Chapter 21

  Upon their return to the main floor, Ludmila found Ilwé Linum and Glasir Gel Gronvidr glaring across the potted tree at one another. The Death Knight was still holding onto the pot. Both the Dryad and the Elf had a hand on the edge of the pot, though it seemed that they had given up on trying to wrest it from the Death Knight’s armoured grip.

  At the sound of their approach, Ilwé Linum lowered herself reverently before Lady Aura and Lord Mare. In response, the two siblings seemed to be trying their best to ignore her.

  Ludmila still had no idea why Elves acted that way around the Dark Elf twins. Lady Aura and Lord Mare treated it as an annoyance at best, and Ilwé Linum barely spoke at all. Even Merry, the free-spirited and easy-going Adventurer, turned deferential in their presence. This deferential behaviour usually came in the form of a sort of care of the twins, treating them as if they were indescribably precious. On rare occasions, however, they reacted with wariness.

  “Glasir,” Ludmila said. “Have you given further thought to the idea of staying in Warden’s Vale?”

  “Erm…no?” Glasir looked up at her blankly, “Was I supposed to be doing that?”

  She wasn’t sure if it was just the way that Dryads were, but Glasir seemed remarkably oblivious to anything but threats to her tree. Then again, she was probably less than two hours old.

  “I hadn’t specifically asked you to, no,” Ludmila said. “I have no right to detain you, but I would welcome a Dryad such as yourself with open arms. The foundations for the city here have just recently been raised, which is why it appears as an expanse of barren stone. In the future, however, it will become a place with an abundance of verdant spaces. As Lord Mare has mentioned, you are a very special Dryad. Your presence here would be a great boon.”

  “Special…I don’t feel very special. Not in a good way, at least…I actually think there’s something wrong with me. I was born in the autumn and my tree is tiny. It’s in a pot. My leaves are all shiny, too! A-and I don’t think trees are supposed to glow…”

  Admittedly, trees were not supposed to glow. Nor did they have shiny golden red leaves all year long. With the advent of the Sorcerous Kingdom, however, a tree that glowed slightly was far down on the list of realities to question.

  “It’s because the tree you were born from is Divine Ash,” Lord Mare’s voice came from her left. “They don’t all have leaves like yours, but they're still the same species. Divine Ash doesn’t fall asleep in the winter – it grows in every season, so being born in the autumn isn’t weird.”

  “…really?”

  Glasir turned a suspicious gaze to her tree. Lord Mare’s eyes turned teary, and his lip quivered.

  “A-and look!” He held up his staff, “Divine Ash is valuable, too! My staff is made from Divine Ash.”

  The Dryad’s head snapped around, eyes wide. Her head went up and down as she compared her wrist to Lord Mare’s staff.

  “N-n-no…” Glasir shook her head, “Nooooo! I don’t want to–”

  “Ah, annoying!” Lady Aura suddenly shouted, “This is why Dryads are…all they do is scream and complain! Kindling! Just turn her into kindling – that’s all she’s good for. Just give up, Mare, we can use the other trees: ones without annoying Dryads.”

  Behind Glasir, the Death Knight set down the pot and drew its flamberge.

  “Waiiiiit!” The Dryad screeched, “I’ll do it! Don’t chop me up!”

  Lady Aura crossed her arms and looked over at Ludmila.

  “What do you think?”

  “Do they truly scream and complain that much, my lady?”

  “Uh-huh,” Lady Aura frowned. “Pinison was even noisier than this one. Was.”

  “Hm…”

  Glasir came over, falling to her hands and knees. She clutched Ludmila’s skirts with dewy tears in her eyes.

  “You’re…you’re supposed to be a Warden, right? A-a-are you going to let this happen? I’m a nature spirit, you know!”

  “She really is noisy,” Ludmila murmured.

  “I-I’m sorry I wanted to go away!” Glasir cried, “I’ll do whatever you want – you can plant me wherever you want!”

  Ludmila placed a hand on Glasir’s leafy head.

  “I suppose we can see how you do as my vassal,” she said.

  “A ‘vassal’?” Glasir sniffed, “What’s that?”

  “If I were to put simply, it is someone who has sworn their service to someone else in exchange for land, security, and certain rights. In your case, it would mean that you would be allowed to live here under my protection. In exchange…Lord Mare, are Dryads Druids?”

  “Eh? Uhm, no, they’re just Dryads. Dryads have some Spell-Like Abilities that are Druid spells, but they aren’t innate Druids like Nymphs. Let’s see…they can use Twine Plant, Speak with Plants, Tree Shape, Charm Person, Deep Slumber, Woodland Stride and Suggestion. Since they’re Spell-Like Abilities, they’re more like Skills? They’re really good for her current level, but the magic stays at the potency of a Level 18 Druid no matter how much stronger she gets.”

