I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman - Chapter 11

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Chapter 11: Expiration Date

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Beyond the borders of the Cyrus Empire lay seven Abysses that no one had conquered for hundreds of years.

People called them the Dungeons of the Evil God.

The powerful demonic energy flowing from the dungeons corrupted nearby life, turning it into monsters. Eventually, it began eating away at human territory as well.

To stop it, the Empire sent countless raid parties, but only a handful returned alive.

In the end, the Empire made a decision.

Rather than sending armies, it would raise them.

At the heart of that effort stood Ruidel Academy.

The Empire's finest institution, built in the imperial capital of Luft to train raid parties capable of conquering the Dungeons of the Evil God.

Its goal was to create heroes who would pierce the Evil God's heart.

Of course, not everyone who entered Ruidel became a member of a raid party.

A Ruidel diploma was itself the highest honor in the Empire, so many sought admission for that glory alone.

One defining feature of Ruidel was that, despite being an imperial academy centered around nobles, commoners could also enroll.

That was thanks to the First Emperor's grand principle that humanity did not need to be divided in the face of the Evil God's threat.

As a result, there was little discrimination based on birth at Ruidel, and anyone with talent could enroll.

At that very moment, Ruidel Academy's board was reviewing this year's list of prospective students.

This year's freshmen could be summed up in a single phrase: the Golden Generation. They might have been the best in the academy's history.

"Naturally, Saint Mine is the most famous."

Mine Rose, the Imperial Saint.

She had been the first person to open the entrance to a boss room in the Dungeons of the Evil God.

Of course, because she had opened it without any preparation, the raid party at the time had been annihilated. Still, that did not change the fact that she was a key the Empire needed.

After all, only two people, including her, could currently open dungeon gates.

"The twin daughters of Duke Ren have also submitted their enrollment documents."

The Ren House, the greatest swordsmanship house in the Empire.

The twin sisters of that family, Senia and Cecilia, were both widely known to possess the talent to be called Sword Princesses.

Senia, the older sister in particular, had been praised as the greatest talent in the family's history, while Cecilia was said to possess skill not far behind her sister's.

"The next head of the Grace Family is on the list as well."

"They say her mana has already surpassed that of most instructors?"

The Grace Family, the foremost noble house in the magical world.

The only daughter of the family that had produced the Empire's Magic Chancellors for generations was expected to set foot in Ruidel this year.

There were also the eldest son of Count Reygal, leader of the noble faction, and the son of Baron Crust, head of the Technical Development Department. An unusually formidable group of noble scions was gathering at Ruidel this year.

The commoners were no less impressive.

"The commoner candidates aren't to be underestimated either."

"Are you referring to young Elia?"

Elia Work was the son of the master of the Work Workshop, a renowned craftsman known throughout the Empire.

Raised in a workshop famous for producing Abyss Cores, he was already said to have considerable skill at crafting equipment.

"Ran Pen is on the list too."

Famous for tearing through dungeons along the Empire's frontier, she was the direct disciple of the legendary martial artist known as the Fist King.

Despite her young age, she had extensive dungeon-raiding experience. Already close to a fully developed warrior, she was a talent the Empire had its eye on.

"But the person I have my eye on is this one."

"To wield Ultimate Divine Sword at seventeen... Master Jin has finally made a move."

Ultimate Divine Sword.

A sword art said to be wielded only by an old swordsman who had gone into seclusion decades ago.

The current commander of the Imperial Knights was also an inheritor of Ultimate Divine Sword, and every person who learned that art had become a Sword Master without exception.

This year, Aren Bright, the old swordsman's final disciple, knocked on Ruidel's doors.

"Master Jin called him the one who would bring the sun to the Empire."

The thick registry closed, and the meeting room fell silent.

"This generation certainly is different."

"They truly deserve to be called the Golden Generation."

"At this rate, we may live to see the Dungeons of the Evil God conquered."

Everyone's gaze turned toward a corner of the old map hanging on the wall.

Seven red dots.

