The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 169

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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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The Weapon Replicator of the Academy 169
Chapter 54: Lingering Tricks (6)
I was watching Lorie inside the Workshop.
The Workshop doesn’t actually weave anything — from the start, it’s an image stored within my skill itself.
Any intruder who enters it is plainly visible to me.
‘Lorie can’t see the inside of the Workshop, it seems.’
When I first entered the Workshop, I could see its interior clearly. I knew that no light could seep in from outside, and yet the space was brightly lit to my eyes.
But that was my perspective. For Lorie, an outsider, it seemed quite different.
“The mana consumption… shouldn’t differ that much.”
The Workshop is, after all, a storage vault. To move the objects inside it, I need an equivalent amount of mana.
But since they’re already in place from the start, it’s far faster than weaving them in reality.
Besides, she can’t escape from within, and I can toy with my opponent from a safe position — it’s nothing short of wicked.
Though I suspect this wasn’t its original purpose.
“Well then.”
I opened the Workshop’s door.
The door swung open smoothly, without even a creaking sound. Perhaps for the Workshop, such silence is merely natural.
And before me, walking forward slowly,
“Huff… huff…”
stood Lorie, breathing in shallow, trembling gasps.
Lorie was bound by the weapons I’d fired — her limbs completely immobilized. Most of the weapons were spears, and her arms and legs were each caught by spear shafts fired in three directions, preventing any movement.
If I had to describe it, it was like hanging a mannequin on a clothesline to dry.
“Hmm, you don’t look well.”
The moment I spoke, Lorie lifted her face toward me. To her eyes, clearly, this place was far too dark.
Yet her gaze hadn’t dimmed. Even without seeing my exact position, her eyes burned with defiance and malice toward me.
As it should be.
“You’re not injured, are you? I thought I aimed carefully to avoid you.”
“…You let your guard down, Frontdier.”
Lorie murmured something. A rueful smile crossed her face — though I couldn’t tell what she thought she’d let me overlook.
The moment our eyes met, her green irises blazed with light. Her pupils dilated wide, revealing a strange pattern within them. Intense magical power surged from her eyes, rushing toward me.
“Frontdier de Roach, release these bonds at once —”
“Sorry, that won’t work.”
I cut off her confident words. Lorie’s expression hardened instantly — the shift was so drastic I felt a pang of guilt.
Lorie’s specialty is Hypnosis. It’s different from the emotional shifts Edwin experienced at Hephaestus’s hands, or Serf’s business card. If I had to describe it, it’s an ability that makes people “intoxicated.”
Unlike Hephaestus or Serf, it doesn’t require special conditions, but it’s also less forceful because of that.
Lorie’s hypnosis is still more powerful than ordinary variants, and skilled enough that she can create new personalities through self-hypnosis, but—
“It doesn’t work well on people you’ve already warned. She’d need to catch you off-guard, and even that failed.”
Lorie might have thought that last moment was a surprise attack, but to me, who knew it was coming, it was nothing of the sort.
‘…But I didn’t expect it to fail completely like this.’
I’d read the nature of her hypnosis and grown slightly tense. Just in case, I’d wrapped myself in an Aura as well. I’d expected the hypnosis to catch shallowly at least, and I’d resolved to shake it off immediately.
But it didn’t work at all. If it had even partially worked, Lorie wouldn’t be making that expression.
‘Is this just because Lorie’s hypnosis is weaker than I thought?’
“…Kill me, you madman.”
Lorie went limp, as if surrendering. That hypnosis must have been her last resort.
I examined Lorie’s body briefly. There were small cuts on her arms, legs, and sides.
That wasn’t my fault. She’d thrashed about on her own when I fired the weapons. If she’d stayed still, she wouldn’t have been hurt at all. The injuries weren’t from dodging — she was bound anyway. The only explanation is that she panicked and moved of her own accord.
“Still not willing to talk?”
“I told you to kill me — kyaaaaaaah?!”
