chapter_0058

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
58

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
58

After the professor dismissed
us, I immediately stood up and left.

I didn’t hesitate, as I had
already planned everything in my mind.

When Soul Academy starts,
there are certain tasks a player needs to do.

First, you need to choose the
subjects you’re going to take.

Taking classes at Soul Academy
significantly boosts your proficiency in those subjects, making it
crucial to select your courses wisely.

But I didn’t need to ponder
over this.

The required subjects for a
blunt weapon tank are already set.

Next, the task is to gather
useful items available at the start of Soul Academy.

After all, Soul Academy is a
game.

You can’t obtain overpowered
items right from the beginning.

For example, Ruel’s Mace I’m
holding can only be obtained when you become a second-year student
and can leave the academy.

Still, there are minor items
that can be very useful in the early stages.

I’m planning to collect those
now.

“Where are you going?”

I was startled by the voice
from behind and stopped, turning around to see Frey trailing closely
behind me. She scared me half to death.

When did she start following
me?!

‘Of course, I didn’t! Why
didn’t you tell me?!’

<I thought you were
pretending not to know.?

Grandpa, do I really look like
such a rotten person to you? Despite my rough speech due to my
skills, I'm really not a bad person, okay?!

Of course, I do find Frey
annoying, but I don't show it openly!

"Hmm?"

I snapped out of my thoughts
at Frey's voice.

Ugh. How can you get mad at
someone who doesn't even realise they've done something wrong?

It's all her parents fault for
not teaching her properly.

Sigh.

"The library?"

"Why are you going
there?"

‘I'm…’

"What's wrong with me
going to the library?"

"It's boring there."

That's her issue?

The library is indeed boring.

Considering I used to use the
school library as a napping spot, I had to agree with her.

"Instead, why don't you
come to the training hall with me? It'll be fun."

‘Sorry, but…’

"Hah. Sloppy swordsman.
I’m not as free as you are."

"Aw, too bad. Got it."

Frey replied and turned to
leave.

There's not even a sound when
she walks.

No wonder I didn't notice her
following me.

‘I do study when I need to,
okay?’

‘T-That was because I didn’t
have any foundational knowledge!

If someone had taught me well
from the start, I could have studied just fine too!’

‘…I’m going to get an
artefact.’

‘Yes.’

In truth, Armadi had never
done anything for me, but it was a convenient excuse with Grandpa.

It was easier to use Armadi as
an excuse than to try to explain how I got pulled into the game.

‘…Yes.’

It annoyed me that my
knowledge was attributed to Armadi, but I had no other choice.

Damn it. Someday, I will make
it known that Armadi is a sloppy and incompetent god.

When I opened the library door
and walked inside, I saw a familiar scene.

Back when I used to play a
magic-type character, I would leave them here all day long.

I’m glad I chose to be a tank
this time.

If I had picked a job that
required thinking, I would have had to endure that hardship myself.
Instead of a headache, I’d rather endure physical hardship.
Absolutely.

Upon entering the library, I
didn’t seek any guidance from the librarian and headed straight to
where I wanted to go.

If you look at the third row
from the bottom of shelf C62… there it is.

‘A Thesis on the Fountain of
Mana.’

As soon as I found the title,
I opened the book and turned to the very last page.

What I was looking for was
there.

[To the junior who reads this
thesis.]

[Thank you for discovering my
foolish research. I’ve hidden a special device in this book just for
you. If you write a certain word in the blank below, you will receive
an amazing gift. The clue to this word is that it is the core word of
all my theses! Good luck finding it!]

Ting

[Kerta’s Gift]

[Decode the book’s cipher]

[Reward: ???]

Alright.

Kerta’s Gift is one of the
Hidden Quests in Soul Academy that can be found by rummaging through
the library.

At first glance, it appears to
be a trivial quest, but when the game was first released, this quest
was quite a conundrum for players.

Kerta’s theses, which left a
significant mark on the field of magic, numbering in the hundreds,
and finding the common word among them seemed nearly impossible.

Although enthusiasts who
enjoyed such puzzles gathered to share various ideas, the quest was
not easily resolved.

As people gradually became
exhausted, there were widespread opinions suggesting that there might
be a bug in this quest at that point.

One person managed to clear
this quest.

People were shocked.

Because the person who cleared
it wasn’t a veteran; he was a complete newbie.

Excited veterans gathered
around him and bombarded him with questions.

How on earth did he clear it?

The newbie answered simply, as
if it were obvious.

“Isn’t the core of a
thesis, of course, the author?”

Exactly. Damn it, the answer
wasn’t some academic term.

It was nonsense.

We really felt empty back
then.

We felt so disillusioned that
we ended up drinking soju that night.

‘Kerta Vulkan’

[Quest Clear!]

[Reward Granted]

As soon as I wrote down that
name, a magic circle behind the bookshelf started glowing, and a ring
popped out from its centre.

