The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 18

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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 Duplicator of the Academy — Episode 18
Chapter 5: The Test (2)
“No matter how many times I see it, this is a beautiful vista. Especially the arrangement of the estate and courtyard… Hmm?”
Ortel, admiring the well-maintained landscaping of the Roah Estate, noticed something.
Elodi’s gaze shifted to the same spot.
“Isn’t that Frondier over there?”
“It… seems so?”
Neither of them had expected Frondier to be outside, so they tilted their heads in confusion.
Frondier stood in the middle of the empty courtyard of the estate.
His eyes still held their usual drowsy expression, yet they flickered with a rare intensity.
And then,
“……!”
Elodi sensed it.
Frondier had drawn up his Mana.
His raven-black hair rippled lightly.
Whatever magic he intended to cast, he was channeling a considerable amount of Mana.
‘Does Frondier have that much Mana?’
His Mana capacity seemed greater than what she had known.
Though her lack of prior interest meant her assessment was hardly precise.
But what mattered was not his total Mana pool, but how much he could expend in a single casting.
Magic cannot accept unlimited Mana poured into it.
A fundamental spell like Flame Spear — even if one tried to increase its power by flooding it with Mana, any Mana beyond the threshold would simply dissipate.
In other words, using a large amount of Mana meant the magic was of higher order.
‘What kind of magic does Frondier know that he would channel such Mana?’
Thus Elodi and Ortel watched Frondier’s form with equal parts tension and anticipation.
At last his Mana infusion ceased, and light bloomed at his fingertips.
And then.
Nothing happened.
“……Huh?”
She rubbed her eyes in case she’d simply missed something, but nothing had changed.
Whether Frondier had done something or not, the courtyard remained exactly as before.
Truly, there was nothing there.
* * *
I have no idea what kind of Magic Circle this is.
Menosorpho.
I came out to this estate courtyard to test this Magic Circle, a reward from clearing a dungeon.
Just manifesting the Magic Circle required considerable Mana, but even after inscribing it on the ground and triggering it, nothing visibly changed.
I’d been expecting something grand, since the scale was far larger than what I’d glimpsed in the description.
I scratched my head.
“Seems I’m fated to deal with invisible things.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
A voice reached me then. When I turned, there was Elodi.
And beside her, her father Ortel.
I bowed my head.
“Lord Ortel, I greet you.”
“Well, that’s unexpected. You being out here, of all things.”
Ortel spoke with a note of admiration.
The original Frondier would have shut himself in his room and had no intention of leaving it.
“Lately, staying in my room has felt stifling.”
I offered a reasonable excuse.
Elodi beside me furrowed her brow and pressed further.
“What do you mean by having a connection with invisible things?”
Of all things to catch.
I thought quickly.
“……Ah, you weren’t supposed to hear that. I saw a ghost a few days ago when I went to a dungeon.”
Good — that was clever thinking.
Seeing Sllebra wasn’t a lie, after all.
“……Is that really what you meant?”
“That’s what I said.”
Elodi closed her mouth, still unconvinced, and studied my expression.
But all that gazes back at me is a weary face.
“Hmm, well. You’ve done the dungeon and come back with energy. The Joint Mission should be no trouble at all.”
“The Joint Mission?”
“Right. One student each from first, second, and third year form a group and carry out missions in the Field.”
“……I see.”
Now that she mentioned it, something like that did exist.
Since teamwork is fundamental when dealing with monsters, the instructors need to know each student’s ability and role beforehand.
But teams composed solely of first-years would be too dangerous, so they form groups of three, with second and third-year students included.
The first-years learn from their seniors, the seniors teach their juniors, and everyone gains indirect experience of what it’s like to be a professional.
……Though when I played through the game, the Joint Mission wasn’t really a major event.
Because I was Aster Evans then.
I had unmatched ability among the first-years, and with second and third-years at my side, it was a straightforward event.
But now I’m Frondier.
Anything could happen.
“You need to place in the top ten of your year’s overall standings, right? The Joint Mission has bonus points attached to it too.”
You heard about that as well.
My year’s overall top ten was secondary; what Elodi said about the bonus points was true.
The Joint Mission happens right after third-years have their professional experience. I’ll need to train hard until then.
At least so I don’t embarrass myself.
* * *
The day of the Joint Mission.
All the students of Constel gathered in the Field.
The “Field” is a dedicated space that Constel created for students’ practical training.
The Field is a managed zone within a certain range, and its expanse rivals that of a small town.
Here, students carry out various missions—tracking monsters, exterminating them, capturing them, and so on.
After the teacher on the platform finished his tedious explanation, I drew a slip of paper from the bin.
Group B.
I stared silently at the slip I’d drawn in the Lottery Draw.
For some reason, I found myself wondering.
Did the original Frondier draw this slip too? But this one I chose of my own will?
……It was a meaningless thought.
“Oh?”
“Hm.”
Looking around, I spotted someone just then.
Quiney de Viet.
Quiney was fluttering a slip with ‘B’ written on it, looking at me.
“We keep running into each other.”
“Seems like it.”
Quiney’s expression as she answered my greeting was somehow subtle.
