chapter_0004

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
4

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
4

One thing that I found
disappointing after coming into this world is the lack of a status
window.

In typical game reincarnation
scenarios, you shout “status window,” and a window would
appear. That’s common knowledge. You analyse it to figure out how
to grow stronger. So why don’t I have a status window?

On my first day of possessing
Lucy’s body, I desperately believed I had one and tried everything
possible. I thought about it, said it out loud, screamed, wrote it
down, and even asked a maid what a status window was, wondering if I
needed to use the language of this place.

Despite my humiliating
efforts, the status window never appeared.

Three days have passed, and
I’ve half given up.

Yeah, it might not show up.

But that doesn’t mean the
skills I chose when creating my character have disappeared.

…Right? They haven’t
disappeared, right? Only the Mesugaki skill isn’t the only one
left, right?

Assuming all the skills are
still there, I knew what I had to do.

I needed to become strong
enough to defeat the monsters in the exam dungeon.

Right now, with Lucy’s (my)
weak body, I couldn’t even defeat a single goblin from the dungeon.

How could I clear a dungeon
when I’m out of breath just climbing three flights of stairs?

Luckily, when I created the
Mesugaki character, I put in a lot of skills with the idea of
enjoying it to the fullest.

What kind of disaster would
have happened if I had decided to play like an experienced gamer, as
usual?

Loading only penalty skills
and not a single beneficial one into this frail Mesugaki’s body?

Wow, if that had been the
case, I would’ve made a rope out of the Frills in Lucy’s room.

Thinking about this, I took
out the elixirs given to me by the head butler from my pocket and
laid them out on the vanity table.

No matter how much I looked at
the elixirs in those glass bottles, they didn’t look appetising at
all.

If I had to compare, it looked
like the kind of powdered medicine mixed in water given to a child
who can’t swallow pills.

‘When you consume the
elixir, you will feel a torturous pain as your body contorts.’

…Seriously?

Isn’t it obvious that it was a
lie to scare me?

Let’s just ignore it.

I opened the lid of the
Stamina-Boosting Elixir and cautiously took a sniff.

It had no smell whatsoever.

As if what was inside was just
plain water.

That made me even more
anxious.

You know how the night before
a storm is the calmest? I felt like this elixir would provide an
extreme experience the moment it hit my mouth.

I hesitated for a moment, but
I had no choice.

I had to drink it anyway.

‘Stop whining like a child.’

Resolute, I drank the entire
potion in one go. Surprisingly, the elixir had no taste at all.

Is this really an elixir? It’s
way too ordinary for one…

The change came suddenly.

Barely a second after
swallowing the elixir, my body started contorting.

And not just in one or two
places—pain radiated throughout my entire body.

It felt like an invisible
force was squeezing my muscles, as if someone was tearing my flesh
apart.

The pain was so intense that I
couldn’t even scream; all I could do was writhe on the floor.

How much time had passed?

When I came to, I found myself
crawling on the floor.

…Damn it. What the hell is
this?

There was never any
description of pain when consuming elixirs in the game!

But why is it so painful?!

Did something go wrong? Is
this really an elixir?

The head butler wouldn’t have
given me poison just to mess with me by calling it an elixir… No
way.

If anything happened to me,
Benedict, who loves his daughter dearly, would have his head on the
chopping block. He wouldn’t take such a risk.

Staggering, I got up and
looked at Lucy’s (my) reflection in the mirror.

My hair was a tangled mess,
and my eyes were bloodshot, probably from crying.

My hands were trembling, and
my legs, drained of strength, kept trying to buckle.

My clothes were dishevelled.

I looked like a thoroughly
disciplined Mesugaki.

“Damn it!”

Curse words kept slipping out
of my mouth.

The pain I had just
experienced wouldn’t leave my thoughts.

I once accidentally burned my
own flesh.

It wasn’t intentional; I was
on a camping trip and tripped over something, causing me to roll into
a campfire.

Having your skin burnt is a
horrifying experience. It felt like someone was continuously hacking
away at my body.

The fire was quickly
extinguished, so I wasn’t badly injured, but the memory of that day
remained the worst pain of my life.

And today, the worst pain I
knew was renewed. The pain I just experienced was even more horrible.

I took deep breaths, clutching
my face with both hands.

Honestly, I wanted to just
give up and collapse into bed.

I wanted to close my eyes and
retreat into dreams of happier times, thinking about how terrible
this ordeal had been.

But I couldn’t. I had things
to accomplish.

It was surprising. The old me
would have certainly crumbled by now. I was never a strong person.

Today was different though. My
mind kept shouting that I had to push through.

It’s okay. You won’t die.
You’re not even hurt. It just hurts a lot, that’s all.

It’s okay.

After controlling my breathing
again, I lifted my head.

There were still other elixirs
left, but I had something to confirm before taking any more.

I needed to find out if that
was truly an elixir or not. If it weren’t an elixir, how unfair
would it be to endure such excruciating pain?

The easiest way to confirm it
was to move my body.

Since I just took the elixir
meant to enhance my stamina, if it worked as intended, my stamina
should have increased.

The verification method was
simple.

I just needed to climb from
the first-floor lobby to the third floor.

Before taking the elixir, I
would be exhausted just getting to the top floor, but with increased
stamina, the result should be different.

