I Became a Genius Mechanic at the Academy

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As I was called by the instructor and walked up to the podium, I became aware of my opponent walking beside me in step.

She was none other than my opponent for this second match, the strongest cadet of the Academy.

Witch Isabella.

‘I can’t possibly win against her through normal means.’

Isabella.

Sadly, I have no way to defeat her. Her mental magic has a wide range, allowing her to take out multiple monsters at once, while my plasma bullet, imitating a repulsor beam, can only take down one enemy at a time on a single attack.

In simple terms, I stand no chance in terms of attack range.

‘But I haven’t just been twiddling my thumbs.’

I knew my weaknesses well.

And finding a way to supplement them has been a topic I’ve been contemplating for a long time.

Thus, I began my research to overcome that flaw.

I was not just shooting plasma bullets, but researching how to implement them in the form of a lightsaber to increase firepower.

And dramatically, I managed to finish my research just last night.

Through a new spell, I had created a plasma lightsaber.

Thinking about the plasma lightsaber, I placed my hand on the teleportation magic circle, and my body was immediately transported to the testing grounds, where the waiting instructor offered me a greeting.

I politely responded to the instructor’s greeting, while Isabella simply ignored it.

However, as if this was expected, the instructor didn’t seem to care much and informed me of the precautions.

“Now, let’s get to the point. The match will start after a three-second countdown.”

After that tedious explanation ended, the instructor finally raised his gun to fire the starting shot.

I warmed up my mana on the soles of my feet, immediately preparing to charge forward.

With a time limit, I had to act quickly.

“Countdown to the start of the exam, 3… 2… 1…”

Bang!

With the sound of the trigger, Isabella and I rushed into the battlefield.

Isabella floated in the air using the unique flight technique of the Graham family, while I took out my gauntlet from my inventory.

With a remaining time of 20 minutes, the countdown to determine our victory or defeat had begun.

***

When hundreds of people gather, noise is bound to happen.

Especially the cadets who had just finished their second match, whether they won or lost, were still immersed in the aftershocks of the match, so they gathered with friends to share their feelings.

– Ha, I miscalculated the spell. If that had activated properly, I would have won.

– You think it’s just you? I couldn’t even perform mana formation because I was too nervous. Ha, that was seriously a rookie mistake.

– Still, my results seem better than I expected? I thought I would lose against the Aicen family.

– You just got lucky.

The cadets each shared their various stories depending on their circumstances.

However, following the flow of conversation revealed that the stories were largely similar.

The winners pretended to console the losers while inserting their own achievements, and the losers surrounded themselves with appropriate excuses to soothe the pain of their defeat.

“The next match is Edgar Fix versus Isabella. Please come up to the podium and place your hand on the teleportation magic circle.”

But the moment Ed and Isabella’s names were called, a silence descended upon the auditorium as if it had been promised.

As if the ads in a movie theater had ended and the main feature had begun, everyone turned their gaze to the screen just to appreciate the direct clash between Ed and Isabella.

As Ed and Isabella rushed into the battlefield,

“It… has started!”

On the left side of the screen, Ed’s section was divided.

A crack appeared on that screen, and a bracelet began to manifest.

Ed had taken out the gauntlet from his inventory.

The heartbeat was loud enough for everyone to hear as they stared at Ed’s screen with bated breath.

Everyone wanted to feel again the impact of Ed putting on the gauntlet.

[Churururur… Click. Click. Click.]

The process of the alloys meshing together to form the gauntlet.

No matter how often it happened, it was a scene that made hearts race with anticipation.

Since they were cadets in another world who had not encountered mecha items before, they couldn’t comprehend why their hearts raced so much just from putting on a gauntlet.

[Kii─iiing!]

Then, the ominous sound began to resonate.

The pleasant high-frequency sound that occurs when heating up a plasma beam.

The circular emblem on the palm of the gauntlet shone brightly, steadily growing larger.

As everyone’s tension escalated, a heavy piercing sound echoed throughout the auditorium.

The sufficiently heated plasma bullet was fired in the form of a white flash.

– Puh-oom!

In that instant, the superheated plasma bullet shot through the monster’s abdomen.

Immediately, the massive body of the monster, with its vital point ruptured, collapsed to the ground.

– Ha, one shot…

– Crazy. That’s so cool.

– I want to wear it just once.

Ed’s gauntlet sparked an overwhelming desire to possess.

Is that the level required to gain the favor of the Princess and the chief professor?

If Ed continued to craft such gear, how much stronger could he become?

Upon reaching that thought, some cadets trembled in fear, while others’ eyes sparked with competitive spirit.

– L-look over there! Isabella!

But not to be outdone, Isabella began to move in earnest.

She soared into the air, casting widespread mental magic on the area where the monsters had gathered.

[Kuoooooo!!!]

At that moment, the monsters began to scream and thrash about.

They stabbed at each other, slashed, and bit, as chaos erupted.

– It seems, even for the Count Fix, Isabella is still a tough opponent.

– No matter how powerful Fix is, Witch Isabella is tough.

– He can’t win. There’s just no answer.

Overwhelming.

It was truly a scene of overwhelming slaughter.

While Ed’s battle scene gave a sense of “pumping up,” Isabella’s battle scene left everyone speechless.

A sense of helpless defeat surged within, suggesting that victory seemed utterly unattainable.

– But, what is Count Fix doing? He doesn’t seem to be taking down any monsters.

– Right? Even if he tries his absolute hardest now, he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Meanwhile, Ed’s movements puzzled everyone.

Ed was not genuinely fighting the monsters.

He was only taking down those monsters blocking his path.

Even with such a powerful gauntlet, he wasn’t really engaging in notable combat.

– What? Has he given up?

– The score gap is already absurd.

– No way, he should have already mapped out the dense areas. Why is he avoiding those?

It was strange.

Everything felt strange.

Typically, to garner more points, hunting in groups was the usual method.

To do that, one would need to enter areas densely populated with monsters, and usually, strategic routes would be plotted to efficiently check through those areas.

Yet, Ed was doing the exact opposite.

He was rushing directly across open spaces, making a beeline for some destination.

– Ah! No way, is he crazy?

At that moment.

A cadet who had caught onto Ed’s intentions screamed in a voice filled with astonishment.

And at the same time, Ed stopped in front of a dark cave, reminiscent of an abyss.

The instructor, who had been mindlessly munching on snacks while observing Ed and Isabella, suddenly gasped and shouted.

“Hey! No way! You can’t mean it! Hey, are you crazy?!”

Wham!

The instructor rushed rapidly towards Ed.

But regardless of that,

Ed aimed his gauntlet towards the cave and loaded a plasma bullet.

And then—

[Kii─iiing! Puh-oom!]

Without a shred of hesitation, he fired the plasma bullet into the cave.

The white flash illuminated the cave in real-time as it surged forth.

Rumble!

The intense explosive sound shook the entire cave.

The instructor watching through the magic circle frowned and muttered in a low voice.

“Ugh. I’m going to lose it. I came here thinking it would be easy.”

Kuuuuuuo!

At last, a deafening roar from a monster echoed throughout.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

A colossal being began to emerge, shaking the ground beneath it.

The cadets in the auditorium stared, mouths agape, in a state of shock.

– No way, is he crazy…?

– …Didn’t he hear the warnings?

– No way, is he really going to try and take that down?

The reason the cadets were in complete disbelief was twofold.

First, the instructor had warned before the exam began.

The boss monster in the cave was something even they would struggle to defeat, so if they didn’t want to become the first candidate for a new form of suicide, they should never enter the cave.

“Ha… I’m going to flip out.”

And the second reason.

The instructor had joked that should anyone manage to capture that monster, they would immediately pass the exam.

Yet nobody could have dreamed that someone would actually take that seriously and attempt it.

[Kii─iiing!]

But Ed was not insane.

He believed it was worth a shot and decided to try.

So, with serious eyes, Ed aimed his gauntlet at the cave and charged the plasma beam to its maximum.

As the Minotaurus King revealed itself—

[Puh-oom!]

He fired the plasma beam without hesitation.

The white flash struck the Minotaurus King’s left ankle.

[Kuoooooo!!!]

A momentary stumble was all it resulted in, causing a trivial effect.

Given that the Minotaurus King had an overwhelmingly higher mana absorption than a human, it was impossible to inflict an injury with any standard attack.

Instead, it merely aggravated the Minotaurus King’s wrath.

[Hooong!]

And thus, the retaliation began immediately.

Its massive fist came crashing toward Ed, unleashing an immense pressure.

[Huh!]

Fortunately, Ed narrowly evaded the attack at the last second.

Because with the Minotaurus King’s insane mana absorption capacity, even Ed, who had a massive mana stone embedded in his chest, possessed more than three times the amount of mana than an average cadet.

With this, Ed was able to move swiftly enough to just barely escape the Minotaurus King’s strike.

[Kii─iiing!]

Thus, Ed began a hit-and-run strategy.

Continuously evading the creature’s attacks, he focused on shooting plasma bullets at its left ankle.

[Ugh!]

But he couldn’t evade every attack.

In a moment where he tried to be greedy to land more hits, he was slightly grazed by the creature’s fingertips.

[Ugh…!]

But even that was enough to send his body flying quite a distance away.

There was an overwhelming power disparity that a freshly enrolled cadet could never hope to overcome.

[Hoo…!]

Still, Ed didn’t give up.

He quickly got back up, catching his breath, and calmly stretched out his palm toward the charging Minotaurus King.

Kii─iiing! After loading the plasma bullet, he shot it at the monster’s left ankle.

Kwah-oom!

A brilliant flash of white erupted as it exploded against the monster’s ankle.

The Minotaurus King, which had been rushing forward without a hint of slowing down, faltered for a moment and collapsed to the ground.

Ed smirked as he spoke to himself.

“Finally, the first stage is complete.”

Having managed to trap the creature by consistently targeting that one ankle, Ed felt a sense of achievement.

However, that didn’t mean he could easily advance.

Close combat against the Minotaurus was absolutely not an option.

“Now, for the next stage.”

Therefore, Ed decided to go for a surprise attack.

To strike decisively from an angle.

[Click!]

To do so, he required another item.

The prototype propulsion device that had almost sent him to his grave last night.

Ed took it out from his inventory, spreading his arms wide.

Having modified it for easy attachment, it began to fasten itself simply by him opening his arms.

Click, click, chururur… a pleasant sound of assembly echoed as the sleek backpack-shaped propulsion device was secured onto Ed’s back.

“Ed! Edgar Fix! Stop! Stop right now!”

At that moment, the instructor, who had been racing toward Ed in a panic, finally arrived.

Huff- huff- out of breath, he glanced at the Minotaurus King, which was now on one knee, and turned to Ed with an angry voice.

“Hey, Cadet Fix. Have you lost your mind? It’s not too late, just run! The Minotaurus King’s recovery ability is beyond imagination. Even with those wounds, it will be back on your heels in under two minutes.”

As he said, the Minotaurus King’s recovery ability was beyond anything imagined.

Even if you shot more than eight shots of high-temperature plasma bullets, it could recover in just two minutes.

However, Ed’s thoughts were slightly different.

“So, I have just two minutes, right? That means I have to kill it in that time.”

“What…?”

Fwooosh!

Before the instructor could finish his words, flames burst forth from the propulsion device.

In an instant, Ed’s body shot up, soaring to a height of 300 meters above ground.

“…?”

The speed was so incredible that the video transmission magic circle following Ed struggled for a while to track his position.

Finally, once the transmission magic circle situated itself above Ed, the scene of his gauntlet transforming again began to be captured.

All the cadets gathered in the auditorium watched the process intently.

[Click. Click. Swoosh… Wheee… Click.]

Everyone fell silent.

The bright circular light shining from his palm transitioned to the back of his hand, where, as if responding, the titanium alloy meticulously disassembled and reassembled.

Once the transformation was complete, the gauntlet took the form of wrist armor, reminiscent of Protoss Zealots.

At last, the blue circular mana stone in the center of the wrist guard shone brightly as it began to emit the familiar sound, Kii─iiing!

With each burst of high-pitched sound, the tension in the air escalated.

[Crackling…!]

Finally, the activated form-shifting wrist guard released a fierce blue lightsaber.

As Ed fell freely from the sky, he spotted the light-emitting plasma lightsaber, then began to adjust his position by toggling the propulsion device on and off.

“…Is this enough?”

With that, Ed found himself right above the Minotaurus King.

Ed turned off the propulsion device at a height of 20 meters.

As the Minotaurus King rose to its feet, Ed began his descent toward the ground.