The Next Einzbern (Fate AU) c1

I quickly realised that my plan to create the first homunculi helper was a stretch as there were many uncertainties.

From gender to lack of memories, from the books and the memories of old man Arch, I could make a homunculi, but it would be pure Einzbern homunculi, not my creation, and that would have an array of issues. 

For one, they wouldn’t listen to me. 

And that is a waste of resources.

That is why I decided to get used to it and learn all the information I could.

**Stomach Rumble**

“Or not. It appears my stay in this place could come to a quick end.”

I softly commented as I realised that I couldn’t stay here. Not only is this place well known to the Magus Association and is occasionally observed by them, but it is hard to reach and is freaking cold!

‘No, I need to return to my town, maybe buy some land and build a house there.’

For that to happen, I would need to contact Dad and ask him to get me a couple of trucks to get all the stuff from here to my place.

With a new objective in mind, I left the manor and returned to the hotel after figuring out where I was. 

~~~

Around a day later, I saw a pair of trunks arrive. In one of them was my dad.

Once the trunks stopped, my father jumped down with extra spring in his steps.

He swiftly walked over to my side.

“Mark! You said you have discovered something good?’ The word ‘good’ had an extra meaning.

“Yes, I have discovered a derelict house of a major alchemist family,” I whispered to him, making sure no one was listening.

His eyes perked up. He quickly looked at the workers he had hired, walked over, and used hypnosis on them.

Hypnosis is a basic skill all magus learn, and I learned it very early. Honestly, one of the skills I used the most as a kid was hypnotising people.

‘Now that I think about it, I could have caused so much trouble with this one, especially in my teen years.’

Sadly, my teen years were used to learning alchemy and basic mineralogy.

As I was recalling my past, I looked at my father, who was done with hypnosis.

“We are good to go.”

“Alright, follow me.”

The pair of us and a small group of labourers walked to the barrier. I pressed my hand on it and disabled the main defence.

“Impressive strength. It appears it has weather control inside of it.” My father commented as he looked around the snowy forest.

“Yes, I reactivated it. We will take it back.”

“I guess, but it's far too obvious. Unless you are planning to install it in your place?” He enquired. Such a barrier in his place would be far too useless, as our most useful trick to hide is to mingle with other normal people.

“Yes, since I will be practising homunculi creation art.”

“Oh, I see. The magecraft we currently use fits with theirs, but I don’t have interest in that.”

“I know you like your rocks and metals.”

“Indeed, if you find any of that, you can leave it with me.” 

“I will. There is a whole pile on that.” I replied while remembering the mountain of books.

“Fantastic!”

A couple of minutes later, we arrived at the manor and walked inside. My old man swiftly became taken away by all the stuff he saw.

Unlike regular Magus, he is quite obsessed with everything he sees, and I was no different.

Eventually, I showed him the books, the ritual rooms and the homunculi growth chambers.

While rituals and books excited him, the creation tanks did not.

“We need to take at least one with us. Once I understand enough, I can create more myself,” I said to him.

“Fine, we have two trunks. One should be enough for books. The other one could be used for the extras.”

My old man lazily shrugged as his attention was on the alchemy books he was already reading.

I have ‘lost’ him midway.

“... alright.” With a sigh, I went to organise how we would get the stuff out.

~~~~~~Week Later~~~~~~

It took us a couple of days to get everything organised and another two to return back to our town. 

But I took all I wanted, even the Boundary Field’s core. Once in place, I will have an insanely strong barrier for protection. Most importantly, I have all the rituals, schematics, and formulas for creating homunculi, even the fabled Justeaze-type homunculi!... More precisely… especially her type, as that one is the most researched.

Einzberns were ordered by Justeaze herself to make more versions of her.

So, I have a large chunk of research data as it is. 

But one of the first things I did upon returning to my country from Germany was to buy some land in the sticks—that's right!

I will be copying Einzberns!

Only not in the mountains but close to a forest and a freshwater stream.

I already had an idea in mind. My grandmother, from my mother’s side, had land in the middle of nowhere given to her to live and cultivate. She gave it to her sons, but they moved out to live in the cities.

As it is, there is no one there.

‘I will start it there.’

With that in mind, I went to tell my father what I wanted to do. My old man swiftly agreed to it, as the more we spread out, the harder it would be to get detected. Besides, I told him that I was planning to go wild with all the stuff I got. Being away from towns and cities is the best choice.