  For someone who was just born an hour or two ago, her magic was quite powerful. Humans truly had an uphill struggle for survival in the world.

  “Would it make sense for her to become a Druid?” Ludmila asked.

  “Un,” Lord Mare nodded. “It’s really useful for plant-type Heteromorphs to become Druids. The spells that I’ve been using to improve crop yields are Third-tier druidic magic, so they can use their own magic to feed and grow themselves. Even Demihumans like the ones that came to live up in the mountains around here use those spells to cultivate their alpine gardens. Anyway, I think it’s perfect for her job, but…”

  “…but?”

  “Dryads are kinda lazy. At least the ones that live around our place.”

  “Yeah,” Lady Aura said, “when they’re not picking fruit, they sort of just hang out around their trees and veg.”

  “‘Veg’?”

  “Sleep, stand around, do nothing. Kinda useless.”

  Ludmila looked down at Glasir.

  “D-d-don’t compare me to those other Dryads!” She huffed indignantly, “I’ll be the best Dryad Druid ever!”

  Glasir stood up again, brushing off her knees. Ludmila frowned at her appearance, eyes going back and forth between Lord Mare and the Dryad.

  “Is it possible for your foliage to grow in a more…modest arrangement?” Ludmila asked.

  “What does ‘modest’ mean?”

  “The people around here cover their bodies,” Ludmila explained. “Something like what Lord Mare is wearing would be fine.”

  The Dryad regarded Lord Mare with some confusion.

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  “But Dryads are female?” She said, “I-I don’t think I can grow huge leaves or even that much foliage, but I can try to imitate her.”

  Glasir pointed to Lady Aura. Ludmila lightly slapped the top of her hand.

  “Ow!”

  “It’s not ‘her’,” Ludmila told the Dryad. “You need to address others properly. Lady Aura and Lord Mare are both very important people. You’re lucky they’re not as strict as Lady Shalltear, or you might have ended up short a hand.”

  “A-a hand?” Glasir looked down and started counting off her fingers, “I don’t even know how long that would take to grow back!”

  “That’s why it’s important to treat people with the proper respect,” Ludmila said. “I can teach you everything you need to know over time, but we should cover what you will be doing, first.”

  Ludmila went into Nonna’s office, gathering supplies, a spare map of the island and a satchel to carry everything in. When she came back out into the hall again, everyone was standing near Glasir’s tree.

  “Since you two are doing your usual thing now,” Lady Aura said, “I’m gonna head out.”

  “Thank you for arriving on such short notice, my lady,” Ludmila lowered her head, “as well as for everything else.”

  Glasir flinched as Lady Aura hopped into her tree with a parting wave. The Dryad’s fingers tentatively ran over the bark of its slender trunk, face painted in an expression of disbelief.

  “…that isn’t going to happen all the time, is it?” She asked.

  “Lord Mare uses that tree as a teleport marker,” Ludmila answered. “So unless he chooses another tree, he’ll be going in and out of this one whenever he comes by.”

  “Since Dryads have Woodland Stride,” Lord Mare said, “it shouldn’t be that weird, should it?”

  The Dryad cast a dissatisfied look at her tree.

  “I can’t use it,” she said.

  “You can’t?” Lord Mare tilted his head, “Ah, I get it – your tree is too small.”

  “That’s right!” Glasir pouted, “I can’t even hide inside my own tree! How stupid is that?”

  “What spell do you use to teleport around the Sorcerous Kingdom, Lord Mare?” Ludmila asked.

  “That’s the Sixth-tier Druid spell Transport via Plants,” Lord Mare answered. “Both Transport via Plants and Woodland Stride are teleportation-type spells, but there are some big differences. Transport via Plants is basically the Druid version of Greater Teleportation. I pick a plant, choose a destination, and the spell finds the closest plant of the same type to send me and the people I’m taking with me to. So say I want to go to E-Rantel: I cast the spell targeting the Divine Ash here, and it will pick the closest Divine Ash to E-Rantel to teleport me to. Since there’s only one Divine Ash in E-Rantel, it will always teleport me to the same place.”

  In a way, it seemed more powerful than the teleportation spells that other casters had access to. They either needed a degree of familiarity with the target area or set it as a teleport point. Transport via Plants only required the same type of plant at both the departure and destination points. It was not as convenient as the other teleportation spells that could be cast from anywhere, but if one ensured the species of plant at each point was unique, it could be just as reliable as Greater Teleportation. One could also carry a potted tree with them as a sort of portable teleport point for others to use. Not that there were many Sixth-tier Druids around.

