The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 20

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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 20
Chapter 6: The Golem (1)
After the joint operation ended.
“Huh.”
As I headed toward the Training Hall after classes as usual, I saw someone approaching from down the corridor.
A woman with long, chestnut-brown hair. Her gentle eyes had a calming effect on anyone who looked at her.
The woman approached me with an unhurried gait,
and passed right through me without stopping.
‘…Strange person.’
Up until now, I could count on one hand the number of students who’d passed by me without reaction.
Mixed with bad rumors and notoriety, nothing ever slipped past unnoticed.
Yet this woman treated me with complete indifference.
No, it wasn’t simple indifference—it was something else entirely. Like I hadn’t even registered in her awareness.
‘…Ah.’
The thought struck me like a key turning in a lock.
A memory surfaced.
The moment I realized who she was, a rueful laugh escaped me.
I felt like an idiot.
“It’s Ellin.”
Aster Evans’s older sister, Ellin Evans.
She wasn’t truly indifferent, nor did she carry that calming aura.
She’d simply been asleep the whole time.
I scratched my head and continued toward the Training Hall.
Ding—
While I was taking a brief rest, my Smartwatch chimed.
A Quest notification.
I sensed the timing and knew immediately what Quest this would be.
But I hoped it wouldn’t be. I hoped otherwise as I opened the Smartwatch, yet—
[Main Quest: Attack]
– A large-scale Monster attack will occur in Constel. Prepare accordingly.
– If your response is inadequate, there is a possibility of Named Character loss.
“They’re calling this a Quest?”
The Quest description was brutally straightforward. Yet the reality was far from simple.
Constel’s Main Quest—the Attack.
Exactly as described. An event where Monsters suddenly flood in like a tide.
Etius always demands the player’s choice.
Events happen as written, but how you respond is entirely your freedom.
This attack was no exception.
You could slaughter Monsters indiscriminately, target only the important ones, or observe from a distance entirely.
If worse came to worst, it was even possible to leave Constel altogether during the event.
But you’d pay a steep price for that.
The Quest itself had driven home the warning about Named Character loss.
“Ultimately, I need to become stronger.”
When I fought the Red Bear, I was lucky. Or should I even call it a fight?
I knew its habits and could read the movements before its pattern—I knew it would roar. I succeeded in throwing my Practice Dagger at the bear’s eyes at that moment, but that was all.
If I’d been alone, I would have died after that.
I couldn’t rely on improvisation working every time.
Crafting was important, certainly, but I needed to gain actual combat experience.
“…Sigh.”
A breath escaped me.
Truth is, I know how to solve this. But I’m not keen on it.
Still, there’s only one answer, and at worst it’s a wash.
“…Should I go?”
I stood up.
* * *
At that very moment, in Professor Binkis’s Research Lab.
In a dark corridor without a single light, someone crouched in front of the Research Lab door.
The hooded figure, familiar with the space, surveyed the area and used Divine Power to unlock the metal lock hanging there.
To one blessed by Hephaestus, a metal lock was no different from an open door.
Upon entering, they lit the Lantern they’d brought. A soft crackle filled the air as it caught, and the surroundings flooded with light.
The hood came away to reveal Edwin.
Edwin walked slowly to his destination and brought the lantern with him.
“……Extraordinary.”
There, standing before him, was a golem—Professor Binkis’s creation, a Metal Golem.
It knelt on one knee with a spear planted upright, its bearing as noble as that of a steadfast knight.
From what Edwin had observed while assisting Professor Binkis, this golem was complete.
He swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry.
Edwin’s eyes pierced through the Metal Golem’s entire structure. As he’d seen before, the master’s authority remained vacant.
Drunk on the sight, Edwin reached out and let his magical power flow into it.
‘……It has encryption, just as I thought.’
The vacant master’s seat did not mean the security was careless.
To claim that authority required countless layers of protection and codes known only to Professor Binkis.
For the first time, Edwin hesitated. Up until now, he could dismiss his actions as mere curiosity, but if he touched the security system, there would be no escape—he’d be caught red-handed.
But the hesitation was brief; his eyes flared with even brighter intensity.
The structure of this golem that Binkis had created was meticulous, intricate, and exquisite.
To Edwin’s eyes, it was simply beautiful.
If he could make this golem his own.
‘……Well, it’s just a test. What could possibly go wrong?’
Edwin began dismantling the security. With the care and precision of someone defusing a time bomb, his speed and accuracy were beyond anything Binkis could have anticipated.
Yet to pierce through the security, one needed something far more powerful than skill alone: luck.
No matter how perfectly one read the structure, forcing one’s way past the encryption meant navigating through fork after fork, each a potential dead end.
Fail once, and the security would lock completely, immediately signaling Professor Binkis.
The difficulty was staggering—to dodge every trap while comprehending the structure with perfect accuracy, and then to answer correctly every question that inevitably demanded a choice.
──Yet was this not the craft of a god?
“Done.”
Edwin’s hands stilled.
Impossibly, he had succeeded in claiming the golem’s master authority for himself.
“……Rise.”
At his word, the golem’s eyes blazed crimson.
It straightened the knee it had been kneeling on and faced Edwin with commanding presence.
Edwin’s hands trembled.
This specimen of a knight was breathtaking to behold, and the way his eyes perceived its mechanical movements was nothing short of transcendent.
“Handle the spear.”
The golem grasped the weapon and wielded it with the fluid ease of someone handling a feather.
Combined with the inherent durability of metal and the absolute loyalty imprinted upon the golem’s core, it was nothing short of the ideal soldier.
