WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
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◈ I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman ◈
Chapter 117: Invincible? Pattern
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Adeline Windsor.
The Empire’s Greatest Sword, Belhart’s heir, the noble Knight of the Sun.
Since taking up the sword, she had never doubted victory, nor had she ever thought there was an enemy she could not cut down.
Except for one thing.
The door before her now.
‘...Will it fail again this time?’
Adeline’s hand trembled faintly.
She remembered.
Long ago, when her comrades had fallen one after another, she had charged toward that door with desperate anguish.
To save her comrades. To cut down the root of evil lurking inside.
But the world had not permitted her.
As if an invisible wall blocked her path. No, as if the very notion of a being called “Adeline Windsor” entering beyond that point could not exist.
The door had always thrown her back.
No matter how much she honed her swordsmanship or mastered Secret Arts, it was useless.
She could cut meteors falling from the sky and split mountains in two, yet she could not pass through that one old iron door.
It was as though someone whispered in her ear.
‘Because you are not the protagonist.’
You are merely a byproduct meant to sustain this world until the true protagonist arrives, then disappear behind the stage when the time comes.
The glory of piercing the Evil God’s heart will never be yours.
The director known as the world had forcibly dragged her off the stage. Then it had seated her among the audience and made her a thorough spectator.
What use was the sun?
All she could do was sit among the audience and wait for actors to take the stage.
From then on, she had searched around her for uncut gems who could become actors.
Even if it could not be her, perhaps someone would open that door beneath the light she shone upon them.
Then one day.
A boy fell from the sky.
The boy, covered head to toe in ash-gray, asked her to teach him Arts.
He asked her to let him see the view from the stage.
Naturally, she believed it would not work. She had seen and taught countless uncut gems until then.
Thirty percent had died, thirty percent had never made it onto the stage, and thirty percent had come to sit beside her.
She thought that boy would become one of them as well.
Yet the ash-gray boy had claimed his place as an actor through his own strength.
Perhaps that was why.
That day, when she rushed into the Evil God Dungeon she had sworn never to enter again to save the boy.
When she saw him surrounded by monsters, covered in wounds and gasping for breath.
Adeline decided that she would gladly become the boy’s light.
A spotlight shining as brightly as the sun.
What a luxurious honor that was.
Was it not good? Merely shining light upon the boy from behind the stage meant that she, too, was shining.
But what about this moment?
The boy was instead pushing her forward. He was telling her to take the stage with him.
She suddenly recalled what a man who had been her longtime friend and adjutant had said before she came to Ruidel.
‘Thanks to Halibal, you’re starting to walk again. Whatever it takes, you need to stay with that child.’
Starting to walk again did not mean teaching him and finding vicarious satisfaction through him.
It meant stepping onto the stage she had given up on long ago.
If there was one thing in the world the sun could not do.
‘It would be holding the sun in its own eyes.’
“I’m nervous. It’s my first time beyond this door...”
“You have nothing to be nervous about.”
The boy, Halibal, spoke calmly.
“I’ve gone in three times already. It was nothing special.”
“Really?”
Creeeak.
The door opened, and dense darkness opened its maw.
Adeline held her breath and took a step into the darkness leaking ominous demonic energy.
Prepared for the sensation of the world rejecting her and forcing her back at any moment.
Step.
A cold sensation touched the sole of her foot.
Thick, sticky air brushed against her skin.
She was not pushed back.
She was not rejected.
Now.
Adeline’s feet were unmistakably within the boundary of the boss room.
Only then was she certain.
‘As I thought... you are my sun.’
The ash-gray sun that had fallen from the sky was trying to lead the stalled sun back into the heavens.
“Instructor.”
“...Yes.”
If you are my sun, then I will ask you.
Can I illuminate that darkness?
“I’d like to get back before dinner. Could you finish this quickly?”
The sun answered.
That illuminating darkness was the purpose of the sun’s existence.
A blissful smile spread across Adeline’s face.
The Empire’s Greatest Sword gripped her sword hilt.
“Alright. I’ll treat you today.”
For the first time.
The sun stepped onto the stage.
⁎⁎⁎
[Unique Ability - Rewind Action 0 / 3]
[※Unique Abilities can only be used in boss battles.]
As we entered the boss room, a sight so brilliant it was hard to keep our eyes open unfolded before us.
Colorful jewels packed every inch from the cavern ceiling to the floor, and ore veins emitted a radiant glow.
Dronium had to be mixed in among them.
Of course, there was no need to distinguish them individually.
‘Once we clear this place, it’s over.’
Defeating the mid-boss would let us establish a Base Camp here.
Then the workers would have a safe environment to enter and mine the ore. Enedor would be among them.
In other words, once we took the boss’s head, the quest was practically complete.
Screeeech!
Then a chilling tearing sound rang out, as if cloth were being ripped apart in midair.
The center of the ore vein split open, and a shadow crawled smoothly out through the tear in space.
A ray-like monster whose entire body was covered in glittering ore.
Screeeech!
The ray let out a strange cry and rushed at the ore vein.
Crunch! Crack!
It began wildly chewing through the vein as though it were cookie crumbs.
That was one of the culprits that had turned this crystal mine into an abandoned mine, the Gluttony Ray.
After devouring ore like a starved beast for some time, it seemed to have had its fill and descended to the floor.
It then flattened itself against the ground like a carpet. Another shadow appeared atop it.
A pale-skinned humanoid demon dressed in a uniform that called a nobleman to mind.
The monster held a staff that looked carved from human bones and naturally climbed onto the ray’s back.
The Demon Dungeon’s mid-boss.
Marquis of Desire, Forneus.
It looked down at us with narrow, slit eyes.
Then it smacked its lips and lightly tapped the ray’s back with its staff.
