I Became the Must-Have Character of the Academy City - Chapter 113



112 – Personal Weapon

One stroke of luck: the dimensional rift that had opened was relatively small.

One piece of misfortune: there wasn’t just one rift.

Rifts were appearing all over the mall.

Huge Scorpions and Giant Beetles poured forth.

Creatures that should be baking in the dry desert had arrived in a cool shopping mall.

─ *Chirr-rrrrr!*

A gigantic scorpion, truly reminiscent of a truck, and beetles like tanks.

And from some of the rifts, Mummies shuffled out with dragging steps.

Monsters wrapped in bandages and wielding rusted weapons.

Those things commonly called mummies.

─ *Guh-errrr…*

─ *Uuh-errrr…*

If there was a difference from the forms popularized in films, perhaps it was the filthy, dangling bandages and the largely exposed rotting flesh.

The Mummies’ withered hands clutched dirty, unhygienic blades.

─ *Kyaaah──!*

─ *It’s a monster!!!*

“Report it to the Constabulary!”

Upon the spiderweb woven by Clara.

Various noises seep into Rohan’s ears.

Screams of people and howls of monsters mingle, echoing through the shopping mall.

On a higher floor, Zion’s lightning crackles, accompanied by bursts of gunfire.

Immense pillars of ice erupt with a crash, pushing back the monsters.

Anyone could see that was Noah’s power.

[+4P]

[+2P]

[+4P]

[+3P]

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Monsters are dealt with by his companions, and points pour in.

‘The rift is closing. It spat them all out?’

Rohan, finished with his observations, patted Ichinose on the back, dusting him off.

He brought his head close to his ear and announced in a low voice.

“Wee-chinose. You need to keep your wits about you, starting now.”

“···.”

Ichinose lifted his head from Rohan’s chest, gazing at him.

He had even forgotten to blink, revealing his golden irises without reservation.

“A dimensional rift has opened in the shopping mall. This isn’t a dream anymore, it’s reality. Understand?”

Rohan cupped Ichinose’s soft cheeks in his hands, who was staring blankly at him.

“Ugh…”

He kneaded and squeezed them, rousing him.

Half for personal satisfaction.

He had wanted to touch these rice cakes at least once.

“Stand up and grab your sword. Then just cut down any monsters you see, that’s it.”

“Rohan! Are you hurt at all…?”

“Petty talk can wait until after, yes?”

When Rohan dropped the hand that cupped his cheek,

Ichinose took a steadying breath and closed her eyes.

She gripped the sword hilt, drawing it free.

“…Thank you.”

“Let’s go.”

They stepped onto the sturdy web Clara had laid and landed on a nearby floor.

Once the two were cleanly away, Clara’s threads, which had acted as their safety net, retracted.

—Gwaargh!!!

—Kwaaack!!!

Monsters greeted them the instant their feet touched down.

Mummies wielding various bladed weapons shambled toward them.

“Rohan, secure the opposite side.”

*Click!*

Ichinose finished speaking and pushed her thumb, revealing a segment of Yoru (Night)’s blade.

A wondrous line was drawn as a subtle harmony unfolded between swordplay and magic.

[Dream Mirage Slash Style – Illusion Butterfly Dance]

Ichinose brushed past like mist.

The mummies’ parched bodies were cleanly sliced apart as points rose.

‘No joke, as expected. Her mastery of the sword is on another level.’

*Swoosh!*

Rohan, impressed by Ichinose’s dazzling swordsmanship, drew his longsword.

‘Scorching Blade.’

The longsword, dyed crimson with heat, swung.

He flipped beetles with hardened shells on their backs with a kick, splitting them, and rapidly pushed back the mummies with close combat.

Scorpions had their tails plucked out with weakness infliction, their bodies smashed with fists.

‘This place is good.’

Rohan calmed his impatience as he butchered the monsters.

This was a shopping mall teeming with Academy students.

To put it bluntly, it was packed with individuals who’d received specialized monster hunting training.

—Block from the left! Blunts only for the bugs! These b*stards are seriously tough…!

“Son of a b*tch! When are the peacekeepers getting here!”

The sounds of fighting, the noises of struggle, reached them from everywhere.

They saw enough with their own eyes. Everyone was fighting to keep going, somehow.

‘The dimensional rifts are small. The monsters aren’t high-level.’

Aside from the occasional, stronger leader-types mixed in, the regular students were handling it well enough.

‘The shops have their emergency shutters down.’

He had almost asked Noah to freeze people in ice, but the situation was, in many ways, miraculously under control.

Among the chaos, they saw injured students, but no corpses. Not yet.

According to the quest details, the dimensional rifts had opened simultaneously in various locations.

The peacekeepers from the academy city would likely be arriving later than usual.

‘Not just hold out, not just survive… completely eliminate them.’

Lohan sliced through the waists of several mummies in one swing and leaped down to the first floor with Ichinose.

The others, who had swiftly cleared the upper floors, were gathering on their own.

“Oppa…!”

“Lohan! Are you alright!”

Sion and Clara, moving with ninja-like agility, used the structures and railings to descend, reaching their side.

“Hup!”

Noah, relying on his strong physique, jumped down from a high floor with a thud! landing hard.

He shook his ankle slightly, probably feeling a twinge in his leg.

“Clara saved me.”

