They've already fought their way through the Holy Grail War, and you still call them dragons?

……

Emiya continued, "Later, this girl named Artoria Pendragon became the famous King Arthur in Britain. She was surrounded by the Knights of the Round Table. They were invincible, defeating the humble King Vortigern and the invading barbarians, and even led an expedition to Rome to defeat the Sword Emperor Lucius..."

Xia Mi's mouth dropped open as she listened. She knew that humans had told many versions of the story about King Arthur, so how come there was also a version where "King Arthur was a girl"?!

As the queen of the earth and mountains, and as an old... no, beautiful girl who has survived from ancient times, she has a deep understanding of the secret history of the dragon clan and knows most of the truth about human history.

For example, the legend of King Arthur is regarded by most people as a false character fabricated based on a certain prototype, but Xia Mi knows that there was indeed such a legendary half-blood in human history.

Although she had never met King Arthur directly during her time, judging by the dragons he had slain, his bloodline seemed to be no less than S-rank. Emiya claimed that King Arthur's birth was mixed with the bloodline of a "Red Dragon"... Using this biological alchemical experiment to conceive a child as an explanation for the bloodline wasn't far-fetched.

But could this King Arthur be a woman dressed as a man?

...It's a bit strange. Xia Mi remembered that Norton said that King Arthur's bones were also one of Odin's collections. Norton should still be stealing those heroic spirits' collections everywhere. I'll come back and ask him about this matter when the time comes.

So she listened absentmindedly while thinking about how to find time to contact Norton. To be honest, Xia Mi regretted choosing this topic, but the problem was that she didn't have the face to ask Emiya to contact the family for another option.

Xia Mi also had to consider relationships and maintain her reputation. Accepting the assistant position this time was already an exception, and now Emiya was providing her with food and shelter, which was quite good. If she were to make another exception by "repudiating the assignment," she would appear foolish and insensible in the eyes of many.

"But can this kind of historical legend really be used to extract useful value...?"

She finally listened patiently to Emiya finish telling the story of King Arthur and raised appropriate questions.

"On How to Find or Study Historical Objects That Are Helpful to Magic, So That They Can Play a Role in Modern Times and Even in the Future." This extremely long title is, in layman's terms, just archaeology, and then trying to use the magic system to see how to innovate. Could it be studying the dragon blood fertilization technique used in the birth of King Arthur?

Oh my god, what's the point of this? To safely give birth to a dragon blood baby?

"No, it's not necessarily tangible things that have value," Emiya denied. "Legends themselves can also be useful. Do you believe that there's some kind of 'metaphysical' record in this world, like a book with ever-increasing pages, collecting these historical stories and legends without distinguishing between true and false?"

"Yeah." Xia Mi thought to herself, the Throne of Heroes, she was very familiar with it. She even witnessed with her own eyes how Lu Mingze made this thing.

"These collected historical stories or legends were recorded in a unified manner, and these records influenced the image and content of the main subject—the heroic spirit being sung and praised."

Emiya repeated the example he had thought of earlier, "Vlad III (historical legend) / Count Dracula (fictional story)."

"In other words, as long as people believe in something, regardless of its historical truth, even if it's a fabrication, it will be preserved in the records and transformed into reality, forming different aspects of the same Heroic Spirit (Realm Record Belt)... However, the prerequisite is that the Heroic Spirit can actually be summoned."

Finally, Emiya added one more sentence.

In fact, apart from the magicians who have truly completed the Holy Grail system, most other people, including the Clock Tower, do not believe that Heroic Spirits can be summoned independently. The Spirit Summoning Department established by the Clock Tower teaches the technique of borrowing the power of Heroic Spirits, rather than the complete summoning method of Heroic Spirits.

As for the Summoning Realm Recording Tape, Emiya knew that it was first researched by the magus Machiri Zolgen, who was dismissed by his colleagues at the Clock Tower as a naive idea and a laughing stock. He figured that if he were to work on a project based on it, the final product would likely be dismissed as a trivial, sloppy paper.

But in this world line, it seems that a group of people led by "Odin" are actually researching the Holy Grail War and the Summoning of Heroic Spirits...