Getting the land was not hard, and the best persuasion was a little bit of money waved in the face.

Before the documents were done, I was already there with my hired trunk.

When I left the passenger seat and went to the front, all I saw was grass as far as I could see and the forest in the distance. Next to it, around a five-minute walk, was the water stream, which IS drinkable water.

It shocked me, but then I remembered that in the mid-late to late 20th century, not everything was polluted. Now that it is my land, I will make sure this place remains in pristine condition.

As the stuff was getting loaded out, I explored this place. There was nothing here except a gravel road and a single oak tree in the immediate vicinity. If I remember correctly, there should have been a log house, but considering it was wood and there were no proper house foundations, nothing was left in less than ten years.

“Ah, man, this feels like a start-up for a survival game.”

I looked around for a bit before noticing more trees on the left, some distance away.

“Oh, right, those are apples and… cherries, I think?”

‘Wait, I could go completely off-grid!’

One of the most annoying parts of Fate is dealing with snob-nosed Aristocrats of the Magus Association. If I go completely off the grid and build up all I need by myself, no one would find me, and even if they did, I would be completely fortified by that point.

One of the perks of making Homunculi is that I would have a labour force, and if you have a labour force, then even building a kingdom is not off the table.

“And which of us here have homunculi creation chambers?” I asked myself as I watched the tank being moved off the truck.

With the idea of becoming completely self-sufficient, I rolled up my slips and began working with an initial mana-gathering circle.

The first hurdle to solve is to make a place that could gather mana. Since I was in the plains, mana could easily leave the circle, but that is not an issue. I don’t need much, to begin with, as my first goal is to make a foundation for the building and a circle on top of it.

Once that is done, I can start making walls to keep the excess mana in place.

When that is done… then I can start flexing my alchemy!

But first, the circle.

I went over and got a small branch from the single oak tree. I realised that this tree used to be next to the house and was used to hang wet clothes… There is still a small steel rod inside it, but no rope…

Instead of getting a wooden stick, I took the steel rod and looked around for small rocks. Those were quite common in this part of Europe.  

Around five minutes later, I had a handful of them and took them to where I would set my mana-gathering circle.

The first course of business was to use alchemy to mould the rocks into the steel rod and turn them into a larger rod that I could use to draw a circle.

A few minutes after a small light show, I had a black rod. I did a little bit of refining to remove impurities from the steel and the stones to make the mana flow easier.

Once the rod was done, I started with the circle creation. 

The grass removal was quite annoying, but this was a training experience and a hobby of sorts for me. Honestly, with no actual long-term objective in mind, I am simply doing this the long way because what else is there to do? 

I would rather practise magecraft and build a place for myself. 

‘Pretty sure most of the Maguses would look disgusted at what I am doing.’

I smirked at that idea as I drew the circle and poured mercury into the carved symbols in the dirt.

Slowly, the runes started to glow as mana began to gather above it.

With more mana in the air, I drew a symbol on the rod with mercury. The liquid turned solid upon the touch.

Now that the outside mana was flowing through the rod, I could start drawing the circle that would become the foundation of the house.

Before I even realised the labour force we hired was done with their work, I sent them away with a powerful suggestion spell.

All the guys would remember is that they helped someone move from the Alps in Germany to some sticks in Eastern Europe.

That is all that mattered; they got paid well and won’t complain.

Now that the moving of items had finished, I swiftly returned to the drawing. Slowly, the dirt started to shift, and solid black foundations started to rise from the ground. In the middle of it, there was a squire hole, and this hole would lead to the basement that was slowly being created by the alchemy spell.

What this alchemy is doing is Homuculi coding but with a different application. Instead of coding a fetus and how it should grow, I am programming how the dirt should change into the foundations of a house.

This will continue until the programming runs its course. As this was happening, I started to move the books and other stuff to the basement that was being created. The process is beginning to speed up as mana can’t escape anymore and instead is being sucked in by the circle made from mercury.

Before long, I had basement chambers big enough to make rituals and stored books, as well as homunculi creation chambers.

The only issue is that there is no light, which is easily solvable with a bit of runes slapped on the recently carved walls.

It's a temporary fix, but it will do for now, as I need to bring all of the books inside the basement.

There were quite a few of them, but this would not change my motivation as I simply can’t wait to make stuff once all is set!

‘Can’t wait to build that pc and start programming stuff! Hehehe! Can’t wait to show those morons what a programmer can do with magic!’