C1- Mana Reactor

It took several months to see the difference, the difference in what happens when one has Fae for a Servant.

Water tastes better, the vegetation is more alive, and it is more visible when winter is coming to the end and Spring is around the corner.

Marcus can't remember the last time he celebrated Christmas and New Year. It was something else to do with his parents.

Regardless, with such development, he didn't rush with his work.

After creating that small room under the garage, the expansion continued, to his right he carved out a tunnel that leads to his training area.

This was the area where he spent months working on. The room expands around 30 metres and goes down around 40 metres.

While it's not as wide, it's deep. The reason for such deepness is that Marcus developed a fascination with mountaineering when he was in space.

He built a 40-metre wall which is a replica of a mountain cliff. This was nothing more than a joke of things that can be found in space. But this was enough to train his body.

Another reason why he built it this big is because he wants that dirt. He needs that material for alchemy. Having over 40 metres of dirt is around 20 metres of alchemy clay, that's quite a bit of building material.

As Marcus was thinking about his progress he looked at his hands, he was dressed in a sleeveless shirt, which allowed him free hand movement.

'Soon, I will reach that peak condition needed for my rituals. My body is getting fit, I will need all that energy for alternation.'

His gaze then went to Artoria, his Servant, the blonde Fae was dressed in casual dress, there was a timer in her hands. She is the one who will take time in his next climbing exercise.

Over the past few months, his Caster adjusted quite well to the human world. Not only that but she started to become quite useful after she adjusted to her Master.

From improving the Boundary Fields with Fae element to making the soil more fertile, she did all of that.

"I am ready," Marcus said to Artoria as he put his gloves on and then looked at her.

She nodded back.

Seeing that it was time, Grand Alchemist nodded before lunging at the wall and starting to climb while his Servant started the timer.

'He has been doing this for over a month, every single day.' Artoria thought to herself as she watched how her Master was climbing the wall at rapid speed.

'Such dedication to work… it's humbling.' The girl for second frowned, his drive has affected her as well. As a Fae, it's in their nature to attach themselves to a human.

Not only that but, some of the human qualities rub off on her as well. This means that she is trying harder now as well.

Still, seeing him doing the same thing over and over again allows her to see a growth curve. Just by looking at the notebook, she can see the time when he climbed the wall for the first time.

And the time of his latest climb. This is…witnessing progress.

'If all the Fae were like this in my world we wouldn't have needed to doom it…'

She shook her head for a bit recalling all that won't help anyone.

Though… as someone who is stuck with her Master for many years to come… you could say that she is a living person now and not just an insignificant Servant who is here for a short time.

One could say… some of the regrets developed as she had a lot of time to think.

Not that she is transmitting her thoughts to anyone, it's something she thinks from time to time.

A few minutes later her Master was done, he had reached the top.

"It's 9 minutes and 14 seconds. You are faster than yesterday by 4 seconds!" The Caster said loudly as she wrote down the time on the notebook.

"Got it," Marcus said with a tired voice.

While there was quite a distance between them, Artoria heard him without any issue.

Moments later she turned into her ghost form and then reappeared next to her Master.

There was a small smile on her lips.

"You have been improving your time for the past week, are you thinking of improving the wall once again?" She asked him while handing over a bottle of water that was prepared for him at the top of the artificial mountain wall.

"Hmm, already a week? I suppose I could add several sharp edges, I remember that one time in a world which I called ExW-12. The ExW, means 'Extraterrestrial World' . It was the 1 solid world I found. It was a barren world with very similar gravity to Earth's, it was full of sharp edges and mountains. By that point, I was tired of constantly flying everywhere, and I missed the joy of walking so I decided to scale a mountain after finding an appropriate one."

The girl dumbly nodded, at times like these, he decides to open up about his previous life.

To counter back she would say something about herself. However… one lived for more than 300 years while she… she only lived for 16 years…

It didn't take long for her stories to end and for him to get more and more… out-worldly.

"Let… me get this straight… you missed the feeling of walking so you decided to walk around in a barren world. And then climb a mountain?" The blonde Fae asked with a dumbfounded look.

"Yes, though you missed a few details. One is that I would scan these Extraterrestrial worlds. I would find anomalies, like metals I had never seen before or marine life which would make even the biggest of whales look like small fish." As he said that he got back up on his feet and stretched out for a second before continuing.

"I climbed that mountain because there was a deposit of metal I had never seen before. Think of it as a reward. And yes, it was a great reward, the metal I found was extremely conductive to electricity, something which made metals found on Earth pale in comparison." Marcus explained to her as he looked like he was recalling something from long ago.

"Is it impressive? My understanding of Electricity is not as great as I would like it to be." The blonde Fae said with a frown as she is still learning about technology and what they are.

Thankfully Marcus knows his things and he already explained how lightning and thunder have been tamed and turned into technology which she sees today.

