I Became the Genius of the Gigant Academy - Chapter 45:

Despite the apparent joke In Karl’s voice, no one laughed at those words. After a while, Kalian asked with an awkward laugh.

“Haha. You’re kidding, right?”

“No.”

Karl answered, then looked at the Cadets with a serious expression.

“The process of getting here was just a warm-up. From now on, it will be a real battle-like experience.”

“If it’s a real battle, I assume it won’t end with simply fighting the fragments of the gigant.”

At Abel’s words, Karl stared at him and nodded his head.

“There are many types of battles a Rider engages in. As Abel said, the battle with the fragments of the gigant is only a small part of it.”

Having said that, Karl exchanged glances with the Cadets.

“You will experience all types of battles during this practice.”

There was silence after those words. Karl waited a moment and smiled again before speaking.

“Even after saying this, no one wants to give up. I guess everyone is confident?”

At that, Darin gave him a wistful look, but Karl didn’t seem to notice it and continued.

“Well then, I wouldn’t want to disturb your short break, so let’s talk about a few things, and then I’ll leave you be.”

Karl briefly explained the midpoint. First of all, there would be a few engineers at the place to fix the gigants. Rest breaks would be taken in the tented barracks which were fully stocked with food and water.

“Now, I’ll leave you to get some rest. Report to me before leaving.”

“Yes!”

After Karl had left, Abel gathered the other cadets to talk.

“I think we should take a four-hour break. What do you think?”

“Four hours? Not a full six?”

“Yeah. Something’s bothering me.”

Abel’s words caught everyone’s attention. Of course, he wasn’t simply speaking out of unfounded anxiety.

“What’s bothering you?” Kalian asked with a doubtful expression

“I feel that the instructor didn’t explain all the rules about this base?”

Abel slowly organized his thoughts. There was no lie regarding what Karl had said. But he’d omitted a few crucial pieces of information. First of all, Karl had said they could spend a total of six hours here. He also said they could leave at any point in between, but the “six hours” was not limited to just this location.

‘Six hours is the total amount of time you can spend in a base per day. Once you’ve spent all six hours in one place, you can’t take a break in another.’

Naturally, this posed a number of challenges. You can’t stop for food and water, and you can’t get your gigant repaired. But Abel couldn’t tell this to the other cadets. This is something that ‘Abel’ who had no experience, shouldn’t know.

He thought about asking Karl about it, but he refrained from doing so because that might raise Karl’s suspicions. Abel realized he’d been silent for a while and calmly explained.

“So, I don’t…… have any definite reason. I just want us to be cautious about this, and I don’t think this is the only place they have a base.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Kalian and the others didn’t look entirely convinced, but they didn’t argue either. It wasn’t unreasonable to be cautious when there were so many unknowns. Abel spoke up again, just to clarify.

“If you’re tired, I don’t mind resting a bit more. Although I’m not that tired yet.”

“Neither am I.”

As soon as Abel finished talking, Kalian replied immediately, as if those words aimed at his pride, and it hit the spot.

“Well, I’m still fresh.”

Daniel nodded without a second thought, like a fitness freak, and so did May.

“Me too… I’m good for now.”

Infamous Scans

Darin looked tired, but he didn’t want to go against the trend.

‘I guess I’ll have to keep an eye on him,’

Compared to the others, Darin was a bit weaker than the others and needed to be watched.

“Okay, then let’s get some rest. Everyone can eat when they want.”

With that, Abel went straight to bed. Instead of meditating this time, he laid down and closed his eyes, knowing there was no danger, at least not here. And just like that, he was fast asleep.

»————- ★ ————-«

When Abel opened his eyes, the first thing that greeted him was the hot sunlight that stung his eyes.

‘What time is it…….’

Blinking a few times, Abel checked the time and sat up. There was still about half an hour until the appointed time. He looked around and saw that everyone else was still fast asleep.

‘I think I’ll eat first.’

He made his way to where the food was being prepared, and in less than ten minutes, he had finished eating and was out of the tent. He didn’t have a specific destination in mind, so he wandered around the base aimlessly, and before he knew it, he arrived at a place where gigants were lined up. Abel looked up at his own gigant and thought to himself.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve gotten pretty good at the Milles class.’

Abel had first gotten into the Gigant as a Midget. It hadn’t even been a proper Midget class but was made by scraping together parts one by one from a broken aircraft. Unsurprisingly, its level didn’t reach that of an average Midget.

