Strangely this only had the opposite effect and only made her angrier.

Unable to reconcile or understand her own angry state she simply thoughtlessly moved forward until eventually the lack of anything to be angry at managed to calm her down.

'Okay… okay…' Mutsumi thought with a calming sigh and absently hefted Bloodhowler so it was resting on her shoulder. 'Don't know where that came from but… freezing and panicking isn't going to save me or solve anything. If nothing else I'll keep moving forward.'

She continued forward, though she couldn't help but smile and dance about a bit when she realized just how unbelievably comfortable her armored boots were, especially compared to spending half her life being brutally murdered by her crappy cheap heels. It was about ten minutes of wandering through lush forest and being startled and awed by one deer that she began wondering if she still had her game abilities.

'They let my keep Bloodhowler… would they let me keep everything else?' Mutsumi wondered and picked out one of her abilities, specifically Scout. 'But I don't have my menus and none of my hotkey commands are working… okay let's just try concentrating a moment and give it the best shot I can before deciding it's impossible.'

Mutsumi paused and planted her sword into the ground with an ease that should have been notable but she was distracted by current issues. She took a breath and focused, she wasn't entirely certain what she was looking for so she just concentrated on the concept of the ability she was trying to activate. Scout was a fairly mundane cross class ability, hers belonged to the hunter class which itself was one of several "utility" classes that many humanoid race players took. It was a pretty powerful ability in the low level as it gave the player the ability to spot enemies and points of interest from afar which only got better as you put points in hunter. Of course Scout being a fairly low level ability lost much of its usefulness in high level where pretty much every point of interest had magical protections that kept them hidden from passive searching abilities like Scout. However it retained a lot of its usefulness in high level PVP, it was amazing just how often people forgot to cover that angle when they meticulously buffed and guarded against so many others.

`you'd think people who got to the endgame PVP would know to cover their tracks,' Mutsumi mused. 'But when you have more powerful things to worry about like Scry, Stalking Mirror and instant death snipers you forget about the little things that you knew about a million years ago..'

As she focused Mutsumi felt an odd sensation in the center of her mind, like a kind of fuzziness approaching a touching sensation. She pressed on and her eyes suddenly snapped open, it was as if she had a vague impression of the surrounding ten miles, points that could hold something of interest flared in her mind.

'That's… different from the game,' Mutsumi frowned as she ripped Howler out of the ground and rested it over a shoulder. 'In the game you either got the name of a location or nothing at all but here it feels different. I feel like something could be there but there is also a good chance it just looks interesting and has nothing. Hmm, right let's try that again- Hey! One of the points moved! Does that mean it's someone else trapped here? Oh I hope so, if I have to be trapped here at least I won't be alone.'

The warrior role player was about to head off towards the moving point of interest when something else occurred to her.

'Wait if I have my abilities does that mean I have my inventory too?' Mutsumi waved her hand through the air with another frown. 'How do I- Oh!'

Suddenly there was a swirling blue vortex before Mutsumi and within was a multitude of glittering gems of unquestionable quality. Gasping with delight at the sight of her gem collection Mutsumi reached out a hand to pluck a ruby just slightly smaller then her fist. The gem caught the light, a kaleidoscope of red lights reflected onto her face and Mutsumi found herself captivated briefly by an inner fire frozen in the very heart of the ruby. Divine Class gems were endgame vendor trash and crafting materials, they sold very well and gave above average stats for whatever item they were used to make. Once Mutsumi had crafted her suit of armor and Blood Howler she had little need of the gems and made a personal goal of simply collecting them till she got a single maxed out stack of each type.

Placing the gem back Mutsumi experimented with a vortex to figure out how to access her other things. After only a minute she had become reasonably sure she knew how to access her inventory, it was a simple matter of willing the vortex to appear and waving her hand at it to change "menus" and access different categories of her inventory. Once that was done Mutsumi used Scout again to see the moving point of interest and began walking again.

Mutsumi made good time, she started to jog and cut through the forest with little trouble. Before long she was nearing moving point of interest and noises drifted faintly to her on the wind, it was like a bunch of people were shouting. As she neared she began to make out details, there was a dirt road and a bunch of people moving around in a chaotic mass around some carts in the distance. The closer she got the more she realized she hadn't found another player.

'What in the world…?' Mutsumi leaned out from behind a tree to see better, she stared gaping with wide eyes at the scene before her. 'Why would they simulate something like this?!'

What was going on before Mutsumi was a bandit raid upon a guarded trade caravan. There was a ton of violence in Yggdrasil, the whole game was based upon the typical 'get a quest, kill twenty bears' formula. But the thing about violence in Ygg was that it wasn't graphic. There was blood effects aplenty and a few spells that was plenty bloody but you couldn't disembowel someone and butcher their corpse, one could collect player corpses because there were several mechanics based upon dead players but you couldn't really do anything graphic with them and neither would they visibly rot. What was going before her was very clearly graphic however.

What was clearly merchants were cowering in the carts while mail clad guards with just blades and the odd crossbow made a stand against bandits. The bandits were a ragtag crude looking bunch, most only had the clothes on their backs, a piece of wood with a nailed on handle as their shield and a farming tool as a weapon. There was only a handful among the bandits who had any kind of real combat gear and even they only had the odd battered piece of armor with notched and chipped blades. Their real strength in this fight was the fact they had the guards outnumbered and surrounded which they put to deadly effect.

The warrior roleplayer stared with wide eyes as she bore witness to one bandit get his guts spilled by a guard only for two other bandits to rush the guard with kitchen knives and stab wildly at his exposed face. The same scene was repeated near a dozen times over as the bandits bore down the guards with their sheer numbers though not without messy casualties of their own. Moans and screams of the agonized wounded filled the air, the bandits finished off the guards while leaving their own wounded on the ground, either uncaring or simply unable to help them.

'Oh my god! Why would they program something like this!?' Mutsumi covered her mouth with a hand as she looked on in horror. She felt sick and was overcome by the most intense sensation of butterflies in her stomach she had ever felt. As the bandits jeered at the helpless merchants she turned to run away when suddenly… ANGER, hot and unreasoning filled her mind.

