Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 436. 90% dead: You weren’t supposed to know that!

Theo made his way forward, and everyone kept their eyes on him.

"We would like you to look at your party members from here."

When Theo reached close enough, the instructor spoke, and Theo moved to look at all the people seated.

His eyes went to the white-leathered healer, then to the knight, and more.

He looked at his brother, who was looking at him with a serious expression.

"We would like to confirm to everyone here that Theo Merrick is going to be the leader of this gate party," Corven spoke out loud, making some look plainly at him and some nod in unison.

"All the big gate-related orders Theo Merrick gives to you will have to be written in a report when you come back." He spoke, making Theo squint his eyes.

’They are testing me as if I want to be tested...’ Theo felt like his teeth were gritting, but he controlled his expression.

A hand rose up, and Merek Vaun, a viscount heir, spoke up, "What if his orders jeopardize our lives?" he asked with a smile on his face.

Before Corven could reply to the man, Theo cleared his throat out loud as if he was going to speak, making Corven stop.

And he did, "Young Master Vaun, that is a very understandable concern you have." Theo spoke, and his eyes locked onto him.

The instructors looked at Theo as if they were surprised beyond measure.

"If I were to ever give you an order that jeopardizes your life, I want you to stop listening to my orders," he spoke.

Every single one of them looked at Theo’s calm expression with different emotions.

Clara and Elias couldn’t help but hide their smiles, while Cassian felt confused. Lucien looked at Theo with his eyes wide, and so did everyone else.

Merek looked at Theo and stopped speaking.

"Our goal for this gate will be revealed by Instructor Mae soon enough. But I am not going in there without thinking things through."

"All your lives are not only important to yourselves but to me as well, and I want you to keep that in mind before entering. That is all." Theo spoke and looked at the instructors.

Mae was the first one to come out of her trance and clap a few times. "Splendid, we were going to make you give a speech for starters, but you were a step ahead. You can go back to your seat now, Young Theo," Mae spoke in a good mood.

Theo nodded and went back, but all the eyes were still on him. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The knight among them first looked at Theo’s scabbard and then at him with perplexed emotions. He was not supposed to feel impressed by him at all, yet here he had done something just for that.

Theo didn’t care about what they thought. He looked at the instructors and waited for the class to start.

’All that study, all that confidence... it finally worked somewhere...’ Theo thought. He had felt that in front of so many people, his heart would waver and he would panic.

But instead of that, when he looked at all those people staring at him, Theo didn’t feel that anxiety at all.

"Let’s move on to the very basics of this gate, everyone," Mae spoke, and some workers finally pulled up and dragged a slate with chalk toward her.

"Gates are categorized into 3 different levels that we humans have made to help segregate them," she started the explanation.

Theo saw the extra sheet of paper and quill and started writing things down. He was not an individual anymore, but someone who had to lead a lot of people.

"The first are Open gates. As their name suggests, they are relatively open to the masses. But not to those who are not authorized, of course." She said and continued, "Open gates are in between 0 to 4.5 in difficulty, and that is where you will go—a gate with 3.5 difficulty."

"The next one is Restricted gates. It is as the name suggests. The masses are restricted from entering them as the difficulty scales too much to say it’s normal. It’s between 4.5 to 8 in difficulty. The last restricted one in which many kingdoms participated had fewer casualties than normal, but about 30% of the participants were reported to lose all their beasts in the gate," she spoke.

Silence followed as most gulped slowly. They knew what difficulty she was talking about.

Theo had seen his father return in bandages. A person he could not imagine being hurt by any means, and yet he was bandaged. That told enough about restricted gates without needing more words.

"Lastly, the calamity gates." Mae stopped and looked at everyone to make sure they were paying attention.

"It’s a very rare sight for a calamity gate to open up in our world. The last gate on the calamity level was 167 years ago. It was reported that 90% of the participants died in that gate, and the 10% were too injured to help the citizens fend off the beasts that came out when its energy overloaded. Those are known as the ’blood years’ in our history, and not even outer devils can match that level of threat," she spoke with a heavy heart.

Theo heard something he had never heard before, and it was something that shook his heart.

"But that information isn’t that important for today’s session."

"I reckon we will see a calamity gate in 2 years!" Jarek spoke while smiling, making everyone stare at him.

The two instructors looked at him as if he had a death wish, and he kept a hand on his mouth in surprise.

"I wasn’t supposed to say that, forget it all!" he said as if it was the most normal thing to say.

But another pressure came to Theo’s heart without him asking for it.

Were they going to face a calamity gate in 2 years, or was this guy just senile?