Fake Professor, Misunderstood As Strong - Chapter 97

Salvation or Mercy? Part-3.
“Here it is…”

A massive, half-broken iron door appeared in Jareth’s view.

Some of the massive tentacles attached to the gate likely caused the half-broken state of the massive door.

Those tentacles had human-like skin and hundreds of humanoid eyes on them everywhere; just by looking at that creepy thing, one might feel like throwing up.

‘This familiar hideous look and this familiar creepy glare from the hundreds of eyes…. Yes, this is it…’

Jareth raised his hand, and a massive magic circle appeared in front of him.

[Grade-4 Fire Magic: Fire of Purification!]

After Jareth’s mana purity improved, all his skills improved as a whole, so even his fire magic got a small boost, which was enough to burn the iron door and those tentacles.

*Boom!*

The fire immediately burned the skin and eyes of the tentacles, causing them to retract back inside.

The broken iron door couldn’t handle it anymore, and it fell to the ground as the iron on it slowly turned into liquid metal due to the burning purple fire.

Jareth ignored it and flew inside the deepest area of the cave without hesitation.

What appeared in front of him was so hideous that just by looking at that scene, anyone might end up having nightmares.

In the massive chamber, a huge tree made up of flesh and eyes stood tall.

Its branches were made up of those human skin covered tentacles, and its whole trunk was covered in human-like hearts.

‘It’s just as disgusting as it always was…’

Jareth has seen this horrible thing in the game, so he wasn’t that surprised, but as things are real now, things are more detailed now, which certainly caused him to frown a bit.

‘Imagine being a curious person who worked hard and went through all the difficulties to cross those monster-filled mages and reached here to find this disgusting sh*t…’

‘Absolutely diabolical…’

*Karrrraaaaaaaaaa!!!!*

“No point sending brain wave attacks towards me; they are useless….”

Jareth shook his head at that futile act of resistance and waved his hand in the air.

[Basic Magic: Mana Beam!]

As Jareth cast mana beams to attack the other party, two small humanoid faces appeared on the tree’s trunk and started to cry tears of blood.

The hundreds of massive tentacles immediately attacked Jareth and the magic circles of the mana beams.

The attacking speed of those tentacles was extremely fast; it was so fast that Jareth’s mana shield was facing thousands of attacks in a single second.

But Jareth was not going to be outdone at all.

‘You think only you can do a lot of attacks?…’

Jareth waved his hand, and the grimoire floating beside him shined and amplified his attacks. He also cast even more mana beams.

Concentrated mana covered the tentacles, allowing them to destroy Jareth’s magic circle. However, as Jareth increased the number of magic circles and their power, the tentacles began to break apart one by one.

Jareth’s mana beams blasted through the tentacles with sheer brute force.

Seeing that all of the tentacles were busy getting rid of the mana circles, Jareth seized the opportunity and flew to the back side of the tree.

The two children, like faces on the trunk of the tree, immediately moved through the skin and appeared on the back side to attack Jareth.

But Jareth had already done what he needed.

[Basic Magic: Condensed Mana Bomb!]

A massive magic circle appeared above the tree, and a gigantic ball of condensed mana appeared out of it.

The tentacles tried to stop that mana bomb, but the mana beams didn’t let them get close.

‘This is it…’

With a wave of his hand, the condensed bomb fell onto the tree, resulting in a massive explosion of mana.

The explosion was so strong that it caused the ground to tremble, and even the tectonic plate of the planet trembled for a second due to that explosion.

That explosion was made from a mana bomb created with the purest mana condensed to the extreme with the help of a mana singularity.

Its power was equivalent to five nuclear bombs being detonated at the same time.

Nearly half of the mutated creatures in this underground dungeon perished as a result of the massive shockwave that destroyed even the dungeon walls.

Some died from the ceiling collapsing on them; others were unlucky enough to get hit by the chaotic mana; and those who were the closest got blasted off into meat paste.

‘Tch! That attack used nearly ¼ the amount of my total mana… I can only use this three more times…’

A massive crater made up of lava and charred earth appeared in Jareth’s sight once the dust cleared up a bit.

The tree was nowhere to be seen, and even its roots got melted as the ground was directly turned into molten lava by that mana blast.

