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"Say, Walter, what are we doing here?"
"Getting you some experience in the field, young Miss" I looked ahead while smiling, the sunshine hitting my face creating a feeling of comfortable warmth "As a Magi, sometimes you will have to leave your abode in search of materials unattainable in the magical market. You may have to search for answers in locations of inaccessible ruins, or you'll have to endure travels in harsh climates in search of things nobody had discovered before"
"A Magi must not only be strong in the mind, but also the body" I adjusted the equipment on my body. A compass and a yellowed-out map that depicts our current location "That's why you'll have to amp up on your physical conditions sooner or later"
Since today is Saturday, that means I get to take the children on an outdoor trip to get some fresh air
"No, I mean what are we doing in the middle of the South American jungle" She seethed "Carrying GUNS of all things!"
On her hand is the standard Arisaka type 99, while Sakura carries the Remington Mod 700. Light-weight with simple bolt-action mechanism, even children can use them with minor use of Reinforcement
Additionally, each of the girls has a pistol strapped to their waist. Their outfit now sported a more practical look. Less formality with more camouflage and pockets to contain bullet cases
I blinked
"Why?" A smile spread across my face "We're going to hunt Phantasmal Beasts of course"
It's been bugging me for a while that all I've been doing these past few days were teaching them theories upon theories of magecraft, then make them practice it in their own room for hours until the day ends
While it did show results, such a way of teaching is unhealthy. They are children, and as such their minds need a respite from constant studying. What they need was entertainment. Reading books, listening to music, playing different media to relax in their free time
Of course I can't really do that. Tokiomi has your average Magi's outlook on technology as disgusting devices, while Aoi is of the standard view that the games at arcades cause violence in children
Fucking bullshit that woman sprouts, I tell you
But then I thought: Instead of buying them some measly video games, why not make them play the real-life equivalent of first-person shooter games?
And here we all, a trip to the gun shop and a flight to Amazon later, the two girls and their butlers are going to play some hunting games for the whole day
Their faces paled
"Y-you mean Chimera?" She stuttered "T-there exists only Chimera right? Most of them went extinct years ago"
So the existence of the Reverse Side is hidden here, huh?
"I would suggest we hunt a few simple, mundane beasts before getting into them. This is the jungle, where dangerous predators dwell" I shrugged "You may not know when one was just lurking around the corner, waiting for you to drop your guards"
A low growl could be heard coming from the bush
"Which is, ideally, right at this very moment"
Sakura's eyes widened as the jaguar pounced at her. Instinct flooded her mind, causing her to Reinforce her feet and jumped out of the way
Rin hastily pointed her gun at it and pulled the trigger, firing the bullet inches from it's face. She tried to fire again, but found out that she can't
"ahem" I coughed "It's not semi-automatic. You'll need to eject the bullet and reload using the bolt first"
"Stupid fucking-" She screamed "What the hell are you doing?! Sakura's in danger!"
My only reply was to shake my head
"You have such little faith in your sister"
"Huh?"
A loud roar caused her to snap her head to the side. The jaguar was enraged as it stood in front of Sakura, blood dripping down the ground, creating a stream of Crimson liquid that flowed between them
But it was not the girl's blood. Rather, it came from a wound on the animal's leg, causing it to stumble in its movement
Sakura's face was stone cold as she pulled the bolt back, ejecting the empty shell from her rifle
"Walter said to remain calm when you're about to fire" She explained "Panicking will only cause your shot to miss"
The jaguar didn't even have time to react before another bullet pierced its shoulder. Enraged, it charged at the young Tohsaka who threw her rifle to the side and made a Reinforce jump toward it
It never expected for her to drew her knife and plunge it into the animal's eye midair, missing its brain by inches
An animalistic howl resounded as geysers of blood sprayed in the air. With a swipe of its paw, Sakura flew back and hit the trunk of a nearby tree. Splinters flew through the air, her Reinforced body managing to withstand the blow to remain uninjured
"I-is that really Sakura?" Rin gaped "My root, she looks like an entirely different person when she's like that"
"Instead of admiring your sister, Miss Rin. I think it'd be best if you find a way to support her instead" Rin blinked
Oh right, the Jaguar's distracted right now with it's back turned toward her, if she can just get a hit...
