Ch.363363 – Reasons to Overcome

# 363 – Reason to Overcome

New events always make my heart flutter.

New achievements, new challenges.

Because you never know how great the rewards might be hiding behind something new.

It feels just like scratching a lottery ticket!

If you hit a dud, you lose your opportunity cost, but if you win first place, an enormous amount of points rolls in.

“Miss. I should inform you in advance that if you make it to the final two in this measurement, you can earn a great reward. Are you confident against the freshmen?”

When Jona even adds this kind of encouragement, my motivation can’t help but surge!

“Hmph. I’ve become incredibly strong since entering the Academy, you know?”

“I already knew that from seeing how much you grew during the break. To be honest, I have quite high expectations.”

“Really?”

“Yes. For fairness, we’re giving rewards to the top two, but I’m certain you’ll place above even the Hero. So please make sure to claim the reward I’ve prepared.”

“After all, before being a teacher to students, I am first and foremost your butler.”

Jona’s words of encouragement gave me considerable strength.

Enough to challenge the measurement test with 11 tons of weight!

…is what I’d like to say, but truthfully, even without Jona’s encouragement, 10 tons wasn’t a difficult weight.

At enrollment, I was blocked by the wall of 30 Strength, but think about all the events, lectures, and collection items I’ve gathered since then.

My strength training points have increased tremendously.

Thanks to the experience of accumulating ability points that require 10 units to increase, I easily broke through and reached an impressive 50 points of Strength.

‘Jona’s early training definitely helped!’

Yes, this is a good opportunity.

The me that Jona remembers is the young me who trained together at the mansion.

Isn’t that the past of a character who was 10 or 11 years old?

Children grow rapidly day by day, and veteran players grow rapidly day by day too.

Let me show how a veteran player child grows twice as fast.

“15 tons. Perform 10 jumping jacks.”

Protecting my screaming joints with mana cultivation techniques, I forcibly move my heavy body.

It’s already a situation where it’s not an exaggeration to say this is movement powered by mana rather than by the body.

Perhaps equally stubborn, the Massgakki Princess’s face has turned bright red.

“Nnnngh…!”

“Why don’t you give up if it’s hard?”

“Not… hard… at… all! You… weakling♡ Loser♡”

She’s still keeping up with that weakling talk!

Well, the imperial mana cultivation technique the princess has mastered must be quite impressive.

However, the princess has a weakness.

An abundant life.

Overflowing support.

That abundance itself is the princess’s weakness.

A child born and raised without lacking anything.

Circumstances where others can fulfill her desires even if her own abilities are insufficient.

Like poverty amid plenty, people of the imperial family are accustomed to taking, not to making their own efforts.

‘The princess’s life where she can survive being a little less strong and putting in a little less effort—that itself is her weakness!’

If she were a crown prince of Joseon, she would be worked to death with studies and training enough to kill ten bodies, but the Holy Central Empire wasn’t Joseon.

Not knowing the suffering of enduring hardship, the human heart breaks easily in the face of difficulties.

When the burden truly became unbearable, Massgakki’s tomato-red face reached its limit, like it was about to explode.

Thud.

As soon as the exhausted Massgakki Princess bent one knee, all the metal that had been weighing down her entire body flowed down her armor and pooled on the ground.

Jona, who recovered every drop of the liquid metal without leaving any behind, turned to me with the same indifferent expression.

“The Massgakki freshman’s limit was 20 tons. If you overcome this level, you’ll secure first place alone, but if you fail, you’ll tie for first.”

It doesn’t matter if I give up.

The achievement is sufficient.

It’s better to forfeit than risk injury by being stubborn in a situation where my body is screaming.

That’s the meaning contained in Jona’s gaze.

He has recognized it.

That there isn’t much difference between the weight I and the Massgakki Princess can endure.

Our stats are neck and neck.

Our cultivation techniques are neck and neck.

Our weight limits are neck and neck.

While my main opponent in actual academics or combat is the Hero, in terms of pure human strength without the holy sword, it’s the Massgakki Princess who matches me.

However, there is a small but decisive difference between me and the Massgakki Princess.

The difference in tenacity.

‘The important thing is an unbreakable spirit. In other words, the body can bend a little!’

Ignoring the screams of my bones, I activated the <Numbness> technique to block the pain.

When I finally carried out the 20-ton level action as Jona requested, my solo first place was confirmed.

It goes without saying that I would monopolize the first-place reward for the challenge measurement that I would otherwise have to share with the Massgakki Princess!

[You have achieved solo first place in the <Health Measurement> conducted during the first week of Professor Jona’s <Mana Tempering Method Training> lecture.]

[You have acquired 2000 additional points for completing the in-lecture challenge.]

Ugh. That’s too stingy.

2000 points is too little for a body that’s definitely going to need the infirmary!

Did I hit a dud event?

While I was making a sulky face, the instructor brought a small cup of medicine from the smallest cauldron.

“Drink this. You’ll see immediate effects sufficient to heal broken bones without having to go to the infirmary.”

“Huh. You knew?”

“You seem to have forgotten whose ability is wrapped around the measurement armor you’re wearing.”

I checked his expression to see if I’d be scolded, but fortunately, Jona didn’t take a particularly stern attitude.

