So this is another thing that I wrote. Yeah it is getting a bit out of hand but what can you do My Pen name literally says it all Tale Master. So yeah I have a lot of ideas
Fair warning this fic in an alternate take on the traditional Overlord style fics with a lot of twist and turns, Because Evil will Always find a Way.
Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD, Overlord, Fate Stay Night and Type-Moon and any other franchise that may appear in this fic. They belong to their rightful owners, except for any OCs that may appear in this fic.
Edit: 19-11-2016
Added some few scenes and some extra dialogues too.
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Chapter 1
Issei Hyoudou, age 16, student of Kuoh Academy and a boy with a healthy interest in the opposite gender, don't let the rumours make you believe otherwise, after all I am at the age where I am supposed to be hunting for a girlfriend or girlfriends, in my case as my dream is to be a 'Harem King'.
And guess what folks, the gods above have even given me the means to become one or to be more precise gave me a job that comes with the side bonus of creating a harem, a job that I got after buying an old gauntlet in a trinket shop.
What was my job that basically gives me the right to create a harem, you say? Why, my job is to become the next 'Overlord', master of Evil and vanquisher of good, though the latter two are something that I can toss on to my successor. Currently I am just required to create a kingdom and find artefacts that belonged to my predecessors. So yeah, being evil was just a personal decision.
I freaking love this job.
I even got a wise ass minion, who was also my advisor, named Gnarl. He was the one who was teaching me the ropes of becoming a proper Overlord.
But that was not the best part. The best part was that the 'Overlord Gauntlet' that allows me to use magical spells had given me another special ability namely the 'Gamer' ability from the Gamer Manhwa, which basically meant that I was going to be a Broken as hell character. Once I figure out the mechanics that is. One thing was sure it was not like the one Han Jee-Han had gotten in the manhwa, though it did have some similarities.
Currently my current 'Stat Sheet' looked like this.
Name: Issei Hyoudou Age: 16
Level: lv.1 EXP: 0%
Class: Player Race: Human
Title: 'Overlord'
HP: 300 HP Regen: 0.8 HP/sec
MP: 110 MP Regen: 0.4 MP/sec
STR*: 8
AGI: 5
INT: 4
SKILL POINTS: 10
Resources: 10000
Skills:
[Overlord's Mind]- Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through in most circumstances. Allows a peaceful state of the mind, grants immunity to psychological and metal status effects prevents possession.
[Overlord's Body]- Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: Grant's a body similar to the ancient Overlords. Pain form damage does not last more than a few seconds. Sleeping restores HP, MP and heals all temporary status effects. Also grants pseudo-immortality in the form of eternal youth.
[Multi-verse Adaption]- Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: This ability allows the user to adapt any knowledge and skills and magic found in the multiverse and use them without any repercussion.
[Observe]- Active- Rank: 1/100 EXP: 9.0% MP cost: 1
Description: A skill to observe, objects, situations and beings that allows the user to quickly gather information. The higher the skill, the greater the data obtained. The higher the level of skill, the grater the data obtained. The greater the amount of knowledge and insight the user has, the more information can be displayed.
[Minion Creation] Rank-MAX Cost: Variable
Description: Allows to Overlord to create Minions using resources available.
Apart from the three skills, the stat sheet was quite bare and empty. I did not even have a guide to refer to, which could help me decode the secrets of the 'game'.
Gnarl was not helpful in the least, not even when he was supposed to be my advisor as even he did not know how the system worked, just that it worked and had made the past Overlords who had mastered it a forced to be reckoned with.
"You know Gnarl you never did mention how I was going to rebuild the Overlord Empire or how it even fell." I asked my minion.
The midget advisor stroked his beard in a manner that made me recall how some of the old man with beards would recall the good old days and what not.
"How you are going to rebuild your empire is up to you Master Hyoudou, seeing that the empire fell a very long time ago and almost all of its territories are now either lost forever or now inhabited by very powerful beings, which would crush you as easy as breathing the way you are now." Gnarl said as he told a little bit about the empire of my predecessors.
Well I had forgotten that I was going to have to get into fights with supernatural beings from myths and if what Gnarl was saying was true then it was going to be tough carving out my own kingdom. I guess I should just start small.
"As for how it fell, well alas even the greatest dynasties and empires, sadly, must come to an end someday." Gnarl sighed, no doubt thinking lost in memories about the time he must have looked after the empire. He was sensitive like that.
"First I am going to need minions, just like the ones my predecessors used. Then a base of operation to carry out my operations." I said making plans on how to create an empire. It was going to be damn hard creating an empire in the modern world but from what I can guess there are different worlds and dimensions different from mine. If Gnarl is able to get me in touch with one of the other worlds, I might be able to build up my empire without too much hassle and let my descendants worry about expanding. Which, come to think of it were going to be many given the Harem I was going to create, yeah I will have to create some rules on succession or create a big ass empire to divide it properly among them.
Oh boy, not even a day in and I am thinking about succession problems. I really am stuck with something really big, eh. This was going to get some use too.
"So any ideas Gnarl?" I asked my advisor.
"Well we could try to rebuild one of the old Overlord towers and use that as a base of operation but they are scattered all over the multiverse that it would be difficult to find one. After finding one we can use that as a base of operations. The downside is that the towers are quick to attract wandering heroes who will want to slay the latest evil but on the flipside the towers hold quite a lot of resources that may prove useful." Gnarl said inquisitively, stroking his beard.
"Okay well I will have to learn how to defend my territories sooner or later so it might be good to gather up the resources but we better locate multiples towers first so that we have some back up bases to fall back later on." It was a good plan and well the resources Gnarl was talking about could go on a long way too if we hit a jackpot.
"That is a good plan sire, I shall begin locating the towers and preparing a portal for our departure." Gnarl said bowing his head in deference.
