75

Da Vinci sipped the steaming tea from her cup with pleasure while looking at her notes.

Ainz, Cainabel, Baal, the incineration of humanity, the Grail, Data crystals and much, much more.

It is amazing how she was able to gather such a massive amount of information within such a short amount of time. If she were to publish what she found out in the Mage Association she would probably be hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the age, not that she isn't one already. While the information contained within is not strictly a result of rigorous experimentations, the information that is revealed by her interaction with Ainz would break generation-held truths. However, for the same reason, Da Vinci herself would not do such a thing lest she found herself easily accused of heresy, a magical heretic, what a joke. No matter how strange it may sound, a group of people searching for the way to reach the Root of all things are also, paradoxically, very conservative. While she won't be burned at the stake, at best she would be censured, at worst a Sealing Designation.

No, while it's not true that the leadership of the Mage Association consists of only people that were of such stupidity, greed, arrogance, smugness, stubbornness, narrow-mindedness, and bull-headedness that they would censure ground-breaking discovery, although they most certainly display some of these characteristics. But still, the information that Da vinci had managed to discover was so revolutionary that even with all her genius she cannot fully envision the consequences of divulging what she had learned.

What will the discovery of "anti-spirititons," a variant of antimatter for mana, lead to? How far will the Magi go in search of more information, should it be revealed to them that even the Root itself was not the final instance of existence? What will it do to the balance of power when it is revealed that the two unrivaled existences on Earth, Alaya and Gaia, have something that can compete with them on Earth? Oh, the spectacles that would unfold were she to divulge such revolutionary discoveries were...

Great.

Of course terrifying as well, but still, great beyond measure.

The fact that Da Vinci, a person capable of using her genius intellect for something other than unravelling the great mysteries of magic and scientific problems, albeit infrequently, was not capable of fully envisioning the consequences meant that the information she discovered was that revolutionary. And this great genius was only able to collate such word-rending discoveries, discoveries that would turn the whole modern theory of magic on its head into reams of papers scattered around in her Workshop in a barely coherent mess. Not to mention the fact that on each page rather than neatly written notes on her discovery it was filled with hastily written notes filled with scribbles on its margin. The mess of information on each page is so unreadable that no one other than Da Vinci herself could understand what's written on it

Da Vinci, sipping tea, looked at another page scattered around her, after a few seconds she wrote several corrections and wrote it to the level of absolute unreadability, after which she sighed and placed her teacup down.

What a strange situation...

She was like the explorers of old, like Magellan or Columbus, men who staked their life in their search for discovery and prestige. Of course unlike those explorers she had no reassurance that she wouldn't simply fall to the abyss in her search for the truth. There are no stars to guide her path, no previous explorers that could show her the way, and no assurance that she had reached her destination at all.

It was like assembling a puzzle with thousands of small pieces. Except it's even worse than that, the puzzle has no definite picture it could make up, there are even various 'correct' configurations for the puzzle and no indication which one is the 'right' one. What's worse is that Da vinci didn't possess all the pieces of the puzzle, with bits of additional puzzle pieces given out by various individuals and not all at the same time. With all the pieces she has managed to collect and figure out she could only manage to create, at best a simple sketch of the full picture, at worst, barely a framework. In other words, it was an unanswerable riddle.

Any person obsessed with the search of knowledge and the truth when confronted with such an inability to complete the picture would become infuriated. Da Vinci on the other hand...

"It's the best time to be alive!" - Da Vinci felt some unhealthy pleasure in solving this puzzle. It was like an unending obsession with the idea of finishing the puzzle itself.

"I don't understand how these two facts are connected" turned into "I will have so much fun figuring out how these two facts are connected!"

Da Vinci didn't purr under her breath with pleasure, ripping the fifth or maybe the five hundredth? - page of her theoretical research solely because she did not purr at all. But if she knew how to somehow express her mood in other ways other than a broad smile, then she would definitely be doing it right now.

Da Vinci, however, having no such habits, only smiled at her cup of tea while imagining the prospects opening up to her.

Yes, it may take a thousand years - as the Lord Himself as my witness - she will achieve her goal and solve this riddle. Even if she has to be reborn another hundred thousand times. Because she was Da Vinci. And so she did not leave a single riddle unresolved.

Da Vinci took the last sip from the cup, after which she got up from her seat, slowly moving to the next room in her Workshop, after which, going inside, she looked around the room.

