C2- King of All Maids

When the whole Workshop lit up, Marcus walked back upstairs to the main workshop floor.

He went to the Rituals room and inspected it from top to bottom.

Now that he sees everything without issues, he started to think about how to make that shifting floor. Redoing ritual circles is a pain in the back.

In his previous life, the Grand Alchemist developed a blueprint for rituals.

This means that he had a skeletal style developed for rituals. Something akin to a standardised system. Only certain segments are needed to be altered, not the entire of the circle.

This allowed him to conserve time.

However, this won't happen. The very fundamentals of this ritual are different.

One is to alter and the other one is to summon, for this, he would need to develop a completely different style to keep his circles in limited space.

His eyes immediately went to the walls and the ground. Thankfully he didn't activate the gravity protection. At this moment only the reactor room is protected by the gravity field.

'Should I make it slide out from the wall or make the ground foldable?

Turning the floor into liquid is out of the question, the carving… oh… I see…'

Marcus walked over and put his hand on the ground. He sends out his mana into the floor. It took some time but his mana is fully spread out.

He then simply sliced a thin layer of surface off. After doing that he walked back to the door and crouched down. Then, he simply pulled a thin layer of flour up.

Seeing how stiff this was he sent another wave of mana through the thin floor he picked up. It became quite elastic, almost like paper.

He then made the whole thing roll up like it was a massive poster instead of the floor.

"That's the most bizarre thing I have ever seen," Artoria said as she saw this being done. The girl was standing behind Marcus as she saw him lifting the floor like that!

"The more you are proficient in alchemy the closer you are to Molecule manipulation. While it's not Reality manipulation, it doesn't need to be." He explained to her as he took the rolled-up ritual circle to the corner and placed it there.

"And why not?"

"It's because it's not efficient."

"...efficient?"

"Alchemy is all about trade, it's something akin to 'I pay you mana and you give me what I want'. For example, if I were to use all the air in this room I would only get a finger size nugget of gold. However, the amount of mana I would use in such a thing is nearly the entirety of my mana.

It's not efficient at all."

She slowly nodded, understanding what he meant.

"Still… you are close to such a thing are you not? You could live anywhere you want with such magic."

"Indeed. This is why I packed my things and simply left." As he said that he casually tapped his feet and the floor glowed.

It appears he used his mana to fix the floor.

"I see… what now?"

"Now, I will prepare a ritual"

Artoria raised her eyebrow when she heard that.

"What are you going to do? There is not enough mana to summon a Servant. Unless you're going to use your reserves?"

"No. Not that, I will do a synchronisation ritual." Marcus said that while looking, he mentally calculated the diameter of the circle and its placement.

"...The what? I have no experience with human rituals. What does it do?" Now she was curious. Her Master is stepping out of his comfort zone!

"My soul is much older than my body, it went through a series of rituals which altered and strengthened it. At this moment my body is lacking the strength needed to utilise all of the perks of my soul."

His explanation made her dumbfounded! Her Master experimented on himself!?

"...Master…*Sigh* I suppose I am in no position to tell you that… but using rituals on yourself… that is dangerous!" The girl at least gave him a short warning, however, she was resigned to the fact that it was pointless. She understands that her Master has reached the point that he won't going to dissuaded just because she has warned him. From her understanding, her Master trusts his things more than he would ever trust hers.

That is experience talking.

"Indeed. This is why I won't be just carving the circle and using it.

No, I will be testing this out, first."

Now she calmed down. Truthfully she even blushed quite hard from that embarrassment, the Fae was jumping to conclusions!

"I-I see! But how are you going to do that?" The blonde asked curiously, trying to forget the previous reaction.

"Homunculi, I am going to test it on them."

Artoria's eyes widened and she immediately understood what this meant.

So, her Master can make those as well!

While she had never seen those, the Fae heard from her teacher. It is said that an Alchemist alone could raise an army from scraps.

At first, she thought that he exaggerated but it appears it is possible.

'Considering he used stone and some dirt to make a source of power…'

Internally she frowned that such power could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

That moment she wondered what would happen if Morgan was summoned instead of her!?

A cold chill went down her spine. Though it only lasted a few seconds as she realised that such a scenario is very unlikely to happen.

The blonde Fae can imagine the amount of time those two would headbutt each other. Artoria understood that Marcus would never obey or listen to anyone.

Unless of course, it's his parents which he still holds in extremely high esteem.

Someone like Morgan would either obey him, which is an unlikely scenario, as the blonde Faefae as she meets the woman several times.

Or she will be made to listen to him with a command seal, again, an unlikely scenario as Morgan would find a way around those seals.

In the end, she relaxed. No need to worry about such a thing.

"I see. This will be my first time seeing one being used in action. While my teacher taught me about them before, I never saw one in action. I don't think Fae's would use such an art." Artoria explained to him while they went back to the workshop's main area.

"Strange, why would he even bother telling you about such a thing in the first place?" Marcus asked her, from what he can recall her Teacher was Oberon, not Merlin, that's the reason for her being Neutral Good, instead of Lawful Good…

"...I might… got carried away in my magic studies."

