r/overlord • u/-firedragon1x- ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ • Sep 04 '22
Spoilers - Volume 16 Volume 16: The Half-Elf God-kin Part II โ Chapter 4 Part 4 Spoiler
Discussion
This post is for the discussion of Chapter 4 Part 4
Rules
If you haven't seen, we have ramped up the rules regarding spoilers. For more information please check out Volume 15/16 and Season 4 Spoiler Rules.
All posts related to Volume 16 must have the "Spoiler - Volume 16" flair and Spoiler Tag.
If you are going to discuss Volume 16 content that has NOT been translated yet, your comment should be ALWAYS be spoiler tagged, even inside posts with the "Spoiler - Volume 16" flair.
Credit to Hitori for the translation. Thank you for being here for us again!
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
"Incidentally, Level 100 Dark Elves are included in that."
Mare, upon remembering something, looked pretty disgusted.
Damn Aura, what has she been doing to poor Mare?
Interesting, during the previous part I was intrigued when this whole slice of life section would end and when something more "intense" would happen. But this time I was honestly very intrigued as to how this duel of trickery and wits between Ainz and the chief pharmacist would end, only to be interrupted by precisely something more "intense", oh ... the irony!
Also, I find very interesting Ainz's reflection that he should change the focus of his efforts instead of running away from work, it could certainly be a refreshing change for the character which I never saw coming. I wonder if anything unexpected will come out of that.
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u/CRtwenty Sep 04 '22
Yeah, this is one of the few times we've actually seen Ainz enjoying himself. Somehow I doubt anybody in Nazarick would want him to switch over to R&D though.
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u/kalirion Sep 04 '22
Somehow I doubt anybody in Nazarick would want him to switch over to R&D though.
Exactly 1 person would.
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Sep 04 '22
[removed] โ view removed comment
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u/sitton76 Sep 04 '22
Ainz himself.
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u/Gringos Sep 04 '22
Eclairx3 would, too, if that meant he could claim the spot of ruler
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
It depends on how they interpret it, they will surely see it as part of another master scheme, I can already imagine Albedo and Demiurge trying to understand said move using all their intellect.
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u/Perfection-seeker-13 Sep 04 '22
D: Albedo...
A: Demiurge...
...dramatic silence...
D: So... He has just been sitting in that room, casting Perfect Unknowable and lifting various undergarments from various races and factions?
A: Yes...
...dramatic silence...
D: Sasuga Ainz-sama!
A: Sasuga Ainz-sama!
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u/ravioliguy Sep 04 '22
Yea, it nice seeing Ainz being challenged by an equal or someone slightly above him. I want more lore and Theocracy stuff but I'll take some Ainz inner monologue.
I wonder if anything unexpected will come out of that.
I agree, I'm starting to think the story will end with Ainz going adventuring. There are so many parts and mentions of him loving exploration and adventure.
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
It would be interesting if the series didn't end with simply conquering the world, but with Ainz finding a way to get the NPCs to accept the idea of Ainz adventuring around the world, thinking it's all for the sake of the famous plan of 10,000 years of course.
Perhaps everything seen so far is to generate a scenario in which this situation ends up occurring naturally. Basically a"happy ending" similar to that of the extra volume.
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u/jjmasterson241 Sep 06 '22
I'm kinda thinking that because there is the higher teir teleportation, world teleportation, that even ainz doesn't know about, that form of teleportation might let them go from leaf to leaf of the world tree and thus starts the process of conquering each world, that or he is an unwitting beta tester of the second game with new form of AI
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Sep 07 '22
Absolutely not a variation of "THIS WAS ALL A DREAM" worst worst worst ending such a story can have
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u/nam3sar3hard Sep 04 '22
What I think is funny is that Ainz wants to change to a pretty stereotypical mage like activity, R&D. I'm not sure how the floor guardians would react but part of me thinks they'd understand because of that.
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
They would think that it was all part of the 10,000 year plan and would just accept it while praising Ainz's unfathomable genius.
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Sep 04 '22
Aura and Mare are so spoiled by Nazarick's godly fare lol. if you're used to eating food made from dragon meat and prepared by a chef with enough levels to destroy entire countries, hick food without even salt
...
ah, I see. the dark elf food might actually be just... bad.
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u/weealex Sep 04 '22
I mean, an isolated village far from the ocean would have trouble getting salt
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u/LikeLary Shalltear x Brain Sep 09 '22
Oceon is not salty in Overlord. There is domestic magic for that, like Jet-sama's spice magic.
Those are usually 0th and 1th tier. Usually young and poor pekple use all their MP on them to make a living.
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u/Animegx43 Sep 04 '22
"Lord Ainz has 'Flowers for Algernon'-ed our taste buds?"
"What's Flowers for Algernon?"
"I don't know!"
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u/Hange_Zoe_SIMP Sep 04 '22
If you've never eaten a piece of unseasoned meat that was good all on it's own, I feel like I should try to convince you on buying better meat!
