WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman ◈
Chapter 115: Down Below
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Leaving behind the Rakshasa Adeline had cut in half,
we immediately got out.
The sweet outside air.
But riding Adeline's bus was even sweeter.
I had expected her to be strong, but I never imagined she would cut an elite monster in half with a single opening strike in the fourth dungeon.
Part of me thought that, at this rate, we could charge in without thinking and get past the mid-boss.
'No. Don't let your guard down.'
Things were already unfair even when I was careful. Nothing good would come of letting my guard down.
“Cough, cough...!”
Luna broke into a harsh coughing fit.
As I patted her back and looked up, a reddish glow was drawing closer beyond the horizon.
It was late afternoon.
It seemed the reconnaissance had ended sooner than expected.
“Hey! Is everyone all right?!”
“Whew... Any injuries? Let me see!”
The guards waiting for us made a huge fuss when we returned safely.
“This is a map of the dungeon entrance.”
“Ooh...!!”
“Has the Funeral Sword's blessing finally reached Gravner?!”
Blessing, my ass.
After giving them a vague account of what we had found, we headed straight back into Gravner.
Sitting at the inn, we began a late meal as we watched the sun slowly set.
I put a piece of meat coated in Luna's special sauce into my mouth and went over today's reconnaissance.
“We should bring Elia after all.”
“You know he was nearly failing all his combat classes at the Academy, right?”
I knew.
Even in the original game, the only route where Elia earned high marks was the one where the protagonist chose him as a Follower.
But after what we had experienced today, the need for Elia felt even more pressing.
'Adeline alone has more than enough damage. But our stability is noticeably worse than last time.'
There was a clear limit to the situations a three-DPS party could handle. Even today, we had shoved so much Antidote Herb down our throats that I thought we might get poisoned by the Antidote Herb itself.
Thank goodness Adeline was a monster. If she had not been there, or if we had faced the Rakshasa alone, there was a good chance we would have been wiped out.
What we needed was a supporter.
And depending on how he was used, Elia was a well-rounded character who could perform more than adequately as either a healer or a supporter.
This fourth dungeon was also one where, as long as he made the bombs in time, his stats could barely meet the threshold for clearing it.
This might be the perfect chance to put him to proper use.
I had left the choice to him, but it seemed we were the ones who needed him more.
“We should go back to the workshop.”
It had just passed six in the evening.
“Now? Uncle Enedor won't be happy about that.”
“We can say we thought the appointment was at seven in the evening.”
“?”
Then Luna spoke.
“Um... Could I go get some air for a bit? I don't think all the poison has left my system yet...”
“Are you okay? Do you need Antidote Herb?”
“No, it isn't that bad. Thank you for worrying about me, Halibal.”
Luna gave me a gentle smile.
When I nodded, she left.
The moment she was gone, Adeline lowered her voice.
“Halibal. Are you close with Luna Grace?”
“I'm working on it.”
Even if I wanted to get close to her, it was not as though I could befriend a ghost.
“Then I think you should be careful.”
“Pardon?”
“Wasn't she too calm earlier when you were talking about the monster egg?”
“Well...”
'...Huh?'
She was right.
I could understand Adeline. She had more or less noticed that I knew things I should not, and had chosen to overlook it.
But how had Luna remained unfazed after seeing that I knew about a dungeon I had entered for the first time?
She was using an Abyss Core at the doorway to contact someone.
It could probably reach Luft or Nevil from here.
Was she contacting Viktor Grace?
Or a friend?
No, she did not have any friends.
A sense of unease reared its head.
Until now, I had dismissed the fact that she knew my private life and food preferences inside and out as simple stalking.
But aside from that, did she not know far too much for no particular reason?
The Mage Tower's trial and the Demon Egg had nothing to do with me in the first place.
The stalking hypothesis shattered in an instant, and new possibilities began filling the space it left behind.
“What is it? You don't look well.”
“No. I just have something to think about.”
“Anyway, be careful. I don't know about you, but she really might be a spy for the cult.”
'So that's the conclusion she reached.'
It was a fairly reasonable judgment.
I had not entirely ruled out that possibility either.
Still, I did not think that was it. I had no real basis for it, though.
“Want me to dig into her?”
“No, that won't be necessary...”
When Luna returned just then, Adeline asked her outright.
“Who did you contact?”
“I contacted my father.”
“Hmm.”
That was a perfectly reasonable answer too.
Adeline would know Viktor Grace's personality well.
It was common knowledge that Luna contacted him often.
But had that answer not come a little too quickly? Either she had prepared it in advance, or it really was nothing.
I looked at Luna suspiciously, but she wore a calm expression.
That composed attitude. Even if I pressed her now, I would not get an answer.
“Then I'll be going.”
Just as I rose from my seat to head outside,
'I should keep her closer for a while.'
I turned to Luna and spoke.
