I Became the Genius of the Gigant Academy - Chapter 33:

Grade S.

It was given the modifier conditional, but even considering that; it was an incredible rank. Abel blinked for some seconds. Although extremely happy, he couldn’t help but feel that this was too much of a reward for his actions. No matter how nice Scarlett is, she wouldn’t have given him such a massive reward for no reason.

‘Let’s check out the content first,’ 

Abel thought as he shook his head, and then he looked up to see exactly what ‘conditional’ meant because it seemed like the only way to understand his current situation. As he stared at the message, a detailed explanation of conditional immediately came to mind.

[This breathing method is incomplete. You must acquire the Optirum Breathing method to get the full effect.] 

[Individual grade is B.] 

“Ah.”

Abel read the message and nodded in understanding. This was because he had experienced similar situations in games before.

“This must be the first half.”

Special visions and breathing methods often came in multiple volumes. Naturally, they could not be fully mastered by mastering just one book, but only when mastered, can it show its power. In other words, what Abel currently had in his hand was Volume 1, and what he needed to obtain was Volume 2. Abel thought for a moment and then spoke.

“Acquire.”

The moment he said it.

Woooossh-! 

The book’s pages flipped frantically, and a blue light emanated. Abel felt unfamiliar knowledge flooding into his mind. It was similar and different to acquiring a skill, the awakening of previously unknown knowledge was identical, but the vastness of it was beyond comparison. It was like having an entire book literally slammed into your head.

“Arrgh…”

Abel shuddered and grabbed his head. His head felt hot like it was overloaded. At this rate, he wondered if his brain would melt. Part of him wanted to scream but couldn’t, so he just gritted his teeth and held on.

“Ugh…”

Abel had been holding on to this pain for a long time.

[Acquisition complete.]

As soon as the message appeared, his headache melted away as quickly as it had come. Abel blinked, dumbfounded by the temperature difference.

‘Is it over?’

He thought for a moment, remembered an easy way to check it, and tried it out. He thought of the book’s contents, and the results were immediately known. The contents of the book he hadn’t even read yet popped into his head.

“So this is how it works.”

Abel wiped his face; this wasn’t an experience he would want to repeat, but there was a good chance he would have to try the same thing in the future.

‘Let’s just check it out and then get some rest.’

Part of him wanted just to lie down and sleep. However, he needed to check how far the book’s content led. Abel dug into the knowledge of the book in his head and was able to conclude shortly after.

“It’s not completely out of context.”

The Optirum Breathing Technique Scarlett had handed him was a self-contained breathing technique, meaning that if he mastered this, he would have no problem building up and using mana.

‘Maybe the Count didn’t even know there was another volume,’

Which wasn’t so strange. The first volume of the Optirum Breathing method was rated a B. It looks very low compared to S, but B was not a low grade. If an S grade was considered unheard of in an entire continent, then a B grade was considered unheard of on a kingdom’s scale. Instead, it was even more strange that the breathing method used by the marquis families of some kingdoms was of the S rank.

‘Thinking about it, there’s a chance that they weren’t an ordinary Marquis family in the first place,’ 

Abel looked at the book again, determined to research the Marquis of Optirum later. After analyzing the knowledge in his head, he realized that Volume 1 felt more like a ‘foundation.’

“I don’t think I will be needing volume 2 right now.”

He couldn’t be sure because he didn’t have volume 2, but it seemed to Abel that volume 2 could be learned only after he had mastered volume 1. In other words, he didn’t need to feel disappointed that he didn’t have volume 2 yet.

“I’ll have to take some time to look for volume 2,”

After a brief conclusion, Abel closed the book and put it back on his desk. Then, he went straight to the bed and lay down. As much as he wanted to try the breathing method right away, he couldn’t. It was written in the very first chapter that you should be well rested before attempting it.

‘Time to sleep.’ 

Abel lay down on the bed and immediately dozed off. So he could be energized for tomorrow.

»————- ★ ————-«

Early in the morning, sunlight streamed in through the window. The sun stretched out and shone on Abel, who was sitting upright on the floor. Despite being blinded by the sun, Abel didn’t even move and continued to breathe evenly. Suddenly, Abel’s eyes fluttered open.

“Whoa.”

Infamous Scans

Letting out a long breath as if he’d been holding it for a long time, Abel turned slightly to look out the window.

“It’s morning.”

Blinking a few times, Abel checked the time and muttered softly.

“It’s been two hours.”

Abel stretched, sitting up and stretching his stiff body. Every part of his body ached from sitting still for over two hours.

‘Well, it must be because it’s my first time.’ 

Abel, who woke up early in the morning, tried the breathing method immediately. He had a little trouble concentrating at first, but quickly got into the flow and breathed non-stop for two hours. In fact, if he didn’t already have a fixed schedule, he could have gone on for a few more hours.

‘It’s more fun than I thought it would be.’ 

Formalized breathing is definitely not what he expected. The purpose of breathing is not just inhaling and exhaling as the name implies, but it’s to build up manaWhat Abel found interesting was that he could clearly feel the flow of mana flowing in and out.

