Chapter 84
Chapter 84
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 84
Empty.
Not just my five senses, but even my sixth sense had shut down.
In a world stripped of all stimuli, the first thing I forgot was time.
A day? Two days? Hell if I know how much time had passed.
All I knew was this game of counting seconds.
34,790,002 seconds. 34,790,003 seconds.
And then... huh?
Did I count too fast?
But what the hell day is 34,790,000 seconds anyway? With every nerve fixated on counting numbers, I couldn't even manage simple math, let alone handle magic.
Day and night. The 24 hours that define a daythey became meaningless concepts to me.
In a world where I felt nothing, all I could do was recite time inwardly.
But even that...
...crumbled away, as I lost confidence in the very notion of "seconds."
I had become a body incapable of counting time.
Even if I tried counting one second, two seconds, I couldn't be sure it matched any universal standard. So I drifted aimlessly, like someone tossed into the vast ocean.
Time and space.
The most primal concepts defined by humanity.
The four elements that alchemists and ancient scholars claim as the origin of all things existed before they took root in this world. Forgetting those primal concepts of spacetime, my first thought was singular.
"Why the hell am I even here to begin with?"
The most important, core question.
But there were no clues or circumstances to find an answer.
The only hint I had was that entering this inner world was Tamamo's spell, making her the prime suspect.
But I couldn't say for sure.
Besides, the environment gnawing away at my mind and composure blurred the line between my subjective and objective views.
...At this point, my mind starts to go blank.
"Am I really... me?"
Baek Seung-woo was a man with snow-white hair fluttering like an old man's, mercilessly slaughtering enemies with his holy sword.
He was a sinner who survived by trampling the corpses of his beloved mentor, teacher, friends, and comrades. If living without dying was truly his life...
"Wouldn't it be better to just become a butterfly?"
The life of a butterfly freely flying through the skies in search of flowers suddenly seemed more joyful than living as Baek Seung-woo.
Lost in thoughts of butterflies, I realized I was mimicking their movements. Though I couldn't see or feel them, my arms and legs were surely trying to flap like wings.
Haha, as if I were Zhuangzi or something.
Who the hell am I, unable to distinguish between butterfly and human life in this pitch-black darkness where I can't see an inch ahead?
"...Beats me."
Who am I?
Before asking myself that, I pondered deeply.
Who am I, really? What am I? This distant haze drifting leisurely in the void had stripped the man called Baek Seung-woo of his life's value and purpose.
Baek Seung-woo, stripped of value and purpose, was no different from a dead man.
But even without value and purpose, I hadn't lost my direction.
What had I lived for?
What had I walked for?
For whom had the man called Baek Seung-woo endured that endless ordeal?
"...To think such thoughts. Guess I'm getting old too. Teacher was always better at this stuff."
Teacher.
My beloved and respected teacher.
From her, I learned how to see the world and how to protect it.
But unlike those teachings, she was... what can I say.
Hardly a match for her epithet of [Holy Mother].
Her beautiful appearance and gentle aura were straight out of scripture, but her irreverence toward God bordered on heresy for a non-believer.
She always made a habit of saying not to believe in or worship gods.
"What's the point of believing in gods anyway?"
Even if gods existed, she would only pose questions to people.
Finding interpretations and answers to those questions was always our job, and so was bearing the consequences and responsibility, she'd say often.
"Yeah. Whatever happens, this is mine to bear."
Recalling her words, I felt alive even in my numb five senses and sixth sense.
This was the responsibility and hardship I had to embrace.
So overcoming it was naturally my duty too.
Right then.
*Ding*, the Status Window chimed, filling my chest with courage.
The brimming courage ignited passionately, like oil poured on a flame.
It was the activation of .
Bluffing
Classification: Trait
Description: A natural talent for bluffing like an empty cart rattling loudlymaking big noises without substance, needlessly inflating your presence to deceive and fool others.
This burning courage in my chest was a bluff.
So said the system.
But this was no mere bluff.
With all senses sealed in the void, reliving endless time, I realized I had simply been avoiding my troubles.
But I accepted it and opened my closed eyes.
Now, I felt more alive than anyone in the world.
Right then.
Light slipped through the thin gap of my opened eyelids.
The light formed lines of text.
[You have unified all your spirit completely.]
[You have witnessed a realm equivalent to Uplifting to Immortality () and Nirvana (). You have achieved the impossible with a human mind!]
[Searching for commensurate rewards based on the achievement...]
...
[Your mana has become purer! All magical actions performed with mana from now on will receive a bonus.]
[Mana rises two stages...!]
...