"Yes, yes, provided that it can be summoned..."

Xia Mi listened to what Emiya said while taking notes and subconsciously agreed.

Suddenly, she thought to herself, something was wrong. She was one of the planners of the Holy Grail War, and she was supposed to have summoned Melyusina. It was just that Norton had misjudged the situation, allowing Nono, who had more authority, to intercept the summons.

Therefore, any doubts are unnecessary, the heroic spirit summoning experiment has already been successful.

But Emiya also said that the Heroic Spirits themselves would change and develop different aspects due to the added historical legends and the spread of false stories... Isn't this the spirit recasting technology used for that Noble Phantasm?

Yes, if they can create Noble Phantasms through spiritual reforging, then why can't Heroic Spirits, spiritual bodies constructed from spiritual elements, themselves undergo spiritual reforging?!

All you need to do is use the Heroic Spirit's body as a blueprint and use the spirit recasting method to add multiple legends and anecdotes. Then, according to this method, a Heroic Spirit does not necessarily correspond to a single version of the Servant. Wouldn't it be possible to create a large number of Servants?

Wow, one combat power can be used as various different combat powers. This is your top creativity, Master Emiya. It is so easy to borrow!

Odin, do any of your LeSe teams have such awesome ideas?

----

That night, Xia Mi's figure flashed through the darkness of the street.

It takes 25 minutes to get from Yokohama to Tokyo by JR Tokaido Railway, but Xia Mi, as the Dragon King, was speeding at lightning speed at night, rushing straight over at a speed far exceeding that of the railway.

Then, at the foot of a deserted mountain, Xia Mi stepped on the ground seemingly casually, and the stress balance under the ground was destroyed. The land disintegrated and shattered on its own, and a deep crack appeared directly.

Xia Mi jumped down decisively, and then she punched and kicked in the dark pit, causing the cavity to expand continuously, forming an increasingly vast space. She even perfectly analyzed the stress structure of different land and rock textures, and was able to blast open a large cavity while avoiding any possibility of collapse of this space.

Judging from its performance in excavation alone, the King of Earth and Mountains is so efficient that even the excavators, drills and tunnel boring machines of human civilization cannot compare to it.

Xia Mi was not surprised by this. Without any nonsense, she walked directly to the center of the big hole, drew a complex alchemical array pattern, and poured mercury on it. After a series of complicated preparations, she took out a booklet and recited the spell.

The booklet was labeled in small print: "A Monkey's Guide to Alchemical Engineering Practices by Norton"...

This was what Norton had given to Xia Mi earlier. When he saw this mark, he almost got angry.

The complex matrix constructed by alchemy was activated and completed, and obscure fluctuations connecting distant time and space were generated. Mercury mist rose and turned into a layered translucent curtain, through which a familiar figure was faintly visible.

A few seconds later, Norton's voice echoed through the hollow, "...How much progress has been made on the leyline? How is the preparatory work for the placement of the Greater Holy Grail going?"

As expected of Boss Long, the straightforward and technically advanced boss, the moment he opened his mouth, he spoke in the tone of a leader who always gives instructions, urging him to do something...

No, how could Norton be the boss? They should be partners! She, Xia Mi, was not a humble worker!

"Zero... progress is zero!"

So, at this moment, Xia Mi was so bold and brave that she uttered arrogant and fearless words in front of Norton.

"Hmph?" Norton's voice suddenly rose, like a fierce anger that was gradually brewing.

"There's a reason why I didn't work, Norton. I discovered that the Heroic Spirit Project, especially the Noble Phantasm creation project you're in charge of, has serious omissions!"

Xia Mi had the top-level idea of ​​plagiarizing Jiwei Palace in her mind, and she suddenly felt confident. She changed her timid attitude and began to refute Norton in a strong and powerful voice.

"What omission? Could it be that Constantine and I took over the work and you were 'overlooked'?"

Norton wondered if Jörmungandr was becoming more and more shameless. He had previously agreed to do tasks like dredging the earth veins, but now he was even willing to go back on his word.

"No way!" Xia Mi really wanted to kick the ugly face in front of her to pieces. "It's your plan to create a Noble Phantasm. Doesn't it use spirit reforging? I think the Heroic Spirit itself should also be able to use it..."

