The man grasped the sword with both hands, raising the blade vertically to reflect the sunlight.

[Baldur, grant me strength.]

As if responding to his murmur, the blade emitted light.

Exhaling deeply, the man kicked off the ground and leaped forward. The spot he left was deeply indented, and the air momentarily quivered, rushing towards him.

A horde of monsters filled his view.

Among them, a cow standing on two legs with two horns extended its head toward the blade.

[Urgh...!]

With a swish, the blade, aimed at the cow's temple, slightly cut through its hide then stopped.

His all-out attack ended there.

The cow extended its arm, grabbing the man's leg. In mid-air, the man was helplessly caught.

Whoosh, the sound of the wind disoriented him, and

[──!]

With a thud, the cow flung him against a nearby tree like a wet towel.

Whether it was his back or his side, the man hit something, something broke, and blood gushed from somewhere.

Drip, his body momentarily stuck to the tree before sliding down.

The leg that was caught broke. No, it was more accurate to say it was shattered.

Lying face down, he lifted his head to look up.

Sunlight shone through. The same light that had made his sword shine just moments ago. The sunlight fragmented through the greenery of the trees.

And the cow.

The cow, the cow looked at him with its eyes.

[Baldur, guardian of justice and light, please...]

A cracking sound was heard.

* * *

I glanced at the monitor for a moment.

'GAME OVER' was displayed in the center of the screen, stark and blunt.

Hmm, I exhaled through my nose and took a breath.

"Trash game!"

I was about to slam the shotgun but remembered the cost of the keyboard, and was about to throw the mouse but then remembered its price as well.

My hand hovered in the air for a moment before I crossed my arms.

"I've tried everything I could think of."

Swords and magic, gods and demons exist in the game 'Etius'.

I dare say no one has been as deeply immersed in this game as I have.

Everyone else declared it a trash game and escaped before me.

And now that I've finally declared it a trash game, I'm the dumbest and the biggest victim among gamers.

"I thought it was a god-tier game."

Lifelike AI, vast open world, charming characters, endless content.

At launch, it was described as incorporating a fantasy world from another dimension into the game.

But in fact, it was a balance disaster.

No one has seen the ending of this game except for the protagonist's death.

There's a boundary in the vast open world that cannot be crossed because of the demons, and beyond that boundary, even ordinary mobs cannot be easily killed. 𝙧ᴀƝо𝖇ЕȘ

It doesn't seem like a game made to be cleared. The company has no intention of fixing it.

But that's what stimulated my desire to challenge.

'The lack of intention to fix it means there must be a way to strategize somewhere.'

That's what I believed.

Why did I do that?

"I'm tired."

I laid my arms on the desk and buried my face.

I realized it was time to say goodbye to this game.

The recent game over was the last strategy I had thought of to conquer this game.

And since that failed, there were no other options.

"Student Frondier."

Ultimately, Etius became the first game I couldn't conquer.

Since no one else could conquer it either, maybe it's an exception.

"Frondier De Roach."

...But what's this noise?

I heard a strange sound in my room, where I was alone.

When I raised my head,

"...?"

I saw something like a chalkboard.

In front of it, a woman who looked like a teacher was holding a textbook-like book and seemed to be giving a lecture.

And now, that teacher was looking at me.

"Ah, me?"

I responded without realizing it.

Frondier? I've never heard such a name before.

"Who else would it be but you?"

The teacher said it as if it was obvious. As if it was obvious that I was 'Frondier' or whatever.

I looked around. I could see the faces of students wearing school uniforms.

Some of them were snickering at me.

'This isn't my room.'

This is a classroom. My room has turned into a classroom. I had just lifted my face from the desk.

'...Ah.'

Is this a dream?

I've been so obsessed with the game Etius that I'm having such a vivid dream.

"Frondier, do you know the name of this weapon?"

The teacher displayed something on the right side.

It was a magical device, 'Wizard View', that projects images into the air.

Seeing magic technology that I'd only seen in games right before my eyes felt extraordinary.

'That's.'

