I Became the Genius of the Gigant Academy

Chapter 12:

“Okay then, everyone! Look that way.” At Karl’s words, the gaze of every person was swept off to one side.

At that place was a gigantic building that piqued the curiosity of each individual there. There were plenty of buildings of enormous size, but it wasn’t common to see a building whose one entire wall was a door.

Thud!

And not long after, with a loud noise, the door opened, and a sound that shook the earth to its core reverberated through the air. And from the inside appeared none other than two Milles.

As the two Milles walked out, the cadets stared at them with their hearts in their throats. This time, Abel wasn’t an exception either.

Back on Earth, no matter how trashy a movie was, he would run to the theaters without hesitation as long as it showcased robots.

After coming to this place, his passion for robots remained the same.  For Abel, who was like that, looking at milles for tens, even hundreds of times, was similar to looking at an art piece he would never get tired of.

Bang, thud!

Milles’ movement also aroused admiration because it was far superior and distinguished. Though the second Gigant that came out was quite good, the rider in front was at a different level. Just as critical as the features of a Gigant were the skills of a Rider.

‘No matter how great a Gigant is, if the rider’s mediocre, there’s no way they can show a good performance.’

That was the secret behind Abel’s winning streak at the underground matches. It wasn’t that there was someone who was notably worse than him at riding the Gigant; rather, no one had better skills than him.

In that sense, there was no doubt about the rider’s skills in controlling the Milles. Its movement flowed smoothly and naturally like water while maintaining the proper posture with accurate angles.

A remarkable Gigant rider like this one just oozed their supremacy merely from their walking stance. 

‘Is that a professor?’

It was only evident for such a thought to strike Abel’s mind. There couldn’t be many people who could move the Gigant’s body with such perfection.

-slide-

But the person whose appearance was revealed from the cockpit wasn’t some old professor. Instead, it was a woman with a young-looking face.

She waved her hand with a refreshing smile on her face. Karl pointed towards her and said.

“They’re the teaching assistants for today’s special class. Well, they are your seniors too. We’ll be on standby beforehand in case of any accidents during the class, so you need not worry about your safety.”

At those words, Abel inferred the identity of that young woman. An outstanding rider who was also a disciple cherished by the Gorilla, was none other than that one person.

The one who’d later become the study body president, the 3rd year student, Chloe. Looking properly, the special features of her appearance were an exact match too.

Just then, while Abel was nodding, Karl opened his mouth again.

“Now, I’ll let you know about the bonus reward!”

Karl took another piece of paper from his inner pocket and showed it to everyone. On that paper, there was the words ‘Telesium 10kg gift voucher’ written.

“If you make that teaching assistant standing over there move even by half a step, you’ll also receive this! Just so you know, I’m giving this reward with my own money! Instead, if you fail to do that, you’ll get no reward at all!”

The reactions of the cadets were extremely subtle.

The rewards were undoubtedly of a grand scale but not enough to motivate them. For them, simply getting up immediately and standing tall was a challenge at that point.

But for them to push off a teaching assistant who’d just shown such a natural appearance while riding the Gigant? No matter who heard it, it was a condition that would make them shake their heads. Of course, there were those who weren’t like that as well.

“Thank you!” Daniel shouted out in a voice brimming with passion.

Judging from his shimmering eyes, he intended to put in sincere efforts into his attempt. Abel turned his head away from the passionate Daniel and gave Chloe a glance.

‘So just half a step is okay, huh.’

It seemed difficult, but it didn’t seem downright impossible. While he was having these thoughts, Karl took a good look at all the newbies and shouted with a smile.

“Okay then! We’ll start the practical exercise with one person’s turn at a time! Number 1 Darin!”

»————- ★ ————-«

The practical went on turn by turn from number 1. Number 1 was a brown-haired girl named Darin, who gave off a timid impression.

Thud!

She succeeded in operating the Gigant, thus turning it on, but failed in raising it to a standing position, collapsing onto the ground. At number 2, a red-haired boy couldn’t even operate the Gigant. Number 3 was the same.

“Th-this doesn’t make any sense.”

Karl, looking at the cadet with a facial expression on the verge of crying, who was grumbling to himself, had this thought.

‘The principal is quite merciless.’

Originally, the Milles used for practice by the noble families or the first-year students was fitted with auxiliary devices to make it easier to operate, rather than limiting its efficiency.

However, no such device was fitted at this time. It was the same Milles as was used by active duty riders.

Because the difference created by it was so extreme, even if a certain family had practiced independently, operating it like this still wouldn’t be easy. On the contrary, because of that gap, they might even find it even more challenging.

