Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 358

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Episode 358

Academy Gumiho is a Magic Genius 358

A Swordsman Without Limbs (3)

In the end, I didn’t talk to Luna. I spent my time recovering my stamina and creating all the weapons I could use in battle.

It was my fault for not talking to her at first, but when I tried again, Luna refused to speak to me.

It wasn’t so much that she was angry.

‘It feels like she refused because the conversation wasn’t important.’

I had a strong feeling about it.

Perhaps Luna felt the same way I did, valuing making weapons and sharing opinions with Tamamo more than talking to her.

─Well, shall we head out soon?

All injuries have been healed.

I made a lot of high-powered consumables, including bombs. Tamamo was determined to fight against the disaster.

─I’m going to help you this time.

‘You? You usually only provide magical support, even when you help me?’

─Well, I didn’t need to do more than that usually.

Tamamo is a Gumiho [a mythical nine-tailed fox] who has lived for a very long time.

She is a thousand-year-old fox.

Traveling through many countries, creating magic, and establishing her own solid territory, there was something more important to the primal sorcerer than life itself.

That was the truth.

─I don’t want you to die.

I’m not afraid of dying.

I had long since abandoned my fear of death while living for a thousand years.

But there was one thing Tamamo feared. What she, who did not even fear death, feared most was the absence of knowledge.

─Your talent is truly absolute. If you live like this for a hundred years, you will reach the same realm as me in my lifetime without any effort.

“A hundred years is too long.”

─That’s why I told you. That’s the level you’ll reach without any effort. But you’re a madman who systematically divides his sleep time and is absorbed in research, right? What hundred years? It won’t even take ten years.

“Ten years is too long.”

─Hey. It took me a thousand years to reach my current level.

Swaying~

Tamamo shook her tail.

The nine brown fox tails swaying caught my eye. I muttered while looking at the tail.

“……The mysteries of the complete Nine Palaces.”

─Other people can’t see that. Look at the number of tails you have now.

Tamamo pointed behind me.

Unlike the pure white tails of the Cheonho Baekga [a clan of white foxes] or the brown tails that appear sporadically in the family’s collateral lines, there were eight black tails overflowing with jet black, as if cursed.

─The Eight-Tailed Fox is only at the stage of learning the Eight Trigrams [a set of eight symbolic figures used in Taoist cosmology]. But you haven’t even fully incorporated the Eight Trigrams into your tail yet.

“Still, I properly incorporated the Four Symbols [mythological creatures representing cardinal directions] and the Five Elements [wood, fire, earth, metal, and water]. Now, when performing magic and spells, I can fully handle the harmony of the Five Elements without any preparation.”

─The Six Harmonies? The Seven Stars? Hey. Do you know how fast you’ve improved your skills?

“I know. I grew up really fast.”

The insignificant One-Tailed Fox.

In less than a year, he reached the level of an Eight-Tailed Fox.

The realm of the Thousand-Tailed Fox is so far away that it is virtually the final realm that the clan can reach, the realm of the Nine-Tailed Fox, and now there is only one step left.

If you just cross one realm, you are a Nine-Tailed Fox.

─Okay. Then you also know that your body can’t handle the realm.

The tails of the Nine-Tailed Fox each have a meaning.

When you are born, you hold the Taegeuk [the Great Ultimate, representing the origin of all things in Taoism] in your first tail, and when you create your second tail, you melt all kinds of mysteries, including yin and yang and the two phases. Each individual’s tail contains various ideologies, and that was the same for me.

The days I’ve spent are still vivid.

The time when I put the idea of the Trinity into my tail when creating the third tail, and the time when I weaved the Five Elements into the fifth tail to strongly temper myself.

However, no matter how strong I made myself, I was always disappointed with the ending because I was busy going my way.

─It’s not for nothing that foxes grow slowly. Usually, when increasing one tail, it takes a hundred years to melt the mysteries that need to be adapted to the body.

Of course, the hundred years can be shortened through training.

However, it was necessary to repeat the training for at least a year and perfectly melt the mysteries into the body. But I skipped all those processes and crammed all kinds of mysteries into my body until now.

I acted like there was no need to melt the mysteries.

Building new mysteries on top of mysteries.

I continued to build a precarious tower as if I were stacking Jenga blocks just before it collapsed. Nevertheless, I was confident that I would not fail, so I steadfastly took off the precarious Jenga tower.

But now there’s a limit.

─Contractor. I want the truth. I’m not afraid of dying.

Tamamo gave me a cold look.

I couldn’t find any traces of emotion in her expression.

She’s more indifferent than a doll. At least a doll can be forced to make an expression. Tamamo now seemed as if the muscles that made her expression were all frozen coldly.

─I only ended up peeking at the truth, but you will surely be able to approach the truth. I want to watch that scene until the end, so I will help you.

“……Just get to the point.”

I said with an indifferent expression.

This guy is talking too much, unlike usual. I don’t know what she wants to say to me that she’s dragging out the conversation like this.

─So, what I want to say is.

She paused and opened her mouth.

─Let’s run away from that monster.

“……What?”

