Chapter 570: The Mystery of the Demon King’s Immortality (4k)
“Is it the same one?”
After a brief pause, Professor Kazel turned sharply to look at Dark.
Dark understood immediately and picked up the “Illusionary Worm” mana card to confirm by sensing.
“There’s no doubt, it’s the same one!” he said with certainty.
Professor Kazel’s eyes lit up, excited. “It seems we’ve indeed found an interesting subject.”
The “Illusionary Worm,” being a golem, differed from natural ones in some ways. For example, the characteristic of “living in the morning and dying in the evening” was a rare phenomenon displayed by individual illusionary worms in nature.
Although Dark’s “Illusionary Worm” also had the “live in the morning, die in the evening” ultimate skill, it wasn’t affected by the natural cycle of day and night.
Instead, it was influenced by field spells!
Ibut’s “Great Sunlight” was a special version that could artificially create the illusion of the sun rising, allowing the “Illusionary Worm” to revive after death.
However, as the effect of “Great Sunlight” faded and the “sunset” occurred, the “Illusionary Worm” would die again.
Professor Kazel looked up at the small sun in the sky and asked, “How long does your field spell last?”
Dark replied, “Five rounds, which is two and a half minutes.”
“Then let’s wait a bit,” Professor Kazel nodded, patiently waiting.
Two and a half minutes later, the “sunset” occurred, and the effect of “Great Sunlight” gradually faded.
And sure enough, the revived “Illusionary Worm” died again on the spot.
“It looks like the ‘live in the morning, die in the evening’ characteristic of the rare illusionary worm can be confirmed.”
Professor Kazel pondered slightly. “But how does it manage to revive after such a long time? It’s not an immortal type… Where does its soul and consciousness hide when its body perishes?”
Dark added solemnly, “If the illusionary worm could continuously live in the morning and die in the evening, wouldn’t it achieve immortality?”
Professor Kazel suddenly turned to him, his expression grave. “You’re right, it’s about immortality. Do you know what I’m thinking of?”
Dark was puzzled. “What?”
Professor Kazel’s lips moved, and a voice directly entered Dark’s mind—two words: “Demon King!”
…
The demon king’s immortality has always been considered an “unsolvable mystery.”
In the past, humans formed the “Council of Sages” specifically to analyze the demon king’s immortality.
Even with the most famous sages and great magi of the time, they couldn’t fully unravel it.
The demon king could create thousands of rebirth containers. Once killed, he could be reborn in one of these containers, regardless of distance or the strength of the seal binding him.
No one knows how he transfers his consciousness into the container, nor can anyone track the soul transfer.
Even the strongest seers cannot trace this.
This is completely different from the rebirth of undead immortals and is even more mysterious than the lich’s life box technology.
This is the deepest secret of the demon king, and the reason why humans have never truly been able to kill him.
Now, the “Illusionary Worm’s” rebirth reminded Professor Kazel of the demon king’s rebirth method.
Both require certain conditions and leave no traces.
Yet, there is a vague feeling that there might be some connection between them.
“The demon king can turn life into containers and gain their innate traits.”
“One of the countless containers might be a rare individual of the illusionary worm.”
“Live in the morning, die in the evening; die in the evening, live in the morning.”
“When the container opens its eyes, it is the demon king.”
“Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the demon king always regenerates in the morning.”
“We need more data to analyze and discover.”
…
Compared to the secret of eternal life, Professor Kazel seemed more interested in the demon king’s reincarnation mystery.
He and Dark discussed for a short while in the club office before quickly leaving.
Before leaving, they agreed to conduct another experiment at the same time the next night.
Alone, Dark continued to ponder.
Although he didn’t think the demon king would become a future threat, if he remained immortal, it would always be a variable.
“I wonder how the demon king is now? Has he lost his memory or become a fool?”
“How can he still fit into the warm family of Saint Maryann Academy?”
“After all, in the original game, how did the protagonist completely kill him?”
Dark suddenly realized he hadn’t considered this aspect before.
Since the demon king was indeed killed in the original game, there must be a method to completely eliminate him.
Or perhaps, the team centered around the protagonist in the original game definitely solved the demon king’s “immortality puzzle!”
The original game was entirely set in the academy.
Could this mean that clues to solving the demon king’s “immortality puzzle” lie within the academy?
For instance, the “Illusionary Worm” mana card that every second-year student learns to craft?
Knock knock knock.
Dark’s knocking on the desk became faster, and he felt he might have found some clues.
…
With only one week left until the dungeon opened for second-years, students became more enthusiastic about physical training.
They were eager to show off their muscle power in front of Professor Jones during duel class.
On Tuesday’s math class, Dark gave another deep lecture, spending more time on basic knowledge.
He realized that some first-year students weren’t as smart as he expected.
Education isn’t just about teaching top students; slower learners are part of the student body too.
He tried to make sure Spike Leon could understand, then increased the difficulty of homework assignments to benefit top students as well.
Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, he exchanged regularly with Professor Melnor.
Each exchange lasted about half an hour.
This didn’t take much of his time but greatly benefited him, especially in understanding mathematics.
Despite Professor Melnor’s advanced age, his ability to absorb knowledge remained formidable.
Dark felt that after a few more exchanges, he might be drained of everything he knew.
Yet, the exchanges were mutual. His own limited knowledge, stagnant since graduation, began to grow.
Continuing this way, he might learn magic techniques that could rapidly increase his thought speed in the short term.
Though past magic typically applied such techniques to complex calculations or derivations, mastering them could allow their use in mana duels.
…
On Tuesday afternoon’s Beast Mastery class, Professor Nina gave a comprehensive科普 on the monsters that could appear in the first ten levels of the dungeon.
In Wednesday morning’s second duel class, Professor Jones indeed conducted a physical fitness test!
The test project was unexpectedly not a simple sprint or marathon but an orienteering course within the academy!
Although Professor Jones called it a “simulated exploration test,” it was clearly orienteering.
Before the duel class started, no information about the test leaked out, leaving the young magi unprepared.
When Professor Jones announced the rules, many students were initially bewildered, only to discuss excitedly afterward.
“Quiet down.”
Only when Professor Jones’s somewhat lazy voice reached everyone did the noise in hall No. 1 gradually subside.
Then, Professor Jones called the house captains to distribute the “mana collectors” for the test.
“I believe most of you have seen the ‘safety first’ mission. The mana collectors being distributed today are twenty-slot models. If you rank in the top forty, you can keep them. Otherwise, return them.”
Students exchanged glances, setting their goals.
Mana collectors, though not expensive, aren’t cheap. High-quality twenty-slot collectors usually cost over 100 credits.
Ranking in the top forty could save them 100 credits.
That’s quite a lot!
“Of course, those in the top ten will receive varying amounts of credit rewards.”
Professor Jones watched the students’ expressions change and continued.
“I’ll transmit the exploration map to each of your house cards. The mana you need to collect is marked on the map. You can check it yourself.
Additionally, the specific rules and test criteria are posted on the bulletin board. If you haven’t memorized them, go check.
It’s September 25th, 10:10 AM. Once the mana collectors are distributed, the test starts. It lasts three hours, ending at 1:10 PM. Understand?”
“Understood…”
“Louder!”
“Understood!”
“Good. Those who don’t gather the required mana after the test, as well as the bottom forty, are prohibited from entering the dungeon before Halloween!”
“O(≧口≦)O ah ah ah!”
…
In the midst of the groans, Dark quickly got his mana collector.
It was a circular object with twenty slots.
Injecting mana into the central button activated the collector, which could extend a hollow needle to draw mana from the marked objects.
He played with it briefly and then seriously told Diana beside him, “Once dismissed, read the rules first, then carefully examine the map. You can do it.”
Diana blinked and asked, “Can’t we do it together?”
Dark smiled slightly and shook his head slowly.
Diana immediately turned to Rose, her big eyes full of adoration.
But Rose stepped back and shook her head. “Diana, we’re opponents now!”
…
Silently, the originally grouped teams scattered everywhere.
Even Wit and Robert laughed nervously and distanced themselves, encouraging each other from half a meter away.
Forty failure spots were too many!
And if the mana collection markers overlapped, they’d become direct competitors.
Nobody wanted to watch classmates冒险 in the dungeon for a month, which would be very embarrassing.
Moreover, some already had connections with third-year seniors, reserving “guides.”
If they couldn’t enter the dungeon, wouldn’t they be dead?
As the atmosphere grew tense, the mana collectors were finally distributed.
“Dismissed!”
Professor Jones’s light command made the students move instantly.
Some rushed to the bulletin board, others burst out of hall No. 1, and some… started climbing upstairs!
Because one of the mana collection markers was inside hall No. 1.
…
Dark placed the mana collector in his deck, activated his house card, and unfolded his map, heading out of the duel hall.
He naturally knew the rules of orienteering.
Professor Jones had set up mana markers throughout the academy—except for Traveler’s Street and the dungeon—totaling over five hundred.
Each student needed to find thirty markers.
Each marker could be collected ten times.
They had to choose twenty out of the thirty within three hours.
This didn’t seem difficult…
But Saint Maryann Academy was really huge!
Living in the castle already made him feel that way.
Stepping outside the castle, the vastness of the academy became apparent.
According to Professor Jones, each marker had a mechanism that needed to be overcome to collect mana.
During the three-hour test, students couldn’t use mana cards for travel and had to run on foot.
Also, students could interfere with each other, compete, but couldn’t attack or cause harm, nor immobilize others for more than three minutes.
If more than ten markers couldn’t be collected, it meant failure.
The rules weren’t complicated.
But since the young magi had never encountered these new rules, they needed some time to digest them.
Professor Jones smiled at the bustling students, thinking, “If this test goes well, we’ll continue using these rules for this year’s Halloween event!”