I saw what the teacher had displayed with the Wizard View as a weapon.

It was a branch. It didn't look like a weapon at all.

'...Aha.'

I roughly understood what answer the teacher wanted.

But since it's a dream.

Maybe I'll act a bit more clueless.

"That's a branch. It doesn't look like a weapon."

The laughter of the students grew louder at my words. The teacher sighed.

"As expected, you haven't paid attention to the class today either."

I hadn't paid attention. I would have had to be able to.

"...Teacher, was today's lesson about 'Baldur'?"

Baldur, the Norse god of light, son of Odin.

He was said to have died from a mistletoe branch.

The name of that branch is 'Mistletoe'.

So, I should have answered that the branch was Mistletoe to be correct.

The teacher looked at me as if I were a curious thing.

"...Yes. Student Frondier, if you knew, why."

"Teacher."

I looked at the branch on the Wizard View again.

No doubt. That's just a 'branch'.

"Mistletoe doesn't look like that."

A weapon that would one day be wielded by the protagonist in the world of Etius.

I've seen and handled that weapon countless times.

Differentiating between a 'mistletoe twig' and 'Mistletoe' is not a big deal.

"..."

"..."

The students and teachers looked at me in silence. Their gazes were filled with discomfort, anger, and disgust.

Of course, that would be the case. Everyone truly believed that Mistletoe looked like that at the start of the game.

"..."

Let's see, so.

When will this dream end?

* * *

...And a week passed.

I decided to accept it. This is not a dream. Whether I acknowledge it or not, this place is reality.

Thinking it was a dream, I made a fool of myself with Mistilteinn and only worsened my image.

As I walked through the corridors, I could hear whispers directed at me.

"Isn't that the guy who was spouting nonsense during class?"

......that guy and me, the one in charge of that word.

"Well, I suppose my reputation wasn't that great to begin with."

I am now inside a mansion. The residence where the original owner of this body lived.

As for how I found it, as soon as school was over, there was an assistant waiting to pick me up in front of the main gate.

I rode here in a very luxurious sedan.

......Up until this point, I still had some hope. I had realized that, even if not the protagonist, I was a noble of considerable status.

Moreover, the face reflected in the mirror pleased me quite a bit.

The jet-black hair and eyes had a deep black luster that seemed quite luxurious, and the appearance was equally so.

Before I knew my identity, I was almost fooled by this appearance.

I looked at my wristwatch on my room's desk.

A smartwatch.

It was the only item I brought with me when I came to this world. Maybe it was because I was wearing it on my wrist, but then why did all my clothes change?

That's still something I don't know.

I wondered if this smartwatch would work, but not only did it work.

•Name: Frondier De Roach

•Age: 17

•Affiliation: Second son of the Roach family, first-year student at Constel Academy

•Race: Human

•Divine Power: None

Skills Detailed >

Magic Detailed >

Quests >

It operated in a completely different way.

This was no longer just a watch.

The status screen I was familiar with in Etius was now in my smartwatch.

Seeing this made it real to me. The realization that I had fallen into another world.

For me, a complete outsider in this place, this status was one of the few salvations.

"......Frondier De Roach."

It was an unfamiliar name. It took me a while to remember it.

I played this game very diligently. I tried to find even the hidden elements in every corner. Even for someone like me, it was a character hard to recall.

After finally remembering, a sigh came out first.

──The Human Sloth Frondier.

It's a derogatory nickname likening me to a sloth. It's just a derogatory term without any other meaning.

Not lazy but powerful,

Not indolent but with something hidden,

It's not like that.

Just a lazy and indolent character. Nothing more than that.

"Given this skill composition, I can't say I don't understand why it would make one lazy."

In the world of Etius, what determines strength and weakness, competence and incompetence, is solely skills, magic, and divine power.

Divine power refers to the power bestowed by gods.

In Etius, gods from all sorts of mythologies appear to grant power to humans. However, not many humans receive such power.

Humans who receive divine power are no different than the chosen ones, and indeed, those who possess divine power are all named characters.

