Ch.176176 – A Glimpse of the Path to Destruction

<176 – A Preview of the Branch of Destruction>

A curse is similar to a disease.

In the case of a fatal disease, it initially maintains a dormant state causing only mild symptoms, but when it enters the middle stage, it begins to deliver full-fledged pain.

It disrupts the body’s vital signs, destroys the immune system, and finally enters the terminal stage to take away life.

A curse has no transmission process.

Instead, to prevent easy detection of its source, only mild symptoms appear in the early stages.

As time passes, the symptoms gradually worsen, and when entering the terminal stage, it takes away life.

‘But to think the death experience curse could become this serious. If reported to the academic society, the whole world would be shocked.’

A sight that might cause a worldwide surge in curse practitioners.

The end of the human world unfolded in Oknodie’s nightmare.

Guooooo.

The primordial mountain range rises.

A life that has slept for ages erupts in anger at the insignificant byproducts derived from its own fabric.

How could a death experience curse possibly manifest so extremely?

The curse he knew wasn’t like this.

Usually, a random pedestrian suddenly attacks with a knife.

A peddler hands over a poisoned apple, causing collapse after consumption.

A woman seducing with her skirt pulls a dagger from her thigh and stabs the back of the neck—that kind of curse.

A curse constantly analyzes.

When this person might let their guard down.

What kind of curse they might fall victim to.

It chooses increasingly lethal and threatening methods.

What emerges at the end is typically the strongest realistic threat a person can perceive.

Merely a territory knight or an unidentified wizard.

The solution is simple.

A curse-breaking mage enters the dream and explains theoretically that real knights and wizards aren’t invincible beings, and explains how excellent their own response is.

When the subject accepts this, lowering the skill of the knight and wizard while raising the skill of the curse-breaker, the situation ends.

The curse’s manifestation can be killed by force, allowing escape.

For it to grow and grow until a primordial giant rises.

It far exceeded the imagination of a child.

“Ah, Professor Destroyer!”

“I came to help. I thought Professor Sadaco alone might struggle, so I’m glad I came. Current progress?”

“The 96th…”

“And the curse’s reverse calculation result?”

“There are four more after this. It continues to the 100th…”

At this point, the Foundation is more surprising than Oknodie.

Even empire nobles obsessed with academics don’t push early education this far.

It’s suspicious enough to wonder how far they’ve pushed the early education curriculum, or if the Foundation’s chairman is training his own successor.

“Oknodie. Since we don’t have time, I’ll first tell you how to break the curse. There are holes in the detailed specs of the powerful threat factors in your imagination.”

“Holes?”

“Someone who has only heard about a giant’s size through oral tradition may implement its scale, but they don’t know how its muscle density is structured or how it supports such a large body.”

First, they dig into the information gaps about the giant to weaken that enormous being even slightly.

“Have you ever thought about why the primordial giant slept for so long? It’s because its spine was broken.”

“Huh???”

“Plus, it lacks the calories to maintain that huge body, so it’s been in a semi-vegetative state, barely surviving by absorbing the vitality of the vegetation growing on top of it.”

The know-how for defeating nightmare bosses.

It lies in gaslighting.

“In other words, that thing is just a critically ill patient who can’t even stand properly on two feet, a fool who can’t move properly for even a minute once it gets up and will soon collapse again.”

“That’s not true! The primordial giant uses volcanic essence as its power source and has a ten-thousand-year cold iron vein implanted in its spine.”

“…The weakness of all giants is the Achilles tendon. No matter how massive the organism, if you strike the heel well in one blow, it will die spilling all its blood.”

“That’s not true! For the primordial giant, you need to go inside its mouth and cast extreme ice magic or a curse of disaster level or higher on the sun’s essence! Pfft. You need to study more paleobiology.”

“…This is irritating.”

“Ouch!”

Oknodie, whose head was grabbed and shaken, whined and pounded his fists against his waist.

After one more shake, he finally calmed down, clutching his head and rolling on the ground.

“Knowing too many useless things. It’s because you keep insisting on historical accuracy that nightmare elimination becomes difficult. When your heavenly teacher speaks, you should obediently follow.”

“Hmph! If I listen to historically inaccurate nonsense, my reward decreases!”

“Reward? Who’s giving you a reward for doing this?”

“Ah. That…”

“…The Foundation?”

“No!”

“Then where? Who?”

“…Yes, it’s the Foundation!”

“This is truly outrageous. Is this a warning the Foundation is sending to the Academy?”

We can cause any student to experience magic power outbursts and magical disasters to destroy the Academy.

We’ll destroy the world if pushed.

So don’t provoke us.

Don’t make any gestures to take Oknodie away from us.

