After sensing that his "King's Army" had changed, Zuke opened his eyes.
Although he was curious about exactly what changes "King's Army" had undergone after devouring Heroic Spirit EMIYA's "Unlimited Blade Works," now wasn't a convenient time to test it.
He planned to leave the Fate/Stay Night world later and then go to Planet Saiya in the Dragon Ball world to test the new functions.
He could very clearly sense that the changes to "King's Army" were definitely not just as simple as expanding its range. There was some new ability that needed testing to understand.
As for why he wanted to go to the Dragon Ball world to test rather than directly going to Einzbern Castle to test... mainly because the Dragon Ball world had a guinea pig he could use.
That's right, he could test the new function on Garou—judging from Garou's attitude toward him, he probably wouldn't mind becoming Zuke's research subject.
Zuke even felt that Garou's current view of him was the same as Genos's view of Saitama in One Punch Man, both treating them as incredibly powerful learning targets.
Of course, in the original work, Saitama did develop some feelings for Genos, but Zuke's feelings toward Garou remained consistent—mainly because Garou was a mission target in the One Punch Man world.
The Boros mission was already impossible to complete. If he also gave up on the Garou mission, then Zuke would return empty-handed from the One Punch Man world, which he naturally didn't want.
Shaking his head, Zuke temporarily set aside thoughts about "King's Army" and Garou, turning his head to look at Waver who was smoking a cigar behind him.
Waver paused, not knowing why Zuke would suddenly look at him—however, soon he saw Zuke reach out his hand toward him, making a gesture as if wanting something:
"Waver, give me the cigar."
Hearing Zuke's words, Waver almost instinctively reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of cigars, then opened the box, took out a brand new cigar from inside and placed it in Zuke's hand.
Out of respect for Zuke, Waver chose the best cigar in this box—not only was the cigar itself of extremely high quality, but the tobacco inside was also a specially made product that enhanced magical power.
"...Who told you to give me this cigar?"
Zuke looked at Waver's action somewhat speechlessly and tossed the cigar in his hand back to Waver—he didn't have a smoking habit and had no interest in cigars.
"Give me the Lesser Grail vessel."
"Ah... Sorry, I misunderstood."
Only then did Waver realize, smiling awkwardly, then picked up the golden cigar from the table and handed it to Zuke.
Probably because they had just taken in Heroic Spirit EMIYA's soul, when Waver picked up the golden cigar now, he could feel that this cigar's weight seemed a bit heavier.
Waver had heard that ancient alchemists once researched the weight of souls... He wondered if the slight increase in this cigar's weight counted as the weight of a soul.
Seeing Zuke take the golden cigar in his hand and casually play with it, Waver thought for a moment, then still reminded him:
"Mr. Zuke should still be careful. Don't break this cigar—after all, if this thing breaks, the Heroic Spirit souls stored inside will dissipate, and the Grail ritual will probably be ruined."
"Don't worry, my purpose in taking this thing isn't to break it... On the contrary, I'm going to help it grow rapidly."
Seeing this, Zuke smiled casually, then under Waver's gaze, began filling this golden cigar with the planetary energy from his body.
This planetary energy all came from uninhabited stars in the Dragon Ball world—but uninhabited didn't mean there was no life. The plants and lower lifeforms on those planets also provided quite decent energy.
However, after trying it a bit, Zuke frowned slightly—he could feel that this golden cigar was indeed storing planetary energy, but faced with the planetary energy he was injecting, the cigar expressed "rejection."
It seemed unwilling to absorb the planetary energy Zuke was injecting.
After thinking for a moment, Zuke understood—this golden cigar was the "Lesser Grail," something constructed based on the "Holy Grail War" system.
In other words, it would only absorb the souls of "Heroic Spirits" in the "Holy Grail War," and Heroic Spirits were what? They were this planet's Heroic Spirits, closely related to the Counter Force.
So it wasn't that this golden cigar was unwilling to absorb planetary energy, but rather it was unwilling to absorb planets other than Earth.
In that case, it was simple—Zuke casually waved his hand, his magical energy reaching deep underground, extracting some planetary energy from the soil beneath his feet.
Since you want Earth's planetary energy... then I'll just directly extract some energy from Earth.
Stuffing the extracted bit of planetary energy into the golden cigar, this time the cigar finally didn't resist and rapidly swallowed the planetary energy Zuke had extracted.
The next moment, the golden cigar in Zuke's hand burst forth with dazzling golden light, illuminating the entire hall as bright as day.
Even Shinji Matou, who was half-dead in the corner, couldn't help but close his eyes and let out a miserable scream—because the Crest Worms in his body were stimulated by the light.
"...What just happened!?"
Waver was also startled by the cigar's sudden change and couldn't help shouting.
Fortunately, the light quickly dispersed, and Waver was able to see what changes had occurred to the golden cigar in Zuke's hand.
But with one look, he realized something was wrong—the thing in Zuke's hand was no longer that cigar, but rather something he had seen in documents.
A cup that appeared to be entirely cast from gold, engraved with complex patterns, filled with mystery.
"The... Lesser... Grail..."
Waver gasped, speaking the name of the thing in Zuke's hand—that's right, Zuke had actually forcibly filled the Lesser Grail to manifestation.
Only at this moment did Waver understand what Zuke meant earlier by "help it grow rapidly."
He really had made the Lesser Grail manifest ahead of time—with only two Heroic Spirits dead so far.
"As expected, it works... In other words, the deaths of the other Heroic Spirits aren't actually necessary conditions anymore."
Zuke looked at the Lesser Grail in his hand, thinking to himself.
He opened the system's mission interface to check whether having the Lesser Grail in his hand counted as completing the main quest.
[Current World: Fate/Stay Night] [Main Quest: Obtain the Holy Grail of the Fifth Holy Grail War] [Player Doghead's Strength Synchronization: 50%] [Please work hard to advance the main quest and unlock strength synchronization]
"So it doesn't completely count?"
Zuke was somewhat surprised, but thinking about it, it made sense—although he had artificially matured the Lesser Grail, this Lesser Grail hadn't appeared at the manifestation location through the proper method.
Perhaps he just needed to take this Lesser Grail to manifestation locations like Ryuudou Temple or Fuyuki City Civic Center, then kill one more Heroic Spirit to trigger the manifestation ritual.
As for which Heroic Spirit to kill...
"Looks like Lancer will have to be sacrificed."
Zuke thought while stroking his chin.
To be continued…