Chapter 12: One Step Closer
After eating, Christina bombarded Artoria with questions, mostly about how she can stay slim while eating a bunch of meals at once.
While they were enjoying their time, Ray's phone vibrated. Ray saw that Nadia was calling him.
"Sorry, I'm going to answer the phone for a bit." Ray went outside of his room and answers the call.
Ray answered the call reluctantly.
[Hello, Ray.]
"Yes?" Ray's day was ruined hearing her voice. His resentment against Nadia and Brian can drive him to harm them in ways normal people wouldn't even think of doing.
But his trusty partner, Excalibur, soothed him with its warmth.
[Ummm, I was wondering if tomorrow's date is still good.]
'Almost forgot about that.'
"Well, yeah. You can come to the boarding house at 9. I want to introduce you to someone."
[Who is it?]
"It's better if you come here for yourself. I don't want to misuse my time explaining things because I still have other things to do."
[Eh... Ah... Okay. Sorry to bother you. Bye, Ray.]
"Bye" Ray closed the phone immediately.
Ray didn't want to go on a date with her, but he needed to, for the first step of his revenge plan.
His plan was simple. First, he needed to be known by a lot of people. With the help of his cafe's success, it won't be a problem.
Why does he need to be known? Because he wanted to flaunt his 'relationship' so outsiders will have the impression that Ray and Nadia are an ideal couple.
When people started to praise their relationship, he will use a little bit of magic so that by the end, Nadia will be pregnant with Brian's child.
This will torture both of them socially and hopefully, mentally too. Not only that they will be outcast by a lot of people, but they will also be, in the worst situation, get kicked out by their religious parents.
As a cherry on top, he can ask for Hana's help, or hack the government on his own, to create a file. That file will destroy Nadia's and Brian's chances of having a successful career.
Ray entered his room and saw both women looking at him.
When Ray went out of the room, Christina saw who the caller was. Artoria didn't know his circumstances yet so she was puzzled why Christina looked so worried.
Artoria asked what happened. Although Christina wanted to tell her the story, she felt that it was more appropriate if Ray said it himself.
Christina cannot hear Ray's talk on the phone but Artoria can. She can even hear a girl's voice coming out from the phone.
Artoria felt a prick on her heart hearing Ray talking with another girl that she didn't know. Although she was now more aware of her own feelings, besides affection, the emotions that she currently feeling were foreign.
So when Ray came in, they were both looking at him, each with a different expression.
"Umm, what's wrong?" Ray asked.
"What did you talk about with... Nadia?" Christina replied with another question.
"Well..." Ray explained his call with Nadia.
"No! Why must you date with that... bitch?!" Christina raged. She didn't understand why Ray still wanted to date Nadia. She even forgot her age apparently and started swearing.
The occupants of the boarding house came to look at what happened because it was quite loud.
Christina started to ask questions with a loud voice about why Ray wanted to date Nadia. She even had a slip of tongue in the middle of her bombardment.
"You should just date me instead!" she screamed. Everyone was stunned at Christina's 'confession'. Christina didn't even register her own confession and still bombarding Ray with questions, at least that's what the outsiders saw.
In reality, she was embarrassed that she had a slip of tongue and the only way to get rid of it was to continue her questions.
Ray was trying his best to calm her down. He was occupied by Christina that he didn't notice Artoria's face frowning.
In her past, she technically faced the same thing as Ray. Artoria's 'wife', Guinevere was having an affair with Lancelot because both of them loved each other. She even forgave Guinevere and Lancelot, the reason for the former was because she knew Guinevere's burden of having to conceal Artoria's gender while the latter was because she thought that Lancelot must have a "good reason". But by that time, Lancelot already ran away from the country.
Although she didn't really care about the past nor the affair of Ray's girlfriend, the fact that Ray currently in a relationship grinds her gears.
By the time Christina was done, the onlookers already left the scene.
"Let me meet her." Artoria suddenly said.
"Already plan to do that, tea-"
"Call me Artoria whenever we're not training." She said. It was more like a command than a simple talk.
"Yes, A-Artoria." Ray was still quite embarrassed when saying her name while they were talking casually.
Christina was looking at Artoria, though not as apparent, she was jealous of Artoria as well. Because she's already married, she cannot say anymore before she destroys her marital life.
After hours of conversing, they finally went to sleep. But not before a little bit of embarrassment from Artoria and Ray because they are now more aware of each other, even though they slept on a different bed.
As usual, Ray awoke even before the chicken started crowing. This time, he was accompanied by Artoria to do his usual morning routine.
After they were done, Ray asked to be trained. He wanted to let off some steam before his 'date' in 2 more hours.
When both of them went inside the [Training Ground], Artoria started to customize the obstacle course to make it harder. While he was waiting, he changed the time dilation to 1 minute outside translates into 1 week inside.
The reason was that he remembered that he needed to beat a monstrosity that even God can't beat. He was lamenting his yesterday's decision about the date. He even started to doubt if his revenge is even worth it...
"Let's start," said Artoria.
Another round of training starts.
The obstacle course meant so that he can react to attacks better. The more he was made to dodge, the faster his reaction time becomes.
After horrendous hours of dodging rocks with the speed of each one similar to the speed of sound, he was allowed to rest for 10 minutes before another training starts, his battle training.
Now, they use their Excalibur to the spar. But on an outsider's perspective, it was not a spar, but a one-sided bloodbath.
Because of Avalon, Artoria can do fatal attacks except killing the brain. Although Ray gained strength faster, he also needed to tolerate the pain of being slashed and stabbed multiple times.
Ray also gained enlightenment in his fighting style. Since he can't overpower Artoria just yet with just a swing of his hand, he used the momentum of his body to support his attacks.