That must be the meaning.

After discovering that Professor Bronze had stolen the Foundation’s treasures and that he and Professor Sadaco had been investigating the Foundation’s background, they planted a curse in Oknodie during a visit.

With this understanding, the whole situation made sense.

“Oknodie. If you had to choose between the Foundation and the Academy, which would you pick?”

“Why do I have to choose just one?”

“Don’t mom and dad also ask who you like more? It’s the same thing.”

“Hmm. I don’t have a mom, so I’m not sure.”

“…Poor thing.”

Despite being embraced by the cold arms of the undead, he smiled happily and buried his head against the chest, which somehow made him feel irritated.

“Instead of playing around and acting spoiled, do something about the monster you summoned.”

“Tch. Fine. I’ll go, okay?”

“…What is that?”

“The Sentinel Core of the Flame Magic Tower!”

“Even in a dream, how did you manage to steal the precious item responsible for the magic tower’s existence… You truly are a born thief.”

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“A thief should naturally have bad habits with their hands.”

A compliment that doesn’t quite feel like a compliment!

“Why did you steal the Sentinel Core?”

“The reason the primordial giant is angry is because someone stole or damaged its life source, the sun’s essence. So we need to supply an alternative fuel!”

“…Indeed. That’s much better than going in to use extreme ice magic or freezing curses to kill it.”

Solutions that work even against world bosses.

Setting aside the fact that this was knowledge possessed by the Foundation, the three people set out to infiltrate and pacify the primordial giant.

Oknodie, though slightly behind the professors’ class mobility, quickly caught up.

“You go into the stomach. I’ll buy time outside.”

While Destroyer bought time outside, Sadaco cast a curse on the contracting esophagus inside.

“If it feels like thorns are stuck, it won’t be able to constrict its throat due to the pain.”

Following the path opened by the two professors, Oknodie placed the Sentinel Core of the Red Magic Tower near the heart where the sun’s essence had been, and the primordial giant, regaining its vitality, stopped its rampage.

The world-ending crisis of the primordial giant that had been calling for the world’s destruction ended as if it had never happened.

[You have overcome the 96th death <Primordial Giant>.]

By this point, Oknodie was achieving feats that even active heroes would either perish attempting or barely accomplish by risking their lives.

Destroyer, who was helping him, began to feel a very nostalgic feeling.

The exact feeling of working with Nyarlathotep in a hero party during his active days.

There was even something better than back then.

Nyarlathotep always used stopgap measures that left a lingering uneasiness.

Unlike him, Oknodie’s choices were all so clearly “correct” that the reasons for his actions and the principles behind them were fully understood.

‘It’s not just his perfect understanding of students and the Academy. His understanding of world disasters and calamities is also perfect, so if guided on the right path, humanity will definitively secure safety for the next hundred years.’

It was clearly visible in his mind.

Beyond this small child.

The mastermind who would be chuckling with a hand on his forehead.

The image of the Wiheomhae Foundation’s chairman.

As if challenging: Could you ignore this possibility?

Could you not give her the best teachings?

Could you take this child away from me?

‘The greatest adversary for the hero of this era wasn’t the Demon King. It was right there.’

The being who declares through that small child a match that stakes the fate of the era on the Academy is truly this era’s most malevolent existence, humanity’s enemy.

[You have overcome the 97th death <Twilight of the Gods>.]

[You have overcome the 98th death <Demon King of Gastronomy>.]

A remarkable kid who toys with even gods and demon kings.

With the Academy’s support, drawing her into the world of light would be nothing.

Destroyer sincerely believed this without a doubt.

[99th death <The Academy’s Final Day> begins]

That belief faltered as he saw, far away, Dragon Principal trampling and destroying the Academy with his own feet.

The Dragon Principal, who though eccentric was considered humanity’s steadfast guardian.

The great dragon <Omoshiroi> himself destroys humanity’s finest educational institution, humanity’s future.

The possibility of the Principal turning his back on humanity.

This occurred in Oknodie’s nightmare, which operates on clear “reality” in all cases.

This isn’t just a possibility that exists in nightmares but one that might occur in the real world.

The worst future humanity could face.

He finally realized this fact.

‘If I consult with the Principal and the Academy about Oknodie’s abnormality and seek support, and he betrays us, that would truly be humanity’s end!’

If he wants to draw Oknodie into the world of light and take her away from the Foundation’s embrace.

The Principal’s help…

The Academy’s support…

He can never receive it, nor should he try to.

Only they.

Only Professor Sadaco and himself, who directly experienced this nightmare.

They must guide this child on the right path.

The future of humanity, world peace, and a heavy responsibility were placed on the shoulders of the former hero.