Chapter 1. Sign of the Red Dragon (test)

The Bigoya Region of the Demon Continent, year 417 of the Armored Dragon King Calendar.

Amidst the dry, desolate lands of the Demon Continent, a person clad in silvery full-plate armor appeared seemingly out of nowhere, holding a sword in one hand and with two eye-catching long horns sticking out from the sides of his steel helmet.

Isaac, the person in question, looked around himself with curiosity through the eyeholes of the helmet he was wearing.

Mysteriously, his helm didn't impede his vision as much as one would expect, and he quickly registered his environment.

It was a sunny and hot afternoon.

At a glance, he appeared in what seemed to be a rocky semi-arid desert akin to the mix of Africa and the Grand Canyon.

Bright sun scorched the dried earth and warmed Isaac's face.

After witnessing all that, Isaac concentrated on himself and his expression flashed with surprise.

'I'm… really strong,' his heart solemnly thought.

It had only been a while ago that he had made a wish to the Holy Grail.

Without a doubt, his arrival in that place and the changes to his body he noted were all the result of his wish.

Cling, cling, clang, clang…

As Isaac willed it, his magical helmet began to disassemble. Pieces of the armor moved piece with clanging sounds and gradually merged into his armor.

With that, his face was revealed.

He was a young man around in his late teens with an incredibly handsome face that seemed to have no flaws. His eyes were red crimson and bright like rubies, and his long blonde hair was bound into a half-ponytail.

Altogether, he gave off the feeling of a young armored knight of noble origins.

If Isaac saw himself in a mirror, he would have definitely thought that he looked quite similar to his previous contracted Servant Mordred Pendragon.

However, at that moment, Isaac's attention was focused on the strength of his new body rather than his appearance.

He felt as if he could jump up tens of meters high and crush rocks in his grip if he only tried.

Looking around, he could perceive his surroundings in incredible detail, and if he only concentrated, it felt as if the surrounding time flew in slow motion.

He looked at his free left armored hand and grasped the reality of his situation with all his might.

'This feels amazing…' Isaac's eyes shone with a brilliant light as he felt himself brimming with strength, magical energy and vigor like never before.

Thinking this, Isaac's heart filled with emotion.

As a Magus, he always wanted to attain great powers for himself. 

Although he was self-taught when it came to Magecraft and had no family support or inheritance, he was a good talent to begin with and worked hard ever since he recognized his abilities to become an exceptional magic user.

It was only unfortunate that his innate talent was limited to a specific branch of Magecraft and the world that he was born into did not allow the emergence of powerful mages.

No matter how hard he tried, he could only perform some limited magic.

Fortunately, one day he received an opportunity.

Because he was a Magus, he became a part of a Holy Grail War by chance due to bumping into a stray Servant Mordred Pendragon who was at the verge of disappearing after she just killed her previous Master who summoned her.

Isaac formed a contract with Mordred to keep her anchored to the world, managed to get along with her, then thanks to wit and luck managed to become the final winner among the seven Masters, but at the cost of his Servant.

At the end of it all he took the Holy Grail into his hands, the famed wish-granting device, and made his wish.

Being the greedy and ambitious person that he was, he tried to make the best of this opportunity.

Isaac, rather than wishing for a single thing, wanted to realize all of his dreams, ideals and wishes, and to attain eternal life and God-like powers. That's why, after consideration, he made a wish that should allow him to achieve all that he wanted.

As a result of Isaac's wish, he appeared in this new world and in his new body that was filled with strength and potential.

At first glance, he seemed to have gained the strength and abilities similar to those of his previous Servant Mordred, except that they were all raised by a level.

Isaac was in awe with his newfound strength.

Even so, according to his wish this should only be his starting strength because what he had mainly wished for was limitless potential and an opportunity for growth in a world that would allow him to fulfill his dreams and desires.

He didn't know what kind of world he appeared in, but it was clearly not Earth.

At a glance, the density of Magical Energy was far higher there than on Earth.

All things considered, it should be a place that the Holy Grail deemed would allow him to elevate his strength to another level and live his dream life.

As Isaac focused on himself again, within his mind, he received information on his strength and abilities as a Servant.

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

He concentrated on analyzing the information piece by piece.

