After the professor told us to take a break and left, I imdiately got up from my seat.
I had already planned my course of action in my head, so there was no hesitation.
When Soul Academy begins, there are specific tasks that players need to complete.
First, you need to choose the courses you will take.
Attending classes in Soul Academy rapidly increases your proficiency in the related subjects, making course selection one of the most crucial aspects of the ga.
I didn’t have to think twice about this.
The courses a blunt weapon tank should take are already determined.
Next, I needed to gather useful items that could be obtained at the start of Soul Academy.
After all, Soul Academy is still a ga.
So, you can’t get overpowered items right from the start.
Even the mace I’m currently holding, Luel’s Mace, is sothing you normally wouldn’t acquire until your second year when you can leave the academy.
However, among the less remarkable items, there are so that are quite useful early on.
I was planning to go collect those now.
"Where are you going?"
Startled by the voice behind , I stopped and turned around to see Freyr following closely behind . She really surprised .
Since when has she been following ?!
'Of course, I didn’t! Why didn’t you tell ?!'
Grandpa! Do I seem like such a terrible person to you?
I may be using harsh language because of the skill, but I’m not a bad person!
Sure, I find Freyr a bit annoying, but I don’t show it openly!
"Hmm?"
Freyr’s voice snapped back to reality.
Sigh. What can I say to soone who doesn’t even realize they’ve done sothing wrong?
It’s all Grandpa’s fault for not telling .
'The library.' "Library."
"The library? Why are you going there?"
'What’s wrong with going to the library?' "What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with going to the library?"
"It’s boring there."
Is that it?
I guess the library is boring.
I can’t argue with that, especially considering I used to use the school library as a place to nap.
"Instead, why don’t you co with to the training grounds? It’ll be fun."
'Sorry, but...' "Hah. Useless swordswoman, unlike you, I’m not that free."
"Too bad. Okay."
Freyr answered and then turned around to leave.
She walks so quietly that I didn’t even hear her following earlier.
'I do study when I need to!'
Th-that was because I didn’t have a solid foundation!
If I’m taught well from the beginning, I can study just fine!
'...To get an artifact.' 'Yes.'
In reality, Armadi hasn’t done anything for , but it was easier to use that excuse with Grandpa.
It was more convenient than trying to explain that I’m soone who got transported into a ga.
'...Yes.'
It annoyed that my knowledge was being credited to Armadi, but I had no other choice.
Damn it. One day, I’ll reveal that Armadi is just a useless, incompetent, sadistic deity.
When I opened the door to the library and stepped inside, a familiar scene greeted .
I used to leave my character here all day when I was raising a magic-based character.
I’m glad I decided to be a tank.
If I had chosen a job that required too much thinking, I’d have had to endure all that hardship myself.
Better to have a tired body than a tired mind, right?
I entered the library without asking for directions and headed straight to where I needed to go.
If I look at the third row from the bottom of the C62 shelf… there it is.
"A Dissertation on the Fountain of Mana."
Seeing the title, I imdiately opened the book to the last page.
There it was, just as I had expected.
[To the junior who has read this dissertation.] [Thank you for taking the ti to look into my foolish research. I’ve hidden a special chanism in this book just for you. If you write a specific word in the blank below, you’ll receive an amazing gift. The clue to this word is that it’s the key term in all my dissertations! Good luck!]
Ding
[Kerta’s Gift] [Solve the book’s riddle] [Reward: ???]
Great.
Kerta’s Gift is one of the hidden quests in Soul Academy that you can obtain by searching the library.
The quest seems insignificant, but when the ga was first released, this quest was a nightmare for players.
Kerta, who left a significant mark on the field of magic, wrote hundreds of dissertations, and finding the common word among them seed almost impossible.
Many players who loved solving puzzles gathered to offer their opinions, but the quest wasn’t easily solved.
As ti passed and players grew tired, many began to speculate that the quest was bugged.
Then, soone finally managed to clear the quest and posted proof.
People were shocked.
Because the person who cleared the quest wasn’t so veteran player but a newbie.
The excited veteran players sward the newbie with questions.
How on earth did you clear it?
The newbie responded simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Isn’t the key to a dissertation obviously the author?"
That’s right. The answer to this damned puzzle wasn’t academic at all.
It was a nonsense riddle.
That mont was truly deflating.
I ended up cracking open a bottle of soju that night because of how empty I felt.
"Kerta Bulcan."