“Luna.”
“...Yes?”
“If you're okay with it, want to come with me? I have something to ask about your flames too.”
Was it right to leave investigating her to Adeline? Well, I was not optimistic.
More than anything, I felt that I needed to find out about her myself.
After hesitating briefly at my proposal, Luna obediently nodded.
⁎⁎⁎
Elia was in a state of emergency.
Halibal had suddenly barged in, thrown an absurd assignment at him, and vanished.
“Argh, that crazy bastard.”
Thinking back, Halibal had always been like this.
The lunatic who had thrust a sword at him without warning when they first met.
Before enrollment, he had sought Elia out and ordered him to install the Alicia Machine.
And he had done so in the princess's name.
It was an order from the august Red Scales.
What else could he do when he was told to do it?
Elia had complained, but he had gotten it done in the end.
No, really, he had no choice but to get it done.
The Alicia Machine was something Elia had conceived of long ago.
Expanding the communication network around Nevil was the same.
It was also one of Elia's goals.
A communication network that allowed instant contact through Cores from anywhere in the Empire, no, anywhere in the world.
If such a network had covered the Empire in the past,
his mother, isolated on the front line, might not have died so pointlessly.
So he had done it.
It was strange.
Elia was not the type to listen to anyone's orders. Had he not defied even his father to insist on his own path?
Then why did every order from Halibal align so closely with his own aspirations?
Today was the same.
His assignment was to manufacture all sorts of bizarre explosives that he had never once considered in his life.
The rest was one thing, but what the hell was a Remote-Detonation Mana Bomb Carrier?
'Gravity bomb? Fuck. Why doesn't he develop one himself?'
He thought it was absurd.
This was why people who only swung swords were like this.
But then,
Elia's gaze had already settled on the prototype he had made.
“...This works?”
A healing bomb Halibal had ordered him to make.
After grinding several Recovery Herbs and potions into the formula for an existing explosive, he had actually completed a bomb that spread healing effects over a wide area along with the blast.
Of course, it could not compare to Saintess Mine's healing.
But it would easily match the healing arts of most priests or a high-grade potion.
More than that, depending on the medicinal ingredients used, it could also treat poisoning, burns, and internal injuries.
“Gravity bombs... Mana carriers...”
Elia's eyes scanned the list Halibal had left behind once more.
The terms he had dismissed as a madman's nonsense now burned in his mind as possibilities.
'We're planning to clear the fourth Evil God's Abyss soon.'
'And we have you, Ruidel's finest craftsman.'
Why was it? More than the fact that the top first-year student recognized him as the finest craftsman, the fact that Halibal considered him part of the fighting force made Elia tremble.
Enedor had always said it.
'You are not cut out to be a warrior.'
He knew.
No, he knew it better than anyone else in this world.
Sword, spear, blunt weapon, magic, holy power.
He had no talent for any of them.
The only thing he was good at was hammering. Thankfully, he had even been told that his talent as a craftsman surpassed his father's.
Still, he wanted to clear dungeons.
Ever since that day.
The day he came back after hammering metal in the workshop all day and heard the news of his mother's death. It had been the only path for him.
That was why he devoted himself to firearms.
Because firearms, which showed the same power in the hands of a seven-year-old child or an eighty-year-old elder, required no talent.
Enedor did not acknowledge that.
He said they were nothing but clownish tricks that would not work in Upper Dungeons.
He had tried again and again to persuade Elia to let go of his stubbornness.
The other craftsmen in the workshop were the same.
But Halibal Velder.
That arrogant madman alone acknowledged Elia's firearms.
No, he went beyond simply recognizing them. Was he not now handing Elia the future he should pursue?
The Sky Nail stood beyond the darkening window.
Elia raised his Mana Gun toward it.
Bang!
The fired bullet pierced the window in an instant, shot into the sky, and disappeared.
“What are you doing?”
At that moment, a deep voice came from behind him.
“...Father.”
It was Enedor.
He had been furious all day because Halibal had not appeared.
After pacing restlessly in and out of the workshop, he had heard the sudden gunshot and rushed straight to Elia's laboratory.
He looked at Elia's Mana Gun.
“I told you to stop with those clownish tricks.”
“This isn't a clownish trick!”
“Hmph.”
With a cold snort, his gaze turned toward the workbench.
Enedor picked up a blueprint covered in strange terms, scattered messily across the workbench.
“...Healing bomb? Gravity bomb? Remote... carrier?”
His brow twisted fiercely.
“Was it that bastard?”
“...”
“That arrogant brat spent one day hammering metal, and now he is filling even my son with delusions!”
Enedor roared.
“It isn't a delusion!”
Elia pointed to the healing bomb prototype.
“This... works. I did what Halibal said, and it really worked!”
“You succeeded with one little toy!”
“It isn't a toy!”
