Chapter 4: Shovel Diplomacy and Silent Power
Ordanis Academy had three kinds of students:
1. The Prodigies – born with divine blood, ancient legacies, or cheat-level family trees.
2. The Hard-workers – training 16 hours a day, building their spells one mana thread at a time.
3. And then me.
The extra.
No cheat bloodline. No famous lineage. No prophecy whispering my name.
Just one secret advantage.
I knew where the bodies were buried. Literally.
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This world—this game—had hidden pieces. Items, skills, relics. Forgotten side quests. Abandoned ruins. Secret vaults that only trigger if you stand in the right spot at 2:13 a.m. while wearing an old janitor's badge and whistling a demon nursery rhyme.
They weren't part of the main plot. None of the five main characters found them.
But I did.
Because I made them findable.
Five years playing this game. Every patch note. Every broken exploit. I knew it all.
And in the game's timeline, the first hidden piece I found today?
[Duststep: Fragment of the Forgotten Nomad]
Effect: Short-range intangibility. Duration: 3 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Limited uses.
In the game, this relic doesn't appear until Chapter 9 when the desert arc unlocks. A side character stumbles into it and dies two scenes later.
In my story? I pulled it out from behind a collapsed storage wall under the dorm laundry chute. Wrapped in spider silk and buried next to a desiccated corpse labeled "Property of No One."
It's mine now.
And that's just the beginning.
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But today? Today I had to pretend I was normal.
Hard to do when a noble jackass threw a chair at me during lunch.
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"I challenge you to a duel!"
Ardan Gorrick shouted across the cafeteria. Everyone turned.
He was a walking cliché: fire-attribute mana, high noble, big saber, smaller brain.
"I saw you sneaking into restricted areas," he said, cape flapping dramatically. "Only spies and thieves hide in the shadows."
I smirked. "And only overcompensating morons throw chairs."
Gasps. Murmurs. Even the food golems paused.
But this was dangerous.
If anyone connected me to the hidden vaults or relics, the Academy would start investigating. I couldn't afford that.
So I flipped it.
"Alright, let's duel," I said, loud and cheery. "Let's show everyone how the son of a duke gets his ass handed to him by a scholarship kid with a shovel."
More gasps.
Reina Von Lysser raised an eyebrow from her table.
Good. Let them watch. But not see.
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The Dueling Yard – 10 Minutes Later
Rule one of hiding your true strength: act like a clown.
I stood in the arena holding my beat-up enchanted shovel. I'd named it "Karen." Don't ask why.
Ardan showed up in full combat uniform, saber glowing, eyes blazing with the kind of righteous fury that only people with generational wealth can afford.
Official rules? No spells. Physical weapons only. Five-minute time limit.
Perfect.
No flashy magic meant no one would see the effects of [Duststep] or suspect I was using relic abilities.
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Round One: Karen vs. Daddy's Wallet
He lunged.
I danced around him, activating [Duststep].
To the crowd, I just moved fast. To Ardan, I disappeared for three seconds. His saber hit air. My shovel hit his ribs.
He staggered, eyes wide. "What…?"
"You should really invest in better armor," I said, spinning Karen with one hand.
He charged again. This time, I didn't dodge.
I parried.
[Rustbind Shard: Handle of the Last Defender]
Passive: Weapon parries disable enemy weapon enchantments for 3 seconds.
Another hidden piece. Found it last night in the undercellar near the Academy archives, wedged in a forgotten training dummy.
When I parried Ardan's saber, its glow dimmed. He looked down in panic.
"My enchantment—"
"Yeah," I said, and tripped him with the shovel handle. "Now it's a fair fight."
He hit the dirt.
I bonked him on the head.
Match over.
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Victory: Riven the Extra.
Officially, I was just lucky.
Unofficially? I now had two relics no first-year should even know about, let alone wield.
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Later that Night: Dorm Rooftop
I lay on the cold stone tiles, watching the mana-lit sky shimmer above Ordanis.
The relics I collected? In the game, they'd be found by side characters, used once, and forgotten. Some were hidden so deep that even max-level players missed them.
But together? They formed a build unlike anything the developers ever intended.
Speed, utility, counter-tech, illusion resistance, energy drain, stealth steps, reactive shields.
I wasn't a warrior. I wasn't a mage.
I was a problem.
And by the time the Demon Kings rose, by the time the Tower cracked open and the final war began—Riven, the extra, would be the most terrifying wildcard in the game.
But no one could know that yet.
Not Reina. Not the heroes. Not the professors.
So I kept the jokes coming. Kept the dumb grin. The shovel.
All while collecting pieces.
One step at a time.
Because at the end of all this? There's one boss—Demon King Valrath, Commander of Dimensions—who holds the key to reality.
If I beat him, I go home.
To my sister.
To the real world.
And if I have to tear this world apart relic by relic to get there?
So be it.