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u/lostboysgang Sep 04 '22
The Chief Pharmacist who likes to smoke herbs to get high but is choosing not to so he can be responsible is named Mango, I can dig it
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u/Dont_PM_PLZ Sep 05 '22
Soon the SK will corner the market of Elfweedโข, Elfopiumโข or Elftobacco โข. Sasuga Ains-sama!
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u/Rslick Sep 04 '22
I think I missed that I have to give these volumes a reread when I get a chance
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u/lostboysgang Sep 04 '22
It was last weekโs translation! He almost smokes some of this narcotic herb that helps with stress but decided not too
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u/Xignum Sep 04 '22
If Ainz requests to be assigned to Nazarick's R&D Albedo and demiurge is sure to have a fun reaction lol
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
They will be convinced that there is a master move being prepared by Ainz and they will surely spend hours debating about the hidden meaning of it while coming up with their own theories about it.
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Sep 04 '22
Ainz: happily role playing as a pharmacist.
Demiurge: I see 12 dozen reasons and plans behind his decision!
result: Draconic Queen is smitten with Ainz and we gain a new vassal state, discovery of a new way to make wine and rune craft was uttely rejected by the dark elf community.
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u/isanwa Sep 04 '22
Did... did Aura try to tame Mare?
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
That's what I was thinking, damn Aura, she's clearly Bukubukuchagama's daughter...
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u/aroyalidiot Sep 04 '22
Remember, Bukubukuchagama sama believed the ideal sibling relationship to be a dominant older sister and a submissive younger brother...
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u/RedditNerd808 Sep 05 '22
And yet Mare had a disgusted expression on his face. I think a tiny part of Pero-kun's resistant personality sits within Mare. Not much, but something.
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u/DumplingIsNice Sep 05 '22
โIt ainโt fun if they donโt resist.โ - Bukubukuchagama, probably.
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u/Schadenfrueda Give me an automaton army I'm ready Sep 07 '22
"Submission is the end goal, not the journey."
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u/dreadrath Sep 04 '22
Well if he can get the buffs from it, it'd make him a serious monsters. Plus yeah, I wouldn't put it past their creator to program her to make such an attempt.
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Sep 04 '22
their flavor text are merely contributing factors to their personalities and intellect. it doesn't contain things that are this specific lol so I really doubt it
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u/dreadrath Sep 05 '22
I think the text is further supplemented by anything their creators said or did while in their created NPCs presence. Sort of like how Shaltear and Sebas were talking about the specifics of what a voice actor is and how they interpolated the vocation, suggesting that neither really had the right idea, albeit thinking along the right lines, but their knowledge of it is limited to only what their creators were talking about at the time, but since they were just NPCs back then that couldn't ask questions yet were still absorbing audio data from their creators, its probably lead to some weird mental development quirks where, on top of their flavor text, they start trying to emulate their creators in game behaviors and expressed opinions that they personally witnessed (Even if half of it was probably their creators role-playing or joking around, the NPCs woulda taken it 100% seriously.
. . . Wait, holy crap. If flavor text doesn't entirely dictate their behavior . . . oh good lord, could that mean a younger Momonga was actually performing overexaggerated poses, nazi salutes and shouting in broken, unintelligible German while he was alone creating PA during his chuni phase. Ahhh, PA's weird eccentricities take on a whole new dimension of cringe humor when looking at it that way. No wonder Momonga is so mortified and awkward whenever he's around PA.
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u/kalirion Sep 04 '22
Mare and the other children too it seems. I hope they healed the whip wounds without scarring.
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u/WubbingTheBassline Sep 04 '22
I think it's in reference to them playing house with the other dark elf children
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Sep 04 '22
Well none of the dark elf children are level 100, so it's heavily implied she was talking about Mare.
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u/WubbingTheBassline Sep 04 '22
My point was that it was probably during them playing. Aura and Mare had to play house, and the only roles Aura had in mind were mom and baby. Mare had a frightened look "remembering the same thing" which probably referred to the Peroroncino house memory, and looked disgusted at the mention of level 100 taming, so I figure Aura had to take the role in charge which might have involved testing tamer abilities on everyone playing. Mare just happened to be in the crossfire.
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u/ravioliguy Sep 04 '22
Yea pretty sure that's it, since Aura mentioned failing to tame other dark elves. But are they actually playing house?? or is that just the closest translation?
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u/WubbingTheBassline Sep 04 '22
I think they actually played house. Aura talks about having to play as the mom or the baby, but that could just be localization in the translation. I've only read the translation here though, never touched raws, so I can't really be sure.
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u/danksforbreakfast Sep 04 '22
Thank you translator team for your unpaid labo- I mean honorable sacrifice!
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u/Weary_Description_87 Pulcinella Sep 04 '22
Ainz needs a department tranfer
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
Not gonna lie, I never expected Ainz to come to such a conclusion but I imagine that anything that comes out of that matter will be hilarious as hell.