It was quite an informal ordeal, as he has explained before this is how it looks when a human tames an element and makes it work.

Box which shows pre-recorded images from all over the world, same with voice, or another box which can do all the calculations for them or a box which can take you around on wheels or a cylinder shaped thing which can fly…

All that is quite fascinating. However, because of such advanced technology, it takes time for her to catch up.

"It is, think it this way if you have a weapon made from such metal you could instantaneously cast lightning and thunder-based magic. With your style of just throwing around magic, you could do it and it would be instantaneous."

Artoria nodded, his explanation was satisfactory.

"Though it pales in comparison with things I found in more hostile environments."

"Oh? Something more unique than such metal in a barren world." Truthfully even at this moment, her understanding of what is a 'barren world' is still a quite naive level.

For her it's a world barren of life but not inhospitable, to Marcus it's just a floating rock in space. Where no human could even stand for a few seconds.

"Yes, like the aquatic worlds I visited. One of them specifically humbled me immensely. It's a world bigger than Earth by at least 50 times, the aquatic life there was brutal, to survive their size was everything, if you are small you will die.

Though the resources I found there are what truly humbled me. The metal found at the bottom of this world is so thick that to this day I could not refine it."

"And I tried pretty much everything, from concentrated heat to vibrations. The only thing that could affect such metal was the specific frequency of a sound."

"And what kind of qualities such metal would have?"

"It's extremely dense, so dense in fact that heat itself bounces off. This means it's absurdly heavy. The uses for such metal would be something like walls, or forge, if someone could build an armour from it one would be indestructible.'

"But very heavy, how would you carry such heavy armour?" Artoria asked him, the more he talks about space the more she wants to see what is in such a place.

As someone who only saw a single landmass in the whole world. As in…her Fae Britain was just a single landmass in the entire planet she still can't grasp how there could be so much land in the human world.

So grasping what is space… is still in progress.

"This is where human ingenuity comes into play. It's where the fun lies in all of this! Imagine figuring it out to make it possible?" Marcus said with quite a jovial tone. A challenge like that is something he can't say no to!

However, to… remake these materials he found in space is something not possible with the things he has at this moment.

"...Master… it's still far for me to grasp what makes it fun…" The blonde said with a forced smile on her lips. She is still getting used to living in the human world, adjusting to the marvels of technology.

"Don't worry. Since you are my Servant we tackle these things together."

'This is what I am fearing… I don't want to get into things that are way over my head!' The blonde thought nervously.

"As long as you explain in the process." She quickly said this.

"Don't worry… think of this like a game, you start easy, and then as we progress it gets harder."

Marcus said that while taking a sip of the water, he was almost done with the whole bottle before starting to walk back into the small room via the corridor.

"...Master…"

The blonde Fae sighed, it was a heavy resigned one, the girl is feeling that she is getting over her head. Though… it's far, FAR better than what she had to do in Fae Britain!

She would rather be an assistant to a Grand Alchemist than be shackled with the fate of bringing salvation to the entire world.

"Are you coming? We still have to finish installing pipes and get running water. Do you think there is a good Servant who could do that?" Marcus asked her while he was walking.

Artoria chuckled before quickly catching up to him.

"I doubt anyone would answer the call for such a mundane task." She joked with an amused tone.

"You will never know, there may exist a magic girl who controls water. She would make a great addition in helping me install those pipes."

"...*Snort*"