"And the minions?"
"The Gauntlet should allow you to create new minions sire you will just have to select a basic form for the minions and the characteristics of the minions and you should be able to create your desired minion. It should have been obvious sire." Gnarl said no doubt pointing out to the skill list.
"Yes but I wanted to see if there was another way to create minions apart from this." I admitted, while I did have the skill needed to create a minion I wanted to see if there was another way or not. I did not know how much was the 10000 resources I had, as it could be range from ridiculously huge to being less than a yen.
"Well there are other ways, sire but I suspect that you won't like them, considering you disposition." Gnarl admitted looking at me intently as if asking me whether he should continue or not.
I motioned him to continue curious at what the methods were.
"We can use the life force of animals and humans to use as fuel to create new minions and replace lost one or even outright use their souls to create powerful ones and enhance existing ones." Gnarl said laying down the facts.
It was a good thing that my predecessors gave me the Overlord's Mind to process the information properly and letting me see the benefits and cons of the methods in a cold detached manner, instead of viewing them with disgust…Wait THAT WAS NOT A GOOD THING! IT WAS BAD WAY BAD! No wonder my predecessors were mostly evil, pragmatism was very cold hearted at its core.
"Well it looks like we won't be using that method." I finally commented after getting my thoughts in order.
"Well sire don't rule this method out yet, souls and life force of demons and supernatural creatures as great at creating minions once you filter them properly. In fact I would advise against using Human souls and life force as they are really inefficient in the long run." Gnarl added with a smile.
"You want me to go Demon-hunting?" I said quirking an eyebrow at the suggestion. It really seemed quite appealing now.
"Well who am I to stop you sire, if you want to go kill some demons, harvest their souls and their very essence and use it to increase your own powers and minions in the process. Its not like any one would miss them since they seem to infest all parts of the multiverse." Gnarl grinned, and it was not a toothy fun grin, but a bloodthirsty one.
"And it's not like I want to see them cower in fear of your name as you wade through their corpses plucking their moaning souls and use it to fuel to create your army. No sire, I really have no such intentions, No sire, none." Gnarl said bobbing his head in a sage like manner, yet his hands trembled in excitement at such a visage.
"Maybe later Gnarl." I said noncommittally, yeah I would do that much later on after getting some proper training. After all I was not Dante who could shrug of meteors and kill the king of hell, so no demon hunting for me in the near future for now.
"Now why don't you go and start searching for the towers. Inform me later when you can get us to the nearest one." I ordered, getting Gnarl out of his thoughts, he was really mumbling away some really graphic descriptions. He was truly without a doubt an evil bastard.
"Very well sire, by you leave." Gnarl said as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Seeing him leave I let my shoulders relax a bit, mulling over the order I had just given and the implications of it.
I really was doing this, weren't I?
I was really going to be a conqueror, an emperor, a king. When did life stop making sense again? This was really messed up.
Thinking about my dream I could not help but question my motivations for embarking on this path. yet this was the path I had taken, and like a certain redheaded idiot, I should not have any regrets.
Closing my eyes, i simply made a solemn promise to the faceless figures of my dreams, 'My goddesses wait for me as I conquer the multiverse and create an empire worthy of your presence.'
As sleep embraced me I could not help but question whether my dream would be worth it in the end.
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It was three days later that Gnarl contacted me again, saying that he had located around 5 towers that we could make use of. To say I was surprised was an understatement as I had thought it would take much longer than simply three days.
But it seems like I had underestimated the brown gremlin a lot.
"Well, sorry for the delay sire but I had to scout out the towers and deduce which ones we could feasibly make use off." Gnarl said bowing his head. "Most of them were filled with hostile creatures that we would have to later clear out once you get some training."
Seeing the brown minion bow I could not help but scratch my cheeks, "To be honest I thought it would take much longer honestly."
Gnarl simply huffed at my words and said, "Were I younger I would have been done in an hour and even clear out some of the infested towers myself. Sadly even the sands of time have sapped some of my vitality."
'Like you need any more of it.' I wanted to say out loud, knowing that Gnarl was quite the speedy bugger even in his condition. Really he was like Yoda with all that power pack in that small body. He must have been really scary in his prime.
"Anyway enough lingering sire, we should get going now." Gnarl said leading me deeper inside the forest.
"So, how far is the place?"
"Well to be honest I could open a portal here sire, but I think it is wiser to take some precautions first." Gnarl admitted, his idea was quite good and I was still unsure of what powers I was going to inherit and develop. So for now I was letting Gnarl take the lead on anything magical, till I manage to gain some rudimentary knowledge on it at least.
For now I had simply brought a side-bag with some rope, torch, some food and some books…yeah those kinds of books.
We soon reach a spot which gnarl seemed to be satisfied with and he muttered a chant of some sort. Blue light flickered around us, which I guess was probably some barrier of some sort. Then with a few more chants I saw a green portal come to life in front of us.
The green light of the portal was quite eerie in the darkness of the forest and knowing just who had opened the portal made me feel like I was in some sort of dark fantasy world.
'And you are the Big Bad Evil Overlord.' My mind supplied reminding me just what kind of job and title I had inherited.
Looking at the portal I knew that my life would no longer be the same once I took my first steps though it.
I could still back out now. Give the gauntlet to Gnarl, give up my powers and ask him to erase my memories of the event. I can still go back to my normal life like nothing happened if I chose not to back out now.
But "Okay, let's do this Gnarl" I had already made my mind. "Let's conquer the multiverse." With that said I stepped through the portal into the new world.
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…and into a ditch.
"Yep this is just the perfect way to start our adventure." I groaned, nursing my nose, which thankfully was not broken.