It could be said that it was a step further than during the entrance test when they had their hands on the core of the Tito. Number 3 completely dropped and returned to his original spot, and it was now the next turn. After that was number 4.

“Number 4 Abel! Come on forward!”

It was Abel’s turn. Seeing Abel who stepped forward, at some point, Karl’s expression changed from one of sympathy to amusement.

“Are you the top ranked?”

“That’s right.”

Karl smiled brightly at Abel’s firm reply.

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“Yes, sir.”

He could’ve felt pressured, but Abel walked up to the open cockpit of the Milles as if he’d been waiting for it. Instantly, he boarded it, settled into his spot, and frighteningly closed the cockpit.

‘It feels new since I haven’t ridden it in a long time.’

He’d already ridden the Milles before once, yet Abel looked at its interior with a glimmer in his eyes as if looking at it for the first time.

‘The interior is similar to the one I boarded the last time.’

Though the cockpit allowed the rider to move an enormous robot, there were no complicated buttons or screens because it was manufactured not through science but magical engineering. Unfortunately, since there wasn’t enough time to simply look around, he gradually paced his breath, reaching out his hands in front of him.

“Hhuhp.”

At that spot was a blue marble the size of a bowling ball. It was the core. In fact, it is the most crucial component of a Gigant. Abel grabbed the core with both his hands and soon felt a tingling sensation.

Whirring-!

Immediately after that, the interior slightly vibrated, and from behind him, a fixture wrapped itself firmly around Abel’s Body.

Whoong-!

Following this, a blue light began whirling around his entire body until that point was the preparation phase. The fixture kept the body firmly secure in its spot while the blue light absorbed any shock. 

On top of that, the cockpit itself was engulfed by a shock absorbing magic sphere. Without all those provisions, the mere violent movement by a Gigant could kill the rider.

Before the accumulation of experimental data in the earlier phases, there were numerous people who died.

“Phew.”

Abel got rid of his thoughts that kept getting more complicated with time through deep breaths and raised his focus level. Synchronization rate was quite ambiguous.

In some sense, it was even more complicated than mana, a power that only revealed itself ultimately in an illogical manner to just a chosen few.

Screeching-!

Fortunately, in case of that fussy synchronization rate, Abel wasn’t just full but rather overflowing with the talent for it. And when it came to the auxiliary device being removed? That made zero difference to him because in the first place, the Milles he’d boarded the last time as well, had no such components.

“Urgh.”

Infamous Scans

A vein on his forehead popped out. At the same time, his version began to change as well. As the synchronization rate rose, the mana inside Abel’s body moved vigorously.

At the time, his magical ability stood at D grade. Though it wasn’t exactly high, it was enough for him to muster up the strength to operate an unarmed Milles. Above all, rather than the amount of magic, the ability to manage it was more important.

So, after awakening his mana, Abel trained on how to manage and use it effectively without skipping a single day.

Whoong-!

Abel’s magic was sucked into the core through his hands and returned to his body again. As that process kept repeating, Abel and the core started to unite into a single entity through the magic.

Bang-!

His heart raced fiercely.

Whoong-!

The sleeping Gigant opened his eyes.

“Urghk.”

The pleasure and thrill came rushing in at once. Even while feeling the thrilling ecstasy, Abel didn’t forget about the task and activated the Gigant.

Whirring-!

After raising both the arms of the Milles that had been drooping to the chest level, he pushed Milles’s palms into the ground and used his strength.

Ugh!

Slowly, the torso of the Milles was lifted. Of course, that wasn’t the end. Moving his left foot and then his right foot and raising his body, within an instant, his vision sored up high in the sky. Soon afterward, when he firmly trod on the ground.

‘Ah, this feeling…’

Abel started admiring it without even realizing this. It wasn’t the worthless vision of a human but that of a 6m tall giant. It was to the point that even Karl, with his enormous build, seemed like an ant.

When everything on the ground seemed incredibly far away, and one’s view widened so much, that feeling simply couldn’t be expressed in words.

‘The last time, it ended exactly at this point.’

Well, the exam itself was till that point, and at that time, the absolute amount of magic in his body was meager, too, making it difficult to do anything else. However, this time, things were different.

Not only had the amount of magic he possessed increased, but after refreshingly pounding and beating Luke up, the reward for that quest he received was a ‘magic booster.’

‘This is an investment.’

Magic boosters were expensive objects in their own right, but they couldn’t even compare with Telesium. Not to mention, he had as many as five of them.