I tipped the entire Workshop on its side. Like pushing over a rectangular block of Lego, I simply tilted it. What was the floor became a wall; the walls became ceiling and floor. I floated in midair, watching Lorie dangling sideways, still bound.
“Kill me, kill me, you’re always screaming whenever I do something — quite the songbird, aren’t we?”
“How… how could you… this can’t…”
I’d meant it as playful teasing, but Lorie wasn’t irritated — she was stunned, murmuring to herself. She didn’t have the energy to be angry. To her eyes, the world must have felt upended.
‘Lorie was letting her guard down around me. She never expected this kind of response once she was bound.’
In other words, I had time.
That’s probably why Lorie’s mental state was in such turmoil right now. Captured by an unexpected person, in an unexpected place, at an unexpected time — and then nothing else happened.
“Actually, I have no intention of killing you.”
“…?”
Lorie’s brow furrowed as she looked at me. Her expression said she was bracing for more nonsense.
But it wasn’t nonsense.
“You’ve tested it by now, so you know — you can’t escape from here. Right now you’re bound and can’t move an inch. If you don’t cooperate with my terms, I simply leave. That’s all.”
Of course, there was a fair amount of bluffing mixed into this.
Weaving a Workshop uses less Mana than Weaving other weapons, but there’s still continuous consumption. The weapons I used to restrain Lorie also drain Mana. So eventually, the Workshop will fade, and Lorie’s restraints will break free.
But that consumption rate is trivial with my current state after consuming the Dragon Heart.
Besides, humans naturally recharge Mana over time, and I’ve repeated Mana Depletion so many times that my recharge rate is far faster than others.
If I refrain from using Mana for anything else, the Workshop should last at least a week, accounting for my body’s natural recharge against the current consumption.
‘A week won’t be enough to kill Lorie, but it’s plenty to make her believe this Workshop is permanent.’
I deliberately placed her inside the Workshop, restrained her in an elaborate display, and just now even toppled the Workshop to its side.
This is psychological warfare against Lorie—making her believe this mysterious space is something I control at will and that it lasts forever.
“I’ll come back here again in a month.”
“A, a month……?”
“If you don’t want to talk, spend the month thinking deeply about it. That should give you enough time.”
“…….”
Thankfully, Lorie didn’t ask about water or food for a month. If she had been that stupid, this would’ve been truly exhausting.
“I hope you don’t think I’m lying. Convincing you sounds tedious. I’m almost certain you’re targeting my father. Even without you confessing everything, keeping you locked up here is enough for me.”
Whether Lorie acts alone or whether there’s someone above her—
Either way, the mere fact that Lorie is detained will be a significant loss for them. If Lorie is moving independently, then this situation ends right here.
If Lorie’s target were Angen’s murder, I would’ve stepped back. That’s not something an individual or a small organization can accomplish.
Angen doesn’t belong to Zodiac, but that’s simply his choice. If someone tried to kill Angen, I’d just laugh at their idiocy.
But Gregory knows it too, and so do I—Lorie’s purpose is something else.
“Then I’ll ask one last time.”
“…….”
“What’s your purpose? Why did you attack me?”
I asked this question without any malice or killing intent.
It wasn’t a threat. I told her everything as it was. This question is final, and if you don’t answer, I’m leaving this place.
Not for a full month like I told Lorie, but keeping her detained for about a week would still be quite advantageous.
“…….”
Deliberation flickered in Lorie’s eyes, but her mouth remained sealed.
‘Hmm.’
That was the extent of my reaction. Lorie chose not to answer. That registered in my mind, and I simply output accordingly.
I turned around. I moved toward the entrance.
With Lorie detained, I should also take precautions in case someone else approaches Angen or me. First, I’ll tell Gregory—
“Wait, hold on.”
As I pushed the door half open, Lorie’s voice reached me. Had she been hoping against hope until I actually opened it? Did she see the light seeping through the door into absolute darkness and change her mind?