  “How does Woodland Stride differ?”

  “Transport via Plants only requires a medium-sized plant,” Lord Mare said, “but Woodland Stride requires a tree that is at least as wide as the caster. I-it’s still a really good spell, though! Woodland Stride is a long-duration, short-range teleportation effect that lets you move from one tree to another tree up to one kilometre away in a single ‘hop’. The effect lasts one hour per three levels, and it lets you teleport an additional time every three levels. Going in and out of the same tree counts as one hop. The Dryad version is a Skill that they use to hide inside their trees and get around their groves. In combat, I can cast a spell, hop into a tree when my enemy gets too close and pop up elsewhere to cast spells at them again. Or I can cast it on someone that wants to close distance on an enemy the same way. It works really well when big sis and I both use it to juggle enemies around.”

  “That does seem very useful,” Ludmila said. “What tier of magic is Woodland Stride?”

  “Uhm…Fifth.”

  So much for having it available to employ in regular tactical use. One needed a Druid in the realm of heroes just to cast it. Or be a Dryad. It did not mean that she would never encounter an opponent that used it, however…

  “Is there any way to deal with an opponent that uses Woodland Stride?”

  “Without any advance preparation,” Lord Mare said, “You can brute force it with Dimensional Lock. That would be trading an Eighth-tier spell for a Sixth-tier one, though. Then the Druid can just bring the fight out of the radius of the Dimensional Lock effect. Most casters capable of Dimensional Lock can’t sustain themselves as well as Druids, either, so it’s to our advantage. Hmm, what else…hallowed or unhallowed areas with Dimensional Anchor effects will stop it within their area, then there’s Lopsided Duel which is a Third-tier spell that teleports you to wherever your target teleports to. Again, most casters don’t want a Druid anywhere near them, so it’s to the Druid’s benefit if they cast it. The only thing I might not like is if a warrior uses a Skill that produces an effect similar to Lopsided Duel. There are worse ones that keep bringing you back to them, too.”

  “I’ll work on that.”

  “Eh?”

  Lord Mare blinked and looked up at her.

  “Well,” Ludmila said, “if even you think it’s annoying, it would probably be a nightmare for any opponents that I run into. Do you know anyone with a Skill like that? I have no clue how to begin developing this sort of Skill or Martial Art.”

  “Mmh…Aura doesn’t have one, but Albedo and Cocytus might. Albedo especially – she’s a tank, so she should have some Skills that help keep targets from escaping to attack others.”

  Despite being a Noble of the Sorcerous Kingdom for over half a year, Ludmila had never seen the Prime Minister. This was actually not abnormal – in fact, a minor noble being able to see so many royal courtiers was abnormal. Still, it felt a bit strange considering that she had recently been in the company of the Sorcerer King for two weeks.

  A rustle of leaves sounded beside them, and Ludmila realised that she had gone off on a tangent with Lord Mare. She and Lord Mare often became absorbed in whatever topics that they were covering, which was why Lady Aura tended to leave them. Ludmila pulled the map from the satchel before handing it to Glasir.

  “These are all for you,” Ludmila said. “The first thing you will need to do is learn how to read, write, and work with numbers, so I will be enrolling you at the village school. Classes begin after midday and run until late afternoon, so I can arrange for other activities in the morning and the evening.”

  Ludmila tapped her chin in thought, looking down at the map in her hands.

  “You should be able to learn from the Lizardman Druids when they hole up in their homes for the evening. In the mornings, you can wander around familiarising yourself with the island…do Dryads need to sleep?”

  “Dryads are nature spirits,” Lord Mare said. “I’m not sure if you can call it sleep like regular living creatures sleep, but they’re usually active during sunlight hours and can become dormant, which looks like they’re sleeping.”

  “What if we provide her with magical lighting?”

  “Plants still have day and night cycles,” Lord Mare told her, “so I don’t think it will work the way that you probably think. Also, uhm…you’re getting scary.”

  “Scary, my lord?”

  “Yeah. She was just born a few hours ago, right? You’re already trying to figure out how you can maximise her utility.”

  Maybe she had become too accustomed to working with the Undead. A cold droplet of worry trickled through her at the possibility that, as an Undead being, she might be losing her empathy for living things. It was not something that she had any desire to relinquish.

  Her gaze went over to Glasir, who only watched them nervously. The exchange with Lady Aura had probably been too much, as well.