Abel took out the magic booster in his pocket and put it in his mouth. Then, along with a hot and refreshing sensation, he felt strength rise up in his body. Abel had the confidence to walk and run in this vast playground.

Thus! Bang!

But his Milles, instead of walking forward onto the playground, turned his body in the direction of Chloe’s Gigant, who was standing by.

“Remember you definitely said half a step.”

Abel turned on the output device, and soon his voice, through the Gigant, reverberated in an amplified form.

“What?” The startled Chloe couldn’t immediately comprehend the meaning of those words and asked in response. 

Abel spoke while getting into position rather than explaining it to her gently, “I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll get started immediately.”

Karl, who was absent-mindedly listening to him on the ground, suddenly came to his senses and shouted, 

“Everyone, this way! Move onto this side! Quick!”

»————- ★ ————-«

Chloe was simply dumbfounded and astonished at the current situation.

Seeing the freshman turn on the Milles and stand tall with it shocked her. Still, she managed to calm herself quickly because people with extraordinary talent worthy of being called monsters often enrolled in the academy.

But she could’ve never even dreamed that the newbie would give up the 1kg of Telesium he could receive by simply walking and instead come after her.

“What’s with him?”

Though she felt that she was face to face with something mysterious, she first got into position. Whoever he was didn’t matter. A Milles was just a Milles.

If he came at her without any plan or preparation, pushing him with force would do the job.

‘Is he just going to run?’

Chloe shook her head to bring herself back to her senses as if she’d never been dumbfounded in the first place. At that exact moment, only a few strategies popped into her head.

If this was a sparring match against a 3rd-year student just like her, she could’ve come up with countless strategies, but right now, in front of her, the opponent was a freshman on his second day.

‘On top of it, it’s just a tin can without a single armament.’

No matter how extraordinarily talented someone was, there weren’t many things a first-year student could do with that empty tin can.

‘Is he lowering his posture? Or planning to crash his body boldly? If not even that then…’

When she was turning the gears in her head, Abel had already used one skill.

Overflow.

Since he was on a Miles, he felt the effect was way larger than the last time. His heart pumped like crazy, as if it was about to burst right at that moment, and his body was burning hot, yet surprisingly, his senses were just as clear.

At that moment, it was almost as if he’d become one with the Gigant. Abel glanced at Chloe’s Gigant. Unlike her, who was coming up with different strategies, Abel had only thought of a single one since the beginning.

That which he’d practiced countless number of times and had even made its actual debut the day before.

Abel, while rushing forward, murmured inwardly.

‘Shadow Step.’

When it was activated, the giant-bodied gigant was shot forward like wind. A Miles grade Gigant, even if simply moving at a quick pace, posed great threat to his opponent. Even more so if the opponent didn’t expect it all.

Baaang-!

In the blink of an eye, Abel’s Gigant had already appeared in front of Chloe’s Gigant. His gigant was as fast as his movements, who swung wildly, aiming for her Gigant. Till the moment right before the attack, she seemed as if she was unable to react.

Gah!

However, before Abel’s hit could land, Chloe’s Gigant moved and instantly raised her arm, fumbling the trajectory of his attack. A clenched fist, brushed past the outside of her forearm and hit empty space. Going beyond simple defense, it was a marvelous strategy that even took away his balance.

If this were a normal fight, Abel would’ve been able to sense his defeat. However, if it was a fight like that in the first place, he wouldn’t have thrown himself at her so ignorantly. His goal, from the beginning, was to somehow get into close range.

Whirring-!

The moment Chloe moved her arm again as if trying to give the final blow, rather than dodging or blocking it, Abel, once again, used Shadow Step. Shadow step was a skill closer to a movement booster. 

Generally, just like Abel right now, it was quite useful in a situation where one was caught off guard or in a surprise attack. But, originally, the older characters would discover new tricks in whatever way possible, so they didn’t just use movement booster for movement.

‘Movement Booster is a remarkable skill in a close range attack situation.’

They didn’t use the skill to look for the gaps; rather, the skill itself became an attack! Looking at Chloe’s Gigant properly while she still seemed pretty relaxed, Abel used the skill again.

In an instant, the mana in his body shook wildly, and in that same state, it burst through the Gigant via the control tool. And the violently shaking mana instead of bursting in its surroundings in the same state, was fired uniformly in a single direction.

‘Shadow Step.’

Bang-!

Abel’s Gigant suddenly accelerated at an extremely high rate and, as it is, flew away together with Chloe’s Gigant.

[To be continued.]