Chapter 19
A card engraved with Boogie’s emblem.
Young Turtle
Borrow the power of a young armored turtle.
When I grabbed it, information began to surface in my mind.
Cost 1 consumption – Borrow the armor of the Young Turtle.
Cost 1 consumption – Summon the Young Turtle briefly.
It creates a wall and then returns.
‘……It worked.’
After reading through the abilities, my mood soared.
The swallow brought a gourd seed to Heungbu, but Boogie brought me a defensive skill.
‘Good work, Boogie.’
Was it thanks to giving him enough rest so his immunity rose?
When I looked at the Animal Farm screen, Boogie was lifting his head high as if he had completely recovered from his symptoms.
‘Choosing Boogie was the right decision.’
Boogie’s card was made of dust and soil.
From that alone, I had already guessed he was of the earth element.
‘Even his alias Absolute Shell gave off a defensive vibe.’
As expected, he lived up to his name.
All the abilities written on the card were defensive techniques.
‘Ren’s powers are wind and electricity.’
Earth has an advantage over both of them.
I would be able to negate some of his attacks.
Massaging my shoulder, I shifted the card to my left hand.
‘Looks like I’ll be busy late into the night.’
In my right hand, I held Ilawne’s Heart.
It was time to test the abilities directly.
After grasping my full strength, I would build a strategy.
‘First, let’s check out the armor ability.’
The moment I declared my intent to use the ability,
Shaaah…… a green light burst out from the card.
As that light entered my body, a faint glow spread across my whole body.
‘Is that all?’
Since it was called armor, I expected some kind of physical armor to appear.
But aside from the light, there were no outward effects.
However, when I checked the effect description, my mouth hung open.
Absolute Shell’s Protection – Defense 999 +
‘That’s broken.’
It was ridiculous.
The average defense of first-year cadets was, at most, around 10.
Across all of Yggdrasil, defense at 300 was considered top tier.
‘And yet this goes over three times that?’
I rubbed my eyes, thinking I had misread, but the problem wasn’t my eyes.
‘This is insane.’
Absolute Shell.
The name was literal.
Unless I was struck by an attack with a disadvantageous attribute, I could block almost any attack.
‘With just this, I’m practically invincible.’
I tried moving lightly to test it.
‘……Hm?’
That was when I noticed something strange.
‘Why does my body feel so heavy……!’
Wait, can I even move at all?
It was like my whole body had sunk into a sandpit.
‘Even twitching a finger takes effort.’
It was as if I had turned into a plaster statue, unable to move at all.
‘So there’s a penalty to balance out the overwhelming defense.’
Without the penalty, it would have been one of the most overpowered skills ever.
Now it finally felt balanced.
‘A bit of a shame, though.’
I really couldn’t move at all.
‘So it’s meant to be used solely for enduring attacks.’
A double-edged sword.
In the right situation and conditions, it could be called the ultimate ability.
But if used incorrectly, it could turn against me.
‘That aside, when does this effect end?’
Just as I was thinking that, my body suddenly felt light again, as it usually did.
Blinking, I tried to infer.
‘Can I cancel it at will? Or did it just wear off by chance?’
I’d only know the answer through testing.
I activated the armor ability again and immediately tried to release it.
‘If I command a release, it ends about 1…… 2 seconds later.’
Once more, my body became completely free.
‘I thought maybe I could drop the armor right after tanking a hit and then immediately counterattack.’
But even the timing had a penalty.
Two seconds might seem like nothing.
But in a fight where a 0.1 second difference decided life and death, it felt long.
‘If I plan to use it for counterattacks, I’ll need precise timing. If I miss it, I could get hit the moment it’s released.’
At least now I knew I could cancel it by will.
‘Then let’s test the maximum duration.’
I used the ability again.
It lasted for about a minute.
‘Once activated, it stays up for quite a while.’
There were plenty of ways to make use of that.
Some strategies were already coming to mind.
It could be used to gather cost gauge while defending.
Or to exhaust an opponent by taking all their attacks.
The penalty was significant, but overall it was still a very useful ability.
‘Now let’s check the wall ability.’
I focused on the spot where I wanted to create a wall and stretched out my hand.
The card glowed as a green magic circle appeared.
Crackkk!
A turtle shell emerged as the green magic circle tore open.
At that moment, Boogie poked his head out.
Rumble! Thud!
A faint tremor ran through the ground as dirt appeared out of nowhere and stacked up at high speed.
A rectangular wall was instantly created.
‘It’s a little taller than me.’
A huge wall, roughly 2 meters in width and height.
‘And it’s thick.’
I struck the wall hard, but it didn’t budge.
‘At the very least, it looks like it can block attacks from advantageous elements.’
It seemed reliable in certain situations.
‘And the penalty…… doesn’t exist.’
I tried jumping and running, but there were no abnormalities.
‘Let’s try making one more.’
This time, I focused my gaze on another spot.
Rumble! Thud-thud-thud!
This time, a large heart-shaped wall was formed.
I completely understood the ability.
‘I can shape it however I want within a 2-meter limit.’
In less than 2 seconds, the cover I desired was created.
‘But the smaller the wall I create, the faster it forms.’
This time, I made a small wall under a meter tall, and it didn’t even take a second.
With that creation speed, it could serve as an alternative defense against surprise attacks.
‘I’ve more or less grasped the ability.’
Now I had to plan a strategy to face Ren.
‘This reminds me of when I used to create boss raid guides.’
Facing Ren overlapped with my days as a <Yggdrasil> player.
I smiled as I recalled struggling alone against difficult bosses while writing guides.
‘This time, it’s not about defeating a boss, but about crafting a strategy to narrowly lose to Ren.’
Fighting with my pencil, a whole day passed in an instant.
At last, the day of the sparring match arrived.
It was said the duels would span three days, divided into morning and afternoon groups.
‘Pretty spacious.’
It was located on the left grounds of Yggdrasil, in the form of a colosseum with a circular stage.
Sitting in the seats, I glanced around; the capacity seemed to be about ten thousand.
Even with all 600 first-years gathered, the seats still felt empty.
An assistant instructor stood on the colosseum stage and continued the explanation.
“Cadets, the sparring will begin soon, and the explanation will be given only once.”
The rules of the sparring match were as follows.
If you fell out of bounds or became unable to fight, it would end.
Abilities would automatically be adjusted to prevent deaths during the duel.
Since it was Professor Ruber’s system, we could fight without worry.
“Then, we’ll begin the matchups.”
I heard that to set an example from the very first match, the top freshman would duel first.
Click, click.
Someone stepped onto the stage.
The hall instantly went silent, quiet enough to hear his footsteps.
Shining silver hair and blue eyes.
Tightly closed lips without expression.
‘Nobleman Heidel.’
The top freshman of prestigious Yggdrasil.
“Haa…….”
“Heidel!”
“Do your best, Heidel!”
“Wooooaaah!!”
Countless students chanted Heidel’s name, filling the air with cheers.
‘Tch, he’s really popular.’
As I thought that, surrounding whispers reached my ears.
“Heidel is always amazing.”
“Yeah, unlike a certain someone!”
That “someone” was directed at me.
‘Heidel is a high-ranking noble, just like me.’
The four great families of the Astrid Empire were Finjer, Kuman, Forton, and Dedenkman.
Heidel was the promising third son of the Finjer family.
“Heidel is the pride of the nobility!”
“Villed is the shame of the nobility!”
Since we were both from high noble families,
Heidel and Villed were often compared.
‘He doesn’t talk much, but for a noble, his personality’s decent. He might seem cold, but he understands greater causes.’
It was understandable why he was so popular.
‘On top of that, he’s strong enough to be the top freshman.’
Heidel could wield four different elements.
Among them, he specialized in light and ice.
‘He could use one of the strongest elements, light, and on top of that, he was an all-rounder with perfectly balanced stats.’
Attack, defense, support.
Rather than focusing on one, he could do everything—the ultimate jack-of-all-trades character.