"Well…this sadly still is better than some of the past Overlords. I even recall a time when the newest overlords tried to make a grand entrance for their debut and spend most of the time in the infirmary after the disaster they caused." Gnarl said as he helped me get out of the ditch. He really had quite the stories to tell.
"Anyway come along sire and see your new base of power." Gnarl said as he led me down the muddy path.
We were in some sort of forest but in the distant I could see an ancient stone tower, made of white and black stones, the paint on the tower had wither faded into pale colours or was simply gone in some parts, the towers was also covered moss and wild plants, creating an aura of a truly ancient monument, which seemed to be quite intact despite its age.
"The tower is empty and is currently on a remote island surrounded by a barrier that keeps sailors and adventures from finding it. The island has plenty of resources, both in terms of materials and magical ingredients, as it is populated by both magical creatures and plants." Gnarl informed me about the general layout of the area. Frankly, hearing the details I thought that it was quite too good to be true.
"And you will not believe the number of predators and flesh-eating worms and plants that I discovered on the island. Why, just the other day I saw a hoard of cats eat a giant reptilian dog in a manner of seconds, not even leaving a single bone behind. I am sure that they would make excellent minions." Gnarl said grinning at me, no doubt expecting me to share his enthusiasm.
Yep the island was a mini death world, it was really too good to be true.
"Truly horrifying" I deadpanned trying not to show how disturbed I was.
"Yes horrifying and beautiful. You should have been their sire to see the cats eat away the dog at such a fast rate that the head was still howling in agony even as its lower body had been eaten away too the bone. It was truly a horrifying sight." Gnarl said with a giggle, thoroughly creeping me out.
The action reminded me of a child seeing and animal and gushing over it in desire to keep it. yeah Gnarl wanted those nasty little cats as a pet, in fact by the way he was going about the animals and plants on the island, I had no doubt that he wanted to keep some of them.
"Okay, OK, I get it; later on we will build a bestiary and a green house where you can take care of the plants and animal." I said massaging my heads trying hard not to think of the horrifying images that Gnarl had put in my head with his detailed and graphic retelling of hunts and kills he had seen, when he scouted the island.
"B-bu-but sire, I have no want of such thing" Gnarl sputtered at my words, "I…I, uh, I am merely giving you a run down on what glorious resources the island offers nothing more." Gnarl said nervously as he shifted to and fro in his place. He clearly was not good at hiding his apparent desire to own a bestiary and green house after I had mentioned it, especially when he was already wondering how he was going to take care of them without straining their resources.
"You Gnarl are going to build a bestiary and a greenhouse and see that they are fully stocked and maintained well. That is an order." I said making it official. The things an Overlord had to do for his minions.
"If that is your wish, sire." Gnarl said trying to sound reluctant about the whole ordeal, which in fact he was not. "I will see that it is done."
"But" Gnarl continued "a little bit of advice, sire. Don't let order minions push you around so easily. It is bad for one's reputation." Gnarl said as he skipped happily towards the tower, leaving me dumbfounded and stunned as I followed him with my jaw wide open.
That little bugger was quite the trickster.
Anyways the rest of the trip to the tower was not much interesting. The rooms were quite bare and the furniture while were in excellent condition, due to some charms and runes, were not up to my taste. Still beggars can't be choosers and they were quite classy too, though I refused to wear the clothes present in the tower, they were too old fashion.
There were some clothes and coats that I could use and some trousers, but only few as most of them had a balloon-effects when I wore them. I was no fashion expert but I knew a cosplay worthy dress when I saw one.
When I felt it was time to leave and head back to Kuoh, Gnarl informed me that he had modified the portal in such a way that time would flow faster in which side of the portal I was with the current conversion being 1 month on my side of the portal being equal to 1 hour on the other side.
I did not get everything he was trying to say but it basically meant that any place I was in acted like a Hyperbolic time chamber or something along that line. This basically meant that I had to say for at least two years on one side of the portal to make sure one day on the other side passed. Yeah Gnarl was stupidly scary and powerful if he could do that.
'And the bugger said that my predecessors could do that with much better efficiency.' Yep, I really had big, and I mean BIG, shoes to fill.
Still that meant that I could do my homework and study all I want I with this. Heck, last minute studies would no longer be last minute as I could stretch out the time simply by coming here. Yeah this was a skill I was going to surely learn.
With that said I decided to explore the place some more before returning home and start shift some of my stuff here, not only to hide some of the more questionable materials and give this place a makeover.
While the décor of the place was still impressive despite being worn with age, which I would admit that it gave them a unique charm, I still wanted to give it my personal touch too.
Let it not be said that boys are not great at decorating things.
Exploring the tower with Gnarl I discovered that the tower used some sort of odd glowing rocks to light up the place using magic. There was quite a lot of rune work, blacksmithing and magic involved too but I still did not know enough to say whether it was impressive or simply ordinary, though Gnarl really had some skewered standards even by most high fantasy standards. So it was quite debatable, for all I know the stones could be either primitive like oil-lamps or advance like nuclear powers bulbs, I really did not know enough to pass a concrete judgement.
It looks like I was really going to have to make a list of things to study and research. While more work did not seem appealing as I was not a workaholic, at least my stay here won't be boring and I could just pop back to Kuoh to catch a break.
Yep, no matter what I am not going to conquer my own world, that would be the place where I am going to spend my time as a normal person, or as normal as an overlord could be.
I also found some hidden storerooms and secret stashes, which gave quite a lot of resources.
Found Secret Stash of Hol!
Congratulations You have Found a small Secret Stash of Overlord Hol, also known as Hoarder Hol due to his habit of hording away his various treasures.
Received 100,000,000 resources
Received 2 Soul stones (+1,000,000 Blank souls) Unlocked Resource: Can now use souls as resource for minion creation and upgrades.
