1 Prologue- Rebirth and a Fae

*Gasp*

My eyes snapped open, and the first thing I saw was racks of tools hanging in front of me.

I quickly realised that I was sitting on a chair, this was quite a familiar place. The feeling of Deja Vu washed me over. As my gaze scanned the surroundings my eyes ended up at the car park behind where I was sitting.

"This…"

My eyes for a second went wide as my voice sounded far too childish!

"Why am I a child?" I said with a confused tone. My eyes went to my oily hands.

I can't remember the last time I worked with anything oil related.

That moment I realised something. The feeling of Deja Vu! My gaze snapped to the car standing in the garage, I left the seat and walked over to the car, and inspected the model.

This was a blue BMW E36…

A model of ancient cars from the time when people used petrol and fossil fuel to power their machines.

"How on Earth…"

My gaze ended up on the wall. There was a calendar with cars on it.

The moment I saw the date, I connected the dots where I was.

"...I am in the past."

With some basic understanding that I was in the past, I started to think and recall what I can remember about this.

I walked out of the garage and looked at the surroundings

'This is indeed my family house. I can't believe I can see it like this, in such a casual state. With no magic upgrades or augmentations. It always used to piss me off how my grandfather and my father stopped practising alchemy for the sake of regular art. But now… after living for so long I can see certain beauty in it.'

I thought about it with some happiness. It was a short one as reality finally caught up to me.

'Oh fuck…'

At that moment my soul has left my body as I realised that all my research, notes, technomancy, Iron suits, data… all is gone!

That moment I got slightly weak, nearly dropped on my ass…

"FUCK!!!"

~~~

Marcus Goldman comes from a long line of Alchemist who for centuries practised the art of transmutation, that was until Marcus' Grandfather decided not to continue this art for the simple reason that he found fascination in construction, sculpturing, and brick working instead of practising volatile art of Alchemy.

His son and Marcus' father followed after him and instead he focused on machinery which Marcus followed him, that was until he found magic books in the attic of his family house.

This was a rabbit hole he never came out of, as he would combine technology with magic and magic runes, creating what he calls Technomancy.

It didn't help that he saw the premier of Iron Man and the power of the suit which allows him to fly.

Such a slick design and the technology behind it. He decided to build such a thing himself.

This was what dictated his life for the next 150 years. Researching, developing technomancy, eventually stumbling upon eternal youth via runes and advanced technology of the future.

It didn't help that he was so consumed by his work that he didn't realise how much the world has changed.

Eventually, people noticed his existence and this led to many noisy people trying to steal or use his work for their means.

Such development led him to leave Earth with his greatest invention the Iron Wolf, the suit capable of traversing space.

'This leads me to a question… how the fuck did I end up back in the body of my child self?'

Marcus thought to himself as he looked at himself in the mirror after taking a shower.

He was around 12 years old from his understanding and the memories which surfaced at the very front of his mind.

It's somewhat hard to grasp how his life is easy at this point.

'Uhh… I think I spend too much time in space.' He frowned for a bit before getting the change of clothes.

It was time to face his family!

~~~

Marcus hasn't seen his mother and father for over 250 years give or take, he stopped counting years some time ago. In space, time flows weirdly, it's hard to tell, thankfully he had his suit counting time for him. But that doesn't help when he ends up in a different solar system with different rotations and things like that.

It became muddled for him.

In the end, he decided to get into the role of 12-year-old Marcus instead of Grand Alchemist, Father of Technomancy and the Nuclear deterrent of the Western world, a 300+ years old Marcus Goldman.

Yes, he will allow his… younger self to carry him here, he has those memories.

"Mark, how is the work going on that car? Your mother said that you slept in the Garage again." Marcus' father Roland said with a small smirk, he is all about machines and cars, as a car service owner, he is 'funding' Marcus' work on the car which he took from his uncle from his mother's side.

"Not first thing in the morning, Dear." Marcus' mother Rose snapped sharply at the pair.

Marcus slightly shivered from that… Yep, he feels at home.

His new body knows what happens when his mother is pissed off.

"But-"

"No buts, Mark has school to attend so he should not get his mind distracted at such time."

*Cough!*

'School? Are you serious?' The Grand Alchemist nearly choked on his food from sheer shock!

He still has that stuff to attend to!?

"Mark! Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am fine." Marcus brushed that aside as he continued to eat after taking a sip of morning tea.

"About the car, I think I could compile a list of things I am going to need!" The Technomancer said to his father after being able to recall most of the things he needs for the car in his garage.

'Such simple items, I could transmute dirt into these but alas, I need to check a few things before I can return to my Alchemy.'

He thought to himself while thinking about this for a bit.

"Oh? Have you already figured it out?"

"Yes, the majority of it."

'I still need to double-check before I can trust my child's self version of memories.'

