I Became the Genius of the Gigant Academy

Being startled by Abel’s sudden disappearance, Luke kept his guard up. That was good judgment as per the situation because rather than being absent-minded, he could minimize any injuries he may be inflicted with by strengthening his defense.

However, Abel, as if mocking Luke in that state, came into view from the left and hit a punch in the direction of his unguarded ribs.

Bang!

His fist struck his side deeply. Luke, unable to breathe properly, stumped and looked at him. 

“You need to get beaten up,” Abel said in a kind tone.

Abel continued punching without giving Luke so much as a moment for him to come to his senses and swung his fist. Luke tried to counterattack, but Abel’s body moved strangely, so he could not utilize his strength correctly.

Currently, Abel’s Shadow Step skill wasn’t at a very high level. Later, it would be possible for him to move sneakily like a shadow, but for now, it was just to the point that others could sense him a bit less, and his speed would increase. However, to go against Luke, that was enough.

“Aack!” Luke let out a painful scream. From his perspective, it seemed like Abel was teleporting. He swung his fist properly, yet Abel didn’t even get hit. Instead, it was quite the opposite because Luke was beaten up like crazy.

Thud!

Bang!

Woosh!

He took one hit, then another. He was being rained with punches like crazy, one after the other, and Luke couldn’t believe the reality of the situation at that point. During the entrance exam as well, he suffered a one-sided crushing defeat from Abel, but that was a Gigant fight.

That’s why Luke, who’d received training for knights for quite a while, believed that fighting without gigants, and only using their bodies would have a different result. It was also the main reason he’d provoked Abel into a fight.

To destroy the pride of this conceited punk.

“gurghk-!”

However, the source of the suppressed screams was Luke’s mouth, and the one who couldn’t even fight properly and had been crushed in the fight was him. At first, he could not respond to Abel’s bizarre movements, because of which he ended up allowing him to take a fatal blow.

Before he could recover from the pain of that blow, Abel persistently hit the wounded parts, making it difficult for him to spread his crouching body. As a result of that, Luke had to keep taking blows for around 10 minutes.

“Whew.”

Upon swinging his fist for a long time, Abel felt his energy level draining and finally looked at Luke. Abel vigorously threw a kick at Luke, who was in that state.

“Tsk.” Abel controlled his clenched fists and clicked his tongue.

Even though Luke’s experience with real-life battles was insufficient, the secret of a renowned family was a remarkable weapon. Had it not been for the Shadow Step he received as a reward, Abel might’ve had to take a hit once in a while and broken his bones in one or two places.

‘If that had happened, the one who could have collapsed right now would be me.’

With that thought, he didn’t feel sympathy for his opponent. Looking at Luke, who was struggling to get up from the floor, Abel turned his head and spoke.

“Just thinking about it is making me furious again. Huh? You two, even after seeing this bastard use this family secret, just stood there watching?”

At those words, watching Abel and Luke fight from behind, the hunk and the weasel flinched with their trembling bodies. Originally in the game, those two were bullies who’d make absurd mischief together with Luke.

They both belonged to families of knights in their own right, yet seeing Abel, who survived life on backstreets for over a year, had this murderous look; it was beyond their capability.

In response to Abel’s frighteningly glimmering glare, the hunk and the weasel hesitated and took a step back.

“Oh? Are you going to leave him and just run away? Go ahead and try it if you think you can do that.”

However, after listening to Abel’s warning, those two punks had no choice but to return to their original spots. Because regardless of everything else, it’s not like they could abandon Luke and simply leave. Even so, they couldn’t wrap up the situation for another reason.

Abel, glaring at those two for an extended period of time, raised and lowered his fists several times.

“From now on, let’s do well. Yeah? Also…” Letting out a deep sigh, Abel went on to take out a rod-shaped magic tool from his pocket. It was an object he’d prepared, especially for times like this. He then pressed something shaped like a button on the rod. 

A voice said, “What, just because you got into the Klein family, you think you’re a wolf or something? You son of a bitch from the streets. It looks like the Kleins have lowered their standards.”

It was Luke’s voice.

Abel waving the magic tool in his hand, said, “Using this incident to create any issues won’t be fun for you. Got it?”

The hunk and the weasel frantically nodded their heads.