[Error! Reward level is significantly low compared to achievement. Discarding previous rewards. Searching for new rewards...]
[Appropriate reward selected!]
[Providing information on the mysterious principle that grasps the center of the three subtly twisted helices, Triple Helix!]
[Additionally, based on the background of perfect spiritual unification, you have awakened the key to the Six Divine Penetrations ()!]
[Title: 'Six Divine Powers' granted, along with the opening of the Heavenly Eye () of [Heavenly Eye Penetration]!]
My eyes accepted the Heavenly Eye.
The eye of the enlightened Buddha achieved through spiritual unification, also known as the heavenly eye.
It clearly penetrates all highs and lows near and far, even influencing future worlds. In the void, it fully awakened my eyes.
At that moment when my heavy eyelids fully opened.
My vision, which I'd thought lost forever, took in the horrors I'd turned away from my whole life. This was the deepest part of my inner image that I wanted to deny.
My inner self itself.
It was an ocean of blood and mountains of corpses.
"...".
An inner world with no sound or change.
So still it was void; hearing had degenerated. Touch had lost function amid the repeated feel of blood and flesh. Smell had faded from the iron-rich stench of gore, and taste twisted from the bitter blood of my bitten tongue filling my mouth.
Thus, four of my five senses closed in an instant.
And the last, sight, I closed unconsciously.
I didn't want to see this scene again.
But with [Heavenly Eye Penetration] open, I couldn't look away.
The karma and vicissitudes piled in my heart wouldn't allow me to evade responsibility.
Look. This pooled blood on the ground, these floating chunks of fleshthey were my comrades'.
I blocked all senses because I didn't want to see this. I didn't want to witness their deaths again.
I didn't want to acknowledge it.
The duty filled in me by their sacrifice.
The shackles named responsibility and obligation.
Because I wanted to turn away from them, I saw this depths as an empty sea. I just kept swimming atop the ocean of blood and flesh.
But with eyes open, acceptance was my only choice.
I embrace all this and fulfill my duty.
I won't turn away from this horror.
Even if it breaks me.
"I will save the world."
I had sworn before this horror.
"I will save people."
As long as I exist.
I will fulfill my responsibility and duty to save everyone.
That's the only reason I live without dying.
* * *
I awoke in a world clotted with blood to the welcoming comfort of the family head's chambers and bed.
Tamamo was nowhere to be seen.
Hiding in the ring, perhaps.
"She's got a guilty conscience."
Otherwise, there was no reason for Tamamowho'd shown no fatigueto hide. Vowing to extract compensation when we met later, I checked the clock.
Sunday, 3 PM.
Less than a day had passed.
"What the fuck."
It felt like over a year.
Even if it was my inner mind, what kind of time dilation is this?
I let out a hollow laugh and flopped back onto the bed.
I felt like I was dying of exhaustion.
"The injury from the auction house Saturday still isn't healed, and I haven't eaten or slept properly."
At this rate, I might drop dead soon.
I'm tough, that's why I'm still kicking. Anyone else would've passed out or become a vegetable the moment they entered their inner mind.
Still, the silver lining was...
"The rewards are pretty generous, so that's nice."
Two rewards.
Especially mastering Triple Helix completelythat was huge.
From now on, mana efficiency for all magical actions would triple, and power too.
And I got a title, so I was satisfieduntil a message popped up.
[You have approached something close to the essence of the system!]
[Warning! This is not a place 'Race: Human' can casually enter!]
....
[The entity in question is not 'Race: Human'! Judging based on settings and laws.]
My eyes fixed on the Status Window.
The translucent blue window distorted, like a broken electronic device or glitched program.
Feeling something off, the Status Window output the next message.
[Screening passed. Connecting to deeper parts of the system.]
[Status Window access rights elevated one level! Previously locked details now revealed via Status Window!]
[Acquired Administrator Rights Grade 9.]
"Rights?"
Meaning there were parts normal people couldn't see?
Wondering what changed, I examined slowly, but nothing seemed different. Not even minor changes.
Just the same as before?
Right then.
[[Heavenly Eye Penetration] pierces subtly veiled rights!]
[Re-outputting appropriate details per rights.]
[Foul play detected! Readjusting skewed causality. Searching for proper compensation and response... Administrator Rights elevated to Grade 8.]
[Mana rises one stage.]
[Mana: A+ S]
As mana rose a stage, my heart became a lake brimming with mana. Though the yang energy blocking my meridians set clear output limits.
Anyway, various info started appearing in the Status Window.
A flood of information poured into my eyes and mind.
Thanks to my innate [Magic Saint] talent, I memorized it all, but the overload made my head throb.
Is this what a burning head feels like?