Received 10 Greater Blood orbs (+10,000,000 Blood Orb) Unlocked Resource: Can now use Blood orbs for minion creation and upgrades.
That was simply one of the many stashes I had found, in the end I had gotten around 1,242,000,000 resources, 140 Soul Stones and 321 Greater Blood orbs. The number while seemed insanely high to me, just managed to raise an eyebrow from Gnarl who said that the find was quite smaller than what he was expecting. Really how ridiculous were his standards?!
Exploring some of the lower sections of the tower which were surprisingly free of spiders and rats, which was really weird as they were one of the prime pests that infested such towers.
I found quite a lot of armours, weapons and books, I even discovered a working magical forge room in the tower, which once again Gnarl said was very low-level trash level forge and not worth much in the long run. Which was once again, proof of just how ridiculously powerful my predecessors were back in the day.
"Are you sure Gnarl that this is a low level trash Forge?" I asked Gnarl as I stared at the large forge, which consisted of three large towering pillars holding a large metal funnel like spherical chamber connected to a large chamber that was connected to a platform that looked like a production belt line.
"Of course this type of forges can only purify metals and raw materials and shape them into the desired items. It does nothing to reduce the materials required, enhance their properties, give them additional properties or even allow for the modification and enhancement of already manufactured items. Not to mention that it takes minutes on end to complete a single item compared to the pico-seconds of the average forges." Gnarl ranted and I could not help but gawk at his statement.
"Just how did they do that?! That is ridiculously fast!" and was that not an understatement.
"Oh nothing much," Gnarl responded "the forges just make use of temporal time dilation fields to speed up the process and remove the inner chambers of the forges from the normal flow of time to speed up the already fast and efficient manufacturing processes, all the while adding and the various magical properties and additional traits and functions to multiple items at once. This allowed for quite the extensive mass production of several items. And don't get me started on the mana-powered conjuration forges and the more powerful and efficient military Forges."
Gnarl finished his rant by hitting the forge with his cane and saying "This is nothing but a low-level trash forge that is suitable for small towns and cities on the frontier."
After hearing his rant I could now understand why it was a low-level trash, even if the forge in question that I had discovered could simply create anything I ask it to create down to the very last detail, provided I had the resources to do so. The forge also did not need anything from my part except for providing resources to the forge and using my gauntlet to synch with it and provide the required details and traits of the item.
I could theoretically create anything with it, if I met the requirements and Gnarl was saying that it was a low-level trash. Yeah, his standards were really bullshit, and the past overlords were bullshit personified if this thing was just a trash item for them.
Yep I really had big, BIG, BIGGGGG, shoes to fill.
As I decided to call it a day and head to Kuoh to gather my stuff Gnarl told me that the Gauntlet could also act as a storage unit and had infinite storage capacity and that it could change its shape to hide its appearance. I practiced this feature by stashing away all the Mana crystal, Blood orbs and Soul stones away in the gauntlet. As for the rest I told Gnarl to leave them as they were but told him to take the books to a more appropriate area.
Thinking that I was done for now I decided to head back to Kuoh to get my stuff, but just as I was about to ask Gnarl to open the portal a thought struck me, it was a simple idea but something that was worth pursuing.
"Say Gnarl can you open a portal to my room?" I asked.
"Of course sire." Gnarl responded as he opened the portal with a snap of his fingers, "Anything else?"
"Nothing for now." I replied mumbling 'show-off' under my breath.
Gnarl did not seem to hear my mumblings but he did seem to have a bigger grin on his face. 'Yeah, yeah rub your superior magical prowess don't you.'
Grumbling about overpowered magical Gremlins I made my way back to Kuoh, beginning a new phase in my journey to become the Harem King.
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The next day after school I travelled back to tower this time I intended to spend a day or two in the tower and help Gnarl arrange everything in the tower.
Due to the time dilation trick of the portals I had quite a lot of time on hand so I was in no hurry and spend quite a lot of time with my friends and fooling around as usual. Though I really had to try hard not smirk when my friends lamented about how we had to submit our assignments this Friday.
For me I had already done half of it and while normally it would be quite late since I had only three days to complete it, due to Gnarl and the Portal I had gotten almost months' worth of time on hand.
Overlord Magical Bullshit, baby and while some would call it cheating, Hey I was an Evil Overlord, cheating was just one of the basic requisites of the job,
I did notice that that the Student Council was oddly more attentive towards me.
I guess they still had not forgiven me for entering the council room why they were changing. The beating was so worth searing the image of their beautiful figures in my mind. But who the hell changes in the Council room? That's what the girls' locker and changing room were for.
Still I guess I have to be more careful from now on, I guess. After all I now had secrets that were better left buried and hidden behind closed doors.
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"Welcome back sire." Gnarl greeted me as I came through the portal. "All rest up I see."
"Yep." I replied "all rest up and good to go. I even brought some extra food and some toiletries so that can spend some few days here before going back." Not to mention my homework and some few special magazines.
Yeah I was going to stash them away here in a completely different world. Best hiding place ever!
"So Gnarl what is the plan for today?" I asked my advisor minion.
"Well I have already sorted the books and the weapons to the armoury and library which I might add is a great war-room and study room too." Gnarl began, "Though I have noticed that some parts need repairing and while they won't cause any problems for now, I recommend we fix this problems before any major accidents occurs."
"Okay, so tower repair. How are we going to do it?" I asked Gnarl, seeing that I did not know how to use the gauntlet properly yet. I got it yesterday and I had yet to try out some of it features.
"With magic of course." Gnarl said smiling, "Not only would this help us repair the tower but will also allow me to teach you some vital spells and get you to practice them productively too, Sire."
And so began my training in the magical arts.