[Quest Cleared!] [Reward granted.]
After writing that na, a magic circle lit up behind the bookshelf, and a ring popped out from its center.
When I used the appraisal skill on the ring, a ssage window appeared before .
[Kerta’s Ring] [A ring inscribed with nurous magic circles on the underside. It radiates a mysterious power.]
Since my appraisal proficiency is low, the description isn’t fully revealed, but the ring has the following effect:
It reduces the mana consumption of all skills by 20%.
It’s not an amazing effect, and in the later stages, when stats are maxed out, it becos obsolete. But right now, it’s different.
At this point, I can only use Armadi’s Touch five tis before running out of mana.
For soone with such poor mana reserves, Kerta’s Ring is a valuable item.
Moreover, this ring later becos a trigger for an important quest.
I should definitely hold on to it.
As I slipped Kerta’s Ring onto my thumb, it resized itself to fit my finger perfectly.
As expected of a ring crafted by a great mage!
Admiring the ring on my finger, I glanced at the clock hanging in the library.
It’s almost 4 PM.
Is ti really flying by this fast?
Realizing I didn’t have any ti to waste, I quickly moved on.
After that, I moved nonstop, exploring various parts of Soul Academy.
I was busy accepting quests and searching for hidden items scattered around the academy.
Of the two, the process of receiving quests involved a lot of hardship and obstacles.
The problem was my reputation and the sugaki speech.
In the ga version of Soul Academy, it didn’t matter who you talked to; they would give you a quest. But in reality, it’s different.
People don’t even bother asking soone as unreliable as for favors.
On the other hand, finding items was easy.
Who knew it would be so wonderful not to have to interact with anyone?
After roughly finishing what I needed to do in the academy, I headed to the last place on my list—the training grounds of Soul Academy.
Since it was the first day of the entrance ceremony, most of the people training here, bathed in the sunset, were those who had already been attending the academy.
Most freshn are probably having dinner with new friends in the academy’s cafeteria or struggling to plan their schedules.
But, of course, not everyone is like that.
There are always outliers.
Freyr, who had suggested I co to the training grounds, was training alone in a corner, swinging her sword.
She was so focused that her lifeless eyes were solely fixated on the sword in front of her.
What was even more impressive was that there was a circle of sweat beneath her from all the sword swings.
Has she been swinging her sword since the mont I turned her down?
She’s a training fanatic.
I feel a bit of a connection with her.
I spent every day like that back in the Allen family’s territory.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, Freyr paused her swings and looked at blankly.
Then, life returned to her eyes, and she quickly lowered her sword and dashed over to .
"Did you co to spar?!"
'I said we’d do it tomorrow.' "Useless swordswoman, is your mory as short as a goldfish’s? I said tomorrow."
"Then why are you here?"
'I’m here to et soone.' "I need to find a useless senior."
"A useless senior?"
A kind senior who guides the protagonist using the training grounds for the first ti.
But he’s also a pitiful NPC who always got beaten up by players because he drops a good skill if you beat him in a fight.
As a seasoned player of Soul Academy, I ca here to ss with him.
Since it’s evening, he should be showing up at the training grounds around now.
Ah, there he is.
I spotted him in the center, holding a wooden sword and looking around.
I imdiately approached him.
When he saw approaching, he hesitated and took a step back in surprise, but I spoke to him before he could run away.
'Excuse .' "Hey."
"Yes?!"
'You’re a third-year senior, right?' "You look like a fool, so I’ll ask. Are you a third-year senior?"
"...Yes, I am."
'Would you spar with ?' "You seem like a decent warm-up, so how about it, fool senior? Spar with ?"
The man’s forehead bulged with veins as he heard my blatant provocation.
Good. He’s mad enough not to back down.
"Hey."
Just as I was thinking that the quest was going to go smoothly, Freyr, who had followed around, spoke up.
"Why are you sparring with this weakling? It won’t be fun. Spar with instead."
'I refuse...' "No. This fool senior looks like the perfect warm-up today. Useless swordswoman, go play by yourself."
"Bullying the weak is wrong. The strong should fight the strong."
'That’s why...' "That’s why I..."
As I tried to convince Freyr to go away, I noticed the man glaring at with a heated expression.
"Do all freshn think they’re special?! I’m a third-year senior!"
Ding
[Shatter Senior's stomach]
[Take down a third-year senior.]
[Reward: Skill 'Underdog']
I didn’t an to provoke him, but things are going well.
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