"Good! Then I will wait for the list." After saying that the pair stopped talking more about this as they were being glared at.

~~~

After food was finished Marcus needed to attend the school thing which baffled and amused him at the same time.

The feeling of walking the same path was almost alien and at the same time quite used too.

It was something similar to a clash of emotions, his young self with his much older self.

As he was walking, the Grand Alchemist was wondering if he could use this time for something more…productive.

That moment he remembered that he could use it, he has a sketchbook which he uses to draw his cars.

With such a revelation, he no longer was annoyed about wasting time.

Seeing the school… the very same school which he saw being demolished for being old, seeing fresh like this was quite the feeling for Marcus.

'Truly time travelling is so…weird and perplexing…'

Once he was inside he followed his younger self's guidance and instincts.

Arriving at class he took his seat and pulled out relevant books before taking out his sketchbook.

He opened it and saw his BMW E36 fixed and how it should look after it's done.

'Not bad, the lines and shades need a little bit of work, however this would end up getting me top marks in painting class.'

Then the next one was something that made Marcus smirk. It was classic among classics, true legend…

It was a sketch of a 1966 Mustang.

'I can't believe I forgot about this.' For a second he felt quite ashamed for forgetting his second car.

'Maybe because I was a dumb ass and never pulled it out from my garage.'

After inspecting the painting he turned the page and pulled out his pencil, spinning it around his finger he started with the basic transmutation formula.

He does want to see if he still recalls the very basics. He stopped using this kind of stuff after creating tools and Matter Convertor who does it for him.

Though he still paid some attention to the class. One thing he still remembers even after living for so long is that his maths teacher is an annoying woman.

This is why he is pretending to listen to her.

'This is so weird seeing maths being…just maths, there is no inclusion of mana in any of this.' Marcus thought that with a small frown.

Seeing this made him remember a few morons and idiots who said that magic is not energy. That it should not be quantified or used like some sort of power source.

'According to them, magic is a natural and not explainable phenomenon

Tell that to Tesla who tamed lightning and thunder by downgrading such natural phenomena and naming it… simply...electricity.

All that is needed is metal which reacts to the element. Magic is no different, that's why we have mana which is how we tell the quantity of it.

Sadly these morons are not even born yet. Hopefully, they will never be born in the first place.'

After getting over the feeling of rubbing into the faces of certain individuals Marcus returned to continue solving his equation and formulas.

Not that he will completely trust what he is doing. He still needs to find those books in the attic once again. He needs to double-check if this is his true past or the alternative reality he was in.

Once he does that then he can proceed to start reclaiming what he has lost.

~~~

After classes were over Marcus returned home, changed his clothes, and had a quick snack before taking the stairs to the attic.

From the looks of it, it was the same… or similar-ish from what he could recall.

'Let's see if I still got this…'

He started walking around, starting from one corner and progressing from there.

Around ten minutes later he stumbled upon a familiar box. It was sealed off tightly. It was the very same box he remembered from all those years. It was buried under a pile of regular ones.

Back in the day, he found this because he was digging through the pile to find anything of interest.

Slowly he pulled the top off and saw old books, very old books.

These were his family's grimoires, alchemy books, regular magic theory, rituals, transmutation, runes, and some of the elemental magics.

Marcus started to go through them, he knows these like the back of his hand, all these books were the foundation for his magic.

'They are all here. Hmm? What is this?' For a second the Grand Alchemist stopped in his tracks as he pulled out an unfamiliar book.

His hand shook for a bit.

One book, but it says a lot, As Time magic practitioners say, even the smallest of peddles can cause massive butterfly events.

And this is no different, his family never practised summoning magic.

'It's a beast of its own. A branch magic one could spend years exploring.'

*Sigh*

'I suppose, I will re-read all the books. I need to see what kind of difference is in this so familiar yet so unfamiliar world.' As he thought about it he looked at the summoning book with slightly narrowed eyes.

'I can add this to my arsenal as well.'

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

After finding the books Marcus proceeded to re-read all the books seriously to look for any inconsistencies with what he learned in his timeline.

He decided to call this an alternative world or a different timeline.

So far everything was the same, he did it while spending some time in the garage as well. He needed to make sure his behaviour didn't change much.

This means he inspected and wrote down everything about his first car. What parts he needs to fix it, others needed for renovation.

He even thought about upgrading the car as he had in his previous timeline.

But that's for later.

Around two months later he finished all the books, there was only one extra book in that box. It was the summoning book.

This was very strange, it even confused him. Everything was the same except for a single book.

It feels like someone just added it at the very last second before closing the lid.

'Maybe… that's what happened.'

Thinking for a bit he opened the book and started to read it.

After reading a few pages, he was somewhat disappointed, The things he could summon are quite abysmal at best.

'If it's like that then Homunculus is a far better alternative.'

As he thought about it he eventually stumbled upon soul summoning and its subcategories which made him stop in his tracks.

He felt another Deja Vu!

"Servants…Servants… where did I hear this term before!" Marcus frowned once again he got up on his feet and started to pace back and forth for a bit.

He did this for a bit before he decided to read on this some more.

'Heroic Spirits are summoned via a ritual, they are placed in specific containers… There is only a single known ritual where such Servants are being used.

And it's called the Grail War which is waged in the Far East Country of Japan.'

After reading that Marcus' brain short-circuits for a bit.

He finally recalled where he heard all about this.

