WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
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◈ I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman ◈
Chapter 109: An Honored Guest Has Arrived
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Clown's Sword had been acquired at the start of the first semester.
Since then, I had cleared two Dungeons of the Evil God and been through countless other ordeals. Its durability had already reached its limit.
My spar with Senia had been the final blow.
Perhaps it was because it had repeatedly blocked that greatsword swung with her monstrous grip strength. Hairline cracks ran all across Clown's Sword's blade.
It might manage against trash mobs, but it would be impossible to face bosses or bishop-level enemies in this state.
Visiting Gravner during break had always been part of my plan, if only to find a sword to use for the time being.
Of course, I would miss the Fluidity stat Clown's Sword provided, but I no longer obsessed over Fluidity as much as I used to.
I had realized that my current Fluidity was enough as long as I could secure the first turn.
With break beginning, Gravner had started selling Tier III weapons and above.
With any luck, I might even be able to upgrade to a Tier IV weapon or better.
'It'd be nice to find one that gives hefty boosts to Critical Hits and Attack Power.'
That thought made the Demon Dungeon stand out even more.
The Demon Dungeon on Gravner's outskirts had once been a crystal-mining region.
The high-quality ore from those mines could be used to make Abyss Cores and all kinds of tools, earning Gravner widespread renown as the City of Craftsmen.
Then the Evil God's power reached the mining region, and the mines were transformed into a dungeon in an instant.
With powerful demonic energy spreading around the mines, there was nothing artisans, rather than warriors, could do.
Their only option was to collapse the entire mine and turn it into an abandoned one, preventing any more demonic energy from leaking out.
In other words, the Demon Dungeon was an enormous underground abandoned mine.
The countless minerals scattered throughout the mines served as the finest materials for equipment.
Once the Demon Dungeon was cleared and the mining region reopened later on, Tier III equipment and above would begin to be supplied within the Academy in earnest.
If I could raise the strength of the first-years before the second-semester club scenario began, that would be ideal.
Especially because the Demon Dungeon's boss was Archdemon Asmorg.
Defeating it would randomly yield either [Burning Abyss Core] or [Frozen Abyss Core], awakening materials for Cecilia and Luna's final weapons.
The other could be unlocked in the final chapter.
Normally, though, the Demon Dungeon was a high-difficulty area that could only be seriously challenged after becoming a second-year.
Maybe if I had challenged it third. But now that its difficulty had been raised by being fourth in line, it was somewhere I would not dare challenge with my current specs.
So my original plan had been to buy a decent sword from a Gravner workshop and focus on raiding cult branches.
But now, beside me, was a bulldozer capable of sinking a forest's ground with a single burst of sword aura.
'Can I really pass this up?'
I glanced between Adeline and Luna.
With this much strength, it wasn't impossible.
There was no way I could pass this up.
"I'm planning to go to Gravner and find a weapon."
I erased the word "Postponed."
⁎⁎⁎
When we returned to the village, the villagers were standing guard in full gear.
The nearby forest had vanished entirely, so it was a natural reaction.
Adeline revealed her identity and covered things up by saying she had dealt with dangerous explosives hidden in the forest.
The villagers gradually lowered their guard and returned to their homes.
The dangerous explosive was right in front of them, though.
Adeline reported the matter to Alicia through the emergency contact network at the station.
Upon hearing the news, Alicia immediately decided to dispatch an investigation team to examine traces of the cult, along with soldiers to protect the village.
The next morning, we left Getel and boarded a train bound for Gravner.
There was nothing to do on the way there except chat.
That was fine.
I didn't dislike talking.
Especially since I had never properly interacted with Luna, I needed to have a long conversation with her.
Perhaps because we had bonded once over chili sauce and raiding a cult branch, it felt like we could talk even more easily than yesterday.
I asked many questions about Senia.
"I'm not on good terms with her."
"Because of your families?"
"That's part of it, but... Every time I see her, she feels so unfamiliar. Can't I just say I don't like her?"
Luna showed open hostility toward Senia.
Other than one dungeon raid, the two had not exchanged a single word over the past month.
On the other hand, she surprisingly did not seem to have any particular feelings toward Cecilia, her rival in the original work.
Was that good news?
Adeline was examining my sword.
"How much did you swing it for Dungeon-made equipment to end up like this?"
"I swung it as usual, but I suppose my opponents were too much for it."
Senia's monstrous grip strength came to mind.
"Still, a sword that can withstand your skills... Even Gravner's artisans will have their work cut out for them."
"Why don't you come look with us? If it's a sword you recommend, Instructor, I'll be able to trust it."
After that, I cautiously floated the plan to clear the Demon Dungeon to the two of them. If they refused, they refused.
Then.
"Gravner... You mean the abandoned mine?"
"Yes."
"Hmm..."
Adeline sank into thought.
Honestly, I had expected her to smack me and ask whether I was insane, but she only rubbed her chin.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"If I go with you, can I enter the boss room too?"
In the original work, I could not receive Adeline's help during boss battles.
Even when she entered a dungeon with me, some contrived event always took her out right before the boss fight.
But in reality, she could not even enter the boss room.
Some unknown power prevented anyone other than playable characters from entering boss rooms.
