Overlord Volume 01

The Undead King is the 1st light novel volume in Overlord series, It was released on July 30, 2012. It details about Momonga, a player of YGGDRASIL, who was suddenly transformed into his avatar and all of the NPCs came to life. He must struggle to find a way to survive this new world.

Short Summary
Momonga is an average salary man who spends most of his time playing the game of Yggdrasil. Sadly Yggdrasil servers are about to be shut down and every other member of the guild of Ainz Ooal Gown have stopped playing. Deciding to stay in the game until the server goes down Momonga goes and takes his place on the throne in Nazarick which is the base of Ainz Ooal Gown. Eventually the clock strikes for midnight but instead of being forced out of the game. He finds himself stuck in the skeletal form of Momonga and the NPCs who should just be simple in game characters that his guild had designed have instead become like normal living and breathing creatures.

Full Summary
Momonga having found himself transported into another world in the form of his in game persona. With all the NPCs having turned into real entities. He quickly decides to confirm if his powers and items from game works in this new reality. After finding out that his powers are still usable like in the game, he also wants to affirm that the NPCs like in the game are still loyal to him. We are now then introduced to some of the highest ranking NPCs in Nazarick. These are the vampire Shalltear, the worm lord Cocytus, the dark elf twins Aura and Mare, the shapeshifting demon Demiurge, the dragonian butler Sebastian and the succubus Albedo. At this point he also deeply regrets one of his earlier actions which was to change the settings of the NPCs Albedo to be in love with Momonga, thinking that he has tarnished his guild mate Tabula's most precious NPC. Establishing that they are indeed still loyal, he decides that to keep their loyalty he must act as the Overlord that they see him as. To this end he sets Nazarick into motion to survive in this new and unknown world. At this time as a joke he tells Demiurge that maybe they should conquer the world.

While trying to figure out how one of his magical items that allows him to see other places works, by accident he finds a village close by under attack by a group of knights. Deciding to save the village to gain information on this world and at the same time test how powerful this world combatants are, he charges forth saving a pair of sister. While using some of his magic and one of his weak summons, he finds out that the knights are extremely weak. The village is saved and as payment he asks for information on this world which allows him to understand it much better. At this time the Warrior Captain Gazef Stronoff arrived and after a brief meeting between him and Momonga it is made apparent that the attack on the village was a trap to drag Gazef out when the Sunlight Scripture surrounds the village. Gazef in a valiant attempt to exempt the villagers from the fighting is eventually overwhelmed but before he is slain Momonga uses a teleport magic to switch place with Gazef and his men. He then easily defeats and captures the Sunlight Scripture, after this he decides that with the village saved he will return to Nazarick.

Ainz having returned to Nazarick he gathers all the high ranking NPCs to make an announcement. He then makes it clear to everyone that from this day forth his name will no longer be Momonga but will now be known as Ainz Ooal Gown. He then leaves the throne room to let Albedo tell the NPCs what else needs to be done. At this time Albedo gives the word to Demiurge who states to all the other NPCs what Ainz had previously told him as a joke, world conquest, Demiurge wanting to fulfill any wish that their Overlord might hold takes this very seriously and all the NPCs in unison proclaim that the world will be given to Ainz.

Chapters

 * Prologue
 * Chapter 1: The End and the Beginning
 * Chapter 2: Floor Guardians
 * Chapter 3: Battle of Carne Village
 * Chapter 4: Conflict
 * Chapter 5: Ruler of Death
 * Epilogue

Trivia
Web Novel
 * Attack on Carne Village is not related with the Sunlight Scripture.
 * Gazef spars with a Death Knight by Ainz's request. As Death Knights are specialized in defense and not good at attack, the fight ends in a draw. (Ainz withdraws the Death Knight and tells Gazef that he's the winner)
 * As a result, Ainz does not have a chance to confirm the world's power balance, and the Slane Theocracy does not notice the existence of Nazarick for now.