Chapter 25 : A Man Whose Dream Is to Be Safely Eliminated in the Preliminaries

When I made a move that looked like I was seriously about to storm into Headmaster Lyn Dragos’s home, Professor Parkelas hurriedly grabbed the hem of my pants.

To be honest, the fact that he gave in to a student’s threat like that only showed how afraid he was of Headmaster Lyn Dragos.

Well, it’s rare to find a professor who isn’t afraid of her, but with his particularly timid personality added on top, he must have thought he’d receive some major disciplinary action.

So, Professor Parkelas ended up guiding me, not to his usual lab, but to a secret lab connected via a staircase to the basement.

And what I encountered there was a creature with snow-white, beautiful fur… wait, the hell? 

That’s a freaking moth.

Having suffered quite a bit during my military service because of giant moths, which we used to call “Tinker Bells,” I couldn’t help but take a step back when I saw a moth bigger than my fist.

“This is the Snowflower Moth, Elizabeth. She’s so rare that I only have one specimen. I’m pretty sure she’s the only insect out there that can hunt a Grade-3 Devil Doll as a single individual.”

“I see. Has the master imprinting process been done yet?”

“Not yet. 

She might look big, but she’s actually a freshly emerged young specimen. 

I held off on imprinting her out of fear it might damage her spirit. 

But the fact that you know about master imprinting means you’ve got some knowledge of Insect Arts, huh?”

“Didn’t I say earlier that I’ve always admired you, Professor Parkelas? Of course I’ve done some advance studying. Anyway, would it be alright if I try the master imprinting process on this moth, Elizabeth, right now?”

“W-What? 

Absolutely not! 

Elizabeth isn’t just some ordinary bug. 

If a beginner rushes the imprinting process, it could damage her spirit. 

You need to study for at least a year under me to learn how to infuse consciousness with mana. 

And when feeding her, you have to mix in blood and sweat so your pheromones become familiar with each other. 

Also, Elizabeth is especially picky when it comes to food—plain water won’t cut it. 

You have to freeze tender shoots or bamboo sprouts and crush them into fine pieces. 

Plus, she’s very sensitive to temperature changes, so when she sleeps, you must maintain exactly minus two degrees…”

My ears started ringing from Parkelas’s nonstop nagging.

But even that endless stream of instructions contained golden knowledge that even I—a so-called Celestial of Omniscience—had to pay attention to.

I had played through the game as an Insect Tamer before, but since raising them from larval stages was too tedious and time-consuming, I usually just captured adult bug-beasts and used them instead.

From that perspective, Parkelas raising a Spirit Insect like the Snowflower Moth from the pupa stage truly made his skills exceptional—virtually unrivaled.

Well, that’s probably why even the stingy Headmaster Dragos agreed to fund his research and let him continue working as a professor.

Of course, that didn’t mean I had any desire to actually spend a whole year as Professor Parkelas’s assistant, so I was planning to take a shortcut using a bit of a cheat.

***

“Khuhk! 

Our Elizabeth has already grown so much… It feels like just yesterday I was unfolding her wings one by one with tweezers because she couldn’t emerge properly from her chrysalis. 

Seonghoon, even if the master imprinting is complete, you’re not planning to leave the lab entirely, right? 

You’re still short on her food anyway. 

I’ll give it to you for free, so please drop by at least once a month.”

“Ah, yes, of course. I’ll come by regularly to show you how she’s doing.”

I had to practically pry Professor Parkelas off of me as he reacted like he was sending off his own daughter to marriage just for giving away a moth.

Parkelas had said it would take at least a year to become proficient in Chungak, the core of Insect Arts, which is the process of imprinting an insect to its master.

But since I had an “F” in every stat, that meant I had practically no talent in Insect Arts either. 

When I actually tested it out, I realized that even if Professor Parkelas gave me one-on-one lessons, it wouldn’t take a year—it’d take ten.

So the method I chose instead was to perform the Chungak in Celestial Mode.

No matter how hollow the title might seem, a Celestial is still a Celestial.

Celestials are dense clusters of pure, concentrated consciousness, far more adept at manipulating awareness than humans bound by the chains of the flesh.

The reason I could observe the world from a third-person POV while in Celestial Mode was precisely because of that power of consciousness.

In other words, even though I thought I had no talent in anything, it turned out that when it came to manipulating consciousness—I had EX-grade talent.

Thanks to that, I was able to imprint Elizabeth right before the Summer Martial Tournament began. 

