Chapter 11
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Luke's Beating
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Luke panicked when Abel suddenly vanished and raised his guard.
It was a decent judgment call on his part.
Better to tighten up his defense than stand there dumbfounded—it would minimize the damage.
But Abel mocked him by reappearing on the left and driving a fist into his exposed side.
Pow!
The punch slammed squarely into his ribs.
“Guh!”
Luke staggered, unable to catch his breath, as Abel kindly informed him,
“You need to get hit a bit.”
Without giving Luke time to recover, Abel swung again.
Luke tried to counterattack, but Abel’s bizarre movements prevented him from putting any real power behind it.
Abel’s Shadow Step proficiency wasn’t all that high yet.
Later on, he’d be able to move as stealthily as a shadow, but right now, it just dulled his presence and boosted his speed a little.
Even so, it was more than enough against Luke.
“Aaagh!”
Luke let out a pained scream.
From his perspective, Abel looked like he was teleporting.
Luke was swinging his fists properly, yet not a single one connected, while he got pummeled relentlessly in return.
Pow!
Thud!
Crack!
Hit after hit.
As the mad flurry of punches rained down, Luke couldn’t believe this was real.
He’d been one-sidedly crushed by Abel during the entrance exam too, but that had been a Gigant battle.
That’s why Luke, who’d trained as a knight for years, figured things would be different in hand-to-hand combat without Gigants.
That’s why he’d picked a fight with Abel on purpose.
To knock the smug bastard down a peg.
“Gack!”
But the stifled screams were coming from Luke’s mouth, and he was the one getting thrashed without landing a single blow.
Failing to respond properly to Abel’s eerie movements at first had let in a critical hit.
Before he could shake off the pain, Abel targeted his sore spots relentlessly, making it impossible to even straighten his hunched body.
In the end, Luke spent nearly ten minutes just taking the beating.
“Whew.”
After swinging for what felt like ages, Abel felt his strength draining and glanced at Luke.
Luke had lost the will to fight back entirely, curled up and trembling.
Abel swung his foot hard at him.
Pow!
Luke couldn’t even defend properly and went flying.
“Tch.”
Abel rubbed his sore knuckles and clicked his tongue.
If Luke hadn’t been so green in real combat, the techniques of a prestigious family would’ve been a massive weapon in themselves.
Without the Shadow Step he’d earned as a reward, Abel might’ve eaten an attack or two—and if that happened, a couple of broken bones would’ve been the least of it.
‘If that’d gone down, I’d be the one on the floor.’
The thought left him with zero sympathy for his opponent.
Abel watched Luke writhing on the ground, unable to stand, then snapped his head up and said,
“You know, thinking about it again just pisses me off more. Huh? You guys just stood there watching while this prick came at me with his secret techniques?”
At his words, the burly guy and the weasel in the back—who’d been watching the fight—flinched.
In the game’s original story, they were the punks who ran with Luke as his fake tough-guy crew.
They came from knight families themselves, but they weren’t equipped to handle the raw killing intent Abel had honed rolling in the streets for over a year.
The burly guy and the weasel shrank back under Abel’s fiercely gleaming eyes.
“Oh? You gonna run off and leave him? Go ahead, try it.”
But they had no choice except to shuffle back to their spots at Abel’s words.
No matter what, they couldn’t abandon Luke. The fallout would be a different kind of nightmare.
Abel stared silently at the pair for a long moment, clenching and unclenching his fists a few times.
“Whew. Let’s get along from now on, yeah? And...”
Letting out a deep sigh, Abel reached into his pocket and pulled out a rod-shaped magic tool.
He’d prepared it specially for a moment like this.
He pressed down hard on a button-like spot atop the rod, and a voice emanated from it.
-The Klein family lets him in, and suddenly he thinks he’s some wolf cub. What a mangy street mutt. They must be blind over there.
It was Luke’s voice, plain as day.
Abel shook the magic tool in his hand and said,
“If you make a fuss about this, it won’t end well. Got it?”
The burly guy and the weasel nodded frantically.
“Y-Yeah.”
“G-Got it.”
No matter their backing, they couldn’t ignore the Klein family.
With this recording of Luke trash-talking them, they had no leverage for complaints.
Satisfied with their response, Abel nodded, walked over to Luke—who was still sprawled on the floor—bent down slightly, and gave him a parting word.
“I went easy this time, so watch yourself. Got it?”
No response.
Abel raised his hand silently, and only then came a faint mumble.
“Y-Yeah... got it......”
Only then did Abel stand with a satisfied look and open the door to the private training ground, stepping out.
He hadn’t gone far when harmonious conversation drifted from behind.
“Y-You okay?”
“Fuck off, you bastards.”
Maybe unlike the game, this trio wouldn’t be sticking together anymore, Abel mused as he headed back to the dorms.
* * *
The next day.
Abel was walking with his classmates, checking the map to find their lesson spot.
‘Class A, huh.’
First off, the standouts in Class A were Daniel and May.
Both had serious talent, but they didn’t shine much early on.
‘They were just average during the exams.’
Daniel had aced the physical fitness part, but everything else was just a smidge above average.
Of course, that was by upper-class standards—he’d still placed 19th out of 200.
May was extreme in a different way.
