The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 45

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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 Academy’s Weapon Duplicator Episode 45
Chapter 11: Dragon Heart (5)
Suppose you were recruiting archers during wartime.
With one archer, you’d typically bring a swordsman instead.
But with a hundred archers, it becomes worth considering.
And with ten thousand archers, you’d naturally adopt them without question.
This is why bows, when used at all, prioritize quantity over quality.
Archers are effective in numbers, and arrows only fully reveal their power in large-scale battles.
‘At this rate, indeed.’
Renjo watched the arrows pouring down on him with unhurried contemplation.
Arrows fired by a single person split endlessly, becoming a mesh of projectiles that descended upon him.
‘At this level, I could say I possess the strength of one against a hundred all by myself.’
Truly, One Against Hundred.
But Renjo—
obliterated even a single battalion with contemptuous ease.
Great Sword Technique
Renjo Original
Left to Right
Renjo gripped the massive great sword with one hand and drew it from left to right.
Along that horizontal line, a gale erupted.
Rat-a-tat-tat—the arrows made a feeble sound as they were driven back by the wind pressure Renjo had created.
‘Whatever sleight of hand this is, arrows without a bow are only this strong—’
Renjo’s thought cut off there.
The moment he cleared the arrows, Frendier was already at his face.
‘He used the arrows as a smokescreen!’
Frendier thrust the spear he’d conjured toward Renjo.
Straight at the chest that lay open from the sweep of the great sword.
A move that exploited Renjo’s carelessness and displayed tactical cunning.
But—
‘Too slow, boy.’
Renjo brought the great sword that had cleared the arrows forward again.
His speed in recovering the blade far surpassed Frendier’s.
At that incredible sight, Frendier’s eyes flew wide.
And when their blades met—
‘……?’
Silence arrived.
Renjo witnessed the strange phenomenon before his eyes.
Their blades should have clashed, yet no sound emerged—an eerie phenomenon.
‘No. They didn’t collide.’
At the instant their blades were about to strike, Frendier had released the force from his spear and pressed it flush against Renjo’s sword.
Their weapons adhered to each other.
Crackle, crackle—a dry sound like burning wood.
And then—
“Ha!”
A smile bloomed at the corner of Renjo’s mouth.
Elation kindled there.
He had thought ‘amusement’ would come much later.
In that blink of an eye, his pupils shifted to glimpse his own right hand.
The great sword was leaving his grasp, flying through empty space.
Asje’s technique.
The Falling Strike.
* * *
‘Ugh!’
My body screamed.
My grip threatened to tear, tremors starting in my arms, climbing through my shoulders, my entire frame creaking.
Disarming Renjo’s sword was one thing, but in the process I’d also lost hold of my spear.
What kind of farce was this?
An incomplete Falling Strike.
I’d watched the golem’s Falling Strike countless times through the Wizgram, and it was an absurdly high-difficulty technique.
Now I understood why Asje had warned me against attempting it.
I nearly destroyed my body entirely.
Because it was incomplete, both Renjo and I dropped our weapons.
It seemed neither of us gained an advantage.
But I was faster than Renjo, who had to pick up his weapon again.
Weaving, Black River
Weapon Grade – Legendary
Gram
Dark droplets gathered in my palm.
In the span of a heartbeat, the blade took shape and I gripped it in both hands.
Without hesitation, I drew a diagonal line toward the unarmed Renjo!
Asje Spear Art Fundamentals
Frendier-style Sword Technique Variant
Diagonal Strike
The technique that had cleaved a steel golem in two.
No matter how strong Renjo was, there was no way a human body could withstand Gram.
Yet.
I saw it with my own eyes.
Or rather, I felt it.
Perhaps because I was inside Menosorpho.
An invisible force gathered in Renjo’s hands.
‘Aura—!’
Renjo deployed an Aura with his bare hands.
The pinnacle that every combat student at Constel dreamed of achieving.
And as though it were nothing, he deflected my strike of conviction with a single hand.
In that instant, it was I who stood defenseless.
“Hrah!”
Renjo’s fist came flying at my exposed ribs.
‘Shield—Weave it fast—’
Crack!
The sky inverted and I flew through the air before slamming into the ground.
The shield I’d woven in haste tore like paper.
Even after I’d scraped across the earth several times, I felt nothing—
“Hack!”
Until the impact that turned my insides out came pouring from my throat as blood.
Menosorpho shattered.
“Oh, sorry, sorry.”
Renjo strolled casually toward where I lay crumpled.
“When I use my fists, I can’t control my strength.”
‘You don’t even try to control it, you bastard.’
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and pushed myself up.
I stood, but I was already at death’s door.
My ribs felt broken, and blood reversed in my throat, bringing nausea surging up.
My entire body trembled.
I’d blocked with a shield and it was still like this.
And having used Gram, I’d burned through nearly all my Mana.
“But you have a strange feel when you get hit. Your ribs are so hard.”
Renjo said this while dusting off his hands.
He’d shattered my shield and now found the feel “strange”?
At such preposterous strength, a bitter laugh escaped me.
“You seemed like quite the interesting fighter, but in the end you’re just a greenhorn. You’re wielding a weapon far too grand for yourself. The weapon must weep.”
Let it weep, then.
The one who wanted to weep was me.
‘What do I do now?’
No Mana left, and the wounds were severe.
From just one blow to the ribs, I’d come to this state—if I took a second, I’d surely die.
Had Aten fled?
I couldn’t tear my gaze from Renjo, but she’d likely run.
She would know her own worth.
Yet.
“Stop.”
A voice came from behind.
“You want to take me, don’t you? This person doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Just follow along quietly and I won’t complain.”
Aten stepped to my side.
I spoke in a weary voice.
“I told you to run.”
