I Became a Swordsmanship Genius at the Academy

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“Is it already over?”

They said it was a major patch, but it finished faster than I expected. I quickly got up and sat in front of the computer.

When I clicked the execution button in front of the grand gate, the gate swung open, revealing the vibrant scenery of a garden.

After entering my username and password, the game title [COSMO] flashed brightly before dissipating into the air.

Next appeared the characters I had played before.

Warrior, Wizard, Archer, Spear-user, and so on. Each had different jobs and weapons, but they all shared one thing.

They were all effort-based characters.

This game was famous among the many games out there for its high degree of freedom.

Not only in gameplay, but also when creating characters.

You could customize their appearance, traits, and even their talents.

Well-rounded characters with abilities in various aspects, specialized characters excelling in one, or even characters with no talents at all, and so on.

Among these, the one I preferred was the “ordinary” character—neither a genius nor a fool but just plain.

Seeing such a character grow stronger through endless effort and surpass talented ones to eventually reach the peak provided a strange catharsis for me.

Knowing that such things were impossible in reality made it all the more satisfying.

“Still, I’m kind of bored now.”

That should only happen once or twice, but watching the same repertoire repeatedly was becoming tiresome.

So this time, I decided to create a perfect genius character.

Not just any mediocre genius, but one who overwhelms everything with their innate talent.

“Alright, let’s make one.”

After pressing the character creation button, I started adding talents one by one.

Since I had to fit them within the limit points, I couldn’t throw in every talent at once.

I needed to focus on the essentials.

“Should I go with a warrior this time?”

Having quickly decided on the job, I began adding the talents that suited it.

Starting with swordsmanship, which was essential for a warrior, followed by martial arts, strength, agility, stamina, mana capacity, and mana control.

I prioritized adding the basic talents first. Next came the supplementary ones.

Willpower, regeneration, mana affinity, comprehension, reaction speed.

Although these were supplementary, they weren’t unimportant just because they had a lower priority than others.

They greatly help in both combat and training processes.

“This will be the last.”

Finally, I added artistic sense.

This talent was akin to his identity and was something all the characters he’d created so far possessed.

It wasn’t a talent that would greatly aid gameplay. Rather, adding it was just my desire.

It was a talent I had longed for in my life, so I wanted my character to have it too.

I had put in all the necessary talents. However, it still felt insufficient.

With only the core swordsmanship and martial arts at an A rank, the rest were stuck in the middle. It was due to the limit points.

With this level of talent, I would undoubtedly be classified as a genius, but it would be hard to differentiate myself significantly from other geniuses.

He didn’t want that. He wanted overwhelming talent, to the point that others wouldn’t even dare to think about surpassing him.

Utilizing the penalty system could allow for adding higher talents, but he wasn’t keen on introducing risks to gameplay.

That’s why he had been waiting for this major patch. It was supposed to provide the very function he wanted.

“There it is.”

At the very bottom was a feature called ‘Constraints.’ It had been added in this patch.

A system that offered something in exchange for placing constraints on the character.

For example, if you couldn’t use mana at all, you could gain powerful physical abilities as a trade-off.

Moreover, the stronger the constraints, the greater the reward you could achieve.

He planned to use this constraint to elevate his character’s talents.

He had already thought about what constraints to impose.

“Talent sealing and growth delay. The duration is 2 years. The reward is talent growth.”

In the game’s main background system of the Cosmo Academy, students wouldn’t be expelled even if their grades were at rock bottom until the second year.

The main scenarios would only begin after that.

So, the plan was to endure those initial two years without any talents, and then use the stronger talents to grow afterward.

Since there was a skip function, he could enjoy the pleasures of no suffering from the third year onward.

He was unsure how much his talents would grow.

However, being sealed for two years would surely be fatal for such a genius character.

Considering that, there would likely be considerable growth, even if it wasn’t as much as he hoped.

If it didn’t work out, he could always create another character.

“Shall I do it then?”

After completing the other settings and checking [Start from 3rd Year], he pressed the start button.

And then he lost consciousness.

*

‘…This is possession.’

That was the conclusion he had reached after contemplating non-stop for several minutes while walking alongside the guide.

He had become the character he had created before losing consciousness, and the scenery around him was indistinguishable from what he had seen while playing the game.