The blonde Fae snorted just from imagining such a spectacle.

~~~

On the other side of the small room was another which was under construction.

That massive amount of Alchemy clay Marcus will be using to build himself a Kitchen.

Artoria was treated to one of those moments when she saw her Master using physics like gravity in making this place.

This is how the pipes make water flow. As Fae of the lake, she slowly nodded each time she saw how water is tamed and added to the system for human convenience.

'No wonder the humans stayed on the top while the rest of the species declined and eventually were forced to hide or die'

As the blonde thought about humans and their progress, she saw these pipes get sealed off, and then Marcus used runes that sucked the air out of these pipes.

"Curious? This is the main trick of the pipe, if air is not sucked out from the pipe, water won't run as air itself will get in the way. This is when you turn the tap on water runs because of that airtight pressure in the pipes, this is why you can get this working even against gravity."

Funny enough, as Marcus was explaining this the Fae in question is thinking about how to use this in fights!

'I Could use this to pull someone close to me or send someone away! Intriguing, or making water shoot with an enormous amount of force. At least I think it would be like that!'

'Then-Then what about Fire? Or…'

This simple concept made her think a bunch of things about how she could utilise this simple trick!

"Are you listening?"

"Yes-Yes! I mean YES, I was just thinking how could I use this with my magic."

"Hmm, I see, I suppose, I could give you a notebook so that you could keep all your ideas in there."

"Y-You don't mind that I spaced out like this?" Artoria for a few moments was in disbelief, he doesn't mind that she ignored his explanation!?

"You are a fellow mage, so it is all about ideas and how to utilise them and add them to your Arsenal."

His explanation made her slightly get self-conscious, she is a Servant and it's her duty as one to help her Master as much as she could.

Yet, he is helping her to get better at magecraft!

"...I-I will appreciate the help, Master!"

Though she can't say no to a notebook!

"Good, now let's return to the pipes."

She swiftly nodded multiple times in succession.

"How is your water manipulation by the way?" Marcus asked her as he continued to add the pipes and seal them off.

"...Umm I am not a water element, but a Fae, there is a difference Master. I can't just tell water what to do." The girl rolled her eyes as she nearly huffed at him.

"Yet, you have an enormous affinity towards it, no? Your water spells are several times more powerful and cost less mana."

"Yes, I need to use spellwork to manipulate water. So it's not pure manipulation as you have envisioned," she explained more.

"True, but this is where teaching you runes comes into play."

Artoria curiously raised her eyebrow.

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

She asked him curiously as she wants to understand what he means by that.

"Right, so the symbol is this…"

He drew a symbol in the air with mana.

"When you draw this symbol you have to think about water, the better you understand water the better it is. You can add these symbols—"

He drew several more symbols that correspond with water control and flow.

"You can play with these as I am putting these pipes, you have a couple of days for this as I will be connecting to the city water network. You will be my triumph card if something unforeseen happens." Marcus said that as he returned to his work.

"W-What!? Hold on! This is brand-new magic for me!" She squeaked her words as the blonde realised what this means! She would rather face someone and just throw stuff at it! This is a specific job!

"And you have a few days to master these four letters."

Her eyes slowly grew wider, is he going to test her!?

"You can use the water in that bottle to test it out, it's not hard when you use one or two runes, the moment you have a feel for it you can start throwing them casually."

His explanation didn't make any sense! How do you throw magic letters!?

"How do you even do that!"

"Rune throwing? Like this?"

As he said that he just swung his hand and the rune slammed into a wall.

It was a symbol she didn't see before… however she understood what he meant.

He CAN throw letters with simple hand motion!

"This is something you do after you practise this art for a long time. For now, just practise drawing it."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Can… you show those symbols again?"

"...Sure."

~~~

As Marcus was installing pipes in his underground workshop, Artoria was practising the new magic art of rune drawing.

It was safe to say that she started to have fun when she saw a few things her Master did. One of those was that she could make those runes activate later on like when water touches it or gets triggered. It's like the whole thing became a game to her!

Most of all… Her Master didn't mind that she was having fun while playing with these few specific runes!

Not that he had much time to observe her as he was continuing with his work.

He carved out a tunnel underneath the kitchen area which is on the left of the small room he carved out first under the garage.

One could say it's the basement under the basement. It's something akin to a maintenance tunnel.

The pipes run close to the ceiling of the tunnel. Several days later Marcus found the main water pipe running under the road.

This was where he had to connect his pipe with the city water network.

"This is where you need to prepare those runes, while I connect the pipe. Usually, the city water supplier has to turn off the water when they are doing something like this. But, we can't do this as people will ask why, I can't say that I am building an underground bunker. I don't want to freak out my parents with this.

So you just make sure it doesn't explode in our face with all that water pressure." As he said that he started to attach the new pipe into the city one.

"... Isn't… is it illegal? From my observations so far you need to pay for water, electricity, and the land."

Honestly, there are a lot of taxes but these taxes pale in comparison to what Morgan used to do.

"Indeed, this is why I will give all the water I take back to the city once my Assembly Lines and Matter Convertor is up and running."

"...I suppose, it can't be helped," Artoria said while sighting.

"Yeah, now prepare those runes."

"One moment."

Around a few minutes later the water was running and Marcus sealed off this area.

He has no idea if city water management will notice this… this is why he should hurry with his water system.

Once he was done with this he went back to the kitchen and proceeded to finish the work there.