  “…you’re right,” Ludmila said. “I’m sorry, Glasir – I got ahead of myself trying to figure out how you could best fit in.”

  Ludmila went over to the dining area, motioning for Lord Mare and Glasir to join her. Not only had she been treating a newborn Dryad poorly, but she was also being a poor host. Lluluvien hadn’t come in yet, so she produced the magically-preserved meals from her Infinite Haversack. Lord Mare’s eyes lit up at the sight of the sandwiches and village stew, and Glasir examined her cup of water curiously.

  That’s why it’s important to treat people with the proper respect.

  She probably seemed like a self-serving hypocrite.

  Withdrawing several sheets of paper and a pen, Ludmila took a deep breath as she settled herself. Though Glasir looked and communicated like an adult, she was essentially a child. The Dryad wasn’t anything like the babies that had just been born to her household, but she was still a newborn under her care.

  “Let’s start over again,” she said. “Properly, this time. Beyond the tidbits of lore that contain unverified information, I know very little about Dryads. Warden’s Vale will be your home from now on, Glasir, and you will be one of the most important people here. I would like to turn it into a place where you can flourish.”

  Potions, Scrolls, Magic Items and Spell-Like Abilities

  In Maruyama’s Overlord, the basic progression of Tier Magic in relation to Job Class Levels is fairly well understood. A magic caster of any Tier Magic system(Arcane/Divine/Spiritual/Other) starts with the capability to cast First-tier spells at Level 1. New tiers of magic become available every additional 7 levels, up to the Tenth Tier. Once 70 Job Class Levels in a single Tier Magic system are attained, Super Tier Magic becomes available, which are not so much spells as they are a type of Skill.

  Spells performed directly by a caster are subject to modifiers from their character build. This not only includes basic magical potency, but feats and special attributes that certain Job Class Levels use to enhance their spells. Furthermore, equipment can carry modifiers to spellcasting and a wide variety of metamagics can be employed for additional mana costs or some substitute resource(such as with Shalltear’s Blood Pool).

  The same spells can be provided by magic items, though this part is perhaps less understood.

  Rechargeable Items

  Early in Overlord, we see Nigun of the Sunlight Scripture use a Spell Sealing Crystal, which is essentially a chargeable device that delivers a spell exactly as it was imbued. Another example of such devices are Clementine’s stilettos, which are charged in much the same manner. In Volume 10, Ainz notes that the spell he unleashed through the stiletto on the Martial Lord was ‘too strong’, as it had been charged with a Fireball spell from Fluder Paradyne, and wonders if he should have asked a weaker magic caster to charge it.

  As far as canon is concerned, there doesn’t appear to be a limit to the number of times these items can be recharged, despite the ‘animation’ for some showing the item being used by destroying it. Additionally, these spells are pre-cast and pre-paid, meaning that they are already executed and cannot be further improved by the user. Also, no refunds.

  Charged Consumables

  These are the scrolls, potions, wands and other knickknacks that are expended upon use. Like rechargeable items, these spells are ‘pre-cast’ and stored, meaning that they cannot be modified by the user. Additionally, Yggdrasil’s crafting processes for these consumables are different from those used in the New World.

  The tier of magic that a scroll can be imbued with is dependent on the vellum(skin-based parchment) used. At the same time, scrolls cast a spell at a set level regardless of the crafter or user’s level. Scroll use is generally restricted to those of a class that can normally use the spell on the scroll, with the exception of classes with the Use Magic Device (UMD) Skill. Scrolls are single-use and burn up upon being activated.

  Fast-acting potions produced in the New World are similar to scrolls. An alchemical solvent is imbued with a spell rather than vellum. Unlike scrolls, however, the source of the ingredients can influence the potion’s potency. According to Nfirea Bareare in Volume 2, potions formulated from wild reagents are ten per cent more effective than those made from cultivated reagents. Potions are liquefied spells that can be employed by anyone, and mere exposure to the liquid is sufficient to gain the effects of the spell – one does not need to drink a potion to benefit. Potions are single-use: taking sips is not a thing.

  Wands are the most common form of multi-charge consumables and are stated to be more cost-effective than the same number of scrolls or potions. Like scrolls, however, wands come with class limitations. Presumably, like scrolls, wands can be employed by classes with UMD. Like other charged consumables, wands cast spells at a set level regardless of the user, and these spells are not modifiable.

  Magic Items

  Everything described here is technically a ‘magic item’, but the ones referred to in this section are the magic items that deliver on-use effects. The most well-known example of this type of magic item is the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. Another is the Orb of Death. Like charged items, they cast spells at a set caster level, but are not consumed upon use. Instead, there are conditions or timers for their use.