“Y-yeah.”

“W-we got it.”

No matter how good their background was, it wasn’t at the level that they could ignore the Klein family. Since they’d been recorded slandering the Klein family, it’d be impossible for them to take up this incident as a problem with anyone.

Hearing their replies, Abel nodded and then moved towards Luke, who was still on the ground. He lowered his body slightly and said a few words.

“I’ll ignore it this one time, so get your act together. Got it?”

No response.

When Abel raised his hand without saying anything, it was then that a faint voice was heard.

“Ok-okay…”

Finally, Abel, as if satisfied with the answer, got up from his spot, walked up to the door of the private training ground, opened it, and left. Not long after he’d started moving away, a conversation could be heard with quite a friendly tone.

“A-are you okay?”

“Fuck. Get lost, you bastards.”

Perhaps, it was unlikely to see these three hanging out together in a group as in the game. With this thought going through his consciousness, Abel returned to the dorms.

»————- ★ ————-«

The next day.

Abel, along with other cadets from his same class, was looking at the map, trying to find the place where they’d have their lecture.

‘Hm, the class A.’

First of all, those two immediately caught his eye in class A, Daniel and May. Both of them, though possessed remarkable talents, didn’t stand out so much in the beginning.

‘Because both were mediocre performers even during the entrance test.’

Though Daniel performed well during the physical fitness test, he was merely a grade slightly above average in all other aspects. Of course, that was the case if one were to compare him with the standards of the Upper Class, but in reality, he was 19th out of 200. May’s case was severe in a different manner.

‘I think she was in the 35th place or something.’

This person barely passed the cut for synchronization tare, physical fitness, and mana management. This was despite the fact that her actual skills were at a way higher level. Absurdly enough, the reason for this was her laziness.

‘She moved just enough to surpass the cut-line for all the skills.’

Infamous Scans

Without quite a bit of confidence in her skills, such a deed was actually an impossible feat. In reality, May possessed the skills to do that. Abel, who was watching May walking from the side, saw her stumble after having her eyes half-closed, and then turning his gaze, he looked at other cadets.

Apart from that, there was no one else who caught his eye. Since it was his first time meeting most of them, nothing distinguished anyone from the rest.

‘Still, with Daniel and May in his class, in comparison with other classes, at least in terms of strength, this class was quite predominant.’

Daniel would make quick progress in no time and stand out among the rest, and May, if she genuinely exerted her powers, would be extremely terrifying. Considering that while attending the academy, there would be quite a lot of competitive tests within the classes, the conditions were in favor of that. 

Of course, he wasn’t just planning on focusing on just those two. Because this right now was reality.

‘I’ll have to examine the rest of the people step by step as well.’

They’d all be together for at least a year, so there would be plenty of time to learn more about others. Also, he didn’t need to worry about getting closer to the other main characters because attending lectures with the other classes was quite common.

With those thoughts going on in his inner mind, someone suddenly showed up and approached him. When he turned his head, he saw overwhelmingly shining eyes looking at him, to the point it was a bit uncomfortable.

“You’re Abel, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

It was Daniel. 

He was definitely walking ahead of him, but in the time he was immersed in other random thoughts, he’d approached him from the side.

“You were amazing during the entrance test. Especially during the second exam, you really left an impression.”

Him mentioning the second exam, he was probably referring to Abel’s knee drop that ended up crushing the Tito’s head that Luke was controlling.

‘Yep, that must have been quite impressive.’

Because he did that to leave an impression in the first place.

Abel, slightly nodding his head, spoke.

“You ran really well, too.”

“I was at least confident in my physical fitness, so I went for the win. But you were quite amazing too. In physical fitness too, but in all the other tests as well.”

“Well, yeah, I guess.”

Though Abel’s tone may have been a bit annoying, Daniel still nodded his head with a smile on his face.

“Yeah. There’ll be plenty of times we’ll have to compete against other classes, so having you on our side feels reassuring.”

He said that in such a bright, upbeat tone that Abel couldn’t find the words to respond. When he saw him in the game, he merely had the thought that he seemed like the common sincere type of person.

‘I’m getting goosebumps a bit.’

Abel found it quite uncomfortable when he looked at him face to face and said stuff like that as if it were nothing. In the end, Abel gave a reasonable answer.

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Yeah. Let’s get along well in the future too!”

Daniel talked in a bright, excited tone till the end and then went off to chat with some other kid. While standing there with a blank expression for a while, Abel overheard the conversations of kids around him.

“Ah fuck. The first lecture just had to be mana management. I’m not confident at all.”

“I know, right? I’m a bit worried too.”

First lecture and Mana management.

‘Hm, the first lecture, huh?’

The first lecture differed for each class, but that made little difference. Beginner-level combat skills, mana management, and physical training, that’s all there was. Handling the Gigant would start a week later at the earliest.

“Is it here?”

“It looks like this is the right place.”

As time passed, the count of cadets roaming around decreased, and not long after, they reached a place similar to a playground. It was so spacious that its end wasn’t even visible.

It was more than double the size of the training grounds at Count Klein’s mansion, which left him astonished when he saw it for the first time. To its left were huge buildings that stood tall, but Abel, who knew the real identity of those buildings, frowned.

Fortunately, they had found the right place, and to the side, a man was standing.

“So the mana management lecture will be here, you mean?”

Right at that moment, the man’s voice was heard.

“Come here!”

The man, waving his hands, approached the cadets, and Abel, who was to a certain degree closer than the others, frowned, expressing his confusion at the person looking more like a gorilla than a human being.

‘Gorilla?’

Looking at his face, a name naturally popped into his mind. The problem was that the teacher was extremely far away from the mana management class. Come to think of it, the very fact that the mana management lecture would be at a place like that was quite strange.

As Abel’s head kept bombarding questions at him, the teacher, who resembled a Gorilla, spoke up loudly.

“I’m Karl! This is my first time being in charge of the class of you newbies! So, I hope we get along well!”

His speech was a bit awkward because he was originally not from the kingdom itself. From his name and tone, Abel was certain he was right about the teacher.  Also, originally Karl was in charge of the subject of…

“I’m originally in charge of the Gigant martial arts class!”

It was just as he said. Being a character known for dealing with the Gigants quite wildly similar to his violent appearance, he was always among the top three recognized male characters in the game.

“It’s supposed to be a mana management lecture, so you must be curious as to why I’m here and why you were called to a place like this. I’ll now tell you why.” Karl spoke with a grin on his face.

“Our honorable Principal, Magnus, added a special class for the freshman this time, as your levels are quite high. That, too, as the first lecture.”

The special lecture was a development in the story unknown to Abel.

“It’ll probably be challenging. Many thought it might be too merciless for you newbies. Because, in general, it’s only possible with two weeks of training beforehand. But I’m in complete favor of it. The harder you work, the quicker you progress. Also, this class even has a fiery award too.” Karl, while saying that, took our piece of paper from his inner pocket and showed it to all.

[Voucher for 1kg Telesium]

Telesium. It was metal produced through a magical treatment process, but it was exclusively manufactured in the kingdom’s Royal Palace, with its price being way higher than the same amount of gold. Used to either upgrade the Gigants or produce armaments, an amount of 1 kilogram was quite small, but would be useful regardless.

Already, dozens of thoughts popped into Abel’s mind. If he just used it well, even at a conservative estimate, it could raise the power by more than 10%.

‘But exactly what task will they ask us to do?’

With such a reward, even in the Academy, it wasn’t something that was given away to someone so easily.

Exactly how difficult of a task would he assign them? Abel gulped down his saliva. He just wanted to go ahead and ask, “So what huh, what’s the class about?” but it wasn’t exactly an easy thing to talk to someone over 2m who towered over you like a basketball net.

Even more so when one thought about how that huge body was completely made up of all muscles.

Karl, as if trying to raise the tension even further, paused for a moment before he continued. 

“So, the special class! Is boarding the Gigant!”

Abel’s facial expression turned into a more delicate one at those words.

“Not a Midget, not even a Tito, but a Milles! Of course, we don’t plan on making you run after boarding Milles! Just get it to operate! And then you only need to take ten steps forward!”

As soon as he heard Karl’s words, Abel thought while looking at that huge building.

‘Is this a bug?’

The corners of his mouth went up by themselves.

[To be continued.]