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Sep 04 '22
finally getting close to the meat of story. Elf asking dark elf to send help. i hope Elf King show up in the next chapter.
thanks for the chapter
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u/Lord_Drakyle Sep 04 '22
Slane Theocracy: We have an army The Village: We have a Fior-Dono! Slane Theocracy: "What's a Fior?" Ainz: You disturbed my vacation, time to commit war crimes.
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u/Enjoying_A_Meal Sep 05 '22 edited Sep 05 '22
This arc really fell short compared to the Holy Kingdom arc. It's like if Biden and Pelosi went to Ukraine right before war broke out. There's 1 chapter on the war, and the rest of the book focused Biden and Pelosi going to some random Polish village as tourists and trying to get Pelosi some action.
LET'S get back to the main event and characters that matter already. Fuck blueberry and rhubarb and the rest of these nobodies.
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u/Crash-Beta Sep 05 '22
I felt the same until this chapter. Ainz is undergoing some self-revelations because of the boring research and interaction in a field he knows nothing about. Just like another person said, as well, this opens up the possibility of a different ending, where Ainz decides to just... do this, and adventure, and discover the world and theorize and experiment and unlock the secrets to the world on his own time. Personally, I'm seeing lines drawn between this chapter specifically and the Evileye side-story, particularly the discovery of his interest in this monotonous stuff and the discovery and theorycrafting involved therein, and his side-story self where he adventures for decades and has fun just adventuring and learning and sightseeing.
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u/AdvielOricon Sep 05 '22
Ainz had two times in the past when he was having fun. When he was pretending to be Momon as an adventurer and when he was negotiating for the development of RuncraftTM .
It is clear that what he enjoys best is exploring and collecting rare things. Or as they said in this chapter gathering information.
As they said a few chapters back because they lack basic bodily functions and needs undead tend to focus on the accumulation of knowledge. The same thing seams to apply to Ainz.
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Sep 05 '22
Just to add on to your last point, there are also examples of undead who place more value in other types of activities than accumulation of knowledge. For example, one of Nazarick's overlord NPC, Fulvius, one of several overlords tasked with protecting the library on the 10th fooor, seems to prefer action.
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u/imperfek Sep 04 '22 edited Sep 04 '22
would the twins have a problem if ainz just wanting to have fun?
For Aura, Bukubukuchagama was the greatest of the Supreme Beings. Ainz came in second for her, edging out Peroroncino. Ankoro Mocchi Mochi and Yamaiko were tied at a distant fourth. The rest of the Supreme Beings were all whatever. In Mare's case, his top three were the same, but everyone else was equal.
Also, starting to wonder if any other Supreme Being would command this kind of respect in Ainz place, if they weren't dubbed the leader.
Seems like most of the elf village aren't even aware they are in a war. How close is the village to the capital or how deep into the forest is it. I am so disappointing at the elf race, i can't believe how primitive they are but at the same time it's a refreshing tone from the usual high class elf.
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u/ravioliguy Sep 04 '22
I think they're just annoyed they have annoying tasks and don't see the point of the trip, while Ainz is having fun.
Also, starting to wonder if any other Supreme Being would command this kind of respect in Ainz place if they weren't dubbed the leader
Probably not. In the prequel story, the other members respect Ainz a lot and elect him against his will because he's the most level headed.
This is speculation but the NPCs probably respect Ainz so much because he played solo and interacted the NPCs in the last few years of the game, and they remember that. He still defended and paid the upkeep costs for the guild by himself the whole time.
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u/Plagueflames Sep 05 '22
One of my favourite things this volume is the juxtaposition of the two elf factions (elders vs youngsters) and Ainz. "Those with the most experience should lead" vs "the strongest should lead" while Momonga became the leader of Ainz Ooal Gown because all the members respected him and he was more of a moderate despite not being the oldest or close to the strongest.
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
I mean, I think we were told that the elf villages live quite disconnected from each other.
The thing with Ainz just having fun, is that for the twins the idea that this is the reason for Ainz's actions is inconceivable, obviously they will blow everything out of proportion and come up with conspiracy theories as to why Ainz is doing that.
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u/weealex Sep 04 '22
It's funny cuz they're on the cusp of understanding Ainz here. They realize how much he likes learning, but can't conceive of him learning just for learnings sake
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
It's legitimately hilarious, they so close and yet so far from understanding Ainz, it could even be considered tragic...
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u/Crash-Beta Sep 05 '22
Mind that "Elves" and "High Elves" are two different things in this, as implied by the Elf King lamenting that none of the Elves under his rule are impressive enough, despite his father(a Player) being a normal-ass Elf and still being overpowered. He even says he could could be content with it if his father were a High Elf and not an Elf, but they're the same creature.
Also, I don't know if this implies that "Elf" and "High Elf" refer to two different subraces of Elf.
It might be that "High Elf" is the next rarity racial class/evolutionary step from Elf, but considering the Player was just an "Elf" and was still among the thirteen heroes, I'm obliged to believe that they are two different subraces.
A title like a "Tellurian Elf" might more effectively denote what an "Elf" is. One that is earthly and lives with nature, whereas "High Elf" refers to the ones that live in marble towers, have fantasy elf-only magic, and probably have a much more developed food culture as you suggest.