  Most commonly for those in the New World are items that can cast a certain number of spells per day. There are also more obscure items such as Lost White that cast unknown spells with undeclared conditions for reuse.

  On the utility side of things, you have items like Magic Lights, Shroud of Sleep, Heating and Preservation items that appear to have no limit and can be activated and deactivated at will. Their potency, however, is still set much like the above mentioned magic items and consumables.

  Spell-Like Abilities

  Spell-Like Abilities(SLAs) are among the most underexplored and understated parts of Overlord when it comes to the RPG-like mechanics of the world. They exist as more of a side mention or at least something that is taken for granted as common knowledge when it actually doesn’t seem to be. SLAs are loosely sorted out into Skills, Abilities, and fixed class spell lists in both Yggdrasil and the New World.

  The most clearly-documented user of SLAs is Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King. He has a whole slew of them, including his Undead Creation skills. Because they are so clearly documented, however, there is little confusion over what is a spell cast from this ‘spellbook’ and what is an Ability/Skill in his case.

  Nazarick’s denizens have long lists of SLAs that are often mistakenly equated to conventional Tier Magic casting ability. Characters like Evil Lord of Wrath, with his mishmash of Balor/Pit Fiend SLAs and Demiurge with his Archdevil’s toolbox are most likely to be confused in this manner. This, in turn, leads some readers to believe that the racial levels that confer these SLAs are similar to substitutable racial levels(like Skeleton Mage), making them flimsy casters…but they’re not. Some SLAs are also not perceived as SLAs at all. Those possessed by Shalltear and her Vampire Brides are examples of this, as is a Doppelganger’s ability to Detect Thoughts.

  The most well-known example of a New World character with SLAs is Hamsuke, who has eight different ones. One of them is a Blind spell(which is a Second-tier spell in d20), and Charm Species(which is Fourth-tier in Overlord). Hamsuke, however, is not a caster – she’s a ‘Magical Beast’ with a powerful statblock that lends to being a warrior.

  As in the d20 system that Maruyama uses as a systemic framework for Overlord, SLAs have varying activation conditions. The most common and usually the weakest can be performed at will with no restrictions. More powerful SLAs have a cost in mana, material components, or are limited to a certain number of uses in a set period. Ainz’s powered-down Demilich Undead creation Skills are a combination of per-day use and have an option of using a component(a corpse, in this case) to create a permanent low or mid-tier Undead servitor.

  One may cry foul when an already powerful creature also happens to have a bunch of SLAs that take powerful(by new world standards) casters to otherwise cast, but, like consumables and magic spells cast from items, SLAs have a set level/potency assigned to them. Hamsuke might have the Fourth-tier Charm Species spell at her disposal, but it casts at a very low level and is thus only useful against low-level targets. Who or what an SLA can target may also differ from the ‘spellbook’ version, with many becoming self-only or only usable for certain things.

  Dryads and their powers have been described before in Overlord with Pinison. In Valkyrie’s Shadow, Mare discloses the full list of Dryad SLAs with Glasir. These SLAs, while potentially potent if used in certain ways, do not increase in power as she levels, staying the same as they were from the moment she was born. As a plant Heteromorph, she is encouraged to become a Druid for all of the benefits it will provide. With enough Druid Job Class Levels, the SLAs she was born with will be overshadowed by their ‘spellbook’ versions.

  Does this make for a waste? It depends. Some SLAs have different activation methods and costs, so they can be useful in a bind(literally or figuratively) or when casting a mana-consuming spell is unnecessary. The set power of SLAs also makes them convenient when lesser effects are desired by caster characters who have out-levelled their SLAs. A Dryad’s Woodland Stride is noted to be especially powerful: with Pinison’s being good enough to foil even Aura’s Level 100 Ranger senses when used to hide. The tradeoff, however, is that Dryads can’t use it to teleport beyond a certain range since they get sick and die if they go too far from their trees.

  Regardless of whether a character’s race and build lean towards one niche or another, SLAs offer variance and flavour. In the New World, which is not constrained by the design restrictions of Yggdrasil, the applications of SLAs go beyond combat use to influence industry, culture, and daily life.

  There is one question that remains for readers of Overlord, however: if the majority of SLAs emulate Tier Magic spells, and Tier Magic was introduced by Players a mere five centuries before the events of the Overlord main timeline, then what did the New World’s SLA-using races – who presumably evolved over the ages to be what they are – have before the introduction of Tier Magic?