8

Following behind Da Vinci, Ainz watched her hips thoughtfully. However the very act of this observation there was nothing lecherous, at least not intentionally. Despite the fact that Ainz was and still remained ,at the current moment, completely considered himself to be a man. His personality as a tired, lonely thirty-year-old man and his undead heart, deprived of all human passions, would simply not let him look at the hips of Da Vinci with any ounce of lust. He watched the girl's movements for a different reason.

'Shouldn't Da Vinci be a man?' Thoughtfully, Ainz glanced at the back of the girl in front of him. 'Or did the Grail change something when she was summoned?'

Although Ainz was not initiated into the inner workings of the magics of the universe in which he found himself, thanks to his status as a Servant called by the world, he was nevertheless aware that sometimes the Grail made 'mistakes'... No, probably not quite mistakes. It did not allow 'mistakes', rather, the Grail simply called for Servants and not the very people they were in life.

The Grail called not so much the 'heroes' themselves but people's ideas about example, so let's say although during their life a hero behaved according to their code of honor corresponding to their time, but later due to changes in their their legend over time. The hero's code of honor was forgotten, but the knowledge that the hero followed a "code of honor" was preserved, so the summoned Servant would have completely different moral "codes"than the one they had at the end of their life. Like with the King Arthur.

But still…

'Why is Da Vinci a woman in this case?' The man could not figure out the answer to this question and finally looked up from Da Vinci's hips, ceasing to look at the girl. However, fortunately for him, thanks to his lack of facial expressions and eyes, to ascertain he was looking at all this time was almost impossible.

'However this is not particularly important' After a few tens of seconds of thinking about this, the lich came to one definite conclusion: 'The situation in which I found myself in is more important.'

Ainz was not a genius, it was not worth praising his mental abilities. He was only minimally educated formally, he received only an elementary school education, since he could not afford a middle school level education in a grim world of the future and he himself had to confess, that he had a very, very low opinion of his mental abilities. However it was in vain.

Of course, it was not worth overestimating Ainz's mental abilities, but it was not worth downplaying it either. Although while Touch Me was a graduate of a prestigious university, Tabula Smaragdina remembered Greek myths as much as Aristotle because of his strange passion and Punitto Moe was superior to him in terms of tactics in a Guild war, it is unlikely that even a dozen people in the world could boast such thorough knowledge and understanding of both the mechanic and the inner lore of Yggdrasil. And of course if he truly did not have a well developed mental abilities, Ainz would never have become one of the best PvP players in the game while being a player with such a non-optimised for PvP build.

Therefore it was really only worth as a way to distract him from the contemplation of a beautiful girl walking in front of him, as the mind of Ainz plunged into an analysis of the situation in which he found himself in.

The death of humanity did not trouble Ainz. Mentally and physically he was no longer a human, but the fact that literally several hours after the Ainz decided to protect humanity, it had already disappeared, somewhat... Was worrying. And to deal with such a worrying thing Ainz planned first.

In the end, for starters, it was necessary to first determine what caused the disappearance of mankind in the first place. In Yggdrasil there were only a few items, whose abilities were so great, World Class Items. Although, even among them there was not one that could directly erase all of Mankind's existence on the world and set fire to its remnants. However even regarding this, Ainz was not completely sure. He knew about the existence of at least one WCI, which with a certain interpretation could be called as having such a power and with those shitty devs it would be possible for them to create a couple more that could be implemented in a similar way. However, fortunately, there were no players in Yggdrasil who decided to act in such a frenzy. After all, even if they had decided to do so, then the best thing that could have happened to them would be becoming outcasts to all players and the united parties of players who had suddenly lost an entire game, the world, with all the NPCs and quests, would kill them repeatedly until they left the game. In the worst case, for such an action they would be attacked in the real world.

However it was a game, in reality the use of such an ability, especially if no one could counter it, was quite possible. Also. in reality, it is not necessary that the WCI was used to achieve a similar effect. After being transferred to reality, Ainz was able to understand that many of his abilities and spells acquired other effects that were not available in the game, many of which were based on the 'lore' of Yggdrasil, such as, for example True Death. And if considering not only about the forces proved capable of destroying the whole world, but about the abilities that 'could' do it according to 'lore', then there were a lot more of them than just a few WCI. However, there were not too many of them either, nevertheless, the level of power necessary should have correlated, at least in some sense, with the power of applied abilities. Therefore 'the abilities that threatened the balance of worlds and magic' remained, in any case, only for the most of high-level characters.