It was from his teenage and early adult years! It was from Anime and Video and Phone games.

But now it's real?

To check this out he went downstairs and fished out an Atlas of the world.

It was quite a thick book that had Countries and Continents in detail.

After a short search, he found Japan and all its cities and prefectures.

He found a specific city on the island of Kyushu… it was…City… or more like a town of Fuyuki.

"... It is there…Damn…I guess… but it doesn't make sense… or does it? The magic system we practise is very similar…

Wait, it is almost identical… that's one of the reasons why I liked this franchise so much… I even thought that Nasu was a mage and he is just showing the magic side of Earth…" By that point, he ended up mumbling about how this started to make sense and at the same time a bunch of stuff didn't…

Regardless…

Marcus relaxed and decided to activate his magic reactor. One thing which should have followed him to this world is his magic since it's a soul-based thing… and his soul was very powerful back in the day.

His mental trigger is a sun going supernova, the moment he imagined it, a warm feeling washed over him, and he could feel… his magic kickstarting once again, flooding his very being.

A relieved sigh escaped from his lips. Yes, his magic did follow him to this body.

A few moments later his magic was already visible, there was a thin layer around his whole body.

"Hmm… I suppose my body can only sustain this much."

After inspecting his body and checking the limits, Marcus started to think about what he should do next after such revelations where he has ended up in.

~~~

The core issue is that I need to think about placing some defences in my place.

This wasn't my original world anymore.

If what I know about THAT place is true, then it has Vampires and some other weird as fuck freaks.

I guess I will go with the hikikomori route.

I thought about this for a bit more.

My fingers tapped the summoning book. My eyes went back to the book.

'Hmm… I suppose… I could get some help. If one summons a Servant without a catalyst it will be the one which fits me the best.'

With this idea in mind, I checked out the circle needed to summon.

'That's quite a basic formula, the container is an even older model than what my family used to make back in the 17 century.'

I frowned after checking the summoning circle. The Servant summoning ritual hasn't improved for over 300 years. That's just sad.

'I haven't worked on Homunculi art after leaving Earth, but I could improve some of the things.'

After recalling all I knew about the formula I wrote it down and then compared it with the formula inscribed in the summoning circle.

'Hmm…while I have no freaking clue on the copying and pulling soul from that specific location, I do have an idea how the command seals work.

'Though… the ones who designed this have not considered the potential for Servant having extremely high resistance to magic.'

Thinking for a bit, I decided to describe several specific runes to the very container, the artificial body they gain when being summoned.

Control overwrite, with such a trick even Ruler Class Servant will have issues with the command seals.

'This is the issue when all those families work separately on a single ritual.'

'Hmm, that reminds me…since I will be summoning one for a prolonged time I should make it into a combat model instead of an actual cheap replica of a dead person for a ritual.'

For the next several hours, I expanded the formula which is used to house the Servant's soul. From manifestation to solidification of the organs to empowering skeletons.

This technically could pass them as pseudo-living beings. Instead of 'physical ghosts'.

The downside is that the amount of mana needed to summon someone with this ritual is around 500% more.

Not that Mana is an issue to me when I set up my territory.

~~~~~~Later, After Preparations are Complete~~~~~~

Around a week later after finishing setting up a summoning ritual, Marcus was more or less excited about this.

His excitement comes from the simple fact that he is doing something he didn't do before.

For this, he gathered mana from around the whole town. Setting up relays of mana flow in the air with his Ritual site as the centre where all the mana gathers he needed a whole week of gathering to make this work.

So by the time it was ready the whole bounded field was humming with a massive amount of energy.

'I could have added several entry points in the sky… oh well… forgot about that part.' Marcus recalled how he made this work last longer than needed. Though… he was busy writing down several subcategories on Homunculi art. He has not done this for a long time so it feels refreshing to work on something he didn't do for a while.

"Now then… let's see if I can pull someone interesting." As the Grand Alchemist said he grinned for a bit before triggering his mental image and activating his magic.

A moment later he started to chant the summoning chant. A chant he needed to adjust, for the simple reason that this is not Grail War or something else.

It's more around the lines of assistance to a mage.

Almost like 'Hero and his Wizard' principles similar to Arthur and Merlin. In other words, such summoning will not have Evil or Chaotic Servants. Such beings would never answer the call since they would not like it.

Less than a minute later all the gathered mana rushed into the summoning circle and blinding light consumed the bounded field.

'That's a lot of Mana, I used mine to connect to the Throne via the circle but building the container was all of the mana I gathered. Regardless, these Servants are big eaters.' Marcus thought to himself as he felt pain in his right hand for a bit.

He could feel the contract creation had begun.

Once he could see his eyes widened for a bit as he saw a very familiar person standing in the circle! Though he quickly saw that this was not specifically the mascot of the franchise. But it had that face!

'It's a Saber-face! More specifically, it's the Caster version.'

Dressed in Black, White, and blue robes, armour protecting her chest, a small crown on her head, the most striking thing about this Saber-face was the enormous weapon she was holding. It was a Staff and a sword. A metal Marcus had never seen before. Sadly this was a Noble Phantasm, not an actual weapon he could study to reproduce.

