I Became the Academy’s Hidden Skill Master – Chapter 58

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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My uncontrolled movement finally stopped in front of a beehive halfway down the cliff.

While it wasn’t the Century Gold-Command Honey, my body didn’t care—it plunged my hand into the hive and ruthlessly plundered the honey.

– Munch munch munch.

Even as bees tried to swarm me, my spider silk coating sliced through them all.

‘How am I managing to eat just the honey so precisely?’

Despite brutally reaching into the hive and scooping, I somehow avoided crushing any larvae or bees—a strangely delicate touch.

I’d partly let this penalty trigger out of curiosity about what would happen, but I hadn’t expected this.

‘This wasn’t going to help.’

I’d hoped there might be some differences between game and reality here, but they seemed minimal.

If anything, I’d need to start carrying honey candy to eat regularly since losing control of my body was dangerous.

Needing such careful countermeasures for something that wasn’t even a curse…

What I’d thought was a minor penalty turned out to need much more attention than expected.

[Status effect ‘Too Fond of Honey’ removed after consuming honey.]

A penalty that could be cleared just by eating honey once a month.

But if I couldn’t eat it when needed, I’d lose all control of my body—a disaster.

“The human isn’t dead! Shoot! Fire arrows!”

Right now it was just crude stone arrows flying at me, but who knew what situations this could cause later.

‘Though I might be able to use this situation to my advantage.’

That was partly why I hadn’t prepared for the penalty immediately.

The ability to find honey could potentially be quite useful.

“Let’s deal with what’s in front of me first.”

Using my spider silk like a grappling hook, I pulled myself up the cliff.

The more I fought using spider silk, the more I thought of that hero from Earth.

‘If I’m having random thoughts like this, I must still be pretty relaxed.’

After that moment of self-awareness, I charged at the monsters.

It was time for action—my break was over.

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Ki Ju-seon’s laboratory after Lee Seok-hyun left the Manaplate Armor designs…

The place was buzzing with intense research activity.

“These designs claim the fundamental basis of my research so far was wrong.”

Ki Ju-seon wanted to give even the weakest people power to defeat monsters.

He naturally thought the Manaplate Armor needed to be perfect in every aspect.

He’d planned a self-generating and charging system since commoners couldn’t afford mana stones, but…

Seok-hyun’s design philosophy was to squeeze every last drop of power from the commoner instead.

It focused on amplifying even the tiniest remnant of mana, reducing energy consumption while maximizing killing power.

Despite major concerns about safety and mana exhaustion, Ki Ju-seon nodded when told it was fine since this was just a prototype.

Rather than creating a finished product from the start, this was a step toward mass production.

Working alone, he couldn’t think this way and obsessed over perfection, but Seok-hyun’s involvement changed that.

“But how could he create something like this?”

How could a first-year student design something this sophisticated so quickly?

Even if he’d thought about it before, Seok-hyun was still a commoner.

While Ki Ju-seon didn’t look down on commoners, some fields required innate genius and others didn’t.

This was especially true for scholarly research rather than artistic pursuits.

You might say learning one thing teaches you ten, but this field required a perfect environment just to learn that one thing.

For a commoner to create such designs without access to magical engineering education…

Most surprising was his complete lack of hesitation.

“It’s like he knew all the answers already.”

Usually, students showed some shame when presenting designs to professors.

They should look embarrassed about showing their work, or like livestock being led to slaughter.

But Seok-hyun confidently modified and rebuilt his designs, pushing forward with his convictions.

He had the confidence of someone who knew exactly how to make it work.

Like he knew the future.

“Makes me wonder what kind of life he’s lived.”

If Seok-hyun had been noble-born, professors would have thoroughly investigated his past before enrollment.

A prodigy’s background was crucial to them.

But being a commoner, professors hadn’t bothered looking into his past.

‘They’re all the same.’

Commoner lives tended to follow similar patterns, hundreds or thousands of them.

Without education, the only way into Mirinae Academy was exceptional talent.

The only path was to show early genius and pass the entrance exam.

Besides, investigating wouldn’t reveal much.

Nobody kept detailed records of commoner children’s backgrounds.

So Seok-hyun remained a mystery prodigy.

“Is this mana ratio correct? Won’t this make the steel too soft?”

While Ki Ju-seon pondered Seok-hyun’s identity, Kim Seok-cheol was performing mana forging at his summons.

‘Will this work?’

While mana forging was simply described as infusing mana during forging for better refinement…

The key was that the steel itself could hold mana.

The crucial part was how efficiently you could pack mana into the steel.

Seok-hyun’s designs called for filling it to the absolute limit.

The problem was how this severely compromised durability.

While its mana conductivity was excellent, the armor would likely break after only a few uses.

‘There isn’t any efficiency.’

It seemed wasteful to create a prototype using Forenta saplings for mana circuits if it would only last two or three uses.

But Kim Seok-cheol kept his concerns to himself.

‘He must know what he’s doing.’

He firmly believed Ki Ju-seon had to be aware of these issues.

Someone so much more educated couldn’t possibly miss such obvious flaws.

He was convinced that raising objections would only upset the professor.

– Clang! Clang! Clang!

Putting all his questions and curiosity aside with faith in Ki Ju-seon’s judgment, Kim Seok-cheol continued his mana forging as requested.

‘Maybe Seok-hyun has a solution for the durability.’

Ki Ju-seon had the same concerns, but his faith in Seok-hyun let him overlook them.

Though this first collaboration made him nervous, his trust outweighed his anxiety.

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‘That should do it.’

After clearing the cliff-top mobs and infiltrating the armory…

I considered how to most effectively use the explosives before me.

Over twenty explosive charges and more than a hundred unfilled cannonballs.

Ideally, I’d lure the boss monster here and set off the explosives when it arrived.

But things wouldn’t work out so conveniently.

The moment I entered the boss’s area, every monster would come running.

That would mean certain death, strategy or not.

‘Going solo makes this really tough.’

Just one more person would let us split duties between moving explosives and fighting monsters.

Solo runs left no room for error—the disadvantages were too great.

So my solution was…

‘Two people would work.’

To increase my numbers.

The Jungle Fortress offered more than just dungeon clear rewards.

Rare rewards sometimes dropped from clearing mobs…

And with most monsters having rushed outside, I could easily collect these rewards.

“Now, how did that spirit stone magic circle work again?”

The reward was a spirit stone—a crucial item letting even those without talent in spirit arts form contracts with spirits.

While success wasn’t guaranteed and required various conditions and compatibilities, my Natural Mana would help.

Drawing the spirit circle with gunpowder and placing the spirit stone in the center completed the preparations.

A simple method to prepare for a spirit contract.

Normally you’d need to learn how to obtain spirit stones and draw spirit circles…

But having played Final Destiny countless times, I could skip those details.

‘Let’s do this.’

Time to create an ally.

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