Eminence in Technomancy c10

Even though Delta and Epsilon recently joined, only the light blue-haired elf is studying; Delta is by all means useless in that regard; she is like a dog.

Anything beyond a few instructions is considered too complex. But on the other hand, Delta has the best physical prowess; her raw power is impressive.

That is precisely why Marcus is spending time training her. She will be the perfect one-man army.

“So— if I study alchemy, can I alter my physical appearance?” Epsilon asked with a curious tone.

“Biological manipulation is possible. There are two routes, temporary and permanent. Temporary is like this—” Marcus placed his hand over his hair and brushed it.

At that moment, he turned blond.

“...Whoa, you just changed your hair colour!”

“Yeah, I placed a thin layer of mana on it. It will sink in, but after a couple of days, it will come off.

However, there is a method to overwrite your biological attributes. That can be dangerous if you have no idea what you are doing.

I have known a few alchemists who died trying to learn immortality.”

“...What happened to them?”

“They were dumb. Some became liquid metals, and others manipulated blood, exploding like fireworks.” He shrugged at their deaths.

“...I-I see. S-So, where do I start?”

“Learn biology. Learn everything you need to know, and then apply alchemy.”

“Got it.”

The reason why Epsilon wants Biological alchemy so much is that she is not confident with her body. She was two years older than Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, while Claire was a year younger. But that's the thing: all of them already had signs of developing into bombshells.

Only she was not! And she is the oldest! Biologically!

It makes her pride take a beating. Epsilon was about to give up, but then she remembered that she was following a Grand Alchemist! A legendary Existence who makes everything from nothing!

It turns out he even knows how to manipulate life itself! That is why she will learn how to change her body.

“Good, now come over. I will take your measurements.”

She blushed for a bit, but she did follow his command and walked over. Marcus swiftly took her height, waist, and breast sizes.

As he did that, she was red like a tomato.

“You do realise that you are fine the way you are.” He said with a sigh. Why does he have to give the ‘talk’ about insecurities?

He feels like a priest or a high priest who consoles his followers on their insecurities.

“W-What you mean!?”

“Don’t act dumb on me, Epsilon; I have been around for a long time. I can see through ‘acts’.”

“...Ugh…”

“You can follow the path you want to follow regarding biological alchemy with intentions to manipulate your body. It's a good enough path; you will learn all sorts of perks along the way.”

“...You have mastered it?” she asked with a curious look.

Instead of answering, her eyes bulged out as she saw him grow up right before her!

In mere seconds, he became a twenty-plus-looking adult! He was incredibly handsome, with blue eyes which wanted to such her soul out.

“Does this answer your question?” His voice was deep, hypnotic; for a second, she almost dropped on her ass, but she controlled herself.

“Y-Y-Yes.”

“This is what is considered cell manipulation; by using mana, I feed the growth of my body. Reverse is possible as well, but it's a little bit more difficult.”

As he explained more, the more he did, the more Epsilon felt that the world beneath her feet was slipping away. She always thought that her new Lord was mighty. But it turns out he is super handsome when he grows up as well!

“...C-Can you return to how you were… I think I am bleeding…” Blood started to drip from her nose.

“You poor thing, let your Lord fix you up.”

As Marcus got closer, Epsilon’s consciousness slipped away, and she passed out.

She couldn't take it anymore.

“...Huh, she needs to develop some resistance. Otherwise, the moment she sees a pretty face, she will pass out.”

As the Grand Alchemist collected Epsilon and took her to her room, he noticed that his other elves were in similar situations.

They passed out just outside his workshop.

“...”