'So, it's her curiosity.'

For a second he frowned, remembering his past self for a bit, He never had a Teacher. This makes him in a way polar opposite to her.

Where she had a fountain of knowledge, he, on the other hand, had a limited amount of knowledge.

This made him develop in a specific way. Something he would not change in any way.

"So you could not stop yourself and bugged your Teacher to the point that he started telling you things from Proper Human history?"

"...In a way…"

"..."

"That reminds me… you never explained what Molecular Manipulation is." She asked him with a bright smile, showing that over-curious side without bothering, almost looking shameless in doing this! If not for the fact that she was looking like a cute animal he would have flicked his finger on her forehead.

~~~

Marcus could not specifically recall when was the last time he needed to craft a homunculus.

It was around the time when he… did pretty much the same thing!

To run tests for rituals?

'I did have homunculus at an early age… can't even recall how I named them'

Now he was doing the same thing. Preparing a blank body to test out…at least three basic rituals which will tell him how synchronisation ritual works in this world.

From the books he read it was the same thing, however, what is written in the books doesn't have anything mentioned at a soul level.

His family never runs rituals unrelated to Alchemy. Most of the ritual stuff was part of material purification.

Not that he needs such a thing anymore. People who have little mana need to use rituals like these to clean their materials from hidden impurities.

Marcus' sense alone can detect such things. That is the difference between dense mana and thin mana.

If he is to release all his mana at once he could cause an increase in gravity in the area around him. Not that he can do that at this moment. His body can't handle such a thing.

In a way, this was like a trip to old school or visiting your birth town after an extended period of negligence.

As the Grand Alchemist was feeling nostalgic with his current work.

Homunculi art is a symbol of Mastery, you could see one or a group of them around an experienced Alchemist. From working as a maid and regular servants to housekeeping, Homunculi would be around Alchemist.

Marcus had few himself when he was still active, living on Earth and still delving into arts. Though he stopped actively using them after starting to live in seclusion. Such a thing happens when people realise around him that he didn't change… in truth, he was looking young all of sudden.

Yes, people get sensitive when they realise that an eternally young person is living among them.

One thing led to another and he simply left and went to live in the mountains of Canada. Yes, it's remote, not that it helped, people still wanted him, after forgetting the fact that he is dangerous.

It only needed a generation for people to forget that he is dangerous. After all, they all thought that he would have a change of mind. It was a long time ago.

Not for Marcus, who was living from one experiment to another, he easily recalled the annoyance.

As he was thinking about the past he proceeded to make a basic homunculus model.

Now Homunculi come in different shapes and sizes, it's no different from a weapon, any weapon. Just taking a bladed weapon for example you have knives, swords, longswords, and Claymore.

Homunculi are similar, you have battle models, servitude models, magic assistant models, and heavy load models.

Some of the alchemists go for more extreme and create perfect models.

Usually, those Alchemists are obsessed with creating the perfect life.

Just remembering this made Marcus grimace, he is no stranger to getting into contact with fools like that. Some of these morons tried to persuade him to join their club of crazy bananas.

The name for their club Marcus came up with when he met these morons for the first time. At that time he was working on bananas and perfecting their genetic code as bananas are quite weak genetically.

As an alchemist who went full-on heretic for accepting regular science. Marcus was left alone mostly by the old-fashioned alchemists, while these idiots wanted his help with their work since he was a Rank 8 alchemist and achieved eternal youth.

One thing led to another… which made the Master Alchemist at that time forcefully 'disband' this ragtag group of crazy bananas.

No one missed them, and he was able to gain their research after looting their bodies.

Not that he was able to use that research, as by that point he was living a remote life.

Now, this was different.

He could use this stuff they have been using, he already used the code on Artoria's vessel, the pseudo-life trait is there.

'However, for now, I don't need the vessel to be functional, I only need to see if the synchronisation ritual is working.'

As he thought about it he transmuted a much larger table, big enough for a person to lay on it. And then proceeded to carve the transmutation circles, the very same ones he used to craft his glasses.

However, this was much bigger in scale and he needed to do some alterations to the table, that moment he realised how rusty he was with this.

He never used Runemancy alongside Homunculi art before.

But, instead of thinking about this embarrassment, his mind has wandered somewhere else.

'Oh… now I see… this would reach a completely new plateau in this art.

Those banana fools made their homunculi code as closely related to humans as possible, from magic organs copying biological functions.

This would make them much more durable, however, if I am to add technomancy, into this… this makes them… reach a completely new rank!'

With such realisation, he stopped whatever he was doing, and instead pulled out his notebook and started writing down his idea on improved homunculus art. You could say this is like a ranked system for them, with his newest idea being a new, superior version like Mark III.

Mark II is the research he acquired from those idiots, which he used to make the code for Servant vessels, but this stuff he is thinking is on a different level altogether.

'If I make neural patterns based on runes I could use them similarly to how Saint Graph is used by Servants.

And Servant's Saint Graph can be stored like data.' He thought about that with a look! This got him an insane idea for the future!

Marcus tapped his finger on the table for a few moments before writing down a rough idea of how this will work. Once he was done with his ideas he resumed with alterations done on his table.

After it became something similar to a large enhancing table the Grand Alchemist proceeded to get back into the groove of the Homunculi building.

While all this was happening Artoria was looking him over from some distance away. She got comfortable on a couch with her notebook as well. The girl was doodling something as well.

From time to time she would look at what he was doing before returning to her things.

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

Around two weeks later it was time for Marcus to test the rituals. He prepared a few dummies which act like 'organic beings' the ritual will react to them as if they are the real deal.

Once the ritual is complete the Grand Alchemist will then run his inspections of the dummy bodies.

This is just like he did back in the day.

'Let's see if this will be just like last time.'

"Umm… why are we hiding behind a wall?"

"Because the first try is always explosive."

As he said that with a straight face it only made the blonde nervous. Before she could ask, she smelled something burning.

Moments later a loud explosion rang in the ritual room.

*BOOM!*

The girl needed to cover her ears for a moment, as it made her deaf for a bit.

A later the pair came out from their cover and went to inspect the explosion.

While the cycle was perfectly safe the dummy itself was not. It was in pitch black charred state. Missing a leg and arm.