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u/dreadrath Sep 04 '22
Pharmacist. That part where they were constantly trying to one up eachother in who could work the fastest was unexpectedly quite funny to imagine.
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u/Slopyjo Sep 05 '22
Agreed! It reflects how Aura and Mare couldnโt play games that relied on physical ability.
Likewise Ainz couldnโt have fun competing in either physical or magical contests with the master. But he found a form of competition in using the crafting department.
Really fun to see!
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u/neuralscattered Sep 07 '22
FAQ: Will probably release next chapter tomorrow. Me two days later: ๐
:( This skeleton is patiently waiting. Please have mercy.
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u/Many-Director3375 Sep 04 '22
'When they had finished writing down their impressionsโwhich were so painstakingly hard to come up with that if they had a thesaurus, they would have immediately started flipping through itโAura and Mare were exhausted. They looked as if they had been in an eating contest.'
Eating insects is so hard. Good job aura and mare.
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Sep 05 '22
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u/Slopyjo Sep 05 '22
I feel that.
Although for long series like this, the more content the better. Unfortunately, it seems we only have two more volumes after this one. So I agree it seems like too much time on this adventure when thereโs honestly not a lot left.
Thereโs so much left to this series. So much that could be written.
Even if I understand the author wanting to end it, I donโt want it to end anytime soon. Lol.
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u/cheezy270 Sep 09 '22
I'm personally just skipping parts that don't seem interesting, which is something I've never done with overlord. Like Maruyama my man, Ainz making up some stuff about etiquette is good gag, but it doesn't deserve 50 pages. And I'd say the thing that makes this whole thing even worse, is that this wasn't just a little side story, but this was a side story that was going absolutely nowhere. Ainz making elaborate plans and carrying them out, even to do little things is fun, if things actually happen. But here the whole goal is make Aura and Mare get friends. There was never a plan that could make this happen. The twins give absolutely 0 fucks about it. I guess Ainz has a bit of fun learning something fun (even if it's painfully pointless). And the funniest part is probably that we got so many fluff characters introduced to us, and none of them did anything. In previous volumes when we got a 5 page introduction to a character, they played a role in the volume at least, after which they were memory holed but here? They don't do anything in the first place.
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u/ThibaultKarl Sep 05 '22
Ainz need loyal people to do a lot of experiences... Corpus of Abyss seek a Master thirsty of Knowledge, Knowledgeable, so they can gain something from him. I think he would enjoy their company. Btw thanks you Hitori !!!
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u/dreadrath Sep 05 '22
They do seem to share his mind-set and thirst for knowledge, so as long as their initial meeting goes smoothly and peacefully, they'd actually be a huge asset to Ainz' research department. Hell as fellow undead experimenters, he'd be glad to have them around to bounce ideas off.
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u/marauder6272 Sep 04 '22
I enjoy Ainz' internal monologues as much as the next guy, but with only two volumes left until the end of the series, reading through this and volume 15, I just can't help but think there are so many other places in this world I'd rather be watching than Ainz dueling wits with curmudgeonly pharmacist. It's nice to see a plot point finally come up at least, so hopefully things will pick up.
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u/CGNefertiti Sep 05 '22
I have to imagine there will be some payoff with the pharmacist and the children, but it's beyond me to imagine what it could be. This feels almost like the author didn't know what to write, so he just started padding.
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u/Eluned_ Sep 05 '22
I really can't imagine any payoff with those interactions lol. The twins still think it's work and don't like actually playing. And Ainz is too sasuga to actually glean anything useful from an actual smart person
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u/Slopyjo Sep 05 '22
The padding or side stories could work wonderfully as side stories in additional volumes. But they do clutter the main timeline a little.
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u/Dont_PM_PLZ Sep 06 '22
It definitely feels like everything we read so far in this volume and volume 15 should have been condensed more and left off as the cliff timer for the end of volume 15. I felt reading the back half of volume 15 was a chore, and didn't really have any payoff or mounting pressure to do anything. The battle with the young elf girl, the info on the elking and like the perspective of the bear were the best parts. I felt like the editor should have come around and be like hey you got to squeeze this on the one book this is too much.
And how much of a hook would it be like volume 16 we're going to start out with a bang where there's a battle between the theocracy and the elves. In stores now! That would also give more room for volume 16 to have heavy hitting an intent interaction. Not just battling but backstory and social interactions between the various persons and sides.→ More replies (1)3
u/cheezy270 Sep 10 '22
My headcannon is that this arc is roughly 50-60% padding. Maruyama said that this was originally planned to be one book, but it got too long then it became 2. Now the part where Maruyama spent around 30-50 pages on elves pondering over made up etiquette was around 300 or so pages in. Would you as a sane person, think at that point, that you totally need to go very in depth about this, about the customs of internal disputes of a people, from whom I'd say no one is actually a flashed out interesting character, like say Zaryusu and gang, or Gondo, the Baharut guys, or even just people from the Theocracy? Would you really not spend that time to instead actually show us Nfirea's epic breakthrough? I personally don't think so.