On the other hand, skills and magic can be acquired by everyone, but compared to divine power, they are minor. That doesn't mean they are easy to obtain either.

Indeed, a very few manage to forge skills and magic that surpass divine power through arduous effort and talent.

Frondier, however, naturally lacks divine power,

and even magic,

when it comes to skills.

Skill Detail>

[Weaving]

•Rank: Unique

•Description: Stores and duplicates the image of an object. However, it is an illusion. It undergoes the processes of 'Workshop' and 'Duplication'.

- Workshop: Stores the woven object in a virtual space.

- Duplication: Duplicates the object stored in the workshop.

This is what it means.

I picked up a fountain pen on the desk and used 'Weaving' on it.

The image of the fountain pen is stored, and the stored image fills up as if threads are being woven in front of me.

Just like it is being printed by a 3D printer.

Probably, this is why it's called 'Weaving'.

[Viet Trading Company's Deluxe Fountain Pen] (Duplicate)

•Rank: Common

•Description: A weaving product mimicking a fountain pen. It lacks physical substance.

I held the real fountain pen in my left hand, and the duplicated one in my right.

To my eyes, they looked completely identical.

This is Weaving. It duplicates objects into illusions.

Once an object's image is 'Woven', it is stored in the 'Workshop'.

As written above, the workshop is like my own virtual space where I can easily view what's stored.

Like augmented reality, I can see it with my own eyes and display anything, weapons, tools, without restrictions.

Therefore, Weaving is possible anytime, anywhere.

But only for objects I've seen with my own eyes.

Even if I know about a weapon in my mind, it won't be stored in the workshop until I've seen it in reality.

Frondier, before I possessed him, had already used it a few times, so several weapons and items were stored.

...If you just hear about it, it sounds quite plausible.

But since it's all imagination, they're all fake.

Such duplicated fountain pens can't write, let alone pierce a single piece of paper.

Moreover, only I can see them, so others don't even know whether I've woven something or not.

An imagination that can't interfere with reality at all.

...We've decided to call this 'delusion'.

I have no idea what to do with this.

"I've never seen such a skill while playing Etius."

Since I've never seen it, naturally, its rank is Unique.

In Etius, the Unique rank has different features from other ranks.

Ranks range from the lowest 'Common' to the highest 'Divine', but 'Unique' isn't included in this range.

Instead, Unique rank has a different attribute. It's one-of-a-kind.

So, the Unique rank can't be judged as good or bad. No matter how trivial, if it's the only one of its kind, it's given the 'Unique' rank.

...But is there really such a useless Unique skill?

"Slothful Frondier."

This skill seems to prove that derogatory nickname.

From now on, I must live through a game that even the protagonist couldn't conquer, in the body of Frondier.

"It's not just about surviving."

I clicked on the 'Quest' tab on my smartwatch.

Quest >

[Main Quest: Fate Reversal]

•Description: You know the final demise of humanity. Save humanity and change its fate.

This quest had been present ever since I opened my smartwatch for the first time. It must have been there from the moment I was possessed into Frondier.

According to this quest's description, I know the end of this game. No, I should say I know the end that comes when it's not conquered.

The demise of humanity is utterly pitiful.

It's not a downfall caused by a Demon King or an equivalent final boss, a grand conspiracy, or a hidden mastermind, as one might expect in a typical game.

Instead, humanity is simply slaughtered by monsters. The human realms gradually fall to the monsters, and finally, humanity is swept away by the incoming tide of these beasts.

Even the protagonist of this game meets such a hollow end.

And I'm supposed to stop it. Me.

Hahaha.

Knock, knock.

A maid's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Master Frondier? May I enter?"

"Y-yes."

I found myself replying in formal speech without realizing it. Given that Frondier was born into nobility, such a manner of speaking should be unfamiliar to him.

The maid who entered looked at me as if she found me slightly peculiar, though of course, she wouldn't voice such thoughts.

"Master Frondier, you've received a letter."

"A letter? From whom?"

I try to speak in a commanding tone, even if it feels forced. It might be awkward for a while, but I'll get used to it.

