The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Academy Weapon Replicator Episode 1
Prologue
The man gripped the sword with both hands. The blade, held vertically aloft, reflected sunlight.
[Baldur, grant me strength.]
As if answering the murmured prayer, the blade blazed with light.
The man exhaled sharply, then pushed off the ground in a leap. The earth compressed beneath his feet, and the air itself seemed to shudder and surge toward him.
A horde of monsters filled his entire field of vision.
The blade stretched toward one of them—a bovine head standing on two legs, sprouting a pair of horns.
[Uurgh……!]
With a rasp, the blade reached the creature’s temple but only grazed the skin.
His desperate attack came to nothing.
The beast extended its arm. It seized the man’s leg. Suspended in the air, he hung helpless.
A whoosh of wind blurred his vision,
[──!]
Crack! The creature hurled him against a nearby tree as one might wring out a wet cloth.
Whether it was his back or his ribs that struck, something broke—and blood surged backward, forcing him to retch.
Wet and gasping, his body, stuck briefly to the bark, began to slide.
The leg it had seized was broken too. Or rather, shattered would be more precise.
He lay prone and lifted his head to look upward.
Sunlight poured down—the same light that had made his sword shine moments before. The rays broke through the verdant canopy of leaves.
And the creature.
The creature gazed down at him with its bovine eyes.
[……Baldur, master of justice and light, I…….]
A crunching sound tore through the air.
* * *
I glanced at the monitor.
“GAME OVER” sat in the center of the screen, blunt and merciless.
I exhaled through my nose, then drew in an equal breath.
“Damn it.”
I raised my fist toward the keyboard, then recalled its price and thought better of it. My hand hovered toward the mouse, but the same calculation stopped me.
My fingers drifted through empty air before I crossed my arms.
“I’ve tried everything I can think of.”
Etheus—a game where swords and magic, gods and monsters, exist.
No one has ever been as obsessed with this game as I am.
Everyone else had rage-quit before me and bailed.
Now that I’d finally declared defeat myself, I was both the stupidest and the biggest victim among all players.
“I thought it was a masterpiece.”
Vibrant AI, a vast open world, compelling characters, endless content.
At launch, critics said it was like dropping an entire fantasy realm from another world straight into a game.
But the truth was, the balance was broken.
Not a single person has ever seen an ending to this game except the protagonist’s death.
For all its breadth, the open world has boundaries you cannot cross because of the monsters—and beyond those boundaries, even common trash mobs are impossible to kill.
It doesn’t feel like a game designed to be cleared. The company has no intention of fixing it either.
But somehow, that only stoked my desire to challenge it.
‘If they have no intention of fixing it, then there has to be a way to break through somewhere.’
That’s what I believed.
Why had I thought that?
“I’m exhausted.”
I laid my arms on the desk and buried my face.
It was time for me to say goodbye to this game.
That game over was the final move I’d devised to clear Etheus.
Since it failed too, there’s no other way.
“Frontier.”
So Etheus became the first game I’ve ever failed to clear.
Though maybe it doesn’t count, since no one cleared it anyway.
“Frontier Loarche.”
……But what was this voice?
A strange sound came from my empty room.
I lifted my head toward it.
“……?”
I saw what looked like a blackboard.
Before it, a woman who resembled a teacher stood lecturing from what seemed to be a textbook.
The teacher was looking at me.
“Oh, me?”
I answered without thinking.
Frontier? I’d never heard that name before.
“Then who else would it be?”
The teacher spoke as though it were obvious—as though my being “Frontier” or whatever was the most natural thing in the world.
I looked around. I saw the faces of students in school uniforms.
Some of them were snickering as they watched me.
‘This isn’t my room.’
This is a classroom. My room has become a classroom. I’d just lifted my head from my desk.
‘……Ah.’
Is this a dream?
I’ve been so obsessed with the game Etheus that I’m having dreams this vivid.
“Frontier, do you know what this weapon is called?”
The teacher displayed a screen to the right.
An image floating in empty air—the magical apparatus called WizardView.
Seeing magic technology I’d only witnessed in games manifested before my eyes felt surreal.
‘That is…’
I saw the weapon the teacher had displayed with WizardView.
It was a twig. Not a weapon at all.
‘……I see.’
I understand what answer the teacher is looking for.
But since this is a dream.
Why not be a little oblivious?
“That’s a twig. It’s not a weapon.”
The students’ laughter grew louder at my words. The teacher sighed.
“As expected, you haven’t been listening to class at all today.”
I really hadn’t been listening. I couldn’t have been.
“……Teacher, was today’s lesson about Baldur?”
Baldur—the god of light, son of Odin from Norse mythology.
He was said to have been killed by a mistletoe twig.
The name of that twig was Mistiltin.
In other words, I should have answered that the twig was Mistiltin.