"Gandr"
Originally this spell is used to weaken your enemy. However, Rin had mastered it to such a degree that the spell may take on physical effect on its target, like burns, non-stop bleeding and even death if hit in the right place
A ball of dark red energy shot out of her hand and impacted against the beast's back
The jaguar's movement slowed, allowing Rin time to stumble with her pockets as she pulled out several gemstones from it.
Not wasting another second, she tossed them at the animal. The jewels glowed with magical power as they exploded outward, the energy searing its flesh with burning heat, eliciting another roar of pain as the animal got distracted from its charge
"Sakura!" She called out to her sister
Sakura to roll to the side and pick up her rifle. Her gun raised, hand moved in a back and forth motion as the sound of a new bullet being loaded could be heard. A loud bang echoed just moments later
RIn held her breath, while I smiled in satisfaction
Blood slowly trickled down, soon being accompanied with the now-dead animal's body falling on the ground, a gaping hole on its head
The smoking rifle lowered, revealing a grimacing Sakura behind it
"This is not what we had in mind when you mention about outdoor activities on the weekend, Walter"
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"Well now, Miss Rin. Are you not going to eat?"
"No" She flatly denied, curling up by herself as she resisted the urge to vomit "I'm not hungry"
Rin Tohsaka is a sheltered girl
From a young age, she'd always been dubbed to be the genius of a century, the young heiress of the family that will one day lead them. She had everything she wanted. Toys, books, research materials. Her parents adore her, her relatives dote on her, her friends admire her. As such, there hasn't been a single day in which she has to struggle before
But today, today is different. Not only was she forced in a situation that nearly resulted in her and Sakura's death, but was also told by Walter to skin a jaguar and harvest the meat on their corpse...by themselves
Rin shivered, the experience of cutting an animal into pieces still lingered on her mind
T-this is unacceptable. A Tohsaka had always been elegant, they had always been the very definition when one thinks of the word classic. As the daughter of their patriarch, she wasn't supposed to be milling in the jungle thousands of miles from her hometown, struggling in this barbaric lifestyle and carrying with her a gun of all things!
Growl
"If you're not going to eat, you're going to end up with an empty stomach" He brought the bowl closer "As a woman said, 'Hunger is the enemy'. No food in your stomach means no stamina, thus reducing your strength to actually survive the next time you encounter another beast of the same caliber"
Wordlessly, she snatched the cooked meat from him and began chewing into it, before gagging
"Is something wrong?"
"N-no, it's just that" She closed her eyes "I can't eat this"
Understanding dawned on the butler's face. He took a napkin and wipe the food off her cheek
"I would suggest you not think too much about the animal, miss Rin" Walter dipped his head "Usually when you have the steaks I made for breakfast, you always ate all of it. I don't see why you should hesitate now"
But it is different when you've seen how they were killed, having their skin peeled pack by you and their organs thrown to the side like trash
Is this what butchers do every day?
For the first time in her life, Rin Tohsaka began to have doubts about taking things around her for granted
"...." Slowly, Rin took a bite, forcing down the urge to barf it back out. It's not the taste that's bothering her, it's the feeling of guilt and disgust that made it unbearable
"Sakura, how can you just eat this so casually?" She whispered to her sister who's sitting across the campfire with an empty bowl lying on her side
Just a sec…
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"I-I guess not..." She trailed off
"Now, now, Miss Sakura" Walter smiled "You shouldn't trust me so easily. I'm an outsider. It would have been easy for me to slip poison into your food and take you down in the span of a second"
The revelation brought a chill to her spine, but Sakura only tilted her head
"But you wouldn't do so, would you Walter?"