And then those green pillar-like spikes which are floating behind her as well, they look like they are carved from glass!

While Marcus was studying the Servant and her weapons, the Servant in question was extremely confused! Who could possibly by some dumb luck summon her!?

This was a shock to her! Eventually, her gaze ended up at the boy standing some distance away from her.

Her eyes bulged out into an astronomical level!

'What kind of being is he!? What is with that absurd amount of mana!'

"Umm… Servant Caster has answered your summons? By chance are you my Master?" She asked him, the girl tried to sound as serious as one could be without sounding too confused!

"I am, I have not expected to summon the Holy Sword's Spirit, my luck is something else," Marcus said as he took several steps forward.

Caster Artoria's eyebrow slightly went up, she was slightly freaked out to hear that someone knows this… how does he know about her timeline? A timeline that doesn't exist anymore, all that is left of that place is a few records… as in a few records in the Throne of Heroes.

"Then our Contract is sealed."

As the blonde Fae said the contract was finalised, that moment his mana started to flow into her…

Her eyes slightly widened as she felt her vessel improve just like that!

'A reaction upon finalisation? Few perks for being his Servant? This child has improved the magic behind the Servant Containers?'

"Umm… may I ask a question?" Her curiosity was at an all-time high!

"Sure."

"Why are you circling me?" Artoria asked the most obvious question first.

"Because I am marvelling at my work. Not only did I summon a Servant, but it's an extremely rare one as well. Summoning you normally is practically impossible; only someone who had contact with you when you were alive could possibly summon someone from a pruned world."

"...So you know."

"I do know a few things." Marcus nodded at her.

"...Like Summoning me, or improving my vessel…" She said that with a deadpan look.

"How can a child do that?" She asked him.

*Snort*

"That's rich coming from a Fae, didn't you have beings living thousands of years in your timeline?"

His retort made her realise something.

"So you are much older than your physical appearance." She exclaimed, making her relax in truth, the Caster didn't want to babysit an extremely dangerous child from the looks of it.

"Yes and No, I will tell you about myself while you will do the same, I want to know if the story I know about the timeline is the same or if something is different."

The blonde Fae frowned for a bit.

"And if I don't want to tell my story?"

"Then I won't tell mine, you could spend decades figuring out about me." He casually shrugged at her while eyeing her staff sword.

"Fine, then I will tell mine." The blonde said with a resigned tone.

"Good for now let's dismantle this place, it was built for the short term."

His new Caster Servant nodded as she walked out from the circle.

What happened next was Marcus and his Servant removing the boundary field.

Though he kept one thing from all of this. And that was the summoning circle. He removed it from the ground, shrunk it and placed it on a flat stone.

He will reuse it at a later date. It was the hardest part to do, it took him close to two days to write it. He won't be removing it so casually.

Once that was done the pair started to walk back to Marcus' house.

After all, he summoned her to a remote location, a ten minute walk in the river valley of his town that is almost not touched by human activity.

As they left the small forestry area Artoria turned into her ghost form. She had some common sense not to appear in front of people while at the same time it allowed her to inspect her surroundings without much of the hassle of being watched.

One thing for sure that she loved is looking at this pure human civilization. She concluded with this because she can't sense Gaia!

It's pure silence! The connection which all Fae have with Gaia is nonexistent.

This made her freak out for a bit before she realised that her magic still works the same way.

'What weird place this timeline is…'

Eventually, they arrived at his home.

"Tomorrow we will proceed to reroute all the arrays I have left in the city. We are going to turn this town into a fortress." Marcus said to his Servant via their connection.

"Understood. I will help in any way I can."

The Grand Alchemist nodded at her before proceeding to enter his house.

"Mark! You're just on time for dinner!" Marcus' mother loudly said the moment she heard the doors opening.

"Okay!"

The Caster Servant who saw how…her Master's attitude shifted, there was an easygoing smile on his face. This was something she noted down. It appears something is going on here.

He was mentally much older but he still behaves like a child when it's needed. Something is going on here.

'Thankfully I accepted totell you about myself, otherwise, this would be a mystery I would need to solve.' She followed her Master in her astral/ghost form.

When Artoria saw her Master's mother there was not a single drop of mana radiating from her. This human lady was not magic-sensitive at all!

This development made her return to her thinking. From the conversation, she heard that the relationship between these two has nothing to do with magic.

'He is pretending to be a simple human boy while he in the background is building a magic fortress?' Once again she thought about this with a frown.

Though she is thinking about this more because she didn't want to think about all that food on the table!

After the food was done Marcus retreated to his room after taking a couple of apples.

The moment his Servant was in the room he closed his doors behind him and put his hand on the middle of the back of his room door.

That moment runic circles manifested and glowed, spreading through the whole door frame and expanding through all the walls.

"The room is completely sound insulated, we can talk normally." As he said that he walked over and dropped into his bed.

The moment his Servant manifested he casually threw one of the apples at her, the blonde Fae easily caught it.

"This?"

