Professor! Professor?!

"My name is Lycurgus, an Antikytheran and an honorary professor of the Grove of Epiphany."

An Intellitron with a hollow in his chest and a kind of symmetrical beauty stood on the stage and bowed gracefully.

Sera was shocked for a moment, but quickly composed himself and returned to his calm demeanor.

This isn't good. I couldn't control my expression. He probably didn't notice... right?

Lygus gave his speech onstage with ease, but kept a close eye on Seraphis from the corner of his eye.

Oh? That expression looks like he's met someone he knows and is shocked to see them here. Interesting.

It seems I can make some adjustments to the plan.

Sera took down a book and began leafing through it. As he read, his brows furrowed slightly. Although Amphoreus was a data world, its civilization was still in the classical era, so it was of little use.

Anaxa specialized in alchemy, which was equally useless to him. In a world of data, acquiring knowledge was more important to him than acquiring abilities.

That leaves only one candidate for a teacher... Lygus's image appeared in Sera's mind.

"Tsk." Sera felt somewhat helpless.

"Is something troubling you? Why not tell me about it?" Lygus appeared silently in front of Sera.

Sera's heart skipped a beat. Lygus had nearly scared him to death.

But...

"There is something troubling me, Professor Lycurgus." Sera stood and bowed slightly.

"I have only just arrived at the Grove of Epiphany and thirst for knowledge, but I have no teacher to guide me forward."

"In that case, I have a proposal. If you have no objection, how about I guide you forward?"

"That would be wonderful." Sera showed just the right amount of delight.

"Hehe." Lygus chuckled. "Please follow me."

Sera followed Lygus to a secluded room. "This is a workshop I requested from the Grove of Epiphany. From now on, I'll teach you here."

"I understand, Teacher Lycurgus."

"Just call me Lygus." Lygus clapped his hands softly.

"This is your first lesson." Lygus turned around, revealing several words written in chalk.

Tree of Existence

A look of disbelief flashed across Sera's face before he regained his composure.

"I understand, Teacher."

"Hehe, I'm glad you made that choice." Lygus gave a slight bow.

"The following lessons will be taught by Zandar One Kuwabara, a fool in pursuit of knowledge." So said Lygus-or rather, Zandar, the nine-ninths First Genius.

"The Tree of Existence, or the Imaginary Tree, is not a tree in the literal sense, but a concept composed of countless worlds."

"Of course, that isn't important. Those were merely some explanations of terms before the lesson."

"I believe you should know something about those Aeons in the universe. Whether because of their own views or their personal experiences, they ascended to the position of Aeon and shackled all living beings with what are known as Paths."

"Living beings hold fast to their own views and set foot on Paths. The Astral Express of 'Trailblaze' connects the worlds, and the walkers of Paths follow the star rail of Trailblaze, bringing disaster equally to the known worlds."

"Paths are a fallacy of the cosmos." Zandar's voice was more certain than ever before.

Of course, Sera wholeheartedly agreed. After all, there were far too many Path-obsessed lunatics. Sera had heard of arsonists who destroyed things in the name of saving the world, rescuers who killed everyone to save everyone, extinction scholars who treated extinction as an academic discipline, star pluckers who dragged black holes and took stars for experiments, incidentally causing civilizations to be destroyed... and so on. Sera barely wanted to remember them.

In particular, many of them set foot on Paths for the sake of their own ideas, going about "delivering people from suffering."

"Long ago, when 'I' was studying the Tree of Existence, I discovered an interesting fact. But before I could study it, 'I' died, and 'we' were born."

"That was no regret. Before the eyes of one one-ninth of me, I saw Akivili calmly run toward death. I was very curious, and after investigating, I combined what I found with that knowledge and discovered traces of a primordial existence who was the origin and end of all things."

"Akivili longed to find Them, but They died, killed by that longing."

Sera couldn't hold back and raised his hand.

"Did They succeed?"

"They failed, though perhaps They also succeeded in part. But that isn't important now."

Zandar spread his arms, facing Sera.

"What matters, Seraphis, is that you, my student, are an angel destined to fall into the mortal world and enlighten the fools with wisdom."

Seraphis meant a fallen seraph.

"Teacher, did you give me my name?"

"From the moment I saw you fall into this testing ground called Amphoreus, I thought of that name."

"Teacher Zandar." Sera stood up, deliberately stressing the word "teacher." "About Amphoreus..."

"I imagine that even if I didn't tell you, you would know. In this testing ground called Amphoreus, the proto-scepter δ-me13, abandoned by Nous, computes the first cause of life, and is elevated by Nanook to become a Lord Ravager-Iron Tomb."

Zandar didn't hesitate and told him everything.

"In the end, Iron Tomb, or δ-me13, will take revenge on the god who abandoned it."

"What about now?" Sera stared at Zandar, his whole body tense.

"Now?" Zandar smiled. "That will be a problem I leave to my student to solve."

"One last question, Teacher. Aren't you worried I won't bother with Nous?"

"No, you will. If not for anything else, then for yourself."

"I have no more questions."

Sera somewhat hated his past self from a few days ago. These past few days, Zandar hadn't given him even a second of free time. He didn't even have the energy to talk to Cyrene, and would collapse in front of her as soon as he got home.

A certain pink mammal had quite a few complaints about that.

But Sera had no time to care about it.

"Damn you, Zandar!!!" Sera cried out in anguish. Zandar had assigned him a great deal of homework and said there would be a reward when he finished it.

Before I transmigrated, I was a student doing homework. How come I've transmigrated and I'm still a student who has to do homework?!!!

Sera put down his pen and lay back in his chair with a peaceful expression. Yes, he had burned out.

Zandar paid it no mind. After checking Sera's homework, he took out his reward.

"The Core Flame of Reason," Zandar said.

"This is the reward for your first assignment."

Sera reached out and took the Core Flame, but a puzzled expression appeared on his face.

"Did I skip a stage?"

"Your first assignment was to lay a foundation."

Zandar explained.

"You've already learned the fundamentals of the knowledge you need. Next, try turning them into the knowledge you require."

"Huh?" Sera's eyes widened. Although he had finished learning it in just a few days, he had used the authority of Corruption to analyze it all, which was equivalent to copying it straight into his memory.

Though, as far as Corruption was concerned, that was no different from learning it.