The teacher looked at me as though I were something strange.
“……That’s correct. Student Frontier, if you knew, then why—”
“Teacher.”
I looked again at the twig in the WizardView.
There’s no doubt. That is simply a ‘twig.’
“Mistiltin doesn’t look like that.”
A weapon that would one day be wielded by the protagonist’s hand in the world of Etheus.
I had seen that weapon countless times, handled it.
Distinguishing between a ‘mistletoe twig’ and ‘Mistiltin’ was child’s play.
“…….”
“…….”
Students and teacher fell silent, staring at me with gazes filled with displeasure, irritation, and disgust.
Well, it made sense. Everyone truly believed that Mistiltin looked exactly like that at the game’s beginning.
“…….”
So then.
When does this dream end?
* * *
……A week passed after that.
I had to accept it. This is not a dream. Whether I accepted it or not, this was reality.
Thinking it was a dream, I’d gone on about Mistiltin for no reason and already spoiled my reputation.
As I walked down the hallway, I heard whispers directed at me.
—Isn’t that the one who was talking nonsense in class?
……I’m the one fielding the “that guy” and “that one” references.
“Well, it seems this body’s reputation was already poor.”
Now I am in a certain mansion. The mansion where the original owner of this body lived.
How did he find me? The moment class ended, an assistant was waiting in front of the main gate to pick me up in a car.
I rode in a very luxurious sedan to this place.
Up until then, I’d harbored some hope. I’d already gathered that this was no mere protagonist—but rather a child of considerable noble standing.
Moreover, the face I saw reflected in the mirror pleased me greatly.
Jet-black hair and eyes, their darkness so deep and refined, and the features themselves were equally handsome.
Before I learned the truth, I’d nearly been deceived by this appearance.
I looked at the watch on my wrist, sitting on my desk in this room.
A Smart Watch.
The only item I’d brought with me when crossing over from my original world to this one. Perhaps because I was wearing it on my wrist, though then why had all my clothes changed?
That remains a mystery even now.
I thought there was no way this Smart Watch would still function, but it didn’t just work.
• Name: Frontier de Loarche
• Age: 17
• Affiliation: Second son of the Loarche Family, First-year student at Constel
• Race: Human
• Divine Power: None
Skill Details >
Magic Details >
Quests >
It operated in an entirely different manner.
This was no longer a mere timepiece.
The status interface of Etheus that I’d grown so familiar with—it was right here in my Smart Watch.
Seeing this made it real. The reality that I had fallen into another world.
To this place, I was a complete outsider, and this status screen was one of the few sources of salvation available to me.
“……Frontier de Loarche.”
It was an unfamiliar name. It took me a long time to place it.
I’d played this game very earnestly, trying to uncover every hidden element tucked away in its corners. Even for someone like me, this was a character difficult to recall.
After finally remembering, a sigh escaped first.
──Human Sloth Frontier.
A derisive epithet, likening him to a sloth. It meant nothing else—just mockery.
Not lazy yet powerful,
Not indolent yet harboring hidden depths,
Nothing of the sort.
Just a lazy and indolent character. Nothing more than that.
“With a skill composition like this, I can’t say I don’t understand the laziness.”
In the world of Etheus, what determined strength and weakness, capability and incompetence, was solely Skills, Magic, and Divine Power.
Among these, Divine Power refers to strength bestowed by the divine.
In Etheus, deities from countless mythologies appear and grant power to humans. Yet such humans are not numerous.
A human who receives Divine Power is essentially chosen, and those who actually possess it are invariably named characters.
By contrast, Skills and Magic can be acquired by anyone, though their power pales compared to Divine Power. Yet neither are they easily obtained.
Truly, only a rare few forge Skills and Magic through bleeding effort and talent that surpass even Divine Power itself.
Frontier had no Divine Power to speak of,
possessed no Magic whatsoever,
and as for his Skills.
Skill Details>
[Weaving]
• Grade: Unique
• Description: Stores and replicates the image of an object. However, the replica is illusory. It undergoes processes of ‘Workshop’ and ‘Replication’.
– Workshop: Stores a woven object in a virtual space.
– Replication: Replicates an object stored in the Workshop.
That was how it was laid out.
To explain what this means.
I picked up a fountain pen from my desk and used ‘Weaving’.
The image of the pen was stored, and the stored image materialized before my eyes as if threads were being woven together.
Like something being printed by a 3D printer.
Probably that’s why it’s called ‘Weaving’.
[Fine Fountain Pen from Biet Trading House] (Replicated)
• Grade: Common
• Description: A woven imitation of a fountain pen. It possesses no physical substance.
I held the genuine fountain pen in my left hand and the replicated one in my right.
To my eyes, they looked completely identical.
This is Weaving. It replicates objects as illusions.