"...W-Wha…Master what the! Why did it explode like this!?" The Fae quickly walked over to his side and looked at this with a pale expression.

This was dangerous!

"That's because it had to explode, if it didn't then I would have known that the ritual is a dud. This ritual is meant for organic and soul to synchronise, but this doll while being organic had no soul, so it simply burned out from the inside. The explosion happened when the doll could not contain the excess mana it was filled up with."

Marcus explained as he poked the doll with his foot while his hands were in his pockets.

So far it was going just like he wanted it to go.

He then tapped his foot on the charred doll and it turned into alchemist clay, it was around the same amount as the doll was.

Then he collected all of it and proceeded to clean up the room before setting up his second test.

While the doll was looking the same, it had a soul embryo. Something Homunculi at least the tier 2 Homunculi have, according to the research he acquired from those lunatic alchemists obsessed with the perfect life.

Once all the preparations were done he activated the ritual and simply waited.

This time Marcus was not hiding behind a temporary wall, unlike Artoria who was blocking her ears. It was looking quite hilarious from his point of view.

She doesn't trust him or she didn't realise that this time it should not be an explosion.

A few moments later she realised that and pulled her fingers away from her ears. Her head perked up, she saw Marcus just looking at the ritual, he was not expecting an explosion at all!

Regardless, the Blonde Fae swiftly got to his side and watched what was going on next to him.

The short excitement she got quickly disappeared as she saw that nothing exciting was going on!

"Master?"

"Let's see if it was a success, it's not visible like this," Marcus said as he already knew that Artoria will want to know what is going on. The girl is as curious as he was back in the day when he just found out about magic for the first time.

"Oh, okay, I guess I should have expected this, after all, you want to balance your body out." She nodded to herself as all this made sense to her.

"Yes, we will do preliminary scans on the homunculus body."

As the Grand Alchemist said he picked up the doll and brought it to the table.

Once again the runes came to life and the scans started.

'As I did this last time the results are identical, this doesn't make any sense, while I am happy that this is going exactly how I wanted, at the same time I am disappointed that this reality I was living in right now has completely identical mana and it's reaction to my previous world.'

"Master, what is with this frown? Did it fail?" The blonde asked with some concern as she observed how he was reacting to the scans.

"No, it was identical to what I remember." He said with a small frown, as he removed his hand from the doll.

"Then?"

"Everything is identical as I remember, everything! Artoria everything with this ritual and with the way I use mana and cast runes is all the same. Spellwork which I used in a completely different reality works the same way in this reality! Do you get what I mean? This world should work under different laws because Servants like you exist. There were no Servants in my original world." Marcus explained with a small but very much annoyed frown.

"Oh… I see… I found it strange as well, my Fae magic should behave differently than I remember but it did not."

Now that she thinks about it, how does he know about her if his world didn't have Servants!?

'This is so confusing…' Artoria thought to herself.

"Yes. It's like the world's laws are so flexible with magic that— I guess it does make sense… no one in the background tells how the laws surrounding magic should work." Marcus mumbled to himself, though Artoria heard it perfectly.

'I see… There is no Gaia or Alaya who can affect the world.'

Artoria thought with a frown of her own. If this is the case then one could achieve incredible stuff with magic!

However, she did notice that magic is not as potent as it was in Fae Britain.

"Hmm… let's do a couple more tests before we can start working on the final product."

As Marcus said that now he is thinking this means that he only needs to walk the same path he did before.

"Master! You can't just take this without a grain of salt! We don't know for sure that everything is just the way you thought it would be!"

His Caster said with a panicky tone, the blonde doesn't want him to misstep with this!

"I know. This is why we will be continuing with the tests. If the next two will be the same, as it was for me last time, then IT WILL be the same for the rest."

"B-But"

"The very reason for this test is to see how magic reacts to certain conditions. The first one was a doll without a soul, second was a doll with a soul embryo. The third one will be a mismatch like I am."

As he explained to her he proceeded with the tests.

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

Artoria looked with worry how her Master just laid down on the ritual circle and then magic erupted from the whole thing. It glowed brightly.

As someone who saw this multitude of times, she knows how this is progressing.

Less than a minute later after crushing 20 seconds she sighed with relief.

It was over.

'Hmm? He looks more robust… his height increased as well!'

The blonde inspected closely how her Master's body has improved from this.

'Was he this fit in his previous life as well?'

The Fae would have wanted to meet him when he was this all-mighty figure who could end wars alone.

But then again this is better, because at this moment she is his Servant and she will be around for his whole journey!

From her understanding, she guessed that he had no close confidants in his previous life, which is sad, as even she who was called an outsider had people around her.

A few seconds later Marcus got up from the circle, he called forth his mana the very next moment.

Artoria's eyes bulged out when she sensed this!

'What kind of mana reactor does he have!?' At that moment she felt like she got extra heavy! It was difficult just to stand in front of him!

"Not bad. My body is still growing but after this session, I can pull out around ⅓ of my mana. I should be able to fully utilise all of it by the time I am fully grown up." The Grand Alchemist explained to her as he inspected himself.

"M-Master, what kind of mana output is this!?" Artoria squeaked at him, this was intense! Is he trying to become a monster!?

"It was to counter the weakness all alchemists have, and that is lack of mana." He explained to her as he stabilised his mana output, Artoria slowly nodded, she is relieved that her Master is this powerful, she won't need to defend him all the time. A Master any Servant would want to have by their side.

"Since you have your power back? What now?"

The blonde asked him as she was curious. Her Master is never just staying at one spot.

And she was right!

"We will adjust and synchronise the boundary field with the reactor, once we have proper security, then I can start working on regaining my lost research." He said that while stroking his chin.

Artoria nodded at him, this sounds interesting! Should she ask him to teach her some basic Alchemy? From her understanding, from what she saw, this art is much more potent than she expected!

She does wonder how good he is in actual combat!?

"Okay! Do you need any help?" The blonde asked with an almost gushing tone. As Fae building territory is something that comes naturally to her!

She got it at EX after all!

"Yes, you will do your part in it. Your Fae magic works well with this, so you will add your sensory abilities to the fields, and then we will bind it to us. This way we will know when someone of a supernatural kind is walking in our city."

The blonde nodded quickly several times, finally a chance to work with that reactor her Master activated! While she has no interest in basic mana output her curiosity lies with gravity and how it emits boundary fields!

"Can't wait for it!"