"..is for you," Marcus said with an eye roll, he didn't mention how he could still feel her stare even if she was in her ghost form.

So he knew that she wanted to taste the food of the human world.

"...Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Soon enough the Servant proceeded to eat the fruit Marcus was slightly unnerved seeing how swiftly she ate the whole thing…

Even when he was travelling in space he never had a shortage of food. He had his inventions with him, but seriously? Faes who have an even better connection to magic behave like it's their last meal.

He is feeling pity here. Well, since she is his Servant he will proceed to pamper her in the future.

After the apple was finished, her green eyes went to the other apple which he was holding in his hand, he didn't start to eat it as he was shocked to see how she consumed the fruit.

"You can have this one as well. By the way, you have your questions, don't you? I can answer them as I have some free time in my schedule." Marcus said that he does have some free time. He knew his Servant, regardless of who it was, would have some questions for him.

She nodded several times as he was rapidly eating the second apple.

Once Artoria was done she started her question.

"This vessel, what did you do to it? I feel like… I am alive?" The Blonde Fae said that. That's the reason why she was eating the fruit so quickly after having her first bite.

"I thought you would ask about origins, instead of the vessel. That's fine I suppose. Your Caster container was upgraded, I spent an extra 500% more mana to make it state of the art. Upon your acceptance of the contract pseudo organs and bones were added to your vessel.

This means that they are emulating life in the simplest of terms. To my understanding, your senses are not dulled; this allows you to experience the world of the living as if you would be alive."

"...You are an Alchemist aren't you? My teacher mentioned the existence of such beings." The blonde Fae said with realisation, She either stumbled on a very competent or very dangerous being for a Master. It depends on their synergy to find out which is what.

"Indeed. People used to call me The Grand Alchemist, the one who lives forever, or the one who uncovered true eternal youth. Over the decades I got a multitude of titles."

"I see… this explains my augmented vessel. Since I got a truthful answer from you, you can ask a question of your own." The Blonde Caster asked with a small smile, she might be lucky with this situation, it appears her Master and Servant Relationship could be without any deceit and lies.

"The whole Fae destiny thing. Yours was to bring Salvation of your timeline was it?" Marcus asked curiously.

"...Yes."

"I see… that's all I need to know." He already knew enough, this alone tells him that the end of her timeline was the same as Avalon le Fay. How she reached that point could be different but it ended the same way.

"...Master? I don't understand." The blonde said with a confused look.

"All you need to understand is that I got enough information from my previous question."

"B-But… I only said yes!"

"Indeed, you confirmed the story I knew." The Grand Alchemist said with a shrug. He doesn't need to know much apart from that. It explains her story and her weaponry is the same he saw as in the game all those years ago.

"...Master… that's not fair… how will I learn about you now?" Her expression was still quite stoic but she could barely control herself and not start to pout on him.

"I don't remember telling you to stop with your questions."

Now she pouted hard, this guy… this Master of hers… he is messing with her!

"Fine! Tell me the truth! what are you?"

"Now that's just rude, I said I will answer your questions but it doesn't mean you can raise your voice."

Artoria slightly gulped down, for a second she felt a shiver going down her spine.

'He is dangerous…'

"My apologies, I am not used to being messed with, by my own Master no less." The blonde said with an apologetic voice.

"Mess? Hmm, how did you come to this conclusion?" He asked with a confused tone of his own.

This time Artoria just facepalmed, this is getting nowhere.

"The moment you said that you had enough, I believed that the deal we had was over since you knew enough?" The blonde Fae tried to explain what she meant.

"I see… I suppose this lies with me, my social interaction level has fallen quite a bit after spending years in space with my artificial intelligence for a companion."

"...Space? Artificial Intelligence? I don't understand…" Artoria was now confused.

Marcus for a second thought she looked like a confused Pikachu, quite cute.

"Yes, you see, this is my second rodeo at life, in my previous life I was this Grand Alchemist, Father of Technomancy, a being who unlocked secrets of his body and achieved eternal youth, my presence alone caused the world to stop any sort of conflicts because they were afraid to offend someone who created technology through magic and runes.

Though, I made a bunch of mistakes that made me leave this world and explore the void itself.

This is why you can sense my magic being this high because my soul was this potent back then."

Artoria listened closely to his explanation, her eyes stayed on his body. She was watching him, trying to see if he lied to her.

However, her mind short-circuits, and she forgot to pay attention because she tried to process what he just said.

"This…doesn't make sense… shouldn't you become a Heroic spirit of your own!?

How come you gained another 'rodeo' at life!?"

While she didn't know what 'rodeo' is, she did guess that it means a 'try'!

He even got a try as his younger self!

"Beats me. I am a Grand Alchemist, not a God, Whatever did this had his reasons. I don't mind. I can return to my work at peace." Marcus shrugged his shoulders again this time he was much more relaxed, He told about himself to his Servant now he doesn't need to pretend.

"..."

The Blonde Fae sighed, it was quite a loud sigh, this was not the first time she had to go through insanity, She beat worse odds, like fighting a specific God…

'This is still better than my doomed world. Now I can watch the world from a different perspective.'