The first spell Gnarl taught me was the [Telekinesis] spell which allowed me to levitate rocks the size of my fist, which was not saying much as Gnarl was able to lift multiple boulders which were not only bigger than me but some were even bigger than my house and must have weighed in tonnes, all the while without breaking a sweat.
While it took me everything I got to lift that small rock.
Gnarl said that it was mostly due to my low stamina and mana reserves, so he gave me some exercises to help build them up.
For my reserves he gave me a breathing and meditation technique which would allow me to quickly build up my reserves called the Heavenly Star Cultivation, which would allow me to not only temper my body but also increase my reserves quickly and steadily.
It was just the kind of bullshit technique I was expecting off Gnarl and my Predecessors. Really how stupidly bullshit, were they?!
As for my stamina Gnarl had me run around the tower multiple times all the while making me clear the boulders and rotten wood that were in my path.
Then after my rounds I was sent to meditate a bit in a Bleach-styled healing hot spring which Gnarl said was not only filled with healing energies but was also quite rich in mystical energies which would allow my Heavenly Star Cultivation technique to quickly help increase my progress by a lot.
Gnarl really wanted me to grow powerful quickly but we had a small problem something called being just average and having less than average talent. Sure I was progressing fast but due to having almost no talent or aptitude towards the mystical arts I was going really slow compared to my predecessors.
It was only due to the bullshit techniques and tools that Gnarl was whipping out that I was even making any noticeable progress. It was cheating I know but they were kind of required in my case gnarl even said that it was not unheard of past Overlords to use this method of power too and take their time to grow powerful, so I had no need to feel ashamed of my progress.
Let me repeat again my predecessors are bullshit and have done almost everything I could imagine. They even took away my chance to become the first Overlord with Average aptitude and talent and become a powerhouse later on. They really were bullshit.
I guess I will just have to settle for my Harem and a big family and let my descendants care about breaking records of my predecessors.
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Time passed by and days turned into weeks, due to the Heavenly Star Cultivation, I had managed to build up quite a bit of my reserves and I could now easily outrun my school track team and even lift some of the bigger boulders.
The lack of buffed muscles was a sore point and I did not have a six pack abs yet, just four for now and that too was just in its starting stages and that was hidden well by my school uniform too. So I was not turning heads yet or getting some lustful gazes sent my way.
Not that I could as Gnarl told me that while it was natural for me to develop them due to my hard work over the past few weeks, I had to remember that only hours and a day had passed back home due to the Time Dilation.
That was a major downside for me and made me realise that I had to make sure that I remember the dates, time and the events that was happening back home lest I confuse myself and make a mistake that could out my secret of being a Magical Evil Overlord.
Leaving that aside, for now I was back in the tower levitating a Gargoyle statue into its place near the corner of one of the balconies of the Tower.
Putting the Gargoyle in place I use my latest spell [Transmutation] to transmute the base of the statue and fuse it into the pillar, while adding some personal touches to the Gargoyle and the pillar.
"Well done Sire." Gnarl said examining the statue and the pillar. "You've have managed to not only lift the Gargoyle but have performed a perfect transmutation too."
Finally, really it had taken me quite a while to get to this stage and I had finally gotten the hang of my two spells.
Then Gnarl had to rain on my parade by saying, "And this time the statue is without breasts too. well done, Sire."
"One time, it was one time."
"One time too many, sire, such a statue and figure are better off breastless." Gnarl said shuddering at the memory. It was a really horrifying.
"Still I must say sire, you really do have a talent for [Transmutation], to quickly master it to such extend." Gnarl said praising me. I let loose a snort at the notion.
"Master it my foot. It is only due to the spell being so damn Overpowered and Broken due to its easy to use and learn style that I am able to use it so well. Not to mention I do know that I have still a long way to go before I can Transmute a Castle out of an anthill or a palace our of a ray of light." Really transmuting Light into acres wide floating palace? That was pure bullshit! Conservation of mass my foot!
"Still I must say your ability to visualise and carefully guide the transmutation energies is nothing less than what a master of transmutation is expected to do. All that is needed not is some practice with transmuting various elements and increasing your reserves a bit more and I can see you doing the same over the top acts of Transmutation that your predecessors did." Gnarl said honestly and it was true, I really had an incredible talent in transmutation.
Even if that talent stemmed from my previous hard earn ability of memorising and perfectly visualising the female anatomy. Reasons aside it was paying tenfold in helping me master the spell at a faster rate.
"You said that you would teach me a new spell Gnarl, seeing that I was getting into more and more accidents as of late. A healing spell I presume." I asked Gnarl feeling a bit giddy at the prospect of learning a new spell. I was really getting the hang of being an Overlord and learning new magic spells.
"Yes two spells actually. One is called [Restore] and the other is called [Cure]. [Restore] helps in healing all wounds and injuries and even restore and repair broken items and weapons, while Cure is a powerful spell that helps cure ailments, diseases and even dispel poison. But I have to say this that it is dependent on the caster and his proficiency with the spell the more proficient the caster is the better the effects of the spell. Like Restore might even heal and even restore a person's limbs or simply heal a small cut. Likewise Cure might cure even the deadliest poison or even fail to cure a small cough. It all depends on the caster…" Gnarl explained going on the intricacies and pitfalls of the two spells.
He always gave a long lecture before he taught me new spells and it was nice listening to him explain the spells. Gnarl never made it boring too so that was a plus point and I knew that to fulfil my role I had to learn about the spells and its long history and how they served my predecessors well.
They had refined the spells to the extreme and I now had to see if I could make my own refinement or add my own twist to the spells or not.
So I listened, I listened and learned of the long rich history of magic and healing.
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"Say Gnarl you never told me how I am supposed to level up." I asked my advisor minion even as I practiced my latest spells.