Although, perhaps, to call this place a 'room' was incorrect - rather, this place should be called a warehouse. Tens and hundreds of bodies, each prepared for meticulously for any occasions, some finished and ready to use and some barely a framework. Most of the bodies were female, although she had a pair of male ones just in case - but all, without exception, are beautiful and of such high quality that anyone who finds themself at this place would probably consider them for to be made not by the hands of an earthly artist but by a divine hand. Though it's not like anyone would actually dare to enter Da Vinci's workshop, not like Da Vinci had put any traps in her workshop unlike any other Casters or even normal Magi. It's simply a human sense of preserving their own life 'do not enter another magi's workshop' is a common sense so ingrained that no one would be stupid enough to do so, even less so if the Magi in question is powerful. In fact compared to any other Magi's workshop Da Vinci's are quite normal in comparison, well except for the fact that in these rooms were hundreds of disassembled human bodies.

Although, of course, it was not correct to call them human - rather, they were just puppet golems, not so different in fact from homunculi - but many people were superstitious enough to ignore such an important scientific clarification.

Da Vinci glanced along the rows of the prepared containers - after which her gaze was caught on something that stood out from the rows of tables with unfinished bodies and racks where each ready-made body was displayed in its place like clothes hanging on a hanger. Although, of course, a simple mind would instead say something as stupid as "bodies in the slaughterhouse."

It's not that Da Vinci didn't understand how uncomfortable people would be if they were inside this room and how frightening she could appear to people given the hundreds of lifeless bodies hanging in racks. She certainly didn't deliberately try to look intimidating to other people, she simply didn't consider other people's feelings to be meaningful.

"Genius is allowed to have some eccentricity," said Da Vinci.

"You have a disassembled body of a twelve-year-old girl lying on a table!" - what the rest of humanity, well the 20+ humans that's left, would reply with.

In any case, with her attention being grabbed by the body, she began to walk towards it. Unlike the other bodies, this body was placed in its own row with no other bodies placed near it, so its specialness could be guessed with only a glance. The only question that remained in her mind was how exactly did this body differ.

"Hmmm..." - Da Vinci thoughtfully examined the body - "Maybe I was planning to put you in a cryocapsule?.."

Despite the terrible incident of destruction in Chaldea, they still had enough cryocapsules that Da Vinci could use one of them for her needs without any issues.

Da Vinci debated about this idea for a few seconds, and then shook her head - "No, I won't remove you just yet. Maybe in the future an even more interesting use for the body would come to mind? "

Of course, not so long ago, Da Vinci considered this body as ideal for her purpose, but after interacting with Ainz, there were so many new ideas in her head that it was a crime to not utilize it.

"In any case, I am not here for this" - Da Vinci looked away from the body and moved to another body lying on one of the tables.

This body was different from everyone else. Firstly, it was of masculine build, which is a rarity in this warehouse, secondly, it was not beautiful, which is even rarer. Of course it is not ugly in any way or form, but if one were to appraise any other body for their beauty, any person could instantly indicate why they are beautiful - "a charming hot brunette" or "a pretty blonde, causing a sense of sympathy to well up". Instead of such reactions when a person would look at the body that Da Vinci is focusing on it was impossible for them to evaluate any specific feature as beautiful. Every aspect of the body was ordinary - as much as Da Vinci hated the word. Ordinary hair of an ordinary black color of ordinary length in an ordinary short-cut hairstyle. An ordinary set of eyes of ordinary brown color, covered with ordinary eyelids with ordinary eyelashes. Ordinary facial features, ordinary cheekbones, ordinary ears, ordinary hands, ordinary body - everything that could be called or described was "ordinary". Yet at the same time, Da Vinci was proud of her work - because despite the fact that every feature of the body was ordinary, together they revealed their essence of beauty. Yes, it was an ordinary face with an ordinary look - but all together with his eyes combined so surprisingly well with its short haircut to reveal a charming masculine look. Ordinary proportions of the body, but at the same time for some reason, standing behind him, it seemed as if the whole world was not but peebles in comparison. An ordinary voice and with an ordinary musculature, not muscular or scrawny but at the same time, even being completely unreasonable, the body looked as if it had been created from the very concept of "reliability" or "will". In truth, Da Vinci, the concentration of beauty of this world, considered this body to be her most successful project - well, except for herself and her additional body.

