I Became a Genius Mechanic at the Academy

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Eighteen meters in the air.

To gauge that height, let’s say it’s roughly equivalent to the tenth floor of an apartment building.

It’s a height sufficient enough for a human to feel fear.

– Paaah!

But Edgar shut off the engine of the propulsion device from this daunting height.

He had just blocked the only means to counteract gravitational acceleration.

This was solely because his mind was fixated on calculating maximum damage to the Minotaurus King.

– Whooooooosh!

Then, without the propulsion force, Edgar’s new style began to plummet toward the ground.

The immense air pressure slammed against his body, but it was too weak to halt his falling acceleration.

Edgar’s new form was descending rapidly.

‘Reinforcement Spell.’

Ten meters in the air.

Edgar circulated mana throughout his body.

To prepare for the impact, he distributed mana to the thirty-seven mana stones implanted in various parts of his body and activated the reinforcement spell.

Then, the core mana stone, reminiscent of an Acura reactor, began to emit light.

As the reinforcement spell carved into one surface of the core mana stone activated, it issued commands to the thirty-six mana stones implanted throughout his body.

Receiving the orders, the thirty-six mana stones began to execute the spell.

Mana, taking on the properties of enhancement, was distributed throughout his body, increasing bone density and strengthening muscle fibers while hardening his skin.

‘All remaining mana to the sword.’

Five meters in the air.

Edgar infused the remaining mana into the form-shifting plasma gauntlet.

Then, the blue circular magical stone embedded in his wrist guard began to glow white, starting to emit preheating sounds.

This would boost the firepower of the plasma lightsaber.

Kiii—iiing…

As the preheating sound blared violently, the straight blue sword blade began to flicker erratically like flames spewing from a flamethrower.

Due to the sudden conversion of a large amount of mana into plasma energy, the output energy surged simultaneously, straining the magnetic field containing the plasma energy.

‘Just hold on a little longer.’

But Edgar maintained the output as is.

He knew that if the magnetic field containing the plasma energy dispersed, the heat reaching up to 3500 degrees would instantly melt him, yet he continued to descend toward the ground, glaring at the Minotaurus King.

To pierce through the mana-coated hide of the Minotaurus King, he needed to maintain this extreme heat energy.

‘I can endure it!’

Two meters in the air.

Now it was a race against time.

Would the magnetic field controlling the ultra-high-temperature plasma energy disperse first?

Or would he manage to unleash this tremendous heat energy upon the Minotaurus King first?

One meter in the air.

The magnetic field began to sway.

The superconductors generating the powerful magnetic field started to melt little by little, causing the shape of the blue sword blade to go haywire.

But at that moment.

Fuhwa—aaaaaah!

Time favored Edgar.

Just before the magnetic field dispersed, Edgar’s new form dropped onto the Minotaurus King’s head and stabbed down the blazing sword.

Thus, the Minotaurus King had to die on the spot without understanding what had happened.

The tremendous ultra-high-temperature plasma blade melted through the mana-enhanced skin and pierced the skull, melting the innards and passing through the groin.

“………”

In awe of this staggering spectacle, a silence fell over the auditorium.

The Minotaurus King, a monster even the official instructors of the academy couldn’t guarantee victory against, had been split in half by the overwhelming heat.

[…..Boom!]

The split corpse of the Minotaurus King fell to the ground like a domino.

Just that alone shook the ground, allowing the students in the auditorium to vividly perceive how fearsome a figure Edgar had just slain.

After witnessing such a shocking sight, the students in the auditorium immediately turned their gaze toward Edgar.

They wanted to see the state of the one who had pulled off this crazy feat, after all.

[Haaah… Haaah…]

The image of Edgar filling the screen.

He was kneeling on one knee, one hand against the ground, breathing heavily.

Yet even amid this, he was sharply glaring ahead, keenly inspecting the Minotaurus King’s complete death.

That look resembled a scene from a superhero movie.

[Huh…]

Just how long had he been catching his breath?

While everyone in the auditorium stared blankly at the screen with mouths agape, Edgar slowly began to rise.

Then, checking his sparking gauntlet, he let out a sigh as if feeling annoyed and muttered.

[Damn it, now I have to make a new one.]

***

Literally dumbfounded.

The Minotaurus King was a monster that even the instructors couldn’t guarantee victory against.

Instructor Kaiden quietly gazed at Edgar, who was grumbling while inspecting the broken gauntlet.

If he were to sum him up in one word, it would be perfectly fitting.

“What a madman.”

A madman.

Of course, it wasn’t intended as a sneer.

Rather, this held a meaning of high praise.

To that end, Kaiden was a skilled individual who could capture all the details of Edgar’s actions.

It might seem easy at a glance, but he understood all too well how many details went into splitting the Minotaurus King in half.

‘He’s strategically precise. Not a single wobble!’

First, Kaiden was astonished by Edgar’s intuitive strategy that was concise yet spot on.

From drawing out the creature inside the cave to excite it, to targeting only the left ankle to restrict its movement—every move wasn’t accidental but calculated.

‘This isn’t courage born from ignorance.’

Additionally, Edgar’s bravery wasn’t recklessness.

It stemmed from confidence born after thoroughly completing his calculations.

After all, Edgar had a solid grasp of the Minotaurus King’s strengths.