"HEY!" The bandits started as one at the bellow that filled the air. They turned to see a tall armored woman on the road carrying the hugest most intimidating sword anyone had ever seen and chest heaving from some kind of exertion. "You worthless scum! Talentless trash who can only prey on the weak! Y-you better s-scatter, now!"

The tallest and most scarred of the bandits stepped forward, he was the only one that had a decent breastplate, helmet, shield and sword. He took in the sight of the warrior woman, on first impulse he had actually been a bit frightened, certain their ambush had been stumbled upon by a member of the Blue Roses, a famous band of female Adamantite Rank Adventurers. But on a second glance none of what he saw matched up with any of the descriptions of the Blue Roses. The only two this woman could match were Lady Lakyus and Gagaran. The latter was described as a muscle bound ogre of a woman which this one clearly wasn't and the former wielded a pitch black greatsword, not a toothed monster of a blade. Still even if this woman wasn't a member of the Blue Roses or even lacked an adventurer plate the sword alone would have given anyone plenty of pause. However there was one detail the bandit leader noticed that made him want to push his luck.

The apparent warrior woman before him had a noticeable tremble if one were able to look past the monster sword. Along with that there was a look to her eyes, a kind of manic terror just hidden below the surface of broiling anger. Honestly these signs were very hard to reconcile with her obviously intimidating appearance.

'Hrm, risky to guess but maybe bandits paid her village a visit when she was younger?' The bandit Leader supposed, being a bandit he wasn't smart by nature but he at least was wise enough to know even a Silver Plate would give his little band trouble and her gear could easily belong to a Mythril Plate.

'Fuck it, make her back off a bit then run for it. Can't cash the loot if I'm dead.'

"Back off girly!" He barked at her to the gaping disbelief of his band and then made a show of looking her up and down. "Unless you want to give all of us something to make us go away?"

He smirked when she gave a brief shudder and suddenly went stock still with a blank expression. Gotcha.

Mutsumi for her part had been horrified the moment she found herself rushing out from the cover of her tree to face the bandits, she wanted nothing to do with this ultra realistic simulation of a bandit attack yet her own legs betrayed her. When she had shouted her demand for them to go away she had fully expected to just give a wordless scream of anxiety yet the only thing that expressed her uncertainty was a slight stutter in her speech. Of course the next horrific thing she had to experience was the implied threat of rape yet… the more she tried to focus on her fear and anxiety the harder it became, soon all the terror and uncertainty was gone and she was left with only one thought resounding like a roar in her head…

"SHOULDERCHARGE!."

There was a blur of motion and the sound of sundering metal and tearing flesh along with the splatter of blood. Everyone experienced a sudden rush of adrenaline and and it was as if the world slowed to a crawl briefly. In that instant they saw Mutsumi in a position like she was about to ram into something shoulder first, all around her was an expanding cloud of flying limbs, blood and armor fragments. It was all that remained of the bandit Leader.

RAAAAAAAGGGGH!

Mutsumi didn't waste another moment, Bloodhowler roared to life as she swung it and five bandits were instantly sans their lower half. Now down to a dozen and a half people still capable of fighting and having just lost their leader the thugs rapidly lost heart and started to run. One partially armored man still had some desire to fight still and swung his makeshift sword -a scythe blade attached to a crude hilt-.

"Sunder."

Not even looking at the strike Mutsumi lashed out with a backhanded strike, the blade of the "sword" caught on the back of her vambrace and immediately shattered so violently it was practically a fragmentation grenade. As the attacker slumped to the ground with shards of metal buried deep in his eyes the warrior roleplayer saw the band scatter down the road. She leapt to the top of one of the carts, startling the merchants and leapt again after the retreating bandits.

She cut them down like wheat, there was little else to it. With a single bound she easily caught up to a group of bandits and gave a single swung of Bloodhowler and leapt to another group. The bandits had warning in the form of Howler's roaring and whirring teeth but that was only enough time to look back at what was killing them. By the time any thought of reaction to Mutsumi chasing them down even began to go through their heads it was already over.

"Hmph… worthless…" Mutsumi found herself muttering as she easily planted Bloodhowler and dusted off her gloves. Suddenly she paused and looked at her gauntleted hands, they were strangely free of blood stains yet she couldn't help but imagine them dripping wet. She looked up at the corpses of the bandits she just cut down. They were cut in half, messily shredded flesh dripped fresh blood onto the ground which oddly also wasn't as much as expected. Their expressions were masks of horror and pain and yet…

'Aren't I supposed to be shaking and throwing up or something?' Mutsumi thought to herself, staring down once more at her absolutely still hands. 'I just killed someone, a whole lot of someones, but I don't…'

Mutsumi looked behind herself to see the other bandits she just killed but was immediately distracted by the sight of the terrified merchants staring at her from their cart. Suddenly glad her hands were free of blood she raised one up in a wave and smiled in a fashion she hoped was friendly and not at all threatening.

"It's okay! I'm not going to hurt you!" She shouted hoping that inexplicable anger and bloodlust wouldn't wouldn't show up again and make a liar of herself. Thankfully it didn't and the merchants were quick to believe her as they immediately grew relieved and descended from their carts. They approached with happy smiles and Mutsumi could not help but feel guilty as she had intended to run away rather than help.

"Thank the gods!" The lead merchant proclaimed with hands raised to the sky. "I had been praying nonstep for a passing adventurer, a wandering hero to hear us in trouble, I NEVER would have thought they would have been answered! From the depths of my heart I thank you!"

"Ah, I'm just a Wanderer is all." Mutsumi replied and paused, wondering where that came from. It was one of Brynhild's titles but it was hardly something she commonly introduced herself as outside of roleplay.

"Oh you don't have an adventurer's plate." Another merchant remarked as his fellows began deal with the bodies of the dead guards. "You must be a wandering warrior then! Are you perhaps from somewhere outside the Kingdom?"

"... Yes." Mutsumi answered, not really sure how to answer it in the first place and was suddenly reminded these people had to be just NPCs generated by her captors.

"Well we do not mind foreigners in the slightest as one can imagine, what with us being merchants." The first merchant said reassuringly, perhaps misreading her pause. "As you've just seen the roads can be fairly dangerous and we are now without guards. Could we possibly trouble you to escort us to the next village? We promise whether we make a profit there or not we shall compensate you for your time."

"I… don't see why not, I was aimlessly walking through the wilderness before, might as well tag along." Mutsumi replied evenly.