“That’s a relief…”

“Thank you so much. I appreciate it.”

“I-I’m glad… you’re alright…”

Ichinose expressed his gratitude politely.

Clara, flustered, clung closer to Lohan’s side.

“Hmm, what a mess.”

Lohan gently stroked Clara’s hair, quickly assessing the situation.

The inside of the mall was still a disaster.

Lohan came to a decision without hesitation.

“Let’s focus on the leader-types. Among the bugs and scorpions, you see the ones that are unusually large? Or a different color?”

“Rohan. Spreading out too thin is a waste of force.”

Rohan affirmed Sion’s assessment.

A tangled mess just slows us down.

He was confident in his synchronization with Sion and Clara.

How much had they toiled together under the blazing sun, dragged to the Monolith? Moving as a trio, he was sure they could sweep through at maximum speed.

Ichinose and Noah, on the other hand, had practically no experience coordinating with Rohan.

It made sense to keep them paired together in this situation.

“Noah and Ichinose work well together, right?”

“Of course! Noah and I are like thread and needle!”

“Let’s split into a group of three and a group of two. Focus on eliminating the alpha targets, and prioritize aiding those cornered, injured, or rescuing civilians.”

“Understood.”

Without even a word, Sion handed Rohan a spare pistol as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Rohan instinctively accepted it, completing his preparations.

“Ichinose and Noah, push forward on the other side.”

As Rohan finished speaking, he moved his feet, and Sion and Clara darted off like arrows.

The two girls moved organically around Rohan, as if they had become a single living organism.

Rohan could swing his sword without worry, as the girls never positioned themselves within its radius.

The girls, while moving freely, unreservedly used the sturdy Rohan as a support, leaning against him.

Movements reminiscent of the Holy Trinity.

Dozens of Mummies were ground to pieces like something thrown into a blender.

The massive bodies of scorpions and beetles flipped over and split apart.

“Wow, what’s their relationship? Married couple?”

Noah was genuinely impressed by the seamless cooperation displayed by the three.

Ichinose gripped her sword tighter, steeling herself.

The sensation of Rohan touching her cheek, telling her to focus, still seemed to linger.

“…Noah. Let’s move quickly. There’s no time to stand around admiring them.”

“Okay!”

Ichinose and Noah also began to dash off in one direction.

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* * *

*Thwack!* Sion’s bullet obliterated the beetle that was about to pounce on a cadet.

[+3P]

Sion, his feet already moving, stated with a cool expression,

“Rohan. I just unequivocally saved someone. You should praise me.”

“Oh, Brother! I saved people while coming down too…!”

A praiseworthy mindset, undeniably.

Compounded with the affection-starved tendencies from her upbringing.

Rohan kicked a Mummy’s head, severed a scorpion’s stinger with his sword, and then,

Calmly promised the frantically moving girls,

“We’ll tally it up properly at the end. I’ll give you lots of praise. There’s no depth to empty chatter.”

“Hmm, agreed.”

“Hehe…”

Sion reloaded his magazine, dodging the Mummy’s blade work.

The instant he finished reloading, he pulled the trigger between the Mummy’s eyes.

*Bang!*

From noble mtl dot com

With that last one down, this floor was cleared.

He shared information with the cadets, delivered brief instructions, and then headed to the next floor.

During the move, Sion and Clara glanced in the opposite direction.

The location Noah and Ichinose had gone toward.

*KRA-KA-THOOM!!!* Ice erupted, crushing the enemy, and Noah, wielding an ice axe, cleaved through the hard monsters with *crack-crack* sounds.

“That’s output worthy of Frozenheart.”

“Her mana is immense…”

Ichinose was dealing with the monsters with simple slashes, but

Anyone could tell that his mana manipulation was exceptional.

Each time the *click!* of his sword sheath echoed, monsters would fall in droves—a truly spectacular sight.

“Rohan. The level of the Academy is definitely something else.”

“I’m the one dragging down the average.”

“Oh, Brother isn’t like that…!”

Clara’s all-out denial of his joke was simply endearing.

He reaffirmed his resolve to not forget to praise her, and climbed the stairs.

Thus, having crushed well over a hundred monsters with ease,

I arrived on the floor where the Beetle and Scorpion Bosses resided.

─ Chrrrrk!!!

The behemoths were frantically trying to tear apart the shop shutters.

Their intelligence lacking, they could only repeatedly batter them, unable to rip them down.

“Oppa! People are here!”

I could see Peacekeepers arriving, one by one, at the mall entrance.

The outside must be a mess, judging by the Peacekeepers’ disheveled states.

The rapidly dispersing Peacekeepers began to eliminate the monsters.

‘I can leave the normal ones to them. Relief.’

[Quest Completed.]

The quest objective was clearly to hold out until the Peacekeepers arrived.

Notification windows popped up in quick succession.

[Calculating the number of monsters dealt with.]

[Acquiring rewards.]

‘!’

Rohan opened the store skills window. The reward was a vast amount of points.

Combined with the points he’d accumulated from hunting monsters so far, it totaled 30,700 points.

Rohan didn’t hesitate and purchased an item.

He had no intention of stopping just because the Peacekeepers had arrived.

From behind the shutters, where the monsters were hammering away, terrified screams echoed.

[Exclusive Weapon Purchased.]

Rohan reached into the shimmering space.