"Could you do something ordinary?" - Ainz had once asked her.

Of course, Ainz knew that Da Vinci simply could not physically create something gray and dull - and therefore his request was much more intriguing in essence.

"Can you create something that will be beautiful as a whole, and not only with parts that are?" - To rephrase Ainz's words to get to their essence was too easy for a genius like her.

In truth, Da Vinci was not happy with the very first body that she gave to Ainz to use, while she is an unparalleled genius what can be done in only a week? Only a miserable semblance of a priceless copy that is!

Therefore, Da Vinci began to create a new body for Ainz even before she finished the old one and even if Ainz's old body were still used by him - she would ask him to move to the new one. It would be given how much this version was superior to the old one. She was embarrassed, no, even appalled to look at her past work, knowing how much more amazing the version she created was.

But Ainz had already destroyed the old body given to him, so Da Vinci was even glad - no evidence of her past weakness as a creator! From now on, this masterpiece will be used by Ainz as a demonstration of her skills - the best advertisement in the world.

"Only..." - Da Vinci thought - "Maybe I should add some more features..."

No, of course, the puppet body created by Da Vinci was already completed - it was impossible to add or diminish even a single hair in the perfect image so as not to destroy its existing magic of beauty. But Da Vinci was not talking about the body itself.

"A surveillance spell..." - Da Vinci bit her lip.

A small spell created to collect only the most superficial of data - something so inconspicuous and ephemeral that Da Vinci herself did not even need to use any rituals to cast it - just one wave of her hands and everything would be done...

The only problem with it was how Ainz would react when he found the spell that only Da Vinci would have the chance to cast - and he certainly would. In this case, death at his hands as a potential traitor was not the most unlikely thing in the world. And death, in this case, would unfortunately prevent Da Vinci from solving the great puzzle she is currently working on. Not to mention the fact that Da Vinci herself would not want to be branded a traitor because of sheer scientific curiosity.

Da Vinci eventually came to a decision and lifted the body into her arms, slowly leaving the room. Yes, as a Caster and the owner of an incredibly low rank of strength, for a Servant. She possessed colossally low parameters in this area for a Servant , but still, something as mundane as lifting a human body was still a simple task for her, no more complicated or difficult than an ordinary person picking a book from a shelf.

Da Vinci slowly moved toward one of the small sofas in her Workshop, of course as befitting Da Vinci's personality it is littered with several pages. After cleaning the scattered pages Da Vinci placed the body lying on the sofa and stood next to it.

The creak of a door, indicated to Da Vinci that she has a visitor. And while her genius does not include the ability to determine the identity of a person and their strength by presence alone, she has no trouble determining the identity of her guest. Not that such a thing is a hard puzzle to solve. There are only three people in Chaldea that would nonchalantly walk into her Workshop, and the last two already did.

"Ainz," - Da Vinci turned to the man with a smile, - "What can I help you with?"

Ainz stood at the door, frozen. Determining his mood, given the absence of any facial feature was difficult. Just as difficult as determining the direction of his gaze, given that instead of eyes in his eye sockets only a magical red fire was burning. But, fortunately, Ainz's words allowed Da Vinci to determine the reason for his visit.

"Is this... It?" - Ainz, apparently referring to the body lying on the sofa, asked a question.

"That's right," Da Vinci nodded, and then waved her hand. "Come in, don't stand at the doorway."

Ainz took a step inside, after which, after taking a couple more steps, he stopped in front of the body, looking at 'him'.

"He... Is even more beautiful than my previous one..." - Ainz seemed to be unable to speak. This made Da Vinci smile - her skill as an artist could surprise even a foreign godslayer, wasn't this an achievement worthy of being proud of?

"Of course," Da Vinci smiled, "and it's absolutely normal, as you wished. Ideal in its normality is the body, the embodiment of mediocre beauty!"

Ainz froze - unconditionally pondering that Da Vinci was able to fulfill his order in full accuracy and in accordance with all his expectations. However, Ainz did not think about it for long, exhaling slowly, after which he turned towards Da Vinci.

"But don't you think that you are a little… with this body..." - Ainz hesitated, choosing a word, "overdid it? It seems to me... Too perfect."

"Too?" Da Vinci grunted.

Ainz slowly inhaled and exhaled, "Yes, of course... How could I have thought that everything would be different..."