In other words, the death of humanity that had occurred could be the result of three actions. In the best case scenario what happened occured due to the ability of a one-time use WCI. Tn this case it was easy enough to fix what have happened. A much worse possibility is the case if what happened was the result of a reusable WCI, or in the worst case scenario the power of an unknown enemy.

Ainz could resolve the situation, he had several ways available to him to reverse the apocalypse that had begun. However none of them was easy. Some were very costly, others were limited in its number of applications and some might not work at all, depending on whether the incident was the result of the actions of the enemy's abilities or the WCI. So the easiest and fastest way in this case was unusable. Even if we assume that it will work all this will be useless if the enemy can simply destroy humanity again.

Therefore the simple and quick way to solve the problem in this case was postponed. At least until the discovery of the cause of what happened to humanity.

However, besides the question of the direct cause of the disappearance of mankind, another remained. The question of the perpetrator of the disappearance of mankind or more precisely, of the one who was behind it. Comparing the previous two problem, this issue looked even more incomprehensible than with the death of humanity itself, since in this case Ainz could use only the words of the very unreliable and already dead Professor Lev.

Although it's not that he said a lot himself, but from the very fact that Professor Lev was speaking out against his boss, Olga Marie, it meant at least that there was "someone" opposing Chaldea and all of humanity as well. But who exactly? There was no answer to this question. However, there were guesses.

Forced teleportation was not a rare trick but nor was it simple, it requires certain skill and level of power from the user for its use, as well as applicable classes of a sufficiently high level. Considering that Lev who used the spell most likely used something similar to 'Greater Teleportation', an eighth rank spell, then the probable cause for the death of humanity would probably possessed even higher level abilities. In the same case Ainz himself could not allow himself to be so relaxed about the available trumps of his, trying to neutralize the actions of an unknown enemy, especially considering that at the moment he could not even begin to guess who his opponent was.

For a second, Ainz's mind was visited by a tempting thought. If he called upon Demiurge or Albedo, then they probably would have easily solved the riddle that had appeared before him, but the overlord's mind was not convinced. Nazarick was - is - and will remain his strongest and most secret of trump cards. First of all - its strength is simply too great to be considered something other than Ainz's 'absolute trump card' and secondly... Naturally, because he too wanted to be in Nazarick. And so of course he did not want to summon it and risk never wanting to leave it.

"That's it, we have arrived." Da Vinci's voice brought Ainz out of his trance and reflection .e twistEd his head around several times to determine where he was at the moment.

Although, of course, he ended up in Da Vinci workshop but to be more specific to the cause of his curiosity, the workshop, as Ainz imagined it, looked nothing like his imagination. As a man of the future, his mind responded to the word 'workshop' with a row of small, dark, filthy rooms, the smell of engine oil and dirty clothes thrown in a corner. And the fact that the magicians of this world called their laboratories as "a workshop"brought the visions of 'magical' laboratories of alchemists and enchanters from Yggdrasil. Da Vinci's workshop was neither one nor the other, although it surprisingly managed to combine the features of both.

It was a spacious room which due to the abundance of numerous drawings laid out here and there, strange figures and mechanical models, incomprehensible crystals of obviously magical purpose and all sorts of books, seemed so tiny that Ains with his large figure was forced to slouch a little in order to not touch anything.

"Come here!" However, Da Vinci, seemingly not at all concerned with the problems of the skeleton, just fluttered into the workshop first and then literally disappeared behind the huge shelves of books and strange devices, leaving Ainz alone with the pile of papers and strange things.

Ainz who entered after her was only able to see where the girl disappeared to, in one of the inconspicuous doors, hidden by numerous strange devices, standing, lying and even hanging in front of it. He then took a breath and sighed, and even though he did not have lungs the action turned out to feel truly natural.

Moving slowly through the cluttered workshop, Ainz could only shake his head. Da Vinci looked so decent, neat and well-groomed, that he couldn't imagine what a mess her main workplace would be in. Although they did say that chaos is a sign of a creative mind?

"In that case," Ainz's memories of his empty and uncomfortable, almost sterile clean, because of his non-use, apartment made him sigh. "I suppose Da Vinci can truly be called a genius."

Miraculously, Ainz managed to squeeze through the rows of cluttered tables without hitting anything and a second later he was rewarded by the appearance of a joyful Da Vinci who was holding something in her hands. To Ainz's surprise, the body of a young man, literally a little older than sixteen years old. In addition, the young man himself looked incredible, the features of the face, body, hands, legs, honed to perfection, everything up to the tip of the nose was perfect, as if adjusted by a maestro and brought to perfection by a master's brush.