Ray tried to deliver a heavy blow to Artoria by doing an overhead cut. Before the cut, he moved his body so that he can use his body weight of his body to overpower Artoria.
Artoria blocked the cut, but she can feel Ray's weight on the attack. But it was like an ant trying to destroy a mountain, nay, a planet.
"Damn, still not enough..." was his last words before he went unconscious.
Like usual, Artoria sat beside the unconscious Ray and wait for him to get back from his unconscious.
After thinking for a while, she rested Ray's head on her lap.
On the other side, Ray met 'him' again, his dragon side.
As promised, the Dragon started to teach everything that Ray should know, from learning how to control mana, casting spells, and theoretical knowledge about dragons.
Although he had never dealt with mana before, he can control them just fine, courtesy from both his 2 *Sealed* race. But his control is not on 'Ray' standards.
A/N: Whenever I mention Ray with a single quote, that means I'm referring to the Dragon part of him.
The spells that he can casts are [Physical Reinforcement], [Fire Breath], and [Mana Bullet]
[Physical Reinforcement] is self-explanatory, but in Ray's case, he can only strengthen parts of his body at a time. Ray can also use it for defensive purposes such as making his body hard enough to not let steel through. The only downside of this spell, at least in Ray's perspective, is mana consumption. Until he can either use his core or have good enough mana control, he can only use this in short bursts.
[Fire Breath] enabled Ray to, quite literally, breath fire. He can exhale fire from his nostrils, mouth, or butt if he so chooses. This took more mana than [Physical Reinforcement].
[Mana Bullet] is the most economical in terms of mana consumption. It's basically firing compressed mana from his fingers, like how Frieza fires Ki from his fingers.
The current problem that Ray faced is about converting mana into elements. Although all of his current spells are imaginary-based, it means that he can cast anything if he has a good image of the spell in his mind, converting pure mana into elements took a lot of mana.
Unless he comprehends elements, which he will with time, or have a good enough mana control, Ray will encounter this problem every time he wanted to cast element-type spells.
'Ray' only advised him to practice controlling mana and casting spells to increase his mana reserve before Ray was gone with the particles of light.
When Ray woke up, he can feel his body getting stronger.
Artoria noticed his change, but she decided to keep quiet about it since it's normal.
Ray was in ecstasy that he didn't notice his head was on Artoria's lap. He just got up and asked Artoria to spar.
She was hesitant about it, but after she was 'bribed' with more food later, she relented.
Ray wanted to test his new spells and integrate it into his fighting style. If he was Isekai'd into a sword and magic world, he can be considered as a magic swordsman.
Both of them prepared to spar. Some seconds later, Ray opened with a diagonal cut. Now that he uses body momentum, added with [Physical Reinforcement], his swing was even heavier than before.
Artoria blocked the swing and kicked Ray in the gut but canceled because of Ray's unexpected [Fire Breath]. But his unexpected attack was still not enough to even harm a single strand of Artoria's hair.
Artoria kicked the ground to gain distance in an instant and kicked Ray in the gut. He was thrown away quite far because of it and rolled to the ground.
If not for Avalon healing him constantly, Ray will surely die by internal damage.
Usually, he's out cold with that kind of force, but his [Instinct] kicked in and successfully activated [Physical Reinforcement] around his abdomen.
Ray got up and continued his useless assault.
Artoria can sense how his body improves every fight and optimize her strength 2 to 3 times above his current body capabilities. Anymore than that then the training will be useless. But now, however, she was doing exactly that.
She has an inkling that using more power can improve him better, this translates to "the more and harder she kicked Ray's ass, the faster his ass will grow to her liking."
Ray was growing tremendously fast. His attacks were getting stronger, his movement more efficient, and his fighting style more refined.
Because his attacks never connect and Artoria can seemingly attack him easily, as a last-ditch attempt, Ray did an overhead cut. He was planning to fool her by unsummoned his Excalibur and attack using a kick to the face.
But before he can do exactly that, he was slashed in twain.
His upper body went on the ground first before his lower body followed.
"That's enough," Artoria said.
While waiting for Avalon to do its work, they were discussing whether or not going to the dungeon is a good thing or not.
Theoretically, with their combined strength, they can go until level 39.
In comparison, Artoria's full strength can easily destroy cities while using her signature 'light beam' can destroy the entire planet if aimed correctly, courtesy of God. Although Artoria won't know about it until later.
They decided to challenge the unknown dungeon.
After his body finally attached together once more, they went to their latest floor before going outside.
Since it was still goblins and kobolds, they breeze through it quickly.
When they entered the 11th floor, the landscape changed into something akin to a forest.
"Hmmm, why did I remember seeing this scenery somewhere..."
"I have seen a view similar to this back when I was still under Sir Ector. Although, it was more like a town than a forest."
"...I wonder if I can see that later." Ray whispered.
"What?"
"Nothing... Let's go down."
Ray has plans after his 'mission' is done, one of them is to visit Nasuverse, among other things.
As an Otaku, it will be a waste for him to not visit universes containing his favorite anime worlds. He always dreamt to visit Fairy Tail and meeting the Queen of Dragons. But that's a story for another novel.
They went down the cliff and the first thing they saw was a triceratops.
"Good thing it is a triceratops."
"Why is that?"
"Because triceratops is a herbivore. So I think it will not attack us."
Suddenly, the monsters attacked them.
"Well, I spoke too soon." Ray said while scratching the back of his head.
Fortunately for them, the triceratops movements are slow and predictable. By the time the monster passed them, Artoria had cut it in twain.
"Let's get going," Artoria said as she walked towards the forest.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone