I Became the Academy’s Hidden Skill Master – Chapter 9

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Shio
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After skipping 10 years in the blink of an eye and returning to Lee Seok-Hyun’s body, he realized one thing:

‘I trained too far away from any villages.’

He had forgotten that being near a village was essential for properly managing food, clothing, and shelter.

While surviving on wild animals and herbs was fine for food, living like a proper human required interaction with a village for clothing and shelter.

But he hadn’t considered this aspect, and as a result:

‘I’ve become a primitive man.’

At best, he had only bathed by showering in rivers. His clothes had become so tattered that he had replaced them with tree bark.

Brushing his teeth involved roughly using pine needles and gargling, and his cooking methods were limited to grilling or smoking.

It was fair to say he had reverted to a Stone Age lifestyle.

The one fortunate thing was that he couldn’t smell his own body odor.

If he could have, he probably would have passed out.

“Still, this was the only way. Status window.”

Though he had endured a harsh time, there was no other way to restore his body to its original state for now.

As a result:

“Perfect.”

In FD’s status window, unless a recorded stat had a high value, it was lumped together with everything into general descriptions.

It roughly indicated the approximate levels of basic physical conditions like strength, agility, intelligence, stamina, etc., all at once.

It was an incredibly unhelpful way of explaining things.

‘Except for willpower, it seems everything grew evenly.’

He could now be considered to have achieved the basic stats needed to finally stand at the starting line.

Lee Seok-Hyun, an RNG character that couldn’t sense mana, had one of the minimum conditions needed to stand beside the other main characters: a healthy body.

‘If it were another character, they wouldn’t have done this.’

If it was a main character, they would have spent time training their main skill or practicing mana control instead of physical training.

But for Lee Seok-Hyun who only shined late game, physical training was absolutely essential.

It was a necessity, and truthfully, it was also the only thing he could do.

‘There weren’t any hidden skills to gain during this time either.’

FD strictly distinguished between active gameplay and passive time.

This meant that during the prologue and main story, when you were directly playing the game, it was possible to obtain hidden skills.

But during skipped periods like between the prologue and main story, it was set up so you couldn’t gain anything.

‘They’re obsessed with unnecessary details.’

Putting aside any more idle thoughts, he focused on the goal of getting to the academy for now.

Having to pass Mirinae Academy’s entrance exam with nothing was already daunting.

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“Ugh, blegh… What on earth have you been eating? The entrance exam hall is that way.”

“Are you crazy? If you’re going to talk to people, at least wash up first… t’s that way.”

After coming down from the mountains and asking directions while making several people dry heave, he was finally able to barely reach Mirinae Academy’s application reception area.

Though calling it a reception area was generous—it was more like putting your completed application form into something like a mailbox.

‘Whew… At least I’ve submitted the application.’

Mirinae Academy.

It was the first academy to break down class barriers, a place of hope where anyone with talent could knock on its doors and pursue their dreams.

Not only that, but it provided basic meal support and dormitories. Once admitted, there was no need to worry about tuition fees.

In other words, it was a place that truly only looked at talent.

Because of this, the inside of Mirinae Academy was an equal space without social status.

‘Well, even so, it’s only nominally equal inside due to factions and such.’

Still, wasn’t it something that they at least outwardly proclaimed equality?

‘I absolutely must pass.’

Mirinae Academy divided its entrance exam into three parts: Mado, Mudo, and Oedo—magic, martial arts, and everything else respectively.

Even characters with main skills applied according to the category their main skill fell under. In Lee Seok-Hyun’s case:

‘Definitely Oedo.’

He couldn’t even sense mana, and he hadn’t learned any martial arts, so his chances of passing those tests were zero.

Choosing Oedo was the only way he had even a 1% chance of passing.

‘Even when I raised Lee Seok-Hyun before, I didn’t get into the academy many times.’

Since his early game was trash, his training method had to be different from other characters.

There were routes where he deliberately didn’t enter the academy to obtain hidden skills with high late-game potential, but this time, there was a reason he absolutely had to enter the academy.

‘Because there’s only one chance.’

When enjoying FD as a game, even though it was roguelike, it wasn’t like I would really die, so I did whatever I wanted.

But now, since death meant it was truly over, I had no choice but to take the best and most optimal route.

There was no route that could stably bring out potential and had higher low points and high points than the academy.