At this rate, maybe I could even make it through the preliminaries if I really tried…?

Watching Elizabeth circling around my shoulder, scattering ice powder as she flew, gave me a reassuring sense that I now had a powerful summoned creature by my side.

On top of that, I had swung my Moonglaive exactly 1,110 times day and night, stacking the Ten-strike, Hundred-strike, and Thousand-strike buffs, so I could handle close combat if it came down to it.

Still, my plan to surrender within one second of the Summer Martial Tournament hadn’t changed.

Unless I was dead set on winning first place in the Junior Division and claiming the reward, there was no point in standing out.

“Professor Parkelas, then I’ll take my leave now. My turn in the Summer Martial Tournament is coming up. Thank you so much for everything.”

“The Summer Martial Tournament? Don’t tell me you’re actually planning to make Elizabeth fight. She’s still young and needs more experience. If you want, I could lend you another combat insect…”

“Oh, no need. I plan to surrender as soon as the match begins anyway. I know better than anyone else that I’m not good enough to compete with my peers.”

Though our relationship had started off with blackmail, I gave a deep 90-degree bow to Professor Parkelas, who had supported my training more than any other instructor, and then headed toward the coliseum where the Summer Martial Tournament was in full swing.

Unlike the field trip, the Martial Tournament allowed not only other students but also outsiders to spectate, so the excitement could be felt even from the waiting room.

Thinking that all those loud cheers and applause would soon turn into boos made my chest ache a little, but I calmly handed my entry form to Instructor Han Seongryeong.

“Main weapon: an artifact in the form of a spear called the Moonglaive. 

And a summoned creature: the Snowflake Moth. 

Last time, he went on stage without even a weapon, but it seems he put in some effort this time. 

Tasted the sweetness of first place during the field trip by pure luck, and now he’s trying to escape his permanent bottom rank, huh?”

“Uh? Well… something like that, yeah.”

“I respect your attempt to make up for your lacking skills with artifacts and summons, but your opponent this time is just too much. Forfeit the match as soon as it starts.”

I was planning to surrender anyway, but the sudden remark from Instructor Han Seongryeong about my opponent being “too much” threw me off guard.

It was strange, because she was the one who always taught us during class that even if your opponent is stronger, the experience from a loss is valuable and that we should always fight.

And since she had always looked out for me more than the others—probably because we were both from Earth—this warning couldn’t be taken lightly.

And when my turn came and I stepped onto the coliseum stage, I immediately understood why she had said that.

“Oh ho! We’ve got another interesting match lined up today, for more reasons than one. 

In the red corner, the eternal last-place of the Academy’s Junior Division, the lucky guy—Kim Seonghoon! 

And in the blue corner, the Junior Division’s infamous delinquent, the Vulture of Corpses—Bellimond! 

The preliminary matchups were supposed to be randomly assigned, but how did we end up with this gem of a match? 

Now, both contestants, please come up to the stage. 

The match will begin in exactly three seconds.”

The student from the broadcasting club delivered the introduction with a playful tone, but from my perspective, it was enough to make me swear out loud.

Because Bellimond, the Vulture of Corpses, wasn’t just anyone—he was a ranked fighter who placed 4th in the Spring Martial Tournament and had a personality so rotten it made sewer water look clean.

This was a disaster born from the system that only granted seeding spots to the top 3 in the previous tournament.

Well, I figured it would be fine as long as I surrendered properly… but the moment the countdown ended, something did go wrong.

“3, 2, 1! Match start!”

“I surre—”

“Curse of Silence!”

Before I could even finish saying “I surrender,” Bellimond the Vulture of Corpses cast a silence curse, apparently having prepared the chant in his head.

I couldn’t believe how underhanded he was, but my body had already reacted, bolting toward the edge of the arena to force an out-of-bounds loss.

However, as if he had predicted that too, Bellimond summoned two specters behind me, binding both of my arms.

Then, without mercy, he slammed my head into the tiled arena floor, which served as the battleground. 

I ended up with a double nosebleed and couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity of it all.

“Trying to force an out-of-bounds the moment your surrender failed, huh? 

Your pattern is so damn obvious, my guy. 

If you’re a bug, then act like a bug—squirm when you get stomped and drop out like you’re supposed to. 

What, did you think you’d walk out of the coliseum without spilling a single drop of blood? 

There’s 30 minutes until the referee can call a win by decision. 

So let’s have some fun till then, shall we?”