Gift

Even an adult who was suddenly sent to a strange environment, unable to contact his family and ignorant of the surrounding environment, would inevitably feel a strong sense of strangeness and loneliness, much less a four-year-old girl.

In the Matou family, Matou Shinji, who was about the same age, was Matou Sakura's only support, so she spent most of her time following him, observing the world like a newly born chick.

Well...this little girl has a well-behaved and calm personality.

Although she is clingy, she isn't annoying.

Whenever he was reading a magic book, she wouldn't disturb him but sit quietly, either daydreaming or reading classic novels to pass the time.

Matou Shinji was naturally happy about this.

Not to mention she was an indispensable research material in his magic research.

For days he just condensed his own magic into tentacles through the formation, stretching into Matou Sakura's body to activate the magic circuit, and further observed and analyzed the characteristics of the magic circuits, then copied it to the pseudo loop he created.

In just one week, Matou Shinji made several breakthroughs in his research on magic circuits, and successfully embedded a pseudo-circuit that was 90% similar to the magic circuit in his body.

Today, he was continuing his research.

In the empty room, Sakura curiously watched the little boy standing in the center of the formation to complete his magic homework.

Matou Shinji's upper body was naked, and his right hand was pressed on the ground, connected to the center of the refining array as deep blue magic power flowed continuously from the array into his arm, forming a unique pattern.

The naked eye could see that a straight blue light path was extending under the skin of his right arm, and there were now two complete pseudo-circuits on the side.

"Ugh..." Matou Shinji gritted his teeth, his face turned pale, and his forehead was covered with dense beads of sweat..

His body was suffering from great pain.

The project of embedding pseudo-circuits into the body was tantamount to creating a new neural network for the body.

The pseudo-circuit with a mysterious concept directly tears muscles, invades cells, and integrates into the bone marrow.

So every time the light path spread one centimeter, for Matou Shinji it felt like his arm was being bitten by millions of ants.

"Damn, this pain is almost as painful as reshaping the body with alchemy."

**Ten minutes later,** the formation disappeared, and Shinji sat on the ground, panting heavily.

The construction of the pseudo-magic circuits had drained all his life force, and continuing would have been extremely detrimental to his body.

Magicians transform their life force into magic energy through their magic circuits.

They then infuse this magic energy into the magic foundation engraved in the world.

So when using magic, the caster himself would also suffer pain.

Under normal circumstances, transforming life force into magic energy doesn't negatively affect the body, but just like how vigorous exercise consumes physical strength, Magicians' magic energy is formed through countless years of accumulated transformation.

Once the process of converting vitality exceeds a certain limit, it will indeed increase the magic power of the caster in a short period of time, but the price is not trivial, ranging from reduced lifespan to sudden death on the spot.

Matou Shinji relied on the power awakened from his origin to forcibly cast magic and implant pseudo-magic circuits into his body.

"Transforming life force into magic energy, the humans of this world have potential as 'materials', similar to the alchemists in my previous world.

Speaking of which, during the Fifth Holy Grail War, Caster's Master sacrificed many humans to produce high-purity magic crystals.

Still, those couldn't compare to the magic crystals casually created by mages during the Age of Gods.

I really want to see what the magicians during the Age of Gods were like."

Shinji struggled to raise his right hand; the piercing pain deep in his bones lingered for a long time.

The three pseudo circuits that were illuminated by the magic power slowly disappeared, and the little boy raised the corners of his mouth, feeling extremely satisfied.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, but now he had overcome the most difficult level.

With the three pseudo-magic circuits, although their quality and durability couldn't compare to conventional magic circuits, Matou Shinji now had the ability to transform his life force into magic energy.

And now, he can rightfully call himself a magician.

"Brother." Matou Sakura came over, holding his shirt, she quickly helped Matou Shinji up, and asked curiously: "How is it?"

The latter put on his shirt, smiled, and affectionately patted Sakura's head, "Thanks to your assistance, the magic experiment was successful."

Sakura blushed and spoke shyly.

"I'm just glad I could help, Brother!"

Suddenly, he remembered something, "Sakura, speaking of which, I haven't prepared a gift for you yet."

"A gift?" the little girl tilted her head in confusion.

Matou Shinji stretched out his hand and pinched her tender little face, and said with a smile: "A gift to celebrate your becoming a member of the Matou family, and also a reward for helping me complete magic research in the past few days."

Matou Sakura shook her head and replied with a serious face: "I don't need gifts. I am very satisfied just being able to stay by my brother's side. I have been feeling uneasy these past few days, but since I'm by my brother's side, I don't anymore.

For me, my brother's existence is the best gift ever."

The heartfelt words from the young girl warmed his heart.

A strange look appeared on Matou Shinji's face, and he joked: "You are really good at talking."

Matou Sakura puffed up her little face; rarely showing the liveliness that a little girl should have, she muttered in a playful and slightly dissatisfied tone:

"It's too much, I was being serious. Brother just took my feelings lightly."

Not having experienced the tragic fate of the original story, the little girl's character hadn't broken down.

She seemed completely different from the Sakura Matou of the future.

"Yes~Yes~ Please forgive your brother for my gaffe. To express my apology, please allow me to present a gift to my sister."

"Well, I'm looking forward to it." Matou Sakura chuckled.

Matou Shinji walked to the workbench on the side, opened the cabinet, and took out a blue gem wrapped in cloth.

In this world, gemstones are excellent materials for magic.

Most gemstones inherently contain high-quality magical energy, and this particular gem was found underground by him using alchemy.

Shinji placed the gemstone and cloth on the ground, clapped his hands, and activated a formation to transform the blue gemstone into an exquisite sapphire necklace.

This ability to alter material structure is common among alchemists; any adept alchemist could effortlessly do such things.

"Sakura, this necklace contains a small amount of magic power. It can protect you when necessary. Don't take it off at will." Matou Shinji placed the necklace in her hand and warned.

It was impossible for him to always keep an eye on Sakura, and he didn't know when that old bug would choose to attack her.

While this necklace couldn't truly protect Sakura, it could serve as a warning device in crucial moments.

If the magic within the gemstone necklace is activated, the magic energy with the "flow" attribute contained within would flow back to him, thus informing him of Sakura's situation.

"It's so beautiful! Is this a real gem?"

"Yes."

Sakura held the gemstone necklace with both hands and nodded happily, "Thank you, I will cherish Brother's gift."