He still has to make a boiler and a shower area.

~~~

Time continued to move on and Marcus finished his kitchen and bathroom areas, this means he continued to spread out, which was directly under the garage as he carved a wide area where his main workshop will be.

It's a room that is situated right in front the moment one descends the stairs under the garage.

The design is that if he builds or crafts anything related to cars or even planes it will be able to leave the workshop through a ramp which will be made from the ceiling right into the driveway and into the road.

This is how it's going to be but… he has no such technology at this moment.

Regardless, after making room for the main workshop he created another wide room right on the left side and most likely right under the neighbour's house.

This is the ritual room where Marcus replanted the summoning circle in the middle of the room.

In the future, he is thinking of adding some technomancy that will allow him to alter the floor since redrawing circles is quite bothersome.

Once he was back in the workshop room he looked around. The temporary light in this place is starting to get annoying to him.

It feels like playing Minecraft and placing torches all over the place.

'It has been so long since I played Minecraft, I still remember the classics!

Regardless, since I have water it's time to get the next key component.'

As he thought about it his mind processed what he needed next, he needed lights, and connecting to the power grid was out of the question.

His things need far too much power and he still has traumatic memories of when he used to pay hundreds of thousands just for electricity.

No, he will make a power source of his own, and he has several ideas on how to do just that.

"What now, Master? It's getting late, should we return to the house?" Artoria asked curiously.

"No, we will be going for boulder hunting," Marcus said while stroking his chin. He was thinking how to just do that.

"Boulder…hunting?" Artoria repeated what her Master said, trying to process what this means!

"Yes, this country was under a thick layer of ice over 12 thousand years ago. Because of thick snow large boulders formed here.

We can find such stones as we travel around the river."

She nodded at his explanation, so they will be looking for a large rock.

"Can I ask why you need a rock?"

"I will transmute it into a core for a reactor. The compression rate should be enough for a boulder created from snow and ice which was around for hundreds of thousands of years."

"I see…I think I can help you with this quite a bit." As the Fae said she walked over in front of Marcus and leaned forward before pushing his hair and kissing his forehead.

That moment-specific magic energy has washed him over.

"I blessed you as the Fae of Avalon, this allows you to walk on water and wield the holy swords. Though you will lose this if you work against nature." Artoria said that while trying extremely hard not to blush.

"T-This is my first time doing this, so I hope it's going to work."

Marcus smiled amusingly when he heard her last line.

"So you don't know yourself?"

"It's not about knowing or not knowing, it's about instinctual power. It's simply there." Explained with a healthy pout.

"I see… then we will test this tonight," Marcus said while feeling himself up. He could tell that there was a certain change in his mana. It's like a change of flavours.

"Yes. But, can you see at night? From my understanding, the river valley is not lit up by anything." The blonde Fae pointed out as she remembered looking down from the concrete bridge in the middle of the city. It's one of the things which stuck with her the most about the town.

"Hmm… yes, I see your point. Thanks for pointing that out. Let's make some glasses."

"Glasses?"

"Yep, it's glass meant to see the world around you via different colours OR most of the cases it's for people who have bad eyesight."

She nodded to his explanation. Now she wants to see what this item looks like.

After explaining Marcus walked to the pile of Alchemic clay laying in the corner of his workshop.

He grabbed a fist full and then walked to the working table and started to do his things.

The Fae walked to the side and observed him from the side.

This was the first time where he is working with something purely like an item.

'I do wonder if his Item Creation skill is higher than mine if he is to be summoned as a Servant.' Artoria was curious. Her Item Creation is at B allowing her to create certain magical items quite effortlessly, however, there are limits to this for the simple reason that it was ranked at B and it's not influenced by her legends.

In other words, her stuff is not conceptual but purely magical. But then again when it comes to Holy Sword creation there is no stronger being than her in that regard.

While Artoria was thinking about her Master's potential, Marcus in question started to mould the clay. It almost looked like he was like a child playing with harmless-looking material.

Once it had the shape of a simple frame of glasses he put it on the table and started to draw the runic circle. When the circles were finished he drew two more smaller circles on the side they were connected via a magic line to the main large circle.

Then he placed the frame of the glasses into the large circle and placed both of his hands on the smaller circles.

What happened next was Marcus started to pour his mana into the smaller runic circles, he spread his fingers and placed his palms In the middle of them.

When the pair of circles started to glow it started to spread through the thin lines into the large circle and it lit up as well. The glasses frame reacted and slowly started to float in the air.

The Fae observed all of this with a critical eye, she was observing the whole development closely.

What she saw was her Master creating a unified framework for magic item creation.

From her understanding is that these circles act like a medium where he can build anything he wants.

'He is using those two circles to manipulate magic to alter the clay, the clay itself is extremely sensitive to the mana in the circle.'

Several minutes later the glasses frame altered and it looked like it was doing it on its own! Instead of looking dull grey, it looked like it was pure silver! Like it was made from expensive material.

Once it was finished the frame landed on the table and Marcus finished channelling his mana. He picked the frame up and put it on.

"Hmm… I am off by a few inches." He muttered to himself as he took them off.

He then looked at Artoria who was looking at all of this with a thoughtful look.

"Come put these on." He then handed over the frame to her.

"Hm? You want me to put these on?"

"Yes, you see glasses, especially the smart-looking ones, give that certain aura to people, they think that you are smart if you have those. While it doesn't work for everyone. I am sure it will look nice on you." He motioned to take it as he explained to her.

"...Oh…Okay…"

The girl took the frame and put it on.

"Well?"

"Not bad at all for the first try… I think I know what kind of style of glass I will use for you." As Marcus hummed to himself he grabbed some of the clay and mould into two squire forms.

Once the form was to his liking he put both of them into a large circle and proceeded to transmute them into glass.

When it was done he took some more clay and moulded it into a thin pen-like stick.

A few short minutes later he had a metal pen with a thin needle at the bottom.

This was a runic pen, a pen designed to carve small runes.

After finishing with preparation he started to carve small runic letters on the frame of the glasses and on the glass itself.

The process was quite slow, he was done with it around 3 A.M. It was pitch dark outside.

When he was finished with the glasses Artoria had a realistic look.

"Oh, I have seen these before! I see, I see… so do they allow you to see in darkness?"

"Yep, for now, they can only do that." As Marcus said that he put them on and tested them out.

He used this to see the dark corners of his workshop.

The way they work is easy, he just needs to look. The runes do the work for him. Sending rays of magic and then bringing back the information to the glass, the glass then shows what it looks like.

While colouring needs some work. The basics are there so it's fine as it is for now.

"Will we be going out now? It's quite late."

"It's fine, we only need one large boulder." The Grand Alchemist explained to her as he went to the back room where he had his wardrobe, he opened it and pulled out his black clothes.

While he got taller these clothes still fit him because of the few runes he weaved into the material. However… There is a limit to how much he can do. It's not that of a solid material to have such enchantments to work indefinitely.

After changing his clothes the pair walked out outside and proceeded to advance towards the river.