Screee!
As the ray struck the floor, its body slipped into the bedrock as though sinking into water.
The demon floated in the air, smiling.
‘Ha. It’s pulling this crap from the start.’
Forneus was one entity made up of the demon and the ray.
They shared health even if attacked separately, and hitting them both at once could deal double damage, like with Necreddin.
Upon encounter, Forneus randomly triggered one of two patterns.
The first was a charge attack while riding the ray.
If you hid behind a jewel pillar rising from the floor and baited the charge, it would ram its head into the pillar and enter Stagger, a ridiculously easy pattern.
And the second was this.
The submerging pattern, where the ray burrowed underground.
In this state, the ray vanished from the map, the player’s target lock on it was released, and it could not be attacked.
In other words, the ray was invincible in this state.
The ray would then swim underground before suddenly bursting out beneath the player’s feet and knocking them airborne.
What if you jumped to avoid it?
Then the demon floating in the air would fire off magic indiscriminately.
The magic did not target us, but the ore veins scattered everywhere.
The magical blasts it fired would refract into dozens of lasers the instant they struck a crystal, scattering in every direction.
A red ruby produced fire lasers.
A blue sapphire produced freezing lasers.
A yellow topaz produced paralysis lasers.
The pattern was called Laser Circus.
A bullet hell game would begin in earnest.
Avoid lasers of different elements flying in from beyond your field of vision in a 3D game, while also keeping the ray emerging beneath your feet in check?
And if your PC was not good enough, the lighting effects caused lag on top of that. It was a truly godawful pattern.
There would be no lag in reality, but a bad hit could still cost you your life.
I had desperately prayed for the first pattern.
But it looked like the godawful pattern had come first after all.
“Hmph. So it’s running away with its tail between its legs?”
I glanced at Adeline.
Unlike my unease, she had been unable to hide her excitement since entering this room.
Of course she was excited. The only reason she had been in the Gale Raid Party was to clear the Dungeons of the Evil God.
And now she was personally in a boss room, able to take the boss’s head? There was no way she could resist that.
Let her enjoy herself.
Still, I had some concerns.
In the original game, she only shone when clearing regular mobs. I had never seen her properly fight a boss.
‘Still, she’s Adeline.’
She was the Empire’s Greatest Sword. Surely she could at least pull her weight?
“Luna. If you see an opening, stack as much Purple Flame as you can. In this battle, you and I will focus entirely on supporting the instructor.”
“Yes. Understood.”
After giving Luna her instructions, I immediately stepped back.
It was time to land the opening strike.
As expected, the demon floating in the air had a demonic energy barrier around it, and the submerged ray was invincible, so we could not attack it.
‘Should we melt the barrier with Luna’s Purple Flame first?’
At that moment.
“Adeline Windsor, the Empire’s Greatest Sword.”
Adeline confidently stepped forward and raised her sword, pointing it at the demon floating in the air.
“From this moment on, I will sever your head.”
At the declaration of war, gemstones appeared above all our heads.
Battle began.
‘Excuse me?’
She was going to waste the precious opening-strike opportunity on a taunt? I had wanted to start by landing a hit with Purple Flame.
But there was nothing to be done about an opportunity already lost.
The moment her taunt ended, Adeline’s gemstone shone.
Adeline’s turn.
Adeline’s Fluidity after equipping an Abyss Core was so overwhelming that even five additional Black Shards could not catch up.
I intentionally did not give her instructions.
It was not because I trusted her to handle it herself. Rather, my clumsy directions might get in her way.
More than anything, I did not know her true capabilities.
The Abyss Core Adeline wore was Rising Sun, a Core that had not existed in the original game.
More precisely, it was an item described only as “an Abyss Core worn by Adeline,” much like Corona.
I did not know its effect. When it activated, Corona’s blade would be dyed in sunlight, at least.
‘Does it add something like fire-element burn damage? But Luna should already have that equipped.’
The same went for her Arts.
In the original game, she only used two Arts: Golden Slash and Arrival of a Hundred Kings.
She cut through regular mobs with Golden Slash, then opened the way for the protagonist’s party with her Secret Art, Arrival of a Hundred Kings.
That was the end of her role.
She did not appear again until the epilogue.
I wondered what she would do in turn-based combat.
“Fuuuh...”
Adeline let her sword hang toward the ground and took a deep breath. Heat began gathering around her one strand at a time.
“Sunrise.”
A small sun appeared above her head.
The blazing image of the sun slowly moved to the turn-indicator gemstone floating above her head...
Sizzle.
The instant it touched the gem, it began to melt it.
The melted gemstone separated into four small gems that spun above her head.
No. Wait.
[Sunrise]
[The user gains four additional turns.]
‘Four additional turns?’
Even combining one base turn with the additional turn gained from striking a weakness, the maximum number of actions possible in a single round was only two.
If you failed to strike a weakness, you could only act once per turn.
Until now, there had been no way to gain more than two turns aside from Stagger or a Hyperion buff.
And that Art did not even have a cooldown.
That meant Adeline could take four actions by herself every turn through sheer force.
What kind of absurdly broken ability was this?
As I stood there shocked and flustered.
Adeline raised her sword high behind her back and aimed it at the ground.
“Belhart Style, First Form. Iron Wall Splitter.”
She swung her sword with all her strength.
Booooom!
The entire boss room screamed alongside the flash.
The bedrock split like tofu beneath the overwhelming destructive force, and a massive crack born where the sword tip struck stretched across the entire room.
And from the gap in the split earth.
Screeeeeech!
The hidden ray was forcibly dragged out.
“Ah! That feels great! Now this is a boss battle!”
Luna and I, and even the demon Forneus floating in the air, could only stare with our mouths hanging open.
So much for its invincibility.
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