I CHOSE to be a VILLAIN, not a THIRD-RATE EXTRA!!-Chapter 129: You are Wrong

Turning slightly, Ashok extended a hand toward Varnok, his crimson eyes flickering with sharp certainty.

"The first is that club," he stated, his voice calm yet commanding. "It carries the Rune of Heaviness. When mana or aura is channeled into the weapon, its weight doubles."

Varnok wasted no time testing Ashok's claim.

He focused his aura, letting it flow through the club.

Almost instantly, the weapon's weight shifted—its mass increasing dramatically, yet still he managed to lift the heavy club single handedly.

A wild smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he gave it a testing swing.

The sheer force behind the motion generated a light gust that rippled through the hall, brushing past several students.

The barbarian's grin widened. His satisfaction with the weapon was undeniable.

Ashok then pointed toward Althea, "The second is that staff," he declared, "which carries the Rune of Channeling. It increases mana channeling speed by 50%."

Althea froze, her grip tightening slightly on the staff as her golden eyes darted across its surface.

She didn't channel mana into the weapon, nor did she respond verbally, but her gaze betrayed her inner turmoil.

'Where is the Rune?' she thought, her mind racing. 'How can someone like him manage to find it when I didn't, even though the staff was in my hands the entire time?'

Her fingers traced the body of the staff, searching for the rune that Ashok had so confidently identified.

Ashok's attention shifted seamlessly to Elira, the Elf Princess, who stood with her bow in hand.

"The last Rune is placed on that bow," he said, his voice unwavering. "The Rune of Accuracy. It increases accuracy by 5%."

Elira's reaction was immediate and deliberate.

She instantly faced away from Ashok who was pointing at her, though he was pointing at the bow her act spoke volumes.

Ashok's sharp gaze lingered on her as he watched her turning around, his thoughts cutting through the quiet.

'This bitch,' he mused darkly, his irritation flickering briefly. 'I'll cut off those long ears of hers one day and I will make sure to feed her a Potion of Extreme Sensitivity while I will cut those ears.'

With a subtle shift in his posture, Ashok turned back toward Hamiel, his crimson eyes locking onto the dwarf with unrelenting intensity.

Hamiel kept his head lowered, his expression unreadable, but inwardly, shock gripped him.

The kind of outcome was something he never expected.

Generally, First-year students were never supposed to have weapons engraved with rune enchantment even the magical enchantment was waste on them.

The implications were significant, as depending on the rune's effects, a weapon could drastically alter a student's strength.

Yet, despite this established rule, three such weapons had been placed within the Weapon Hall, a calculated exception made by Hamiel himself.

The reason was simple.

Hamiel had heard whispers of the incoming students being heralded as the Golden Generation of the Academy.

A title heavy with expectation, one that implied immense talent and potential.

Skeptical but curious, he had orchestrated this test—not for any one student, but for the entire class.

If even one of them managed to uncover one of the three rune-bearing weapons among the thousands present, then perhaps they would truly live up to the name given to them.

And that was why Hamiel had come to the Weapon Hall today—to see if anyone among these students could rise above the rest.

Unbeknownst to him, Ashok had already unraveled the test before it had even begun.

Having played through the game countless times, Ashok knew the exact conditions required to trigger this event.

There were two paths: one was refusing to select a weapon altogether, and the second was identifying one of the three rune-bearing weapons and presenting it to Hamiel.

But Ashok wasn't content with simply fulfilling the bare minimum requirements.

He was a veteran, someone intimately familiar with not just the mechanics of the world but the personalities that drove it.

Knowing Hamiel's deep-rooted pride, Ashok had deliberately insulted the quality of the weapons—not because he truly dismissed their craftsmanship, but because he needed the dwarf's emotions to flare.

He needed Hamiel to take this personally, to push the stakes higher and force a greater reward from the event.

And judging by the shaken silence that surrounded the dwarf, Ashok had succeeded.

Ashok's gaze remained fixed on Hamiel, watching the dwarf's hunched posture, his shoulders trembling ever so slightly.

It was a subtle reaction—barely noticeable to the untrained eye—but Ashok knew better.

The veteran blacksmith, prideful and steadfast, had been cornered. The challenge he had presented, once meant to test the entire class, had been shattered in mere moments.

Ashok had anticipated this outcome from the start.

Normally, he wouldn't have acted so boldly—drawing attention came with its own risks—but this time was different.

This was an experiment, a calculated move to test the boundaries of reward.

Mia had granted him 3000 extra credits—an anomaly in comparison to what he had received in the game.

If that deviation existed, could he push further? Could he extract even greater benefits from Hamiel?

'Now what will you do, shorty?' Ashok mused inwardly, his smirk lingering as he observed the dwarf's reaction.

On the surface, the test seemed laughably simple now.

After all, Ashok had effortlessly listed the three rune-inscribed weapons, identifying them without hesitation.

But he knew better. In the game, uncovering those weapons had been anything but easy.

Ashok's memory drifted back to the days when he had played as Althea, when one day he discovered that a certain staff inexplicably increased his spell casting speed.

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Upon casting a Dispel spell on the Staff, he discovered the concealed rune hidden in the Staff.

That discovery had led him down to track down the cause and he managed to find out that there were two other such weapons in the Weapon Hall.

Ashok then started the maddening path—to find the remaining two weapons.

He abandoned the run he was playing and started playing the game from the very start picking Althea he started Casting Dispel on every single weapon in the Weapon Hall, which had been an excruciating process.

It had taken nearly three days in real-time just to pinpoint the three rune-bearing weapons, and in truth he had found the two within the first forty-eight hours.

Yet Ashok had refused to stop there. Somewhere in the depths of his obsessive search, a thought had taken root: 'What if Hamiel had hidden a fourth weapon?'

This led to him casting dispel on nearly thousand weapons.

And so, for hours upon hours, he had wandered the hall, tirelessly casting Dispel on every single weapon, wasting his time like a madman chasing shadows.

Now, standing within the very world he had once merely played, Ashok recalled those relentless days with a strange sense of satisfaction.

'Thinking back on it, I really was a madman for trying to uncover the world's secrets. But I don't regret a single second. Because now, I'm living in it.'

Hamiel's laughter echoed through the Weapon Hall, rich with amusement and mockery, catching everyone off guard.

Ashok, who had been in complete control of the situation, felt the first flicker of uncertainty creep into his mind at the dwarf's unexpected reaction.

"You are wrong," Hamiel declared, his voice carrying a smug certainty.

For the first time since the exchange began, Ashok froze though his body didn't show it.

'I'm wrong? But how?' His mind, always methodical and sharp, struggled to grasp the possibility.

His confidence in his memory was absolute—after all, he had played through this scenario countless times.

The weapons had always been fixed, their locations and properties unchanged, no matter how many playthroughs he had completed.

But now doubt slithered into his thoughts, branching into countless possibilities.

'Are the weapons different from the game? But they've always been fixed... Did he alter the runes? Just where did I go wrong?'

His mind surged forward at breakneck speed, desperately working through every variable, every alteration, every possible ripple effect that could have reshaped what he believed was an unchangeable truth.

Yet no concrete answer surfaced.

Alina's cruel smile widened as she watched the exchange unfold, her thoughts brimming with satisfaction. 'Yes! This is it! Now you're done, you arrogant bastard,' her gaze fixed on Adlet's back. 'I hope they kick you out of the Academy for insulting a teacher, father was right your arrogance will one day will destroy you.'