~~~

'The lag is 3 seconds, such a thing is not combat-worthy at all. Regardless, for now, I will have to stick with this.'

As Marcus thought about it he arrived at the quite sharp-looking River bank. The stream here is quite strong and there are two small islands in front of him.

This was one of the places he used to come to swim, now that he remembered that some of the fond memories surfaced.

"Master?"

"Umm?"

"You've been staring at the water for some time now. Though I am quite happy to sense that this water is quite fresh, and there are some fishes here too!" As Artoria said, she walked over and touched the water. The girl ignored the cold water and instead sent several pulses of Fae mana into the water.

Her actions cause a chain reaction which has cleansed the water even more.

Then particles of green and blue lights started to manifest from the water and rise, becoming something magical for a short few moments.

It was even more beautiful to watch! Marcus even removed his glasses and looked at this with the naked eye.

He looked at this with some wonder, he had never seen such a magical thing before, in his previous life magical society was not as diverse as the one lives in now!

"I have scanned the surrounding area, there are no excessively large boulders. The one which is a few metres in that direction is around half a metre large." The Fae pointed upstream.

The Grand Alchemist had a thoughtful look, he then recalled one place they used to bathe more than any other place. At this place they used to bathe quite a bit since it's close to home. But, it pales in comparison to the other place he just remembered. It was right under the highway bridge.

And that place has a massive 1.5-meter-tall boulder sticking out from the water like a sore thumb.

"Hmm… that reminds me. Let's go Artoria . We are moving upstream. I suppose I can jump on water with the blessing?"

"Normally, yes, I think you should be able to do it." The Fae said with not a certain tone. She THINKS he was able to do it!

"Let's test it out then."

As he said that he started to walk towards the water, before he even set foot on it he felt his magic surging on its own, concentrating around his feet.

Then he put his right foot on the water, it didn't sink at all, he felt like he was standing on quite a solid surface.

"This is fascinating!"

He took a few steps before getting used to this. He then tried to jump, a small jump first, he realised that it was like jumping on a marshmallow.

So he tried again and again before he tried to do a big jump which caused quite a splash upon landing.

However, he didn't end up in the water, he was still standing on it!

'Curious… this is quite good. However, I doubt this will work on places in the river which has a low amount of water. I would be landing on the ground.'

The pair proceeded to travel on the water upstream leaving the city and passing the highway bridge which Marcus was thinking about.

His eyes stopped on the boulder next to the beach, it was massive, yet it was just like he remembered.

It was quite round as well. This was because of the receding ice all those years ago.

"It's quite a big one. Is this the size you were thinking about?" The Fae asked him as she looked at the boulder surrounded by river grass.

"Yes, now we will proceed to pull it out to the shore."

She nodded at him and then summoned her weapons. The girl quite casually made the massive rock move to the shore with nothing more than her Staff sword, which she used like a shovel.

"It's quite heavy. So this is how much a rock created by the ice age weighs." The blonde said with a curious look.

While Marcus was impressed by her strength!

'So this is a Servant's might! Her strength is at Rank A, this means she can push several tones just like that.'

"How is the Sword? Did you chip it?"

She snorted upon hearing that.

"...Master… you can't be serious."

He just shrugged at her; he does want to at least scan that thing.

"It needs more, much more than this to scratch it!" She slightly boasted about it before recalling it.

"Yes, I suppose it does make sense."

After acknowledging, he proceeded to walk into the shore.

He slapped several runes on himself. He was starting to feel quite cold as some of the cold water ended up splashing on him.

His clothes were not waterproof.

Once he was done with those runes impacted the stone. He then used one of the basic spells, structural analysis. This was to check out the condensation ratio.