When I used [Appraisal] on the
ring, a message window appeared before me.

[Kerta’s Ring]

[A ring with countless magic
circles inscribed on it. You can feel a mysterious power.]

Although my low [Appraisal]
skill couldn’t give me a detailed description, the ring’s effect
is as follows:

-20% reduction in mana
consumption for all skills.

It’s not an extraordinary
effect, and in the later stages where specs are overwhelming, this
ring is usually discarded, but it’s different for me right now.

Currently, I can only use
[Armadi’s Mercy] five times before I can’t perform any more magic.

For someone with such limited
mana, Kerta’s Ring is a valuable item.

More importantly, this ring
will later serve as a trigger for an important quest.

I should keep it.

When I slipped Kerta’s Ring
onto my thumb, it resized itself to fit my finger perfectly.

As expected of a ring made by
a great mage!

Admiring the ring on my finger
with satisfaction, I checked the clock hanging in one corner of the
library.

It was almost 4 o’clock.

Is time flying too quickly?

Realising I had no time to
waste, I hurriedly moved my feet.

After that, I moved non-stop,
exploring various parts of Soul Academy.

I needed to accept quests and
search for hidden items scattered around the academy.

Out of the two tasks,
receiving quests came with numerous trials and tribulations.

The problem was my reputation
and my [Mesugaki] skill’s tone.

In the game version of Soul
Academy, talking to anyone would get you a quest, but reality was
different.

For someone as untrustworthy
as me, they wouldn’t even consider asking for a favour.

On the other hand, finding
items was easy.

How blissful it was to not
have to deal with people.

After roughly finishing what I
needed to do within the academy, my last stop was Soul Academy’s
training ground.

Since it was the first day
after the entrance ceremony, most of the people training here as the
place was dyed in the hues of the sunset were already existing
students of the academy.

Most freshmen at this hour
would either be dining with their new friends at the academy’s
cafeteria or fretting over their schedules. Of course, not everyone
was like that.

There’s bound to be an oddball
or two everywhere.

Frey, who had invited me to
the training ground, had come here alone and was swinging her sword
in a corner.

She was so focused that her
eyes, having lost their light, seemed to only see the sword moving in
front of her.

What was more surprising was
the circle drawn beneath her feet from the sweat she had shed while
practising.

Did she start swinging her
sword since the moment I refused her invitation?

She’s a true training
enthusiast.

I feel a bit of camaraderie
with her.

I used to spend my days like
that in the Allen Family estate too.

Had she sensed my gaze?

Frey stopped swinging her
sword and looked at me blankly.

Then, her eyes regained their
liveliness, and she quickly lowered her sword and ran towards me.

“Did you come to spar?!”

‘I told you it’d be
tomorrow, didn’t I?’

“Are you a sloppy swordsman
with the memory of a goldfish? I said tomorrow, didn’t I?”

“Then why are you here?”

‘I’m here to meet
someone.’

“To find a certain sloppy
weakling.”

“Sloppy?”

A kind senior who helps
newcomers use the training ground for the first time.

However, if you manage to
provoke and defeat him, he gives you a good skill, so he constantly
gets beaten up by players.

As a veteran of Soul Academy,
I came to mess with him.

Since it’s evening, he should
definitely appear at the training ground around this time.

Ah, there he is.

Spotting a man standing in the
centre with a wooden sword propped against the ground, looking
around, I immediately approached him.

Seeing me approaching, he
seemed taken aback and stepped back, but I spoke to him before he
could run away.

‘Excuse me.’

“Hey.”

“Y-Yes?!”

‘You’re a third-year
senior, right?’

“You look like a fool, so I
need to ask. Are you a third-year senior?”

“Yes, that’s correct…”

‘Would you spar with me?’

“You seem good for a
warm-up, idiot senior. Would you spar with me?”

At my blatant disrespect,
veins popped out on the man’s forehead.

Given how angry he was, he
wouldn’t back down.

“Hey.”

As I thought things were going
well, Frey, who had been following me closely, spoke up.

“Why are you sparring with
this weakling? It’ll be no fun. Spar with me instead.”

‘No thanks…’

“No. Today, this idiot
senior looks suitable. You sloppy swordsman, go play by yourself.”

“Bullying the weak is bad.
Strong people should fight strong people.”

‘That’s why…’

“That’s why I…”

As I tried to convince Frey to
leave, I felt a sharp gaze and turned to see the heated glare of the
man who was now thoroughly enraged.

“You guys! Just because
you’re promising first-year students doesn’t mean you can do
whatever you want! I’m a third-year senior!”

Ding

[Shatter the Senior’s
Dignity]

[Defeat the third-year
senior.]

[Reward: Skill ‘Underdog’]

While it wasn’t my intention
to provoke him, things were turning out well.

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