It was driving players insane.
Of all Raid-Bosses in YGGDRASIL, Gilgamesh was the only one left undefeated with only a few close encounters. The sole reason that prevented YGGDRASIL's actual game developers from intervening on the matter was that Gilgamesh was exceedingly imperious. If a party couldn't even meet his standards, he wouldn't even bother calling forth a World Item and instead would use something else in his treasury.
Thus, the optimum method to defeat the boss of Babylonia was to face him with the lowest tiered items and rely only on a player's skill instead, but it was easier said then done. Babylonia was considered a High-Level Dungeon and challenging it with mediocre equipment was difficult. Of the different races in YGGDRASIL, the Heteromorphic races had the distinct advantage in this case as regardless of which items the Heteromorphic races wore, the disdain in Gilgamesh's eyes was always obvious. Perhaps the biggest reason for this disdain was the notion of pulling out a treasure from his vault for a slime or a skeleton. As such, many Heteromorphic players generally banded up to challenge the dungeon. The Heteromorphic Guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, was the most ambitious for its members were the closest to defeating the boss.
Therefore, defeating him wasn't technically impossible, just unimaginably difficult for Humanoid-type players which comprised the majority in YGGDRASIL. But the reward was worth the effort. It was hinted by the developers themselves that Gilgamesh's expansion pack in YGGDRASIL was a means for players to obtain a guaranteed World Item upon completion.
By hinting so, it made for a reasonable explanation for Gilgamesh's difficulty as World Items were exceedingly hard to obtain.
Other than Gilgamesh, there were other such World Enemies present in the room, but none Shirou truly had to concern himself with for their personalities were far more amicable.
He released a breath, thoughts spinning as the others in the room began to murmur with one another.
These were all the NPCs he had taken the time and effort to create and seeing them like this caused his feeling to surge even with just Arturia alone. However, the one thing that troubled him was a glaring question. Were they the same people he knew, or were they just the representations of the programming and histories he had created?
Staring at Arturia's life-like eyes and expression, it wasn't a question that he wanted to know the answer to at the moment. Moreover, right now he needed to think without any distractions.
"I'll be back," he said curtly, causing the others in the room to simply nod.
"Then take care," Arturia said kindly. "Its never a bad thing to be overly cautious."
"Mhm," he replied, moving to the exit of the room and towards the dim light shining from outside.
Once he exited the mausoleum's walls and he knew that he was truly alone, the calmness in his eyes finally gave way to his inner turmoil and hopes.
Looking out around him at the thick canopy of trees and the mountainside that the mausoleum he had created was lodged in, he understood that the very world had changed.
The sound of scurrying rodents and cawing birds echoed out from the forest, the scene once again too life-like to have had been something YGGDRASIL was capable of creating.
With a single practiced motion, a finger flicked in the air, pulling down the familiar heads-up display of YGGDRASIL, a small panel filled with in-game options. And yet no log out option was available.
He frowned, unable to wrap his head around the entirety of the situation but he had enough supernatural experiences to not let his confusion mar his judgement.
Aside from the happenings regarding his created NPCs there was another glaring concern he had as he shot off into the forest looking for an isolated clearing.
Did the magics of YGGDRASIL transfer over too, or did he only have his own Magecraft to rely upon?
He wasn't certain and this was why he had taken decisive action, undergoing his first steps into a land in the New World that was currently divided into two factions. The North and the South separated by a gigantic bay that formed a side-wards U.
It was the territory of what was known as the Roble Holy Kingdom.
The Kingdom of the Maiden of the Holy Sword.
Back in the mausoleum there was a short silence before the majority of the occupants went back into the numerous rooms stored within the mausoleum's depths. They were somewhat like pocket dimensions often used in the various dungeons later reformed into guild bases in YGGDRASIL. The Great Tomb of Nazarick for example had been a dungeon that contained several floors leading up to a final boss that was eventually defeated by the newly formed guild Ainz Ooal Gown. These floors however, contained vastly different landscapes and environments that generally would not have had been able to be interconnectable in the same way as a desert couldn't exist within a tropical rainforest. Of course, YGGDRASIL was a game that could allow for such a thing, but the environments were generally rendered by different data crystals.
In this New World that everything seemed to have had been transferred to, these different data crystals that rendered different environments shifted into different dimensions found within the mausoleum.
Of the numerous NPCs that were once in the room, only a select few decided to remain behind, their gleaming armours and decorative silks eye-catching in the brightly lit room.
"Your majesty," A row of Knights gave their formal salute towards Arturia, the Raid-Boss of the Holy Kingdom of Camelot.
She glanced in their direction but didn't pay too much attention as her thoughts were still focused on the tumultuous emotions that had flickered across Shirou's eyes.
From her programming, she was generally a calm and composed individual who strived to build a Kingdom for the sake of others; a Holy land where the concepts of violence, hunger, and disorder were all but abolished. As such, she knew where her convictions and motivations lied, and yet when she had seen his face, for a moment, she had discovered a void forming in her heart. It was a feeling of loss and a yearning that she couldn't explain no matter how hard she contemplated.