And for a long time, she had been one of the people who wanted to clear the Dungeons of the Evil God.
She simply could not because she was physically unable to enter.
"I think you probably can."
I recalled what had happened with Pasha and Mar in the Undead Dungeon.
They were both NPCs like Adeline, yet they had been able to exert influence when we fought Negaloun.
If so, perhaps Adeline could enter as well.
"...Really?"
Adeline sank into thought again at my answer.
She responded whenever I spoke to her, but it was clear her mind had already gone elsewhere.
Probably to the same place I wanted to go.
Pshhhhh!
Several hours later, the train whistle announced our arrival.
Gravner's air was completely unlike Getel's refreshing river breeze.
There was the acrid smell of smoke that stung the lungs, mixed with the scent of hot metal.
Most unpleasant of all was the rhythmic clang of hammers striking metal one after another.
"Ugh... It's loud."
Adeline grumbled as she picked at her ear, and Luna frowned as well.
I felt the same.
If there had been a mute button, I would have pressed it.
"Wouldn't it be quieter inside?"
"You've never been here, have you? It's always like this."
Fuck.
We pushed through the noise toward the center of the city.
As we walked along the roadside, I spotted a massive pillar erected on the outskirts of the city.
It looked as though a giant in the sky had struck the ground with a hammer and driven in a nail.
A nail in the sky.
The Sky Nail.
It was a structure built over the crystal-mining region to seal the Demon Dungeon.
Our goal should lie beneath it.
There was no need to rush. I should think it through slowly.
"First, let's find lodging..."
But when I turned to Adeline, she too was staring at the Sky Nail as though entranced.
A faint battle aura flowed from her body.
She was clearly excited.
Gravner was divided into the workshop district, commercial district, and residential district.
When we headed to the residential district to find lodging, the hammering subsided, replaced by the lively voices of people.
Unlike Getel, Gravner was a mid-sized city, and the people's energy was on a different level.
We found rooms at a decent inn, set down our luggage, and immediately headed back out.
"Let's find Work Workshop first. Elia will be there."
"There's a guide map here."
Work Workshop in Nevil was merely a branch. The true Work Workshop was headquartered here in Gravner.
I had heard that Elia would come to Gravner with his father during break, so he was surely here.
As we followed the map to the workshop district, the hammering and the roar of forge fires grew louder again.
The noise was twice as bad as at a port.
'What can I do about this damn noise pollution?'
Clenching my teeth, we reached the workshop with the loudest sounds in the entire district.
The front of the workshop was crowded with artisans and citizens.
Some wore clothes that made it obvious at a glance that they were nobles.
All of them held their breaths as they watched a bearded, middle-aged man silently forging a weapon at the center of the workshop.
It was a familiar face.
The man's name was Enedor Work.
He was Elia's father.
Enedor Work was a commoner, but no noble could look down on him.
He had personally refused the Imperial family's offer to grant him a title, making him no different from a noble in practice.
The goods he made were unmatched anywhere in the Empire, so even nobles had no choice but to come in person and wait their turn.
Above all, he was the greatest Abyss Core craftsman in the original work.
From the cores used by playable characters to the Standard-Issue Cores supplied to the Academy and soldiers.
Other than a few cases, such as [Sun Shine], which only dropped from dungeons, it would not be an exaggeration to say there was no core that had not passed through his hands.
In the original work, Enedor was also the one who enhanced cores when brought [Siren's Song].
As I stared blankly at Enedor,
Crash!
Something fell noisily from one side.
When I turned toward the sound, I saw a tall young man with dark blue hair.
Elia Work.
Wearing his familiar work clothes, he had dropped the toolbox he was carrying upon seeing me.
"H-Halibal...! Lady Luna Grace and Instructor too?"
He had long been wary of me, believing I was Alicia's lackey.
Now, on top of that, there was a young lady from one of the Empire's two leading ducal houses, along with my Academy instructor and the Empire's Greatest Sword.
It was understandable that he was flustered.
The sound of the dropped toolbox had been so loud that the people focused on Enedor gradually turned their eyes toward us.
Thanks to Regnar, not many people recognized me, and Luna, for some reason, did not seem to be well known to others.
But Adeline was an exception.
"Golden hair? Wait, don't tell me..."
"Adeline Windsor, the Empire's Greatest Sword! Why is she here?"
"You idiot. She's the Empire's Greatest Sword, so of course she'd come here. Do you think an ordinary sword would satisfy her?"
Her golden hair and eyes were symbols in themselves.
Above all, few among the gathered artisans could fail to recognize the sharp presence flowing from her entire body, no matter how she tried to hide it.
Adeline merely shrugged as though the surrounding attention was natural.
That was when it happened.
Enedor, who had paid no attention to the stares or noise, stopped moving for the first time.
The heated sword went into the water with a hiss.
The thunderous noise filling the workshop fell silent for a moment.
Wiping away sweat, Enedor walked over to us.
"Well, an honored guest has arrived."
Naturally, I thought he would approach Adeline.
But then.
Grab.
A hand as broad as a pot lid, still hot from the forge, seized mine.
"I've wanted to meet you. Funeral Sword."
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