Chapter 32: Preparation

That confirmed it. It's definitely Saber or King Arthur Pendragon, the famous King of Knight in bodyguard outfit accompanying Irisveil, the Homunculus of the Einzbern family. The very same family I took as mine to fabricate my identity.

As much as I wanted to follow and spy on them, Saber's instinct is so strong that she can occasionally notice someone is stalking them even with an optical spell on.

"I wonder how I should infiltrate this Grail War…" He wondered since all the servants should already be summoned by now. "Wait, maybe I can pose as Caster."

After I decided, all the Wraiths I sent to scour the city are sent into the sewer system to find that tentacle Caster, Blue Beard hiding in there with his serial killer master, Ryuunosuke Uryuu. My order is to find and kill the servant as for the master, they will bring it to me with an intact body since I still need to carve out the Command Seal from his hand.

In the meantime, I need to find a place to be my temporary base to create a workshop. I have gathered plenty of materials such as souls and exotic materials from the cultivation world. It's time to turn them into something useful rather than keep collecting dust.

Walking around the city, I abandoned the thought of choosing from the residential area and moved to the industrial area where factories and warehouses that some were abandoned or not in use. Later I chose the warehouse since it has bigger space than the factory and is more likely to have no visitors.

Quickly I set up isolation Bounded Field and etc before laying down some defensive type Bounded Field. After that, then I can openly use my mana without worry of others detecting me.

My first task would be making weapons. Both Tanya and Charlotte didn't have specific weapons to use and both used Gradation Air to create a weapon to use. Those won't last a second against weapons used by some servants like Saber, Lancer Diarmuid and especially Gilgamesh.

For Charlotte, Ray already gave her his Ghost King Blade since it's suitable for her as it can accompany her into her ghost state and physical state. But she still needs a weapon that can be used as main weapon once her sneak attack fails. In the Cultivation world, she had taken a liking for swords so Ray decided to make a sword.

He opens his storage ring and takes out purple iron bamboo, a chunk of meteorite stone, several cores of high ranking demonic beasts and a spirit nurturing talisman Alma gave him to make the weapon become alive.

Then he spent the entire afternoon till night before he finally completed refining the metals and turning them into alloy before molding it into a sword. By the time he finished, all his mana drained because he needed to create a very strong fire to even heat up those materials. Even the concrete floor became dry and cracked before it melted down into glassy substance probably because of sand mixed in it.

Holding and admiring the finished weapon, Ray sighed and took a seat to rest while his mana was regenerating for the next process. After all, a weapon like this is still trash even if it's made with high quality materials if it's not alive. A living weapon is like having another person than an object, they can manipulate energy to attack or resist, self healing and level up while a normal weapon is inert. It cannot resist attack and probably break after a few clashes.

*Knock knock*

A knock surprised Ray from his admiration and looked at the entrance of the warehouse. Only when he sensed his Wraith is in the same spot then he relaxes and opens the door.

As expected, he saw a dazed Ryuunosuke Uryuu with many injuries on his body standing in front of him. Ray welcomes the possessed Master into the warehouse and tells him to wait a bit while his mana is regenerating. The sword has priority over carving out the command seal since it needs to be done quickly or the compatibility will drop and higher chance for the talisman to fail.

Around the same time in Fuyuki city's airport, Tanya and Charlotte finally arrived in the city. Since Ray had yet to contact them, Tanya went ahead to book a hotel and went out again for dinner. Intending to finish all her bucket list and regrets in case she might be away from Earth again.

However, halfway through their walk. Charlotte notices several hundred Wraiths are roaming under the street, in the sewer system of the city. She tried to communicate with those Wraiths to find Ray's location but none of those Wraith have enough intelligence to hold a conversation, much less answering Charlotte. It seems Ray didn't send any Wraith Soldiers for this task. However, they did tell Charlotte that their task is to kill everything in the sewer and capture a human with a red tattoo on hand.

Both Tanya and Charlotte shrugged because they didn't know what that meant and decided to have their dinner instead and wait until Ray contacted them as he instructed them.