~~~

After doing a few more stretches Marcus left his Underground Workshop, however, his senses around the house tell him that something is happening out of the ordinary.

It was Thursday, there was no school for him because it was the summer holidays, however, his mother was outside doing something.

Preparing for something.

As he walked over he saw balloons and other festival activities all over the backyard.

'...Birthday preparation? For who?'

The Grand Alchemist was freaked out, he doesn't remember whose birthday it should be!

And that was bad for him. It's an unpredictable factor!

As he walked over, Marcus saw preparations for the barbecue were there as well!

This made him stop in his tracks!

He felt like his soul just left his recently synchronised body!

How many years has it been since he ate something like barbecue!?

The Grand Alchemist nearly collapsed on the ground, before steadily controlling himself. This was embarrassing for him.

'I guess I derailed quite a bit if I nearly collapsed from a simple thing like recalling a barbeque.' Marcus grimaced for a bit before taking a deep breath and trying to recall when he had barbeque last time.

…

…

…

All he got was blank which made him grimace even more!

"Are you okay? You nearly collapsed!? Is it after-effects of the ritual!?" Artoria's voice got all panicky as she started to panic and nearly manifested in broad daylight to inspect her Master.

"I am fine, I think me being here like this is starting to rub in my face, all the things I abandoned for my magic research," Marcus said as he took a deep breath.

The Blonde Fae stopped panicking and instead looked where her Master was looking at.

It looked like preparations for some sort of festivities.

"Master, what is this?" She asked curiously.

"From my understanding, this is preparation for a birthday, and from my memories, which are quite abysmal on this subject… it should be…"

Now his eyes widened as he remembered that it was summer and in summer there is only a single birthday.

And that is his!

He facepalmed hard before proceeding to walk where his mother is bringing out all sorts of snacks on the table.

"Mark you are here, it appears you have already changed out of your oily clothes."

Once again Marcus grimaced internally, he has not worked on his car for several weeks now. So his mother misunderstood…

"Your friends should be coming in soon, your father will be coming home early today as well to cook that barbecue."

'Friends? She got to be kidding me! this is getting out of control!'

The Grand Alchemist remembers jack shit about his friends! He has not seen any of them for more than 270 years!

