Fate/Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated with a Servant's body (Mordred)

[Act 2 begins - Travel to the Asura Kingdom]

Mordred's Water God Style training for that day continued.

Although he managed to execute Longsword of Light shortly after awakening his Battle Aura, he unfortunately could not cheat his way through the Water God Style the same way and was still stuck at the Intermediate rank.

This time the technique that he needed to master was [Flow].

Flow was a staple technique of the Water God Style that allowed a swordsman to cushion the force of an opponent's attack and then disperse it, allowing for a perfect counter-attack afterwards, effectively returning any attack that comes in the user's way.

At a higher level the force of the attack and even Magic, could be returned to the opponent.

It was an elementary technique of the style, but if Mordred wanted to reach Advanced rank, he needed to reach a certain milestone with it – learning how to consciously use Battle Aura to smoothly parry attacks like flowing water.

Following this point, Hector's teachings focused on Mordred mastering [Flow], so it was mostly him attacking Mordred and Mordred defending.

At the end of the lesson, Mordred grasped the elementary use of Flow, but Hector was strict and didn't acknowledge it as good enough, making him stay at the Intermediate rank of the Water God Style for a while longer…

…

After sword-training that day, Mordred was exhausted. It was the first time in a long time that he had to focus so hard on mastering a new move.

However, he was too excited about the future, so his energy levels were not low at all.

Having gained Hector's cooperation in convincing the King to allow him to travel to Asura, Mordred already began making preparations. If the King doesn't agree to let him go, he'd still sneak out anyway.

The first preparation that Mordred wanted to make and which wouldn't arouse suspicions was summoning a familiar!

The Kingdragon Kingdom had a rich library on all kinds of Magic, and that also included Summoning Magic. Having reached King rank, Mordred received open access to most of the kingdom's resources.

After returning to the Court Magician's tower, having lunch and a quick bath, Mordred came to the top of the tower with Hector and a few other people.

Before this, he had already drawn an Advanced rank Magic Circle scroll for summoning a Magic Beast. As he gently inserted his Magic Power into the circle previously, it seemed to be running smoothly, so there should be no problems with it.

On the roof of the tower, Julius and Benedicte also came with Mordred to witness his attempt at summoning a familiar.

Meanwhile, Hector was there in case Mordred summoned a powerful and aggressive beast. After all, it was a widely spread warning to never summon a Magic Beast beyond one's capabilities, but with Mordred's Magic Power anything was possible.

Mordred held the summoning scroll in his hand and said, "It's an Intermediate rank Magic Circle, but it seems that it can summon A-rank and S-rank Magic Beasts given enough Magic Power, or even something stronger. There shouldn't be any problems, but if an aggressive beast is summoned, Julius, protect Benedicte. Me and Sir Hector will try to deal with it."

"Understood," Julius acknowledged the command as he placed his hand on the pommel of his sword.

Mordred faintly nodded at him.

"Your Highness, what kind of familiar do you plan to summon?" Hector then asked.

"A bird," Mordred replied naturally.

In particular, Mordred already had a specific bird in mind that would be extremely useful for him during travels if it happened to be an obedient Magic Beast and not a monster.

Mordred placed the scroll on the ground, holding it down with his palm.

The Magic Circle that he drew was aimed at summoning a bird, but 'a bird' was a very wide classification of creatures. A tiny sparrow, an eagle and a hippogryph, anything with wings could all be classified as 'birds'.

That's why when summoning a Magic Beast visualization and imagination were the most important.

The amount of Magic Power injected into the Magic Circle also helped with summoning more powerful familiars, so he planned to pour lots of Mana into his. To this end, he spent a good amount of days to ensure that his Mana Reserves were full.

'Everything's ready, let's go!'

Mordred then began injecting his Magic Power into the scroll in large quantities while thinking of an image of a useful white mail transporter bird in his head.

And the one that he imagined was an owl! The biggest reason was because an owl does not sleep during the night and could keep watch during his travels. 

As the Magic Circle line shone from the overflowing Magic Power, soon a bright light shot out from the Magic Circle.

Then an animal appeared on top of it.

It was something white and with wings indeed…

But when Mordred saw what it was, his jaw slightly dropped.

The other people present were also stunned.

"Crrrr…" The white creature looked in Mordred's direction and let out a reptilian growl, before covering its eyes with its white wings as it squinted.

"This… a dragon!" Julius said with a shocked face.

Mordred looked down at the dog-sized beast with a solemn face. Indeed, what he summoned was a white dragon!

He imagined a white owl indeed, probably because of the influence of Harry Potter, but he did not expect to summon… this!

Was this still a bird?

Hector said, "A white dragon? What species is this?"