The vividness of the senses confirmed that this wasn’t a dream. Pinching his arm or biting his tongue hurt.

If this wasn’t possession, then he had finally lost his mind.

“Kim Il-shin! Hurry up!”

He felt a push on his back. Dazed, he walked forward and stood before the door.

It looked like an ordinary iron door, but there was a peculiar texture to it.

Instead of the familiar doorknob, there was a palm print area next to the handle.

“What are you doing just standing there…?!”

As he stood still, an urging voice called out. He turned his head to look at the person behind him.

‘I’m actually seeing this person…’

She would be seeing him for the first time, but he wasn’t a stranger to her. He had seen her before, not once but multiple times.

The issue was that it had always been through a monitor screen, not in reality.

That woman was a character that appeared in the tutorial of [COSMO], explaining the game’s background and systems.

‘So, it’s now…’

The last part of the tutorial, the duel of the representative students.

Beyond that door was the arena with his opponent waiting.

But there was a problem. It wasn’t about whether he could win the duel or not.

In the first duel, losing wouldn’t affect the gameplay. He could surrender as soon as it started.

The real problem was something else.

He placed his hand on the palm print drawn on the square doorknob. The door didn’t budge.

To open the door of Cosmo Academy, one had to pour registered mana into the palm print area.

The main reason was to prevent outsiders from entering, account for personnel, and manage the facility.

There’s also a reason to showcase the Academy’s technology and facilities.

While it was natural for a student or faculty member of the Academy to be able to handle mana, he was not.

Since he couldn’t use mana, even the simple action of opening the door was impossible.

‘…This is maddening.’

It was a frustrating start.

*

After asking the guide to open the door, he was finally able to enter the arena.

She seemed to have plenty to say, but due to the tight schedule, she simply let him go.

The duel somehow ended well. As soon as the duel started, he raised his hand and surrendered, so there was no time for anything to happen.

The astonished expression of the judge was still fresh in his mind. It was said that this was the first time a surrender had occurred.

After the duel ended, he returned to the dormitory, but he couldn’t open the assigned dorm room door. He had to receive a card key to unlock it.

In case of emergencies, you could also open the door using a student ID, but distribution of student IDs only occurs on the second day.

‘…This is truly ridiculous.’

It was quite dark in the room as the sun began to set, yet he couldn’t turn on the lights.

The lights in the room operated on the same principle as the Academy’s door.

Since there were none of those card keys to use, if one couldn’t handle mana, they couldn’t turn them on.

This was something he hadn’t even considered while playing the game, but experiencing it firsthand made him wonder why it was designed this way.

Entering a luxurious hotel-like dorm room, he sat in front of the mirror.

Reflected in the mirror was the character he had viewed on the monitor until he lost consciousness.

On the desk was the student ID, which bore the face of the man in the mirror.

His name was Kim Il-shin… a first-year freshman at Cosmo Academy.

“What the hell…”

Cursing involuntarily, he wrapped his hands around his head.

“Why now… I pressed skip…”

What appeared in the mirror was not only a strange face.

[Constraint Applied. Talent Sealing, Growth Delay.]

[Remaining Time: 1 year 364 days 5 hours 37 minutes]

It was despairing. The skip function hadn’t been applied, yet the constraints were perfectly in place.

As long as those were enforced, he had to endure two years without talent and delayed growth.

Whether he would ever be able to use mana was uncertain.

He had never even encountered mana, and the growth delay could interfere with mana acquisition.

The only fortunate point was that he wouldn’t be thrown out onto the streets immediately in this state.

For two years, no matter how poor his grades were, he wouldn’t be expelled, so there was no immediate issue staying at the Academy.

Tuition fees were also fully covered, so financial problems wouldn’t arise.

‘That’s a stroke of luck, but…’

This world was absolutely not kind to the weak.

From basic living to dangers lurking everywhere, the enemies that rampage in the later stages become even more lethal to the weak.

If the main scenario were to unfold poorly, an end might come.

The only solution is to build strength.

It would be fortunate if he could return to the original world before that, but as is customary in creative works, returning without incident is rare.

Living with talent sealed and growth blocked would be tough…

‘No matter what, I have to survive.’

*

Thus, a year and 364 days passed. He was still living in a dark room.