[Agni] a fire spell, [Iód] an ice spell, [Iwa] an earth spell and [Vayu] an air spell. These spells while basic at first glance, were quite versatile in nature as they only followed the few basic principles unlike other elemental spells. Add more power into the spell to make it more powerful and use you mind to shape the spells into your desired shapes and sizes, simple.
Yep if I had enough power to empower the spells I could reshape the entire landscape at will but for now I was just going to have to be satisfied with simply tossing a few fireballs and rocks around. It just took the whole master the Basics then master the world to a whole new level.
The Overlord stat sheet was more like a game stat sheet with levels included, so there must have been some way I could level up and gain more power.
"Through battle of course," Gnarl replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which at second glance it might be. It was not like I was going to get a quest all of a sudden.
"Though sire before you go into battle, I will have to teach you how to summon minions, to ensure that you can survive your battles. I have seen quite a lot of Overlords fall in their first combat outing due to been overwhelmed both in numbers and powers due to not having their minions nearby." Gnarl said as he took out a tome from his staff.
"This tome will teach you how to summon your own minions, their general characteristics and how to create totems and new minions systems so that you can create new minions types for yourself." Gnarl said handing me the tome.
"Why do I need to learn how to create a new minion system? Isn't there a more efficient system already in place?" that seemed just weird.
I mean with the rich long history of my predecessors I am sure they must have perfected the minion system already seeing as it was the basis of all past Overlords. So why am I supposed to create a new system that will no doubt be much more inefficient.
"That is because when it comes to minions each Overlord had different tastes. Some took them as lovers and sex slaves, some used them as soldiers and free labours, while others used them as more skilled scientists and administrators." Gnarl explained and I had the urge to throw up at the sex slave line. That was just wrong on so many levels not to mention the minions were not too good looking too and only a really perverted and depraved person could use them as sex slave.
Still the image of minions trying to act as politicians and office workers was a funny image, even though I had to question how they would achieve that.
"I am sure by now you must be wondering how the normal minions would achieve that." Gnarl said reading my thoughts, "The answer is they don't."
"They don't?"
"Yes they don't, the Overlords simply create new minion types that suit their tastes and the tasks at hand and while some of new minion types last for centuries on end they still get phased out for new types that suit the preferences of the new Overlord or the changing situation of the new era." Gnarl explained.
"So why keep the original minion types? I am sure that the Overlords must have created better ones." I pointed out, failing to see why the original minions were still in the database and the default minion choice instead of the new minion types.
"That is because in terms of efficiency, power and to quote a past Overlady 'adorable murder machines' the original minions more than fulfil their given roles. Whether they be assassinations, anti-magic works, siege warfare, large scale battles, aerial combat and sheer durability and survivability, they more than fulfil their tasks as experts and cannon fodders. Easily able to gain enough experience to not only survive some of the harshest battles but also easily recover their numbers both on and off battles and the sheer low cost to upkeep them is not something that one can simple ignore." Gnarl explained.
"I have also seen Dragons, giants, titans and gods fall down to the minions even if it was simply due to sheer force of the numbers they had and the clever use of some of the anti-magic abilities of the minions. Do not underestimate them sire, for these small and foolish minions have cause the destruction of multiple kingdoms, empires and even pantheons themselves." Gnarl said warning me, and I had to remember that Gnarl was one of the original minions too and he was quite powerful too.
Looking at the tome, I wondered if I could create such a minion race that would surpass the original minion race. It was highly unlikely but it was something worth pursuing nonetheless.
"Well I guess I should start studying this. Thanks Gnarl."
"It was simply my duty sire."
With that I went to the study room to study the tome and uncover the secrets of the minions.
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"Gnarl I must say that it was a good idea to build this greenhouse." I praise Gnarl as I bit down on the strange apple that Gnarl had grown. "It really solves the food problem I was facing and would allow me stay here longer and I would no longer have to buy bulks of instant food from the stores back home anymore."
There was limit to how much you can eat instant noodles and other instant foods and I was not a good cook too and thus could not create good food from the ingredients I would have bought, though I was learning to cook so that I could extend my stay here in the tower.
Food was the only thing that was keeping me from staying months on end here in the tower. Thus I was forced to prioritise completing Gnarl's Greenhouse when he offhandedly mentioned that some of the fruits on the island were edible and quite good too, even though if it meant housing some of the more carnivorous plants too.
"The Browns and Reds have also prepared some fine meat from hunting the local wildlife and have suffered no losses as of yet." Gnarl added, yeah while fruits were all well and good I still needed some meat to go with it, not to mention the minions also preferred hunting for their food too and the local wildlife provided both that and some good combat experience for them too.
I went with them a few times to hunt with them and explore the island too and even found out how the levelling system works. Suffice to say, it was a levelling system that suited an Evil Overlord to the tee.
After learning about it, I was a bit put off from hunting and exploring for now.
So I was just sending my adorable murder machines to hunt for food and explore the areas.
"Say Gnarl how is the mining equipment coming? I really want to get started on the whole thing and start extracting the crystal veins."
It was a little project that Gnarl and I had devised.
We had found multiple crystal caves full of strange growing crystals which by careful use of magic we could control their growth and mine them for resources. Such caves were quite valuable and the growth of the crystals was quite fast even without magic and as such we could really mine them for quite a while.
The problem was I still needed quite a lot of proper mining equipment to mine them as they were a bit poisonous and radioactive too. it was only due to Gnarl and the [Overlord Body] that I was able to survive going to the caves.
Without proper equipment even my minions could not enter the caves before the poison and radiation got to them and that was not mentioning the mutated rates and wolves and even the crystal tigers that inhabited the caves making the caves all the more dangerous.
Still I had managed to clear one cave by killing the tiger inhabiting the cave, which was also when I had learned how to level up too. It was not the largest cave but it was enough for now.
