Setsuna quickly assigned various base affairs.
Compiler, along with a group of Siren girls and Bulins, passed through the teleport anchor and returned to Synapse.
They built a small outpost on the main island to establish a long-term presence for researching the Wishing Stone Tablet.
With Daedalus's introduction, things went smoothly—the Synapse Council had no objections.
Akashi, meanwhile, brought Daedalus to her workshop to begin the steady process of producing and modifying universal angels.
"Production here is handled by three types of Bulins: general-purpose ones for standard tasks, prototype types for complex work, and special types for precision, high-difficulty manufacturing."
"Once you finalize the modification plans, just hand them to Bulins. They'll build your prototype, meow."
"..."
Daedalus stared at the purple, gold, and rainbow-colored modification girls before her in amazement.
"You only use wrenches, drills, and hammers to process this stuff? Just those three tools—how do you fabricate chips and reactors?!"
"Don't question Bulins, meow. If they say they can build it, then they can, meow."
Akashi handed a blueprint to a rainbow Bulin.
Bang bang bang—
With a flurry of hammer strikes, the rainbow Bulin hammered out a microchip barely larger than a fingertip.
Daedalus: "...Okay. You win."
...
Half a month later.
With the angel production line fully operational,
Universal angels flooded into the capital.
Domestic models replaced Bulins in caring for the little lolis.
Combat angels, under the shipgirls' command, trained in the outskirts and near the naval base.
Thousands of combat angels flew in formation, bombarding targets with ship cannons, missiles, and more.
Close-combat angels wielded ion sabers, diving from the sky under Aegis support like valkyries, sending waves crashing across the sea.
The display was spectacular—one couldn't help but look forward to their future combat performance.
Meanwhile, After spending a few nights with his oath-bound shipgirls, Mio, Kurumi and Setsuna arrived at the Imperial Grand Library.
Now a structure over a million square meters in size, it stood dozens of stories tall beneath a massive dome.
It was the largest library on Earth, ten times the size of the U.S. Library of Congress.
With every world expedition, the collection grew—and Bulins expanded the building further.
Entering the grand first-floor hall, Setsuna found elegant, lavish decor and tens of thousands of bookshelves packed with countless volumes.
Resources from worlds like Demon Slayer, Type-Moon, Gundam, Azur Lane, and more were gathered here.
Recently, numerous new entries from the Heaven's Lost Property world—Synapse technology, foreign novels, manga, and more—had been added.
Shipgirls, lolis, and Bulins quietly read books throughout the space, seated or standing.
Upon seeing Setsuna, they gently set down their books and greeted him in soft voices.
He made his way to the top floor.
In a simply decorated room, Setsuna found the librarian—the great dragon girl Lucoa—and her assistant, Honjo Nia.
A few visitors were also present.
Kanae and several girls from the Demon Slayer world were asking Lucoa about magic.
On the table were scattered tomes of magic theory, alchemical materials, and the like.
Seeing Setsuna, Kanae immediately stood up and bowed respectfully.
"Greetings, Commander."
"You needed something? Go ahead and ask."
Setsuna glanced at the materials—the girls were studying a different magical system.
They had likely begun to feel that the breathing techniques weren't enough after witnessing the supernatural abilities of Spirits and Heroic Spirits.
"No... we were just asking a few questions. It's all resolved now."
The Butterfly sisters gave polite bows, showing great respect.
"Good to hear."
Setsuna casually asked a few questions about their current life.
The girls answered nervously, overwhelmed by his attention.
They spent their days shuttling between home and the library, eager to absorb knowledge from other worlds.
Even if their physical capabilities weren't enough, their intellectual strength could still be enhanced.
At this point, Setsuna had become someone they could only look up to.
After a brief chat, Shinobu neatly gathered the materials on the table and left with the others.
"Ho~ What a rare guest, Setsuna."
Nia closed the Tome of Revelation and rested her chin on her hand, eyeing him up.
This Spirit always carried a lecherous look in her eye, and combined with her revealing Astral Dress, the impression was even worse.
"It's rare for you to come here—what brings you?"
Lucoa opened her sleepy eyes, revealing her golden-green heterochromatic irises.