'Hmm… I suppose I could bear with this. My hopes were quite big for rock found on earth.'

"Is it to your satisfaction, Master?"

"It will do. I forgot how rocks found on Earth can be this… fragile."

"Does it matter? You still will be transmuting it to fit what you want." Artoria said as she remembered that it doesn't matter what is in her Master's path, he turned everything into that clay.

"Yes, however, this is to conserve energy, we haven't reached the point where we have unlimited power. Or at least to the point where we produce more than we can use," he explained with a small frown.

"I understand. Then should we continue to search?"

"No… while I do know where we can find larger boulders. This will do for the first reactor."

As Marcus said that he recalled a single picture from his childhood. Which impressed even him that he could do that!

It was a massive boulder… at least 3 metres tall found next to a smaller river than this one, not far from his grandmother's countryside house. They even had a wooden bridge above it at least four metres in the air. Grown-ups used to jump from it into the river.

He was there when he was just around 5 years old… and he recalled that just now!

'I think my mental faculties have increased… is it that I am in a child's body? Developing my brain at such an age is affecting me?'

This made him think for a bit about such development! He should do some mental training as well since his body is still developing.

He sighed as he stopped thinking about this for a moment, he needed to get this boulder home.

To do that he drew a single rune on the boulder and started to channel his mana into it.

It took him around a minute before the boulder started to shrink in size. The moment it was the size of his palm he turned it around with some effort and drew another rune.

After channelling some more of his mana he was able to pick it very casually.

"Hmm… we have around 10 minutes before I need to redo this, let's go." As he said that he jumped on the bridge. Marcus looked around to see if there were any cars before jumping to the other side of the highway. He then proceeded to use reinforcement to run on the highway towards where the exit from the highway, and into a road that leads into the town.

His Servant easily followed him in her spirit form.

With his increased speed he quite easily returned to his underground Workshop. A 4 kilometre journey was done in less than 10 minutes.

However, he was getting tired, this was the first time he did such extensive use of mana alongside physical activity in his current body.

'Those Rituals… I will be doing them soon. This is becoming torture.'

Once he was in his main workshop room he placed the boulder on the ground and took several steps back.

Less than 3 minutes later the rune disappeared and the boulder rapidly regained its original size.

"Well, we are done here. I am going to hit the sack."

Marcus motioned that he is going to get some sleep. Artoria nodded at him and turned into her ghost form and followed him silently.

Sneaking back into his house was quite easy, the Grand Alchemist already had a pre-set route just to do that.

However, he had several plans to sneak back into his house. So with several swipes of runes on himself and the runes on the doors he could pass without any sound, even his steps were silent!