"Here it is!" the appearance of Da Vinci, holding the body of a boy in her hands, turned out to be strangely unexpected for Ainz. Such that the idea that the body that is in the girl's hands was given to him as his new body didn't immediately visit Ainz's head. It just looked so beautiful, so perfect that the overlord could not relate the picture he saw before him and himself.

In his memories, he always had two bodies. This body, the body of Momonga and his human body. However in his human body, Ainz looked... Average. Typical. It may even be called 'gray.' And of course, he was at least twice as old as the body of the boy shown to him.

"Well, this is for you." Da Vinci smiled at him, carrying the body forward, after which, pushing several sheets from the sofa with her hand, laid him on his back.

Ainz, on the other hand could not do anything more than stare at the body in front of him with bewilderment.

And what was he supposed to do now?

Of course he agreed to get a human body - officially in order not to frighten people, but with a completely unambiguous real reason. To get himself a human body.

No, there were no problems with his undead body. To him it felt full, right even, however he lacked some things. There was a lack of pleasant sensations from the touch of the wind, muffled as if through clothes, and he would not like to give up the opportunity to eat delicious food or feel the pleasant warmth of the bath. And maybe even of a woman... Well, it doesn't matter right now.

In any case, he wanted to get a human body, even if it is limited and not able to withstand his full strength. In the end, he could always destroy the body and start to fight to his fullest ability. However even so, what he imagined was similar to his past body and certainly not like... This masterpiece.

However Da Vinci regarded his silence in her own way.

"Oh." Smiling at him the girl turned around in order to return to the warehouse. "I did not think that I would be able to meet anyone here who shared my tastes. This body is the only male body that I have at the moment, but if you prefer a female..."

It took Ainz a second to understand exactly what Da Vinci said.

"Stop!" He shouted , but his undead mind immediately extinguished the emotion. "No, I would prefer a male body. Simply…"

Lost in thought Ainz sighed. "It's just extremely beautiful, that's all."

"Of course." The reply came from Da Vinci instantly and was full of meaning , as if what was said needed no further explanation. "I created it."

"You?" Turning to the girl, Ainz looked at her in surprise, which however remained unnoticeable due to the lack of facial expressions. Ainz' surprise in this case was completely unnecessary. Of course he heard from Tabula about what kind of existence Leonardo Da Vinci is, a brilliant scientist who was considered a genius in all fields, but due to his lack of systematic education he could not fully imagine what it really meant 'to understand everything at once'.

"Of course." Da Vinci's smile came out even more calm this time and this time there was some pride seen on it. "I am a genius in everything that I try. I don't think that before or after me there would be a person who understood everything as much as I do... Except one of my friends, perhaps."

Ainz could not reply to this and again looked at the boy's body, which because of its beauty looked more like a porcelain doll.

"Although, if you want, I can create a different appearance for you in the future." Seeing Ainz' indecision Da Vinci smiled at him. "I think it will take me a week to create a suitable body that can withstand A-grade magic. If you wish I could make a couple of sketches now."

"Thank you." Ainz sincerely thanked the girl. After which he again looked at the body of the boy lying in front of him. Apparently he really had no choice.

When Ainz opened his eyes again the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling, from which several strange devices hung, the purpose of which Ainz could not understand. As well as Da Vinci leaning over him, carefully looking at the awakening undead.

"It seems that everything is in order." After a couple of seconds of inspection the girl came to a conclusion. "To be honest, this puppet was meant for me so I was not completely sure that he could contain you. However, as expected, my creation was extremely effective. How do you feel?"

How do you feel?

On this question Ainz inspected himself.

The sensations were strange and extremely unusual.

During his years of gaming in Yggdrasil, he must admit that he was already used to associating his "self" with the body of the undead Momonga rather than with his human body. Of course, this fact was only strengthened with his summoning and being put in his skeletal form as a Servant in the new world, Ainz mind became used to his inhuman body even more, to such an extent that he began to consider it his 'real' body instead of the body of that unfortunate young man whose place he accidentally took in this world. And at the same time, although his current state was not entirely 'natural', to him it was in this body that he felt the warm atmosphere of the Da Vinci's workshop, in which he found himself and the touch of clothes clothed in advance by the girl to the naked body. Additionally, unlike the body of the young man that he had occupied before, this body felt more like a 'suit', perhaps of the most beautiful cut but still not as natural as his usual bones and draped mantle.

"I suppose everything is normal." Nevertheless, Ainz did not find any other answer, and slowly got up from the sofa. After his impressive physique was reduced, almost half the room abruptly ceased to look chaotically cluttered to him and change into a simple category of creatively erratic, so that the Master who occupied the new body could stretch his arms a little bit.