"No, I would not" He burst into chuckles, gently setting his hand on her head and ruffled them affectionately, an action unbefitting of a butler like him "I have my standards for killing people"
Rin didn't miss the way Sakura snuggled her head into his hand, akin to a puppy preening under its owner's attention
How disgraceful
She returned to eating, the taste somehow seem less unbearable than before
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"I would like to make it clear that despite the notion of outdoor activities, this is in no way a vacation" I explained "It is for the purpose of physical training. As already explained before, to be a Magi you not only need deep knowledge in your craft, but also a healthy body to ensure your unmatched ability within the Clock Tower"
"Yeah, I kind of figured it out ahead of time..."
I pretend to ignore the low muttering of one Rin Tohsaka. It's best if I let her stew off for a while, seeing this is her first time outside after all
"So, as our first lesson here, we're going to start with Reinforcement" I held up a hand, seeing the look on the girl's face "I understand your sentiment. However, this spell is incredibly useful from a practical point of view despite its lack of application in the more academic aspects"
"For example, Sakura" I gestured at her "During your previous fight with the jaguar, you have used Reinforcement to evade its attack at close range and minimize the damage done by your body, that is one thing. What else do you use it for?"
"I...Reinforce my bone structure to lessen the recoil's impact when I fired the rifle" She frowned "And also enhance my lung's ability to accelerate my respiratory process, thus increasing my stamina for a short amount of time"
"As you can see, through the use of strengthening her body, Sakura managed to get out of a life and death situation, thus practicing it to an acceptable degree is necessary" I clapped.
"But what if I told you that you'd only managed to utilized a small part of the abilities given by Reinforcement, and that the efficiency at which you use it" A smile graced my face "...Is less than 10%?"
Rin's eyes widened. Her head turned sharply to my direction
"What is the deciding factor to Reinforcing an object effectively?"
If before I'd caught her interest, now I had her undivided attention
"The object's structural properties" Sakura answered
"You're correct. But sadly you're not right" I sat down on the ground, picking up a fallen branch "Try again"
"The ratio between mana input and base limit output?" Rin's voice grew pensive, only to frown as I shook my head "Given the subject of reinforcing one's body...The method to which Mana insertion was initiated?"
"Correct" I smiled "But you could have certainly phrased it better"
Rin saying "mana insertion" reminds me of some very unpleasant experience from the Novel
"Let's take a cup and fill it with tennis balls" I used the stick to draw on the ground a rectangle with several large circles filling it to the brim "Is the cup completely full?"
"Yes"
"Incorrect" I drew other smaller circles inside it "I can still fit other, smaller objects inside it like these marbles. Now is the cup full?"
"....Yes?"
"Incorrect again" I waved my hand, dotting tiny holes in the drawing "Next to the marble is the sand, to which I will pour until I can't anymore, now is the cup full?"
"No" They answered, enraptured in the lecture of the butler
Despite Walter's insistence of not being teacher-material to them, the man's abilities speak otherwise
"Indeed" He scratched the dirt around him into a mess "There exist many levels of gaps in this cup. Next, I can fill the opening between each drop of sand by pouring in water, then fill the water with elementary atoms, then continuing filling in those atoms with sub-atomic ones, and the sub-atomic ones with quantum particles, and quantum particles with smaller and smaller mathematical properties...well..you get the point"
"Just as this cup can be infinitely filled, an object can be infinitely reinforced but will never reach its true potential" He explained "While I could fit it with water and sand from the start, I won't be able to squeeze the larger objects in if the order is messed up. Thus we learn to separate the necessity from the less important one, and divide them into methodical steps in order to better the quality of our reinforcement"
I took out a sword from my Inner World
"For example, " I said "This is a normal sword. The steel that made it is of average quality, and its edge had been dulled from constant use on the battlefield, borderline on unusable itself"
"Now tell me, given what I'd just told you, how should we reinforce it?"
The two girls peered at the sword in my hand, eye narrowing in thought
"The first step should be the standard mending of the blade's damaged properties to ensure a stable reinforcing process"
"Good" I nodded "Continue on"
"The second would be the strengthening of its vital point for increased durability. The third will involve enhancing its function by tempering the material" she mulled "The fourth would be excelling the conceptual weight of said item"
Rin is better at the first step
Sakura is excellent at the last step
Shirou will largely trump them in the other two, possibly all four if said object is a blade
As she said this, mana trickled from my hand to the sword, currents of blue aura running along its shaft.