Relieved, I sipped the medicine in the cup.

Perhaps because I was still maintaining the numbness, I made a face indicating I couldn’t really taste it, and Jona quietly advised:

“Please release the qi that’s blocking your senses. It will be painful, but feeling how the medicine works on your body through your senses will help your growth.”

It’s like asking me to set bones without anesthesia—a terrible thing to suggest—but Jona seemed to believe that his young miss could certainly handle it.

Ugh. I don’t like it, but I have no choice.

A veteran player can achieve high specs without worrying about efficiency, but it’s better than repeating something three or four times that could be done in one go.

“You’re… not a weakling…?”

While even the Massgakki Princess was too shocked to call me a weakling, I swallowed the pain, and truly, my dislocated bones were set right and my muscles and bones strengthened.

To be specific?

[You have consumed a special medicinal decoction needed for mana tempering.]

[Health experience points increased by 50.]

[Health increased by 1.]

My health has surpassed the dreaded 49.

[You recover from a near-death state with 0.1% health remaining.]

[You have acquired the title <One Who Has Experienced Near-Death>.]

[*One Who Has Experienced Near-Death*: For you, is healing not something you receive when you’re in pain, but when you return from the brink of death and revive?]

[Passive Effect – Instant Death Immunity increased by 10%]

[Active Effect – Instant Death Immunity activates once per day]

The title acquisition is a nice bonus.

【Status Window】

[Name] OkNoDie

Gender – Female/?

Age – 11/?????

[Job]

Main – Dark Princess (1st Candidate)

Sub – Magic Swordsman (2nd Candidate)

[Abilities]

Strength 50 (285/291 points, 6 points until increase)

Health 50 (288/291 points, 3 points until increase)

Agility 55 (314/315 points, 1 point until increase)

Intelligence 59 (365/399 points, 34 points until increase)

Magic 59 (352/399 points, 47 points until increase)

Charm 62 (408/413 points, 5 points until increase)

[Titles & Status BEST5]

*Witness of the Three Great Evils*: You have faced the Three Great Evils and survived.

*One Who Has Experienced Near-Death*: For you, is healing not something you receive when you’re in pain, but when you return from the brink of death and revive?

*Experiencer of the Apocalypse*: You have witnessed the moment of doom multiple times in a world heading toward destruction.

*Guide of Salvation*: Having saved the world from destruction numerous times, you have become the hope of the world.

*Infinite Respect (Blessing)*: When the blessing is activated, all things in the world express respect for you.

━━━

For something called the dreaded 50, I actually have plenty of stats that have reached 50!

Strength and agility naturally increase together when training various skills, starting with circus.

Intelligence rises steadily when completing assignments, lecture exams, and semester grades.

Magic power increases rapidly with stat stones that I consume like breathing, rare foods, and mana cultivation techniques.

Charm? No clue.

It used to be in the tens, why has it increased so much?

Anyway, strength and health are quite difficult to raise compared to other stats.

Usually around this time, both would be stuck trying to break through from 39 to 40.

Of course, I surpassed that during vacation by visiting Papa’s mansion, eating lots of rare food, or climbing the Tower of Training.

‘Even considering that, 50 was still difficult to reach, but thanks to this I got there easily!’

Not only the medicinal decoction, but I also got a solid title.

Considering how hard I worked running to exhaustion in Professor Platton’s lecture, it’s truly amazing that I was reduced to just 0.1% health in that short time.

As a veteran player, I can calculate my health, but it’s also impressive how Jona applied the maximum pressure I could withstand until the most precarious timing for maximum training efficiency.

The in-game feature where butlers assist according to their master’s personality seems to be properly implemented.

‘For a wine collector player, they help as a wine steward who collects wine, and for a training maniac player, they help as a personal trainer, right?’

Since Jona became a professor to match my identity as a <Top Scholar> and <Class Valedictorian>, he must be faithfully fulfilling his role as a professor, which is the superior position to a training instructor.

“Are you satisfied with the reward?”

“Very much so!”

I was so happy that I hugged Jona’s leg and giggled, which caused shocked gasps among the students. They must be jealous because our relationship seems too close?

But that won’t do. Jona’s leg is mine. Only I can hug it!

* * *

She heard a sound.

Clearly the sound of bones breaking.

“They’re not even stopping it… and they’re making her do more…?”

The education that the Foundation had been giving Oknodie.

She finally witnessed the cruel reality with her own eyes.

She drank the medicinal decoction and was healed…

But that doesn’t mean the pain disappeared too.

Moreover, that professor, no, butler, even told her to release the technique that reduced pain.

Even Hestia, who glanced over, shook her head.

Even berserkers don’t train like that madness.

The epitome of irrationality.

The strength Oknodie had shown that didn’t match her age.

The sense of incongruity she felt in the Tower of Training finally resolved today.

It was because of training like this that Oknodie had gained her current strength.

Behind that strength must be a past filled with excessive cruelty for a young child, making what she saw today seem trivial in comparison.

Killing intent leaked from Giselle’s narrow eyes.

Indeed, the Foundation was an entity that had to be eliminated for Oknodie’s freedom and happiness.

Jona Wiheomhae.

The same applied to him.