"It's from Lord Enfer."

"...My father?"

Enfer, Frondier's father.

I might not be familiar with the character of Frondier, but I know Enfer very well.

Enfer De Roach, the Iron Wall of the North.

A superhuman who has never allowed the invasion of monsters in the 'Yeranhes,' a Frondier domain of the Terst Empire.

The reason I find the character Frondier unfamiliar is because his father, Enfer, and his eldest son, Azier, take up almost all of the significance within the Roach family.

Enfer, as a general, possesses the leadership to command legions, and in terms of personal strength, he rivals the 'Zodiacs' among the top twelve warriors of the continent.

Azier has inherited all of his father's immense talent and is a character from the official stories of Etius, known for growing beyond even that.

Enfer, now my father, has sent me a letter.

I nervously took the letter handed to me by the maid and tore open the seal. The letter contained a succinct message.

[Frondier, your laziness has been sufficient.

Rank within the top 10 in Constel for this academic year.

Fail, and you will be disowned.]

I read through the letter, exhaled through my nose, and then inhaled just as much.

"...Cursed game!"

"What did you say, sir?"

"Nothing at all!"

It seems my life is about to become succinct as well.

Ding, a monotonous notification sound prompted me to check my smartwatch.

[A subquest has been generated]

[Subquest: Father's Order]

•Description: Frondier's laziness over the past has pushed his father Enfer's patience to the limit.

•Objective: Rank within the top 10 at Constel this semester

•Reward: Earn Enfer's recognition.

•Failure: You will be disowned.

I know!

[=Chapter 1 (1) - The Academy's Weapon Replicator=]

The next day.

There was a small commotion during class.

"Look at that..."

"No way..."

Everyone whispered to each other with disbelief in their faces and eyes, occasionally glancing at me.

"Frondier de Roach is...!"

Awake!

"..."

It seemed like all the students' eyes were saying just that.

Have you really never once stayed awake during a class, Frondier? That in itself is quite an achievement.

"Then, if we move on to the next slide..."

Even the teacher seemed quite perplexed that I was awake.

But there was nothing to be done. It was my father's command after all.

If I don't make it into the top 10 overall grades at Constel, I'd be expelled.

Constel is the academy... the school I'm currently attending.

It's essentially an educational institution.

While other schools generally focus on accumulating knowledge and culture, Constel also incorporates combat training to fight against magical beasts. Thus, it's quite intense and difficult.

It's not just about being good at studying, but also excelling as a combatant.

One must clear both aspects exceptionally well to make it into the top 10 overall grades.

For Frondier, it's an impossible task.

Come to think of it, while playing the game, Frondier would disappear without a trace at some point, and I thought it was just forgotten, but he was actually expelled.

Did he stay knowing he would be expelled? Or did he actually think he wouldn't be expelled?

The overall grade is a combination of written and practical scores.

With this body, lacking in divine power and proper magic, I need to score as high as possible in the written part. So, it's only natural for me to focus in class.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to clear the game, but being from the Roach family is important, so being expelled is problematic.

The title of being a noble from a prestigious family is one of the few advantages Frondier has.

Without it, clearing this game as Frondier would become even more impossible.

'Putting that aside.'

I'm sleepy.

As if Frondier's habits and poor stamina have taken hold of me, an irresistible sleepiness pours over me. It's always around this time that I feel sleepy.

Suddenly, it was not easy to concentrate on the class. I had no idea what the things written on the blackboard meant.

For me, who only experienced this world through games and suddenly started attending classes, and Frondier, who always slept, it could be said that we were similar in this situation.

'...Where.'

I thought back to Frondier's skill.

Weaving.

I didn't know if this would work, but.

I tried to weave the things the teacher was writing on the chalkboard.

The content of what was written on the chalkboard came into my mind clearly.

Even if I didn't understand the content, it was as if a photo was taken and the content was saved as it was.

'I can use this.'

I also saved the content of the book in the workshop while I was at it.

I stopped taking notes. There was no need. Instead, I focused on the teacher's explanations.