Xia Mi followed Emiya's words, transformed them according to her own understanding, packaged the idea and blurted it out, saying it was her own plan.

"Indeed!"

Norton over there also realized this wonderful point, "In other words, we can extract different aspects from the Heroic Spirit to form a richer Servant posture."

"There's a historical side, a legendary side, and even a youthful side and an old age side, based on the different deeds corresponding to different age groups..."

"Right, right! My idea is great, isn't it?"

Seeing that Boss Norton was also impressed by her amazing idea, Xia Mi couldn't help but smile brightly. Hahaha, she was always being looked down upon, but finally, she could turn things around...

But Norton suddenly changed his tone and asked, "Did you really come up with this idea?"

Chapter 129 If I don’t wear the monk’s robe, how will the world know me?

Dengdengdeng.

not good!

Norton's sudden turn of events was like a troubled student who often skipped classes and copied homework to slack off on his studies, only to be caught cheating on an exam by the dean. This veteran troublemaker couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat...

"Of course I came up with that...!"

Although Xia Mi felt a little panic in her heart, she cleverly concealed it in a steady tone. At the same time, in order to make it seem more real, she raised the decibel level slightly, revealing a just right amount of anger caused by being looked down upon by Norton.

"Okay, let's assume you figured it out yourself."

Norton snorted coldly and decided not to pursue the matter for the time being.

"Anyway, this optimization is indeed very important. However, I have already handed over part of the Noble Phantasm production to Constantine. I am currently exploring Odin's other Nibelungen. The optimization you mentioned can only be implemented after I return."

"I know, I know. I will also quickly fix the ley lines in this place and prepare for the Holy Grail!"

Xia Mi waved her hand slightly impatiently.

The so-called earth veins are also called "dragon veins" and "spiritual veins". Ordinary people only understand these terms as very mysterious feng shui terms.

But according to Norton, the venation lines they were going to prepare were actually flowing with energy elements, that is, the tracks and circuits of magic power.

Just like the magic circuits of the human body, the ley lines can be understood as the circuits of the earth, of the planet itself.

According to Norton's calculations of the mana consumption of Heroic Spirit No. 1, Melyusina, maintaining a Heroic Spirit's continuous presence requires a significant amount of mana. While Nono, as the Lesser Holy Grail, combined with the Greater Holy Grail, could certainly maintain the consumption of one Melyusina, it's hard to say how much more Heroic Spirits would burden them.

Norton's experimental attitude is still relatively conservative, so he let the King of the Earth and the Mountain be responsible for opening up new magical pathways underground as a source of magic to support the servants' actions.

To be honest, this job really does not require any technical skills, it is just a waste of time. Xia Mi seriously suspected that Norton just despised her for not being able to do any technical work, and treated her, the king of the earth and mountains, as a convenient and easy-to-use super drill to be used like a beast of burden.

But that was her past self. She was dead, and the one who was born now was different!

As long as she has such a top-notch idea, she is like a king who has returned with a completely changed appearance and a full aura. The old man Norton can only honestly explode gold coins in front of her...

"Wait a minute, there's another problem here!"

Oh! Norton's interruption was so harsh to Xia Mi, who was now in a fantasy time!

"A single Heroic Spirit corresponds to multiple aspects, and the additional Servants' images need to be redesigned, which is equivalent to increasing the workload several times... As the one who came up with this idea, you didn't think of this, did you?"

Norton's figure appeared on the mercury screen, and the next moment he asked such a tricky question.

This is just like "molding". In the past, a Heroic Spirit only needed to be molded exactly as the original, but now several need to be completed at once. For the extra ones, there is no reference to which legend, how to design the Noble Phantasm skill set, how to set the appearance and values, etc.

While there are prototypes available for reference, re-creation isn't something that can be accomplished overnight. From a gaming perspective, it requires an entire team of designers, 3D modelers, game systems designers, and numerical planners.

Xia Mi's arrogance instantly shrank: "Uh..."

Oh no, why is there such a troublesome thing?!