‘Like 35th or something.’
Her sync rate, stamina, and mana control had barely scraped past the cutoff.
Despite her actual skills being way higher.
Ridiculously, the reason was laziness.
‘She only did just enough to pass.’
You had to be insanely confident in your abilities to pull that off.
And May was.
Abel watched her stumbling along up ahead, eyes half-closed, then shifted his gaze to the other cadets.
No one else really stood out. Most were total strangers.
‘Still, just having Daniel and May puts us ahead of the other classes in raw power.’
Daniel would grow fast and make his mark in no time, and May would be terrifying once she got serious.
With all the class-vs-class exam formats coming up in the academy, it was a great setup.
Of course, he wasn’t planning to focus only on those two.
This was the real world.
‘I’ll have to check out the rest gradually.’
They’d be together at least a year, so plenty of time.
He didn’t need to worry about building ties with major characters from other classes either.
Classes often mixed with other groups.
Lost in these thoughts as he walked, someone suddenly sidled up beside him.
He turned to see shockingly clear eyes filling his vision.
“Abel, right?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
It was Daniel.
He’d been up front earlier but must’ve circled around while Abel was distracted.
“You were amazing during the exam. Especially the second one—that left a huge impression.”
The second exam—the moment Abel had knee-dropped and smashed the head off Tito, piloted by Luke.
‘It must’ve been impressive.’
He’d done it to stand out, after all.
Abel nodded slightly and said,
“You were incredible at jumping.”
“I’ve got confidence in my stamina, so I figured that’s where I’d win. But you were nuts too? Stamina, and everything else.”
“Well, I did good.”
It could’ve sounded cocky, but Daniel just grinned and nodded.
“Yeah. I hear we’ll compete a lot in class matches, but having you around already feels reassuring.”
His sunny reply left Abel speechless.
In the game, he’d just pegged him as your standard diligent type.
‘Gives me chills.’
Staring him in the face while saying that so casually was unnerving.
In the end, Abel gave a vague response.
“Yeah. Sure. Thanks.”
“Cool. Let’s keep getting along!”
Daniel stayed chipper to the end, then went off to chat with someone else.
Abel stood there blankly for a moment, catching snippets of other kids’ talk.
“Ugh, first class is mana control? I suck at that.”
“Tell me about it. Kinda worried.”
First class. Mana control.
‘First class, huh.’
They varied by class but were all similar.
Basic combat techniques. Basic mana control. Stamina training. That sort of thing.
Gigant handling wouldn’t start till next week at earliest.
“This the place?”
“Looks like it?”
As time passed, fewer cadets roamed around, and soon they reached what looked like a massive drill field.
It was so vast the far end was hard to see.
At least twice the size of the count’s training ground that had wowed Abel at first.
To the left loomed a building on the same epic scale as the field. Knowing what it was, Abel frowned.
Fortunately, a man stood off to one side, confirming they were in the right spot.
“Mana control here?”
Then the man’s voice boomed.
“Over here!”
The cadets approached the waving man, and as Abel got closer, he narrowed his eyes at the gorilla-like figure.
‘A gorilla?’
The face naturally brought a name to mind.
The problem was, this teacher was miles away from anything to do with mana control.
Come to think of it, holding a mana control class out here was weird to begin with.
As Abel’s mind filled with questions, the gorilla-esque teacher bellowed,
“I’m Kaul! First time handling chick classes! Treat me well!”
His slightly slurred speech came from not being empire-born.
The name and accent confirmed Abel’s guess.
And Kaul’s actual subject was...
“I normally teach Gigant melee combat!”
Just as he’d thought.
Gigant melee instructor.
A character who handled Gigants with wild ferocity matching his violent looks, always top three in male character popularity.
“You’re wondering why I’m here for mana control. And why I dragged you to this spot. I’ll explain now.”
Kaul grinned.
“Our great Principal Magnus said you newbies are top-tier, so he added a special class. As your very first one.”
Abel had no clue about this special class.
“It’ll probably be tough. Lots of folks said it’s too harsh for chicks. Normally takes at least two weeks of training. But I’m all for it. You grow faster through hardship. And this class even has killer rewards!”
With that, Kaul pulled a paper from his pocket and held it up.
[Telesium 1kg Voucher]
Telesium.
A metal made via special magic processing, monopolized by the imperial family, pricier than the same weight in gold.
Used a ton for Gigant upgrades or weapon crafting. 1kg was a bit light, but still handy.
Abel’s mind already raced with dozens of ideas.
Used right, it could conservatively boost combat power by over 10%.
‘But what the hell are they gonna make us do?’
That kind of reward wasn’t something the academy tossed out lightly.
How insanely hard could it be?
Abel swallowed hard.
He wanted to blurt out, “So what’s the class?!” but talking like that to a 2-meter muscle mountain wasn’t easy.
Especially knowing that hulking frame was all muscle.
Kaul paused for dramatic effect, then continued.
“The special class is! Gigant mounting!”
Abel’s expression turned subtle at that.
“Not Midget or Tito—Miles class! I’m not saying ride a Miles and sprint around! Just power it up! And take ten steps!”
Hearing that, Abel glanced at the massive building and thought,
‘Awesome?’
His lips curled up involuntarily.