For a second he panicked before deciding to wing this! It's only one day before he can return to his work… after… getting his barbeque and…some cake.

Yes, he can wing this, after all these are kids not even 20 years old!

After deciding to wing this Marcus helped his mother with preparation, thankfully he gained or in this situation re-gained some experience working with his mother with celebratory stuff.

He had some time like Christmas and his both parents' birthdays.

Even so, now it's his birthday, he hadn't celebrated one in ages.

He still recalled that one birthday when he became a well-known individual in the world and people wanted to butter up to him.

It was so disgusting that after that one incident he decided not to engage with that kind of crap anymore.

However this event is different, it's a pure birthday party.

Not some political crap, which reminds him that this time…

He will not go solo, nope, he won't allow these morons to run the show. He saw how the world derailed when he allowed it, when he didn't intervene.

No, this time it will be different.

"Master? You had a certain look on your face."

Marcus snapped out of his thoughts, he then sighed.

"What kind of look?"

"The one where you are ready to do some crazy things," Artoria said to him via their connection.

"Crazy things heh? Maybe, it depends on how you look at my ideas." As he said that he proceeded with his assignments.

The party won't be as big as the ones Marcus attended at the end of his active lifestyle, expensive balls mixed with military, scientists, politicians…

Well, calling those parties is a stretch, they were more like pure socialising and means to advance in a system they created themselves.

Something which someone like the Grand Alchemist always affected weirdly, why stick with this if you can force your way and achieve what you want?

One of the reasons why he just stopped with his nonsense, he was an alchemist he makes things himself.

This is why this time he will make things how he wants to!

~~~

Around midday, people started to gather. Marcus looked at how this was developing. He can see that adults will have their own thing, while he… will have to join his fellow 'buddies' . This was so… strange?

He has much more experience than everyone here, but he has to stick with these…kids? Boys?

*Sigh*

The Grand Alchemist sighted again before turning his autopilot, he could easily spend months working on the same thing, he is pretty sure he could entertain some kids for a day.

"Hey mate, happy birthday I brought some models you like so much."

As the kid said he pulled out a brand new box with a car model inside of it.

That moment Marcus had another Deja Vu, he just got a flashback.

A flashback as he remembered how he used to have a collection of these car models and even used to make them himself!

They were good training exercises when he used to train his alchemy and runemancy on small models.

Though… he lost his entire collection when he died!

'Fuck! This one pulled my heartstrings!'

"Hey, are you okay?" The kid exclaimed as he saw Marcus state.

"Yeah, that's a Mercedes-Benz C199 SLR McLaren, not bad, they started their products recently. Wow, this is a brand new model." Marcus exclaimed happily, he nearly slipped and said that this model started its production in 2003 and finished in 2010…

"Damn… You know your stuff, I picked this one because it looked extremely nice!"

"Yeah, one of the best-looking Benz so far." Though the Grand Alchemist is more of a BMW guy when it comes to German cars.

But he can't say no to this kind of model.

As Marcus received it, he inspected it from all angles, this was a legitimate mini-model still inside the box, the model itself is not plastic, it's made from metal, by the people of the Mercedes-Benz factory. This is why this stuff costs much more than one's average model car.

Now that he is recalling this, he still remembers his early years when he used to play with these instead of collecting. It's embarrassing to damage such collectors' stuff!

However, now he is back in time and at such an interesting period, he might have some idea what to do with these…

Internally Marcus grinned from ear to ear, he will have so much fun with this!

"...Mate are you okay? You were grinning for a second there."

"Yeah, I decided to 'collect' these, anyway, do you wanna see that car I've been working on?" The Grand Alchemist grinned as he said that. Yep, this thing he has in mind is going to be very useful in the long term as well. This time he won't leave half of his collection because of lack of caring space.

Nah, this time his collection will come with him, OR simply enough he won't need to go anywhere. He will move the REST to make it happen. With enough power, he can do whatever he wants.

"Sure! I heard a lot about it already! I want to see it in the flesh!"

As the pair walked over to see the car in the garage, Artoria remained in her spirit form, she was in deep thought as the Fae sensed certain change happening to her Master.

Something was going on, something had changed in him, did her Master figure out something? Or did he just… decide on something?

It was so intense that the blonde felt a chill going down her spine.

What could cause that? Did that simple gift from that kid affect him this much?

Well… it doesn't matter, she will be there to watch him over, it should not be something bad.

From his stories, she realised that her Master always wanted to be alone. So, with her Fae magic, she can make it happen. This time she will not be allowed to just leave the world. No, this time he won't need to do anything like that!

~~~

Marcus with a pained frown looked at all of his gifts… they were all car models…

Is he truly obsessed with this?

'I guess I was— I am…'

He realised that his obsession shifted as time went on, from mechanical to alchemical to technomancy.

But it never disappeared, it even pushed it to the point that he became eternal young so that he could continue to pursue his hobbies with utter obsession.

