The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 255
Among the specters were familiar faces and unfamiliar ones.
‘The Ghost of the Swift Sword and the Red Mage are familiar. The rest are new to me.’
Based on the handed-down stories, the others appeared to be the Gemstone Carver and the Dark Sculptor.
But I tilted my head in confusion.
‘Why are there only four?’
As the name suggests, there were supposed to be eight heroes.
Excluding the Guardian, the Gatekeeper, and the Fairy King, who were active Ascendants, there should have been five, but one was missing.
‘Come to think of it, the legends only mention seven of the Eight Heroes. There’s no record of the last one.’
At that moment, one of the specters spoke.
Are you the remnant of the Corruptor? Despite all our efforts, you’ve awakened this far. Impressive.
“!!”
I frowned.
The Guardian had mentioned something similar.
“What do you mean by that? Why do you call me that?”
Have you never thought your existence was strange?
Of course, I had.
Putting aside my mana insensitivity, my other talents were abnormally excessive.
You carry the seed left by the Corruptor among us.
“!!”
The greatest among us, the Grand Master, left behind a seed as he perished, and you are the one who harbored it.
An astonishing revelation.
“So, is it your doing that I suffer from mana insensitivity?”
Yes. We split your soul and exiled part of it to another dimension, yet here you are. The pull of destiny is remarkable.
Finally, all the questions I had were answered, and I frowned deeply.
Every misfortune I had experienced was because of these beings.
“Why are you telling me this so willingly?”
Because I am grateful. You played into our hands perfectly, allowing us to create the perfect vessel. Once those children overcome the trials and are completed, we shall become great stars once more.
I scoffed.
“Such grand dreams you have.”
Fwoooosh.
A powerful aura surged within me.
Compared to before, it was unimaginable.
Indeed.
I had managed to break the curse they had placed on me, attaining the full power of an Ascendant.
“I will destroy you all.”
The sky of Van the Legend descended.
* * *
…Destroying them all was, of course, impossible.
Even if I had reached the level of a true Ascendant, they were still the Eight Heroes.
This time, I faced the true ghosts of the Swift Sword and the Red Mage, not mere fragments.
Each one possessed the power of an Ascendant, and all I could do was barely hold on.
‘I must endure until the children overcome their trials.’
It was a daunting task.
No one knew how long the children’s trials would take.
Every moment was a harrowing crisis, yet I felt an unusual calm settling over me.
‘They say I am a Corruptor, the remnant left by the Grand Master?’
It made sense now why my unique trait was related to the Master of magic.
Although it was an unexpected revelation, it didn’t change anything significant.
‘I am just myself.’
As I broke their curses, memories slowly returned.
Not my memories, but those of the Grand Master who had left the seed within me.
There wasn’t much to it.
Disgraced by wars among constellations, the Eight Heroes dreamed of using the wave of destruction to reclaim their status as constellations.
The one who opposed their plan was the Corruptor, the Grand Master.
As the Grand Master perished, he left behind a seed, hoping someone would inherit his will and stop the Eight Heroes.
In the end, that’s what happened.
‘But I’m not trying to stop them because of the Grand Master’s will.’
I want to be happy with those I cherish.
It was a wish I held both on Earth and after becoming Van.
I couldn’t allow the world to be destroyed by the likes of the Eight Heroes before I could even find true happiness.
Bang!!
All sorts of formidable techniques flew at me.
The Red Mage was a master of elemental magic.
The Swift Sword was a Dual Knight.
The Gemstone Carver was an Alchemic Mage.
The Dark Sculptor was a Manipulation Mage.
A barrage of attacks from their respective fields rained down on me.
I blocked them all without faltering.
As time passed, I felt like I was breaking out of an egg and hatching.
My will stood firm, and I realized that mana insensitivity no longer restricted me.
‘I can win.’
Crack!!
My will targeted the Red Mage.
Grrraaahh!
At my command, the ghost of the Red Mage began to dissipate, returning to nothingness.
The other specters scrambled to prevent the Red Mage’s specter from vanishing, but my attacks didn’t end there.
Flash!
The forms of the other specters wavered.
Unable to withstand my power, they too began to dissolve into nothingness.
But then, something troubling occurred.
Ha ha, truly impressive. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.
A beautiful appearance.
An inhuman visage.
Though we hadn’t met before, he was as famous as the Guardian.
‘Fairy King!!’
I grimaced.
The appearance of the Fairy King meant that our Ascendants, including the Sword Saint, had failed to thwart whatever schemes the Fairy King had been brewing.
‘He has harnessed the energy of the Dead Sea.’
The Great Forest is a place of continual life and death cycles, a testament to the grandeur of nature.
