Chapter 2. Mordred’s strength, unexpected guests

[Master, we'll fry that big snake, easy-peasy!]

Isaac smiled as he heard Mordred's spirit being raised. Looking at Headon, he continued, "I'll take this test, but do I have to do it right now? I want some time to prepare first."

He had just received his powers. It was only natural that he wished to have some time to adjust to them and feel out his abilities first before rushing into the cage.

"You can, as long as you don't take too long. Let's see…" Headon showed a pondering look for a moment, before saying, "I will give you half an hour to prepare. After that you have to either take the test or leave. But remember that if you leave, you will never be allowed to enter the Tower again."

Isaac nodded. "Okay."

Half an hour was enough.

Thinking of how he could inspect his strength, Isaac first focused on himself.

Then, within his mind, he received information on his abilities as a Servant.

He was already aware of this option, but didn't have the time to study in detail; it was similar to how he was inspecting his Servant's status during the war.

If he had to put things into words, then he could summarize it somewhat like this:

Servant Class: Saber

Class Card: Mordred Pendragon (modified)

Special Traits: Dragon Blood, Knight of Rebellion

Shinsoo Quality: Crimson Lightning

Shinsoo Shape: unknown

<Stats: >

Strength: A

Endurance: A

Agility: A

Shinsoo: A (talent)

Luck/Fate: EX

<Skills: >

[Magic & Shinsoo Resistance A]

[Instinct A]

[Shinsoo Burst A]

[Anima A (converted from Riding)]

[Battle Continuation A]

[Shinsoo Armor A]

[Charisma C-]

<Noble Phantasms:>

[Clarent A+++ (sealed state)]

…

'Hmm, so it's like that…'

Before this, Isaac knew that he had a Saber's strength, but he wasn't aware of the details.

It appeared that a Saber 'Class Card' of Mordred was inserted into his body, but there were also numerous modifications to fit the world of the Tower and his wish.

Firstly, unlike a Servant, his body didn't run on Magical Energy and was fully physical.

Even so, the raw strength, durability, defense, agility and speed of his physical body reached the level of what he would previously consider the usual top level of a Servant; or in other words A-rank or 5/5. Some of his parameters, like Agility, were even higher than what Mordred had.

This was his starting strength, and the focus seemed to be on a versatile body without weaknesses.

Because his body no longer utilized magical energy, it seemed to have switched to using Shinsoo. His Shinsoo stat indicated his talent and ability of handling Shinsoo.

One statistic that received the largest change was the Luck stat that was raised all the way to EX, which meant a value that couldn't be properly measured.

From what Isaac understood, the Luck stat didn't necessarily make one experience lucky chances, but gave a Servant the ability and chance to defy Fate and passively bend reality to benefit them. Because of how it worked, he called it Luck/Fate stat.

Isaac wasn't sure how useful that statistic would be inside the Tower, but he hoped that a 'strong Fate' might reduce the chance of him dying. If he had a chance, he would certainly increase his Luck and Fate to the maximum to ensure he wouldn't easily die, so perhaps this was a part of his wish.

'Basically, my body reached the peak levels of a Saber Class Servant. And in accordance with my wish, the focus should also be on maximizing my potential,' Isaac summarized things.

Moving onto his skills, there were also changes.

The rank of Magic Resistance, Instinct, Battle Continuation and Clarent were all raised.

Riding was also changed into Anima powers to control beasts and Mordred's armor became a legitimate high-level skill.

Isaac was very satisfied with what he saw. Rather than receiving Mordred's base specs that he was well familiar with, his modified body offered him even better prospects.

And there was also one very important aspect to his strengths.

It was his Noble Phantasm sword Clarent whose rank was raised all the way to A+++ in a sealed state!

It seemed that at this moment Clarent, with Mordred's soul inside, was his greatest treasure.

Isaac liked what he learned.

He would also not be surprised if his body, in truth, hid other kinds of power that he isn't aware of just yet. After all, he wished for 'limitless potential for growth'. What he inspected so far were only his abilities as a Saber.

However, only inspecting his body and abilities didn't tell him just how strong he was.

To test himself in practice, he took his sword into both hands, took up a striking stance and then quickly slashed out in front of him.

"Ha!"

Swoosh!

Using his full speed and strength, Isaac's sword slashed through the air in an instant and caused a large amount of sword wind to fly. If there was a person in front, just the aftereffect of this physical slash would have blown their clothes and hair back.

There was no shockwave and the wind pressure didn't cause a gash in the stone floor just from the aftermath of the sword strike, but Isaac felt it was natural.

He didn't use any magical energy in his attack. In addition, being filled with Shinsoo instead of air, the Tower should have had different laws of physics in the first place.

The speed and power that he experienced already felt very superhuman and quite satisfactory.

'If I want it to be stronger, then…'

Following that, Isaac tried using one of the skills he knew.

He put his sword into his left hand and balled his right hand into a fist.

'Shinsoo Burst!'

As he called out inwardly to use his [Shinsoo Burst] ability, white-crimson lightning currents began to dance around his arm, crackling.

At the side, Headon's eye came out as he secretly observed the new Irregular with curiosity. 'A red lightning Shinsoo Quality… How interesting. And he can already use Body Reinforcement even though he came from the outside, how unusual.'

Meanwhile, Isaac sent out a lightning-fast punch with enhanced speed and power, using both Shinsoo Burst and the full extent of his strength.

Bam!

Isaac's first struck the air, causing an even bigger blast of air than before.

'This feels great! My basic statistics are already higher than Mordred's and I can further slightly enhance them with enhanced Man Burst!'

Feeling power filled him from the inside, Isaac activated Shinsoo Burst over his entire body, and crimson lightning began to crackle all over, raising his body's stats to another level!