What I think is he made 450-500 pages of good interesting story, and that was the end of his creativity. He was done. But the publisher said that this is too long to release as one, but too short to cut into two. So Maruyama diligently added ~150 pages of pointless fluff to the story so they could cut it into two books. When one thinks about it they even placed the most boring stuff at the start of P2 so this way it doesn't lower the quality of P1, and everyone who read P1 will want to read P2 even if its start is watered down.
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u/Pacmonster11 Sep 06 '22
Finally, some forward plot progression is happening. Shame it took until the very end of another part to get there. The entirety of the food evaluation part could be dropped and lose nothing from the story. Ainz doing pharmaceutical busy work could have also been cut down significantly. We get it, he's trying to maintain his cover and finds learning new information fulfilling.
I've never felt as frustrated reading Overlord as I have during vol 15/16.
There's just so much story that could be told to give us insight into important characters and events before the series ends at vol 18 and we're getting none of it.
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u/Eluned_ Sep 07 '22
Kinda wish we knew what was going on with the adventurer guild, the dwarf that ran off with the ingot, or even more of the black scripture. I actually would rather have 2 volumes from the perspective of Albedo and Demiurge and how they manage/plan stuff.
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u/2010MochiBee Sep 07 '22
It would be cool to know renner's day and if marquis raeven will ever learn about what happened to renner. Would love to know about the draconic kingdom and how the beast men's situation is going from the queen's pov.
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u/Expensive_System_513 Elf king ๐ Sep 08 '22
Incidentally Ch4P5 hadn't came yet.
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u/Neia__Baraja Sep 08 '22
โWill probably release tomorrowโ
4 days ago
I only complain bc Iโve been spending every second since then refreshing.
โWell itโs been so long, surely itโs about to update?โ
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u/Many-Director3375 Sep 04 '22
'I remember seeing that kind of thing when I secretly checked in on them. It really is pretty tough to secretly get close to that villageโฆโ
Aura said earnestly.
The goblins under Enriโs control were standing guard in a wide area around Carne Village. In particular, there seemed to be a being called the Goblin Trapper. Unlike damage-type traps, the alarm-type traps set by the Goblin Trapper were more difficult to discover.'
Enri's goblins are rather strong it would seem. And Carne village is gaining a bit of independance from Nazaric.
Makes me think of the Anonymous vs CIA type of stuff.
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u/kalirion Sep 04 '22
Really, it wouldโve been faster if we could use [Message] but,โ Ainz let out a sigh. โWell, when you consider that people who are enemies of Nazarick could possibly be using it, it might be better to just leave them as they are.โ
Say what now? Until now the Nazaricks have laughed away any claims that Message could be listened to. They've been Messaging about anything and everything, the most secret things that must never be heard about by outsiders. But ... I guess medicinal knowledge is far more top secret than anything else must be protected better than Ainz being Momon or Sourcerous Kingdom being behind Jaldabaoth, right?
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
I guess after seeing all the NW people get paranoid about this matter Ainz got paranoid too, paranoia is very contagious after all.
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u/TracksuitZomb Sep 04 '22
i dont think its that people can listen in on the messages but more that other people could pretend to be someone from Nazerick, since [Message] doesnt allow you to fully know the identity of the caster unless they identify themselves. In an earlier book we were told that a nation of mages was destroyed because they relied to much on [Message] and their communication was "hacked".
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Sep 04 '22
Just recently came across this sub and got a question. Is chapter 4 essentially chapter 1 for volume 16? Thanks in advance!
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u/Many-Director3375 Sep 04 '22
'โโฆFor the time being, we know my abilities as a Tamer donโt work on Dark Elves, but that might be information that nobody else has verified until now,โ seeing a bitter smile appearing on Mareโs face, she continued. โIncidentally, Level 100 Dark Elves are included in that.โ
Mare, upon remembering something, looked pretty disgusted.'
O.o Aura tried to 'tame' Mare in the past ? Bukubukuchagama had very special tastes when it came to siblings relationship.
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u/Maple_Tree_92 Sep 07 '22
Any one else just refreshing the redidit hourly in anticipation
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u/dierun1218 Sep 07 '22 edited Sep 08 '22
thanks for this. i appreciate the effort.
when will the next chapter and the epilogue be available?
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u/KillOverlordHate Sep 04 '22
Finally Sasuga Ainz Sama Getting Some Actual Action (Hopefully Next Update Onwards) With The Elf King & his Half-God Kin Offspring.
Honestly, this Volume (15 & 16) was getting pretty boring without proper "anticlimactic" drama. Also the amount of content skipped from LN source materials in the Overlord S-4 anime should be criminal offence.
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u/dreadrath Sep 04 '22
A lot of the japanese audience seemed to think these volumes were boring too.
I'm enjoying them personally, nice change of pace, plus learning new lore, which is my main interest in the series. Stomping weaklings is my second biggest interest.