"Fantastic!" The merchant replied with a cheer shared by his fellows.

Mutsumi watched the merchants finish wrapping the dead guards in canvas and load them in the back of their carts, taking great care to remove the armor they were wearing. She felt rather conflicted about the current situation, she had interacted with NPCs a countless number of times, heard the same prerecorded voice so much they turned into a mush of wordless noise, but it was hard to maintain the thought that these were just NPCs. They acted and behaved soo spontaneous and natural it was hard to think of it all as just programmed behavior.

'What if…' Mutsumi began to consider the unthinkable. 'What if this is actually real?'

It was an insane thought, a better explanation that these were actors controlling NPCs, that all the sensations she was feeling right now was just simulated. After all she was literally plugged into the dive headset, thought and sensation were just weak pulses of bioelectricity. But that also brought another issue…

'What could I possibly do if this was just a simulation?' Mutsumi thought with a hum, it was honestly a hard question to answer. She looked up and noted that the merchants were more concerned with squaring away the bodies of their dead guards then the bodies of the bandits.

The faux warrior woman paused a moment before looking to her side where a corpse had stained quite a bit of ground with it's shredded stomach and entrails. She stepped right to it's side and planted her sword once more, her boots squelching in the bloody dirt, and stared down. the fear and agony etched on the corpse's face, the way the hands were both around the wound told her this man had not immediately died when Bloodhowler ripped through him. She looked down at the wound, chunks of torn intestine and stomach were spilling out. She stared and took all these details in and felt… dissatisfaction. Even the smell of fresh viscara wasn't all that upsetting to her nose despite the potency of the odor.

'Am… am I a psychopath? This isn't normal... ' Mutsumi frowned with genuine concern. She was then distracted by the sound of something being dragged across the dirt and looked to see that the merchants were finally dealing with the dead bandits, specifically they were dragging the carcasses over to the side and leaving them with a parting kick. 'Let's not get too stuck on this, I made this mess so I should at least help clean up.'

With surprisingly little hesitance Mutsumi reached down and grabbed the corpse by it's shoulders. As she picked it up she started to wonder at her lack of squeamishness when two things happened. The first was that the torn pieces of the corpse's innards quickly began to spill out and the second is that with gravity pulling down on the body it quickly and audibly shat itself.

"Ugh!" Mutsumi wrinkled her nose with quickly chucked the body aside, sending it flying into the woods with a crash. Noting the ease of the action she quickly started simply throwing the bodies off the road into the brush. Not even a minute later she was brushing her hands clean and ripped Bloodhowler clear, creating quite a substantial pothole in the process.

"Now with that little bit of unpleasantness done away with, we'd like to present you with this!" One of the merchants said happily and held out a bag.

Mutsumi accepted the bag and looked within curiously to see that the contents consisted of many copper and silver coins with the odd gold one mixed in.

"We managed to scrounge this up from the dead," The merchants were all smiles and grateful grins. "Seeing as you single handedly killed them all we figured you deserved it."

"Ah… thank you very much." Mutsumi smiled politely, it was honestly barely even pocket change by her standards but as they say 'It's the thought that counts'. "Listen… I think we've stood around enough, let's get going to wherever it is you're heading to."

"Of course!" The oldest among the merchants nodded and turned away hollering. "Alright start checking the ropes! Let's make sure nothing falls out of the carts and get moving again!"

As the merchants turned away to make their final checks on their stock Mutsumi was stuck wondering what to do with the money. She hardly wanted to tie it to her belt and have the thing tinkling away as she walked. After a moment she simply shrugged and opened her inventory portal waved her hands until the right one appeared. She chucked the bag atop a swirling tide of Yggdrasil gold and closed the inventory before walking after the merchants.

Later that Night

It had been a quiet last few hours thankfully, they hadn't even run into another person while on the road.

'And what a road that was,' Mutsumi thought with a huff as the merchants tied up their horses and started setting up tents. 'It was nothing but dirt with worn in tracks, I'm never complaining about the walk ways to work ever again.'

Looking over at the merchants hammering in stakes for their tents Mutsumi hummed a bit and was about to open her inventory again when she paused. Instead she raised one arm with her cloak draped on it and reached out with her free hand and the small inventory portal opened just in front of the cloak. She chuckled a bit at what looked like a magic trick before going through her inventory and pulled it out an item. It was a hexagon shaped slab of stone just bigger than her hand with a glowing blue nordic rune on the top.

'Okay… how does it work?' Mutsumi frowned. 'Normally I activate this from a menu but…'

The roleplaying warrior woman dropped into a kneel and placed the stone on the ground. Second guessing her every movement she reached out and pressed down on the rune. An instant later there was a flash of light and the sounds of several voices releasing startled shouts. When the light faded before her was what appeared to be the cut off bottom third of an oil drum containing a spiky red gem, from this gem a cosy fire crackled. Behind her was a tent half a size larger than the ones the merchants were using but made of far finer material. It appeared to be made out of a sapphire blue shimmering silk lined with gilded decorations that shone like actual gold while the "door" of the tent was a red curtain.

'Ah! So that's how camp deployment works here.' Mutsumi smiled to herself before noticing the gaping expressions on the merchants' faces.

"Errr…"

"Oh my!" Exclaimed one, shaking himself out of his shock, as he eagerly ran over to investigate the tent. "My good lady, what kind of magic item is this?!"

"It was something I got from beating someone." Mutusmi replied honestly. "Just a random drop."

'Why did that Phantom Warrior even have a camping set anyway? Undead races don't have to bother with those mechanics?'

"Spoils of war eh?" Another merchant remarked with a sly grin as he investigated the magical fire. "Well he must have deserved it considering you didn't attempt to rob us, hmm…"

"No challenge in it." Mutsumi muttered to herself then frowned at her own remark.

"Ah! There appears to be a tiny cupboard at the bottom here." The merchant investigating the fire remarked and pulled out a grill along with a frying pan. "Ah ha! Everything we need to make a nice dinner."

"Please allow us to cook you a meal," Another asked as they began to converge on the fire. "It's the least we can do for saving our lives and wares."

"... It would be nice to have someone make me something for a change." Mutsumi nodded before planting Bloodhowler and using it as a backrest as she sat on the ground.

