12 Chapter 12: Charlotte is Mine and Mine Alone
(Have overflowing Ideas. So, probably post chapters very quick for a bit. And I post a stat sheet on Auxiliary chapter for anyone interested to see abilities description.)
Four days had passed since our overwhelming success in raiding Dacian capital and the Imperial forces swiftly move in to suppress and turn it into a puppet nation for Empire in exchange for their life.
Meanwhile, I returned to the HQ along with Tanya and her Wing. We are basically recuperating from the recent operation and everyone relaxed a bit but still spend at least 10 hours a day training and maintaining their body and equipment.
I quickly enter my office and went to my usual experimentation. This time is to produce the Pieces that been going in my head for quite a while.
"Arrh fuck! Another god damned failure. Just what is lacking? Why wouldn't it condense into a physical matter?" I raged and swipe away everything on the table before scratch my head in frustration.
"My calculation is impeccable! There should be at least one guarantee success in every five refinements. But why?" I asked before quickly delve into my mind and checking my archived research papers in my mind.
"The quality of the souls shouldn't be an issue… or the method I used… No. Rather, it's the vessel that insufficiently good to contain them."
"Tch, I wasted this favour from Zettour for pile of garbage." I scowled before looking at the small pile of gemstone I ask from Zettour as my payment for my effort on Dacia.
I previously thought I can use the gemstone to store the soul and replace the gem itself on the inside until the entire stone turn into a condensed soul. But I overestimate the gems on this world that turn out isn't the same as Fateverse that Rin use.
Looking into the Ghost King Blade, I have only enough souls for three more batch. One more room for error and the other two must succeed. I am running out of time defiling souls and triggered Being X anger almost immediately. He is beyond infuriated as he instantly sent Tanya to me, trying to kill me.
That's why the Bounded Field on my room was upgraded a lot to prevent such incidents again. While Tanya is currently under heavy hypnosis that I must reapply every 8 hours to prevent Being X using her againsts me again.
"The way I used to approach this experiment is fundamentally wrong from the beginning." I mumbled as I came to realization.
"But, how am I going to condensed the soul then? Hmn…" I keep thinking and thinking until ten minutes passed.
"Wait! I'm dumb! Why not create one myself!" I thought of creating one using Tracing then strengthening it using Alteration.
Quickly I imagined a pawn chess piece and it appeared in my hand with a quick flash of mana. A clear glass pawn piece that is hollow on the inside.
"Now, with a shape to work on… Diamond and coal are different only by their atomic structure. Should be doable with Alteration." Then I start pouring mana into my hand and turn the glass into diamond.
The previous gemstone failed because they cannot withstand the amount of soul compressed inside them. Diamond should do the trick. It might be brittle as a material, but I can just strengthen it with Reinforcement and slap a few durability enhancement.
When the hollow diamond pawn Piece was created, I quickly started the refinement process and removed everything impure from the soul such as their memories, will etc until it became a blank slate. Then I turn them into pieces and stuff them into the pawn Piece.
2… 5… 17 souls…
After the seventeenth souls, at the bottom of the hollow Piece. The airy soul starts to become too dense and the only way to fit more is to condense. Thus, the souls condensed into grains of grayish and milky white dust collecting at the bottom. Great! This might really work!
I control my excitement to prevent any mistakes in my process and mishap. I continue to feed more and more souls until the 36th souls to fill the vessel to the brim. 11 more than what I estimated due to loss in the refinement process.
Having reached this far, I cannot afford to fail. I quickly drew several runes on the stone tablet before blue fire ignited and floated on the stone tablet. I put the Piece on the alchemical flame and smelt the soul dust and the diamond vessel to fuse it together. The final result is my first ever prototype Piece.
"Hahaha. Finally! Finally I managed to create it! It's a success!" Couldn't contain my happiness after days of disappointment. I laughed and hopped around happily, dancing in the office with what meager skill I have.
[Action detected, Advance Alchemical process.]
[Item detected, 'Pawn Piece'. Rarity rating, 3 star.]
[All prerequisite conditions fulfilled. Player unlocked a new function, Alchemy.]
[Alchemy]
-Allow players to only skip any alchemical process that had been carried out successfully, at least once.
"Huh, neat function. Though I can only create another pawn Piece, not another type of Piece." I gratefully accept this function that is gonna save my time immensely.
"Now, the enchantment. The Geis first…" I added the Geis contract into the Piece using Alteration and found it indeed able to store quite a bit of enchantment inside it.
Then I add Reinforcement and various other permanent buffs. The way it worked was actually inscribing an enhancement the similar way I enhance a weapon but on this Piece that will later apply those enhancements on the person receiving this Piece. This is made possible only because of Alteration. Without it, I wouldn't be able to progress as much as I do now.