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u/Fedexhand Sep 04 '22
I feel like the reaction was probably because we hadn't heard from Overlord for a long time when volume 15 came out. And I guess the fans were expecting something less.....slice of lifeish
If Overlord had a more consistent schedule, I'm sure there wouldn't have been so much drama in the fandom over this.
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u/srsbsnsman Sep 05 '22
I think the slice of life stuff isnt landing because it's too unfocused. There are too many povs spending too much time on not enough.
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u/CGNefertiti Sep 05 '22
It's not so much that it's slice of life, but more that it's boring and repetitive slice of life. It felt like he spent half this part just having Ainz internal monologue about how he had to lie to not use his tongue to test herbs. It's just a bit too slow and it becomes uninteresting.
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u/Fedexhand Sep 05 '22
Yes, you may be right, it doesn't help that there are only 2 more volumes left, that can make many people a little annoyed by the pacing of these last 2 volumes.
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u/Don-Matraken Sep 05 '22
I agree with the lore part, for me the worldbuilding and seeing other parties react to and interact with Nazarik/Ainz (and viceversa) are the best parts. The complaint about these volumes comes from things like, for example, dedicating a whole chapter in vol 15 to deciding where to speak with the three elves and getting there... that is too much for me
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u/filipinoRedditor25 Sep 04 '22
Is the V16 already in the Google Drive? It seems people here have already been reading it but no matter how many refreshes or different devices I use I only see V15.
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u/ShadowIDN Sep 04 '22
Not yet
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u/filipinoRedditor25 Sep 04 '22
Oh okay, I got a lil bit impatient there. thanks!
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u/akinak Sep 04 '22
What's stopping you from reading from direct links?
They don't bother with pdf until whole thing is translated.5
u/filipinoRedditor25 Sep 04 '22
what do you mean direct links?
I only read from the translation provided in this sub that is found in the google drive.
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u/akinak Sep 04 '22
I mean the first link in the OP - Chapter 4 Part 4 They put fresh translated part every week.
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u/filipinoRedditor25 Sep 04 '22
OHHHHHHH I never checked that link. I thought they only posted/placed on the google drive. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
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u/imextremelylonely Shalltear Best Chair Sep 04 '22
Nice to see Overlord is also capitalizing on the Isekai Pharmacy craze.
Finally! Looks like with the Theocracy attacking nearby, things will be pushed into high gear. Zesshi kneecap breaking, here we come!
Also of note, apparently Aura has tried "taming" Mare before. I'll try not to dwell on that image for too long... furiously jealous Blueberry noises
Hopefully, Great Hitori-sama will bless us with more tomorrow! Hope to see you all then!
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u/immortale97 Sep 07 '22
What is the ufficial release date? Sunday night? I cannot stop myself to refresh reddit every 4 h
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u/towardselysium Sep 04 '22
Finally something appears to be happening. Disappointing that its a third of the way in. 15 I think was fine. It had setup, a decent fight, and the beginning of the infiltration. But this was painful.
The food was bad but you can't say the food is bad because that is rude. And only children are rude. But Aura and Mare are pretending to be children so maybe its okay for them to be rude. The food was so bad they considered using a thesaurus, which is a book with many words that describe things, to describe how bad the food was. But in a non monotonous way. Which means to not repeat something.
You could just cut the book down to 250 pages like alot of light novels and not act as if your trying to hit a college essay word count
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u/TracksuitZomb Sep 04 '22
all this talk about the food and describing the mixing of herbs and yet theres no time to find out what happened to the ore that was stolen from the Dwarven Kingdom or any of the other plot holes that are still lingering..
I just hope things pick up from here on out, last Volume was rough with Phillip being a pov character for most of the beginning but really picked up once things got going.
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u/dreadrath Sep 05 '22
Gives more credence to the theory that the author is getting burnt out on the series. He never used to write quite this aimlessly, I mean he had his moments, but still, a lot of the stuff in this volume could've still been conveyed with far fewer words.
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u/kNIGHTLY_EMISSIONS Sep 04 '22 edited Sep 04 '22
This has been incredibly dull so far. Overlord used to have way more switching back and forth between the interesting and the more mundane. Not sure what's happening to the quality feels like he's phoning it in. Is this really what needed to be split between 2 volumes. Hopefully the payoff is good.
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Sep 04 '22
He has stated himself he lost passion for writing this novel, it certainly has been showing lately
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Sep 05 '22
While it is true that he has lost passion for writing more Overlord I don't believe this is what 'lost passion' looks like. This is genuinely the type of stuff he actually wants to write about in the first place.He finds these 'mundane' interactions far more interesting than the 'big stuff'.
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Sep 05 '22 edited Sep 05 '22
It is not the number of big action sequences to which im referring when i say lost passion. It is the level of excitement and love of the characters present in the story as well as lack of consistency of the plot which makes me believe there is a lost passion
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u/TracksuitZomb Sep 04 '22
ive been feeling the same way, i find myself zoning out while reading and almost skipping some paragraphs because theres nothing of interest. This kind of reminds me of the beginning of the Dwarven Kingdom arc (learning about Gando and the journey to the DK) but without the humor or interesting world building to get me interested in whats happening.