A few minutes later had Mutsumi smiling openly as the merchants chatted cheerfully as they fried some pork. Just sitting there listening to people socialise and generally be content with life was something she enjoyed, one of the few things she enjoyed about her work was the breaks and lunches where she got to take in people interacting with one another. Normally she was ignored then but not now, now she was purposefully pulled into talks and discussions. It was about things she could barely contribute too, things like the price of herbs and how many silvers it cost to get spices, how much it cost to hire adventurers over actual guards. She enjoyed it in any case though and blathered through it as best as she could.

'I was a bit worried,' Mutsumi thought as she chewed on a piece of fried pork. 'When they started talking I felt this great sense of apathy wash over me but after a moment it was gone and I started really getting into what they were talking about. Whatever it was that made me okay with… killing those bandits hasn't changed this part of me.'

And that brought up an old issue she put off, if this was real or if it was a simulation. But again Mutsumi found herself wondering if it ultimately mattered. If it was real then she had no choice but to deal with things as they came and if it wasn't, if she was captive in some kind of simulation… well she was shit out of luck in that case and she was helpless to do anything about it.

'Either way I kinda just have to go about this as if it was real, what choice is there? Curl up in a ball and cry?' Mutsumi swallowed, a part of her wanted to do just that but a much larger part of her was fully in favor of ignoring anything bigger than the now and taking it all one step at a time. 'Just gotta focus on the things I can do something about, what else is there to do? Guess I better go back to roleplaying then huh?'

"Excuse me but might I trouble you for your name?" A voice broke in.

"Brynhild." Mutsumi answered after a moment, she did resolve to roleplay her situation a bit and it wasn't like a asian name fit a nordic warrior.

"Brynhild the Wanderer!" One of the merchants announced as he took out a bottle. "Let's toast our savior and companion on the road!"

"Hear, hear!" The others agreed and out came the cups, or at least what must have been the cups.

'Brynhild' looked her mug over a bit. it appeared to be made out of a polished animal horn with the pointed end cut off and the bottom capped to give it a flat surface. The contents of her animal horn mug was a brown liquid, clearly some kind of ale if things ran typical to the setting. She was debating how much worse it could be compared to modern alcohol when the merchants held their mugs aloft.

"Cheers!" They all said as one and began to down their drinks, a motion Brynhild followed.

"Huh." Bryn said simply as she moved her tongue around her mouth, taking in the flavor. Either this ale was amazing or the saki she had been drinking for years was straight garbage. After swallowing down the remnants of her drink she was very inclined to believe the latter. When she had been offered a refill she did not hesitate to accept. With the six of them all drinking together it did not take long to go through the entire bottle. Bryn had been content to accept the tiny hint of a buzz but then more bottles of ale was brought out, apparently the merchants wanted to celebrate being alive and were willing to drink up a bit of their own wares to do so.

Bryn did not know how long they spent drinking but it couldn't have been more than an hour and there was a dozen empty bottles on the ground. The merchants had stumbled off to settle in for the night while Brynhild herself found herself feeling very pleasantly buzzed but not at all drunk.

'Honestly I should be blackout drunk right now.' The roleplaying warrior thought as she pressed a rune on the firepit and turned the flame off. 'I bet this ale is a bit stronger then my canned saki and I always managed to feel tipsy after a few cans, yet all I feel right now is just buzzed. If this is the result of a level 100 warrior's constitution then I sure as hell ain't complaining.'

After turning off the flame Bryn pulled Blood Howler from the dirt and entered her own tent and immediately found herself in a wide open space.

The interior of the tent wasn't some spacious manor but it was a wide space of at least two dozen square feet. This was an endgame tent, thus it was magical as all hell. In the center of the tent was a queen sized poster bed with royal purple curtains. off in one corner was a perpetually steaming granite tub of water that could be adjusted to bubble like a proper hot tub. The tub was blocked from sight by a privacy screen that stretched to include an area to dress in, said area had a stone floor covered in runes, Bryn hadn't really used the system in a long time but it was an auto dressing and undressing wardrobe, recorded in the system was several outfits with specific accessories, builds to counter specific enemies and strategies. Dominating the left side could be described as a kitchenette but with magical appliances taking place of modern ones, next to the kitchen was a magical ice box and an equally magical large mead cask, mead because that was specifically what she had filled it with.

Deciding she wasn't done drinking Brynhild took out a large wooden tankard and filled it to the brim with frothing einherjar mead. She proceeded to attempt to undress herself for several long moments before giving up, placing Bloodhowler aside she let the wardrobe immediately strip her naked of her gear and slipped into the tub. Thumbing at a runic dial she had the temperature and bubbling turned up before she settled in.

'Oh my god, this is paradise!' Thought Bryn with a moan as she undid her braids and let her hair hang freely. 'If this is a simulation I hope it's a sign of them wondering if they can just put everyone in pods, I don't care if my actual body atrophies to a skeletal nutrient paste fed thing if this is how I can live.'

Bryn spent another moment simply luxuriating in the feel of the hot water on her anxiously tense muscles before she dipped her head under briefly. Sweeping back soaking wet blonde hair she leaned back and rested her arms on the edge of the stone tub. However as much as she would like to just let her mind continue to focus on sweet nothings and luxury she had dwell on some serious things.

'I… I like to think I wouldn't just brush off the death of others, death I caused even.' Bryn frowned and brought her hands before her eyes. Just like her face they were crisscrossed with blue scar like tattoos. She imagined them dripping with the blood of those she killed… the thing however was that it was purely her bringing up this imaging, it wasn't some terrible guilt.

'I know I should feel something and yet… nothing. Just a… I just feel like I finished a chore, like taking out the trash. Unpleasant and dirty but needs to be done. I suppose… they were bandits afterall, if I hadn't have been there they would have killed those merchants and plus from their threats they likely raped some poor girls too. Yeah… yeah it's just like my father always said, "A warrior's worth is based upon his enemies!" He would have tanned my hide and gave me several more places to paint some scars if I wasted time on weak… -lings… wait a minute my fa-dad was a timid salary man!'

