Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Breaking Through Limits
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“…One person’s missing.”
“Yeah? Isn’t S Class supposed to have eight in total?”
Serros chimed in after Rufus, and at those words, everyone’s gazes turned to one spot.
The very back corner of the classroom.
The last seat by the window.
“…”
All that remained in the chair was an awkward trace of someone having gotten up.
“He vanished already…?”
Laphia couldn’t hide her flustered expression.
Though she hadn’t shown it outwardly, she’d been subtly aware of Adel, the top enrollee.
“Wow~ Our top student’s like a ghost, huh.”
Serros grinned crookedly and slung an arm around Laphia’s shoulder.
“But hey? Laphia, you’ve been low-key obsessed with the top spot, haven’t you?”
“…”
Serros’s lip curled up just a bit, and he couldn’t resist adding something totally unnecessary.
“Oh, wait—‘second place,’ so it’s only natural?”
“…You little shit!”
Thwack!
Before he could even finish, Laphia’s fist slammed into Serros’s side.
“Ow! Sorry! I’m sorry!”
While Serros was crying out in pain.
- Bang!
The front door burst open roughly once more.
“Adel! You stole my money again, didn’t you!”
The student council president, Cornelia von Delbar, made her entrance.
The words shouted by the infamous prickly young lady of the Delbar family, right in the middle of the classroom…
“…What the—why isn’t he here!”
No one even had a chance to respond.
- Bang!
She stormed in just like that—and vanished just like that.
“…”
“…What was that?”
Everyone was speechless.
“…Stole money?”
“From the student council president, no less?”
They were utterly dumbfounded.
But even amid the shock, everyone shared the same thought deep down.
‘The top enrollee.’
Adel, who’d entered with that title.
But the guy who’d never shown a shred of anything decent.
“…Wow.”
And now, the student council president herself had chased him down, yelling that he’d stolen her money.
“Our top student really is a total lunatic.”
The entire S Class nodded in agreement.
It was a silent consensus.
That name, Adel.
It was starting to stick in their minds more as ‘lunatic’ than ‘top enrollee.’
***
- Ting!
A gold coin flicked from my fingertips sparkled in the air before landing in my palm.
‘Should’ve grabbed a bit more.’
Just one gold coin?
From someone with flashy titles like student council president and duke’s daughter, no less.
‘What’s one coin? Just one.’
So stingy.
It left a bad taste, like I’d taken a loss.
Of course, from her perspective, she must feel insanely wronged.
It was the third time already.
‘Well, technically the second success.’
One time had ended in failure.
I stowed the gold coin in my inventory.
No matter how I sliced it, it was a pretty lame haul.
‘Ever since I met Carnel, my career’s been crumbling.’
I let out a sigh.
‘Nothing to do.’
I’d made it back to the dorm, but there was nothing to occupy myself with.
Absolutely nothing.
‘It’s been forever.’
Times like this, with absolutely nothing, were rare these days.
Maybe catch a nap? But I’d already slept over twelve hours, so my eyes wouldn’t close.
‘…Might as well exercise.’
Truth be told, exercise didn’t mean much to me.
Thanks to the shackles of 【Stigma】, my strength and muscles would never go up.
‘Still, I can’t pass up achievements.’
Push-ups: 1,000 times.
It dangled a whole +1 to strength.
1.
A pathetically small number, but.
‘Better than nothing.’
So I started doing push-ups in the personal training area attached to my dorm…
‘Ugh, fuck, I’m dying.’
I collapsed to the floor before even hitting fifty.
My whole body was soaked in sweat, arms trembling like crazy.
‘Haa…’
My head hurt too.
My mind was just too cluttered.
Me, the top enrollee and now in S Class.
Klaus had turned into an extra.
Dealing with Neru…
‘…I should shower.’
Better cool off this overheating head.
Sometimes you need cold water to snap out of spiraling thoughts.
- Splash.
Cold water poured over my head.
The chill running down my back sharpened my senses.
For a moment, I grabbed a fistful of my wet hair.
‘This hair… maybe I should cut it?’
I pondered briefly, then let my hand drop.
‘Nah.’
Just a distraction.
I shook off the excess water roughly and dried my hair with a towel.
And then.
[ ! ]
The status window popped up.
[ You have earned Veronica’s recognition! ]
[ Achievement ‘S Class’ unlocked! ]
[ Achievement ‘Top Enrollee’ unlocked! ]
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【S Class】
No way! You’ve earned Veronica’s recognition.
: All talent ranks increase by one level.
Your talents sparkle!
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
“…”
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Top Enrollee】
You’ve piqued Veronica’s interest!
: Magic power stat increases by 3.
How much more can you sparkle?
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ ! ]
[ Error occurred! ]
[ ‘Player’ talents ■■■■ ■■ ]
[ ‘Player’ magic power ■ ■■ ]
‘What the hell.’
Maybe because it checked my tragically shitty stats?
The system spat out an error.
[ Searching for alternative. ]
[ ■■■ ■□□ ]
[ Alternative found. ]
[ ‘Player’ can perform ‘Limit Breakthrough.’ ]
[ Proceed? ]
[ Y / N ]
‘Whoa…’
My jaw dropped on its own.
