I Became the Academy’s Time-Limited Genius – Chapter 46

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Translated By Arcane Translations

Translator: Silverriver

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The black serpent writhed. Its fangs were gone, and its head was pierced, yet it lived. Its core remained intact.

Screech!

With a low groan, the serpent slowly rose. A fang lost, a life lost, but…

It didn’t matter. The Magic Swordsman, Lenox, was gone. Not hidden, but completely obliterated. And with her demise, the magic binding the serpent vanished.

It could finally return to its true form. The serpent, its wounded body writhing, slowly slithered away, escaping the dungeon.

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I felt like I was adrift in a void, my body a rudderless ship, floating aimlessly.

I couldn’t move. I simply lay there, devoid of will or purpose.

“….”

Who was I? Why was I here? Where was I? Why was I alive?

Questions only beget more questions. I found no answers.

A strange sensation. Blood coursing through my veins, muscles contracting and expanding. The sensations of being alive… were fading.

My body remained immobile. My heartbeat slowed, my breathing shallow.

Then, a ceiling materialized in the empty space before me. Light streamed down. The light spoke.

I parted my lips, wanting to ask who it was, but no sound emerged.

The light spoke again.

The light continued.

The light paused, then spoke again.

A fate of… what? The word was garbled, as if swallowed by static.

The light began to fade. I desperately tried to speak, to hear that missing word, but my voice remained silent.

The light shrunk, taking on a human form. Lenox. She approached me, a sad smile on her face.

Her lips brushed against my forehead. A warm energy flowed through me. I blinked.

Lenox whispered, then vanished. And darkness consumed me.

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I opened my eyes to a familiar scene. A forest bathed in sunlight. Leaves rustling in the breeze, warm sunlight filtering through the canopy, and a rocky mountain beyond the trees.

I instinctively started climbing. If I was here, it meant she had summoned me.

I reached the summit faster than before. I had always been able to climb it easily, but after meeting Lenox, my body felt even lighter.

As I reached the top, Archxius appeared, as if waiting for me. She was wearing long leggings and a cropped t-shirt that exposed her midriff. But there was something different.

A rose tattoo, one I’d never seen before, adorned her abdomen. A rose with flesh-colored petals bloomed on her waist.

“You have a tattoo?”

“No reason. It’s just… pretty.”

I liked tattoos. Drawings etched onto the skin, a form of art. I still felt the same.

I stared at the rose for a moment, then looked up. Staring at her waist for too long would be… inappropriate. But Archxius blushed and avoided my gaze.

Why was she acting like that?

“What do you mean?”

My body? I was just standing there. Did something happen?

“Did something happen?”

“Lightning? Light?”

I didn’t quite understand what she was saying, but it sounded like something significant had occurred. Something had happened to my body while I was talking to Lenox.

“I don’t know.”

“I simply channeled mana into the paper, saw the essence of Lenox’s power and absorbed it.”

It wasn’t a lie. I had received and absorbed the essence of Lenox’s power. I didn’t need to tell her about my conversation with Lenox and her disappearance.

“You won’t find anything by staring.”

Archxius crossed her arms, her breasts pressing against her shirt. She chuckled and said,

“No. It’s different from simply increasing mana capacity.”

Lenox’s opportunity had enhanced my physical abilities.

My stats, displayed in the air, were proof enough. My physical abilities were probably on par with Lee Han’s now.

My mana capacity might even be higher.

But I still couldn’t reach the advanced level. Just like pouring water into a bottle wouldn’t change the bottle itself, the wall to the advanced level remained firmly in place.

“Do you know another way?”

“Yes.”

Archxius shook her head.

“The problem is how to find that attribute.”

She shrugged. I sighed and looked at my hand. Violet Aura flickered around it.

“I wasn’t even considering that.”

My attribute. Had the protagonists in the novels I’d read achieved such heights simply by hearing vague pronouncements like this?

Without a clear method, without any certainty… I suddenly understood the trials and tribulations the protagonists had endured.

Archxius stared at me intently.

“…?”

Desperation? I tilted my head, puzzled. Archxius continued,

“That’s true.”

I listened silently. I could have argued. Even if my actions were calculated, death was still death. I had taken a gamble and won.

But was the risk low?

I would have to disagree. The gambles Lee Han took in the original story were always about achieving the impossible.

I had used future knowledge and the Genius trait to smooth my path. He had endured countless trials, relying solely on his status as the protagonist.

I unconsciously touched my chest, feeling my heart beat steadily beneath my hand. A heart that felt strangely cold, despite its warmth.

Bell had said I was frozen, inside and out. Perhaps it was related to my terminal illness, or perhaps it was about me, myself.

The calculated progression, the convenient cheat, the now almost nonexistent penalty of my terminal illness. And the regular consumption of elixirs.

My lifespan, still over 200 days, lulled me into a false sense of security. I clenched my fists.

Ruberic Caius. Ruberic Caius. Ruberic Caius.

I tried not to forget, but the memory was fading. I hadn’t felt anything when I killed him. I had even felt a sense of… relief.

Perhaps… I was no longer human. Perhaps I was still viewing this world as mere words on a page.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Darkness. My world. A world within a novel, yet no longer a novel.

Reality.

I reminded myself of this fact, over and over. So I would never forget. So I would always remember.

There was no escape. There should be no escape. The blood flowing through my veins, the steady beat of my heart, were proof of this reality.

I opened my eyes. Archxius spoke.

She smiled sadly. Archxius, a dragon who had lived for centuries, even millennia… did she feel the same?

Emotions, once dulled and worn away, never truly returned. So Archxius clung to them desperately.

She raged, she grieved, she laughed. So her emotions wouldn’t fade. So I would remain human. Just like I remembered Ruberic Caius.

Her voice was strangely subdued. Was she seeing herself in me? I didn’t know.

She approached me. Black hair, black eyes, a rose tattooed on her waist. A dragon who had lived for countless years, now residing within my body.

She wrapped her arms around my neck…

and kissed me lightly.

Her lips were cold, yet they carried the scent of roses.

I craved those lips.

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