But even after all that, the tree still has not died.

It absorbed the lava in the ground and started to grow up at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Even the insides of that trunk were made of human bones and muscle tissues.

Seeing them regenerate, Jareth felt a bit repulsed.

‘This amazing regeneration… well, I knew this would happen…’

Jareth raised his hand toward the sky and triggered another mana bomb.

Jareth detonated another mana bomb at that regenerating, strangely mutated tree, with the same power as five nukes.

*Boom!*

And yet, the outcome was still the same.

But Jareth didn’t care; he brought out mana potions from his space ring and started to blast the mutated tree into smithereens again and again.

Those continuous explosions created massive cracks in the tectonic plate and caused earthquakes.

The dungeon nearly collapsed on its own, crushing all the mutated monsters to death.

At that moment, Jareth massacred a whole dungeon colony of mutated creatures in just a few minutes.

He ruthlessly caused the deaths of all of the mutated creatures in the dungeon, and his attacks caused the dungeon to collapse on itself, causing it to get buried. Now no one can find this place even if they want to.

But Jareth didn’t care about these things.

*BOOM!!!**BOOOM!!**BOOOM!!!*

One after another, Jareth destroyed that mutated tree ten times in a row.

Only then did the regeneration speed of the tree slow down to a very low level.

‘Phew~ finally drained it out of energy…’

Yes, all this while, Jareth was aiming for this. He wanted to make the tree exhaust its energy so that its regeneration would slow down.

The tree slowly regenerated into its small faces, and the two faces opened their eyes, and unlike before, their eyes seemed to have gained consciousness.

The smaller face opened its mouth and asked in a confused, tired, and creepy voice.

“Who are you?…. What do you… want from us…. cursed children?”

The bigger face opened its mouth and added,

“Let us… cursed children lay…. here in peace; why disturb… us?… We never hurt… anyone…”

Jareth sneered at those two faces and said,

“Hahaha, funny you are saying that even though you have been absorbing the remnant life force of the dead for centuries now…”

Jareth knew from the in-game lore that this tree is located a few kilometers away from the port city of Urona.

Right above this cave’s ceiling is a massive layer of rock and soil, and above it is the ocean.

“Your tentacles are spread far and wide in this dungeon like tree roots, and they even spread to the surface…”

“Whenever someone dies and gets buried by their family, you use your roots to absorb their remnant life force, and then you use that life force to incubate new mutated creatures…”

Jareth glanced at the gigantic incubating eggs and glands nearby and shook his head in disgust.

In the game, you fight this boss and just leave, but you never get to find out the lore of this tree.

Although you get to talk with the two faces on the tree trunk after defeating the boss, they just say a few lines and then fall silent.

But now that Jareth has the opportunity, he wants to know more.

“Tell me, why do you do all that?”

The two faces fell silent for a while and didn’t reply. Just when Jareth was getting disappointed in them, the bigger face suddenly opened its mouth and said,.

“We want…. to create a new vessel…. for us both… We want to be free…. from this curse of endless torture…”

Jareth’s interest was piqued, and he continued to listen silently.

“Our souls are stuck… in this mutated… tree-like body; we want… to separate our… souls…”

“In this body, our souls collide and…. Resist…. It causes extreme pain… We have been suffering… the pain… of soul… torture… for many years….”

Jareth glanced at the two faces and said,

“So, these mutated monsters that you incubated with life force… are failed products? That’s why they wander outside like this?”

The two heads agreed with Jareth’s words.

Curiosity flashed in Jareth’s eyes.

“So, you guys want to abandon this infinitely regenerating body and want to become humans?”

Upon hearing Jareth’s words, the larger face exclaimed,

“We want to be…. Normal again… We want to… escape this torture… My name is Phoebus, and my younger brother… is Aphos…”

Phoebus and Aphos were the names of the two souls that were living in this mutated, weird body while suffering from endless torture.

“How did the two of you end up like this? Tell me about it…”

Hearing Jareth’s words, Aphos replied in a hesitant tone.

“It’s a long… story…”

At those words, Jareth just nodded his head and said,

“No problem, continue; maybe I will be able to find some solution for you after hearing your story…”