'Don't overdo it. Don't overdo it. Don't overdo it! Don't turn it into a Noble Phantasm!'
My wish was granted, as through my self-control the sword remained steadily empowered without any sign of change
I walked up to a nearby and swung it down. A large explosion afterward
The boulder was instantly split, my sword slicing through it like a katana through melted butter as a gust of air exploded outward in one direction, blowing dust and blades of grass on either side of it back
"If a rusted, dulled blade can have this much cutting power once properly Reinforced" I turned to the two Tohsakas who have surprised pikachu looks on their faces "Just how powerful would you be once you've applied it to your own body?"
Not one of them said a thing. They don't have to. These two little girls can take down a low-level Enforcer with that amount of strengthening done to them
"Ah" I blinked "Looks like I'm going to get kidnapped"
I turned to them and was about to instruct them on the proper steps, but halted midway
A shadow loomed over the area. A caw echoed as thin, razor-sharp talons wrap around my shoulder. The next thing I know, I was lifted in the air, my assailant taking up to the sky at an extremely fast speed
"WALTER!" I vaguely heard a scream from below me, full of panic and fear as the two girls attempt to pursue after me
"Remember to practice on your Reinforcement!" I shouted back "I'll be back to make you dinner and help you with your assignment after this is done!"
I then threw a card at them
"Call for me if you have any question about the homework!"
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BANG
The beast's form deftly evaded the bullet as it twisted to the side, before taking up to the sky out of her gun's reach
"Damn it" She breathed, her eyes bloodshot with fury "Damn it!"
"Sakura, get yourself together!"
She didn't listen, the girl's form already blurred forward as she channeled mana into her feet and dashed away after the animal's trail
Unknowingly, she is applying the technique Walter had demonstrated in her pursuit. Instead of just pouring her energy into their lower limb and experience a minor boost in agility, Sakura subsequently hardened her bone to increase its durability, enhance her leg muscle for a larger physical output, and then channel the leftover mana to major blood vessels to keep up with the demand in energy
The result?
The two girls are now but a blur in the normal person's eyes as they tore through the thick forest, one chasing after another as she desperately tried to stop her sister
"Stop! Did you not see the thing that took him?!" Rin screamed, leaves and tree branches scattered in her path "That's a Chimera. A Phantasmal Beast! Even a team of Enforcer won't be able to take that thing down!"
"All the more reason for me to chase after it" She gritted her teeth at the answer
Her sister is being stubborn. Chasing after the beast will only spell failure for them. Walter can't be saved if they are dead before they even reach the Beast
"Just why do you care so much about him?!"
It was then the girl felt like she'd made a mistake
Sakura planted her feet into the ground, dirt and gusts of wind exploding forward at her sudden halt in momentum. Her mana flared in agitation, making Rin's eyes widened at just how much there is
"Why do I care so much about him?" Her voice quivered, but the girl's face was blank "Why do you care so much about me?"
The older Tohsaka fell silent. If she'd been afraid of dying, she would have no need to chase after her sister and stop her. If she does not care about Walter, she wouldn't even be thinking about a plan to save him in the first place
It was only logical. She tried to justify herself. It's not like she had come to like him or anything.
Speaking from a pragmatic point of view, both of them are important on a non-personal level. Walter is a capable man of the Church with adept knowledge of magical theory that could help in her education. Sakura is her sister and is a valuable asset within the family, thus it would only be prudent that she would look out for her
"Look, I could understand your sentiment, and I wholly support your decision to go after Walter. It's the method that I disagree with. Instead of chasing after the Chimera and getting ourselves killed, let's first listen to his advice and focus on training our capabilities so that we can at least stand against it"
It won't matter if they're fast enough to reach him. Both girls know they won't be a match against that Chimera in combat anyway
"And how would we track him down?"
