I Became the Genius of the Gigant Academy - Chapter 52:

Not too far from a small door, a boy and girl stood and exchanged glances.

“Shall we go now?”

“Yeah.”

May nodded in response to Abel’s question, and it had already been ten minutes since they first spotted the door. Initially, they would go in right away, but since they didn’t know what was beyond the door, they decided it was best to rest a little, even if it was dangerous. Regardless, it was time to move again.

“Whoa.”

Abel let out a short breath and grabbed the doorknob. Abel didn’t know what was beyond this door. It was a ruin that he had been to dozens of times in the game, but now he had no clue what to expect.

‘The entrance we followed was a passageway I had never seen in the game.’

Because of that, he couldn’t tell exactly where he was in the ruins and didn’t see anything to pinpoint his location as he moved on. And at the very end, he ran like. Even if they brought in someone else who was a better gamer than Abel, he would have no clue what was behind the door.

‘I hope there is nothing dangerous in there.’

Abel thought and gathered his thoughts as he slowly pulled the door open.

Crrrrek-.

The door was slightly firm, so it took quite a bit of force to open. Abel heard the door scrape against the floor, and he peered through it with a nervous look. The first thing that caught his eye was the long pathway. Then he spotted a strange painting drawn on one side of the walls.

‘That’s it!’

Abel had to control his expression as soon as he saw it, this was because May was right next to him, and she might find it strange. Abel pointed to the open door with a grim face before speaking.

“Let’s go. It doesn’t look like there are any traps.”

“Okay.”

May nodded and followed Abel through the door. At first glance, the drawing on the wall looked like a child had done it. But Abel knew precisely what it was.

‘It’s actually a message.’

It was a message with a deep connection to the ruins, meaning they had reached a specific section of the ruins.

‘The Trial Zone.’

Here, the ruins were divided into three zones. Zone 1 is where they had just left, and it is commonly referred to as the Labyrinth. Right now, they were in the second zone, the Trial Zone.

So, for Abel, this was not a bad thing, and it was actually a very good thing. Thanks to his unintended detour, he’d made it through the Labyrinth Zone faster than expected. However, he couldn’t be too happy about it:

‘In terms of difficulty, this zone is harder than Zone 1.’

Zone 2 was not a place you could pass simply by luck. If you don’t meet the various conditions, you might continue to wander around, no matter how quickly you cleared Zone 1. However, that’s the case for an average person, not Abel.

Firstly, the difficulty of this zone plummets when one condition has been met: the ability to interpret the text. Initially, you’d have to bring a character with special abilities to the area, but Abel found that inefficient, so he deciphered the in-game messages and memorized them.

“These are texts.”

“Huh?”

Looking at the text engraved on the wall, May looked puzzled by Abel’s words. Abel continued shamelessly without changing his expression.

“The ruins I visited before had the same thing; I can do some simple interpretation.”

“You can interpret……?”

“I learned it while looking over my shoulder.”

“Is that even possible?”

“It was because at that time if I knew one more thing, I had a better chance of surviving.”

When Abel used his history as an orphan to prevent him from getting caught there, May fell silent, although he had learned it by staying up all night for several nights to make the game easier

Abel slowly deciphered the text.

“He who embraces the fire—— sees on high. Worship sincerely, and the path will be opened.”

“….What does that mean?”

“I don’t know the hidden meaning. Is it a riddle?”

Abel feigned ignorance, but in reality, he already knew the answer.

‘It’s a pattern I’ve seen many times.’

It was faster to show it than to explain it with words.

“Let’s go to the front first, and it could be a hint related to the surroundings.”

“Okay .”

Infamous Scans

May nodded in agreement. Thinking Abel had a point. So, they slowly moved forward. Along the way, they saw a trident on the road ahead and could feel an intense heat coming from it. They realized the heat was coming from the right when they reached it.

‘We are supposed to go right from here.’

Unless the meaning of the text is known, the reasonable thing to do is to go to the left, which seems safer, and find a way to get through. However, that wasn’t necessary right now.

“Let’s see what’s there first.”

Abel said, and without giving May time to think, he walked off to the right. May was a little hesitant, but she followed him, and it wasn’t long before they spotted something: a giant stone statue. It didn’t seem like an ordinary statue, and flames were blazing across its chest.

May stared at Abel, realizing that this was no ordinary statue. Abel whispered in a low voice.

“The one with the fire. Don’t you think the text was referring to this statue?”

“I think so.”

“Then what does it mean to see high?”