As expected, the next moment, Norton on the opposite side made a ruthless and cold declaration: "In my opinion, since this idea is yours, then all the additional Servant side design plans will be handed over to you. How about it? Sounds reasonable, right?"

Makes sense, doesn't it? Anyone who came up with this idea must have already had a plan in mind, right? If that were the case, they'd surely be able to execute it much faster than Norton.

Xia Mi never thought that the words "It's reasonable, isn't it" would make her feel a sense of heaviness that was almost suffocating, as if a vast project like a towering mountain stood tall in front of her.

Then she took a closer look and saw that the endless mountain was made up of countless Heroic Servant blueprints, which made her so desperate that she could hardly breathe comfortably. At some point, these blueprints piled up into the mountain would collapse and all of them would press down on her... She didn't want that to happen!

"What's wrong?" Norton couldn't help laughing with a hint of mockery when he saw that Jörmungandr, who was always sneaky, finally suffered the consequences.

"You're capable of coming up with ideas, but now you can't even say a word when it comes to assigning tasks? Jörmungandr, are you really going to take all the benefits without doing any work? You and I are compatriots, so you wouldn't be so shameless, right? No way, no way?"

"Who said that! Just work!"

Xia Mi's brows were raised with anger, and her angry look did not seem fake. After all, if she backed down on this step, Norton would continue to question whether Xia Mi's idea was plagiarized.

"It's just a division of labor, what's so difficult about that? I'll come up with the complete design plan, and you guys will handle the technical execution... Is that okay?"

"Very good, very aware. Then the design is up to you, Jörmungandr."

"Wait a minute, Norton. I have a request too. Is it too much?" Xia Mi held up a finger. "My request is that, in addition to the heroic spirits in the plan, I also add one of mine."

"Yours?" Norton raised his voice, as if he had guessed something.

"In gaming terms, that means you need a fake account for me! I want a Heroic Spirit account, one that's incredibly powerful!"

Xia Mi gritted her teeth and raised her voice. She felt that she had taken on this job for nothing, and it would be a great loss if there was no benefit. She must earn back the time and energy she had spent!

"I will also give you the design drawings for this, Norton you must do it for me!" If you can't do it, I will fight you!

"...You really can't stand anything that doesn't benefit you... Well, I'll agree to this request, but please don't ask for anything too outrageous. The current Heroic Spirits haven't yet reached their ultimate strength limits through Holy Grail War experiments, so we can't guarantee that they will be produced to specifications that exceed those standards all at once."

"Okay, okay, don't worry, I know what's going on."

Xia Mi actually had no idea. She was wondering if Emiya had any outrageous versions of the story or legend. Thinking of this, she asked Norton another question.

"Hey, did you get the 'King Arthur' from Odin's collection? Is this King Arthur a man or a woman?"

"King Arthur...?"

Norton's figure blurred for a moment, and then a voice gradually came over. "What kind of strange question is that? King Arthur is the human hybrid, right? I saw Odin tied up in chains and a coffin. I checked his bloodline and it's okay, but judging by his pelvis, he's definitely a male. And then...that's what you want to know?"

"...No, I was just wondering if there are multiple aspects of a Heroic Spirit, wouldn't there be more versions with different genders?"

"What's the point of this?" Norton thought about sex change, which could not enhance the combat effectiveness of the servants.

However, Xia Mi refuted this from a unique perspective, "But if we create a female servant, we can reasonably reduce the height and weight values ​​to save production costs!"

Just as smaller breasts save more fabric than larger breasts, smaller size can reduce costs even more than larger size!

Norton: "..." You know how to lower costs!

----

The next morning, Xia Mi yawned and sat down at the breakfast table again.

Nuonuo, who was still waiting opposite, raised her eyebrows, because she soon saw that assistant Xia Mi began to doze off while eating. This development seemed exactly the same as yesterday, which made Nuonuo a little surprised and confused.

"Assistant Xia Mi, are you okay?"

Could it be that the schedule they arranged was too tight and this working girl was completely unable to adapt?

Indeed, as Nuonuo saw, Xia Mi's face was still fair, delicate and beautiful, but there was a hint of indelible fatigue on her cheeks.