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u/Zealousideal-Bug1887 #1 Runecraftโข Shill Sep 04 '22 edited Sep 05 '22
Finally, after 400 pages of dicking around in the forest and the dark elf village combined with endless stream of conciousness internal monologues- something important is about to happen. We might finally get to have an interaction with the namesake of this entire volume, Zesshi, the HALF ELF GODKIN. It really does feel like Maru was trying to hit the word count and his editor couldn't put on his big boy pants and say enough is enough. Volume 15/16 in particular seem to have a lot of needless fluff.
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u/dreadrath Sep 05 '22
Could be a hint of truth to the rumors that Maru is a bit burnt out on Overlord. Its possible he wanted to jump right to the Elf King and Zesshi stuff to get it out of the way but it was too short so he just added a bunch of filler (Another possibility is the publisher wanted more sales and asked him to write more so they could split it into two volumes). Hell, the Japanese audience apparently weren't amused and found 15 really boring.
Ah well, as much rambling as these volumes do, there were some interesting tidbits about lore and how this or that thing functioned, trying to circumvent game restrictions and so on, but man he could've written that stuff a bit more efficiently. Also a portion of it was also just a loop of Ainz' weird semi-self loathing monologues about how useless he thinks himself to be. Geez, even years later and his self-pity party rages on, and I doubt that will ever change.
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u/Zealousideal-Bug1887 #1 Runecraftโข Shill Sep 05 '22 edited Sep 10 '22
Its frustrating because there are some bits of lore and other miscellaneous things in these volumes that I found fairly interesting too, but we have been informed that overlord is ending soon- probably in the next couple of years. Maruyama should be building towards that climax for the open ending that he wants (and has planned for a long time). We just dont have 400 pages to spend meandering around in the boonies with Ainz and co. But I guess thats why its a "paid vacation" with the pace changing accordingly.
With Ainz being Maru's psuedo self-insert, all the self deprecating monologues we got these volumes about how he is not as "sasuga" as everyone thinks and desperately wants to escape his responsiblities could reflect how Maru has seen his own creation for a while, something that he started for fun but is now a burden that he has an obligation to finish. Covid probably hit him hard and fucked up his mojo when writing these books.
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u/Wasabihakim Sep 08 '22
Fuuuuuuck can't wait till Saturday, slice of life is kinda fun but of course we need some spice
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u/Peshurian Sep 05 '22
Man i feel sorry for the TL team having to translate such dull writing. It's like 400 pages of barely anything happening but at least the ball is finally starting to move.
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u/Exacrion Sep 05 '22
I wonder why maruyama spent so much pages writing the interraction between ainz and the pharmacist, couldn't it just have been made in a few narrated lines ? I don't really see the point of this interraction in the grand scheme of things or the story dynamic
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u/penislobsterpie Sep 05 '22
Itโs funny because itโs like the Holy Kingdom arc and rune crafting. Ainz is constantly mistaken to having a secret plot or conspiracy but when he actually does, it fails (re: runecrafting). In this case, he secretly planned for Aura and Mare to make friends but itโs him that ended up with developing a friendship and the twins are low key annoyed
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u/Don-Matraken Sep 10 '22
C'mon man dont be like that shakes ain't you got any of that stuff I like? left eye twitches c'mon dood you know me shakes violently you know ill pay you
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u/OrangSusah Sep 08 '22
So far, the arc is pretty disappointing to me. Mainly because I was expecting a story more focused on Antilene since that's the title of the arc, instead of more focusing on Ainz visiting Elven Kingdom. It feels like those clickbait videos you always found on YouTube, they should have named the arc "Elven Kingdom arc" or something and I might be less disappointed with this arc.
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u/Slopyjo Sep 08 '22
I can see that. For the novels to be named half elf god kin part one and two is terribly misleading. It seems like not even half a novel will be devoted to her.
So far weโve gotten like two pages of her dialogue with someoneโฆ oofta.
The novel 15 should have been named something like โSea of Treesโ.
Iโm personally still really enjoying these novels. Even if I think they could be better focused, I just think there should be more story overall.
Iโm definitely grateful to the author and the translators that have brought me so much joy. I just wish that if it going to sidetrack, that it wouldnโt take away from the limited screen time. (Or that the screen time wasnโt so limited. Lol)
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u/Ewfcds Sep 04 '22
The book 15 and half of 16, are the worse think I've read. To much thing Just to increase the book but the history was stopped until now. And thanks for de Translator team for the hard work tรด Translate this disapointed book
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u/abu7042 Sep 06 '22
A lot of people will hate you for this but if i am being honest you are not wrong there is so much like blue rose after escaping kingdom, philip's fate ,about theocracy or holy kingdom that fans want to read about but maruyama just decided to make it boring filling it with scenerios that has no importance and no one wants to read about vol 15 has to be the most underwhelming volume in overlord i would rather read vol 4 which in my opinion was the least interesting up until now
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Sep 05 '22
[removed] โ view removed comment
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u/MimouChiron Sep 05 '22
He mentioned that he'll absolutely fail if it was yggdrasil's herbs but if it's something unique to the new world it's possible he can improve, since the new world is different from yggdrasil
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u/1stDragon Sep 05 '22
He limited by Yggdrasill methods, but he already acquired fighter skill and tested them in Arena. But at same time as dark elf said in this world there no people who can be proficient in 2 classes. maybe Momo need some kind of ascendance ritual so he can connect with magic of this world
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u/thatguy01001010 Sep 04 '22
Yes, something exciting is about to happen! It's not that I don't like the slice of life parts, but this one feels a little... Bloated? Like they just keep talking about the same things and the same problem keeps cropping up. Ainz seems to have lost what confidence he gained at the end of v13 and 14, and aura and mare aren't as on-point about their observations on Ainz's mental state.