"The mining equipment as coming along nicely and I have set up the arrays that would allow for a control growth of the crystals." Gnarl replied.
Good that would give me some income of resources which was needed to create new minions. Now I had to find a way to get more Blood Orbs and Blank Souls, hunting wildlife was only a short term fix for now.
"Well that is good then, now let's go eat that meat shall we." I said heading towards the Kitchen with Gnarl following me licking his lips as the smell of the cooked meat penetrated our senses
It was…good.
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It had taken me around four months to fix the tower up and redecorate the place with Gnarl and the minions help. During which I had gotten the hang of the spells like [Telekinesis], [Transmutation] and [Restore], [Cure] got some good practice too.
[Telekinesis] was a skill that Gnarl said that if I mastered it, I would master as aspect of the universe. It was powerful and ridiculously diverse in its application with the top-tier telekinesis users being gods in their own right. Still after four months I was quite far off from that level and had to do with just lifting a few boulders at a time.
[Transmutation] was an OP skill as it allowed me to transmute various materials from existing materials. Some of the things the past Overlords did with this skill was truly Godlike going as far as to even transmute light itself, thoroughly bypassing or outright ignoring the laws of Conservation of Mass. I could also do that on a minor scale but nothing like creating a castle out of a molehill yet, but soon, soon I would be able to do those absurd things. Yeah magic was bullshit like that.
[Restore] was a spell that acted both as a healing spell and a repair spell as it could restore both organic and inorganic items and materials, though for now I had only mastered the repair side of the skill as the healing side was quite difficult to master.
[Cure], a spell used to cure ailments, diseases and poisons, I used it to the fullest to tackle, the numerous paralysing poisons and lethal poisons that some of the more nasty animals and plants of the island employ. It was really good practice but not one I enjoyed.
Apart from these four spells, my elemental spells [Agni], [Iód], [Iwa] and [Vayu] were coming along nicely too and I even got to practice them in live combat against some of the more violent inhabitants of the island.
Basic as they were they still were quite deadly in their own right and due to my ability to visualise things clearly these spells were forming the cornerstone of my fighting style.
Gnarl did say that later on I will learn some advance spells that made use of the surrounding natural energies to sustain and empower itself, but he would teach me that after I learn how to control my own powers and spells so that I don't accidentally unleash a spell that will siphon off all the energies of a planet and destroy the world as a result.
'If you are going to destroy a world do it intentionally not accidentally during practice.' Gnarl said, not as a warning about the consequences of the misuse of my power but because he probably wanted to see the cowering scared faces of the inhabitants when I destroy a world, which he could not do so when I did it accidentally.
Yeah he really wanted me to go on the Evil Overlord route but from what I had learned the past months about the races present in the Multiverse, there were some that I might have no qualms destroying due to the various crimes and atrocities they had performed over the years. And I might even destroy certain worlds due to their very existence being an insult to my very ideas and beings. I really hope that I don't have to do that in a long, long time.
Still my studies in magic were going pretty well even with my less than average magical reserves which Gnarl said should increase as I kept practicing the Heavenly Star Cultivation, so that was not a big deal for me.
Gnarl even taught me some runes spells but said that I was not going to become a master of that craft in a long, long time, with the most optimistic estimate being 130 years, which was a long time for me, even with the now broken time dilation powers I had.
Yes, I had also learn the skill [World Door] the portal spell that allows me to manipulate the flow of time and create a hyperbolic time chamber like environment. But even though I could use the skill and dilate the time, it was still nowhere near the level that Gnarl could perform. My best was just a 1 second to 5 second ratio, nothing like Gnarl which had second to day conversion rate.
Well after four long months of training and restoring the tower I was finally ready to summon my first custom minion.
Gnarl had been quite persistent in telling me to start summoning my custom minions and start creating my own minion system as starting now would give me quite the needed practice due to the free time I had on hand which I might lack later on as my duties as The Overlord take priority and consume much of my time.
While the idea merit, I did not want my first minion to be just a run of the mill cannon fodder. No, I wanted my first minion to be something that would stand with me till the end of my empire and stand head and shoulder above my other minions and take place as my general in the field.
For this I turned to my games and anime and other media to find the most appropriate model. Yep the system I was creating would use the characteristics of fictional characters to empower my minions.
At first I thought of using Goku and Superman as the basis for my first minion but I found out that they were just too, too strong to control and were simply just too much above my level for me to put them down or re-establish my control in case they got out of my control, which Gnarl admitted could happen when the minion had too much 'instincts' to follow his commands naturally.
So no I was not going to use them for now, maybe later when I had grown stronger I would attempt pursuing that idea but for now I had to look to other avenues.
Following that method I started discarding a lot of names and characters that I had gathered up as suitable basis for my minions. In the end, I found that some were just too weak with no potential for extra growth or just too strong for me to have reliable control over them.
But I still managed to make a suitable list of characters that could serve as a basis for my minions.
Most of them were characters from Fate Stay/Night and thus I thought that it would be better if I created something akin like the Servant system for my minions. In that regard Gnarl had been quite the big help in hammering out the kinks and refining the system I wanted to employ.
"Sire, after seeing your plans for the minions, I must say that it is quite ambitious of you to create something of this sort." Gnarl said, as he followed me to the chamber where I was going to create my first minion.
"Yes and with the style of minion creation we are going to employ and the hard upgrades we will give to the lesser minions, we will be quite well off for now before we upgrade to better ones." I replied thinking of the grand armies that would soon be in my command.
Yeah, I was letting the power get to my head and Gnarl was not helping matters either but I wanted to indulge myself a bit after four months of training and preparations.
"Oh yes, past overlords did use minions to conquer worlds and patrol the land but with this method, you will bring new fear to the word minions and cannon fodder, my sire." Gnarl smiled for once truly impressed with me and my idea and let me tell you he was quite hard to please as he had seen quite a lot of things in his long life that some deeds while impressive were still overshadowed by other deeds that were greater still. So, I had to pat myself in the back for impressing him this one time.