Despite having weapons powerful enough to split the Minotaurus King in half, it was evident he wouldn’t recklessly engage in close combat.

‘Instead, he chose the safest and most effective method.’

The blind spot.

Edgar targeted the monster’s blind spot.

Instead of close combat, he prepared a single decisive blow from the air.

‘How can he remain so calm?’

Even more astonishing was his composure.

After all, the time given to Edgar was merely around two minutes.

The time it took for the Minotaurus King to fully recover was just two minutes.

In that brief moment, Edgar was in a position where he had to execute numerous missions without even a slight error.

Because if he exceeded two minutes, the moment the Minotaurus King began to move, there would be a deviation at the drop point, and the likelihood of a failed decisive blow would increase.

In such a case, the turn would go back to the Minotaurus King.

And being torn in half would likely be Edgar Fix himself rather than the Minotaurus King.

‘He must have known that. Yet he acted boldly.’

But for some reason, even knowing that, Edgar acted decisively.

Any thought of the worst possible future could have stiffened his thoughts and body but Edgar pushed past the fear and meticulously followed through with his original plan.

He even turned off the propulsion device despite being at a high position for the complete success of the mission.

He threw his body down to overcome the fear of falling and shorten the duration.

‘He’s barely harmed. That’s evidence he perfectly controlled his mana.’

Moreover, Edgar’s body was nearly unscathed.

This meant he had appropriately distributed mana to brace for the impact.

He was undeniably a remarkable student that one could only acknowledge his abilities.

‘Strategic planning, tactics, decisiveness, judgment ability, adaptability—all worthy of top-tier evaluation. The score is irrelevant.’

Originally, this tournament was conducted to measure the students’ abilities.

Even though no score was assigned to the Minotaurus King, its value could be considered higher than that of all the lowly monsters here combined.

“Commoner.”

At that moment, Isabella called out to Edgar and gracefully descended from the air.

She landed lightly beside Edgar and, after glancing at the corpse of the Minotaurus King, turned to him and said.

“Are you hurt anywhere? It’s not easy coming out unscathed against something like that.”

“… Thankfully, I’m fine. Just got lucky.”

“…Is that so? Anyway, congratulations. I admit this one. Well, I could kill it anytime if I set my mind to it, but I have too much to lose.”

At Isabella’s words, Edgar nodded obediently.

In fact, with her level of mind control, she could kill the Minotaurus King.

However, as she mentioned last, capturing the Minotaurus King would only be a loss for Isabella.

This was because she had no choice but to expend the ‘negative’ she had built up within her battle mechanism.

“Instructor.”

Thus, Isabella neatly conceded her defeat.

After calling the instructor, she declared a withdrawal, something no student had ever declared before.

“Instructor has an idea of the size now, right? Just put him up. It’s not in the regulations, but as the instructor, you can judge at your discretion.”

Isabella was asking Instructor Kaiden to raise Edgar.

However, Kaiden wasn’t fond of her attitude.

No matter how much the Grand Duke’s daughter she was, once she enrolled in the Academy, she was a student, and he was the instructor responsible for her.

“…Fine. I’m the one responsible for this match. So don’t interfere. All judgment and decisions about the match will be mine. The responsibility for those judgments rests solely on me.”

“…”

“Well, I agree with your opinion, but. Edgar Fix, you win.”

Shrugging, the instructor declared victory for Edgar.

Isabella clapped her hands in a perfunctory manner.

However, the instructor added a word to Edgar.

“And I’ll impose a deduction of three points. It’s true you recklessly endangered yourself by breaking the regulations. Honestly, I’m just glad it ended well; you could have easily died.”

“…I’m sorry. This was the only way to win.”

“Ahem. Just be aware of that. I also want you to know that thanks to you, I had to write a justification. Sigh, what am I even doing here? I applied to enjoy myself…”

Instructor Kaiden grumbled and motioned for Edgar to leave.

Since the match was over, it was time to return to the auditorium.

Finally, Edgar and Isabella stood in front of the teleportation magical circle.

Just before they teleported to the auditorium, Isabella smiled at Edgar and spoke.

“Today was fun. You keep making me intrigued. You’ll keep it interesting next time, right?”

“…We’ll see. As long as you don’t get too mischievous, Isabella.”

“Hehe. I don’t think you’ll let me.”

At Isabella’s words, Edgar shrugged.

From Isabella’s perspective, it was quite a bold provocation, but that made it all the more appealing.

It seemed that he could enjoy playing with this commoner for a long time.

“Well then.”

Isabella was the first to place her hand on the magical circle.

Then she recalled her duel with Edgar today.

For the first time in her life, she acknowledged her defeat.

Was there anyone other than this commoner who could provide her with such an experience?

It wasn’t such a bad feeling.

– Paaah!

While she had such thoughts, Isabella’s form began to scatter.

She was moving to the auditorium.

“Phew. Luckily, the mission is complete.”

Finally, Edgar also placed his hand on the magical circle.

The white light enveloped him, and in an instant, he was transported to the auditorium.

However, upon returning to the auditorium, Edgar felt a sense of déjà vu.

This lighting… this temperature… this humidity… this atmosphere…

It was an eerily familiar scene.

Everyone was gazing at him blankly, lost in thought.

Edgar scratched the back of his head and murmured.

“Haha… It’s the same atmosphere every time I come here…”