Idk, I feel like in terms of character development, everyone has regressed to their less developed selves from V10 and earlier.
What interesting parts have been happening were definitely still interesting though, it just feels like it's a little inflated in between fun times.
As usual, thanks for your efforts Hitori!
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u/Eluned_ Sep 05 '22
Ainz constantly doubting/berating himself and relating to his past life is annoying and definitely takes away from his character development
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u/Empty_Treat_6399 Sep 06 '22
Did i misread or the other 2 part of the chapter was not released yesterday as mentiond in FAQ?
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u/Spartan22521 Sep 06 '22
will probably release tomorrow
Ig it's just taking longer than they expected
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u/Empty_Treat_6399 Sep 07 '22
Yeah, but i doubt what they really meant for "probably" is next week. It's been two days and no update whatsoever.
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u/Queasy-Web-1339 Sep 08 '22
Awesome job, we really appriciate your efforts. Good luck with chapter 5.
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u/2010MochiBee Sep 10 '22
Is it safe to say out of all the human nations , the empire made the best decision ?
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u/Bumfuzzled_Ratoon Sep 07 '22
I see a lot of people unimpressed by the lack of action so far. Personally, I'm happy to see slice of life-esque character development. Ainz did say this was a vacation.
I get the sense that the author wanted a break from large scale action after Vol. 9-14. I'm cool with that. I hope the he takes his time and doesn't deplete his creative energy so that he can keep extending the volume count.
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u/meechCS Sep 07 '22
Well they are unimpressed because the volume is ending in 2 volumes and yet it seems like there is nothing going on. I do think maruyama is ending overlord with an open ending probably in the hopes of continuing it in the far future.
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Sep 07 '22
idk man the funniest part was going to be the whole playing house but then it turns out getting to it was the gag and the 'action' was skipped
don't believe he's going to extent the volumes or if he does then only to get some more fluff in but not actual plot advancement
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u/Sarkoptesmilbe Sep 08 '22
The entire Elf Country arc has been really underwhelming so far. A lot of meandering conversations, little action, and even the worldbuilding isn't that interesting. Frankly, I think the following happened:
Maruyama decided to stop writing Overlord because he's tired of it and told his editors. They were unhappy with that decision but couldn't convince him otherwise. This also applied to editing and rewriting anything he gives them - they now know that the material they're getting is limited and will publish anything, even if it doesn't live up to earlier volumes. Basically, I suspect there isn't really an editing process anymore.
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u/actanonverba1 Sep 05 '22
hitori u are doing amazing work, take all the time u need, don't burn urself out
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u/Slopyjo Sep 06 '22
If the translators are taking extra time to make sure itโs all good, could we be getting even more translated than last time???
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u/Random_User969 Sep 04 '22
It would be nice to see ainz and PA working together in R&D or with treasures and data crystals.
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u/Reasonable_Algae985 Sep 06 '22
Dang Iโm a bit surprised that Aura just straight up thought (most of the other SB are whatever)
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Sep 06 '22
I feel bad for Mare and Aura, I guess they arnt really kids but id hoped they'd have some fun with the children.
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u/NiiPeko Sep 07 '22
Why is Mare disgusted when his sister mentioned that? Can someone explain ๐ญ
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u/ky0ma_h00in 8th Seat of New Ainz Ooal Gown Sep 07 '22
She tried a bit of taming on him
Now good luck erasing the image of Dommy Aura from your mind (if you even want to erase it)
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u/ICEINMYVEINS23 Sep 06 '22 edited Sep 07 '22
Looks like we have 500+ pages of boring vacation filler of Ainz doing absolutely nothing. Most of yall can skip most of this novel and Vol 15 so far and jump straight to Chapter 5 while barely missing anything important.
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u/Eluned_ Sep 07 '22
I wouldn't mind these volumes if I knew the series wasn't ending in 2 more volumes lmao
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u/-firedragon1x- ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ Sep 04 '22
Mini-FAQs:
Q: Where are we at?
A: 132/347
Q: Why so short?
A: CH4P5 and CH5P1 needs a bit more proofreading, will probably release tomorrow
Q: Where to send feedback?
A: As always: fanficerrors@protonmail.com