And now it all rubbed into his face as he is contemplating, or more like trying to get into one of his obsessions…

'Oh… what do we have here.'

Marcus' eyes landed on something truly rare; he slowly picked up one of the boxes with a model inside of it. It was one of the extremely rare cars. A Nissan GTR R34 Skyline.

When he saw it he gently stroked the box as if it was a baby.

How can he forget this car?

While the Grand Alchemist is doing all that, his friends were looking at him as if he was going bonkers.

Sure he loves his cars but this? That's on a completely different level!

"Hey Mark, you been truly weird recently anything happened?"

This question got him out of his reverie as put the box back on the table and turned around.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been sorta, kinda spacing out since before Christmas? You even stopped talking about your project. Hell, you even stopped talking completely!"

This question made Marcus grimace internally, fuck his classmates, more specifically fuck his classmates who he was friends with!

"Master, should I cast simple mind-altering spells?"

Caster's proposal made the Grand Alchemist grimace, he remembered that Fae's can mess with people's minds if need be. Something which is not from his arsenal or his modus operandi.

"No, I am fine. Don't mind me, I have excuses for this."

"That's because it was quite busy, I needed to get all the parts sorted out, make a list for my father, and then install all of them in the car. I do want it to be ready before my eighteenth birthday." Marcus smoothly explained how a few weeks of work turned into half a year's worth of work.

And it is… after all it's only a few weeks with alchemy and a bunch of months without it.

"...I see. So how is it going?"

Marcus has seen how his… closest childhood friend reacted, he wasn't bought with this, but for now, he decided not to talk about this anymore.

'He is too smart for his own sake.'

The Grand Alchemist still remembers seeing him laying in a coffin so it's quite hard to see his best… childhood friend being the same physical age as this. Almost like seeing ghosts being alive…

Well, it's not as hard as it was to see his mother and father…

Regardless… it was time to change the theme of the conversation and time to brag about this… not working car.

*Sigh*

He can't believe he will be bragging about a car that is not working, to a bunch of 12~14 year olds.

If anyone from his old life would see him doing this they would most likely pass out from laughter.

The great and mighty Master Alchemist (At that time), the Nuclear Deterrent of the West! Bragging to teenagers about his… non working car.

"Let me show what I have been working on."

Marcus motioned for them to follow him.

The thing about cars in his small town is that everyone has to have one. The city has incredibly simple and basic public transport.

Even after 300 years he still remembers how bad it was for him!

Only 7 routes, to serve a city of 30 thousand people.

This is why having a car is paramount. It's even a symbol of adulthood. It's like the moment you hit that 18-year-old mark you HAVE to have your car.

Otherwise… well… you suck? It's the way the current trend… not current, more like it's always there. His father was like that, his mother has her driver's licence and it's almost automatic that he should have it.

There were no questions if you want or you don't want the licence. Marcus still remembers how his father simply dropped the street rules manual on his table when he got his totaled car at the age of 10… You could say he started to learn for that when he was just a child.

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

Marcus was laying in his bed, he was looking at his room ceiling while one of his hands was massaging his forehead, he was mentally tired.

However, he finally recalled the names of his childhood friends. The kid who gave him the first car model is Daniel, all he could remember about him is that the kid who loved football.

How far he went while following his hobby is something Marcus never bothered to find out. They stopped hanging out with each other around their late teenage years. Daniel did what teenagers do and Marcus followed his hobby and continued to practise Alchemy.

Then other neighbour kids…there is another kid with the same name as Marcus, and all he can tell about this one is that this specific Marcus' mother is a painter. They have three paintings from this lady.

Then there is another football guy from his street, this one dropped out midway through his sports studies because of a girl and then decided to work as a builder for that quick money.

Just thinking all about these simple… and mundane things makes the Grand Alchemist get a headache.

'Now that I think about this… there are no girls in my street at all… well… there are but from later generations. It's like a selective choice to have first a daughter and then the second one to be a boy. And just like that, the whole street ended up like that.'

Marcus snorted with such random nonsense, there are no set rules in this. Which is why it's quite annoying to him. One of the reasons he never bothered to have a woman. He doesn't need chaos in his life.

After thinking about his street, The Grand Alchemist frowned for a bit. Next was his schoolmates, he had three who came to visit on his birthday.

'How my mother arranged this is beyond my understanding. Is this the perk of a socialite? How much of a connection does she have? From all I can remember in my early years, she used to organise events for all of my classmates and their parents.'

Just thinking about this made Marcus feel a chill going down his spine and some of the sweat appeared on his forehead. That moment he recalled more of his school years. As someone who just finished year 5 he still has 7 more years of this.

He is thinking of crossing out some of the things to do to save time. But one thing for sure is that he doesn't want to overdo it.

Becoming over-obsessed is something that made him quite hollow.

'Hmm… I suppose I could summon another Servant and get an opinion on things. My Caster is a type which will get behind whatever I will do regardless.'

As he thought about it Marcus still had to think about his classmates.