The perfect warrior.
“G-good. Return to your original position.”
The golem obediently turned and knelt on one knee exactly as before.
Its bearing unchanged in the slightest from before activation.
“Deactivate.”
The light in the golem’s eyes extinguished, and the Research Lab fell silent once more.
In the lantern’s glow, Edwin’s face was flushed a deep red.
* * *
I was now tasting the most tense atmosphere I’d experienced in days within the Mansion.
Before me, Asjie was regarding me with an expression of marked displeasure.
Perhaps because I’d burst into his room without warning. Then again, why would I need to announce myself before visiting my brother’s quarters?
“You want me to teach you how to fight?”
At Asjie’s cold tone, the handmaidens standing nearby shrank back in tension.
The solution to the problem I carried—that was Asjie. As far as I knew, there were few, if any, who surpassed him in matters of combat.
And he was my brother, after all.
……But I knew the character of Asjie poorly.
When I’d played as Aster, there wasn’t a single ally character with close ties to the Loahe Clan.
Anfer, who guarded the borderlands, and his son Asjie were characters of whom I’d heard only rumors and gossip.
So my examination of Asjie’s character had begun only these past few days.
Throughout that brief period of observation as Frondieur, I’d come to see that he was a cautious, cold-blooded man—and suspicious to a degree that matched both qualities.
That suspicious nature was precisely what made me most uneasy.
“Has Father’s warning made you desperate?”
Father’s warning—was he referring to that command to rank in the top ten?
That was certainly important, but the raid was more pressing, and more urgent still.
“Leave. I have nothing to teach you. Bear the responsibility of your indolent life.”
Asjie announced this, then crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
He clearly intended to stand perfectly still until I left.
Asjie certainly didn’t approve of me.
Asjie had talent, yes, but he’d worked harder than anyone to catch up to our father. His current skill was never gained easily.
So I understand his disdain for a younger brother who’d coasted by on laziness. I really do.
But I dislike Frondieur just as much.
It feels like I’m doing someone else’s homework for them—mountains of it, neglected and piled high. Or worse, I’ve become the new hire cleaning up the previous director’s mess before moving on.
“……Then what about this?”
There are only two things a new hire can do in such a situation.
Quit the company like your predecessor did.
“If we spar and I manage to land even one hit on you, will you teach me?”
Or prove you’re better than the one who came before.
Asjie opened his eyes.
The temperature in the room dropped further with that alone.
The maid beside us was actually trembling now.
“What benefit would that possibly give me?”
“I know I’m a thorn in your side, sir.”
“Watch your tongue.”
“At this rate, I won’t make the top ten anyway. Expulsion is certain. So,”
I drew in a breath.
“If I can’t land a blow, I’ll walk away of my own accord.”
I stepped out to the back courtyard of the Mansion with Asjie. I had all the household staff withdraw.
In the sudden silence, Asjie and I stood facing each other.
Asjie held up a practice spear—a staff—and regarded me coldly.
His gaze burned with contempt for me.
“Your arrogance pierces the heavens, Frondieur.”
Arrogance. As if proposing a single strike was arrogance.
But Asjie’s assessment was accurate.
Even if I brought any other student from Constel here, not one of them could touch a single hair on Asjie’s head.
My one advantage was this: I wasn’t really Frondieur.
The fact that he had no information about me became my only chance.
‘Just one moment.’
I adjusted my grip on the practice daggers in both hands.
I couldn’t let this drag on. If it did, I’d lose regardless.
Since I’d never faced Asjie in the game, I only knew him from what other players had told me—his signature techniques, his habits, his patterns.
But Asjie wasn’t a monster. He was human. I couldn’t count on fixed patterns.
So all I could do was force him into those patterns by sheer will.
“Come at me. I’ll give you the first move-”
I threw my dagger before Asjie finished speaking.
Asjie’s hand holding the staff moved reflexively.
Thack—my dagger was deflected cleanly.
I was already rushing toward Asjie the moment I released the first blade.
I still had one dagger left.
“Hah!”
While Asjie batted away the dagger I’d thrown, I thrust forward with the second one.
In that brief instant, it wasn’t entirely clear,
“……Sigh.”
But I heard what sounded like Asjie’s weary exhale.
Asjie’s unique spear art:
Falling Strike.
The moment my dagger and the end of Asjie’s staff met,
there was no sound at all.
Asjie’s perfect control of force—neither too much nor too little—had brought both weapons together in absolute silence.
Immediately after, a dry *crack-crack-crack* echoed,
and a high-pitched whine—
My dagger flew from my grip.
This was Asjie’s technique: the Falling Strike.
A method that knocked an opponent’s weapon from their hands—something that bordered on the miraculous.
“Pathetic, Frondieur.”
Asjie swung the staff lightly, coming to rest at the lower left.
Asjie’s signature move is coming—the Diagonal Cut.
Asjie’s Spear Fundamentals
Chapter 3
Diagonal Cut
Now, having lost even the second Practice Dagger, I stood completely unarmed.
Even knowing an attack was coming, there was nothing I could do to stop it.
—That’s what Asjie believed.
My gambit works.
The moment Asjie thrusts his staff diagonally upward.
Tap.
My strike connects squarely with Asjie’s head.
Thunk.
With it, Asjie’s staff stops mid-swing. Right beside my temple.
“……?”
Asjie halted his staff because he’d taken a blow to the head.
Yet he seemed unable to comprehend how he’d allowed me to land that strike.
Clatter-clatter—my weapon rolls away to the side.
It was a Practice Dagger. The third one.
“I’ve won.”

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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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