Once an object has been subjected to ‘Weaving’ like this, its image is stored in the ‘Workshop’.
As written above, the Workshop is like a virtual space of mine where I can conveniently view stored items.
I can confirm it with my own eyes like augmented reality, so I can display weapons, tools, and anything else without restriction.
Because of this, Weaving is possible anytime, anywhere.
Only of objects I’ve directly witnessed with my own eyes, though.
Even if I know a weapon exists in my head, it won’t be stored in the Workshop until I’ve actually seen it.
Frontier, before my possession, had apparently used certain weapons and items several times already, so a number of them were stored.
……It sounds plausible when I explain it like this.
But it’s all imagination, so it’s all fake.
This replicated fountain pen can’t write, and it can’t even pierce a single sheet of paper.
Moreover, it’s only visible to my eyes, so other people don’t even know whether I’ve done Weaving or not.
A delusion that can’t interfere with reality at all.
……We decided to call this a ‘hallucination’.
I have no idea what to do with it or how to use it.
“I’ve never seen a Skill like this while using Etheus.”
Since I’ve never seen it before, naturally its rank is Unique.
The Unique rank has a different characteristic from other ranks in Etheus.
Ranks exist from the lowest ‘Common’ to the highest ‘Divine’, but the ‘Unique’ rank is not included in this hierarchy.
Instead, the Unique rank has a different quality. It is one and only.
Because of this, Unique rank cannot be a standard for judging good or bad. No matter how useless, if it’s only one in existence, it bears the ‘Unique’ rank.
……But is there really a Unique Skill this worthless?
“Sloth Frontier.”
This Skill seems to prove that ridiculous epithet.
From now on, I must live through a game that the protagonist couldn’t even clear, inhabiting Frontier’s body.
“Just surviving isn’t even the problem.”
I clicked on the ‘Quest’ section in the Smart Watch.
Quests >
[Main Quest: Reversal of Fate]
•Description: You know the final hour of humanity’s destruction. Save humanity and change your fate.
This Quest was there from the moment I opened the Smart Watch. It was probably a Quest that existed from the instant I possessed Frontier.
According to this Quest’s description, I know the ending of this game. Or rather, I should say I know the ending when it’s not cleared.
The final hour of humanity is pitifully bleak.
In a typical game, there would usually be some Demon King or equivalent final boss, or a vast conspiracy, or some hidden force behind the scenes. Humanity doesn’t meet destruction from things like that.
They are simply slaughtered by Monsters. Humanity’s homeland is gradually taken by Monsters, and at last, unable to withstand the waves of Monsters that come crashing down, they are swept away.
Even the protagonist of this game meets such a futile end.
And I’m being told to stop it.
Ha ha ha.
Knock knock.
A maid’s voice came from beyond the door.
“Frontier? May I come in?”
“Yes, yes, of course.”
Without thinking, I answered in a polite form. Since Frontier was born a nobleman, this manner of speech would be odd.
The maid who entered was looking at me as if finding me somewhat strange. Of course, she wouldn’t speak her thoughts aloud.
“Frontier, a letter has arrived.”
“A letter? For whom?”
I force myself to speak in a more casual tone. It will be awkward for now, but I’ll grow accustomed to it gradually.
“It’s from Anfer.”
“……From Father?”
Anfer, Frontier’s father.
I may not know the character named Frontier, but I know Anfer. I know him very well.
The Iron Wall of the North, Anfer de Loarche.
From the borderland territory of the Therst Empire called Yeran Hes, a superhuman who has never once permitted a Monster incursion.
The reason Frontier is a stranger to me is because his father Anfer and his eldest son Asgie occupy nearly all of the Loarche Family’s significance.
Anfer possesses both the command ability to reach the rank of general in the military and a personal martial prowess that rivals the Zodiac, among the continent’s twelve finest warriors.
Asgie inherited all of that formidable father’s talent and surpassed him, becoming an outright game-breaking character by Etheus’s official standards.
Anfer, now my father, has sent me a letter.
I received the letter from the maid’s hands with some tension and broke the seal. The letter bore a simple message.
[Frontier, your laziness has reached a sufficient degree.
Rank in the top ten of your year at Constel.
Failure to do so means expulsion from the family.]
I read through the whole thing and exhaled slowly through my nose. Then I sucked in just as much air.
“……This is a rigged game!”
“Did you say something, sir?”
“It’s nothing!”
My life is about to get a lot more complicated.
Ping—a monotone alert sounded, and I checked my Smart Watch.
[Sub Quest Created]
[Sub Quest: Father’s Command]
•Description: Through years of witnessing Frontier’s laziness, Anfer’s patience has reached its limit.
•Objective: Achieve a ranking within the top ten of your year at Constel this semester
•Reward: You will earn Anfer’s acknowledgment.
•Failure: You will be cast out from the family.
I know, I know!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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