Ch.27027. Teacher Yan

Inside the shaking cockpit of the giant mech, Cook struggled desperately to maintain consciousness. When the violent motion finally stopped, he breathed a sigh of relief at not having passed out and quickly brought his mech back to its feet.

What the hell just happened?

Cook gritted his teeth as he glared at Gilbert’s mech, which had displayed an impossible maneuver.

As a talented pilot, Cook had never once thought he might be inferior to Gilbert.

During the entrance mock battle, Cook had remained behind to defend their base and hadn’t directly engaged Gilbert’s mech. But he firmly believed that in a proper one-on-one fight, his piloting skills would never lose.

That confidence was precisely why he had specifically chosen Gilbert for this training exercise, setting up a one-on-one scenario.

In fact, until just moments ago, Cook had been dominating “Rogue Gilbert.”

His ambush at the beginning of the exercise, hiding his mech among structures, had worked perfectly, and Gilbert’s mech consistently failed to keep up with Cook’s superior piloting skills.

As expected, Rogue Gilbert’s skills were pathetic, unable to properly counter Cook’s relentless attacks.

Despite having shown impressive piloting and surprising strategies during the entrance mock battle, Gilbert was clearly no match for him.

With victory slipping away, Gilbert had ultimately chosen to tuck his tail and flee. The sight was so pathetic and unsightly—truly befitting of Rogue Gilbert.

It was enough to make even Cook, a baron’s son, harbor such thoughts about a count’s heir.

Cook had excitedly pursued Gilbert as he fled in his heavy mech, intending to thrust his iron sword into him and finish the exercise in style.

He’d been under the delusion that after this exercise, all attention and glory would be his.

But somehow, the fleeing Gilbert suddenly turned around and executed a maneuver so incredible it left Cook’s mouth hanging open.

How he managed such a movement using just a standard mech was baffling, but Cook had no time to ponder this.

Before he knew it, Gilbert had risen and charged toward him at high speed, ramming him with his shoulder.

Caught off guard by the sudden body check, Cook was helplessly knocked down again.

His head slammed against the cockpit, and the control stick slipped from his hand. As he struggled to clear his dizziness and look ahead, he saw Gilbert’s mech standing proudly before him.

That damn bastard!

Meanwhile, the one rolling on the ground was none other than Cook himself.

He slammed the control stick down, clenched his teeth until they nearly broke, and roughly grabbed the controls to bring his mech back to its feet.

He rationalized that he had merely let his guard down, but the shame and humiliation rising from the depths of his chest were impossible to hide.

[This is impossible!]

With an enraged cry, Cook began swinging his iron sword. His fury had robbed him of reason, and there was no formal swordsmanship in his attacks.

Vertical slashes, horizontal slashes, and diagonal cuts rained down on Gilbert in an irregular pattern, like someone venting their frustration.

But Gilbert wasn’t one to be defeated by such wild, undisciplined swordsmanship.

He easily avoided a diagonal slash from left to right by simply stepping back.

With precise control, Gilbert moved only as much as necessary and didn’t miss the openings created by Yan’s exaggerated movements.

WHAM!

He struck the exposed side of the cockpit area with his mech’s massive fist. With an even more tremendous sound than the shoulder charge, Yan’s mech collapsed again.

This time, he didn’t get up quickly, suggesting he had hit his head hard against the cockpit’s interior wall.

Gilbert, observing the motionless Yan, realized it was time to wrap things up. Though only about ten minutes had passed since the exercise began, many cadets were waiting for their turn.

The item he was supposed to retrieve was already in his possession, and with his opponent’s mech neutralized, leaving the area would naturally conclude the exercise.

Seeing no need to drag things out, Gilbert left Yan lying there and returned to his starting position.

[Exercise complete. Good work, both cadets.]

With the announcement ending the exercise, Gilbert saw Yan finally getting up. He offered a small gesture of thanks to the man who had once again served as an excellent training partner, then returned to the hangar.

After collecting the retrieved item he had placed in a corner of the cockpit and exiting his mech, he was greeted by Professor Alexander, who wore a satisfied expression.

“Excellent work, Cadet Gilbert. Your retrieval of the target item using the mech’s autonomous functions was impressive.”

“You’re too kind, sir.”

While this could be considered his first “boss fight,” Yan wasn’t so easy that Gilbert would lose to him. He could win sufficiently even without unlocking his characteristic skills.

“Cadets, take note of what Cadet Gilbert just demonstrated. In actual combat, there are people who pull off such dangerous stunts like Cadet Gilbert did.”

