Chapter 81: Legends of the Immortal: Pride and downfall
As soon as Adrian heard the mention of ’new teacher’, his mind instantly went to the information Alisardarc had delivered to him not too long ago.
In it, there was a mention of the news that he would be getting a new teacher. Adrian had been waiting ever since.
’Avalon, huh? And he seems rather insistent on there being nothing besides that. Is he a commoner, then?’
Contrary to the nobles who always seemed to mention their family’s title whenever they introduced themselves, this man was stressing over the fact that there were no titles attached to his name.
This would suggest that he was a commoner. But that didn’t seem to be the case, judging by his clothes. Was he a merchant, perhaps?
The man suddenly crouched and sat down beneath the tree’s shade. Then he casually pointed to the grassy ground at a spot in front of him.
"Little man, sit there. It is time to begin the first lesson."
But Adrian didn’t comply, standing where he was as he replied plainly.
"Sir, I have just finished my training and am rather exhausted. I do not believe I have the energy left for any lesson that you are supposedly about to give me."
The man, Sir Avalon, frowned, maybe because Adrian was still speaking the same way. Then he sighed.
"Child, I am not like the knight who used to teach you; I am not here to teach you anything practical. You have already learned most of the things you could have. You will have to learn anything further on your own; no one else can teach you."
He pointed at himself.
"I am here to teach you what that knight was unable to—the theoretical part of things that you have yet to grasp and understand. And I am well aware that you are exhausted, so this first lesson will be very brief. Just to give you a little taste."
’Theoretical knowledge, is it?’
Adrian had evaluated this person somewhat highly after their initial interaction, but it seemed that the man knew little about him. That is because Adrian didn’t lack any theoretical knowledge; he had already read through most of the books he could access in that library.
It had gotten to the point that he was feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information he had gained by this point. And a lot of that information had to do with spells and mana.
So he doubted that this man could teach him much. Still, he walked forward and sat down on the ground where the man was pointing.
A smile of satisfaction spread across Sir Avalon’s face. With that smile still resting on his face, he asked in a gentle tone.
"You might not feel it now, child, but as you grow older and ascend to higher Phases, you will feel that you have outgrown the limits placed on you as a life form. It is a feeling everyone gets if they are able to become strong enough. But there is one thing that you must never let yourself be consumed by. Any guesses as to what it is?"
Adrian did not reply, still looking at the man quietly.
That question was the kind that had no fixed answer and was largely up to individual interpretation. Different people will have different answers for it, and all those answers would be equally correct.
More than that, Adrian had expected the man to give him some new or shocking information or fact since this lesson was to supposedly ’give him a taste.’
But it had turned out to be some nonsense moral lesson that would probably not help him in any way.
Seeing him remain quiet, Sir Avalon let out a disappointed sigh and then answered his own question.
"It is pride."
Hearing the answer, Adrian’s disappointment grew further.
’Out of everything he could’ve used as an answer, he gave the most generic one.’
Sir Avalon then leaned back, supporting himself against the tree trunk as he closed his eyes and began.
"Long, long ago, there lived an immortal. Whether he was cut by a sword into millions of pieces or burned alive by hellish flames, the immortal did not die. No adversary could end him, no hardship could put him down. The immortal continued walking forward relentlessly, overcoming anything that barred his path through effort. And then one day, the immortal realised that nobody was capable of blocking his path anymore. He had outgrown everything around him."
Sir Avalon’s smile deepened.
"There is a saying: that which does not break you only makes you stronger. Since immortality made him unbreakable, the immortal grew stronger endlessly. But with time, the immortal grew arrogant of his strength, and he grew prideful of his immortality. Which was why he dared to attempt something that no other being had ever done. He challenged the gods themselves."
By now, all of Adrian’s attention was focused on the story.
"He challenged the mightiest of the gods, the Goddess of Pride. But when he faced her in battle, the immortal was met with despair. The Goddess of Pride took a single step forward, and that single step leveled mountains, caused tsunamis, and shook the very fabric of reality. That single step shattered his immortality."
Sir Avalon paused for a bit.
"...In the end, pride became his downfall."
For a while, neither of them spoke, letting the silence linger. Then he smiled at Adrian before suddenly standing up.
"Well, that is all for today’s lesson. I hope you will be more enthusiastic tomorrow, little man."
With that, Sir Avalon casually walked away. But even as he disappeared into the distance, Adrian remained motionless, looking into space with a blank gaze, as if lost in thought.
’That... was too much.’
There was so much going through his mind that he could barely keep up.
On the surface, it seemed like Sir Avalon was telling him a moral story to teach him not to be consumed by pride. But that was just on the surface.
It was the contents of the story that were important. That story had answered a lot of questions he had and given him several more.
Ever since he learned about Origin abilities from Sir Joran, he had this question. For an Origin ability to appear in the world again, the previous bearer must die first. And since immortality had reappeared, it must mean that its previous bearer was dead.
But if that Origin ability made them literally immortal, then how did they even die?
It did not make sense.
Adrian had made several guesses regarding the answer. Like: Maybe the immortality it offered wasn’t complete immortality, and he had died of old age, or something like that.
But now he finally knew the correct answer. The immortality was shattered by a god, one said to be the strongest.
It seems that the effects of Origin abilities were not absolute and could be countered or broken if a strong enough force was used against them.
That seemed to have been the real lesson, dressed up as a moral story.
More importantly...
’Goddess of Pride?’
Since he had been so hell-bent on finding out the cause of his reincarnation, he had obviously done research on the gods this world worshipped.
And this world did have a god, one who speaks to his believers and acts to prevent calamities.
He had several titles, like The Primordial Light, Sustainer of Order, Beginning of all things. But most simply referred to him as The Lord.
And after reading through several historic and religious texts, it had become a fact that he was the being who created this world as well as the only god to ever exist.
So where did this Goddess of Pride come from?
As Sir Joran had said, the legend of the immortal had to be true since the power of immortality existed. It was essentially the proof of that story’s authenticity. So the Goddess of Pride was probably not something that was simply made up.
And in this world, associating the word ’God’ with an individual was considered blasphemy against the lord, so he also had to disregard the possibility that she was just a very strong individual in this world’s history and had been simply given the title of god.
’Sir Avalon had used the word ’Gods,’ which suggests that there were other gods aside from her, too.’
Adrian pressed his temples and took a deep breath, trying to calm the ocean of thoughts swirling in his mind. He would need to take quite some time to digest everything about that story.
But one thing had become clear to him now: Sir Avalon was not ordinary. Not as a teacher, at the very least.
After spending five years learning from Sir Joran, he could confidently say that the knight was not a good teacher. He may be accomplished as a mana user, but he didn’t seem to possess the skills required to teach someone.
Sir Avalon, on the other hand, seemed to excel at exactly that aspect. With that single story, he was teaching Adrian and evaluating him at the same time.
He was probably trying to test whether Adrian could understand the true nature of the lesson, and would most likely adjust his approach according to the result.
Adrian suddenly turned in the direction where Sir Avalon had left, then he hurriedly stood up and chased after him.