Some mana would flow in as he breathed in, and as he breathed out, more than half of it would leave his body. In the process, Abel realized why hundreds and thousands of breathing techniques exist worldwide.

‘They’re all different in their efficiency.’

The basic principle of all breathing techniques is the same. Inhaling and exhaling.  But after that, each breathing method is different.  Where do you direct the mana that comes in when you inhale?  Where do you build it?  How do you hold it? All of those things varied widely for each breathing method. This soon led to a difference in efficiency, which was far more significant than Abel had thought.

Let’s say that the third rate breathing method obtained when moving around the street is only about 3-5% of the mana you inhaled. The Optirum breathing method retains a 10% intact. Moreover, this was only the beginning, so it was still not efficient yet.

“This is why there’s such a big difference between the children of famous families and those who aren’t.”

At the beginning of the game, effort and even moderate talent can narrow the gap, but as time goes on, the gap will widen. Unless you’re incredibly talented, you’re going to be left behind. Although this was the age of gigant riders, not knights, the importance of mana still remained.

‘Well, it’s a good thing for me.’ 

Abel said, dismissing the idea of stretching himself some more and getting dressed instead. He couldn’t afford to be late, he had training and a tutoring session with Loline before classes. Quickly getting ready, Abel headed straight to the training center.

An hour and a half later. Abel finished training, ate his meal, and then headed out to the field with Daniel for a lesson.

“Abel, aren’t you nervous?”

“Nervous?”

“Yeah. I thought you said we were going to start doing operational training today.”

“Oh, that,”

At Daniel’s words, Abel recalled what he’d heard in their last class. They’d said that now that everyone had mastered the basics, they’d move on to more serious training. Abel replied nonchalantly.

“Well, I’d say the first class would be just running.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. At the very least, they’ll make sure everyone is proficient at running before they start combat training.”

“Oh… Yeah. I guess so.”

Daniel nodded, admiring the plausibility of Abel’s words. It had to be done like that. That’s how the curriculum worked in the game, after all.

‘The initial challenge is to master the controls through running, while simultaneously increasing your operational time.’

There were a lot of cadets who had been training for weeks and still couldn’t hold a gigant for 30 minutes. Since it’s a special class, they are all cadets who are among the top three in their respective classes. So they were ahead of every other cadet and even had practical classes. The regular class would be stuck on running for a while. While having a conversation, the two eventually arrived at the field.

“May!”

As soon as they arrived, Daniel called out to May while waving his hands. May, who had dozed off in a corner, looked up at the sound of Daniel’s booming voice, then closed her eyes again. Daniel didn’t seem to mind being openly ignored as he ran over and started talking to May. Abel wondered if Daniel’s greatest weapon wasn’t his physical strength, but his mouth. Fortunately for May, it wasn’t long before Karl, the instructor that would be conducting the lesson arrived.

“Are all of you here?!”

Karl exclaimed loudly upon his arrival, drawing attention and scanning the cadets.

“…Eight, nine, ten. Good, you’re all here, then I’ll get right to the lesson. Do you all remember what I said last time?”

“Yes!”

“Good. It’s nice you still remember. Starting today, we’re going to start our operational training in earnest. Probably half of you will have to crawl around after today’s class.”

Karl smiled broadly and said vicious words without a care in the world, and it was only natural that the faces of the cadets turned paled, knowing fully well that he never minced words.

“Now, make sure you’re all ready before the gigant arrives!”

With that, Karl turned to look in the direction of the warehouse where the gigants were being brought out. In the previous classes, the gigant had been piloted one by one by seniors or teaching assistants, but now they were being transported separately. It made sense, since there were now a lot of personal gigants. One after another, gigants arrived, and were all ready for the number of cadets

“Now then, I’ll tell you about today’s training,” Karl said with an even more sinister grin than before.

‘He looks like a conspiring gorilla.’ Abel looked at Karl with that thought in his mind.

“The first exercise we’ll do will be running,”

Abel already knew that.

“But it wouldn’t be fun to go running on the first day, would it?”

The cadets didn’t answer because, in Karl’s view, anything fun was likely difficult for an average cadet. However, Karl, who was already excited, continued to speak.

“So I have a specially devised training for you! It’s called catch the tail!”

“Cath the tail?” One of the cadets asked impatiently at the unfamiliarity of the word, which made Karl even more excited to explain.

“The rules are simple. Three of the cadets start with a tail, and the other seven of you try to steal the tails of the three cadets. What do you think? Sounds like fun already, doesn’t it?”

This time there was no answer. Then Karl smirked and spoke the words of conversion.

“Of course, there is a reward. The three of you with the tails at the end will be taught a special technique I’ve devised. How about that?”

The words were ambitious, but he still didn’t get any response, until he continued.

“And it will be taught during the physical training session, which means you will be exempt from physical training while learning it!”

The moment he finished. The eyes of every cadet lit up.

[The quest ‘Karl’s disciple” will begin!] 

[Captivate Karl’s heart with your overwhelming skill!”]

[As a reward, you will receive a physical skill of rank A or higher.] 

And that was the same for Abel.

[To be continued.]