Professor Alexander himself was one such person, but Gilbert didn’t bother pointing that out.

“Cadets, do you remember what I said during our first lecture?”

“You said that mechs are not omnipotent, sir.”

“Correct. You should now understand why I said that, having witnessed it with your own eyes. Cadet Gilbert retrieved the target item without piloting his mech. This can be considered a strategy that exploits psychological vulnerabilities.”

Gilbert calmly endured the cadets’ stares.

Only Lily’s murderous glare stung a bit. Though he had abandoned his plan to make her an ally, he couldn’t help feeling a twinge of discomfort.

Shortly after, Cook appeared in the hangar, his eyes dead and dark.

As Gilbert had predicted, Cook had briefly lost consciousness after hitting his head hard against the cockpit wall. Though it lasted less than a minute, the exercise had ended during that time, with victory going to Gilbert.

Realizing that the attention he should have received was now directed at Gilbert, Cook bit his lip.

Though he wanted to curse loudly out of frustration and resentment, the situation actually made his mind clearer.

Within Demeia Academy, rank was not officially acknowledged. The principle was that everyone should treat each other as equals, and on the surface, everyone followed this rule.

However, they were essentially representatives of their families. Completely ignoring social status was something only those from high-ranking noble families could do, not something appropriate for the son of a middling barony like Cook.

Suppressing his negative emotions, Cook quietly took his place behind the other cadets standing in formation.

“Cook.”

He turned his head at the sound of his name.

“Need some help?”

Seeing the gentle smile, Cook stared blankly. He didn’t need to ask what the man meant.

As Cook slowly nodded, the man’s smile deepened.

***

Having made a smooth start on the main story, Gilbert was able to secure quite a nice reward with Yan’s help.

Thanks to the continuous activation of his aerial maneuver skill, he gained the Somersault Kick as an inherent skill, and his Authority stat increased slightly.

His Fame also rose a bit, but given his notorious reputation, it wasn’t a significant increase.

Still, gaining another inherent skill and increasing his Authority stat was welcome. Acquiring regular skills was crucial when unlocking characteristic skills was difficult.

After confirming what he had gained, Gilbert headed to the training room as usual.

Though he often went there when he had spare time, this time he had a specific purpose—to implement the plan he had conceived before obtaining the Lion King’s mana cultivation technique.

That plan was to become Briana Tepeo Malkirav’s direct disciple.

Becoming Professor Briana’s direct disciple was a sort of sub-quest, but fulfilling it required meeting some demanding conditions.

First, one had to achieve the minimum stats required by Professor Briana, known as a sword genius, just to accept the sub-quest.

Those requirements were: Power stat 50 or higher, Physical stat 70 or higher, and Mana stat 50 or higher. Since most protagonists in the early game didn’t have any stats above 50, this quest was clearly designed for the mid to late game.

The problem was that even after meeting the stat requirements, the quest itself was tongue-bitingly difficult.

The first hurdle was obtaining permission from the Imperial Princess Knight Seraphina. Although Professor Briana held a teaching position at the academy, she was originally the sword instructor of the Imperial Princess.

Taking on just anyone as a direct disciple could be seen as an insult to her fellow student, the Imperial Princess, so Seraphina’s permission was necessary.

In truth, getting Seraphina’s permission wasn’t too difficult if one caught the eye of the talent-hungry princess, but what came next was the real challenge. The core and most difficult part of this quest was gaining recognition through a duel with Professor Briana.

As a newbie, Gilbert had attempted to become her direct disciple a thousand times.

Three hundred times he was rejected for “having a well-developed body but showing no talent for the sword,” five hundred times for “showing talent but nothing exceptional,” and two hundred times for “lacking something.”

If it hadn’t been for sheer stubbornness, he would have given up long ago—it was a notoriously difficult sub-quest that had tormented early-game Gilbert.

But now, as an experienced player, grinding stats was the real headache. For efficiency’s sake, he always worked on raising his stats during tactical combat, as becoming her disciple earlier was better.

Fortunately, Gilbert had already achieved the minimum stats required for the quest except for Mana. Even his Mana stat, which he had been diligently cultivating, stood at 49.

Just 1 more point to meet the sub-quest conditions.

Gilbert used Lionheart to cultivate his mana with intense concentration.

He sensed that the final point was within reach, so he put in more effort than ever before.

Finally, he felt something unblock, and mana began coursing through his entire body.

[Your Mana stat has increased.]

Gilbert grinned at his finally improved stat.