"And where do I come into the play?" She asked him curiously after thinking for a bit.

"It depended on what I summoned, as a Caster, you will be assisting me with magic-related things." His explanation made her curious about something.

"...What if I was one of the Knight Classes or even Berserker?"

"...Impossible." He said with a deadpan look.

"...And why is that?" She asked with quite a curious look.

Normally Marcus would jab at people for questioning him like this, but the blonde looked like a cute kitten. He could not be angry when someone is looking at him like that.

"...Because of the reasons for summoning. You don't remember that part?"

"...Oh…"

That moment the Blonde Fae had a realising look, she recalled why she accepted the summon… it was…

"You needed help, not any sort of casual help but along the lines of help to mentorship… a teacher to a trainee warrior…"

As she explained there was a deadpan look on her face, and the girl crossed her arms. This was a big and fat lie!

"...It turns out it was a lie, you don't need a teacher, you are going to use me as your assistant!"

"Not quite. It was supposed to be a mutual relationship, I teach my art, and my Servant teaches me his/her art. Though…now that you mentioned I DID pick you up… unintentionally. I thought along the lines of Scathach or even the Hero teacher Chiron from Greece Myths. Regardless… it appears I am quite rusty in that regard." Marcus explained what he thought before summoning his Servant.

"...I see… how easy going you are, Master… you do know that summoning Servant is considered a miracle," Artoria said with sagged shoulders. There was no indication that he would fail in his voice. This made her question if people who lived as long as this guy… are they all this confident?

Well, she meets a similar being beforehand.

"Please, we are mages, we bend reality to do our whims, if you treat everything like a miracle, then we would still be living in caves and mud houses." Marcus snorted at her, at first it bugged him how everyone is awed by certain things he does, but he spends a long amount of time perfecting his craft. Hearing praises from lazy people bugged him the most. Now… after hearing those for decades he has gone deaf on them. Though his Servant, especially a Lostbelt Servant, has some weight to it.

"...I will keep that in mind."

"Good girl. Now let's wait for nighttime before we go outside."

For a second the blonde Fae grimaced for being treated like a child but she easily relented.

"As you wish."

~~~~~~Later, Evening~~~~~~

Artoria looked at the set of black clothes laying on the bed, she just witnessed how magic letters were weaved into them. It was an interesting form of magic she had never seen before.

"Is this runic magic you spoke about before?"

"Have you ever seen this kind of art before?" Marcus asked her as he finished enchanting his hoodie.

"Not quite, I am Fae, magic comes extremely naturally for me, it's as easy as breathing, I can tell that each of these letters has meaning behind it.

You are putting intent and a certain amount of mana in every single letter you write, they each have synergy with each other.

It's like I am watching art." Midway through her speech, she started borderline fanboying without even realising she was doing it.

"... That's quite unfair how powerful is your magic sense." Marcus ignored her fanboyism while pointing out how easy she read what he was doing.

"I am Gaia, even though Gaia doesn't exist in this world. Though… it's strange being a Fae in such a world."

"Excuse me?"

Marcus' eyes widened when he heard that! Gaia is not a thing!?

"Hmm? Oh, you never heard of Gaia before? It's the planet—"

She quickly explained to him what Gaia is while the Grand Alchemist spaced out. He just finds out that Gaia and most likely Alaya are not a thing! Since Artoria didn't mention the other being.

'What the hell is going on? Where the fuck I am?'

"Yes, I see… strange… Does it mean you are on a regular rock floating in space instead of whatever thing you used to live on?"

"...maybe? I am not that versed in things like that, you know." She said with a small pout, it started to annoy her. After all the things she did, it's still not enough! There is always someone who shows even more new things to her which makes her look weak and not useful at all!

"It does make more sense, anyways I am almost done with my clothes."

"I could add my own enchants. I AM a Fae of Avalon!."

"Sure thing, you can start with shoes."

~~~

After enchanting his clothes, Marcus was ready to move out. The enchants he put on his clothes have measuring runes on them alongside other basic support.

The measuring runes are to record his current capacities and what he will need to work on.

He already knows that he will need to use rituals to adjust his body to his soul. As the way he is he can't even properly utilise his mana reactor.

Allowing him around 20% of his total output he could do at this moment. He is feeling that his power is like a dam, blocked up and only a small amount can leave his body.

As the pair left the house very quietly, Marcus' eyes scanned the surroundings before using Reinforcement to jump on the house opposite to his, he landed on the roof gently and looked around.

"Master, you should be careful with such dangerous spellwork." The Blonde Fae said to him via their connection.

"Oh? You mean Reinforcement?"

"Yes, such… spell work… I have never seen before, if you fail even a little bit you will seriously hurt yourself." She said to him as she floated next to him in her ghost form.

"True, this is why I simply should not miss. Isn't it right? I have been practising this since I got into this body. My mastery is close to what it was in my previous body. Now, why don't you just follow me as we explore our territory." He said that directly, he made sure his words were just slightly above whispering before he took another jump and proceeded to travel a large distance with just a few jumps.