"Through this" Rin held up the card their teacher had thrown out earlier "The card had a tracking spell hidden in it. Tracing the signal will give us his whereabouts and conditions"
They have limited food, no means to travel out of the forest and no way to navigate such terrain. Their only weapons consist of modern rifles, several magical gems, and the nearest civilization marked on the map was a hideout of mercenaries living nearby
She growled. They're hungry, exhausted, and their butler is now kidnapped, leaving them with no ways to return until they can retrieve him from a high-ranked beast alive
This isn't going to be easy, she just know it
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[True Riding] had been maxed out
- You could tame virtually any Beasts and make them fight on your side. At this level, any mount controlled by you have their Parameters raised by one and Armor Class to increase by 1,000%
"So, you are a young Chimera, correct?"
The high-altitude wind drifted across my hair, bringing with it a pleasant coolness. I held firmly to the fur at the back of the Beast as its wing flapped to the side, creating large gusts of air that propel us forward
The creature doesn't know how to speak, but nodded to answer nonetheless
Judging from its sleek frame and feminine features, I could say the Chimera's actually a female
Well, 2/3 female at least. I don't know how but the lion's head still had a mane on
"Cool" My legs dangled off its side, our positions somehow reversing from before with us now in a more cordial relationship of being friends rather than different aspects of the food chain
I tapped it on the back three times. The standard way to express my feelings to a creature is through gestures unique to their race. Like Enkidu, I could converse with animals without the use of complex language, as the tongue we speak is the unified language before the age of Babel long ago
"It's not like I'm particularly annoyed about this" I frowned "However, hasn't your mother told you it's rude to interrupt people in the middle of their business? You could have waited for me to finish teaching them before taking me away"
It whimpered, making me reached out a hand and stroke it's mane
"There there, don't feel bad" I shushed "It's okay, now if only you'll tell me why you'd picked me up suddenly like that, I'd feel most delighted"
The lion head growled
"What?" I frowned "What do you mean I'm the Beast King?"
Its goat head baa'ed
"No. I'm not the Master of the Other Side"
Its snake tail hissed
"No, I'm not the Grand Rider either"
I sighed. In terms of taming skill and available mounts, I'm still inferior to most Rider Servants.
Even though the neighbor dogs usually act reserved in my presence, they always howled outside my window at full moon. The stray cats will tends to be more active, but they always drop dead rats at my bed every day at midnight, and don't let me mention that one time I entered the zoo and nearly cause the animals there to riot
Beasts always react negatively to me for some reason
But that doesn't mean I don't have an ace up my sleeves. With my power to replicate different Noble Phantasms, it would only be obvious that I would come to prepare for situations like these
The spinning mana gathered at the palm of my hand as I raised it above my head. From within, a whip materialized, while a bridle was set firmly on the Chimera's muzzle. It growled in surprise, only to calm down as I soothe it down with my words
"Alright, buddy. Since you're here, that mean we can shorten our travel time" I reined it in and changed the Chimera's direction to the right "There's a certain Spider I need to take care of, now that we're here"
All three heads made various noises as they faced the direction we're heading toward. Sheer terror could be felt from the tensing in their form
"Don't worry. After we're done I will take care of whatever business you have with me"
What was the 'Spider' I'm referring to?
The bridle emitted a low light, which soon engulfed the animal into an almost ethereal being
Well, let's just say I come here to South America for a purpose
I cracked my whip, activating the Noble Phantasm of a certain goddess on my hand
"Forward, Bellerophon!"
The Rider and the Mount turned into a streak of white as they shoot past the limit of the atmosphere. Past the clouds that cover the heaven and into the cosmos
Their form shone brightly like a morning comet as they tilted downward, descending at top speed down a certain valley. As the ground approach closer, my eyes make out the more detailed picture of the landscape
Jagged edges gleaming in the sunlight behind the powerful Bounded Field, their bizarre shapes matching up with the alien existence sleeping inside them
The Valley of Crystal
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Alternative Record:
"Bellerophon!"
From inside the Throne Of Heroes, Rider Medusa stirred in her place. The feeling of a connection being established could be felt spreading across her body
Unbeknownst to (Y/n). His subsequent use of Noble Phantasms will only contribute to a shit ton of problems in the future
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