"Okay." The girl nodded to him after which she almost immediately handed him a few sheets of paper. "Here look, I already made a few sketches."

It was unexpectedly fast, in such a way that Ainz did not at first realize what Da Vinci meant and only after looking at the neat pencil drawings and distinguished sketches of bodies and faces in precise lines. And naturally, as was expected, they were all drawn without a single extra dash, so perfect, as if someone had spent all their life creating the most perfect drawings , until they were able to create their masterpiece. However judging by the time, Da Vinci managed to sketch the drawings in the few minutes that it took Ainz to wake in his new body.

"Which do you prefer?" looking at the man who occupied the new body, the girl smiled at him. "Bear in mind if you change your mind I can still give you any female body that you want."

"Thank you, but I still refuse." The thought of the possibility to occupy a woman's body did not entice the male personality of Ainz. Although technically, given the absence of some things in the body of the undead, it could be considered asexual. "However some problems may still arise. The fact is that these sketches are... Extremely beautiful."

"Naturally, I created them." Da Vinci smiled at him, shaking her beautiful hair, as if saying 'What else did you expect from true genius?'

"No, not just beautiful, but... Too beautiful." Ainz sighed. He admit, it would be simply uncomfortable for him to use it due to its appearance, which is not so suitable for him. Of course, he never considered himself handsome, but he never desired to correct this fact. Yes, maybe he would have been pleased to have a clearer cheekbones, a strong chin and other features considered 'manly' but he grew out, a long time ago, from the age when he wanted to look like a model from a poster and even more he learned to appreciate the advantages of his own 'gray' appearance. "Perhaps you could have done something more... Ordinary?"

"Ordinary?" - Da Vinci, was even a little surprised by the proposal of Ainz, - "But why? Don't you want to be beautiful? I'm pretty sure that I didn't add any excesses to my drawings."

"Yes, but..." Ainz hesitated. "Perhaps I would just like something more... Ordinary and inconspicuous. And maybe a little older?"

Unfortunately, the sketches provided by the girl showed a person hardly much older than twenty years and Ainz would therefore prefer a more mature body in this case.

"Ordinary... And older?" It seemed as if the words of Ainz had wounded the girl in the heart, breaking through like arrows, forcing Da Vinci to repeat them. "But... What about beauty?"

"I'd be quite satisfied if I was not handsome... Although of course I would not like to have any obvious physical defects. Just an ordinary appearance, perhaps thirty years old... Or at least twenty-five?" The man said uncertainly, and looked at Da Vinci, who looked as if she would have a stroke. However after digesting what was said to her, the girl sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked at Ainz with a satisfied smile.

"Of course, the creation of something ordinary presents no problem for me." Da Vinci nodded to him. "Then perhaps I can come up with something a little later... Maybe tomorrow we can discuss everything that you want?"

"Of course." Ainz nodded to the girl, but a second later he was distracted by the strange sound that reached him from under one of the tables. Having shifted his gaze he was able to find a small creature, resembling a dog or a very large squirrel of white color, sitting under the table. His mind recalled memories of having already seen such a creature not so long ago.

"Fou," Ainz called the animal. It seems that last time this creature ran away from Ainz when they met.

Fou however was clearly not going to run away this time. Even more than that, Ainz could have sworn that the strange creature at the moment was closely watching his movements in his new body. However the creature was obviously not going to do anything except attentive watch.

"Ainz." Da Vinci turned unusually to the man or, judging by the body he was given, to the boy."I'm sure his name is "Four."

"Is it?" For a moment Ainz was distracted from the contemplation of the being. "I was ready to swear that it was "Fou"."

"No, I'm pretty sure that this is Four." Da Vinci nodded at the name confidently and Ainz was forced to retreat before the girl's unequivocal confidence and looked at the creature who was looking at him closely at the moment. However, it was clearly not going to do anything right now, so, after staring at each other for a few seconds, without having come decision on what Ainz had to do with the creature, he decided to ignore him for the moment. Moreover, after a few seconds someone knocked on the door of Da Vinci's workshop, so the girl was distracted from the contemplation of the confrontation of glances by the two beings.

Behind the door to Da Vinci's workshop was Dr. Roman, however this time he looked somewhat better than he did at their last meeting. Firstly, he was clearly not so much worried about the actions of an unknown ally, Ainz, and secondly he was slightly excited, in the most proper sense of the word. And at the moment, glancing at the girl, he began to speak rapidly when he saw her.

"It seems we managed to complete the system for summoning Servants!" He happily announced the news and only after that he noticed someone was standing nearby. "And who..."

