School (5)

“Choose a major?”

At the same time, the School guy beside me let out a shout.

“Whoa!”

“School Guy, you’re picking a major too?”

“Huh? No, it just said my school life was being evaluated, then my skill got upgraded?”

“Really? You’re already basically full stealth. What’s even left to upgrade?”

The moment I said that, the School guy vanished.

He looked like he wanted me to see it for myself, but had he forgotten that his ability was stealth?

Then came a tap-tap at the window.

“Huh?”

The hallway outside the classroom.

School Guy was standing there, grinning at me.

Teleporting with stealth?

No. I hadn’t even heard the classroom door open.

“How’s that! Pretty insane, right? This is the incorporeal form I got this time!”

“You do look dead. At this point you’ve basically become a ghost.”

“No one can stop me now, lol.”

School Guy appeared in front of me again.

The activation conditions were the same, but now he could move in ways that completely ignored the laws of physics.

Wasn’t that cheating?

“Though if you get stuck in a wall with this, that seems like a huge problem.”

“What, I’m not a game character, so… I probably won’t get bounced out, but maybe I’ll just end up like a giant barrier?”

“...Yeah, you probably shouldn’t use it carelessly. If you go into a wall, you can’t see anything, so you wouldn’t even know which way to turn.”

“Still better than getting caught by an anomaly, so I’ll take the win.”

That left my major selection.

Elite Blacksmith, sure, but what the hell was Destroyer?

Was my entire school life supposed to have been nothing but indiscriminate destruction?

I did break a lot of stuff, though.

Lockers, the janitor, and then even the students, all wiped out in one sweep.

From the School’s point of view, I was basically a natural disaster.

But still, what was I actually supposed to pick?

Blacksmith or Destroyer... honestly, Destroyer was pretty tempting.

I had no idea what kind of ability it was, but the name alone sounded powerful.

Elite Blacksmith

Blueprints have been activated.

“Weren’t you going with Destroyer?”

“What are you talking about? I was born a blacksmith to the marrow of my bones.”

“You seem more suited to destruction than making things...”

“Who’s more creative than me? Forget it, find me some decent clothes. I’m freezing.”

I hesitated for a moment, but in the end I chose Elite Blacksmith.

Destroyer did sound good, sure.

But everything that had kept me alive so far had been equipment made through the Blacksmith skill.

And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the beauty of Blacksmith was that the more gear I made, the stronger I got. Gear mattered. A lot.

Besides, meeting School Guy like this gave me another idea.

What if I gathered all the forum guys with their own abilities and equipped them with gear I made? Wouldn’t that basically become an anti-anomaly army?

Then what was there to fear about the Backrooms?

I already knew how to move around, so maybe I could build up a faction like some weird territory-management game.

Set up a huge safe zone.

That would make it easier to find an exit, and even if we couldn’t leave, at least people could live like people again.

“Here. This is the least ruined one.”

“Thanks. Finally I get to stop wandering around in my underwear.”

“Seriously. Why were you walking around like that, like some kind of pervert? Didn’t the mall have any clothes?”

“There were women’s clothes. I could’ve torn off the sleeves from a floral top and worn it like a vest, and for the bottom I could’ve thrown on one of those lacy, frilly skirts... but would that really have been better?”

“...Hm. The underwear was more gentlemanly.”

“Right?”

If I’d kept walking around in that outfit, no one could’ve blamed them for mistaking me for an anomaly.

Anyway, now that I was wearing a clean uniform and had been reborn as a proper student, I picked up the materials I’d set aside earlier.

“Blueprints, huh...”

There were two blueprints?

Once I picked up the materials, the rough shape appeared in the air like a sketch.

The Sword Whip, with its segmented blade extending into a whip-like weapon, was lower rank, but the materials were easier to get and it’d be quick to make.

‘So I’d have to sacrifice Aracne’s bracelet to make this one.’

Vortex, which demanded a core of thought itself, was a bizarrely twisted spear.

Its rank was A.

Judging by the abilities that B-rank Black Moon, the bracelet, and the lantern had, this had to be good.

But it still sucked that I had to use the bracelet, which had been so useful.

On top of that, the bone I had was enough to make two Sword Whips, but only if I put everything into one Vortex would I lose an equipment item entirely.

It was hard not to waver between making two Sword Whips, or making one Vortex and deleting a piece of gear.

“Hey! Why are you suddenly destroying the bracelet!”

“One well-built item beats ten pieces of junk gear.”

“What are you talking about! This web ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stuff was super useful, damn it!”

School Guy wailed next to me, but I ignored him and dismantled the bracelet, turning it into loosened threads like a unraveling skein.

Then I sharpened the broad plates of the parasite tongue and started working them one by one into long, curved blade segments.

“This is going to take a while. School Guy, you know your lunch box is mine, right?”

“Whoa, you were serious?”

“Promises exist for a reason. Bring it here.”

It looked like this was going to take a long time, so I emptied both lunch boxes that had been served for noon.

I hadn’t had rice in ages, so I even chugged down the soup I usually never bothered to look at.

Then it was back to work.

After splitting the backbone apart and shaping the attached plates, the last step was to carve a groove into the middle and thread in the silver strand.

At first School Guy watched with interest, but before long he got bored, said he was going to go read forum posts, and wandered off.

It was dull, grueling work.

By the time I finished working on more than a hundred bones, it was almost evening.

“All right, now I just need to connect them and fuse them together.”

I linked the longer, thinner blade segments into four branches.

Aracne’s thread had now taken on both black-silk and silver-thread properties, fusing the blade fragments together or making them extend.

Then, following the blueprint, I twisted the four branches together to form the shaft, and at the tip the four prongs gathered into a single point, becoming the spearhead.

A spear made even its shaft from curved blades.

But the curves were just slight enough to protect my palm, so no matter where I grabbed it, I wouldn’t cut myself.

It looks a lot like the Spear of Longinus.

Not a double helix, but a quadruple helix.

I wondered what kind of ability it had.

It was A-rank, so it had to be insane, right?

Hm? I got penetration, sure, but what the hell was storm?

I’d figure it out later.

When I swung the completed white spear around, the feeling of slicing through the air was satisfyingly sharp.

“Oh, that’s finished? That’s insane!”

“It’s an A-rank weapon, after all. Ah, I hope the janitor respawns tonight.”

“You’re insane... at this point you don’t even treat me like an anomaly anymore.”

“I have to test its performance.”

According to the blueprint, Vortex’s skill, Storm, would probably extend it long like the Sword Whip.

Could it restrain things too?

“Oh, right. Jemmin’s looking for you.”

“Jemmin? Why?”

“We were talking about clearing the School, and he said he had something to tell you.”

Really? If Jemmin was summoning me, then I had to go.

I headed straight to the computer room and, amid the forum users rioting out of jealousy over School Guy’s graduation, posted a new thread.

That much was true.

School Guy’s ability was specialized entirely for hiding, so against anomalies he was basically useless.

I grinned at School Guy, pointed at myself with my thumb once, and then went back to reading Jemmin’s replies.

S-shit, S-rank?

My hammer was already twitching with anticipation over what I’d make next.

Since I needed to test ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it anyway, maybe I should go to one more Backroom?