The Pawn Piece were the baseline Piece that have overall buff that increase 30% stats passively and another 70% when actively injecting mana into it. They are also able to tether their mana with me and allow both the Piece recipient and me to share or receive mana.
Of course, I wouldn't forget to add an effect that cultivates obedience from the recipients and a failsafe measure that allows me to forcefully make them obey in case they might rebel. And Voila, the Piece was successfully created.
[Prototype Pawn Piece] (Rarity 3 stars)
+30% stats (Passive)
+70% stats (Active)
+100% obedience and affection growth of recipient
•Contract of Binding
Creation of an evil magus that dabbles in the forbidden art of soul manipulation. Crafted using mangled souls of 36 fallen soldiers and refined into a magic artifact. A creation inspired by Evil Piece. An artifact used by devils to replenish their population after a Great War by reincarnating another race into devil except gods and other strong beings.
Reading the description of his creation from the system, he no doubt created a successful prototype. He enters the system and uses the recently obtained function to produce another Pawn Piece before jumping off his chair and lifting the Bounded Field.
"Master! Open the door immediately before I tear it open!"
*Knock* *knock* *knock*
"Master?! It's been two days since you left your office. At least have something to eat." Charlotte knocked at the door before sighed. Ray isn't responding again which worries her since she didn't hear anything from him since he locked himself in the office after the little tussle he had with Tanya.
Ray opted to open the door rather than saying anything and saw Charlotte with a tray of food with her on the floor beside the door. Hearing the door was opened, Charlotte who was about to leave with disappointment suddenly turned her body to catch Ray before he decided to lock the door again for another few days.
"Master! You are finally leaving your office." She said while tightly hugging me as if I will lock myself away again.
"Eh, sorry. I have something that urgently needs to be done." I said to ease her worry. "Also, stop sniffing me like a dog and release me already!" I pushed her away with my arms but her strength somehow outclassed mine without Reinforcement.
"No. Do you know how worried I was, trying to meet you for two whole days while you locked yourself inside?" Charlotte said with a sad face, almost into tears judging from the wetness on her eyes.
I find it difficult to reject her when she is the only person in this world I could really trust. Although not entirely. But she really did manage to worm herself into my heart to make her important in my own eyes. Important enough to spend effort in keeping her safe by my side.
"I get it. Do what you want with me. Happy now?" I made myself limp in her embrace while scowling at myself for being soft and unable to push her away from me. Perhaps Tanya can still wait. There are still two hours before I need to reapply hypnosis or actually put this piece in her to put her under my control.
"Mhm, that's more like it. Come on, I made you your favorite chicken stew. The military is generous with our monthly supplies this time after the victory in Dacia." Charlotte, beaming with a smile on her face, brought me and the tray of food into the office to fill my stomach first. Although I can sustain my biological needs with mana, having real food in my stomach does feel better than empty.
"Come on, open your mouth. Aaaa"
"I can eat on my own, woman. Unhand me th- mm.." She stuffs a spoonful of warm chicken stew with an unfaltering smile that grows bigger by the second.
I couldn't suppress the blush on my cheek, seeing her sincere and genuine smile. I mean, what do you expect from a 27… 28 year's old virgin in the body of a 10 year old? Other than my own mother and perhaps coworkers, I have no contact with other females due to my childhood trauma.
Seeing one that very willingly shower her affection to me, albeit more of a sisterly love than romantic ones made me feel fluttering in my stomach. It sounds ridiculous to admit. But, I feel safe with her by my side.
Taking another spoonful of stew into my mouth, I look at her again. Intently.
"What's wrong?" Seeing my intense stare at her, Charlotte asked.
"Say, Char. Do you trust me?" I asked while my hand entered my pocket to take out the first Pawn Piece I created with my own hard efforts.
"What's with the serious question so suddenly? Oh, could it be that you are finally going to confess your love to me?" Charlotte joked playfully after feeling the mood is a little too heavy for her liking but perhaps I could word it better because my next reply was poorly made.
"Actually, yes."
"Eh?"
But what was going on in my mind was strange to say the least. As I said, I don't love her romantically or at least that is what I interpreted as my own feelings. My lack of experience in such topics as romance made myself a poor judge to my own feelings. But what I feel at this moment is possessiveness. I want her and I want to make her mine and mine alone. A possessiveness that I cannot describe but my desire for her is like how a person would on their most prized possession. Which isn't far from the truth because in this world, she is the only person that I value from purely my sentiment point of view. Nothing else in this world other than growing my power is more important than her in my mind.