Caster easily kept up with him in her ghost form as she looked around the city at night time. She could see that even at night time the roads and houses have enough light. This was curious, she wanted to know how they all have this kind of power and where it comes from.

'These humans are way more developed than I have expected.' Artoria thought to herself as they just crossed the river separating the city into two.

There was a small smile on her face when she saw the amount of greenery this town has.

Eventually, they arrived at a large wall of a building, the building looked like it was built from marble. It was strange for her because this was the first time she recognized a familiar material in this strange world used to build a building!

There is not a single house built from stones or castles in this place! So it has quite freaked her out for a bit.

As Marcus walked over to the wall he brushed past his hand on the wall and a bluish-green circle manifested, it was emitting quite a bit of mana.

"This is one of the main centrepieces of the array. More like one of the anchors for the whole thing. If we break this the whole thing could potentially collapse and I would lose quite a bit of time fixing it."

Artoria slowly nodded as she looked around. Looking at something.

"I see… so you using a tree-like style for mana gathering, very ingenious," Artoria exclaimed with an impressed look, she had never seen someone before collect mana like that!

Not even THAT Woman did something like this.

"Oh? You can tell just from looking around?"

"Yes, we Fae are sensitive to such things. I can sense how mana is flowing through certain streams, it's like you create a network or a river of mana.

Truthfully none of the Fairies would bother with anything like this." The blonde Fae easily admired that none of the Fae would even bother with such style.

It's too much work…

"Sad to hear that your kind wouldn't do something of meticulous work"

"We are beings of nature, while this is based on a tree, it's still not a tree. It's hard to explain to non-Fae. For us, magic is natural so something we don't see we don't use.

The previous ruler of my Kingdom of Fae amassed enormous quantities of mana in the form of her throne, but from my understanding, you instead formed a reactor of mana."

Artoria's understanding of her Master is quite small, to her belief he is might as old as a certain Queen she used to know, it's one of the reasons why she is comparing them both in certain things.

"I see… so where humans want to tame and pull things to their control, Fae simply works with it. That's why you never thought about completely understanding what mana is. That's why Morgan simply gathered mana from her surroundings instead of finding ways to produce mana on her own."

The blonde Fae simply and quite dumbly nodded at him, it appears he knows about that woman.

'I should have guessed that he knows about her, but how did he learn about that timeline?'

"Do continue your watch, we don't want people to see this."