Da Vinci nodded. "I think you can try a little for the savior of mankind."

Ainz just nodded in response, after which Da Vinci turned away, going for a new cup of tea.

By the time the new cup was ready, Ainz's figure completely disappeared from her field of vision, while the new body prepared by Da Vinci opened their eyes and rose from the couch, examining their hands.

"Does it fit like a glove?" Da Vinci smiled, looking at Ainz, slowly inspecting his hands.

"There are a few... Unusual sensations," Ainz thought, "What level of strength can this body withstand?"

At that question, Da Vinci's smile faded a little, - "The same as before."

It's not that Da Vinci spent her time caring more about Ainz's appearance than about the body's capabilities, although she definitely did, there simply was a limit that she couldn't jump over, at least not without using much more exotic, rare and expensive elements. Materials which were impossible to find even in Chaldea, and there's not really much existing outside of Chaldea at the moment. The body that she created for Ainz on her own could be a worthy body for a magi of the Age of Gods, of course a Magi that could astralize themselves of course. Da Vinci would even applaud herself on this achievement. Unfortunately, and fortunately for the prospect of solving the grand puzzles, even something of such magnitude as a "magi of the Age of Gods" seemed to be too deficient to compare with someone like Ainz.

"It's a pity," Ainz nodded. "Well, now I'm interested in checking which particular abilities I can safely use in this body."

"Do be careful!" Da Vinci hastened to warn, "It may take me another month to make a body of comparable ability — if not more."

"Okay, I get it." Ainz nodded gravely.

Seriously, ha...

Da Vinci sat on the corner of the sofa near Ainz, and then sipped tea from the mug.

Ainz, glancing at Da Vinci who was nearby, coughed, and then looked away, - "My throat suddenly became dry…"

Da Vinci handed Ainz the mug of barely sipped tea, "Take it."

Ainz blinked, taking the cup from Da Vinci's hands, and then looked away.

Ainz Ooal Gown, a creature that is stunning to the imagination. A mage, necromancer, wizard, Divine Spirit, savior of mankind, foreign god, incarnation of Alaya, Gaia, a godslayer from another world and a potential diviner who arrived to prevent the Third World War… Hmmm, did she forget anything?

Da Vinci thought for a moment, but in the end she shook her head - no, that's probably all.

"Wow!" - Ainz, sipping tea, smiled, "It seems I have already spent some time without a body that I forgot how delicious tea is..."

Da Vinci looked at Ainz.

The tea brewed by her was of the most average quality that could be imagined, and, of course, Da Vinci had no skills to compensate for the rather strong flavor of tea bags. It's not that she couldn't get it - for a natural born genius, like her, there was nothing impossible, including acquiring some absolutely meaningless and highly specialized skill aimed at improving the quality of served drinks. But, considering that Da Vinci didn't have such a skill, it was the most common tea bag you could get.

The most supreme of powers that be were rarely modest. On the contrary, their ego most often was directly proportional to their level of strength - just as great heroes most often demanded proper respect for themselves, those who held the greatest strength most often did not fail to use it. Not necessarily for terrifying things of course, but surrounding yourself with luxury goods, using only the most expensive and high-quality products, and indulging in their desires was something that almost all people aspired to. Looking at Ainz, it was not difficult to imagine him as some great conqueror or magician of such heights that he did not even need a throne - his throne was already made by his own strength declaring to anyone that saw him as a king. So, to compare him to those who wanted to surround themselves with only the best things should have been easy.

But instead...

"Thank you, Da Vinci," - Ainz smiled and gave the empty cup back to her, after which he became silent.

Instead of being the same as other great beings, Ainz, a creature of unimaginable great power, enjoyed mid-price packaged tea, sitting on a couch strewn with scribbled sheets of paper all around him, and sitting in a room that could not be called clean even by taking the huge discount on Da Vinci's frivolous understanding of the idea of cleanliness.

Da Vinci once again looked at Ainz's body, then smiled - "Beauty in ordinarity, ha..."

"Hm?" Ainz, noticing Da Vinci's gaze, looked at Da Vinci with a questioning gaze while Da Vinci simply shrugged in response.

"No, nothing special." Da Vinci looked away, after which she looked thoughtfully at the ceiling.

Riddles, riddles, riddles...

