Overlord: Hand of Greed

Chapter 1

In the days of YGGRSIL, players were restricted to only having one in game avatar. This was a feature of the game purposely implemented by the devs and while it was mildly infuriating to the players, it did make things easier. Outside of spells such as Perfect Warrior, there wasn't many ways to variate a player's fighting style to such a degree as to be of much surprise to anybody who had already faced them in battle. For example, a player who had specialized heavily in the tank role could not return to the next round of fighting as thief or mage class. This in turn made PvP battles much easier, as a truly skilled player could not simply rotate through different avatars to fight as whatever their opponent was weak to. This also had the added bonus of forcing players to band together as a team of two well rounded players against two specialized players would almost always result in the defeat of the former.

In this world however, finding such specialized talents was truly rare.

Unlike the game world of YGGRSIL, people of the New World put far more value into their lives and therefore less value in the trust of their teammates.

It wasn't that they could be truly blamed for this, as it was, a party wipe in YGGRSIL was fairly common, especially against powerful enemies like raid bosses. While it was annoying and especially frustrating for the loss of items and xp, it was never an unrecoverable loss. Such an event in this new world would naturally come with a much more dire cost.

As his time as Momon, Ainz had met a lot of individuals from the Adventure's Guild. While none of them had been particularly impressive, Ainz had watched them as a senior would see novice players. Those of Mithril rank and above he felt had at least some modicum of talent but even that potential seemed to be wasted on their pursuit of more moderately rounded skill sets.

One such team, known as the Mithril adventurer party, 'Fallen Light', was currently promptly knelt before the throne of the Sorcerer King in capital city of E-Rantel.

"You may rise." Ainz announced from his throne, raising his skeletal hand to the group.

"Thank you, King Gown-sama." Replied Jeste

From what Ainz could gather since their sudden arrival, Fallen Light consisted of seven members, of which Jeste was the leader and priest. A stern yet kind hearted man, he was tall, blond and donned ragged priestly robes. The others were the warriors; Buckthorne, Gambe and Derris, all armour clad veterans of their respective fighting styles, the group's mage, Amithal, Tonk the thief and Grey, the group's ranger. Each of them rose in near unison as a party used to royal audience.

"I am told you were discovered by my patrols scouting the areas around E-Rantel. Explain yourselves."

The matter had caught Ainz's attention rather quickly. If they were scouting for the location of Nazarick for the Re-Estize Kingdom, that would surely mean that an army was not far behind them in the future. After the display at Katze, the Kingdom would be either mad to challenge him again so soon or...

... they may have gained the support of the player who had use world items to attack Shalltear.

"Apologies for the intrusion Your Highness, but we have been hired by the guild in Re-Estize to hunt the bandit Rastil." Jeste explained rather calmly. Although he seemed a modest, almost impoverished man he didn't seem at all phased to be royal court. "His track led us over the border and into the Sorcerous Kingdom. It would appear that he and his band have disappeared into the forest of Tob."

"Is that so?" Ainz fumed.

As his time as Momon, Ainz had acquired knowledge on the general power structure of the guild. Bandits generally fell between Silver and Gold tier adventurers, with the higher ranks, like Mithril, reserved for far more dangerous monsters.

If Albedo or Demiurge had been here, perhaps they would've had more insight into the situation but as it was both of them were away on missions themselves and Ainz was reluctant to use the [Message] spell.

It was less that they would think that Ainz was incompetent, more the concern that they would take the matter as some kind of cruel test of their intelligence.

Suzuki the salaryman knew only far too well the pressure the cruel games of management could put upon a working suit just trying to do his best and thus vowed to handle it himself.

"Then do tell, why is this bandit so important that the guild felt necessary to send adventurers of the Mithril rank? As I understand it, you are near the best adventurers at the guild's command, wouldn't you be better suited to fight high level monsters?"

"You are too kind, Your Grace, but the answer is that the bandit Rastil is extremely dangerous. He is a talent holder."

"A talent holder?" Ainz mused. "What kind of talent does he hold?"

"His talent is called [Enhancement Greed]." Jeste explained. "He is known to surround himself with magic casters who enhance his abilities with repeated casts of lesser protection magic. Unlike regular magic where a repeated cast would prolong the duration of the spell, spells cast upon Rastil increase duration and their effectiveness."

What!? That's cheating!

A talent that allows him to stack the effects of enhancement magic!? That's insane!

[Lesser Attack Boost] was a common 1st tier spell in YGGDRASIL, it was given to nearly all magic caster classes in the game at party of their starting loadout. Once cast upon a target, it would raise their basic attack value by 3% for 30 seconds and while it wasn't much, it was quite useful for backliners to help give the edge over some of the more troublesome low level bosses.

A lot of players still used it at level 100 in pvp for its low cast value and its statistical nature. After all, 3% of an attack value in the thousands was then more than enough to go back and one shot a lot of those starter bosses.

If it's effects could stack...