The role player immediately sat up straight in the tub with wide eyes, she wondered where the thought had come from and then immediately corrected herself, the memory. When she thought of dad the image of your typical salary man came to mind, a cheap black business suit, white dress shirt and black tie, pale pasty skin and a pair of spectacles due to a lifetime of artificial light. However when she thought of Father the image of a towering man with limbs like tree trunks came to mind. He wore a bear hide about his shoulders and had a thick mane and beard, both braided, his skin was only a bit darker for although he lived underneath the wide open sky it was still the far north. His body was crisscrossed with hard won scars and his eyes were an icy blue. Much of his life he was either logging or hunting but the memories of weapons and a set of armor carefully arranged for display spoke of a life of combat as well. Even now she could hear his voice…

"Daughter, if you are to be a Shield Maiden of Midguard and not live the life of a huntress in this valley-"

"I want to be a warrior like you father! Not just hunt dumb animals."

"Be silent girl, you will to respect those 'dumb animals', many a hunter was found with his guts torn out by a buck's antlers let alone his throat ripped out by wolves' teeth. And if you become strong there will beasts greater and more terrible still that will challenge you as greatly as any mannish foe. NOW, start piling wood, if you want to start training the best thing to do is to make those twiggy arms of yours stronger."

"Yes father!"

"Was… was that Brynhild's memories?" Bryn thought aloud with a shocked expression. "I… I don't believe it."

If anything it was this and this alone that had Bryn convinced this was real and not a simulation. As advanced as dive technology was, as much as she knew that a lot of its potential was limited by laws, the ability to implant memories that felt as real and as if they belonged as the one she just experienced felt out of reach. And if this was not a simulation and instead somehow something virtual becoming reality then what did that mean of Brynhild's backstory?

'I practically wrote an entire novel worth of history for her…' Bryn thought as she sunk down in the tub until the water covered her mouth but not her nose. 'Does this mean I'm going to get rewritten by Bryn's personality and history? Am I just going to cease to exist as anything more than a memory?'

It was hard to say what was going to happen to her in the future but Bryn did have a few bright spots to give her hope. A short while ago she had felt like she didn't care when she had been talking to the merchants about their business, that felt like something Brynhild the Wanderer would find boring but Mutsumi Urashima always enjoyed the little details like that, that breathed life into a virtual world.

'But does that mean I'll be deadly warrior who is socially awkward or I'll be socially awkward slowly replaced by a warrior's stoicism?' Bryn thought seriously. 'I don't know… but maybe if I keep an eye on things like that I'll be able to hold back the worst of it and preserve me.'

After that Bryn felt like she was done relaxing in her hot tub and got out. After drying herself off in record time thanks to some extremely high quality towers she stepped into the wardrobe. she was about to change into something for bed when she was distracted by the mirror built into the privacy screen.

She took in the reflection of herself and couldn't help but to begin to pose and flex in admiration of her new body. If it weren't for the fact she could rarely afford anything other then nutrient pills and protein shakes she would have been fat back home, instead she was very soft around the middle and all around a pallid looking young woman. This was not the case for Brynhild, she was pale as well but it was a paleness born out of life in the far north, her body was very muscular with not a once of fat on her, plenty of scar tattoos though and her blond hair was very natural as she could clearly see. She was honestly surprised to see she had breasts still with how fit she clearly was, either that was just the nature of her character generation or she had misunderstood how building muscle in women worked.

Glancing to the side she realized she had left her untouched tankard of mead behind grabbed it. She moved to step onto the wardrobe runes when she brought the edge to her mouth to get a large sip. The instant the mead touched her tongue she gasped in delight and began to rapidly drink it down.

"Ahhhh, fuck yes!" Bryn said with a bright grin at her empty tankard. "That's tastes like god level beer alright! OH!"

Bryn widened her eyes as suddenly there was a brief flash of light as her body glowed for a mere moment. She waited another moment but nothing happened other then her feeling absolutely amazing. She wondered at the new sensations before she stuck tongue out and gave herself a light slap on the forehead.

"Of course! This stuff doubles as a way above average endgame buff potion." Bryn exclaimed and after a moment decided to forgo dressing back up.

She briefly returned to her kitchen to put her tankard away before walking to her bed. The currently nude warrior pulled up the covers and slipped into bed and once she did she could not help the moan of pleasure.

"Ohhhh~ This is an endgame bed alright, ahhh~" She sighed happily and wiggled in place to snuggle in.

Mere seconds later she was already fast falling asleep and barely a minute after she settled into bed the air was filled with her soft snores.

3:

Four Days Later

"HA!" Brymhild shouted as she swung Bloodhowler.

It had been a very… normal last few days. Mostly it had been spent traveling to villages so the merchants could hawk their wares. The villages had been safe enough so Bryn had been content to just go off and find some seclusion to practice using her abilities and weapons. Overall it was somewhat productive and she had even been getting paid now that the merchants were making money… not that their money was anything other then a drop in the ocean but again, it was the thought.

Currently she was off turning trees into lumber with her glorified chainsaw of a sword, mostly it was just to get used to the idea of swinging it while maintaining her thoughts so she didn't constantly fall back on "Brynhild" for that. She had also been using a number of her basic combat techniques and abilities just to get used to them being a thing as well.

'This is going well,' Bryn thought as another tree was felled with an insanely clean cut all to the cheers of watching villagers Getting used to that kind of attention took a lot more work then the idea of killing in a fight frustratingly enough. 'I don't lose my sense of self anymore when I want to seriously use my fighting abilities, the difference between reality and Ygg are stark as all hell, so I can't help but notice that I'm a bit slower then normal. I never really thought about "how" a fight should go too much while in the thick of it, I made some pre-battle observations and things to keep in mind but it was important that I keep myself fluid and not try to keep things nailed down to a strict plan of attack.'

Bryn planted Bloodhowler into the green grass and walked up to a strong and firmly rooted great oak with a frown. 'But I can't rely on that anymore, I… I'm afraid that falling into "battle trance" brings up Brynhild and that could lead to me losing more of myself. Say what you will about me, that I'm a socially awkward shut in, that I'll never have children and be a cat crazed old lady, that I'll never have real experiences because I spend all my free time online, but I like me and I don't want to lose anymore of me then I have too. So… refocusing on current issues, it's time to really hammer it home that I'm not some squishy human anymore.'

Clenching her fists so hard that her knuckles popped, Bryn closed the distance with the tree till she was pressing the side of her face against it. She then planted her feet and with unnoticed ease sunk her fingers through the bark and into the wood and began to lift.

