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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Thanks to the principal, Lee Ha-eun and I were able to freely use the teachers’ training room after school classes ended.
Even though we could use it freely, we naturally couldn’t use it in the morning when classes were in session, but after all the other first-grade children had gone home, we always trained in the training room.
‘In any case, there’s nothing for me to do even if I go home early.’
Since my mother was raising me alone, she went to her company during the day and only came home when it was close to dinner time.
Before I started elementary school, I was at the kindergarten until she got off work, so there was no problem back then, but it was different now.
I, whose classes were only in the morning, had to be home alone until my mother came back from work.
Of course, there was the option of me going to Lee Ha-eun’s house or Lee Ha-eun coming to mine.
‘Still, it would be more reassuring to remain at the school where the teachers are….’
It was the same for Lee Ha-eun’s mother.
Apparently, she had considered sending Lee Ha-eun to an after-school academy, but it seemed like she had concluded that there was no need to tire out a child who was still just in first grade.
If Lee Ha-eun had been an ordinary child, she would have sent her to an arts and physical education academy like a piano academy, but since she was an Awakener, she would have to send her to an academy that developed combat skills, like an ability utilization academy.
Sending a young girl to such a place must have pricked her conscience.
“Above all, our Ha-eun seems to be the happiest when she’s next to Geon-woo.”
“At this rate, aren’t we going to become in-laws in the future?”
Well, for such reasons, it became a natural thing for Lee Ha-eun and me to stay at school even after classes ended and use the training room.
To be honest, when this was first decided, I thought Lee Ha-eun might get bored.
After all, the only thing you could really do in the training room was train.
However….
“…Uuuungh….”
She spent her time sitting in a chair and gathering the mana in the air like me, or clumsily imitating the stances of the teachers who were training.
Perhaps because of her timid and not-so-active personality in the first place, it seemed like she didn’t feel bored just by playing like that in the training room.
The teachers had also heard about our situation from the principal, and since we didn’t interfere with their training, they didn’t pay much attention to us being in the training room.
Rather, they thought it was commendable that we were training, albeit clumsily, at such a young age, and they would even give us various pieces of advice.
“There, you don’t move the mana like that… Do it like me, like this… Gack?!”
“Are you crazy?! What are you doing, trying to teach a child such an advanced application method?! If she relaxes her mind even a little and makes a mistake, the mana could flow backward and she could get seriously injured!”
…Well, for the most part, it was mostly useless advice for the current me or Lee Ha-eun.
Because for me, the advice was of too low a level, and for Lee Ha-eun, it was of too high a level.
It was on a certain Friday, when our daily life had become monotonous in that way.
“I was told to come home early today.”
“Hm? Really?”
“Yeah. I’m supposed to sleep over at my grandma’s house this weekend.”
Lunchtime.
Lee Ha-eun, who was eating lunch with me in the school cafeteria, said that to me.
Lee Ha-eun’s family would go to the countryside where her grandparents lived and sleep over once every two to three weeks, so it wasn’t a big deal.
“Okay. Then have a good trip.”
“Yeah, I’ll get some allowance from my grandma and grandpa.”
“……”
Well, it seemed that Lee Ha-eun’s grandparents would open their wallets and give her an allowance or go to a nearby store and buy her snacks every time she went there.
Still, I wondered if it was okay for her to take it for granted that her grandparents would give her an allowance.
After finishing our meal with such thoughts, we returned to the classroom and had our end-of-day meeting.
“Attention! Bow!”
“Goodbye!”
“Goodbye!”
At the command of our class president, the children bowed their heads to the principal and then all started packing their bags and running out.
“Don’t run! You’ll fall!”
The principal said that, but the children in our class were not the type to listen.
While thinking that, I felt the principal’s wrinkles deepening as I packed my bag and decided to head to the training room.
“Hm? Geon-woo, are you going alone today?”
“Yes. Ha-eun said she’s going to her grandma’s house today.”
“Ah, I see. Today was Friday….”
At my words, the principal nodded and said to me.
“The teachers have an important meeting today, so there’ll be no one in the training room. So, go home without being too late.”
“Yes.”
So I could have the training room all to myself today.
Could I do the training that I couldn’t do before because I was conscious of Lee Ha-eun and the teachers’ gazes?
Feeling good at that thought, I was about to head straight to the training room.
“!”
Until something familiar yet foreign caught my senses.
‘…I think it’s near the school’s garbage dump?’
The area around the garbage dump was a place where people didn’t go unless they were throwing out trash.
Moreover, the something that caught my senses was hidden a little deeper from that garbage dump.
It probably wouldn’t be discovered for a while….
‘Good grief….’
I was planning to do some proper training today, but it seemed like today wasn’t the day for it.
No, rather, in order to get stronger….
‘It would be better to skip today’s training and go check that out, right?’
Thinking that, I left my bag in the training room and headed in the direction of the garbage dump.
It went without saying, but I didn’t meet anyone on the way to the garbage dump.
By now, all the students and teachers in the school would be in class or handling work in the faculty office.
As I was about to pass the garbage dump, I stopped.
“…If I go in bare-handed, I won’t be able to avoid getting blood on me, right?”
With that thought, I looked at the garbage dump.
