WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 5: Abyss Core

──────

What is the key to turn-based combat?

Most people might think it's simply taking turns: you go, then I go. But in reality, it's different.

Ironically, the key to turn-based combat is making sure the opponent's turn never comes.

To do that, I raised my attack power, increased my speed, and even pushed myself to learn Arts.

But it still isn't enough. Against elite monsters, I'll likely still struggle to seize the first turn.

Is there another way to grow stronger?

"Are you insane?"

"Pardon?"

The hospital room door opened, and Adeline walked in.

She was carrying a cluster of steel weights in one hand.

"You fought an elite monster while wearing these?"

"I forgot to take them off."

I was serious.

I'd worn those things for nearly a year, so I'd completely forgotten I still had them on when I entered the dungeon.

Still, they'd helped more than expected. Normally, that monster's claw would have split my abdomen in half, but the weights had absorbed some of the impact.

"Do you really need to talk about a knight's honor when you're fighting monsters?"

Good point.

I'd considered sticking with the knight concept all the way through, but I hadn't thought of an excuse for a question like that.

Common sense said there was no reason to deliberately take a hit when the opponent was a monster, not even a human.

"I needed to gauge it."

"Gauge what?"

"The gap between myself and the enemy. That's the only way I can protect my allies in any situation."

So I gave her a suitable excuse.

Gauge it, my ass.

"Though I ultimately failed to protect them."

"...Don't worry about the unit for a while. Get some proper rest, both physically and mentally."

"Thank you."

Adeline sighed and headed for the door, only to stop as though she'd spotted someone outside.

Turning her head slightly, she spoke.

"You've got visitors."

"Could they be other seniors?"

"Nope."

Then she smacked my shoulder.

"Hehehe. Our little guy's quite the charmer, huh?"

Right after she skipped out of the room, two familiar girls appeared in the doorway.

Senia Ren. And Cecilia Ren.

It had been a year since I'd last seen them.

"Are you all right? I was so shocked when I heard the news."

"Thank you for your concern."

"Oh, do you like fruit? I brought some apples from our estate."

"I'm overwhelmed by your kindness."

Senia beamed as she sat in front of me and carefully began peeling an apple.

Beside her, Cecilia only glanced my way with a pout, not saying a word.

Well. If she had something to say, she should say it.

When I stared at her, she finally opened her mouth in a quiet voice.

"...You. Your arm?"

"They said it'll heal completely in about three months, thanks to treatment with holy power."

"...Is that so?"

The corner of Cecilia's mouth twitched slightly at my answer.

Honestly, our first meeting hadn't exactly been pleasant.

No, it had been the worst.

She'd suddenly called me a filthy commoner, so I'd punched her in the face during our spar. That incident had gotten me transferred here.

Still, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have met Adeline or learned Arts.

So my feelings toward Cecilia were complicated.

Unlike her, I wasn't a main character.

Once I entered the Academy, where the real story began, I'd only be a disposable extra. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to treat her.

"Can't holy power treatment do anything about those burn scars? They're ugly."

"Cecilia, don't say things like that again..."

"Was I wrong?"

"It's all right. She's telling the truth."

She wasn't the only one who'd said such things.

I'd heard countless people say my burn scars were ugly.

When I calmly agreed, Cecilia turned her head away, still wearing that pouty expression.

I'd felt this before, but why did she pick a fight and then get mad herself?

"I'm sorry... Cecilia has bad memories connected to fire."

I knew her story, too.

It was a detail only mentioned in a single line of her backstory.

Before Cecilia entered the main house of the Ren House, she lived alone with her nursemaid.

Then one day, she lost her nursemaid in an arson attack committed by followers of the Evil God.

And Cecilia had witnessed the scene herself, including her nursemaid's charred body.

After that, she developed severe trauma related to fire and burns. That tendency occasionally showed through indirectly in the main story as well.

Ah. I knew about it, but that didn't mean I understood her. So why was she taking it out on me?

"Make sure you treat your arm properly. We have to have a rematch later."

"I'll look forward to it."

"And... I'm sorry about that time. As a daughter of the Ren House, I shouldn't have used Arts on you so carelessly."

It was unexpected for her to apologize.

Honestly, I was grateful now that she'd used Arts on me.

If I hadn't experienced her Shattering Light, I probably wouldn't have learned Arts either.

"It's all right. I hit you in the face too..."

"D-Don't bring that up! You don't seriously think you won because of that, do you?"

'Didn't I?'

"If we'd both fought with every possible preparation, you wouldn't have stood a chance."

Then she took something out from inside her clothes.

"During our next spar, I'll give it everything I've got. That means you need to be on equal footing, right?"

Wait. Why was this coming up now?

"Take it."

"This is..."

What she held out was an old pocket watch with sixteen grooves, clearly designed for inserting something.

It was unmistakably the item I'd been searching for ever since I possessed this body.

"Could this be... an Abyss Core?"

"What? You know what this is?"

Academy of the End wasn't a game where you grew stronger like in a typical RPG by raising stats or distributing skill points.

There were three main ways to become stronger.

First, basic stats gained through leveling up and training.

Second, unique effects gained through equipment and items.

And finally, the most important method of growth was this [Abyss Core].

Rare gems called [Shards] sometimes dropped when you defeated monsters.

By equipping them in an Abyss Core, you could freely customize a character's stats according to the Shards you installed.

There were up to sixteen equipment slots. A character's entire build could change depending on which Shards were combined.

But Abyss Cores were only issued to academy students, aside from certain nobles and soldiers.