‘In the story, he doesn’t join Ren as a companion, but appears only at crucial moments as an ally.’
That mysteriousness, combined with his strength,
along with his sculpted looks and silver hair, made him the most favored by players.
That popularity wasn’t any different in the world of Yggdrasil.
“Shut the hell up, you noisy bastards.”
At someone’s threat, the hall went dead silent.
That was how intimidating the voice was.
“Why the hell is that bastard ranked higher than me?”
Heidel’s opponent was the third-ranked freshman, Kunking the Explosive.
His spiky red hair was swept up to show his forehead.
His sharp eyes matched his foul mouth.
Even in uniform, his build was broad and muscular.
And for some reason, he always grinned like something was funny.
He wasn’t quite as notorious as Villed, the academy’s worst, but his violent nature gave him a bad reputation.
‘Yeah, his personality’s as rough as his appearance. But his abilities can’t be ignored.’
Kunking wielded two elements.
Compared to Heidel’s four, it was two fewer.
‘But one of them was darkness, equal to the top element, light.’
He was a hot-blooded brawler with a theme of explosions, specializing in darkness and fire.
The academy’s top three: Nobleman Heidel, Chatterbox Keirin, and Kunking the Explosive.
This fight was between two of them.
‘This duel will be the grandest one.’
Both of them had shown overwhelming performance in the game, but how would it look in reality?
Kunking smirked with sharp eyes.
“Hey, noble brat, I don’t know my own strength. If you end up dead, that’s not my fault.”
“……”
Heidel’s expression still didn’t change.
It was as if he didn’t even find it worth replying.
“Cadets, the duel will begin in three seconds. Get ready.”
The assistant instructor watched the two and raised the flag.
“……Begin!”
Bang!
At the very start, a huge mass of ice appeared in the arena.
Even from the spectator seats, the chill could be felt.
“……What? Ice?”
“Look at that!”
Inside that massive block of ice stood Kunking.
He had been frozen at the exact moment the duel began.
“……Huh.”
“What was that just now?”
“Is it already over?”
“What did I just see?”
After a brief silence, the hall quickly erupted into murmurs.
“……Unbelievable.”
“The opponent didn’t even stand a chance. It was overwhelming.”
Perhaps some had never seen Heidel’s full power before, because quite a few students were visibly shocked.
No one had expected such a completely overwhelming difference in strength.
‘As expected of Heidel.’
He truly was a talent destined to become one of the strongest in the world a few years later.
“Seems like it’s over.”
Heidel looked at the assistant instructor.
Even though he had faced one of the academy’s top three, his eyes showed no particular interest.
“Uh…… well…….”
Maybe the instructor hadn’t expected the duel to end at the very start.
He looked dumbfounded, glancing back and forth between the frozen Kunking and Heidel.
“……”
Heidel seemed to wait quietly for the judgment.
Click, click.
Then, turning his back, he began walking off the stage.
“I-I’ll announce the judgment.”
It was just then, as the assistant instructor belatedly raised his flag.
“The winner, Heidel……”
“It’s not over, you bastard.”
Bubble, bubble, bubble!
Ssshhhh!
With an intense blaze, Kunking melted the ice that had trapped him, emerging from within.
Around him, steam rose and drifted like smoke.
“And this piece of shit is the so-called overwhelming number one? Please, stop spouting crap.”
Squish, squish.
Dripping wet, Kunking stepped out of the ice one step at a time.
“This ice was lukewarm as hell.”
Crack, crack,
He loosened his neck and hands with a short stretch.
Surprisingly composed for someone who had just broken free from ice.
“Haa.”
Heidel sighed and faced Kunking again.
When he looked at Kunking with truly weary eyes, Kunking’s grin froze.
The corners of his mouth, once lifted, slowly sank.
“You bastard. That look again.”
Kwagwagwagwang!
Perhaps truly angered now, Kunking’s pupils shrank.
From his clenched fist erupted massive flames.
“I’ll crush those damn eyes of yours!”
Bang!
With an explosion, he charged at Heidel at high speed, and the real duel finally began.