I had to find a useful tool before going to my destination.
Of course, the garbage dump was filled with all sorts of trash and gave off a foul stench, but I rummaged through the garbage while burning away the dirtiness mixed with the stench with my Samadhi True Fire.
Then I found a pretty decent item….
“A broken bamboo sword….”
Probably one of the teachers broke it while training.
No matter how much of it was an Awakener-specialized school, the elementary school curriculum didn’t include things like swordsmanship training.
I picked it up and swung it lightly.
‘It feels awkward, but it’s better than nothing.’
Although it was broken, considering my body size, this size was rather suitable.
Thinking that, I burned away the dirty parts of the bamboo sword with my Samadhi True Fire and then moved towards my destination again.
And the place I arrived at was….
‘…It’s really amazing every time I see it.’
A space that should have been blocked by a wall was, for some reason, open.
It wasn’t that the wall had collapsed.
If the wall had simply collapsed, the classroom that should have been beyond the wall would have come into view.
But the fact that it wasn’t like that meant that a distortion that ignored the existing space had occurred in the space where a wall should have been.
People called this distortion a Gate, and they called the place you go to by crossing this Gate a Dungeon.
‘I think they call it something different in foreign countries, but the name doesn’t really matter.’
What was important was that if this gate and dungeon were left alone for a long time, various troublesome things would happen.
It depended on the type of gate and dungeon, but there were cases where the dungeon beyond the gate eroded reality, and there were cases where the monsters in the dungeon simply popped out of the gate….
The most troublesome case was when the Black Fog spewed out from the dungeon and polluted the world’s air, but this was rare, so I’ll skip it.
‘From the looks of it, this dungeon seems to be the type where the things inside will pop out if left alone for a long time….’
In this case, the solution was simple.
You just had to enter the dungeon through the gate and kill all the things inside.
Which meant…
‘It means I can experience real combat for the first time in a long while.’
How many ways were there for the current me, an elementary school student, to experience a fight?
In that sense, I welcomed the appearance of this dungeon.
Because through this dungeon, I could get an estimate of how far the current me could go.
I could also draw out my pre-regression senses through this.
‘Well then….’
And so, with only a broken bamboo sword, I entered the dungeon.
Fwoong…!
Then, an axe flew towards me.
BANG!
As I hit the side of the axe with my bamboo sword to change its trajectory and simultaneously dodged to the side, the axe that was heading for me embedded itself into the ground.
Having dodged the axe like that, I identified the opponent who had swung the axe as soon as I entered the dungeon.
Green skin and a huge build.
A monster whose entire body was made of thick flesh, though not muscle.
There were many large monsters among the greenskin-type monsters, but there was only one type of monster whose body was mostly made of flesh like that.
‘An orc? Not bad for a first opponent.’
The orc’s physical abilities were far superior to my young self’s.
And it also had enough intelligence to use tools.
It would be perfect for using my techniques on.
Hwoong!
“Whoops.”
I dodged the axe that was swung again.
The orcs, as if they had been waiting for an intruder, swung their axes as soon as I entered, and when that didn’t work, they tried to overwhelm me by pushing forward with numbers.
No matter how much I tried to block all of their attacks with my swordsmanship, with my current inferior physical ability, the most I could do was deflect them or dodge like I did just now.
If I tried to block them head-on, the weak bamboo sword would break, and I would be split apart by their axes.
‘If I just keep defending like this, I’ll lose sooner or later.’
Of course, that was only if I just kept defending.
“Synchronization.”
As the word ‘synchronization’ came out of my mouth, the internal energy and mana inside my body moved.
The internal energy in my body strengthened my physique, and the mana strengthened the bamboo sword in my hand.
With my thus-strengthened body, I took the thus-strengthened bamboo sword and thrust it into the neck of the orc right in front of me.
Puk!
The bamboo sword was broken, so its tip was sharp.
It was a weak bamboo sword that would break with just a little force, but my mana didn’t allow it to break.
Sharpness and durability.
The bamboo sword, equipped with these two things, was more than enough to become a vicious weapon.
Chwaak!
The orc whose neck was pierced died instantly.
“Gwe-heik?!”
The other orc that saw this was startled and raised its axe, but….
Puk!
Before it could react, I thrust the bamboo sword into its neck as well, and the axe that it had lifted was sent tumbling to the floor.
Thud!
Thud!
As the two huge monsters fell to the floor, that alone created a loud noise.
Soon, the other orcs who had heard this sound would swarm in.
Against them, the bamboo sword was inefficient.
Because the broken bamboo sword I was holding now was only sharp at the tip, I could only thrust with it.
And dealing with multiple enemies with only thrusts was bound to be difficult.
However….
“I think it’s plenty possible.”
Even knowing that, I decided to continue using the bamboo sword.
I decided to accept that much of a penalty.
Because it would be strange for me, who had once cut down thousands of monsters with a single swing, to go all out against an enemy of an orc’s level, no matter how young I had become.
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T/N – The MC’s first action. Honestly, it’s way too convenient for the MC to just find a dungeon right at the time when his tail (Ha-eun) is gone and the teachers are all in a faculty meeting, but whatever. This isn’t the first time I’ve read about an overly lucky MC (*cough* Skar *cough*).
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