The two then continue their holiday while blissfully unaware of their mana signature they forgot to reign in and attract those that can detect them. What's worse is, the mana they sense is Ray's mana in their Piece. Thankfully, those observers were mostly curious and wary instead of attacking immediately since Tanya and Charlotte didn't look like a Magus at all with how they acted. Which confused them and thought this was probably a trap to see who would act first.

However, there is one exception which is Emiya group which sent our Maiya to observe the duo as they went along their night. She was given the task to eliminate them if they are proven to be a Magus in disguise or danger to their goal.

———

"What the heck is this?!" Ray exclaimed when seeing one of his Wraith dragging the soul of Blue Beard to him.

"Perhaps it makes sense because a servant is basically a spiritual vessel that houses the soul of a servant." Ray tried to rationalize and store away the soul for now because he is tired of listening to his mad rambling.

He is surprisingly lively even after being killed where his master's soul isn't even responsive and bears much intelligence.

Aside from those little surprises, Ray did manage to complete the sword and now only needs Charlotte to imprint the sword with her soul to awaken it.

As for Tanya, Ray prepared her a pistol. Not just any pistol but one specifically for casting spells on. The gun is actually a CAD, Casting Assistant Device. The gun is programmed using a series of enhancement and Alteration to incorporate the function of copy and construct.

Which means, if Tanya casted a spell using the pistol once. The next time she can shorten the casting time by an estimate of 40%. Then it also provides stability which means she no longer needs to fully focus to cast the spell since construction of the spell matrix and filling with mana is taken over by the gun. She can focus on something else while the CAD helps cast the spell.

Not as amazing as Charlotte but this should suit her style better than a sword that she rarely ever wields. As compensation perhaps, Ray also tosses in an extra. A better version of the earrings he gave her that should increase her mana capacity and store more mana than the one before.

As much as he is confident with his strength, he still doubts he could really compete against heroes of legend that honed their craft to the limit and their deed recorded in the Throne of Heroes. Especially Gilgamesh and King Artoria that both bear the title king of their respective representation. Gilgamesh being the King of Heroes while King Artoria is King of Knight. Such a title isn't given to just anyone but only those that created the concept.

Gilgamesh is the King of Heroes because he is the very first and oldest hero in the history of mankind. The person who possessed all the treasures of mankind from the start to the end of our civilization. This means anything that is called treasure, from the past, present and future is his own and its prototype exists in his treasury. Meanwhile King Artoria brought upon the concept of knight in her era and became the shining beacon of knighthood and used as an example for many in the future

To make it short, frontal combat against these two top notch servants is near impossible. Thus he needs to devise a way to combat the two. For this, Ray uses all the saved up souls to mass produce Wraiths. He had around five millions of them saved up and each Wraith cost 300 souls. The success rate of the production is around 60-70%. So, he should have around eleven thousand of them.

Cooped up in the warehouse from 7pm all the way to 1 am in the morning. He finished turning those souls into Wraith and created 10,833 Wraiths. Adding with his current Wraiths, he has fourteen thousands of them. He then commenced the second part.

He will try to evolve them into even higher rank Wraith by using a Ghost Cultivation manual from the pagoda in the Deep Sea ruin that he tested the method and used countless hours to correct the process. It involves keeping dozens of them in an enclosed space rich in Qi or mana for Ray. Then let them fight and devour each other until one emerges victorious and refine that one with supplementary material like core of demonic beast to push it into evolving but Ray will substitute the core with his mana chunk he have plenty stored up for almost six months just for this.

Standing up to find an empty place to lay down a formation, he saw the serial killer that he told to lay somewhere while he was busy doing something previously. Anyway, he just remembered and he needs to take care of this quickly because someone will notice when one of the Masters vanished without notice.

Since he has enough mana to spare now, he uses Spiritual Subjugation sub-ability to form a blade using spiritual energy for him to carve out the Command Seals from his hand by separating the attachment from his spiritual body. If done properly and carefully, the process can be less painful but he didn't have the time or patience to do it for this extra character.