“I can’t.”
“Do you know what happens if you’re taken hostage? Are you forgetting who you are?”
“I haven’t forgotten. Not for a single moment.”
Aten’s voice was as it always was.
Without tremor or fear.
“I am the Imperial Princess.”
“…….”
“The Imperial Household exists to protect the people. When you stand above many, you must bear that responsibility.”
“If you become a hostage, more people could be hurt.”
“No.”
Aten spoke those words and smiled at me.
A lonely smile.
“I’m not worth that much.”
“……Aten.”
Aten took my hand.
A blue light rippled from her palm, then flowed into me.
Mana.
She transferred most of her Mana to me.
“It’s dangerous to stay here. Use this Mana to escape. You can do at least that much, can’t you?”
Aten released my hand and walked slowly toward Renjo.
I lowered my head.
At this rate, Aten will almost certainly die.
It wasn’t a lie when she said she wasn’t worth that much.
Emperor Thelst will abandon Aten.
He’s the type to do it, and from the Imperial Household’s perspective, it would be the right call.
But was Aten’s death really such a big problem for me?
Of course it makes clearing the game harder.
But the odds aren’t zero.
There has to be some way.
What use is saving Aten if I die in the process?
Besides, there’s no way to save her anyway.
I can’t beat Renjo as I am now.
Even throwing everything I had at him, I couldn’t land a single wound.
I did my best.
Hard enough to break ribs.
I don’t want to die a dog’s death.
I don’t want to die.
It’s only been a few days since I met Aten.
Aten is just a character in the game.
There has to be another way to clear this game.
So.
“Menosorpho.”
I spoke once more.
As the magic circle unfolded, Aten turned to me in alarm.
“Frendier! Stop!”
Renjo grinned wickedly.
“That’s right. I knew you had it in you from the first time we clashed. Let’s have some real fun, shall we?”
What the hell.
You’re the only one having fun, you sick bastard.
I spread my thumb, index finger, and middle finger.
One thought had occurred to me.
But honestly, I’ve never tried it before.
I don’t know what will happen if I do this.
Nothing might happen, or something absurd might unfold.
Either way.
No matter what excuse I made.
I could have conjured ten thousand reasons to abandon Aten.
But I chose to save her.
In the end, that had been my choice from the beginning.
The problem was, I couldn’t defeat Renjo as I was now.
Not like this.
Weaving
Rank — Legendary
Dragon Heart
I used all the Mana Aten had given me to weave a Dragon Heart.
It was shaped like a rod bent into a triangle.
That shimmering crystal rested in the three fingers I had spread.
As I mentioned before, absorbing a Dragon Heart properly increases your total Mana.
That’s what I was aiming for.
But the problem was that this was a fake, made through Weaving.
If it truly increased total Mana, it wouldn’t make sense that I’d made it using my own Mana.
More than that, if you simply consume a Dragon Heart, you become a cripple.
‘Since I made it with my own Mana, its nature shouldn’t be violent.’
But even that was just speculation.
I was consuming a Dragon Heart made from my own Mana to increase my total Mana.
Was such a thing even possible?
Running through all these doubts in my mind, I swallowed the woven Dragon Heart.
And then—
“…Ugh!”
Thump!
A heartbeat I’d never heard before slammed against my ears.
It felt like an earthquake was tearing through my body.
‘Something’s happening, but—!’
I felt an unbelievable amount of Mana surging up inside me.
Yet at the same time.
I felt something else vanishing from within.
‘I see…’
The Weaving of the Dragon Heart.
Weaving only produces phenomena. It’s not real matter.
In other words, while the phenomenon of increased Mana would occur,
real Mana wouldn’t actually be granted.
To resolve this contradiction, something within me was becoming Mana in its place.
—I don’t know what it is.
Blood, flesh, bone, organs.
I was losing something necessary for my survival as a human, in an amount equal to the Mana gained.
“Oho!”
Renjo let out a cry of admiration.
His face was more alive than anything I’d seen from him so far.
There was something about him I didn’t like from the start.
“Indeed, indeed! Doping, is it? Whatever you’ve done, that Mana is unbelievable!”
“Renjo! We already settled this! Take me and leave!”
“Shut your mouth, woman!”
Renjo shoved Aten aside violently as she clung to his arm.
She slid backward and fell hard under his strength.
“My mind’s changed. You’re far more interesting than I thought!”
Renjo spoke with brazen confidence even as he regarded my surging Mana.
He faced me in a wide, open stance.
“But listen here, boy—do you know? Mana isn’t just about total quantity! No matter how much Mana you have, without the spells and techniques to use it properly, you’re nothing but a water tank. You could fire quite a few arrows like before, sure, but that’s all. You can’t wound me with that much! I’ll take it all on proudly.”
Any spell channeled with more Mana than the spell requires will scatter the excess.
Spells don’t grow stronger by pouring in more Mana.
You need to use strong spells.
This applies to everything that uses Mana or Aura.
And yet—
“…Take it on, you say?”
I spoke.
The tremor reverberating through my body made my voice quaver.
Weaving, Black River
Rank – Primary Divine Grade
Mjolnir
In my hand: a hammer with a short haft and a metal head. Mjolnir.
Most of the Mana that had grown explosively after consuming the Dragon Heart had been poured into this.
Renjo’s composure cracked, just slightly.
Yes. Let’s see if you recognize what this is.
I gripped Mjolnir in my right hand and drew it back.
The stance was nearly identical to the throwing pose I’d drilled countless times in the training chamber with a short blade.
“Take this, madman.”
With those words.
I hurled Mjolnir using the Throwing Technique I’d cultivated to Intermediate rank.
For reference, Intermediate-rank Throwing Technique
never misses a stationary target.

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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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