2 Chapter 002
While Leon was at a loss for words, the golden-haired girl, who was unmistakeably Mordred Pendragon from the Fate Franchise, crossed her arms and looked around the area with her sharp, green, somewhat cat-like eyes.
"I know you're here," declared Mordred, directing her gaze to Leon's approximate location before tilting her head and remarking, "That's odd. You don't appear to be deliberately trying to conceal yourself. What kind of sorcery is this...?"
"First thing's first..." muttered Leon, feeling nervous yet excited as he asked, "You 'are' Mordred, aren't you? Mordred Pendragon?"
"That's right," replied Mordred, appearing slightly annoyed as she added, "Though I would prefer it if you referred to me as Sir Mordred. Addressing a Knight without their title is exceptionally rude."
"I'll keep that in mind..." replied Leon. Then, as Mordred was staring at him, clearly waiting for him to introduce himself, he added, "As for me, my name is Leon Asheford. I guess I'm your Master? Either way, feel free to call me Leon."
Furrowing her brows, Mordred remarked, "That puts me in a predicament. I might not recognize you as my true Lord and Master, but your position is much higher than mine. How am I supposed to insist on you using my title if you ask me to address you informally?"
Before Leon could respond, Mordred shook her head, spread her hands, and shrugged, adding, "Though, if I'm being completely honest, it would piss me off spectacularly if you were to ask me to address you as Master. This place is also ridiculously far from Camelot, so there's no authority to back my title as a Knight. With that in mind, I shall permit you to address me as Mordred."
'She's more serious than expected...' thought Leon. Fortunately, Mordred didn't appear to be able to read his thoughts.
"So, what are your orders?" asked Mordred, breaking Leon out of the daze he had fallen into while inadvertently staring at her chest.
Blinking back to awareness, Leon raised his gaze, staring into Mordred's clear, emerald-like eyes as he asked, "Before that, do you mind if I ask a few questions? It hasn't been long since I was tossed into this place, so I'm still getting my bearings."
"I will answer, but there are a few things you should keep in mind," said Mordred. "First off, you're the one in charge here. Don't be so roundabout. Secondly, I refuse to speak about my past and origin. Those have nothing to do with you or our objective, so let's stay on task."
"Sure..." replied Leon, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. The fact he was speaking to a character he had only ever seen in anime and video games still had him excited, but he was quickly realizing that Mordred wasn't the fun tomboy he expected her to be.
"Then, my first question is, what do you know of this place?" asked Leon. "You mentioned our objective, so you should have at least a basic idea of our circumstances."
Nodding curtly, Mordred revealed, "According to the information I've been provided, this is an island in Imaginary Space, Purgatoria. Our objective is to reach the top of the Tower of Tribulations. In exchange for aiding you in this endeavor, my most deeply held wish will be granted..."
"Is that everything...?" asked Leon.
"Be more specific," said Mordred, furrowing her brows as she asked, "What do you want to know?"
Shaking his head, Leon said, "Let's leave it at that and focus on other things. Now that I've summoned you, there are some functions in my Administrative Console I'd like to try. Will you assist me?"
"That's why I'm here..." replied Mordred, her tone flat and expression conveying her growing frustration.
Feeling slightly exasperated, Leon turned his attention to his console and opened the Status menu. Doing so opened a window that showed a tiny, green-trimmed hexagon surrounding Mordred's smiling face. Focusing on it caused the image to expand, showing her striking a full-body pose with her arms flexed on the right side of the screen. The left showed an outline of her body with her current equipment, but Leon's gaze was drawn to the bottom half of the screen, depicting Mordred's current Level, Rank, and a host of values that included her physical conditions and hexagon with the values Strength, Endurance, Agility, Spirit, Mana, and Luck denoting each corner with the actual values beneath them.
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Name: Mordred Pendragon
Class: None
Status: Annoyed
Rank: Green(C)
Level: 1
[Attributes]
STR: 130
END: 178
AGI: 94
SPI: 274
MNA: 123
LCK: 49
[Skills]
[Instinct(C)], [Mana Burst(C)], [Magic Resistance(C)]
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'I have no idea if these stats are good, but I can't imagine her being weak...' thought Leon, closing out of the Status menu and opening the Assign tab. Leon expected it to let him appoint people to his Party or something similar, but when he focused on Mordred's icon, a map of the island appeared, broken down into thousands of smaller chunks, each denoted by a question mark. Clicking on one prompted a pop-up asking, 'Would you like to send this unit to explore this region?' but Leon clicked no and shifted his attention to the right side of the screen.
Similar to a sandbox game with unit management, the right side of the Assign screen showed Mordred's current 'schedule,' broken down into hour-long blocks. Right now, each block was filled with the words Free Action, but when he focused on one, the option to have her Train, Relax, Teach, and Act popped up. The first three options were self-explanatory, but the final option caused Leon's non-existent pupils to contract to the size of pinholes as it involved various...services...
"The surrounding temperature just increased. Did you do something?" asked Mordred.
"I was just looking through my menus," excused Leon, closing the Assign tab and raising his gaze to meet Mordred's narrow-eyed, suspicion-filled stare.
'Don't do anything you would regret...' Leon told himself, forcing a smile as he said, "I have a much better understanding of what my console can do now. Thank you."
"You're welcome," replied Mordred. Then, recrossing her arms, she asked, "What now...?"