3% becomes 6%, then 9%, 12%, 15%. Casting [Lesser Attack Boost] 100 times would make the target three times and strong.

Imagining one of TouchMe's critical hits being enhanced with x3 damage from a 1st Tier spell made Ainz unusually thankful to the shitty devs for not implementing such an unbalanced feature. YGGDRASIL would've been little more than a test of who could nuke the opposing time the hardest with damaged buffed super moves.

I suppose it wouldn't be anything for me to worry about as my resistances should still count any of his attacks as low level, right?

But then if it surpassed the threshhold...

COULD SOME NOOB DAMAGE ME WITH 1ST TIER SPELLS!? THAT'S SO BROKEN!

A calming aura took over as Ainz's frustration got it's usual reset.

Then again...

As a collector of rare items, having a such a rare talent at his fingertips was a very lucrative thought.

Could he use multiple casts of [Ironflesh] to make him as hard as Cocytus' exoskeleton? How many casts would it take? The effects stack but is there not a limit? Would his body break down or would his mind break first under such magical pressure?

Nazarick had learned so much through the experiments they had performed on the new worlders, to get the chance to research the possibility of limitless power...

Perhaps then Nazarick could be safe from the unknown.

No, no. I'm getting ahead of myself. There is a very high probability that these adventurers are simply misinformed. Deceiving your opponents is the first rule of PvP.

Curiosity once more brimmed the light with his sockets.

Still, I must see this talent holder for myself.

"Very well." Ainz announced, raising his hand to the air in practised regal form. "I shall allow you to hunt this bandit, Rastil, within my territory..."

It may have just been a trick of the light, but Ainz swore he saw the entire party slouch just a little from their stiff, bowed positions.

"... upon one condition."

The whole party stiffened back up again.

"Since this, Rastil, has intruded onto my territory, it is only fitting that I send a task force to eliminate such brigades. In which case, I would very much like to send one of my subordinates to accompany you."

Turning his imposing gaze to the side for a brief moment, the maid to the left of throne room eagerly trotted to open a side door.

In strolled a figure they had all met only once before.

"Momon shall be aiding you on your quest."

"Oh but sir-" Jeste spoke up, only for his words to be stopped in their tracks.

"You wouldn't be so foolish as to enter my court and try to deny my right as king now, would you?" The indomitable menace of the tiger's fangs aura'd around his kingly presence as he commanded the room into submission.

"No! Of course not, King Gown. I only worry that with such a high profile adventurer accompanying us, we might not be recognised for the reward..."

"Ah, I see, yes, that would be troublesome." Ainz took his boney hand to his chin. "Well, fear not, as I shall be sending Momon with you in secret. I do not wish to make public that brigades are roaming my territory. The story will go that you caught him as he attempted to cross into my territory and none need know the difference."

Come to think of it, how haven't my patrols caught him anyway?

I suppose if he's not from around here then it would make sense that he's not wanted in E-Rantel and as long as he's not currently breaking any laws then my patrols won't classify him as criminal.

I was lucky that it was demonkin that stumbled upon the adventurers as they might have slipped under the radar too.

I hadn't really considered it too much before but now that I think about it using Undead as patrol forces might be a bit more problematic than I imagined.

"Then it would be our honour for host him on this quest, King Gown!"

"Very good." Ainz relaxed on his throne. "One last question for you, the request you took from the guild for this job, what did it say exactly?"

"'Defeat the bandit Rastil and return the hostage'." Jeste repeated from memory.

"'Defeat'? Not 'kill'?"

"I believe so, King Gown."

"Then you will be satisfied if he is defeated and entered into my custody then? It will satisfy the terms of your request, no?"

"I do not understand the difference but I hold no objection, King Gown. So long as we get to return the hostage then the terms of our contract will be satisfied."

"Very good. Then you understand your mission, Pand- errr, Momon? You are to accompany these adventures to aid in the defeat and capture of the bandit Rastil. This mission is to be carried out discretely and he is to be returned to the custody of the Sorcerous Kingdom."

"Yes, I understand."

"You vowed to me that you would put down any criminal activity that arose in this city, I believe this falls into that domain." Waving his mighty, kingly hand, Ainz announced his lines, hoping to keep Momon's cover in front of the meagrely ranked adventuring party. In the future they may prove to be a useful connection to have. "I am eager to see results from this."

"If you would permit me one question?" Pandora's Actor responded in a more deeply serious Momonic voice.

"Speak."

"When you say '(I) shall accompany them' do you mean 'I shall accompany them; or 'Momon shall accompany them"

"I mean you shall accompany them." Ainz realised just what Pandoras Actor was asking him. "I mean you-, I mean, Momon. Momon shall accompany them."

"Yes, of course." Momon dashed his head back down in affirmative, yet slowly rose it again. "Momon as in Momon the Black or Momon as in Momon of Darkness?"

"Err... M-Momon-..."

How am I supposed to know which is which!?

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