A Theory on Godhood: An Overlord Story

Chapter 34: Unfathomable Depths

Dear Enri,

This might seem sudden to be writing to you like this, but under the advice of Cthylla, I wanted to write out everything that's happened over the last few days.

A few days might not seem a long time, but time... it feels different in this place. Sometimes I'll start my studies early in the morning, working perhaps the full length of a work day, only to look out one of the windows and realize it's about time for lunch.

The sheer scale of this place is completely bewildering. The outside gives the impression of a single room cabin, but the inside seems almost able to house a small village. The library itself is an absolute marvel fit for a king, but the path there boggles the mind, at least at first.

It's just that what I'm learning here, I can't make heads or tails of it no matter what way I look at it. There are texts that reference countries and figures I've never even heard of, and of the monsters that lurk in oceans just off their shores.

Some of the material is stuff I already know, but a good portion of it is completely alien to me. It doesn't help either that Master Hermetis teaches through the art of silence and allegory.

I just hope that I can-

A sharp knock at his room door halted his quill, causing Nfirea to look up from his writing. A small pang of annoyance bounced around in his skull, only for it to quickly be stamped out when he remembered where he was.

"You can come in, I'm decent," the alchemist said, checking to make sure his robe was tightly fastened around his waist and standing up from his chair at his personal desk.

His door clicked, slowly opening to reveal one of the academy's servants with a tray of food. This particular servant he understood to be a "shoggoth", a shapeshifting, somewhat docile creature that could assume any shape it so desired.

This one wore a dark blue suit, with a lighter shade vest and sea green tie. The head was hairless and featureless, a blank canvas that betrayed no emotion whatsoever. Its dress shoes clacked as it walked over with the heavy tray.

Now that he settled into his studies, he'd been able to learn about the various servants and beasts that called the academy home. Shoggoths were the most common, as were the mimics, which hid in plain sight as household objects. Fish-like Dagon's Spawn, scuttling mind parasites, half-woman, half-fish sirens, the antennae headed Mi-go, the multi-formed Spawns of Chaos, and more populated the place, adding in a sense of horrifying wonder to watch their strange forms mingle with each other.

Out of all of them, only the shoggoths took up butler duties, bringing Nfirea his food, washing his clothing, fetching him for class, and bringing him work-study materials. Much like the one in his room now, shoggoths were a docile, calm creature, able to cater to the whims of those they served.

The food was slowly placed on a massive oak table that could seat an entire family. At first, the lavish accommodations had amazed him and entirely made him feel small, but as he got used to them, he felt like they might have been wasted on someone like him.

He wasn't ungrateful, far from it, but he considered himself a simple enough man. All his life, he'd been content with the business his grandmother and him made. He never needed or wanted riches that would benefit nobles, or any of the materialistic possessions that came with it. So long as he was able to continue his craft, he was happy as is.

Of course, Nfirea didn't want to be a bad guest in the academy of his teachers, so he did his best to make a "home away from home" so to speak.

Several sheets of paper were littered across his desk, composed of his notes and whatever else he saw fit to doodle and scribble down. The Emerald Book and Stylus sat at the center, the source of the loose sheets of notes. It had an infinite amount of pages, which could be torn out and instantly regenerated. The metal lantern, which he'd brought over from Carne and used as a night light, sat at the corner of his desk.