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

To say that we should run away after recovering our stamina, healing our injuries, and making weapons. It was an incomprehensible statement, but I realized it when I remembered that my relationship with Tamamo was symbiotic.

If I had a purpose and died, I would be prepared to accept my death at any moment. But not Tamamo. If I die, only the soul in the ring will be left alone.

She will be alone until a suitable person appears. Furthermore, what if I lose or break the ring in the battle with the disasters?

“Are you afraid of dying? Are you afraid of being left alone in the ring?”

─I’m not afraid of that. I’ve lived in the ring for a long time without you while researching magic. I’m confident that I can live alone like that in the future.

“Then why…… did you tell me to run away?”

I stared at her intently.

You know me well. Tamamo said when I looked at her with those eyes.

─I told you. I want to see the truth. But even if you struggle with your immature skills, you will never be able to reach the truth. In the end, you will die to the guys called disasters.

“If I can kill even one more disaster, I don’t care about the truth.”

A twisted, firm determination.

Tamamo covered her eyes with her hands, as if she knew this would happen.

She has been watching Seungwoo from behind until now.

She looked at the world from the same perspective as him from behind, and sometimes she stepped back to observe Seungwoo from an objective point of view. As a result, Tamamo came to the conclusion that Seungwoo looks fine on the outside, but is completely crazy on the inside.

─Still, until now, that crazy personality has been a great help in growing magic, so I left it alone. I can’t stay still this time.

No matter how determined a person is, it is difficult to invest their time in research and study every day without wasting an inch. It would be different if you were someone who liked research like crazy, but Seungwoo wasn’t that level.

Nevertheless, he gave up sleep, divided and divided his time to invest in research. All for the sole purpose of becoming stronger.

Seungwoo was obsessed with becoming stronger like a madman.

─I can’t stay still.

But what should I do to persuade him?

The only means that came to Tamamo’s mind right now was to stimulate his paternal love by mentioning his children, but it seemed that even if she brought up the children in this situation, it would not be very effective. Rather, it seems like it will only give him the desire to catch one more for the sake of the children.

I can’t help it.

─I don’t like it very much, but in order to persuade someone, I have no choice but to be moved by the other person’s argument.

Tamamo clicked her tongue and closed her eyes.

Her translucent soul body emitted a subtle gray aura in all directions.

I stared at the energy silently. This energy, like a dark cloud, was a type of magic that had the ability to collect information.

However, there was one unique thing about Tamamo’s magic.

‘The cloud collects information, learns it, and injects it into the owner.’

This magic was created to be used in rapidly changing battlefields. The war situation always changes, so accurate and quick information was needed. What was born for this purpose was the magic that swept through my body.

─…….

“You must really want to persuade me.”

If I wanted to, I could block or reflect the magic.

Of course, it wasn’t easy.

It is true that my magic skills have matured considerably, but I am still far from surpassing Tamamo. No matter what magic I perform in front of her, it’s like showing off in front of a silkworm.

If I didn’t want to give her information, I would have desperately blocked it, even if it wasn’t easy, but I didn’t want to interfere with the methods of someone who was trying to persuade me with good intentions.

And more than anything, I was curious about how Tamamo would persuade me.

“…….”

I waited for her silently until the cloud disappeared.

Fortunately, the cloud disappeared faster than I thought.

The cloud that had spread out in an instant quickly extracted the necessary information and was sucked into Tamamo even faster.

It was indeed the speed of the originator of magic.

─…….

Tamamo’s brow furrowed as she received the information.

Soon, the corners of her mouth moved and her expression was about to change subtly.

─……Aha.

Tamamo muttered with a knowing look.

It seems that she has come up with a good way to persuade me based on the information she has acquired. What will Tamamo say to persuade me?

At that moment, when curiosity was smoldering in my head.

─You. You said you wanted a decent burial site, right?

I nodded silently.

As Tamamo said, my goal is to gain rest like my other colleagues.

If I just wanted rest, I could cut my throat right now, but what I really want is to leave a plausible mark for someone like my colleagues.

It’s not about strangling my own neck.

─Then wouldn’t it be better to expand the board even more than it is now?

“What……?”

Expand the board even more?

The board for my burial site is already big enough.

The seven disasters that drove the world I lived in to hell are still here. I have already killed three of them, and if I do well, I might be able to catch one or two more.

“It’s meaningless to expand the board further. The board is already big enough.”

─So, what I want to say is, are you going to die after catching only one or two more disasters? Why don’t you just catch them all and die?

“……!”

With the means I have now, the maximum is five, even if I twist it.

If I’m lucky, I can kill five and inflict considerable damage on the remaining two disasters before closing my eyes. But what if I die together with the seven disasters?

─How is it? Not bad, right? Right?

Tamamo acquired my information and devised a way to persuade me based on it. And that method of persuasion is.

“……Okay.”

It worked very effectively for me.

─Then let’s run away from them quickly. With your current skills, dying together is just a pipe dream.

Tamamo thought.

I can’t stop Seungwoo’s goal.

But it is possible to stimulate that goal and lead it in the direction she wants.

Like that.

Tamamo and I finished all the preparations.

We began to devise a plan for escape.