Julius replied, "I… Have no idea. It doesn't seem to be from any of the common species of dragons."

While the other people marveled, Mordred was distracted as he began hearing a voice in his head. In fact, it was not quite as much as a voice as instead a form of information that directly entered his brain.

[Bright! Too bright! Are you Mama?]

Mordred heard this and was dumbfounded. What the hell was that? His first reaction was thinking: F**k me if I'm your Mama!

[F**k?... What does it mean?]

'Oh, crap...' Mordred slapped his forehead.

What the hell?! It can even read his mind?!!!

[I can. Is that weird?]

How was this not weird? Normal… people can only communicate with words!

[Oh, then I'm that special? So are you Papa or not? Your Magic Power is tasty, but… you're human.]

Mordred was silent for a moment. Damn it, this little dragon was too smart! It could not only read his mind, but it even had the intellect of an adult!

Wasn't it just too smart? It was scary!

[Haha, I'm super smart! I'm so smart it's scary!]

"Crrrr!!!" The white dragon made a little dance as it let out another reptilian growl.

No way! And it's super cute too!

'I want it!!!'

[Want me?] The dragon suddenly stopped, looking at Mordred while squinting due to the sun. It then stated, [You're not Papa...]

Mordred thought, 'No… I'm not quite your Papa. I'm just a human who tried to summon a familiar. If you're fine with it, we can make a contract. You might not know it yet, but I'm someone who's destined to become the strongest person in this world!'

[Oh… You're quite arrogant. You want to make the Great Me your pet? And you think you'll become the strongest?] The white dragon's tone turned slightly more serious.

'I'm sure of it!' Mordred replied with confidence. Even if he could not surpass Dragon God Orsted in raw strength, he refused to be weaker in a real fight.

In front of him, the little white dragon seemed to hesitate as it stepped from one foot to the other, sizing up Mordred.

The truth is the little white dragon was quite timid and fearful, while also being prideful. If the person that tried to summon it was too strong, then it'd have declined the summoning completely out of fear. On the other hand, if the summoner was too weak, it'd decline the contract.

But this person… He was strong but didn't look too strong. He had the Magic Power of a dragon yet was a human… And he was also young like the dragon…

The other people present were silent as they noticed that Mordred seemed to be communicating with his familiar.

After a long while, Mordred heard: [Fine. But is it always so bright here?]

Mordred understood that this white dragon didn't seem to like the sun. He thought, 'Oh… No, it's only like this during the day. Almost half the time it's darkness…'

[Oh… Then I agree! It was too boring in the cave.]

'Great!'

Like this, Mordred has formed a contract with the white dragon.

He assumed it to be an Ancient White Dragon, currently extinct. Not much was known about them apart from the fact that they had great Magic Resistance and their hide was a treasure.

After talking with the little dragon some more, Mordred learned more about it.

Firstly, he asked it for its gender and discovered that it was a male.

'Are you sure you're a boy? You don't have anything down there…' Mordred transmitted teasingly while carrying the dragon into the tower.

"Grrrrr!" The dragon seemed to glare at him.

[Rude!!! It's there, but it's inside!]

'Inside?...' Mordred was confused momentarily, before having an idea. But he still pressed on. 'So are you a boy or not?'

"Grrrrr…"

In between the white dragon's legs, something grew out as if to prove him wrong, something that Mordred would rather not see.

Mordred turned away his gaze. As it turned out, just like crocodiles and some other reptiles, dragons hid their genitals inside a special pouch inside their body and only took them out when needed…

That aside, with the white dragon being a male, he decided to name it Albion.

Having received a name, Albion seemed quite happy with it and continued repeating the word again and again in Mordred's mind.

Mordred then learned that Albion seemed to have spent his entire life so far inside a labyrinth. Telepathy was his inborn ability while his intelligence came from the fact that he devoured the minds of some humans that ventured into the labyrinth in the past.

From this, he learned that his labyrinth was in a place called 'the Heaven Continent'. He didn't know his parents because he came out of an egg and since then was all alone, locked up in a section of the labyrinth.

As he expected, Albion came from a species of dragons that was considered extinct in the outside world and only survived because he lived inside a labyrinth.

For his telepathy, it unfortunately only worked with Mordred because of their connection. Albion could not simply read the thoughts of anyone he wanted.

The fortunate fact was that, luckily, Albion was also a nocturnal species like an owl. It still could fulfill the role of keeping watch at night during his travels.

After Mordred brought him into the tower, Albion soon fell asleep in his room.

Mordred looked at his summoned familiar with a sense of awe.

Having randomly summoned a rare dragon species… It made him feel as if he's the main character or something.