‘But the first time I rode it, I was so excited.’

Although it was a very long time, the memory is still vivid. When he woke up in a strange world and started his life at the bottom, every day was hell. He lived begging in half desperation for a long time.

But the thing that gave him the motivation to get on with his life was gigants. He worked by reducing the time of his sleeping hours to make his own gigant somehow, and when he finally got on his first gigant he barely made after years of work, he felt like he had the whole world. However, it was a Tito-class Gigant, not a Milles-class Gigant.

‘The old me would have said I’m being too greedy,’

Abel thought, smirking. But he has no intention of reducing his greed. Greed and desire were his driving forces, and he had no intention of settling for a mere Milles level. The Militum class is called the flower of the battlefield, and at the top of the Militum class that goes beyond is the Kenturio class, the king and master of the battlefield.

‘If possible, I could perfectly customize a Militum……’

Just thinking about it made him excited. Abel had been smiling at the Gigant for a while, and suddenly,

“Mr. Abel?”

Someone called his name. Abel’s eyes widened in surprise as he turned his head at the unfamiliar yet familiar voice.

“Temarin?”

Standing there was none other than Temarin. He hadn’t seen her since the battle with the Blade Tail.

“I wanted to say hello when I saw you earlier, but I didn’t have the time to do so.”

Temarin said with an embarrassed look on her face. Abel smiled and then replied.

“If I had known you were here, I would have greeted you first.”

“Oh, really.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment. Abel pondered for a moment, then spoke up.

“You still remember what we discussed the other day, don’t you?”

“Oh, about coming to the workshop? Of course!”

“That’s good, because I have something I’d like to commission.”

“Something you want to commission? Oh, the Academy’s workshop is definitely reliable, with excellent craft, and their price is quite reasonable……”

“To be precise, I’d like to ask you to handle it.”

“What?”

Temarin exclaimed in a loud voice in surprise, then looked around in panic and said in a low voice.

“I’m not qualified to take on big projects yet… I’m only halfway through my apprenticeship, so I can only do mediocre work.”

“It’s a simple renovation job. Of course, if it makes you uncomfortable, Ms. Temarin, you don’t have to do it.”

“Of course not, it’s not inconvenient! I’d welcome it with open arms if it were a personal request!”

A personal request from an engineer from the Academy was a great pleasure. The structure of the academy is a little different from that of a normal workshop, as the engineers in the workshop work exclusively for the workshop and are more direct, while the academy can be said to be semi-freelance. They can take charge of the academy’s work but can only make money through personal requests.

‘To be precise, if you don’t take on a personal request, you only get paid in pennies.’

The reason for such a structure was simple. A skilled engineer could take on requests from hundreds of cadets, earning not only money, but also a reputation. Once they’ve built up a certain reputation, they usually open their own workshop. In some cases, they would even become a full-time employee of the academy.

In that sense, a personal request is a big deal for Temarin, who has a short career ahead of her. The first time would be the hardest, but the second time would be much easier once you’ve produced results.

“So you’ll take on my requests?”

“Yes! Oh, and of course, I’ll let you know if it’s anything beyond my skill.”

“Alright.”

Abel smiled and nodded. He wasn’t worried about her skills. In a few years, she’d be a goddess threatening the famous Vulcanus.

“Well, it’s almost time to go, so I’ll see you again when I get a chance to.”

“Yeah! Oh, and…”

“Yes?”

“Well, it’s not a big deal, but there’s been talk that the monsters around here have gotten more vicious lately, so be careful.”

Abel paused for a moment before answering.

“I will. Thank you.”

“Then, take care.”

As he walked away, Abel thought about what Temarin had said.

‘Could it be that the signs are already starting to appear?’

Temarin may have just said that without thinking, but it meant something to Abel, because he knew. Something big was going to happen during this practice. In the game, signs of that event appeared in intervals between practice, and one of those signs was the fragments of the gigant becoming more vicious than they were.

“Hmph.”

Abel realized that he would have to be more careful, and slightly adjusted his plan.

‘We might as well try to get there in two days even if it meant overdoing it,’

He thought, referring to a ruin inside the Telif Plains, the training area because…

‘I need to find the ancient artifacts sooner rather than later.’

There was an artifact lying dormant.

[To be continued.]