“...These girls.”

~~~

Claire gushed at the gauntlets she just received. The moment she placed them on, she felt that something had connected to her mana pool.

She can channel something through it!

It was amazing; she had never touched an artefact before.

The only ones to have an artefact are the royal family—the legendary sword of Hero Freya. It said it can release a torrent of flames.

Now she has a rune caster, which can channel mana and release attacks of any kind.

“...Whoa, what are those?” Epsilon asked as she saw another pair of gauntlets, but these had claws.

“Oh, oh, oh! Are these for Delta!?” The wolf girl wiggled her tail when she saw the shiny gauntlets.

“Yep, to my fateful pet. Try them out.”

Marcus handed over the gauntlets. They are easy to use. The moment she put them on, the wolf girl realised they were like a part of her body!

“Ohhh!” The girl looked at her hand, then made a hand motion, and the claws retracted; then she got ‘angry’, and the claws came out from the fingers.

Retracted and released, rinse and repeat, she played with them for a while.

“These claws have sharpness runes in them. Once you start channelling mana, they get sharper and sharper.

It will help you in the hunts. Of course, it's not just the only perk they have; I did build a rune caster inside of it. You can use it to shoot mana.”

“Shoot?”

The wolf girl’s ears perked up.

“Yep, here, let me show you how to do it. ”

Marcus proceeded to guide Delta on how to do it.

Seeing how close he was with that Therianthrope, the elves realised that maybe they should act more dumbly.

Why not!? At least the Grand Alchemist would explain things at close and personal.

The longer this lasted, the more jealous they were. Even Epsilon started to feel saltiness.

She was not paying attention at first, but the longer she lived here, the more obvious it started to become what she was feeling. That process was accelerated when he showed THAT form.

However, after the saltiness subsided, they all had thoughtful looks.

After giving the gauntlets, it was time to show the armours he had built for them.

Claire and Epsilon got the classic look, but Delta’s was different. More ‘feral’? The wolf helmet stood out the most. It had bulkier arms.

“...Hmm, Hmm, Hmm, won't Delta feel slow with this?” The wolf girl complained.

“Do the gauntlets feel heavy?” He replied with a question of his own.

“Nope?”

“Then it's going to be the same with these.”

“...Okay!”

After that, the Therianthrope didn't question him. Instead, she tried out.

“...Oh!!! It feels like a blanket!”

Sure enough, this custom armour was a success.

“...As expected from our Lord, Therianthropes are infamous for their distaste for clothes and armours in general,” Beta said with an impressed tone.

“Should be obvious by this point, no? He can navigate around her dislikes and create perfect armour.” Epsilon chipped in with crossed arms.

“Yes. But Delta’s is more detailed than ours.” Alpha pouted while saying that.

“I am certain it's because of her special circumstances,” Gamma said with a small smile.

“He just likes her because she is more difficult to train,” Claire huffed.

“What a pickle this is,” Alpha mumbled to herself. If she lowers her effort levels, he will be disappointed with her, but then he will train her more.

That is what is bugging her, same with other girls.

The issue is that they are not muscle heads like Delta. But then again, they don't want to be like her, as Marcus’ training methods are brutal, too.

It is brutal but fits with her Therianthrope race standards.

“You know, if we excel at something, he will tailor our training towards that,” Epsilon suggested as she remembered her nobility training.

Alpha and Beta remembered the special training Gamma was getting from him.

“She is right!”

Claire pondered on that, too. How can he specify her training?

She then recalled all the times he would give her advice.

‘Oh, this is perfect.’

An idea popped in her mind.

~~~

Epsilon, Claire and Delta got their armour. With this, they can start joining the operations, plus Alpha and Beta got their Rune Casters. Well, all of them have those now.

The group's fighting strength has doubled, and Marcus can finally return to his computer build.

Not only that, he has some quiet time now. The girls are away trying to look for some targets.

The Grand Alchemist was finally done with what is equivalent to RAM only in technomancy standards.

It works similarly to how the RAM works technologically. It's a Runemancy version of ‘Random Access Memory.’

He made sure he had enough juice to automate the place he was living in. Marcus plans to add extra memory power and upgrades according to the expansions.

For now, he pressed the button.

A magic version of LED lights ignited in the computer as a humming sound of energy flowing followed.

The screen turned on, well, only a dot appeared, nothing else.

*Sigh*

“How cruel this is.”

Marcus sighed as he realised that phase one was complete; now he had phase two and then three before he could fully relax.

The bedrock was finished, now to build on top of it.

He needs to write millions of commands and words to have a functioning baseline AI which could support the operations.

The Grand Alchemist sighed before his fingers started to dance on the keyboard.

As Marcus coded his first OS, the six girls proceeded with their next operation.

“Alpha. Those are—”

Beta pointed at a group on the ground.

“They look like church people.” The blonde said with confusion. She had never seen such people from the church before!

“Doesn’t matter now! They are chasing that Therianthrope.” Claire descended with her katana. With a mighty slash, she cut down an unexpected man dressed in white and carrying something similar to a breathing mask.

“Who dares to intervene in our holy mission to erase the heretics of Goddess Beatrix!” Another church person exclaimed with fanatical zeal.

“I do.” A sword erupted from his back as Alpha stabbed him from his back.

The guy coughed blood before collapsing on the ground. The blonde elf pulled out her sword and turned around to face more of these people who were dressed strangely, yet their mana signatures were much higher than regular church knights.

‘They could be some sort of secret branch of the church, but they are planning to kill this girl.’

Alpha looked at the confused blonde therianthrope; her hand already turned into rotten mush, and it was slowly expanding.

Before she could say anything else, the white-dressed men split up and made way for a blonde elf girl to walk to the front and face the six armoured girls.

“I am Saint Victoria; we are on a holy mission to hunt any demon-possessed people. They need purification to be cleansed so that they can return to Goddess Beatrix's embrace. Don't stand in our way.” The blonde elf said with a melodious voice.

She was kind-looking; if not for the fact that she was holding a golden sword and ready to kill, she could pass as a cute and beautiful girl.

“Too bad for you, but we don't follow your teaching; we follow Light of Technomancy.” The leading armoured girl said, her voice altered thanks to the helmet.

“Delta, why don't you show how much you like to hunt?”

Like a hound released from her leash, the girl at the back lunged at the group with metal claws.

Saint Victoria frowned when she saw how powerful was this little girl!

‘That armour… it's an artefact!’

She realised that after seeing the glow on the armour, she looked at the other five girls. They all had similar armours!

“Who are you people? Where do such armours come from!?” Saint Victoria asked with a shocked voice.