A better way to put it would be that it induced others to believe it was incapable of feeling emotion. Shizu’s facial features were delicate, but in another sense it was also like a mask.
Because she was created as an automaton, Shizu could not display emotions — such was her settings.
“……Blood of Jormungandr?”
After Shizu revealed the name of this tool capable of creating such a toxic zone, Ainz replied:
“Ah, correct answer. Although I have not informed you, this treasure renders the surrounding air highly toxic. If you did not possess any abilities or tools capable of countering this toxicity, you would have dropped dead within three steps.”
“So, is that why I …apologies… is that why we three were selected?”
“Correct.”
Both the dullahan Yuri who was adjusting her glasses and the emotionless automaton Shizu were immune to toxins because of their racial traits.
Albedo belonged to the demonic race and was not immune to toxins. However, she had an alternative way of dealing with toxins.
“Correct, that is the reason all of you were brought here, but… I brought Shizu along for another reason to confirm something.”
Thus Ainz and the others used 「Mass Fly」to bypass the effort needed to cross the gold mountain, and arrived in front of a door on the other side.
No, could it really be called a door? It was in the shape of a door, but looked like a bottomless pit attached to the wall.
Arriving at this picturesque door, Ainz was deep in thought.
“This here is the armoury, what was the password again…?”
“Ainz-sama, if there is an armoury, does it mean that there are treasures concealed in other locations?”
… Huh? Albedo doesn’t know all the relevant information about the contents of the Treasure Hall?
Ainz was puzzled over why Albedo would ask such a question. Nonetheless, even if she was unaware of such information, it still made sense. The treasures were not housed inside the Great Tomb of Nazarick. It was necessary to use a ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to be transported to that location. It was designed in such a way to make an invasion extremely difficult. It was normal for Albedo to be oblivious of this information, since she didn't have her own ring just ten days ago.
Although Ainz somewhat wondered just how much knowledge the NPCs possessed, he felt it was a trivial problem and replied to the earlier question.
“Ha ha. I had a comrade by the name of Genjiro. He took pleasure in keeping things neat and organised, and should have categorised objects according to their purpose.”
“Wasn’t he the Supreme Being who created our companion Entoma?”
“Yes, Yuri you are correct. However, whether he actually relishes tidiness may be questionable. If he truly did, the treasures in that gold mountain would be managed more orderly, and he would not describe his own room as a mess. Speaking of which, he should have already separated the items into categories: armours, weapons, jewelry, auxiliary tools, consumables, manufacturing goods, etc. In addition, there is also the Nazarick maintenance room… yes, and also the crystal data storage room.”
During this rant, Ainz’ finger was pointed towards the wall, where a two-dimensional shadow had appeared.
“However, in reality the inside is connected so it shouldn’t matter which way we enter… Ah, sorry. I have talked too much.”
“Not at all, we are grateful towards Ainz-sama for answering our questions so passionately.”
Following Albedo’s statement, the two battle maids simultaneously bowed to express their gratitude.
There is no time to spare; what am I doing. Everytime I brag about Nazarick, I can’t stop myself…
Ainz shrugged, then turned again to face the shadow in front of him.
This door could only be opened by a predetermined password. Perhaps with magic or a skill from the rogue class, one could force this door open. But Ainz had never learnt such magic or skill, therefore, it was necessary to speak the password…
Ack… I forgot.
This is understandable.
As such mechanisms were plentiful in Nazarick, it was possible to remember passwords for the place one visits frequently, but there weren’t many opportunities to visit the Treasure Hall, so it was impossible to remember the password for such a place.
Ainz only ever visited to withdraw funds to pay for the upkeep of Nazarick so it had already been many years since he last stepped foot here.
Failing to retrieve the password from his memories, Ainz said the universal password:
“「Glory to Ainz Ooal Gown.」”
The dark door responded to this phrase, and some text appeared like floating images in water. The words which appeared were: 「Ascendit a terra in coelum iterumque descendit in terram et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum」
(TL: “With great sagacity it doth ascend gently from Earth to Heaven. Again it doth descend to Earth, and uniteth in itself the force from things superior and things inferior.” ~Holmyard, Alchemy, p.95)
“…Tabula Smaragdina really was a perfectionist.”
Ainz couldn’t help but let this slip, getting a vague reaction from Albedo.
His mind drifted to one of the people responsible for designing Ainz Ooal Gown’s mechanisms.
Of all the small mechanisms in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, two were by his design. Abundantly sophisticated designs like this ate up a large amount of the given data quota in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, causing other players to become unable to design freely and hence caused them to protest. He took responsibility, paying for cash items to expand the amount of data.
Ainz paid serious attention to the words that surfaced. This must be a password hint, but what does it mean?
Ainz spent some time relentlessly searching for the answer hidden deeply in his mind.
Before long, Ainz finally found the door code from his deepest memories.
“It should be — Thus thou wilt possess the glory of the brightness of the whole world, and all obscurity will fly far from thee— right?”
Ainz who spoke looked towards Shizu as if seeking confirmation.
Shizu nodded in response to Ainz.
Other than Tabula Smaragdina, the comrade who was also responsible for designing mechanisms was the creator of the NPC Shizu. Her character settings were set to be familiar with Nazarick’s mechanism unlocking methods. Because of this, Shizu should have easily been able to decipher the earlier password hint.
But despite knowing this, Ainz still did not ask for her assistance, simply for the sake of his stubbornness of wanting to open the door with his own efforts.
Coming to this world gave life to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. That is why he wanted to be the first to leave his footprint on this ground. Just like how a person wishes to step on fresh, undisturbed snow, Ainz wished to open the door himself.
As if in response to Ainz’ wishes, the black shadow was sucked away into a single point, and before long, the original shadow was gone as if it had never been there. Only a fist-sized black sphere floated in the air.