Shouts of shock and awe filled the air as the villagers beheld Bryn abruptly rip an oak out of the ground, after a moment it turned to cheering.

Bryn for her part felt her legs shake and panted with effort of holding the tree, not that it was actually straining to do so, oh no she had actually been surprised by how easy it was. She struggled to maintain balance and to keep the huge mass of the oak from simply tumbling out of her grip. After a moment's struggle she finally retained her balance and tossed the tree to the side where it landed with a resounding crash.

'Well…' Bryn thought as she stared with wide eyes at her hands before she grinned with excitement. 'God damn does it feel GREAT to be strong!'

Suddenly the cheering of the villagers registered to Bryn's senses and she turned to them, feeling an utter lack of the awkwardness and hesitation she normally felt in "real" social interactions she raised a fist into the air. Their reply was to chant her name and cheer louder.

It was then that in the thrill of the moment she began to feel perhaps a bit of deserved ego and arrogance. Clearly not a single person in this village was capable of the feat she just demonstrated and she couldn't help but feel like the "chosen one" as it were. Like she was plucked from the VR world that was Ygg with her player avatar for a greater purpose, to be a great hero or just be important for once in her life, to be FAMOUS throughout the world! However the moment passed, perhaps the latent modesty of a glorified corporate slave kept her grounded or maybe Mutsumi Urashima wasn't the sort to get caught up in the moment, either way the egotism faded.

'Hold on a minute,' Bryn caught herself and turned away from the villagers in thought. 'Just because I'm so powerful compared to a bunch of impoverished peasants doesn't mean I'm that special. Level 100s in Ygg sure as hell weren't rare and there is probably some other max level people who had somehow made it here in this 'New World' like I had. I… I kinda hope that's the case, it would be so good to have someone who if nothing else came from the same place as me. Plus it'll keep me anchored in reality and stop me from getting delusions of grandeur like what just happened.'

After a moment longer of thinking it over she nodded to herself.

'It's settled then, as soon as this job over I'll start doing what I can to find someone like me.'

Six Days Later

Frederico Alberti was afraid.

By all rights he shouldn't be, as a merchant he was very aware of the dangers of the road and how one could end up a stripped corpse in the ditch but with the situation as it was there was no danger of that. After all they had a mighty warrior with them now, probably worth her weight in solid mythril protecting them.

But it was that same warrior woman who caused him and his fellow merchants to be so fearful.

Certainly they were alive purely because of her but none of them had any delusions that it was anything other than pure chance they weren't slaughtered too. After all he had seen the look on her face after slaughtering those bandits, it wasn't something to forget. Such an expression of utter petty irritation, as if she was dealing with some mundane and hated chore instead of ending lives. Then the moment she looked at them the expression was gone and replaced with such genuine seeming friendliness. The shift in expression was so sudden it couldn't have been natural.

It was Lanz Alberti, his brother who had immediately leapt to action in that time, working his fine art of the blather and silver tongue to it's utter limits. If Frederico didn't know his own brother so well he would have been convinced the man was completely ecstatic at the woman's presence.

Lanz had been quick to promise the warrior money and to everyone's hidden worry she seemed to have little interest in the offer. Deciding she was considering finishing the job the bandits started Frederico and his fellows had been quick to gather up whatever silver they could possibly find from the corpses, even from the bodies of their own guards. To their absolute luck there had been a few gold coins among the dead and yet… still the warrior showed little excitement at the tiny fortune.

This had the merchants convinced she was heavily considering just taking everything bit of copper, silver and gold they had on them instead of accepting the small fortune in what they'd gladly admit was bribery money. Thus they had decided their only hope was to ply her with drink and try to sneak away in the night while she was passed out.

Frederico and everyone else in the merchant band was nowhere near brave enough to think they could sneak up on her while she slept with a dagger, plus he had a sneaking suspicion such an act would have just annoyed her even if successful. Now imagine the fear they felt when their plan failed and suddenly they were the ones too drunk to stay awake, let alone run in the night.

Yet for all their fears and suspicions of the warrior's intentions nothing happened. They all not only awoke alive in the morning with a pounding headache but with their coin purses untouched. The warrior had even gave them curative potions to get rid of their hangovers!

'Maybe she isn't out for money…' Frederico thought hesitantly as he stole a sidelong glance at the warrior walking astride their caravan. 'Still I can't help but feel afraid and uncertain… Oh if only she was wearing a plate, then I'd know where we all stand for certain. As is… for all we know she could be a cutthroat mercenary who simply doesn't feel like gutting us today.'

Some of their group had been won over by the warrior woman after her sharing of the curatives and continuing to not murder them while they peddled wares. They were optimistic she would at least fulfil the job she was hired for if nothing else.

'The sooner we get back to E-Rantel the better!' Was what Frederico thought on the matter. 'With Adventurers you can rely on them to act and behave a certain way thanks to guild rules. With mercenaries though… each is a special case and you can never know if you are dealing with a bandit moonlighting in minor legitimacy or a Worker, Adventurer drop out. Granted with the skills she displayed I'd hardly call her a drop out but-'

"EAT THIS!" Brynhild suddenly shouted out as she ripped a small boulder from the earth and chucked it into the tree line.

"Wha-" Frederico began only to hear screams of fright and agony erupt out of the brush. Startled he focused his eyes on the source of the noise and just managed to catch the sight of filthy goblins running away.

"Goblins!" Lanz shouted and quickly snapped the reigns to urge the horse onwards. "Those could only be scouts! A raiding party must be nearby!"

"Goblins huh?" Brynhild remarked with a bland considering expression. "... Sounds appropriate."

"After witnessing your fight against the bandits and feats of strength in the villages I can imagine goblins would prove little trouble." Frederico commented but frowned in concern. "But they might have trolls or ogres with them."

"Trolls and Ogres…" Brynhild remarked to herself, one corner of her lips twitching.

"It might be you can fight them still but I feel like the other members of the raiding party would attack us while you fought the bigger threats." Lanz voiced a concern the other merchants shared.

"You can keep running ahead while I fight." Brynhild replied simply and warmed up her sword arm briefly by swinging her monstrous blade. "I'll just draw aggro, they are all probably trash mobs so they'll be hopelessly distracted."