The locations of the Evil God's Seven Great Dungeons.

As everyone wore eager expressions, one of the board members suddenly spoke.

"By the way... Your Highness."

"Cough?!"

Princess Alicia Cyrus, who had been quietly drinking tea, sprayed it everywhere.

"W-What is it?"

"Um... about the second key you backed, Your Highness."

"Ah, right. The Funeral Sword... was it?"

While an attendant hurried to wipe up the spill, Alicia caught her breath.

"So, what about him?"

"What has he been doing lately?"

In truth, the board's interest did not rest with the Golden Generation alone.

Three years ago, there had been a boy who opened the boss room of a Dungeon of the Evil God, which no one besides Mine had been able to open, and defeated the boss monster inside by himself.

A boy who had created a sword art called Halibal Style and proudly shouted the name of his finishing move, which was named after him.

A boy said to possess a selfless nature, putting others' well-being before his own.

The Funeral Sword, Halibal Velder.

Yet his name was nowhere to be found on this year's freshman list.

There was still time before the application deadline, but the problem was that no news of him had been heard in the past three years.

"Hasn't he been completely inactive lately?"

"We haven't even heard that the Beast Dungeon has been cleared."

Alicia snorted at those words.

"You've been away from the field for too long. Do you think a Dungeon of the Evil God, which has stood unconquered for centuries, would fall so easily?"

"That's true, but... we haven't even heard his name lately."

"Ha! Have you never heard of a late bloomer? A late bloomer!"

As the board members awkwardly nodded, Alicia's leg trembled beneath the table.

Why hadn't any news of Halibal come in?

She herself was more anxious about that than anyone.

'What the hell is he doing? Do you know how much I've been throwing his name around...?!'

For the first time, Alicia was consumed by doubt.

What if the shining jewel she had carefully stored in her jewelry box was actually just a lump of coal lying in the street?

"Just wait a little longer. You'll soon hear news so shocking your eyes will pop."

"Yes..."

"Well..."

She prayed inwardly.

Please.

⁎⁎⁎

It had already been three years since I defeated the Chimera.

╔═════════╗

◈Abyss Core - Renee◈

╠═════════╣

▸ Equipped Shards: 16/16

□ □ □ □

◆ □ □ □

╠═════════╣

□ = Red Shard 14

□ = Red Shard II 1

◆ = [Black Cloud]

╠═════════╣

▸ Stat Bonuses

Attack Power 16

Fluidity 8

╚═════════╝

My shelf life had expired.

Fuck.

In martial arts terms, you could say I'd hit a wall, but it was a little different from that.

There were three ways to grow stronger in Academy of the End.

Leveling up, equipment, and Abyss Cores.

I'd hit the upper limit of all three.

I had never seen my level as a number, but I could feel that I was no longer getting stronger in my sparring matches with Adeline.

"Huff... huff..."

"Hm... You don't seem to be feeling well today. Why don't you head in and rest?"

"Please, one more round."

The strength and agility I could gain through training had already reached their limits.

It was like how, no matter how hard a human ran, they could never finish a hundred-meter sprint in three seconds.

The same went for equipment. As long as I was stuck on a military base, I could hardly expect to receive new gear.

The biggest problem, though, was my Abyss Core.

In Academy of the End, an Abyss Core wasn't a matter of gear advantage. It was part of your stats.

If a child ground enemies into dust with a Core fitted with sixteen Special Shards, that wasn't considered gear advantage. That kid was simply considered strong.

After all, Shards weren't easy enough to obtain that you could just throw money at them.

That brought up a common question.

'Then wouldn't everyone's stats be the same if they all equipped identical Shards?'

Surprisingly, no.

That was because special Abyss Cores with Unique Abilities existed separately.

Unlike the sixteen Shards, these special Cores grew on their own.

The unfair part was that named characters, like the protagonist and heroines, all carried Exclusive Cores, while every extra used a Standard-Issue Core.

The rich got richer, and the poor got poorer.