At Abel’s words, May thought momentarily, then pointed to the statue’s face as if she suddenly realized something.

“The pupils are looking slightly upward.”

“Oh. You’re right .”

At May’s words, Abel pretended to think meticulously while looking at the statue before speaking.

“The texts up until now were all pointing to something. The one who embraces the fire sees on high. Then shouldn’t the last sentence be similar?”

“Worship sincerely, and the path would be opened ?”

“Yes. Speaking of worship, isn’t it usually…”

Abel prostrated himself flat on the ground as he spoke. It was the exact posture that was usually associated with worship. May looked at him with a questioning look, but Abel didn’t care. He looked ahead and continued.

‘If you worship, the path will be opened.’

You can understand the sentence by looking around while lying flat on the ground.

“I found it!”

He could actually see the path.

“Your voice is too loud…….!”

May said in surprise, but Abel didn’t care and gestured to her.

“You too, get down.”

At Abel’s urging, May got down on the ground beside him, then looked in the direction he pointed, her eyes widening in surprise. Once she was flat on the ground, she could see a ‘door’ on the floor behind both legs of the giant stone statue.

“He who embraces the fire sees on high. Worship sincerely, and the path will open. I think that’s the way.”

“But how do we get there?”

Abel said simply in response to May’s question.

“Shouldn’t we go in a prone position like this? It was written that the statue’s point of vision is upward, and it says it sees high places.”

Abel added a word to that.

“I’ll go first and see if it’s dangerous.”

“But…….”

Instead of wasting time arguing with May, Abel pushed past May, who tried to stop him, and continued forward. The closer he got, the more intense the heat radiating from the statue became. Abel was sweating profusely, but he didn’t stop. Luckily, the distance wasn’t too far, and it wasn’t long before he could pass through the statue’s leg and reach the door.

“Whoa.”

He pulled on the doorknob with a little bit of force on the floor, and with a squeak of hinges, the door opened.

“It’s open! May, come in like I did!”

May, who had been watching nervously, looked determined at Abel’s words. May Crawled forward, flat on her stomach. Luckily, the statue didn’t react until she reached Abel’s side.

“Whoa.”

May breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she arrived. Although she always had a calm personality, she was really nervous this time around.

‘Looks like I’ve seen more of you today than I have in the months we’ve spent at the Academy.’

Abel thought and pointed toward the door.

“Do you want me to go first this time?”

“No. You don’t look well.”

May shook her head firmly, and Abel smiled awkwardly at her. In reality, his physical condition was still down, to put it mildly. It was better than it had been when he’d meditated, but the pain was slowly creeping back up because he had to move again, pushing himself hard just after a little rest.

“Okay. I’ll be right behind you, then.”

“Alright .”

Beneath the open door was a ladder. May glanced at the statue and carefully placed her foot on the ladder. Abel waited a moment, then did the same and climbed down the ladder. The ladder was long, and they were halfway down when something occurred in the surroundings.

Pah, pah, pah

Their surrounding area suddenly lit up. Abel looked down and saw that May had already reached the bottom, and he eagerly climbed down and soon found himself on the ground as well, looking around.

“It’s wider here. Too wide to be just an east road for pedestrians.”

The old pathway wasn’t exactly narrow either. He could pick up a Tito-class gigant and still operate it, but this place was more than that.

“There’s only one direction to go.”

May said, quietly looking around.

“That’s right. It’s good because we don’t have to worry about which way to go.”

“We’re probably heading deeper.”

Abel paused for a moment at May’s words before answering.

“I guess so.”

“It must be too late to….turn back now. The passage in the middle also collapsed.”

May said, looking up at the ladder and then lowering her head again,

“There’s a way out at the end of the ruins. Do you know that?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think we can get there?”

Abel suddenly realized that May was shaking slightly. May always looked dazed, and in reality, this image of her was surreal.

May is the kind of person who doesn’t freak out much, no matter what. But that wasn’t because she was inherently a strong person; it was just a defense mechanism to protect herself from the memories of her past, and the current situation was a reminder of those memories. So Abel spoke with conviction.

“I’m sure we can.”

“Really?”

“Of course, I’m sure we’ll come back with some great artifacts.”

At his deliberate exaggeration, May looked puzzled for a moment and then smiled softly.

“Yeah. I hope so.”

“Alright, then let’s go.”

“I’ll lead the way.”

“You don’t have to.”

“It’s easier that way. If you get hurt, I’ll have to help you again.”

“……Okay .”

The two walked forward, making small conversations.

[To be continued.]