"Aggro?" Frederico frowned.

"I've heard some adventurers mention such a term." Lanz commented. "She means she'll distract them, brother."

"Mm." Brynhild nodded and briefly closed her eyes before looking towards the rear. "Something is coming… somewhere between twenty and thirty? At least one big thing too…"

"That's a damned useful martial art," One of the merchants commented with an admiring tone though he still looked rather frightened. "Do you know how far off are they?"

"... Roughly ten minutes." The warrior replied before glancing back forward. "I'd probably just stop here and let you go ahead but they might have another group waiting for us…"

"Risk getting ambushed ahead or risk getting attacked while you're busy," Lanz frowned. "Brynhild are you certain you can keep them from attacking us on your own?"

An unreadable expression briefly flashed on Brynhild's face and she gripped her blade tightly.

"I can do it."

Frederico thought he heard a wavering tone to her voice just then, as if she was assuring herself as much as she was assuring his brother of her capabilities. He shook such nonsense from his mind, surely a warrior of Brynhild's calibur would have little need of such ego boosting.

Eight anxiety filled minutes later and the noises of a goblin raiding party breaking through the underbrush started to sound in the distance, along with this was the low rhythmic rumble of the earth.

"Hmm… either the forward ambush is really hidden or there is none and you all could have ran ahead." Brynhild remarked idely. "Shame, too late now."

"Are you certain you can-"

"Asking the same thing over and over again isn't going to make it less or more likely." Brynhild interrupted firmly, now walking backwards and facing the direction of the noise. Her jaw was clenched and her hand holding the sword resting upon her shoulder was closed just as tightly. Likely her patience with them was running low.

"My a-apologies…"

Brynhild paid Lanz no more heed and came to a full stop and started towards a section of woods, the crashing of trees were growing steadily louder and trees could visibly be seen falling over now. The goblins burst out of the tree line and quickly scattered as an ogre clubbed aside trees with a log to clear a way. It was a horde of twenty five goblins in ramshackle armor and everything from rusty swords to kitchen knives and farming tools for weapons. Along with their ogre it was a horrifying sight for any trader caravan who only had but a single guard to protect them.

For their sole protector though it only caused her to arch a single brow and look over the milling goblin horde with a considering stare. She then brought her monstrous toothed sword off her shoulder and held it out at her side with a single hand, the blade remaining absolutely level despite it's length and weight. Her eyes were locked on the ogre, the corners of her lips twitching steadily into an eager grin.

The horde and their monster took one look at the caravan with just a single warrior protecting it and began to jeer in their crude tongue. They charged forth with a collective cry, their ogre adding it's spittle filled bellow. Brynhild answered with a charge of her own and before the goblins knew it six of their own between her and the ogre were falling to the ground in shredded halves.

"SHOULDERCHARGE!"

There was a meaty slap and the booming crack of bone and the ogre gave a pained roar before falling to one knee. Within a few seconds Brynhild had crossed the distance between her and the horde, after slaughtering the goblins with a swing of her blade she had used an ability to ram one of the ogre's legs. After impacting with enough force to fully fracture the shin she gave a short hop back and swung her blade once more.

If the Ogre's vocal chords weren't so large it would have given a shriek rather than a roar of agony. With a roar of its own Bloodhowler tore apart the ogre's knee in an oddly bloodless shower of meat and the ogre could only collapse forward onto its hands.

Brynhild gave another hop so that she was positioned just before the ogre's head as it caught the ground. Gripping Howler with both hands she thrust and buried the blade into the side of the ogre's neck. Gurgling and spitting up blood the ogre reached up with a hand and frantically clawed at the sword as the warrior woman hopped up on the back of its neck.

Giving the grasping hand a kick out of the way Brynhild grasped onto her buried blade like it was a level and pulled. With a howl and the sound of ripping meat the head was torn from it's shoulders in an instant. The goblins watched in horrified stillness as they watched their mightiest taken apart gruesomely in moments.

Brynhild hopped down from the newly made corpse and bared her teeth at the goblins in a battle hungry grin. She then planted her sword and stomped her foot with an echoing crash.

"FACE ME!"

The goblins collectively reeled back, a few even dropping their weapons, but they didn't break and run. Instead they charged forth with their own war cries that sounded more like the desperate shrieking of a cornered rodent than anything.

Nothing much could be said of the following "fight". The goblins charged and swarmed towards Brynhild who only just swung her blade in wide cleaving strokes. They were killed almost as fast as the ogre was.

Frederico and his fellows could only stare in absolute awe as Brynhild began brushing off her hands. She gave an admiring look over her shoulder at the corpse of the ogre before striding towards the merchants with a spring in her step.

"Y-you appear to have dispatched them handily, milady." Frederico said with some of his old fear bubbling back up once again.

"I adore a good fight," Brynhild said with the airs of maiden being given a wonderful gift. "This wasn't one but something I love to do is to fight things bigger than I am."

The genuine tone of her voice combined with the girlish delight on her face actually calmed Frederico down despite witnessing a bloody slaughter.

'A true warrior at heart then?' Frederico thought as his fear began to wash away. If that was the case then he and his fellow merchants had nothing to fear from Brynhild, they were not warriors and couldn't dream nor ever wish to challenge her.

"Fantastic!" Lanz replied with a cheer the rest of them shared. "With how close we are to E-Rantel we can't possibly run into anymore trouble."

"Yes, let's be off before someone asks us to clean the bodies off the road!" Added another merchant with a grin.

"Lady Brynhild I have some leftover ale, would you like it?"

"I'd never say no to a drink."

And so the group continued on their way, in such cheerful straits they sang songs all the remaining way to E-Rantel.

4:

Later That Day

Bryn frowned in clear displeasure as she walked down the streets of E-Rantel, that expression combined with her weapons and gear made sure everyone gave her a wide berth.

'FUCK THIS PLACE SMELLS LIKE AN OPEN SEWER!' Bryn thought as she tried to breath through her mouth, the phantom sensation of scummy slime coating the inside of her mouth didn't help. 'Thank fuck for this body! If it were actually me I'd probably be still outside the gates dry heaving at the fucking smell!'