Elia clenched his Mana Gun until it nearly broke.
“Halibal... asked me to go to the Dungeons of the Evil God.”
“What did you say...?”
“And he called me the finest craftsman. He said he... needed me.”
Carried away by his momentum, he snapped at Enedor.
“Father, you always said I had to wait for the right time. But he is different!”
“Hah. I thought he was a noble man, but he's a ghostly man! You're thoroughly possessed by him!”
“He knows how to bring that right time forward! He understands my heart better than anyone!”
A faint madness could now be felt in Elia's eyes.
Enedor shouted at him.
“I know.”
“...What?”
“That is why I cannot send you to his side.”
Enedor pulled over a chair and sat down.
“Do you know of Master Jin?”
“...Aren Bright's teacher.”
“Yes. Master Jin is called one who glimpsed the principles of the world through the sword. That is why he made contact with the gods, something even the Church of the Main Gods could not achieve, and received a prophecy.”
Elia knew that story, at least vaguely.
But he could not understand why Enedor was bringing it up now.
“There is a saying: all streams return to one source.”
Enedor's gaze turned to his own hands.
“Extremes meet, and all things ultimately converge upon a single path. Even if one holds a hammer, upon reaching the utmost realm, one can glimpse the very end of the stream.”
“...Father?”
“You are right.”
He faced Elia.
“The Funeral Sword knows how to bring the right time forward. There must surely be causality and a flow set for humans, but he can disregard them.”
“Th-that is proof of how amazing he is...!”
“That is why he is dangerous.”
His gaze shifted to the healing bomb prototype.
“There is a time to heat iron, a time to cool it, and a time to hammer it. You know what happens when you ignore the proper time and force the hammer down, do you not?”
“...It.”
“It breaks at the most important moment.”
As far as Enedor knew, Elia did not yet have the ability to develop something like that. Perhaps later, but not now. It was not yet his time.
And yet, for some reason, Elia had ignored that time and created something the world had never seen.
That was far beyond Elia's own capabilities.
Was it not literally a case of drawing upon talent ahead of time?
“The Funeral Sword is that sort of man. The path he takes may look impressive for now, but he will ultimately destroy everything around him.”
“...”
“You say you will stand beside such a man. Are you prepared to be swept away and broken by the waves he stirs up?”
For the first time, Enedor gave his son a heartfelt warning as a father.
But.
“I don't care if I break.”
“What...?”
“Even if I break, I will go with him!”
Elia gripped his Mana Gun even more tightly.
“Father, you spent your entire life telling me to wait for the right time. But Mother died waiting for that time!”
“Elia!”
“He doesn't wait! Whether he drags it forward by force or breaks through it, he keeps moving ahead! I want to be with someone like that!”
The madness in his eyes.
It was vengeance, aspiration, and above all, blind faith in the person who had recognized him, all mixed together.
Only after meeting that gaze did Enedor realize
that his words would no longer reach Elia.
Enedor read the words on the blueprint.
'Mana carrier...'
Then he spoke toward the back.
“...That is what he says. What does the person who filled his head with such foolish notions think?”
Elia followed Enedor's gaze toward the entrance, where Halibal and Luna stood. He did not know how long they had been there.
“How much did you hear, latecomer?”
“From ‘What are you doing?’ onward.”
“So you heard it all.”
Enedor approached Halibal.
“Halibal Velder, the Funeral Sword. Thinking about it, I have heard much of your reputation, but I have never verified it myself.”
“...”
“So tell me. Why have you come here?”
“To ask Elia to join our party.”
Elia drew in a sharp breath.
Unlike that morning, Halibal now looked as though he truly needed Elia.
The seasoned craftsman immediately understood what had happened in the meantime.
“...You've already been there?”
“Yes.”
At Halibal's short answer, Elia understood what Enedor meant as well.
He had visited the abandoned mine today.
“And the result?”
“I confirmed that we need your son's strength.”
“Then show proof worthy of that claim.”
“What proof do you mean?”
“Recently, someone asked me to make them a sword. But no matter how I look at it, the ore currently in this workshop will not produce the result I want.”
Enedor spoke with a fierce glare.
“Can you bring me the ore I name from now on?”
“What ore do you need?”
“Dronium.”
“Where can I get it?”
At Halibal's immediate response, Enedor's brow lifted slightly.
“You will not ask what it is?”
“You said it was necessary for my proof. Then I only need to bring it and prove myself. What it is does not matter much.”
“...I see. Certainly...”
Enedor chuckled.
“Very well. The Dronium is over there.”
He pointed beyond the shattered window.
At the Sky Nail rising high on the outskirts of the city.
“Down below.”
Footnotes:
Enedor's “noble man” and “ghostly man” wordplay comes from the homophonous Korean terms 귀인: 貴人, a noble person, and 鬼人, a ghost or demon person.
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