As a player, I wouldn't have needed to worry about it, but from Halibal's perspective, it was a bolt from the blue.

In that sense, my Core, Renee, was Standard-Issue too.

Cecilia had confirmed it, so I was sure.

How good of a Core could a mere nursemaid have possessed in the first place?

So Renee had no chance of growing any further.

Yet Varhatan, the final boss of the Beast Dungeon...

That bastard was a boss designed around the protagonist character.

With the protagonist's Exclusive Core and a decent set of Tier 1 Shards, it was an easy, rewarding boss manageable through player skill alone.

And I was supposed to charge in with a Standard-Issue Core?

Even with Black Cloud, that was impossible.

Besides, Black Cloud didn't offer much of an advantage in turn-based combat beyond letting me take the first turn.

That was why I decided to farm Tier 2 Shards.

The problem was that Tier 2 Shards only began dropping in dungeons after the Beast Dungeon.

Shard quality improved as dungeon difficulty increased, so if I wanted them beforehand, I had to go toe-to-toe with elite monsters like the Chimera.

For reference, the first time I fought the Chimera, I had to spend three months recuperating after the battle.

I was beaten to the literal brink of death, and if I had been unlucky, I would have died there.

Every one of its attacks was terrifying, and its claws were three times sharper than the Human-Faced Spider's.

It could even fly.

Farm Shards against something like that?

That went beyond being inefficient. It was insanity.

Still, I did it.

What else could I do?

After checking my Shard setup and entering again, I managed to stretch the battle to nine turns.

But that only meant taking one less hit.

I still spent three months recovering, and I got to witness Adeline explode in anger for the first time, along with Mine sobbing her eyes out.

And the Shard I got?

[White Shard]

Fuck. Give that to Cecilia.

I didn't even get a Tier 2 Shard.

In the end, I gave up on the Chimera and went around the other four dungeons, desperately farming Shards.

As a result, I gathered more than a full set of sixteen Tier 1 Shards, enough to hand them out to others and still have plenty left.

So what was I supposed to do now?

There was content everywhere, but I felt like I'd exhausted all the available content.

I spent three years like that.

It wasn't completely wasted time, of course.

I trained every day and kept sparring regularly.

Still, there wasn't even a hint that I would gain a new Art.

I even removed every Shard and weight, then entered the dungeons.

I tried defeating enemies with Break alone, stretched out my turns to deliberately take hits, used only Ashen Light repeatedly, and even intentionally exposed my weaknesses.

Maybe because I was deliberately creating dangerous situations, I never found any inspiration for a new Art.

I couldn't go to another dungeon, either.

The other areas were blocked by thick demonic energy and couldn't be opened before I cleared the Beast Dungeon.

Eventually, everyone in the unit came to know that I'd hit a wall.

At some point, they stopped calling me a genius too.

"Hey, Halibal. Cheer up."

"You're plenty strong. You're way stronger than us, aren't you?"

"There's plenty you can do without entering dungeons."

It was nice not to feel pressured, but more and more people started looking at me with strange pity in their eyes.

I looked at the Ruidel Academy application documents beside me.

'I should submit this soon too.'

Then I could live as I had originally planned.

Hm. Yeah.

Hadn't I done well just getting this far?

In the original story, Halibal Velder became a follower of the Evil God, turned into a monster, and met his death at the hands of the protagonist's party.

But what about me now?

I had gained the undeserved nickname Funeral Sword and earned the Empire's trust. I hadn't become a follower of the Evil God, either.

It meant I could quietly enjoy an easy life, just as I had intended at the beginning.

If I just stayed put, the protagonist's party would take care of killing the Evil God. Then I would never have to get hurt again.

What a sweet deal.

With that thought in mind, I looked down at the old sword in my hand.

"I should get rid of this soon too."

⁎⁎⁎

"Lady Adeline! This is an emergency!"

A messenger, completely out of breath, rushed into Adeline's office.

"What is it now?"

"H-Halibal... has entered the Beast Dungeon's boss room!!"