It wasn't just the animal dung from various beasts of burden that walked the streets it was also the smell of burning coal, melting tallow from candles, the combined stench of a populace who could not bathe nearly as often as a modern person. All these odors of a pre-sewer system society combined together in an utterly nose hair singeing stink. Bryn really had a lot to be grateful for in regards to her lvl 100 body. Maybe she was going half mad from the smell but it even seemed like she was already becoming adjusted to it.

'I'm divided on whether or not that's a good thing.' Bryn thought as she finally managed to get rid of her frown for a blank expression. 'Fuck it, let's just find that guild they told me about.'

After the caravan had finally returned to E-Rantel the merchants told her about the Adventurers' Guild and how it would suit a warrior like her because most jobs were hunting down monsters. While Bryn actually did really enjoy those cookie cutter extermination quests back in Ygg since she could fall into a kind of zen state of fighting things. Still though she did enjoy some variety now and then so she hoped extermination contracts wasn't all there was to the Guild.

'Hmm… I'd probably insist on starting at copper level.' Bryn thought over the ranking system she was told about. 'I imagine most encounters there would be trash mobs which would be very easy -and boring- for someone of my level but at the same time I need the practice, especially after that disaster of a fight a few hours ago.'

Bryn had gone into that fight intending to keep her head straight and not fall into the "Brynhild state", it had been working up till the point she started hearing about the ogre and when she had finally seen the thing? The plan was completely out the window and she had felt herself fall into an almost dreamlike state as she tore towards the ogre.

'I did write it specifically that Brynhild enjoyed fighting big things.' Bryn thought with a sigh as she finally spotted the sign for the Guild Hall. 'Let's just hope that the next encounter is just bandits or a bunch of scrawny goblins.'

She had taken a step through the door when there was a crunch and she was nearly tripped onto her back. Looking over her shoulder she aghast to see Bloodhowler's teeth had caught onto and dug deeply into the door frame. With a curse she wrenched her monstrous blade free but tore a chunk of door frame into a cloud of splinters for it

Cheeks burning she looked around to see everyone staring at her and she couldn't help the sheepish smile that crept onto her face. There was a burst of insulted anger from what she was beginning to recognise as her Brynhild half acting out, immediately the sheepishness faded and a desire to challenge anyone who would dare filled her.

After the failure of containing her fictional self's influence earlier in the day Bryn was damned if she was going to let it take control in a non-battle scenario.

'Come on, it's been years since you've been crippled by social anxiety.' She thought to herself as she forced all emotion from her face. 'You can do this!'

The burning sensation faded from her cheeks and Bryn slowly looked around the room purposely locking eyes for moment with everyone she happened to look over. It wasn't doing her stomach any favors but she needed to do this herself and not become reliant on a brutal warrior persona.

She seemed to be doing a decent enough job because anyone who met her gaze looked away, though she had to force down the wince when she absently rested a hand on her dagger and accidently hit her armor with a loud clang.

"Bryn!" She suddenly heard someone call out.

Confused at who could possibly know her she turned to see a very tall and powerful looking man in a set of raven black armor with a crimson cape standing with some other people.

Curious at this turn of events Bryn strode forward towards the group.

5:

Yggdrasil was a game of incredible detail and of incredible freedom. So long as it wasn't incredibly violent or sexual content it was allowed. It was a game of terrible balances that was in a way managed by its own player base, if someone had found a class that let them make an absolutely ragetastic build then someone could find a class and build to utterly cheese that build. The PVP atmosphere of Yggdrasil could be described as an arms race wherein one side was either crushing or being crushed with barely any middle ground. With as bad as the balance and moderation could be at times it was surprising how long Ygg stuck around.

Unlike Ainz, Brynhild was a freeplayer and had brought nothing but the gear on her back and in her inventory. She should have had no NPCs at all… should.

The exception lied in her sword, Bloodhowler. More specifically it lied in the background info Bryn had written into the sword. The fact the blade was in fact a warrior demon Bryn had bested in honorable combat and then befriended was nothing more than words back in Ygg. But here in the New World these words had taken a life and power all of their own.

And so Bloodhowler was born as a unique form of NPC, created by the Yggdrasil game but not of it. He had no memories of the game beyond those crafted for him by his own background info. You can imagine his shock and surprise when his friend, the fearless and peerless warrior Brynhild the Wanderer started acting… not herself.

'How could this be?' The blade had thought as he bore witness to the utter disgrace that was his friend fearfully stumble through the woods. 'For someone to have not only teleported us against her will but to alter her mind… the Cloak should not have allowed it! Not even a God could have done it!'

And it was just plain unfortunate too since Bloodhowler could easily have used his demonic power to destroy whatever influence had usurped Brynhild's mind. As it was he could only watch in angered futility at the warped state of his friend. It was getting to be an utter parade of disgrace as he watched her be overcome with anxiety of all things when suddenly something changed.

A sudden anger had filled the usurping personality of his friend's body. It was such that it overcame the pathetic anxieties that was crippling it and made it continue forward. Bloodhowler recognised it for what it was, the echo of his friend and a sign she was still there buried beneath the shallow weakness. The moment soon passed but Howler was now on the lookout for more moments like this and it wasn't long before his patience had been rewarded.

When the usurper had witnessed the pathetic bandits wasting their strength on the traders she had been about to demonstrate how craven she really was, once again however Brynhild managed to bubble up to the surface. The anger towards fools who would rather use their might on those who couldn't challenge them broiled up. It should have been impossible to influence the mind of whoever wore the Cloak, Howler however had found that while he couldn't directly influence the usurper's mind he could put his weight behind the true self buried beneath it.

The willingly sealed demon had been growling in satisfaction as he bore witness to just a fraction of his friend's glory tear apart the worthless. He had drank deeply of their blood and snapped up their souls with every kill. The only thing that had soured that moment was both the reminder his friend was no longer herself and the souls he had previously had disappeared.

It was after that "fight" that Bloodhowler had resolved to restore his friend's true personality and erase the usurper. He had power to influence change whenever there was a conflict between the two personalities and he was going to leverage that for all it was worth.

'I swear upon my honor I will restore you my friend…'

-TBC-

AN: So my first forays into an entirely different series compared to what I usually write, things were getting a bit stale so I wanted to give something new a try. Hope those who find this found it a fun read, I'll see about getting chapter 2 up in a timely manner (hopefully)