“If you say ‘hold on,’ that’s one thing.”
“I, I’ll talk. My purpose, why I attacked.”
“You should just spill the information before saying you’ll talk.”
I opened the door fully. Lorie might be stalling for time. She might have even requested reinforcements through a contact I don’t know about, so speed is better.
I stepped outside the Workshop and checked my surroundings. Hmm, nothing has entered Menosorphe’s range yet.
But it doesn’t matter. If Lorie’s information proves worthless, I’ll simply leave as planned—
“Beyond Yerantheser’s Barrier, I witnessed monster worship!”
I froze.
I stopped right there.
It seems Lorie was holding information more useful than I expected.
“I was dispatched to confirm whether it was Angen’s doing, kyaaak?”
I deactivated the Workshop. Lorie, who had been hanging on the wall, plummeted through the air along with the weapons.
With that, Lorie’s restraints were released, but I honor deals. She must surely know she can’t escape from me. If she tries to run this time, there won’t be any “without injury” condition next time.
“Monster worship? Humans are worshipping monsters outside the Barrier?”
Are there humans living somewhere beyond the Barrier, where monsters swarm? I asked, my heart racing at the possibility.
But Lorie’s answer brought me some disappointment.
“No, it’s the reverse.”
“Reverse?”
“When I said monster worship, I didn’t mean humans worshipping monsters. The monsters were worshipping something.”
“……You bastard.”
Daring to confuse me?
Lorie saw my expression and hurriedly waved her arms.
“I, I didn’t lie! I was just in such a hurry that I abbreviated it, so it came out that way!”
“That’s a lie. Who uses the term ‘monster worship’ in that way?”
“……I, I see. I’m sorry.”
Lorie apologized with what seemed like genuine remorse.
After being freed from the restraints, Lorie had become somewhat more honest. Though that oddly stiff manner of speech remained.
“What were the monsters worshipping?”
“I don’t know either.”
“You answer me like that one more time, and I’ll make sure you don’t know anything at all.”
“It was a massive block of ice! No, a glacier! A towering glacier like a mountain. I watched those creatures trembling and cowering in that frozen land where even monsters turned to ice. The interior of that glacier seemed filled with something pitch-black.”
……It’s Heukcheon. No, it’s a Helhiem Fragment.
The monsters outside are worshipping the Helhiem Fragment.
“How large was it?”
“The glacier? Enormous. Truly massive enough to call a mountain.”
Warden Esther called it ‘a vast frozen lake sleeping within the glacier.’ That description didn’t seem exaggerated.
“Why do they worship it?”
“I’m not entirely certain, but occasionally the pitch-black thing inside the glacier emerges and transforms into something like a monster. It radiates an unsettling, ominous aura—something not of this world. It’s a monster I’ve never seen before. And whenever that creature made contact with other monsters outside,”
“……that monster’s blackness rubbed off onto the outer monsters.”
“Exactly. The ones it stained became stronger and more ferocious. The parts covered in that black became tremendously hard. I suspect the monsters were captivated by that strength.”
So when Lorie attacked me using goblins, they had Helhiem Fragments on them then.
……No.
“That can’t be right. The goblins I fought were far too weak for outer monsters—even with that stain on them. They must have been creatures hiding inside the Barrier. How could she have gotten that stain onto them?”
Could Lorie still be lying to me, even now?
Perhaps extracting information without inflicting pain was naive after all. From this moment on, I could break Lorie’s body quite thoroughly,”
“……My Hypnosis worked on that black monster too. I just brought one back and had it stained onto the goblins.”
“……What?”
Her Hypnosis worked on monsters created from Helhiem Fragments?
‘…….’
I paused to consider, then spoke.
“That Hypnosis is more formidable than I thought. I’d dismissed it as a parlor trick.”
“You’re the strange one for it not working on you!!”
Lorie let out a shrill cry.
It was the most feminine tone I’d ever heard from her.

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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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