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

Servant Class: Saber

Class Card: Mordred Pendragon (Alter)

Traits: Semi-Servant, Knight of Rebellion, Dragon, Dragon of Devouring

<<<STATS: >>>

Strength: A+

Endurance: A+

Agility: A+

Magic Power: A++

Luck/Fate: EX

<<<SKILLS: >>>

[Magic Resistance A+]

[Instinct EX]

[Battle Continuation EX]

[Riding A++]

[Mana Burst A+]

[Dragon Reactor Core A]

[Charisma A]

<<<NOBLE PHANTASMS:>>>

[Clarent B (sealed state)]

[Clarent Blood Arthur A++]

[Secret of Pedigree: Helm of Hidden Infidelity B]

[Dragon Factor EX]

...

'Really, almost everything was raised by at least a rank! I'm way stronger than Mordred was originally!'

It appeared that a Saber 'Class Card' of Mordred was inserted into his body to give him his starting abilities and strength, but the stats and abilities were all raised by at least a single Rank!

Some of his parameters like Agility and Mana were also higher than what Mordred had. 

The raw strength, durability, defense, agility and speed of his physical body alone surpassed the point that he would previously consider the usual top level of a Servant; or in other words surpassed A-rank or 5/5! That's because his physical body's stats were around A-rank by default due to his Dragon Blood and would greatly increase with the faintest use of Mana Reinforcement.

Apart from Magic Power, one statistic that received the largest change was the Luck/Fate parameter, that was raised all the way to EX! In this case, it signified a value that surpassed A-rank and couldn't be properly measured.

However, Isaac was aware that the effect of the Luck stat was quite tricky because it didn't increase the user's luck or make him encounter lucky situations in life.

Instead, it's supposed to make him 'favored by reality' and give him the ability and a chance to defy Fate and overcome unfavorable situations.

Isaac wasn't sure how useful that statistic would be in the other world, but if it's effective, he hoped that a 'strong Fate' might reduce the chances of him dying. If someone asked him, he would certainly wish to increase his Luck or Fate to the maximum to ensure he wouldn't randomly die along his path, providing a kind of indirect immortality, so perhaps this was an important part of his wish.

Moving onto his skills, there were also numerous changes. Firstly, all skills were raised by at least a single rank! Many of them are up to EX-rank!

Even Mordred's Noble Phantasm sword [Clarent] was raised by a rank!

In addition, as Mordred's second Noble Phantasm was raised to B-rank, it gained new abilities. [Secret of Pedigree: Helm of Hidden Infidelity B] now also offered protection against mental interference and curses.

As Isaac thought about it a little, this was actually a good thing because the helmet would have no special effects outside a Holy Grail War. 

Along with this, he was still able to construct Mordred's magical armor around himself by utilizing [Mana Burst A].

The various skills being improved was a nice change as well, but the most shocking ones were the Magic Resistance and Instinct skills that both surpassed A-rank and reached EX-rank!

But, in truth, what attracted Isaac's attention the most was his new skill called [Dragon Reactor Core A] and the Noble Phantasm-grade skill [Dragon Factor EX].

Dragon Reactor Core was the result of Mordred's dragon blood which she inherited from Arthur and the Aspect of a Red Dragon being improved to the limit, transforming Isaac's original feeble Magic Circuits into something called a Magic Core.

His 'Magic Core' was a cheat-like factory of Magical Energy that used a dragon as its center to prodouce enormous amounts of Mana.

It could not even be said that he had the heart of a dragon, but his heart was a single dragon!

In addition to that, [Dragon Factor EX] seemed to be even more game changing because it improved the raw specs of his physical body when not using any Magic Energy, boosted his passive physical and magical resistance, as well as increased his Mana reserves and output, and very importantly his talent for magic! Furthermore, it even prevented aging!

Isaac felt overwhelmed.

'Also, what does all these changes mean in relation to my Magecraft?...' Isaac was curious and wanted to test his personal magic called Displacement, but at that moment he detected a presence approaching.

Or rather, it was several beings that were approaching

Isaac raised his head and looked in one direction across the plain with mild, dry rocky mounds and cliffs.

He narrowed his eyes and gripped his sword slightly tighter in a low stance as he continued staring in that direction.

Monsters were approaching. Several beasts. Isaac's intuition clearly told him.

It was several moments later that a pack of around a dozen large and skinny gray wolves.

All the wolves were the same size, all around two meters long. They had long teeth and showed off vicious appearances as they growled.

"Grrrrrrrr."

"Gaaaaaahhh…"

Isaac grinned as he felt that these wolves were not a threat at all. 'Great! Just the right targets to test my new strength!'