"Understood."

~~~

Marcus' boundary field style has been reinvented several times. So, that it could be easily adjusted. Like this time. It was a simple gathering array at first, but now he is adding defensive and alert systems to the mix.

With such a thing, he will know when someone with magic is skulking in his town.

Though he could not finish this in just a single night. He was around 20% done in a single night.

This is why he returned home around 4 in the morning, this allows him to rest for around 3 hours before he will need to wake up at 7 for his school.

So when morning arrived his eyes snapped open and he slowly got up from his bed.

"Master… will you be alright for only sleeping so little?"

"Yeah…" That moment he slapped himself with a few runes.

"..."

"Is that even healthy?"

"Partially… it alters my magic for several hours, it's like a prolonged healing spell which relaxes my body. The downside is that I can't use my regular arsenal since I just altered my magic to heal."

"interesting… you have quite an array of support magic."

"And you don't?"

"Never had a chance to develop any of that, I needed to fight from the very beginning of my journey."

"I see… then you can do that now." He simply shrugged at her before starting to dress up.

His words left the Servant slightly contemplating, what he said is the truth she could spend some time thinking about magic which could be defensive or even healing…

Not that it's difficult… in Fae Britain she used to make attacking magic on a go.

'Wait… can I even do that in this place?'

That moment she manifested herself and tried to summon some of her mana and then tried to do something but then her mana almost went out of control!

The blonde panicked for a bit before getting back the control of her mana!

'I almost blew myself up! This is going to be harder than I thought!'

"Can I ask why you nearly blew yourself up?"

That moment she realised that she was not alone in this room! Marcus was looking at her a few steps away.

"...This…I tried to use my magic…"

"In my room?" He snapped angrily at her for a second.

"Sorry…"

Marcus sighed in resignation, he can't be angry at this puppy, the way she looked at him pulled his heartstrings.

"We will make a workshop after we set the alarm and defensive Bounded Fields, until then you can wait." The Grand Alchemist said with a sharp tone which made Artoria flinch, she quickly nodded at him.

"Y-Yes, I will wait until then."

"Good Fairy."

The Grand Alchemist patted the head of the fae, which made her embarrassed, there was a boy smaller than her doing this to her!

Though she was slightly happy that her Master is quite nice to her.

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

Around five days later it was time to start making his workshop.

The location of this is under his Garage.

The entry point will be behind the garage, with a small gap between the fence and the garage back wall.

It's one of the places where Marcus' father is keeping scraps of car parts, some of them are even the BMW's, the very same car parts that are in the Garage at this moment.

"So…what are we going to do here?" The Blonde Fae asked as she inspected the parts around, it was slightly claustrophobic in such a place.

"Entrance to the workshop."

As he said that she felt a surge of Mana from him he crouched down and started to write something on the dirt.

"I need you to make sure no one enters this place or tries to look for anything here.

I am pretty sure you have similar spell work to that."

She slowly nodded at him.

"Yes, it's possible. Nature-related things like that I can do." Artoria turned around and started doing her thing. She placed several Fae-related illusions in front of her. With this, people shouldn't aimlessly look at this place.

"Good, will it hold for several days?"

"With how the world is, it should hold up to several weeks to a month." The blonde Caster explained to him as she returned to looking at what he was doing after finishing her work.

"I see. Not bad for such a simple thing."

"Yes, Fae magic is closely related to nature itself. This is why It doesn't disperse easily even if it's an optical illusion with intent behind it." She explained to him as she saw him starting to pull out blocks of dirt and then transform it into some sort of clay…

The process was quite fast as by the time it was around past midnight the pair were under the garage.

The Grand Alchemist pulled all that clay with him into the room he was preparing.

While Artoria just continued to watch all of this. He didn't ask for her help after placing the Illusion. Regardless, she was more curious in studying the way he is using this specific magic art.

If she is to add this to the way she is using magic then her versatility would increase considerably.

Once the room size was established he started to use the clay he collected. He spread it out through the floor, the ceiling, and the walls.

Then… he drew several more runes on the ground, walls, and ceiling and then just snapped his fingers.

The whole room glowed white and the clay which was everywhere turned into a solid mass of some sort!

"...and done."

Artoria walked over and tapped the walls.

'This is quite solid, I was a little bit afraid that the building above will cave in after being left like that… but he left traces of magic everywhere. And now this…'

'So, this is alchemy… fascinating art.'

"The matter I used here is something I created some time ago it's sensitive to magic, this means that once I place a mana reactor and let mana flow through these walls they will become extremely solid," Marcus explained to her as he brought other remaining clay with him and started to transmute it into table.

"It's quite convenient. What are the weaknesses of this kind of material?" She asked him while using her senses on the walls and the ground.

"Magic obviously, if stronger magic is used than the reactor can produce then it will be breached quite easily. That's why we are building underground.

If it was surface, then I would use more solid material."

The blonde Fae slowly nodded at him, this made sense to her, though an underground base like that… it never crossed her mind before.

Now that she thought about this… they could expand quite a bit in all directions!

As Artoria was thinking about the perks of such a hideout, Marcus continued to use the clay to make the room more livable.

The clay is a special neutral type of material. If one were to check it under a microscope one would see that it's very blank and easy to mould into anything one wants.

It's one of the things which the Grand Alchemist came up with in space which allowed him to quickly build up an outpost in the fresh worlds he landed in.

Now he can use it to build his workshop and the Homunculi he is planning to create in the future. He won't fail as he failed in his previous life.

No mob of lazy bastards is going to annoy him. He will put them in their place.

"...Master, are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Marcus snapped out and turned around and looked at his Servant who was looking at him with a slight amount of worry.

"Your Magic just got slightly colder for a moment."

"Oh? You can tell?"

"It should be obvious by this point." The blonde used his words against him at this moment, there was a small smirk on her lips.

Her Master chuckled for a bit before shaking his head.

"I remember a mistake I made, a mistake I won't do in this life."

"...May I ask what it was?"

"I was pushed… or more like forced to leave, not this time. This time I will push back and if need be… I push back and break it into a thousand pieces."

His words made her frown, quite a bit, there was some anger on his behalf.

"Master, you do know that as your Servant, it is my priority to remove any sort of threats that come your way."

That moment Marcus recalled that Servant's primary objective will always be Master's security, and not Grail war… which has nothing to do with the current situation.

'I should type down all I remember about that Franchise, stupid me, I can't wing something if I don't remember all the details.'

"You are right. This time around I am not doing this solo." Her Master agreed with his Servant which made her slightly smile.

"Good. Maybe you will remember that I do have Territory Creation as well?" Now the Blonde Fae started to tease him.

"Oh? I completely forgot to check your parameters…"

The Fae huffed and puffed hearing that! How could he! He summoned her and didn't even check her up!

"Fine, let's see now."

Marcus used his Master gaze and checked his Servant out.

[Caster]

[Real Name: Artoria Avalon]

[Parameters:

Strength: A

Endurance: C

Agility: A

Mana: EX

Luck:B

Noble Phantasm:A+++]

[Class Skill:

Magic Resistance: A

Territory Creation: EX

One's Own Magic: B

Fairy Eyes: A

Item Construction: B

Mana Reactor (Vessel): B

Pseudo Life (Vessel): A]

[Personal Skills:

Charisma of Hope: B

Avalon le Fay: A

Holy Sword Creation: EX]

[Noble Phantasm:

Around Caliburn: A]

***Whistle***

"It appears my tampering with ritual increased your parameters." Marcus hummed with satisfaction.

Artoria facepalmed, only now he realised that he buffed up all her base parameters and made her Noble Phantasm casting utterly easy with such a high amount of mana!?

"Does this mean you can create Holy Swords for me?"

"...Master…"

The Fae groaned hearing that! Now he is asking!?