As a commoner, it had been beyond my reach no matter how much I wanted one. I'd buried the thought in the back of my mind, figuring I'd naturally receive one when I enrolled someday.

And now Cecilia was handing one to me.

"This is a keepsake from someone precious to me."

"Why are you giving something so valuable to me?"

"I told you! I'm going all out in our next spar!"

Cecilia's eyes sparkled.

"I'm going to use an Abyss Core then. So shouldn't you have one too?!"

Then she took something from her pocket and tossed it to me.

A single gem with a faint yellow glow.

[Yellow Shard]

It was the most basic Abyss Core Shard, increasing Defense by one level.

I looked down at the Shard in my hand.

This tiny gem was the true beginning of my growth since arriving in this world.

To think she would be the one to set it in motion.

This was way too generous.

When I raised my head to thank her, Cecilia had already turned around and was walking toward the hospital room door.

Her long hair swayed lightly as her final words reached me.

"If I win our next spar, I'm taking that back."

"......"

"So if you want to keep using it, you'd better get much stronger than you are now."

With that, Cecilia left the room.

As I blankly watched her retreating figure, Senia smiled gently beside me.

"Hehe. She's not very honest, is she?"

She certainly wasn't.

"...I'm not much different, though."

"Is that so?"

I wasn’t so sure about that.

Afterward, I put two slices of the apple Senia had peeled into my mouth.

Senia stared blankly at my face for a moment, then followed Cecilia out of the hospital room.

Silence returned to the room, and I continued looking down at the Abyss Core and Shard in my hands.

When I pressed the small button beside the pocket watch, a translucent interface appeared over its face.

╔═════════╗

◈Abyss Core - Renee◈

╠═════════╣

▸ Equipped Shards: 1/16

● ○ ○ ○

○ ○ ○ ○

○ ○ ○ ○

○ ○ ○ ○

╠═════════╣

● = Yellow Shard 1

╠═════════╣

▸ Stat Bonus

Defense 1

╚═════════╝

"Renee."

The name attached to the Abyss Core was probably the name of Cecilia's nursemaid.

I didn't know why she had entrusted such a precious keepsake to me, but one thing was certain.

I'd finally found a clear path to becoming stronger.

'Once my body recovers, I'll start Shard farming immediately.'

Shards had a chance to drop when hunting monsters.

Weak monsters would only yield weak Shards, but that didn't matter.

Right now, quantity mattered more than quality. Just filling all sixteen slots would clearly raise my combat power by a noticeable amount.

My body itched with anticipation.

After three months of treatment, my damaged arm had fully recovered.

Was it thanks to holy power? When I moved my arm a few times, it felt even better than before.

I wanted to run straight to the dungeon, but Adeline blocked my path.

"Hey, you were a patient until last night, you know? Even if you're going to move around, wait until you're fully recovered."

"My wounds have all healed."

"Want me to make some new ones?"

Fuck.

In the end, I returned to training and did nothing but swing my sword until I collapsed from exhaustion.

I also adjusted my training routine.

One part cardio, one part weight training, one part swordsmanship.

"I won't go easy on you."

"That's exactly what I want."

And during my free time, I began seriously sparring with Adeline.

A month passed like that.

Not once during those spars did I see the blue gem.

⁎⁎⁎

"I'm planning to challenge the entrance area of the Beast Dungeon alone tomorrow."

The day after I first endured one of Adeline's attacks and seized the turn, I abruptly said that during a unit meeting.

Over the past month, I'd become accustomed to Arts, while my strength and agility had noticeably improved.

At this point, I could fight that Elite Kobold from before far more easily.

More than anything, I was going crazy with the urge to start Shard farming right away.

So I planned to do the same Human-Faced Spider runs I'd done while serving in the 2341st Unit, except this time I'd target Elite Kobolds.

'If they're elite monsters, Shards should drop often.'

Yet the moment I finished speaking, every soldier in the meeting room stared at me like I was insane.

"You... How long has it been since you got out of bed, and you're already saying you want to enter a dungeon again?"

No, I needed to farm Shards.

My body had fully healed. If anything, I wanted to fill my Abyss Core even one day sooner.

When I kept my mouth shut, the soldiers suddenly looked at me with pity.

"Halibal, you've done more than enough."

"That incident wasn't your fault, so let go of that needless guilt."

"If you keep pushing yourself like this, there'll be nothing left of you in the end."

Then the nun attending the meeting spoke.

"...Could Sir Halibal be trying to perform that Funeral Rite again?"

Funeral Rite? What was that?

I'd never performed any kind of rite.

When I turned to look at the nun's face, she was the wife of the comrade who had been with us in the Spider Dungeon.

After her husband's death, I vaguely remembered her accompanying me on my Human-Faced Spider runs. Had she become a nun in the meantime?

"In his previous unit, Sir Halibal mourned his fallen comrades by cutting down the monsters that had taken their lives, again and again."

"Huh... Was that so?"

"My husband was among those comrades. I'm sure... he's grateful to Sir Halibal as well."

As the nun began shedding tears, the mood inside the meeting room sank in an instant.

"Could it be... he's setting out to honor his comrades again?"

"Huh. Why would someone so young carry such resolve?"

"As expected, a genius has an upright character as well."

I had only been grinding to seize the first turn, but people were starting to misunderstand in increasingly strange ways.

In the solemn atmosphere, someone muttered.

"...He truly is the Funeral Sword."

"......?"

Everyone nodded.

Except me.

And just like that, I gained a new epithet.

Funeral Sword, Halibal Velder.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried