I Became a Genius Mechanic at the Academy

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“You need to keep one thing in mind.”

Elena’s private training room.

I nodded while looking into her serious eyes.

She stared at me with a complicated expression for a moment, then sighed deeply and continued.

“First and foremost, you are, after all, an unofficial disciple. Technically, I am the mentor of the princess, so I cannot accept you as my pupil.”

Of course, that would be the case.

According to imperial law, only the royal can have a royal mentor as a disciple.

It’s simply intolerable for someone who isn’t of royal blood to be treated as an equal.

“Yes, I will remember that. I won’t breathe a word to anyone.”

Therefore, for Elena to accept me as a disciple carries substantial risk.

If this gets out, I could be cast out by the royals.

“Sigh, shall we at least sort out the titles? Since we’ve forged this teacher-student bond regardless.”

Titles.

In fact, I’d found the titles awkward since the first time I met her.

In the game, I always treated her with respect, while she looked down on me.

“Yes, make it comfortable for you. I find it uncomfortable to be called something like ‘Professor’ since it elevates my status.”

“Hmm. I might have been a bit too formal. You don’t seem like an ordinary individual, so I acted accordingly.”

She muttered as she loosened her body.

A blue haze began to rise from her form.

She was performing mana resonance.

“From now on, I’ll just call you Ed.”

“Yes.”

“The training will be tough, so brace yourself. You have a body that is inherently incapable of handling mana, so you’ll need to put in a lot more effort than others.”

“I understand.”

As Elena said, I am inherently incapable of handling mana.

The fact that I can manage mana now is solely due to my ‘engineering thought’; without that trick, I would have never been able to handle mana.

“Then let’s take a somewhat unconventional approach. First, let’s find the ‘path.’”

Path?

Before I could even ask what that was, she reached out and placed her hand on my head.

At that very moment, an immense pain jolted through my head.

“Ughhhh!!!”

My head felt like it was about to explode.

It was akin to waking up with a hangover after drinking heavily the previous night.

“Etch this pain clearly into your mind. The place where you feel suffering is where mana will flow in.”

However, there was a reason she inflicted this pain.

It was to sharply stimulate the nervous system that absorbs mana, thereby increasing mana receptivity.

Finally, Elena removed her hand and said,

“You’re holding up well.”

“Ha… ha…”

“Now, let’s try mana resonance. There will be pain, but it’ll definitely be different from before. I’ve cleared the pathway for you.”

Just as she said, the quality of mana resonance would indeed be different.

Thanks to the extreme stimulation of the nervous system that absorbed mana, the sensations in that area became heightened.

It was akin to stimulating unused muscles to make them sensitive.

“Ha… ha… Um, but, Master…”

However, I couldn’t perform mana resonance as directed.

It seemed that utilizing ‘engineering thought’ to resonate mana required that I look at my body in a mirror to succeed.

“I… Ha… I need a mirror to perform mana resonance.”

So I told her my limitation.

Elena paused for a moment, deep in thought, then nodded and replied.

“Well… at your age, it seems there are conditions for awakening mana. You need to look in a mirror, right?”

“Yes. The reason I sought you out, Master, was to eliminate this condition while performing mana resonance.”

“Okay. I get it. Just a moment.”

With those words, she transformed into blue smoke and vanished.

But in an instant, she reappeared with a full-length mirror and set it up in front of me, asking,

“Is this enough?”

“Yes. That’s plenty.”

“Great. Now start mana resonance. Let’s figure out how much mana capacity you have.”

I began mana resonance as instructed.

Each time mana flowed into my head, a burning sensation felt like saltwater being poured into a wound somewhere on my head.

‘But I definitely understand.’

The more pain I felt, the clearer my sensations became.

I could distinctly feel the pathways through which mana was entering my head.

Eventually, Elena, who had been observing me quietly, moved closer and said,

“Your receptors are definitely fewer in number. Look at this.”

She displayed a blue hologram atop her hand.

The hologram was shaped like a human head.

“This is a model of your head. Do you see those blue dots? They represent the number of receptors you have for accepting mana.”

Inside the head-shaped hologram, there were blue dots.

One, two, three, four, five… Approximately 150 blue dots were visible.

Elena pointed out that I had exactly 167 and continued.

“But an ordinary mage has around 1700 receptors. You, on the other hand, have only about 1/10th of that—just 167.”

Well… Upon hearing that, the comparison became quite evident.

I was somewhat prepared for the differences, but I never expected them to be this vast.

“The number of mana receptors correlates directly to power. The quantity of mana you can accumulate in your body, your ability to channel mana, the speed of casting spells, and the destructive power of those spells—all vary with the number of mana receptors.”

Elena said this while displaying the humanoid hologram.

Then she demonstrated how mana is utilized through that hologram.

The mana receptors congregated in the brain extended throughout the body to transport mana, and through that, spells were activated.

“This is the performance of a mage with around 1700 mana receptors. In comparison, you—”

Elena brought up a hologram showing a figure with 167 mana receptors.

She then showcased the process of casting spells like before.

The results, naturally, were dismal.

“As you can see, the casting speed is slow, the destructive power is lacking, and even the chances of failure are high. No matter how hard you try, there will be limits.”

“Isn’t there… any way?”

“……”

Elena fell silent.

She rested her chin on her hand while deep in thought.

Eventually, she looked up and said,

“Well. You’ve missed the timing entirely… and that’s why it’s crucial to enhance mana receptors before age seven. That’s the only time humans can train their mana receptors. Truthfully, it would be a miracle if you can even manage mana.”

However, Elena’s answer was still doubtful.

Even Elena, a master of spells and mana theory, found no reasonable approach.

In that moment, she began shaking her head and muttering.

“Yeah, it’s hopeless. Unless you’re a blue dragon that has mana crystals growing inside, all living beings in this world can’t really develop mana receptors after infancy—”

“Excuse me, just a second.”

I interrupted her next words.

I had caught a hint from her casual remark.

“What did you say earlier? Being a blue dragon?”

“……? Unless you’re a blue dragon, it’s hard to cultivate mana receptors after leaving infancy…”

……So, saying it’s tough to grow mana receptors after infancy unless one is a blue dragon means that if I become a blue dragon, then everything will be solved.

Isn’t it just a matter of having mana stones embedded in my body like a blue dragon?

I lifted my head, speaking to her excitedly.

“Master, what if I become a blue dragon?”

“……?”

Elena looked at me as if I were spouting nonsense.

She couldn’t comprehend my conclusion since I had provided no explanation.

So, I decided to elaborate further.

“I mean, I intend to use the blue dragon’s mechanism. I can implant mana stones into my body to substitute for mana receptors.”

“……”

Yet even with the additional explanation, Elena’s expression was something else altogether.

She looked at me as if she was watching a madman.

“No, Ed… Cultivating mana stones in your body is something only a blue dragon can do. It’s impossible for a human body to have mana stones implanted. It’s extremely harmful to the body.”

Of course, her words are true.

I had tried consuming mana stones once and had spent days suffering afterward.

But I couldn’t just give up on the notion just because it was harmful to the body.

“So, we need to search for a way. Blue dragons seem to be okay even with mana stones in their bodies. We can research why they can manage that so well.”

If it’s about research, I’m confident.

With my hidden skills in dexterity and engineering thought, I could likely uncover the secrets of blue dragons within a week.

“Ha… you’re going to do research, huh… Well, how do you plan to do that?”

“By capturing a blue dragon.”

“C… capture? Capture a blue dragon…? Ha-ha, Ed, a blue dragon is an extremely ferocious creature. It’s a dragon after all. No one in the empire—”

Just then, Elena trailed off, realizing my gaze on her.

She laughed as if it was absurd.

“Ha-ha, you can’t be serious, right?”

“Master.”

“Come on, we’ve just started this master-disciple relationship. You’re not thinking like that, are you?”

“As my master, you can do it. You know how powerful you are.”

“……”

Elena’s expression dramatically shifted once more.

It seemed to convey ‘what kind of guy is this.’

Eventually, she laughed again, as if disbelieving.

“So, you’re saying I should personally go to the blue dragon’s den and capture a blue dragon? You want to give such orders to your master, the Great Mage?”

“Hmm. Rather than an order, it’s more of a desperate wish from a disciple.”

“Ha-ha-ha. You think I’d actually agree to that?”

“Yes.”

“Why’s that?”

“You accepted me as your disciple. Even risking breaking imperial law, which means you must have high hopes for me.”

“……”

“Also, Master, you have a strong curiosity. You publish papers in scholarly journals every year. Therefore, I’ll satisfy your curiosity. Honestly, isn’t it intriguing to see a human who can handle mana stones implanted in their body just like a blue dragon?”

“……”

Elena’s lips trembled.

An enormous blue haze surged around her body.

She was getting excited.

“You… really are amusing… the more I know you.”

Elena’s breathing grew heavier.

The look in her eyes, gazing at me intently, felt somewhat abnormal.

As I met her gaze, a certain phrase came to mind.

It was one of the setups regarding Elena.

[Feels sexual attraction toward the most talented individual.]

…Looking back, that’s a real psycho kind of setup.

Feeling sexual attraction toward the one deemed to be the most talented.

However, there was a reason for that setup concerning Elena.

Deep in her subconscious loomed the thought, ‘I must prepare for danger.’

And the most certain way to do that is to bear children from someone with talents on par with herself.

In short, it’s a form of self-replication.

“Hah… haha… fun… that you’d so shamelessly regard your master this way.”

Thus, the image of Elena now facing me felt somewhat familiar.

Having played ‘El Pandor Runtera,’ I had received her affections more than a few times.

“Phew… yeah, you perceived me accurately. Honestly, I have high hopes for you. It’s infuriating, but I can’t turn down the request from a cute disciple.”

Yet I still haven’t been fully recognized.

The fact that she hadn’t tried to pounce at me suggested she was still observing me.

“Wait two days. While capturing a fully grown dragon is a stretch, I think I can manage to catch a juvenile blue dragon.”

“…… Thank you.”

However, there was a distinct fondness in her gaze toward me.

Unlike before, a crimson aura swirled around her entire face, and a seductive expression was unmistakably present.

Though not fully acknowledged, I was clearly one of her final choices.

“Then, I’ll see you in two days.”

With those words, she transformed into blue mist and dissipated.

As soon as she vanished, I let out a long sigh.

The memory of Elena wanting to pounce on me flashed through my mind.