Paul… the first… desk mate and…friend-ish? But the guy is extremely random. Even after all these years, the only thing Marcus remembers about him was his randomness. He would have 'periods' of stupidity.

That's all about him… oh and he used to have long hair…

And then next is Justin, all he can remember about him is that he is Paul's lackey-friend. They live in the same apartment building.

Then for the last is Victor…

Marcus attended his burial which… was a weird reminder that time flows for people.

Apart from that reminder, The Grand Alchemist could remember that they used to spend free periods going to supermarkets buying stuff instead of using the canteen stuff.

Playing basketball and talking cars.

'Yeah… now it's all weird.'

"Master, are you okay?"

Artoria's voice brought him back from his trip in memory lane.

"Tired. Just tired. The forced reintroduction to the past and its people drained me mentally." Marcus said with a sigh. As he massaged his forehead once again.

The blonde for a second grimaced as she realised that such a thing was inevitable.

"...If there is anything you need I am here for you."

"...Oh?"

"Does this mean I can use you like a hug pillow? I never hugged a Fae before, my previous world was barren from magical beings for some reason… either they didn't exist or they were exterminated. Well… doesn't matter anymore." In the latter part, Marcus just mumbled to himself but by that point, Artoria decided to do what a Fae was supposed to do.

Running support for the human she was attached to.

Without wasting time she ended up in his bed and hugged her Master who wanted to hug her before. After all, the Grand Alchemist finds the blonde Fae just an adorable… very much deadly, hamster.

"...This is not bad…"

After saying that Marcus felt that he started to calm down and his mana got smoothed out, like an ocean which is calming down.

A few moments later he was already dozing off…

~~~

After the whole birthday thing, Marcus returned to his underground workshop and started to work on synchronising his Triple Core Reactor with the network of Boundary Fields he had in the city.

Caster helped with this as it was her area of expertise.

At night time the pair finished with security and the Alchemist could finally do what he does the best.

And that is to work on Alchemy. With security and his body approaching optimal power, he can relax and proceed to regain what he has lost.

The first thing was to regain the basis of his Technomancy. A computer was needed.

With him being in the early 2000's the software was extremely backward to what he had in the late 2290s! Even in space, he continues to improve his Legion.

To start work on this Marcus proceeded to Transmute a PC table. Well, it's more like another work table mixed with a PC table.

The most important part in all of this is that all of this is a single piece of furniture/structure.

This is a perk of Alchemist and capacity of peak transmutation.

Just a few minutes in all of this the frame of the table was complete and Marcus proceeded with laying down runemancy.

A style of runemancy which Artoria who was observing this has never seen before. It was as if he was laying down and weaving mana for something bigger!

Which he was as the Grand Alchemist was laying down 'cables' and making 'buttons'. Well, more like sensory reactors which are made from small runic circles.

Just doing a board like that took him the whole day.

After finishing the board it was time for the monitor. The monitor was added to the table via transmutation.

The whole process of making this was something Marcus spent years perfecting after he went to live in seclusion. He didn't take any of the tech made by regular people.

No, by that point he wanted to be far away from any of their stuff.

So he needed to find ways to make computers just from alchemy and Runes.

After a couple of decades, he had what he wanted. It took time but he caught up with his Technomancy. Mana is much more potent and flexible unlike electricity and their electrical boards.

All he needed to do is find a rune then array and finally a wider system to run all that.

With the monitor and sensory keyboard finished Marcus started to work on the computer itself.

He brought out the remaining Alchemical clay and started to mould counterparts of electrical boards.

A Computer build from Technomancy is his next objective.

~~~

"What is that? You've been using that clay on this for days now!" Artoria asked him as she walked around this new table. She watched her Master working on this thing for days now! It took him only a few hours to make the table thing and she is using her fingers to stroke the material. It feels… plastic-ish but it's not.

Honestly, her Master furniture style is very… unique; everything feels like it's carved from a single item. Even the chairs and the couches.

Not to mention his work tables. Even this thing he is working on is no different! However, the parts he is working on at this moment are separated but once he is done they will merge to increase the solidity of the item.

As she is a fellow crafter she understands this well enough.

"As you know, I already told you before that I invented Technomancy, a mix of alchemy and runemancy to emulate and surpass what technology does in human society.

This is no different." As Marcus explained to the blonde, he showed what he was doing.

"This is what I call a third generation data storage unit. It stores data, more specifically for you to understand it stores information, it can even be third-dimensional information. The process is nearly instantaneous."

He waved an heavily rune inscribed semi-liquid-looking tile of some sort.

"...How does that even work!?"

"First is the Language which is used to order the mana to do things. The reason why it's in a semi-liquid jelly-like state is that I am using Hyper Compression. The mana inside this Computer can emulate three dimensionally because of such liquid phase of the memory storing unit.

The computer is not treating its storage unit as a bookshelf but instead, it's treating it as the whole library."

As Marcus explained to her Artoria finally understood what he meant.

"You… You are building a whole system of processing, calculating, and testing in a single thing!" The blonde said that with wide eyes. Now her eyes looked at this thing as if it's another version of the Holy Grail!