The Dead Sea is a distorted accumulation of death energy from the Great Forest.
The Fairy King, having absorbed this death energy, appeared as powerful as the Guardian I had recently encountered.
And that wasn’t all.
At last, the time has come to fulfill my long-cherished wish.
A completely unfamiliar figure.
I realized that this was the Gatekeeper, the Ascendant of the Seven Kingdoms, who had remained shrouded in mystery.
‘…This won’t be easy.’
With the specters regaining their momentum.
Even though I had overcome my mana insensitivity and become a real, perfect Ascendant, the odds were still against me.
But I did not retreat.
‘No matter what, I will hold out until the children overcome their trials.’
A barrage of overwhelming attacks compared to anything I had faced before.
I gritted my teeth and somehow managed to hold on.
Just when I thought I couldn’t endure much longer.
“What are you doing? Showing off?”
Flash!
Manipulation magic flew in, blocking the Fairy King’s attack.
It was Joanna!
She had finally completed her trial.
But there was something astonishing.
“Y-You, just now, that was?”
“Didn’t I say I would humble you, Professor?”
What Joanna had just performed.
It was transcendental magic.
She had surpassed levels, intervening in causality.
She had fully awakened the blessing of the stars.
* * *
In the distant past, there was a great war.
The victors were the Eight Constellations, who would later be known as the Eight Heroes.
However, it was a meaningless victory.
The Eight Constellations lost their great stature.
The Eight Constellations, the Eight Heroes, devised a plan from that moment on.
They aimed to turn the children of the stars, who were the remnants left by the Constellations that fought against them, into vessels for their own return to greatness.
But first, the children of the stars needed to be completed.
This Trial Grounds was meticulously created by the Eight Heroes to fully awaken the blessings of the stars within the star children.
Being former Constellations, the Eight Heroes knew exactly what trials were needed to awaken the blessings of the stars, and they designed the trials to awaken these blessings most effectively.
Of course, the Trial Grounds did not merely serve to awaken the blessings of the stars.
As the star children awakened their blessings, they were also intended to become vessels for the Eight Heroes.
However, there were two things the Eight Heroes had not accounted for.
One was the existence of Van the Legend.
The Eight Heroes had been wary of Van the Legend as well.
After all, he harbored the seed of the greatest among the Eight Constellations.
But they had not expected him to become this formidable.
‘It’s not just because he carries the Grand Master’s seed. He became such a monster because of the effort he put in to save the world, growing through his own sweat and blood.’
The seed of the Corruptor, the Grand Master, only granted him potential. It was Van’s relentless efforts to save the world that had allowed him to grow this much.
And there was another thing the Eight Heroes hadn’t accounted for:
The potential of the star children, the protagonists.
The Eight Heroes intended to perfect the star children just to the right level, suitable as vessels for themselves.
However,
‘Tough luck. This time, it’s my turn to repay.’
Joanna recalled the trial she faced in the Trial Room.
It was a trial of descent into the abyss.
Not just an illusion, but a real experience crafted by powerful magic.
Normally, she would have broken down.
But she managed to overcome it.
Thanks to Van’s help.
You’re just a student. It’s natural to fail.
It’s okay to cry.
Don’t pretend to be strong.
Did Van know?
How much his words had helped her?
Though she would never admit it, Van was her benefactor.
Knowing someone was silently watching over her,
That alone made Joanna stronger.
Strong enough to overcome any trial.
And everyone had gone through something similar to Joanna.
Each child faced different kinds of trials.
Libel was shunned by the entire world.
Johan faced the trial of becoming an actual demon.
Theren became a sword demon, stained with the blood of many.
Sylphin, unable to let go of her vengeance, committed numerous massacres.
The other disciples each faced their own most horrific trials.
However, every single one of them overcame their trials, all thanks to Van’s help.
Libel found self-acceptance through the warmth he received from Van.
Johan, following Van’s nobility, suppressed his demonic nature.
Theren, in his wavering turmoil, recalled the guidance he received from Van and found his path.
Sylphin, amid her terrible vengeance, remembered Van’s teachings and began to cherish herself.
Juliet also received help from Van.
Though she had the shortest connection with him, the warmth she felt from his support amidst despair gave her the strength to rise.
As a result,
Flash!
Constellations are beings that govern the laws of the world.
In other words, they control causality.
Therefore, awakening the blessing of the stars means gaining the power to perform miracles.
Of course, this doesn’t mean the children reached Level 9.
The miracles they could perform were still limited.
But even that was enough.
Why?
Because they had Van the Legend.
“You all did well.”
Van stepped in front of the children.
“I’ll handle the rest.”