He quickly sneaked back into his room and went to sleep.

~~~~~~Next Day~~~~~~

The next day after school Marcus went to his workshop where he proceeded to transmute the boulder.

First, he turned the boulder into clay which looked like a pitch-black coal-like colored sphere.

This wasn't enough as the Grand Alchemist continued to compress further and turned into the size of a basketball.

The thing was it was still as heavy as it was before. Not only that, but he brought more clay and continued to add mass to it.

As he continued to do that the ball of coal black turned into a pitch-black abyss, it looks like it could not absorb any sort of light at all!

After seeing the state of this only now did Marcus nod to himself.

"This should be enough."

"What are you going to turn this into?" Artoria asked him curiously, she could not contain herself! This thing started to sink into the ground affecting even whatever the material it was built from!

"It's going to be an imitation of a planet core."

"!?"

"Wait! what?" She exclaimed with disbelief.

"Don't mix with the Planet core of your Gaia world and the one which is found on this world."

The Fae instantly calmed down.

"At first I was thinking of making it into a diamond, but instead decided with planetary core style," Marcus said while having a thoughtful look.

"It has several perks which I will be able to manipulate. Apart from just emitting heat which we will turn into energy."

She nodded at him before motioning him to continue with the explanation.

"Well you see, the planet which we are on is like an onion, it has layers. What I am going to do is copy the three most important layers." As the Grand Alchemist said he showed three fingers.

"First is the heat which gives the main power which comes from rotation and friction, second is gravity which comes from how heavy it is, and third is the emission which gives the magnetic field. This comes from the fact that it's metal.

These are the three bases which my reactor will create, the heat will give the power, the gravity will give the sturdiness and the field emission will be the Boundary field manifestation." He explained patiently to the Fae who was listening seriously.

She took a deep breath after hearing it.

"I see… my question… is how…"

"That's where you watch, and maybe you will learn something from this," Marcus said with a smile before he continued with his work.

Though his work was cut short as he needed to relocate the future reactor.

For this, he started to carve a floor below where his workshop is.

He started this where the main entrance stairs were, the Grand Alchemist simply just made another flight of stairs and proceeded to carve a corridor and then expand it into the wide room which will be the Reactor room.

This is where he wasn't holding back and proceeded to make this room as sturdy as possible!

He would regularly make Artoria pull out her weapon and proceed to attack the reinforced walls. If they survived then they were worthy of the upcoming reinforcement.

Then once the room was prepared, next was the most important part, the pedestal, and the diamond glass he is going to use for the containment of the power.

This was pure runemancy empowered by alchemy, he even ran out of his Alchemy Clay in the process, he needed to make more so he started to carve out a new room from the right wall of his main workshop.

This will be the testing room in the future.

For now, he turned the dirt into alchemy clay and took it to the floor below where he continued his work on the reactor.

All this progress happened in just a few days, though his Servant continued to watch, but eventually, she decided to ask…

"Does it have to be done purely like this? I could help with my magic…" She asked him with a sigh. While it was impressive to watch things progress like this…

There should be a faster way!

"It's not quite as easy as you may think. Runes are letters carved with mana, if you pour regular mana on top of it, or in this case a spell with specific intent behind it, it could cause an explosion, and you don't want this, especially around this reactor I am building. The repercussions would be catastrophic for my hometown." Marcus explained with a sigh.

"...I see… in that case is there anything I can do to help? I am feeling quite pathetic just watching it like this." She said with a disappointed sigh. The fae was disappointed in herself.

Besides she wants to figure out this clay, if she can learn how to make it she could massively improve her Item Construction speed.

"Sure thing, let me prepare some tools for you." Her Master quite happily went over to the temporary table he had in the reactor room and prepared a runic pen for the girl.

"Do you have a colour preference?"

"...Is it important?"

"It's called colour preference for a reason," Marcus said with a deadpan tone. He needs to drag this girl from her 'castle' as she doesn't want to give away such basic things.

"...I don't know? Never had time to think."

"In that case, emerald, golden, blue. Which one do you pick from these three?" The Grand Alchemist quickly deciphered her as he decided to take a different approach.

"...Blue? Though emerald is nice as well." Now she had a thoughtful look of her own.

"Both of them it is then."

A few moments later the blonde received her pen.

She inspected it from several angles, there was a small smile on her lips as she got her second item from her Master. Truthfully the girl is thinking about what to give to him after receiving the notebook now she has this pen, this makes two items to her zero.

"Right, so, I need you to continue to add the clay to the pedestal."

He showed her how to do it.

"The more you add the more solid it is, in other words, you make it stronger with the specific rune. This is fundamental Alchemy via Runemancy."

"...I thought alchemy is… wait… did you achieve Alchemy via a completely separate branch of magic!?"

Now that she realised she never saw him do traditional Alchemy which is a liquid state. No, all she saw was him using runic letters all the way!

"Yeah… it's the fastest way. You need to know the material at the atomic level then use the runes to alter it. Structure analysis is something I use instinctively. It's the most used spell of mine since I could remember."

"I see… it does make sense since you were around for a long time. No wonder you achieved such a high level in this."

"Your job is to continue to add the clay until this pedestal is completely white."

She nodded at him as she looked at the pedestal from all sides. It's still somewhat greyish-white, while some areas are pure white.

"The white state is when the pedestal is completely heat resistant. Meaning that the heat simply bounces from it. This will allow the reactor to easily stay on the pedestal without worries that it will melt anything." Marcus explained about the pedestal to Artoria who was looking curiously at the thing.

When she heard his explanation the girl put her hand on the pedestal and used her mana to probe it.

She realised that in some areas the mana simply bounced off while it's still possible to scan some of the grey-ish areas.

"H-How thick is this thing!? Mana itself can't probe!" Artoria exclaimed with disbelief.

Marcus shook his head in denial before explaining to her.

"Oh it can, you only need to send mana in a specific frequency, I spend months trying to probe that metal I found in the ocean world.

You need to find specific resonance. Once you do then you can see through this thickness."

She had a realistic look when she heard that! It made sense! As there are different types of mana and energies!