"I want to learn some magic."
Setsuna got straight to the point.
"Oh?"
"You see, the Eternal Snowfall already has star-killing capabilities, but as for magic... all I really know is the basic Mana Burst Artoria taught me."
"It's not enough anymore. I need something more useful."
Currently, the top mages in the base were Lucoa, Tohru, and Mio.
However, Mio's abilities stemmed from her angel and couldn't be directly taught. Though she might lend them out in the future.
"Hmm... Alright, Setsuna. What kind of magic do you want to learn?"
Lucoa leaned forward slightly, resting her colossal sins on the table, which made Nia envious.
Setsuna thought for a moment.
"Time manipulation."
"Oh? Ambitious."
Lucoa smiled.
"For me, there's no need to learn fireballs or lightning bolts. The Eternal Snowfall's cannons can handle all that."
"So something more versatile and practical—time magic fits the bill."
He shrugged.
Time magic was a trump card in any system.
The sooner you learned it, the sooner you reaped the benefits.
"..."
Nia rested her chin in her hand, thinking, then suddenly had a flash of insight.
"Setsuna... is this because you don't have enough time to spend with your harem?"
She began counting on her fingers.
"Taihou, Richelieu, Yat Sen, Mio, Nagato, Belfast, little Kurumi... Boy, your stamina's something else, huh?"
"But time management seems to be a real issue. If you add one more, even seven days a week wouldn't be enough. Tsk tsk..."
Say what you will, this lewd-minded Spirit had impressive instincts.
Running a crystal palace with a bunch of shipgirls—without time manipulation, things would indeed get awkward.
As she spoke, Nia pulled out the Tome of Revelation and scribbled a few lines.
"Ah, youth. Let's see, yesterday you were with Nagato, Mio, and little Kurumi. Let me peek at what kind of play you were up to..."
Swipe—
Naturally, nothing showed up.
The Tome of Revelation's peeping feature was ineffective against high-ranking Spirits and Setsuna.
Bonk—
Setsuna lightly knocked her on the head.
"If you really want to know, come next time—I'll show you personally."
"Eh?! Are you inviting me to a harem party? Are you trying to seduce me?!"
Honjo Nia clutched her head and pouted.
"..."
Lucoa watched the two bicker and rested her chin on her hand, thinking quietly for a moment.
She spoke softly:
"Setsuna, are you sure? Time-based magic is difficult to learn."
"You've never studied magic systematically before, right? If you want to freely control time—to do large-scale time stops or time reversal—it'll take a lot of time and effort."
"This isn't like modifying a ship body where you can just hand it to a Bulin and be done with it."
"I understand. I'll take it slow."
Setsuna never feared a challenge in this regard.
"Alright."
Seeing his determination, Lucoa didn't argue further.
"I'd like to help you out too, little one~"
She leaned in, pressing her ample assets against him, hugging his head, and giving his cheeks a squeeze.
Every time he faced this giant dragon lady, Setsuna felt like the one being crushed.
Still no idea when he'd be able to turn the tables.
Lucoa rummaged through the upper levels of the library.
After a while, she handed him a book thicker than a dictionary and even larger than the Tome of Revelation.
The black cover featured a stylized dragon head emblem.
It looked brand new. Inside, dense and complex script filled the pages.
"This book contains the fundamentals of time manipulation magic. Study it well, Setsuna~"
"Which world is this book from?!"
Setsuna flipped through it repeatedly. He didn't recall any of the previous worlds having something this advanced.
"Of course, I wrote it. Didn't you ask me to compile some magic from my world? Forgot already?"
Lucoa smiled sweetly.
"Not many can even read it. To study time-based magic, one must pay time as the price."
"So normally, I don't teach others this kind of magic—but you're an exception~"
"..."
Magic that manipulates the laws of reality requires a cost far greater than mana alone.
Just like how Kurumi burns through her time when using Zafkiel,
If a regular person tried to learn this kind of spell, they might burn away their lifespan after just a few uses.
Setsuna wasn't worried, though.
He was infused with Wisdom Cube essence, bound to the universe, effectively immortal.
His name wasn't even in the Book of Life and Death.
Time magic? Use away.
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