Reaching the room, which was a hall in all but name, I saw that the ritual circles Gnarl and I had created for the task and the materials needed for the ritual were all present in their place. Models of units and figurines of the characters that I was going to use as catalysts for the ritual were all present, with my 'Player' class powers providing the Resources, Blood Orbs and Soul Stones, using its system. It was a really bullshit power that made quite a lot of things convenient for me.
Going to the centre of the hall I stood before the largest ritual circle, a circle specifically created for the sole purpose of creating my first minions and the special system I had created for my most powerful minions.
'The Heroic Servant System'
This system was basically a blend of a normal RPG-hero Class and the Servant System of FSN. The base classes would basically be Servant Class with some Changes that I had implemented with a levelling up system based on Blood Orbs and Soul Stones. It was basically the Chaldea Servant system from Grand Order with the Blood Orbs and Soul Stones replacing the Experience Cards.
The main difference was that I was not going to summon a Servant or anything of that sort, I was simply going to 'create' a Servant from the ground up which gave me quite the leeway in the 'stats' I would be allocate my minions and how the growth rate affects their stat gain, which I could later modify to my liking later on. It was quite the flexible system with Gnarl getting most of the credit he really did help sort out most of the kinks in the system.
I also made sure to make them 'adaptive' though it was nowhere near like the Zerg-adaptive but it came quite close to it.
I gathered up my thoughts and slowly filtered away the unneeded ones as I pushed all my focus into the ritual. Pouring my power into the circle, I activated it and willed it into the direction of my thoughts and wants, laying down everything I needed for the task.
My part was simply, I had to envision everything I wanted of my minion. From its shape and size, to the powers and abilities it would wield and everything in between.
It was not too easy a task, because even though I was able to envision single detail of the minion's appearance, envisioning the powers and abilities I was going to give it was a whole another ball game.
Still I was able to do so, and I had been able to sort out which powers and abilities I would give it now and which abilities my minions would gain later on. After that it was just a matter of thinking about its appearance and bringing it to life.
The circle roared to life and tendrils of magic flowed in the air as I saw the translucent figure of the minion float in the air.
She floated in the air like a pale blue ghost, almost transparent yet the details I imagined were all there from her face to down to her clothes. She was truly a sight to behold and one that I was going to bring to life.
After that was done, a blue box popped up in from of me asking me for confirmations of the next step.
Would you like to create the Minion?
Cost 10,000,000 Resources, 100,000,000 blank souls and 300,000,000 Blood orbs.
YES/NO
Seeing the cost I almost choked and lost my concentration then and there at seeing the cost of the minion. While my stores of resources had increased over the past few months after Gnarl had taught me how to harvest them from animals and plants without harming them, it still had not increased by much and thus the cost would take almost 80% of my entire resources bar the 'Resource' one.
Gnarl had also pointed out that the system we were using relied quite a lot on Blood Orbs especially if I wanted to create a lot of magic oriented minions. So creating this minion would mean that I would have to stick to non-magical minions for quite a while which to be honest would hamper quite a lot of plans I had laid out.
But upon gazing at the translucent figure of my minion, who looked like a goddess, I knew that it was going to be worth the cost. I could just later on harvest the materials or raid one of the hidden stashes to fill up my depleted resources. So it was no big loss for me.
Tapping YES, on the box, I felt the items inside the gauntlet flow into the material world in a stream of red, blue white and golden lights. The lights filling up the figure of the translucent image of the minion and I saw her gain what was human flesh and bones.
It was like seeing a pencil sketch being filled with colours with every part of them vibrant as the last. Skin that was white as snow, yet had hues of red that indicated the warm blood flowing within, lips pale and translucent were given the red colour of roses and a softness that seem to simply melt, hair that were but strands of blue light were given a golden glow bunched in a black ribbon. The armour was given form and metal as it wrapped her body in protection from forces beyond comprehension. Weapons of power were brought to reality as I saw swords, daggers and lance hanging of her body and waist waiting to be drawn into battle.
And lastly, I felt her being filled with power beyond measure, as every inch of her body flowed with magic, the red streams filling her with life and the golden stream seemed to go beyond simply empower the body of my minion.
Then in a brilliant flash of light the process was completed and I saw her in all her glory.
I don't know how long I kept staring at her but what I did know was that the figure before me was someone that in knew would always follow me to till the ends of time. The connection that I felt slowly establish between us was something I had no words for as the intense devotion I felt from her threatened to overwhelm my senses and being.
Gnarl had said that minions were loyalty incarnate and were devoted their very life and souls to serve the Overlord. I had not paid much stock to that when I had first heard it but now, now after feeling it I could not help but be in awe of it.
It also scare me to the bone of just how much control I had over the minions that my previous fears of them going out of control seem almost mote. Gnarl did say that minions with very wild instincts could go out of control and I knew now that it was certainly possible but…but I also knew that their instincts would always make them protect and serve me, even if they had to disobey my orders.
Yeah the only reason my minions would disobey me will be to protect me and their actions would always be for my own good too. That was the problem of having really devoted, near fanatical and Hyper-competent underlings. And I was going to lead an army of them.
Yeah this job just got a whole lot complicated.
I was broken out from my thoughts as I saw her, my minion, open her sea green eyes and with a smile greeted me.
"Servant Saber, Artoria Pendragon, reporting for duty, my master."
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AN: Yep this is a thing so what do you think of it. And yes Issei is being OOC but well Gnarl is pushing him to be an Overlord and his influence is not helping matters so yes This Issei won't be entirely the same as in cannon. Think of him as an OC if that help matters.