Pretty painful.
[Discarded setting, [Title Grading and Descriptions], now proceeds only in your Status Window. Updating Status Window...]
[5.5%... 28.7%... 49.9%... 72.2%...... 93.5%... 100%. Update complete.]
[Per settings, Titles 'Vampire's Heir' and 'Six Divine Powers' re-outputted.]
"Oh, neat."
The Status Window details began changing bit by bit.
From minor previously invisible entries to detailed values, all visible at a glance.
What can I say? If the old Status Window was freeware, this felt like the paid premium version.
The update changed a ton, but...
The most striking was the title overhaul.
Vampire's Heir
Classification: B+
Description: You have become the heir of the extinct ancient race, vampires. There may be multiple heirs besides you. This stems from the vampire tradition of not distinguishing bloodlines solely by lineage. Gather the forgotten vampire legacies to become the sole heir.
*Having found and absorbed multiple legacies, the authority of draining mana and essence from blood via physical contactis active.
Six Divine Powers
Classification: ---
Description: Symbol of perfect spiritual unification. Six miracles beyond enlightenment and Nirvana. No information or records exist on how to cultivate the authorities or awaken more divine powers.
*Currently, only [Heavenly Eye Penetration], which surveys all creation, is unlocked.
Grades, descriptions.
Hidden title details previously absent were now revealed.
This would allow more varied tactics in future actions and strategies.
"...Maybe go easy on Tamamo a bit?"
Yeah, she probably didn't mean harm.
Otherwise, my Status Window wouldn't be this flashy.
Displaying Buddha-level mercy, I forgave Tamamo's sin. Exactly half.
* * *
The weekend storm had passed.
And now began Monday, more dreadful than any storm.
Chilseong Academy students washed up in dorms, ate breakfast their own ways, and headed to classrooms.
"Feels like it's been forever."
Admiring the blooming flowers, grand buildings, and grounds, I marveled anew. Was this place always so grand and beautiful?
"Stayed too long in my inner depths? Or are my eyes different now?"
I touched the changed area around my eyes and entered the faculty office depths.
The place I'd stumbled into my first day here.
"It's been a while."
"Didn't I see you last Friday?"
"Oh, hehe. I meant by your standards, not normal time. Did I disturb you?"
Nam Hwa-yeon's eyes, devoid of vitality from utter emptiness, pierced me. She seemed to instantly see I'd spent considerable time in my inner mind.
The more I saw, the more wondrous.
Were those the eyes of a scholar called the king of mages?
For a moment, envy stirred.
If I had such insight, knowledge, wisdom...
How great would that be?
With that thought, I tossed her a cube.
Nam Hwa-yeon snatched the flying cube and spoke in a what-are-you-doing tone.
"...That was dangerous."
"Even if it was a mana bomb, it wouldn't have hurt you, Professor."
"If it really was, my research materials would've been toast."
"But you would've protected every paper without a scratch."
We exchanged banter.
Her gaze shifted to the cube, and her empty eyes widened. Clear surprise.
"Oh my, this is..."
"How is it? Succeeded without your help."
A six-colored Rubik's Cube.
It was the result of Triple Helix I'd received from her right after fighting Yuren. Solving it required complete Triple Helix mastery.
And I'd proven it.
"So, what's the message you want to convey?"
"...First, accept my bow."
I knelt and bowed deeply to Nam Hwa-yeon.
I'd have done full prostration if I could, but knowing her personality, she'd hate such performative acts.
Offering the utmost courtesy as a junior, I said,
"From now on, I wish to serve you as Professor and Teacher both."
The proposal from the funeral.
I'd hesitated then, but after seeing my inner depths, I resolved.
No matter what, save this world. For that, I'd even serve under the Demon King without hesitation.
"So... you're accepting the proposal?"
"Yes, Teacher."
"Hehe, skip the embarrassing 'teacher' bit."
Nam Hwa-yeon smiled beautifully, contrasting her empty eyes.
"Call me Professor in front of others. My... disciple."
"Yes, Professor."
Thus, I became the Demon King's disciple.
A whisper in my ear.
Receiving teachings from a sorceress at her prime or beyond. All thanks to me, right? S-So, can I be forgiven?
Finally showing up.
Tamamo, who'd waited in the ring for my good mood, judged now optimal for begging forgiveness upon me becoming Nam Hwa-yeon's disciple.
But not even close.
"Shut up. You need to reflect."
Even with my Buddha-surpassing mercy, it was only half forgiveness.
The other half, she'd pay back herself.
Realizing our relationship fully tilted my way...
Haha... Yeah, fair enough?
Tamamo deflated.