"This is Ainz." The girl instantly enlightened him, after which she tried to put thoughts of what had happened on the rails. "So what are you talking about? How did you manage to finish the system?"

"Mashu's shield turned out to be a terrific catalyst for summoning." Roman smiled at the girl after which he turned his gaze to Ainz, who was silent, uninitiated into the conditions of the systems. "I congratulate you Mr. Ainz, now we can organize the summoning of Servants!"

After the same phrase Ainz became interested in what was said.

"In what sense?" He made to move from the cluttered tables to be opposite the man.

"The FATE system or a pseudo 'Throne of Heroes'." Romani explained right away. "This is the system that the Masters were supposed to use to establish contact with the Servants if they are needed to intervene in the fight... However the system was never finished, the high energy costs and low chance of success due to the attempt to reproduce the ritual of the Holy Grail War by simple equipment were its main problems. Of course we didn't manage to do anything with its energy expenditures, however using the shield of Mashu we were able to achieve a stable, working ritual for summoning Servants. Although, of course there will be other problems, but it is quite possible that we still managed to at least do its basic functions!"

"Servant summoning..." This time Ainz said the phrase thoughtfully and as if distracted from his thoughts, looked at Dr. Roman. "And how many Servants can this system call upon?"

This time Dr. Roman was the one thinking. "Well, formally... As long as we can provide the system with energy and at least the minimal of a catalyst for invoking a Servant."

"That's it?" Said Ainz. No, of course he was not a slave owner and would not like to force people to work or fight for him, however... "And what is necessary in this case to call a Servant?"

"Well, first of all the source of energy." Answering to the slightly suspicious question of Ainz Romani. "The main powers of the Chaldea are now aimed at maintaining shields and life support, so we simply cannot afford to spend any significant amount of energy to use it. Especially since without a catalyst the likelihood of success will still not be very high. As for the Catalyst..."

"Of course, some personal object of a Servant would allow us to call upon the Servant with a one hundred percent chance but if we don't have that, then perhaps we would need a source of mana or abilities similar to the hero being called." Roman stopped after these words.

'Data-crystals' Ainz thought.

Ainz concluded that trying to summon a Servant required the use of data crystals and in order to summon a specific Servant requires data crystals that was appropriate for this particular Servant. For example, the corrupted Saber left behind a medium-level data-crystal with the parameters of 'dragon' and 'darkness', so it was more likely that when used , the Servant summoned would be related to these two parameters. Although, even if he uses low-level data crystals, such as those that Ainz eventually collected from the killed monsters who practically had no parameters of their own they could also be used in the summoning . However in this case, the lack of special parameters of the crystals limited the scope of the summoning and the likelihood of failure was much higher.

'In a strange way, this system somehow resembles the gacha...' Ainz noted the strange similarities.

"In this case perhaps..." Ainz started, after which he shook his head. "We should try to call on some Servant, for a trial?"

Romani looked at Ainz inquiringly, after which he nodded then took a step to the side, opening a passage to the man in the body-puppet.

Ainz on the other hand, felt how much excitement began to spread over his body. After all, many years before that, he spent practically all his money on the gacha in Yggdrasil and not because he was a gambler.

Slowly but surely in the soul of Ainz the spirit of the collector began to flare up.

Noble Phantasm: EX

Noble Phantasm is the special characteristic characterizing for the Servant's Noble Phantasm, the crystallization of power and the legends of the hero. However there are two separate types of evaluation of a Noble Phantasm, the rank of the Phantasm itself and the rank of the parameter 'Noble Phantasm'. While the rank of the Noble Phantasm itself is responsible for its 'strength', whether it is of destructiveness or the power of the applied effect, the 'Noble Phantasm' parameter is responsible for its 'closeness to being a miracle' or, in other words, for how incredible it is in the overall scale of the world. For example, some Noble Phantasm, although they do not possess any special powers, by themselves still remain beyond the limits of the possible, because of which, although the rank of the Noble Phantasm itself will be low, the Servant's parameter for it will be much higher; and vice versa, although some abilities may have an incredible 'power', by themselves their abilities will simply be stronger versions of the most ordinary of things, because of which the rank of phantasm and parameter will again be different.

RankEX - Highest rank, beyond any normal ranks. This rank means that this phantasm has an 'impossibility' parameter that surpasses any numerical value or ranks — in other words, it is beyond what is possible and impossible not only for people but also for Servants and comparable to the Mystery of the Gods, and perhaps even surpasses them. Thus, it can be said that this Noble Phantasm are beyond all limits, surpassing the very concept of the possible and the impossible.