He cut off all the nerves in one go which caused the soulless body to jolt suddenly from the extreme pain and his eyes rolled up while his mouth was frothing with white foam almost immediately. Then he yanks out the Command Seals from his body. Ray then order a Wraith to take this body and fake a suicide somewhere not very noticeable but still can be seen by other participants and their eyes that roam the city.

Ray creates multiple magic formations and inscribes it into a crystal to seal the Command Seal into it before summoning a Wraith Soldier and ordering it to deliver this package to Tanya. It should automatically bond to her hand when it senses her mana if she holds the crystal. Perfect prank for Tanya for selling his loots without his consent. Tanya thought he wouldn't notice her shenanigans. At least she is aware that selling artifacts is not good and only sells those without apparent effects like a wooden Buddha carving that radiates peaceful and calm aura to assist in meditation etc.

With that done and out of his mind, he shifts his focus back at ranking up his Wraiths. He already felt mental fatigue piling up but he resolved himself to persist and continue or he might not complete his preparation before the first clash of servants. He still needs to lay down various defensive Bounded Field and formations so he can get higher ground and advantage during the first clash by secretly turning this port into part of his territory.

Just thinking about it makes him want to groan and throw it to someone else to do the job for him. But, there is no one else who can replace him to do this task. Tanya, as has been said before, didn't have great understanding of magecraft and only used spells like tools as a magic caster like Kiritsugu Emiya. His first apprentice sort of get fucked over during the reborn process and lost her interest in magecraft along with her talent. That's why she wields blades instead and Ray sort of blames himself for messing that one up.

Regardless, he will try his best to finish up his preparation on his side then hope Alma manages to do her part too. Not that he wished for the Holy Grail or All the World's Evil since this isn't a story and a character. This is him and he definitely isn't a masochist or believing the whole world revolves around him. His aim is more companion and fighting force. In other words, his true aim is the servants.

—————

Status

[Name: Rayark

Age: 11

Alignment: Neutral Evil (44.44%)

Level: 145 (457 / 80,000)

Main Class: Battle Mage

Support Class: Animancer

Title: Expert Mage, Knight of the Realm, Devil Incarnate

———

HP: 4570 (1 VIT= 10HP, Base 200 & 5/Lvl)

HP Regen: 240 HP/Min (1 VIT= 1HP/M)

MP: 32,750 (1 WIS= 5MP, Base 150)

MP Regen: 1830 MP/Min (1 Wis 1MP/M)

———

STR: 50+20% = 60

VIT: 100+20% = 120

AGI: 50+20% = 60

DEX: 100+20% = 120

INT: 338+40% = 473.2

WIS: 200+60% = 320

LUK: 43

Stat Point: 0

———

Abilities:

Fiction Adaptation LV -

Mana Manipulation LV 68/- (Transcendant)

Pseudo Reactor Core LV 60/60 (Supreme)

Alteration LV 43/50 (Legendary)

Tracing LV 50/50 (Legendary)

Supernatural Physique LV 40/50 (GrandMaster)

Pickpocket LV 25/30 (Master)

Enhanced Mind LV 50/50 (Legendary)

Time Alter LV 37/50 (GrandMaster)

Tri Formation Array LV 50/50 (Legendary)

Future Calculation LV 39/50 (GrandMaster)

Soul Butcher LV 119/-

Mass Murderer LV 97/-

Sadist LV 25/30 (Master)

Spiritual Subjugation LV 21/80 (Master)

Omni Arms Mastery 28/90 (Master)

Precognition 15/70 (Adept)

Magic Resistance 10/80 (Novice)

Psychokinesis LV 31/50 (GrandMaster)

Ghost Fleet -/-

Divinity Fragment of Space (Low) -/-

Divinity Fragment of Time (Low) -/-

Space-time Portal LV 3/100 (Novice)

——

7 Sins Series

Sin of Lust LV 27/??

-Sensory Manipulation

-Aura of Lust

Sin of Greed LV 16/??

-Devil's Contract

-Aura of Greed

Sin of Pride LV ??/??

Sin of Wrath LV ??/??