As I was leaving the room and
heading downstairs to the first floor, a maid spoke to me.

I ignored her. I didn’t have
the energy to respond.

Right now, even moving my body
was overwhelming.

When I reached the first
floor, I climbed the stairs step by step.

I felt lighter than usual. As
if I had been carrying sandbags and suddenly removed them.

Was it just my imagination?

To properly confirm, I ran up
the stairs with all my might.

Normally, I would collapse
from exhaustion after climbing just one floor, but this time was
different.

Even after reaching the third
floor, I only felt breathless without being completely worn out as
before.

The elixir worked perfectly.
There was no doubt about it.

Having confirmed this, I
returned to my room and stared at the two elixirs resting on the
dresser.

It’s going to be incredibly
painful if I take those.

When I took it without knowing
anything, it was fine, but now that I knew the pain, I was afraid to
touch it.

However, thinking about the
future, I had to consume those two elixirs.

If I had known this, I would
have just downed all three from the start. Then I wouldn’t be
dealing with this dilemma.

As I stared down the unmoving
glass bottles, I shook my head wildly before standing in front of the
dresser.

I reached out to grab a
bottle.

To be exact, I tried to grab
one.

My hand wouldn’t move. My
body, remembering the pain from earlier, was trembling and refusing
to take the elixir.

It’s okay.

The pain I had just
experienced flashed in my mind.

It’s okay.

That pain, as if all the
muscles in my body were being torn and resewn.

It’s okay.

It was not okay at all. If I
went through such pain again, I might lose my mind even before the
Academy exams.

I… I can’t. I can’t do
it. I can’t.

Huh?

Just as fear of pain was
gripping my entire body, the word “fear” suddenly vanished from
my mind.

It wasn’t that I had
overcome it. It felt like someone had reached into my brain and
stolen the emotion.

What’s going on?

Amid the confusion in my mind,
which was different from just a moment ago, a possibility surfaced.

[Overcoming Fear]. The skill I
had set when I created my Mesugaki character.

It must have been activated.
It must have erased the fear from my mind.

So, other skills besides the
Mesugaki trait work properly too.

I didn’t think I’d confirm
it in a way like this.

Alright. This is good. Thanks
to it, my hesitation has vanished.

I’ll regret it later.

But, I won’t die from
drinking this, right? It’ll just hurt a lot.

For the sake of the future, I
can endure a moment of pain.

After opening the lids of the
two elixirs, I poured all the liquid from both bottles into my mouth.
Again, just like before, I couldn’t taste anything from the elixirs.

And soon after, the pain
visited me, and when I came to my senses, a day had passed, and it
was evening.

Although I unintentionally
wasted a whole day, the effects of the elixirs had definitely taken
root in my body.

My stamina and strength had
both markedly improved compared to before.

I could go up and down stairs
multiple times without feeling tired, and I could easily open the
many heavy doors of the mansion, which I used to struggle with every
day.

Having passed the first hurdle
I had anticipated, I began to look for the items I needed for the
next step.

My weapon of choice.

In the game Soul Academy, the
balance between weapons was well-maintained.

While some weapons performed
better than others, there were no utterly useless ones.

So, when choosing my weapon, I
focused less on performance and more on how well I could use it.

It was certain that I would
wield a shield in one hand. Not using a shield when I had the best
shield-related skill, [Iron Wall], would be almost criminal.

Thus, I had to choose a
one-handed weapon for my other hand, and there were only three
options.

A spear. A sword. And a blunt
weapon.

First, no matter how I thought
about it, the sword wasn’t right.

It wasn’t that there was
anything wrong with the sword. It looked cool and was among the
top-performing weapons.

I just didn’t have the
confidence to wield it well.

The only thing close to a
sword I’ve ever handled is a kitchen knife. On top of that, I rarely
cook, so I’ve only held one a few times.

Could I really manage a
complicated weapon like a sword given that? No way.

The spear was dismissed for a
similar reason. Although spears are often considered the easiest
weapon for beginners, that’s true mainly for open-field battles.

Most battles in Soul Academy
take place in narrow corridors.

Could I skillfully handle a
spear in such confined spaces? The likelihood of dying from getting
stuck against a wall was too high.

Therefore, only one option
remained for me.

“What weapon are you looking
for, miss?”

‘A mace and a shield.’

“Are you deaf? One more
time. A mace and a shield.”

The guard stationed at the
armoury double-checked to confirm that he had heard correctly.

It must have seemed odd for
someone like me to ask for a mace.

It’s true that it isn’t the
most fitting weapon for someone barely 150 cm tall like me. A mace
seems out of place.

But right now, I couldn’t care
less about what suits me. So, just hand it over. Now.

The guard, not wanting to
further aggravate the bad-tempered young lady, didn’t ask a third
time.

Instead, he dashed inside and
brought out the best-condition mace and shield he could find in the
armoury.

“But, Miss Lucy. These are
quite heavy.”

‘Just give them to me.’

“Why are you so chatty? If I
say hand it over, just hand it over.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The shield and mace the
soldier handed over were quite hefty.

Heavy indeed. The old me
wouldn’t have been able to hold onto them properly and would have
just dropped them.

But now, I’m doped up on
elixirs, right? This is nothing!

When I stood there holding the
mace and shield in both hands without any trouble, the soldier
blinked in surprise.

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