The contents written on the chalkboard would be saved automatically, and I could review them again anytime later.

Once I stopped taking notes, the curious gazes looking at me from all sides subsided a little.

They must have thought I was just being a bother and stopped taking notes.

Even the teacher seemed to have calmed down. He had an expression saying, 'Well, alright then.'

For what reason.

* * *

Even if you invest time and effort to take notes, the problem is the practical test.

Without divine power, and without any proper skills or magic, the wall of the practical test is too high for Frondier.

The only reliable skill is Weaving, but what can you do with that?

'A copy that can't be seen and can't interfere with reality.'

It's possible that Frondier's laziness stems from this skill. He's probably tried all kinds of crazy things he could do with this skill already.

Even then, the fact that he gave up after failing to find any useful application means that the situation is hopeless.

"......?"

As I walked down the hallway thinking about Weaving.

I saw a girl walking towards me from that direction.

Swish, the sound of leaves rustling outside the window.

Sunset-colored hair, big eyes with irises the color of a lake.

With every step she took, the aura her eyes poured out soaked the entire scenery.

Without sparing me a single glance, she slowly made her way towards me.

──I recognized her immediately.

It would be hard not to, given her stunning appearance.

Elodie.

Elodie de Inies Rishae.

The child blessed by the five gods now stood before me.

Elodie is a character from the Etius game, hogging all the talents.

The phrase "blessed by the five gods" alone could represent her overpowered nature.

The only regret is that she doesn't become the protagonist's companion.

No matter how many times the protagonist offers, she always refuses, and the reason remains undisclosed.

Still, as a woman destined to play a crucial role in the army, she's definitely a reliable ally.

In Etius, filled with all sorts of characters, she's one of the few named characters that can put the player at ease.

......But that's when I'm the protagonist.

I am Frondier.

To Elodie, I'm a stranger, and knowing her won't earn me any praise.

There are many who dislike Frondier. My grades are a disaster, and my conduct is careless.

Just a lazy fool hiding behind the prestige of a noble family. That's Frondier's reputation, and it's true.

On the other hand, Elodie, embodying diligence and an example for other students, would see someone like me as nothing but detestable.

......So, I'm not the protagonist.

I should just quietly pass by.

"......Frondier."

I was about to pass by quietly, but she called out to stop me.

I looked at Elodie.

Elodie's eyes, filled with anger, were directed at me.

"Don't you have anything to say to me?"

[=Chapter 1 (2) - The Academy's Weapon Replicator=]

There is something.

What is it?

I couldn't bring myself to say it, just silently staring, when I heard the sound of teeth grinding.

"......What I felt for you,"

The moment Elodie murmured something,

Something flew towards her right window from outside.

A baseball, heading straight─

Without thinking, I moved my hand. It was almost at the same time as the girl moved hers.

Clang-!

The baseball broke through the window, sending shards of glass flying along with it. In front of them, I,

Frondier's Unique Skill

Weaving

Workshop Item No. 3

Rank - Common

Iron Shield

I extended a shield I had woven earlier, stored by a previous Frondier.

It was then I realized.

"Ah, how foolish."

This was all fantasy; it was useless in actually blocking,

Whoosh-

In the moment that thought crossed my mind, the baseball and glass shards were suddenly engulfed in flames.

The force behind them seemed to be devoured by the fire, losing all momentum and fluttering like petals.

"Wow..."

This wasn't my doing.

Elodie's right hand was stretched towards the glass shards, and her eyes and hair had turned red in an instant. She had set everything ablaze in a moment.

The glass shards and baseball, burned by Elodie's flames, lost their force and fell.

Only a few shards stuck to our clothes or brushed past us when,

Ting!

"Huh?"

"...Huh?"

The girl and I voiced our confusion in unison.

The baseball and glass shards bounced off in mid-air.

Neither my hand nor her body was hit by a single shard.

"It didn't just bounce off in mid-air. My shield..."

The shield had blocked the glass shards. My shield, which was surely a fantasy.