All other routes were just high risk, high return where you could easily die at any moment.

“Hey, get out! Move!”

“What? Do you know who I am and talk to me like that?”

“You couldn’t even ride a carriage and came, but you’re acting so noble. You’re clearly a loser.”

“What? Loser? Are you done talking?”

While he was deeply pondering how to pass the exam, noisy voices entered his ears.

‘Ah, right, those guys were here too.’

One of Lee Seok-Hyun’s few advantages was that, despite not being a main character, he could observe the narratives of the main characters.

It was the fate of a trash character—he had to be around core characters to pick up scraps, so it naturally became like that.

‘Benras and Kim Seok-cheol.’

He moved closer to the fight scene and observed their appearances.

“Yeah, you loser. If you’re going to act noble, you should have ridden a magic carriage or something. At best, brand-name clothes…and fake at that. Tsk. Embarrassing.”

Kim Seok-cheol, deliberately speaking roughly to avoid being looked down on for being a commoner.

“…Take back those words right now!”

Benras, revealing that he wasn’t really a high noble with his awkward noble speech.

Both were characters who played significant supporting roles in FD, so seeing them like this gave him a strange feeling.

They were always fighting in the game, and it was the same here too.

‘Well, they’re not what’s important.’

He hadn’t moved his feet just to see supporting characters. The character he wanted to see was:

‘Yu So-hyun.’

A woman who had stopped hesitating and was preparing to step in as soon as Benras and Kim Seok-cheol drew their weapons.

One of the main characters of Final Destiny, and a character destined to die to awaken the protagonist.

With her elegant hime cut, faintly shining blue eyes, and worn out clothes showing she was a commoner.

‘She’s cute.’

Kind, unable to tolerate injustice, and bravely standing against evil.

Though timid, she was the type to sacrifice herself unhesitatingly for others.

This time too, she was surely going to step in herself to stop the fight before a big conflict broke out.

“Fighting, troublesome.”

So he stepped in before she could.

To indirectly tell her not to take such losses in advance, in preparation for the great misfortunes she would face later.

That there were many others who would step in even if it wasn’t her, so she should hold back just this once.

“Bleeeeurgh!”

As soon as he stepped in, not just Benras and Kim Seok-cheol, but everyone around him started dry heaving.

The best natural perfume—a mixture of grass smell that wouldn’t wash off with water, sweat, and wild animal odor—was too much for city dwellers to handle.

‘This is why people living in cities are a problem.’

He thought they should occasionally climb mountains and experience living as a natural person to become healthier.

Their bodies were all so weak—what use could they be?

‘Well, at least the situation is settled now.’

Both Benras and Kim Seok-cheol had put away their weapons and moved far apart, embarrassed after dry heaving.

They probably couldn’t do anything when someone who looked like he shouldn’t be messed with suddenly appeared in the center.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, he wanted to try talking to Yu So-hyun, so he blurted out a random question.

“Does anyone know where the bathhouse is?”

He deliberately stared intently while asking, putting pressure on her as if to say, ‘You must answer this.’

His intention seemed to work, as Yu So-hyun immediately responded.

“I—I know.”

She even raised her hand like a good child while kindly pointing out the location.

Not only Yu So-hyun, but he also wanted to meet other main characters quickly.

Seeing characters he had only seen as pixels in real life gave him a unique feeling.

“Answer, thanks.”

After giving one last bit of his act, he hurried off to the bathhouse.

No matter what, this was the entrance exam that only happened once a year. If he went looking like this, it was clear he’d be rejected just by his appearance before even taking the test.

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“Now then, we will begin the written portion of Mirinae Academy’s Oedo exam. Before that, please check your area of specialty and prepare for the test.”

“Yes!!”

In Mirinae Academy’s Oedo written exam room.

‘Whew… I absolutely must get a perfect score.’

Since Lee Seok-Hyun had almost no special talents, getting a perfect score on the written test was essential to increase his chances of passing the exam.

Hoping for a miracle in the practical test and taking it casually was out of the question.

He had to settle things here without fail.

‘You can do it, Lee Seok-Hyun…!’

He inwardly psyched himself up vigorously.

“Then, begin the exam!”

And so, the full-fledged entrance exam began.

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[Shio here~!

I promise you guys that I don’t purposefully look for barbarian-like main characters ;-;]