Limit Breakthrough.
The system that shatters growth limits once stats hit their cap.
Normally, even after reaching the limit, you’d have to fulfill a bunch of conditions multiple times just to maybe trigger it…
‘But does this even apply to me?’
My status wasn’t normal.
Leveling up stats was next to impossible for me.
‘Breaking through in that state…’
If it can’t go up anyway, what’s the point of opening the path?
Might be a meaningless opportunity.
‘…Still.’
This could be my one shot at real change.
‘…Accept.’
With no hesitation—I accepted.
[ Accepted. ]
[ Moving to Leviathan’s imaginary world ‘Abyss.’ ]
My vision flashed, and I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again…
‘…The sea?’
An endless ocean stretching out.
An abyss of unfathomable depth.
‘…?’
And in my hand was 【Leviathan】.
[ Claim victory against Leviathan. ]
[ Then 【Leviathan】 will become your power. ]
‘…A quest, huh.’
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Leviathan】
Rank: Mythic
The sword once held by 「The Silent King」 Laplace.
A monster born from the abyss, 「Leviathan」, slumbers within the blade.
Unique Skill
: 【If 「Leviathan」 awakens, its sealed powers are released.】
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
The current 【Leviathan】 was in a sealed state.
‘So, beat Leviathan, and the seal lifts. That it?’
The serene sea began to ripple.
And at the same time.
“Hey, human.”
‘?’
A sudden voice.
“…How’d you get here?”
‘…’
Pink hair.
Twin tails sticking out in pairs.
A pair of mismatched horns.
‘That’s Leviathan?’
Wait, wasn’t Leviathan supposed to be a dragon?
There was no dragon in sight—just a human standing there.
‘Well, Veronica walks around polymorphed as a human too, so whatever.’
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Levi■athan ]
■Sex
: 「Abyss■」
High■ ■■
: 【■yss ■nto】
: 【…】
■■ Traits
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
‘…Glitching again.’
Maybe because it’s Leviathan’s imaginary world—even 【Laplace’s Eye】 couldn’t read the info.
‘…Can I even win?’
Honestly, I had no confidence.
I couldn’t even handle a slime properly—beating a dragon?
[ ! ]
[ You cannot die in the imaginary world. ]
[ ‘Player’ may forfeit at will. ]
‘…’
So death wasn't possible.
Meaning… in this world, only victory exists—no defeat, no draws.
‘Ha.’
My lips curled up on their own.
The worst—and best—opportunity.
“…So that’s how it is?”
As I opened my mouth, the familiar pain returned.
“Cough.”
A mouthful of blood sprayed out.
‘Got it.’
Blood flows, pain hits, but no death.
It was totally different from reality.
“Ugh… Why’re you suddenly spewing blood, human!”
Leviathan scowled hard.
She seemed annoyed at the blood drops staining her home.
“Leviathan? Right?”
“…How do you know my name, human.”
Leviathan made no effort to hide her displeasure.
Just calling her name set her off—she's super sensitive, huh.
“…I asked how you got here, human.”
“No idea.”
“…Do something about that blood! You’re dirtying my house, human!!”
Oops.
Sorry to say.
Can’t help it if I’m wired to cough blood when I talk.
“Nothing I can do about it.”
“Argh! The blood’s seeping into the sea!!”
Leviathan looked on the verge of tears.
“Clean it up with your mind—this is your imaginary world.”
“…”
Oh, it actually vanished.
“Can’t you clean me up too? Why just the sea?”
“…Handle your own filth, human.”
“Aww.”
My body was still damp with blood, but whatever.
“…This is my third time asking—why are you here, human.”
“Earlier you said ‘how’d you get here.’ Don’t change your words on me.”
“…”
Leviathan’s eyebrow twitched.
“Hmm… wanna keep it simple?”
I laboriously lifted 【Leviathan】, pointing its tip at her.
Heavy, but manageable.
“Be mine?”
Uh… maybe my wording a bit off?
“…”
Leviathan stared straight through my mask.
“…Was that a confession or a threat?”
“Both?”
I answered.
- Whoosh!!
The sea surged.
With explosive speed—like teleportation—Leviathan rocketed toward me.
Her twin tails whipped the parted sea in her wake, waves surging up and slicing the air.
“First, I’ll smash that shitty mask, human!!”
“Well… I was hoping for a peaceful resolution.”
I touched the edge of my mask.
“Stop.”
The moment those words left my lips.
“…!!”
Leviathan’s body froze mid-air.
The waves, the wind, even her hair—all halted motionless in the air.
Shock flooded her eyes.
“Wh-what did you do, human!!”
“Dunno.”
Cough.
Blood welled up in my mouth again, but it was familiar now—no surprise.
The pain lingered, but no death.
“What did I do?”
My clothes were already blood-soaked.
Guts churning, but I clung to my focus.
“Stand up.”
“Gah!”
Leviathan’s body snapped upright.
“Sit.”
“Hngh!”
Her body crumpled back down.
“Good girl.”
“You little…! What the hell are you doing, human!!”
“What else.”
I slung 【Leviathan】 over my shoulder, smiling where she couldn’t see.
“Time to train the doggy.”