And she is not wrong. Once enough processing power is added to this it could technically calculate how to grant wishes.

Not that Marcus used it for such pathetic things. It's his creation so it's all about helping him with his hobbies.

"...Master… I have been a good Servant to you for the past… nearly a year now! Right!? Could you… you know… make one of these for me as well!?"

His Caster said that with a very embarrassed blush as she poked her index fingers together.

"... It's the idea. You will be working on Fae-related information. Filling up information related to Fae, its magic, and things like that.

This way, if we were facing some sort of Fairy creatures, me or any of my future followers would have access to this information."

Artoria happily nodded hearing that! As long as she can play with one of these things she doesn't mind donating information!

"Sure thing! I can even explain some of the Fairy as being related things. Their attachment to humans and things like that." The blonde explained with a thoughtful look.

"Oh, I see. So that's why it's easy for me to relax when I hug you." Marcus said that with a realistic look.

"..."

The blonde Fae blushed for a short while before sighting.

"Yes, a Fae will attach to its human… contractor? I don't know the full details because I was born in a Lostbelt world instead of a human-dominated world. So… this is a new experience for me as well."

"Weren't you a Pseudo Servant or companion for Chaldea's Master?" He asked her as he remembered that Artoria Avalon WAS a companion to a human, so it shouldn't be a new experience.

Now she looked confused for a bit.

"...I have no such memories. I am Servant, A Fairy of the Holy Sword. And Your summoning is different from regular summonings." The Blonde explained with a shrug. She doesn't know herself.

"There is a high possibility that some sort of adjustments were made. After all, we are in a unique world. I may have been adjusted to this place." She explained with a casual tone. Not that this matters to her anymore. For her most important part was that she was summoned here. As someone who should not be even summoned as her existence is extremely unique. The Fae is happy just to be here.

Her explanation made sense to Marcus who was thinking to test this out more when he will be summoning his next Servant.

His 'requests' can be considered unique as he is not asking for a Servant who wants help to get the Grail. That kind of summon is extremely easy.

It is more interesting when the Servant is summoned through different… more unique 'requests'.

After all, he summoned one of the rarest beings via this method.

"You are right. It might be this unique situation. Regardless, we still have around 3 to 4 weeks for the next summon."

As he said that he resumed his work.

~~~

After finishing all the transmutations the parts were assembled and the Computer was added to the table via transmutation.

Once that was done Marcus brushed his mana-empowered finger through the keyboard and the whole board lit up.

There was no sound, only a visible reaction. This was the base perk of this computer. There is no sound or heat emitted from the computer which was created via technomancy.

Though when the Grand Alchemist saw a black screen with a single dot on it, he nearly dropped into another depression.

It was a massive slap with a huge fish into his face that he has lost a few hundred years of development.

With a deep sigh, he started to code.

He needs to see if he still has it in him.

'This reminds me, since I am doing this from the ground up, why don't I just use more than two digits for the language? I remember some idiots who invented a new language with their quantum computer.'

With that in mind, Marcus started to experiment.

While he was doing that the Fae would sneak behind him and watch what he was doing. From her base understanding of this. As someone who spends close to a year with him, she understood the general idea of what he was doing.

He was… ordering the runes in to do specific things. It's like he is making a completely separate ecological system inside the computer he built!

It's fascinating and at the same time a little bit disturbing that humans can come up with such a thing.

It's almost like they are playing a God. Not that I couldn't see them doing this. From her research on humans, they would indeed be capable of doing such a thing!

Eventually… more than 4 weeks have passed and Marcus had basic OS running, it was a road he walked before, with some extra steps along the way. But it was there and he can do certain things.

However, it was time to do something else entirely.

It was time to summon another Servant.

For now, Marcus rolled up the ritual he used on himself and instead rolled out the Servant summoning circle in the middle of the ritual room.

He inspected the circle and found the line which summons an assistant for him. Instead of that, he decided to alter this and not summon an assistant but a helper.

Assistant for him would be a Caster… a helper would be maybe a Knight? Or an Assassin… or maybe even one of the extra classes.

Who knows how the Throne of Heroes works in this weird world of his?

This is why this is extremely interesting! He doesn't know who he will get!

After modifying the circle he made the mana from the first storage pool starting to flood the room.

Artoria who was in the background was watching this with bated breath. This was the first time she was watching the summoning of Servant being done.

Moments later all the mana rushed into the circle and blinding light consumed the entirety of the ritual room.

Marcus used one of his hands to block the bright light, once it settled down he was able to see who it was.

His eyes bulged out as he saw a Maid standing there. She was dressed in a classic black and white uniform, though she had a short skirt.

The most striking thing about this maid was her face and her eyes. Artoria, who was standing behind Marcus, could only open her mouth wide. This maid was identical looking to her!

The difference was the aura she had, combined with her pale blond hair and yellow eyes. This was one seriously mean-looking maid.

"So, you are my Master, I expected great things from you."