"Well, one of my abilities allows me to construct buildings and facilities so long as we have the required materials," Leon explained. "Unfortunately, I wasn't able to place items into my Storage when I tried earlier, so I'll need your help gathering the things we need."
Hearing what Leon had to say, Mordred closed her eyes and exhaled a profoundly exasperated sigh before raising her gaze and asking, "You're asking a Knight to perform menial labor? I'm a warrior, not a woodsman, mason, or carpenter."
"Yes, I understand that," replied Leon. "However, while I believe you're more than strong enough to venture into the Tower, I don't want to send you inside without a weapon or a place to return to once you're tired. We have no idea what kind of trials and tribulations await us, so our priorities should be securing a place to recuperate, a source of food, and drinkable water."
"Hmmm...there is wisdom within your words," admitted Mordred. "But how do you expect me to gather resources without the proper tools? Do you at least have an axe or something for me to use?"
"For now, let's leave this place and step outside," proposed Leon. "I'm not yet certain if the materials you collect can be put into my Storage, so we'll worry about the specifics once we confirm it's possible."
"What kind of materials do you need...?" asked Mordred.
"One sec..." said Leon, opening the Build tab and focusing on the Basic Cabin listed near the top.
"For a Basic Cabin, it says we need 500 wood, 100 clay, and 100 metal or stone..."
Raising her right brow, Mordred appeared skeptical as she asked, "How big is this Basic Cabin supposed to be? I once built a cottage using logs. From what I recall, it only took 63."
"I doubt it means five hundred full-length logs," remarked Leon. "That's why I want to go outside and experiment. For all we know, felling a single tree could net us hundreds of wood as a resource."
"How convoluted..." muttered Mordred, surprising Leon as she turned around and began scanning the area. Then, making her way over to a moss-covered stone roughly the size of her torso, she squatted down and picked it up with some effort, carrying it back to him as she asked, "Would something like this work for the stone requirement...?"
'Modred Pendragon would like to gift you [Moss-Covered Stone(83.6kg)]. Would you like to accept?'
'Accept,' Leon said mentally, causing the stone to vanish from Mordred's hands. At the same time, the red text stating that he required 100 Metal or Stone updated to say he only needed 92 more.
"It appears that every ten kilograms of stone equates to one stone as a resource," Leon noted aloud.
"Good. If the same applies to trees, this won't be nearly as bad as I was expecting," said Mordred, taking the initiative to head for the exit, a stone hallway extending roughly ten meters before exiting via ascending stone steps. Her actions left Leon feeling a little exasperated, so as he followed her, his eyes were invariably drawn to her back and butt. A piece of red fabric concealed the latter, but he got a full view of her muscular back as she only wore a two-banded crimson and gold-trimmed tube top to cover her modest but well-shaped breasts.
'Damn...'
Though he doubted Mordred would give him the time of day under normal circumstances, Leon regretted not having a body. He wouldn't have made a pass at her then and there, but as time passed and they grew closer, he felt his chances weren't nil. At the very least, they were much higher than when she only existed as a fictional character on his phone or through his computer monitor...
'I wonder who else will show up...?' pondered Leon, looking around at the forest clearing surrounding the flight of stairs before nearly falling over as he looked behind him and got his first real glimpse of the tower they were set to climb. From his current point of view, he couldn't see its edges, and when he looked straight up, the tower appeared to stretch into eternity.
Voicing Leon's thought aloud, Mordred, standing with her hands on her hips, remarked, "That's one hell of a Tower..."
"No kidding..." muttered Leon, looking away as staring at the impossibly large construct directly caused him to feel dizzy.
Appearing much calmer, Mordred looked at the approximate location of Leon's face and asked, "What kind of buildings are you able to construct? I'm fine with roughing it for now, so we should construct a masonry or a smithy first. I'm familiar with the basics of metalworking, so I should be able to whip together some rudimentary weapons and tools if I have the materials."
"It doesn't list a Masonry or a Smithy, but a Basic Workshop requires 2000 Wood, 1000 Stone, 500 Metal, 500 Clay, and 200 units of Fresh Water," replied Leon.
"Then you should go and search for a water source while I work on expanding this clearing," said Mordred, followed by punching her right fist into her left hand as she approached what would have been the tallest tree Leon had ever seen if not for the fact it was one of the smallest lining the clearing. Those making up the canopy were at least a hundred meters tall, so Mordred was being 'conservative' by aiming for one that was only sixty meters.
Watching the petite yet remarkably athletic girl punch the tree's base with her bare fists, Leon decided not to remind her that he was in charge and instead opened the Assign tab. It had a map and highlighted the sections he had explored, so he hoped to use it to locate a river. Unfortunately, all he could see from above were trees, but by focusing his intent on the only other clear section, a tiny stretch of beach, Leon was able to appear there instantly.
"Well, that's incredibly useful," Leon remarked. Being able to fast-travel would make getting around the apparently 300km wide island a lot easier, but since he had already confirmed that he was unable to store the water breaking against the beach, he returned to the clearing and began looking around for a source closer to home...
'That's right, this is my home now...' realized Leon, a smile developing across his imaginary space as he snuck a glimpse at Mordred from the corner of his eye. He felt sorry for his parents, family, and the people he left behind, but if he had to choose between a mundane life where he wasted more than half his life away on a job he despised and living on an island where anime waifus were made real...only a madman would choose the former...
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