Ah, she must have done her professional experience. Let me ask to check.
“Was the information helpful?”
“……Yes. More than I expected.”
Quiney hesitated but answered honestly.
“Um, um…….”
And then there was one more person.
I’m a first-year, Quiney is a third-year.
So Group B still needed a second-year.
“This is Group B, right? Nice to meet you.”
A man approached, speaking in a somewhat feeble voice.
Dark brown hair in a short sports cut, and though that crisp hairstyle was refreshing, his face had a melancholic cast.
Narrow shoulders that seemed withdrawn, posture hunched inward.
I offered my greeting first.
“Yes. I’m Frondier. It’s a pleasure to work with you.”
“Oh, I’m Edwin. Second-year.”
Upon hearing his name, I froze.
It was a name I couldn’t possibly not know.
“……Edwin, are you perhaps from House Behertion?”
“Huh? You know my family?”
As Edwin threw that question back at me, a loud voice rang out from in front of the Field.
“Now that you’ve all found your groups, begin your missions! As mentioned, you have three hours! Do not venture beyond the Temperate Forest. Also, the monsters were already placed here a day ago, so if you examine the Field carefully, you’ll find traces they’ve left behind. Senior students will take the lead, tracking these signs and directing your first-years how to proceed! How well you teach your first-years will also affect your own evaluations.”
Tracking monsters is taught in theory class, but practice is a different beast.
When actual training begins, many students panic at the gap between lessons and reality, unable to show their true abilities.
The job of an upper-year student is to eliminate that confusion.
If you stay calm, observe the situation carefully, and recognize the difference between theory and practice, then applying what you’ve learned becomes entirely possible.
“All right, let’s begin!”
At that signal, some teams dashed forward quickly, while others were still discussing their approach.
“We should get going too. Speed isn’t everything, but if the monster we’re tracking gets caught by another team first, nothing’s more annoying than that.”
Quiney took the lead with an unhurried gait.
Frondier followed behind her, and Edwin trailed along with an awkward step.
‘……Edwin von Behertion.’
To be honest, I didn’t recognize him at first. I’d taken him for a commoner.
His clothes looked shabby, and his posture screamed timidity.
But he’s no commoner. Not even an ordinary nobleman.
He’s one of the characters who possess Divine Power.
A fallen noble—Edwin von Behertion.
Edwin is an odd sort of character.
Because he has Divine Power, players hear his name often, but in the actual game he’s almost nowhere to be found.
If Frondier exits the game entirely partway through, Edwin is definitely somewhere in Constel, but he’s so hard to find that his presence is barely noticeable.
“Edwin, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Quiney.”
“Y-yes, thank you…….”
Even as Quiney spoke warmly to him, Edwin’s voice grew quieter and quieter.
His personality certainly contributed to that faint presence.
“All right, the Temperate Forest starts here. Frondier, stay right beside me from now on. I’ll teach you the tricks to finding traces and how to track them.”
For some reason, Quiney was being unusually kind to me.
I didn’t know why, but there was no harm in it, so I decided to listen quietly.
While listening to Quiney’s explanation, I took a moment to observe Edwin.
He seemed to be approaching the search for traces earnestly.
Edwin is actually a pretty good character.
Like Quiney, he belongs to the “good” alignment, and on top of that, he has Divine Power.
That alone raises his value considerably.
Edwin’s Divine Power is Hephaestus, the blacksmith god of Greek mythology.
He shows exceptional skill at working with metal, and he’s intimately familiar with the “Flame” that no blacksmith can do without. He can even use metal to create golems later on.
Being a character with plenty of potential, as the game progresses, Edwin naturally rebuilds his House. He doesn’t stand out, but restoring his family’s glory is a foregone conclusion.
──Or at least, that’s how it went in the game.
Could a man who seemed to carry all the world’s melancholy really manage to rebuild his house?
“The easiest and best trace to find is a footprint. Look at this.”
Where Quiney pointed, there was a footprint far larger than a human foot. The prints were sparse due to surrounding leaves and fallen foliage, but their direction was clear enough.
“Impressive. The footprints are quite distinct, and looking at the stride length, it was walking. Looks like we found it first.”
Quiney spoke with obvious delight.
Then she flashed me a mischievous smile.
“So, does our new recruit know what made these footprints?”
Half of her tone was full of playful challenge.
It was clearly a question she expected me not to know the answer to.
Of course, there was no way I could know who left these footprints.
I could just say I don’t know, but it feels like she’s testing me somehow.
If I pass this test, I might win Quiney’s favor. Even if I’m wrong, I lose nothing—and I happen to know what monsters were placed in this Field for this Joint Mission.
It felt strange to be the only one holding information kept secret from the other students.
What I could tell about this footprint was simple:
it was damn big.
Among the creatures deployed to this Field, there was probably only one that was damn big like this…….
“……Red Bear?”
At my murmur, both Quiney and Edwin turned to look at me.
“H-how…….”
“How did you know?”
Caught off guard by their surprised reactions, I gave a casual answer.
“Like you said, the footprints are big and clear. I just took a guess.”
This would have to be one of my top five most honest statements since coming to this world.
But they clearly didn’t believe a word of it.

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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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