With this boost, he suddenly kicked off the ground and broke into a sprint to test his speed.

With the first kick, crimson lightning exploded, and Shinsoo Burst propelled him forward at inhuman speed right from the get go.

He did not use the ability to improve his speed, only to accelerate from the spot, but in less than a single second he already crossed a distance of around 300 meters!

Threatening to crash into a well, Isaac slightly slowed down, kicked off the ground, then kicked off the wall and began to scale it for a few steps, before doing a backflip with sword in hand and then landing on the floor with agility.

Clang!

His armored steel shoes made a loud clanging sound as he landed while slightly crouching, but there was no harmful impact on his body.

Straightening himself up, Isaac was filled with amazement.

Apart from the fact that his body had greatly superhuman stats, even the way how to use his skills, move and to fight was already a part of him - these were all Mordred's fighting experiences and memories from life as a knight.

Even the way to swing a sword was already engraved deeply in his mind!

'It's like in the rumored Ainsworth Holy Grail War. After you install a Servant Card in your body, you gain all the stats and abilities of that Servant, including how to fight as that Servant,' Isaac thought to himself, with awe and even more trepidation.

[How does it feel, Master?] Mordred asked with a boisterous voice, a hint of anticipation.

'... It feels great. I knew I partnered with a great Heroic Spirit,' Isaac said inwardly after thinking for a bit, choosing to compliment his partner.

[Hehehe, you bet!]

Isaac grinned as he heard Mordred's quite happy laughter.

He had only tried it earlier, but it seemed that he could communicate with Mordred using thoughts. There was a strange close connection between the two of them.

Seeing Headon seem to look at him strangely, Isaac restrained his smile, which might have made him look as if he's foolishly grinning to himself.

He then let out a breath.

After testing his speed, it seemed that he should have no problems in outrunning that giant eel.

Although he had never seen a White Armored Eel in action, based on the manhwa, he felt that it shouldn't be fast.

Isaac looked at his long and broad sword.

That sword was called Clarent. Wielding in, Mordred as a Servant could use her Noble Phantasm [Clarent Blood Arthur] - an ultimate move that shot out a beam of destruction from the sword's tip.

He himself could also use it to pop the Ball if necessary.

However, just how many times could this skill be activated now that he didn't actually have Mana?

In 'Tower of God' Ignition Weapons seemed to have their own power supply. This power supply should now be controlled by Mordred.

Just as Isaac was pondering, Mordred spoke up: [Hey, Master… Someone very strong is coming.]

Hearing Mordred's tone that had suddenly turned low, Isaac was brought back into reality just in time to see a figure floating down from the void-like ceiling.

It was a woman.

She was tall and impeccably dressed in a semi formal outfit; her white suit fit her slim figure perfectly, and her blood-red necktie complemented her black hair that was tied in a ponytail and waved about as she was falling down with a nonchalant posture.

She landed not far from Isaac with hands in her pockets as she smiled at him coolly, her eyes excited, then opened her mouth. {Yo!}

…

[Yuri's POV.]

Yuri had rushed back here from the middle area ever since she got the intel that a second Irregular had apparently appeared.

No matter how unbelievable this information was, since she was already there, she naturally had to at least check it out.

And in the end, the information proved to be correct.

On Headon's floor she found an armored blonde teenage boy.

She had already broken rules once by coming here to see Bam, so she felt it would not be a big deal to come out again to greet and make a cool impression on this new Irregular as well.

However, after looking at him for a few moments, her friendly and nonchalant expression turned to one of joyous surprise.

'Oh my, he's actually so handsome!!!' Yuri's eyes widened as she stared at the blonde knight, who looked back at her with curiosity. He instantly felt that it was worth coming here!

Looking at Yuri from the side, Headon swirled his staff and said, "Lady Yuri, you're back. Did you perhaps forget something?"

Yuri glanced at Headon and said coolly, "Headon… I suppose I did. Anyway, is this boy really a second Irregular?"

"... Well, if you cannot feel the peculiar aura around him, I feel that you should at least know, Lady Yuri, that only Irregulars, or incredibly foolish people, would break into my floor by force," Headon replied nonchalantly.

His tone was neutral, but contained a clear warning. Since Yuri had broken into this floor twice already.

And at this attitude, Yuri slightly frowned. 'This rabbit, what's with this passive-aggressive tone?... Well, he shouldn't be trying to kill me, though.'

After thinking for a moment, Yuri looked back at the handsome knight boy. She smiled in a friendly manner and raised her hand in a greeting. "Hey, my name is Yuri. What is yours?"

Isaac twisted his lips into a wry smile. The woman had asked him something, but to him all of this sounded like unintelligible gibberish. At least, it was neither English nor Japanese. He helplessly smiled and replied, "... Sorry, we no speak Americano."

Yuri tilted her head a little after hearing some strange gibberish and turned to glare at Headon. "Damn it, Headon. You didn't give this boy a Pocket either?"

Headon scratched his head. "Whoops. I suppose I forgot."

Yuri snorted. "Forgot my ass. How can you use the same lame excuse twice?"

Headon: "..."

Yuri frowned, but as she continued to stare at Headon, it seemed as if he didn't even care. She sighed and then shouted toward the ceiling, "Evan! Why are you hiding again? Come down here!"

As Isaac observed these proceedings curiously, he soon watched a diminutive man with short white hair fall down into the chamber, landing safely on his two feet.

"Hello, sir Headon. Sorry we're intruding again. Have you been well?" Evan smiled politely as he drew back a line a little. 

Headon was silent.

Yuri rolled her eyes. "Enough with the fake diplomacy. I hope you have one more extra Pocket for this boy."

Evan observed the new person in the room for a while with both wariness and curiosity, before he sighed, "Sigh... Let me check."