"Ah, yes, Da Vinci," Ainz thought for a second before breaking Da Vinci's thoughts. "If you think about it... You had created two bodies for me with no compensation, not to mention repairing the Chaldea summoning system..."

Da Vinci just brushed it off - "It's a trivial action for someone of my caliber."

"And still," Ainz nodded to himself, "tell me, Da Vinci, what do you want in return?"

Da Vinci only grinned. "Besides saving the world and humanity, perhaps?"

"Ahem, yes, except that." Ainz coughed and looked away, causing Da Vinci to smile.

'Who are you really? Just answer that question and that's it.'

Da Vinci wanted to know everything about Ainz - her obsession with riddles, the mystery of Ainz himself excited her mind and therefore this request is the one she wanted to ask the most.

But…

Da Vinci categorically refused to even consider asking such a stupid thing. A puzzle is only fun if you complete it yourself after all. To simply ask for the answer to the puzzle that has intrigued her mind all this time is the height of stupidity.

Yet, at the same time, she doesn't really have anything else to ask for…. Other than the salvation of Humanity of course.

Da Vinci thought for a moment, after which she looked at Ainz, "Can you... Put yourself under surveillance?"

Ainz blinked.

"More precisely, I wanted to say, ahem," Da Vinci immediately hastened to correct herself, "I understand that you cannot trust the safety of the observation from Chaldea, but if you independently established a connection between us while working in the Singularity, taking into account the possibility of video surveillance..."

"Ah, this," Ainz blinked, "Yes, of course, if I use my own surveillance spell on myself and transfer the image to the Chaldea's screen... It will be possible."

"Excellent!" Da Vinci clapped her hands and said a little louder and happier than it seemed necessary, "In this case, the progress will accelerate."

"Progress?" Ainz looked at Da Vinci.

"Progress in solving the Singularity, of course," Da Vinci nodded, and then rose from her seat, "Speaking of which... You, just by chance, don't you know when the next Singularity will be..."

"All authorized personnel, please prepare for the reyshifting procedure. Request for all authorized personnel to approach the main office of Chaldea." A mechanical voice that blared out throughout the room silenced Da Vinci.

"I didn't have to wait too long for an answer it seems," Da Vinci shrugged, and then, looking at Ainz, she extended her hand to forward, "Come on then, no need to make the chief wait."

"Of course," Ainz smiled and accepted her hand, rising after Da Vinci.

Of course, Da Vinci will closely monitor Ainz. The riddle of his existence will be so exhilarating to solve, for nothing attracted her more than riddles.

But perhaps, only perhaps ...

Was she attracted to anything else in him?

Name: Leonardo Da Vinci

Skill: Golden Rule (Body)

Level: 60

A skill that allows the user to use the in-game editor to change the appearance of their character. At this level, even radical changes are possible - such as changing the gender of the game character, however, other than changes to cosmetic effects, the skill does not provide any more advantages.

Skill: Pioneer of the Stars

Level: 100

A skill that allows the user to accomplish the impossible. At least that's what the skill's lore says. Very little is known about it's specific abilities, as well as about any active or passive effects, however, given the skill level, designated as "one hundred," the effect of such a skill should be great. And yet, there are no allusions to its power in any forums… Though it is expected of a game like Yggdrassil.

Skill: Territory Creation

Level: 80

A skill that allows the user to edit their personal homebase, guild base or otherwise, selected with the help of guild tools and a console, allowing the user to set traps, change the interior decoration or perform other manipulations - even the creation of NPCs. Unfortunately, the level of NPCs created at this skill rank is limited to eighty cumulative levels. Thus, it is possible to create one NPC of the eightieth level, two fortieth level NPC or eighty NPC of the first level.

Skill: Item Construction

Level: 80

A skill that allows the user to create in-game artifacts by combining existing in-game items, such as weapons or ore with data crystals, and other enchantment items. This ability allows the player to create items and artifacts up to the "legacy" level.

Player Comments:

- Wait... A build of a glass-cannon mage, with the skills of a commander, crafter and even… what the fuck is this skill... WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, PEOPLE?!

- We have reached such a level of postirony that people play with postronical builds...

- Skills are top class, no kidding. BUT WHAT THEY ARE THEY DOING IN A MAGE BUILD?!

- 0w0? Can someone explain to me, what's the point of playing an incomprehensible hodgepodge of a bunch of cool builds that don't work?! Hey, return Attila, at least she was not even half-bad compared to this one!