I felt her warm hand touching my forehead, checking for my temperature probably.
"You didn't seem to be sick…" Charlotte said with her cheek redden uncontrollably and her voice started to shake too.
"I think you are the one that should get checked, Char. Your face is very red." I said and even Traced a mirror for her to see to make my point.
She quickly hid her face with her arms, shielding her face from the mirror to my amusement. I couldn't help but chuckle at her display. A goodhearted and genuine chuckle of amusement. Something I rarely show because I had been using Self-hypnosis in front of almost everyone I meet with exception of Charlotte, Tanya sometimes along with her adjutant, Visha.
"You! A small brat already knows how to flirt. I am afraid of what monster you will become when you are an adult. Especially with your good looks."
I couldn't help but laugh at her words. Me? Flirt? That's the funniest joke I ever heard. Me, a person who avoids women like a plague and has negative social skills is good at flirting? It's like saying the sun is black.
"I am actually serious, Char. I want you. I want to have you for myself and myself only. That's why I ask again, do you trust me?" I said with all seriousness but she already blushed and was not listening after the second sentence. I took out the Pawn Piece and waited for her consent.
"Eh.. ah.. y-yes." She stuttered as she said her reply.
As soon as the Pawn Piece receives what it perceived as her consent, a blinding light flashes from the Piece and floats towards Charlotte's heart until it fully sinks into her body. Then I can feel it, the invisible bond that tied us together. Just by closing my eyes and focusing on the string of connection between us, I can feel her heartbeat that felt like it was next to mine. An indescribable feeling of joy and relief? Washed over me as I can feel the bond that tied her to me. Constantly pulsing with the same rate of her heartbeat.
Meanwhile, on Charlotte's end. She also experiences something similar and the additional euphoric sensation of her body becomes stronger. She felt like she could even punch a hole through the concrete wall with her bare fist when she actually couldn't yet.
"M- Ray, what is this? What did you do?" She asked in a hurry while she was also still baffled by the changes on her body and the bond.
"I actually kept a lot of secrets from you about myself. But since you are mine now, I can explain it to you." I said with a hint of possessiveness when I mentioned she is mine.
Something that I didn't notice if not for my Enhanced Mind constantly monitoring abnormalities on myself. A contingency for a moment like if Self-hypnosis overusing side effects suddenly relapsed again.
"I am actually not from this world and this isn't my first life either." I said but the still shocked Charlotte probably has too much to take in that her brain short circuited.
I spent the next 15 minutes explaining to her while she hand fed me my meal.
At least, things went well this time around. Next would be dealing with Tanya and finally give Being X a big fat middle finger for being too fussy about me taking 'few' souls as alchemical material.
—————
(Hol up people, hol up. Before ya'll raising the pitchfork demanding Tanya be main heroin or something. Ray don't love Charlotte as a woman. At least not yet. What he feel toward her is more like possessiveness a person show toward an object. yes, object. He only see her as his 'place' of comfort. A convenient person that he feel safe towards. I think it's equivalent of emotional support pet kind of relationship between them two. Kay?)
Status
[Name: Rayark
Age: 10
Level: 72 (44%) [+20]
Main Class: Magus
Support Class: Technomagi
Title: Expert Magus, Knight of the Realm, Demon of the East
HP: 1515 (1 VIT= 10HP, Base 200 & 5/Lvl)
HP Regen: 66 HP/Min (1 VIT= 1HP/M)
MP: 9595 (1 WIS= 5MP, Base 150)
MP Regen: 420 MP/Min (1 Wis 1MP/M)
———
STR: 30+12.5% = 33.75
VIT: 30+12.5% = 33.75
AGI: 30+12.5% = 33.75
DEX: 30+12.5% = 33.75
INT: 83+40% = 116.2
WIS: 80+40% = 112
LUK: 14
———
Stat Point: 115
Abilities:
Fiction Adaptation LV -
Mana Manipulation LV 46/- (Supreme)
Pseudo Reactor Core LV 35/60 (GrandMaster) [+1]
Alteration LV 24/50 (Master)
Combat Mastery LV 24/40 (Master) [+2]
Tracing LV 45/50 (GrandMaster)
Supernatural Physique LV 25/50 (Master)
Pickpocket LV 25/30 (Master)
Enhanced Mind LV 34/50 (GrandMaster) [+1]
Time Alter LV 14/50 (Adept)
Tri Formation Array LV 17/50 (Adept) [+4]
Soul Manipulation LV 13/30 (Adept) [+9]
Dimension Tear LV 1/20 (Novice)
Dimension Shift LV 7/50 (Novice) [+2]
