The Next Plan

Higashino Makoto reached the exit of Novas Aetir and took a ring from his backpack. It was called the Heart of the Doppelganger.

Its effect was a vastly weakened version of the Doppelganger racial ability, allowing him to change his appearance at the cost of reducing his attributes to eighty percent.

The advantage was that it couldn't be dispelled by the magic that saw through Doppelgangers.

As a cash-shop item, it not only offered no stat bonuses but actually lowered his abilities. He could only set one appearance, and he couldn't even change it with cash-shop currency.

In other words, if he wanted to choose a new appearance, he'd have to buy another one. It was an extremely unpopular cash-shop item.

The appearance Higashino Makoto chose was an improved version of the one he'd had in his previous life: a handsome man with black hair and black eyes.

This was the appearance Higashino Makoto planned to use for his "alt."

As a transmigrator, how could you expect to get by without a few disguises?

Besides, thanks to his own actions, the name "Amon Nicola" was probably fairly well known among the players who had survived to the end.

He wasn't sure how many people knew that Novas Aetir was his guild base, but there were definitely people who knew he had quite a few World Items in his possession.

To make his enemies lower their guard, it was better to use a different name.

So Higashino Makoto used the ring to take the place of the vanished Ring of the Eternal Serpent.

After leaving Novas Aetir, he used Greater Teleportation toward a certain location.

"Super-Tier Magic: World Change" was a Super-Tier spell capable of altering an area's climate. Its effects covered an entire region.

According to the information in the anime, its effects in the New World should have been enhanced enough to change a region's climate periodically or permanently.

After confirming that Novas Aetir was within the spell's range, he began casting in earnest.

It was a powerful spell that only players with caster levels of almost Lv. 70 or higher could use in the game, and its cooldown was shared by the whole party. It also had a very long casting time.

Of course, as a cash-shop player, he could use a cash-shop item to eliminate the casting time and make it instant.

The moment he cast the spell, a huge magic circle appeared above Higashino Makoto. Dozens of magic circles spun, rising and falling.

Higashino Makoto gripped it in his hand and used it without hesitation.

Fishing for trouble like Ainz was one thing, but there was always a chance of getting eaten.

People often said Ainz was playing mind games with the air, and anyone who watched long enough would realize that caution was indeed an important quality.

But he still didn't know exactly when he'd transmigrated. If it was six hundred years before the original story began, then the New World was still under the rule of the True Dragon Lords.

He might even end up having to save humanity alongside the Six Great Gods.

The era of the Six Great Gods wouldn't be too bad, actually. The Eight Greed Kings era would be much more troublesome: he'd have to fight the True Dragon Lords and guard against those backstabbers, too.

Using World Change would definitely attract the attention of anyone with an interest in such things. Should he make the first move?

Surely he couldn't be unlucky enough to run into a True Dragon Lord just by picking a random spot, right?

Thankfully, even after World Change took effect, there wasn't a single soul in sight.

The information-defense magic he'd released in advance hadn't activated either, so he could assume there were no enemies nearby for the time being.

Whatever. He'd go home and lie low for now.

He really wanted to head out into the New World and have some fun, but after thinking it over, he decided it'd be better to raise his level to 200 before going out to bully the locals.

(The protagonist didn't yet know the game developers had screwed him over.)

As for gathering information early on, didn't he already have a suitable World Item in his hands?

Huginn and Muninn were undoubtedly inspired by the two ravens of Odin, the king of the gods. They took the form of earrings adorned with two black ravens.

In the game, they provided individual information defense and wide-area information gathering.

When he equipped them on his left ear, one of the raven-shaped ornaments came to life and perched on Higashino Makoto's shoulder, while the other became a small raven tattoo on his earlobe.

Higashino Makoto also learned their respective names.

Huginn, who symbolized "thought," was the one that had become a tattoo on his earlobe. It was roughly equivalent to a level-100 information specialist with a focus on defense.

It made sure his information couldn't be accurately detected and could even mislead his enemies with false information.

"Not bad. I can swap out my equipment for hiding information and use something that boosts my attack power instead."

Muninn, who symbolized "memory," was the one on his shoulder. It was roughly equivalent to a level-100 information specialist focused on exploration, and it would get to work once given an order.

It could fly extremely fast, and Higashino Makoto could see and hear through its senses. He could even speak through its beak.

Although it had very little HP and could be killed by high-level enemies, Muninn wouldn't truly die.

After being "killed," it would respawn at his location at dawn the next day. Other than being unusable for the rest of that day, there was no loss at all.

All Higashino Makoto could say was that it was completely overpowered.

"Sure enough, the garbage game YGGDRASIL has no balance whatsoever!"

What? He was the one using the overpowered item?

In that case, never mind.

He held out his left hand, and Muninn obediently hopped onto his arm.

As Higashino Makoto stroked the raven's feathers, he gave it an order.

"Go gather information on the nearest human city. If you encounter an undead whose race is Overlord of Death, an adventurer named Momon or Ainz, or a high-level dragon, report back to me immediately."

"Go!"

With a lift of Higashino Makoto's hand, Muninn circled up into the sky.

Not long afterward, a wave of magic power appeared around it. It had probably used some kind of spell like "Divination."

Before long, Muninn seemed to have found what it was looking for and flew off in one direction without looking back.

He used Greater Teleportation to return to Novas Aetir and canceled the ring's ability.

As the saying went, life was all about food and drink.

If you couldn't enjoy yourself while alive, you might as well be dead.

That was one of the reasons Higashino Makoto had insisted on choosing the human race.

If he could gain immortality either way, then humans were the best choice for satisfying his appetite and his lust.

Or rather, they were pretty much perfect.

As a hedonist, Higashino Makoto had naturally put considerable effort into the dining hall.

He had summoned no fewer than three cash-shop monsters just to max out their "Chef" class!

Unfortunately, Novas Aetir had been built in too short a time, and many things were still unfinished. Most of the NPCs had been assigned to improve the defenses and construction of their respective domains, so they were completely swamped.

At the moment, most of the restaurants were empty and looked deserted.