"I see! Can I try this out!?"

"No, you can try this out after we are done with the energy issue." He said with a deadpan look. For this girl, new magic is like catnip. He still remembers how she played with compressing and removing air…

Like it's the greatest discovery of her kind. Seriously, he should make her enrol in the school and learn it from teachers directly, instead of using him as a middleman.

Yes, Artoria comes to the school with him, but since she can't ask directly she is using him for explanations.

"...fine, I will do it."

She sighed with disappointment, however, this made her try to work extra harder as she wants to try out this new style of Structural Analysis.

While Artoria was busy with the pedestal strengthening, Marcus was busy with Diamond glass he was making via Alchemy.

In total there will be three layers of this. Three distinctive Arrays spread out in four locations around where the reactor will be.

These are the arrays that absorb three types of energies which will be spread out through the base and the town eventually.

The first layer is the heat which will be converted to either pure energy to power the workshop or stored as mana away.

Second later is the gravity field which will make the building's structure indestructible, and lastly is the field which will be used as the Boundary field's core.

Once the Diamond glass was prepared Marcus took Artoria who will help him to bring the core on the pedestal.

That thing was so heavy that even the girl struggled with her Servant strength to pick it up after lessening the weight with the runes!

That just tells one how heavy that thing is!

When it was placed on the pedestal the Grand Alchemist started to carve runes on the surface.

While the blonde fae resumed with her pedestal reinforcement.

Though…She would from time to time try to scan it, trying different ways to use structural analysis.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

Several days later, the Reactor room was finished. After finishing setting it up Marcus carved another room adjacent to it.

This was the Mana storage room, it will be kept in a liquid state.

The reason for it is a security reason. He doesn't want some sort of idiot finding this one day and trying to absorb it and scream 'Unlimited Power!'

Especially since he has trauma-ish for people who check out his things without his permission, one of the reasons for his departure to space.

On the other hand, he is thinking long-term. The concept of Mana batteries could be a thing where he could have machines or mecha powered by it.

Not everyone could have a reactor like his workshop would have. It is simply too heavy and takes a lot of time to build it.

After finishing with the storage he proceeded to install light systems everywhere in his workshop area.

Before he even realised he was close to celebrating his 13th birthday!

Once it was finished Marcus proceeded to make his preparations for the activation of his 'Triple Core Reactor' this was the temporary name he assigned for this thing.

Honestly, he never properly named this after building one in space exploration of his.

When he was living in a specific world for a few years he would build one of these. After he was done with that world he would make it explode.

As they say, he would leave with fireworks still exploding in the background.

He didn't want to leave anything behind. Regardless, he never named this technomancy properly.

Before he started this thing up he prepared a terminal that would allow him to customise the reactor, for now, it's just pieces of a computer terminal, there is no software or anything like that.

Marcus just left this so that he could work more when specific technomancy was ready for it.

After all was set, and the water tanks were filled up in the storage room he started to channel mana into a specific point on the diamond glass.

Artoria, who was some distance away, was observing this with a calculating look. It took her some time but she understood what this meant.

Any mage understands what it means to have excess mana, in this case, to have an unlimited amount of excess mana!

In a sense… you can do… anything!

She understood that this was the beginning of a stage.

The next step towards something major and big, if her Master builds something like this just so that he could light up his room… then what does he build when it's time for a 'fight'?

As she was watching this she saw the pitch-black core starting to turn red and four red circles in the first layer starting to spin in a choreographed way, once the speed picked up Marcus took several steps back.

The moment the speed was appropriated the circles in the second layer, colored in pure silver, started to spin. This is when an invisible shockwave washed the entirety of the reactor room.

"You can try it out, there is a thin layer of gravity on the walls, ceiling, and the ground. To even damage one of these you need to produce more power than this core here." Marcus explained to her with a smile as he continued to look at the start-up of the reactor.

Artoria nodded, she walked over to the wall and gently tried to touch it. Her eyes slightly bulged out as she could not touch the wall!

Like there is a force field keeping her hand away from touching it!

The Blonde Fae tried to touch it more forcefully but it was simply impossible!

After a multitude of tries, she gave up and pulled back.

"H-How powerful is this?" She asked him with uncontrolled curiosity.

"The Triple Core Reactor is spinning, inside that black core, there are three layers that are spinning at their specific rotations. You have to triple the mass of the core itself. If you do that then you will know how powerful the gravity field of this room is." Marcus explained to her which made her slightly pale.

She could barely pick it up after her Master placed weightless inducing runes!

"It's between 100 to 500 tons, I need a computer to calculate the specific mass of this field."

"... That's a lot…" The Fae said with a loud gulp.

"I suppose it's enough that we won't need to worry about security and energy for a considerable future." As he said that he saw the last set of circles starting to spin this was the field manifestation, the boundary field activation is now possible.

However, its deployment still needs to be synchronised with the one he has in the town.

"Let's go and check out the storage area." He motioned her to come with him.

Walking to the right side of the wall the automatic doors opened and they saw four pools of water spread out before them.

With the new lights, they can see the room perfectly. It was quite a different experience with such a large area lit up fully.

"See at the bottom? There is a thin layer of bright blue. This is the liquid mana." Marcus said that while pointing out at the closest pool of water. While it was not an Olympic size one it was still quite wide.

"It's already starting to fill it." The blonde pointed out what she saw.

"Yes, so I need to start making more technomancy to take that energy away, otherwise in less than a few months, this storage will be full."

As he said that Artoria had a thoughtful look.

"Then why don't you summon another Servant? The ritual takes a lot of mana, doesn't it?" As the Fae explained she got more and more enthusiastic about this, she wants another Servant around her Master.

Another head, another perspective on things!

"Hmm… I see… makes sense, I will summon one when this pool will fill up." Marcus nodded at her, now he needs to figure out who to summon!