"...Um, thanks, Frondier. I don't know how you did it..."

Elodie didn't understand.

Of course, she wouldn't be able to see my shield.

Yet her thanking me was incredibly sincere.

"But hey! You saw it, right? Even if you hadn't blocked it, my flames would have-"

She continued to ramble on, but my mind was elsewhere.

"...Hey, are you listening? It's a bit embarrassing."

I thought back to the situation just before.

My shield had definitely blocked the window and the baseball.

"Can you just say anything?"

This meant that Weaving wasn't entirely an illusion. If the conditions were right, it could intervene in reality.

I still didn't know what those conditions were. But the fact that it could intervene was most important.

"Come on, it's not that bad to ignore!"

I felt a very slight thrill.

Clenching my fist, I took one step at a time down the hallway.

It felt like I had found a faint ray of hope in this hopeless mess of a game.

The sunlight brushed my face in a glorious moment.

"Hey!!!"

* * *

"Ouch."

Once again, I was hit in the head with a baseball. Picking up the ball that had bounced off my head and rolled to the side, I rubbed my head.

"I was sure it would work this time."

I'm currently experimenting with Weaving.

The shield that blocked those fragments must have been the one I had woven.

Then it occurred to me.

Could this skill become real instead of just fantasy when the caster is in danger? An incredible thing indeed!

To test it, I replicated the shield and threw a baseball at it, aiming the shield above me while the baseball fell.

...But of course, there was no such thing.

The baseball elegantly passed through the shield and hit my head.

Well, if it were that kind of convenient game, I would have figured it out long ago.

"How can I use it in reality?"

The fact that it blocked the glass shards is real.

All of that was evidence that my Weaving had manifested in reality.

But I didn't know how.

"Ugh, I'm tired."

Half slumped in a chair, I felt completely drained.

It wasn't just the mood; my body was genuinely exhausted.

Maybe it was a backlash from using Weaving too much.

"Why does it exhaust people without even appearing in reality?"

I muttered to myself like a complaint.

...Right?

Why am I exhausted?

What is this strange sense of depletion?

Those questions brushed through my mind in succession.

I sat up from my reclining position.

"...Mana?"

In the game Etius, just as there are skills and magic, there naturally exists mana.

And of course, having become Frondier, I must possess it too.

However, being a human from this world, I'm unaware of the sensation of mana.

But if my current state of depletion is due to mana.

Then 'Weaving' is a skill that uses mana.

Meaning, it's akin to magic.

"Think back. In Etius, what was mana? What was the concept of magic?"

Magic in Etius isn't a concept of matter.

It's a concept of phenomena.

Whether you're shooting fire, hurling ice spears, or erecting earthen walls, none of it can continue to exist in reality.

Once the caster cancels the spell or runs out of mana, it all disappears.

A natural wildfire can continue burning until it's put out or runs out of fuel, but if a mage creates flames, even if they spread like wildfire, once the mana is depleted, the flames vanish.

So when I realized that Frondier's weaving couldn't affect reality, I was disappointed but accepted it.

Magic might seem omnipotent at first glance, but it has clear limits.

You can burn, freeze, and break things.

But you can't create something from nothing.

Not even a copy.

"I need to change my thinking. Trying to create something out of thin air was wrong from the start. It's impossible. I can't create a shield."

What I need isn't matter.

It's phenomena.

Just like when a mage conjures fire, they're creating the "phenomenon of burning."

With a sword, it's the "phenomenon of cutting."

With a shield, it's the "phenomenon of blocking."

Swish-

I tossed the baseball into the air.

As it reached the apex of its arc and began to fall back toward my head...

Frondier's Unique Skill

Weaving

Workshop Item No. 3

Rank - Common

Iron Shield

I'm not creating the shield itself.

I'm creating the "phenomenon of blocking an attack with a shield."

Just for an instant.

Clang!

The sound was light, and the baseball deflected off the shield, changing its trajectory.

"......I did it."

It only appears in reality for the moment it blocks something.

Even if it's just for a split second, reality is reality.

A small thrill ran through me.