Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 316

Young students from knightly families lowered their heads, their faces red with shame. They knew they hadn’t acted bravely in the cave.

Daihal frowned, pushing aside the papers on his desk. “Wait, wait. A subjugation? What’s all this about? Tell me what happened.”

The Adventurers Guild notice board crashed to the floor with a loud *BOOM!* Dust and splinters flew everywhere as priests rushed into the room, their faces panicked.

The priests who rushed in apologized, startled.

“Sorry! Sorry!” one of the priests gasped, out of breath. “We rushed as fast as we could! We’re ready to go now. About the monster…”

“Wait. Everyone, calm down and share information with each other.”

Daihal spoke coolly.

It seemed like he needed to sort out this situation.

“…So, while Wodanaz-nim was holding the Ghoul King, the other students here destroyed the relic that the fiend had infested.”

It was hard to believe, but the people gathered managed to piece together what had happened.

Deurhyeu said.

“Actually, Ihan killed the Ghoul King before we destroyed it, but…”

“You said he killed it?”

As the quill danced madly on the paper, Ihan stepped on Deurhyeu’s foot once and said.

“It’s a doppelganger. A doppelganger. It’s not that I killed it, but that I temporarily neutralized it.”

Anglaga asked, as if he didn’t understand.

“Isn’t that the same as killing it?”

Ihan almost hit Anglaga with his staff but stopped himself.

How much did he sleep during lectures in Einrogard to say something like that?

A knight from the Granden City Knights asked with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“Isn’t that the same as killing it?”

“…No, it isn’t.”

The priest next to him whispered, explaining instead.

“Since the main body is left in the relic and the doppelganger is sent out, we don’t usually say that it’s been killed.”

“Ah… but isn’t that the same thing?”

“Wizards are usually a bit sensitive about the use of terminology. Please be considerate.”

Ihan felt a headache coming on. It was like talking to people who lived in a different world. Didn’t they understand basic magic terms? Treating simple things like ‘neutralizing’ and ‘killing’ as the same thing was just wrong!

“So, after Wodanaz-nim repelled the Ghoul’s doppelganger, the students here destroyed the relic…”

“Actually, Wodanaz also destroyed the relic, but…”

Blanche, the guild clerk, looked up from her notes, a little confused. “So,” she asked, “if Wodanaz-nim and the other students did all that… then what exactly did *you* do?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Ah, no! I wasn’t blaming you! I wouldn’t blame first-year students!”

Ihan rubbed his forehead with a tired expression.

“My friends couldn’t have destroyed it if they hadn’t found the relic and destroyed all the obstacles.”

“That’s… right! We did that!”

Anglaga seemed to have regained a bit of confidence. The knight of the Knights asked, so that only Anglaga could hear.

“But why are you wearing those signs?”

“We… uh… went out on our own…”

“When?”

“When we fought the Ghoul King…?”

“When that friend from the Wodanaz family was fighting?”

“Yes…”

The knight looked at Anglaga with a look of contempt, as if he were looking at the dirtiest filth in the world.

His friend was fighting, and they abandoned him and ran away on their own?

“Ah, no! There’s a reason!”

“Don’t talk to me. You smell disgusting.”

“I’m telling you, there’s a real reason…!”

Daihal finished organizing and said.

“You’ve worked really hard. Instead of sending a subjugation party, I’ll send someone to check the situation in the cave first. I think you should rest first…”

Daihal winked at the people gathered.

It meant that he shouldn’t bother the first-year students, who were already tired enough, but send them away and deal with the rest of the work with the remaining people.

“Let’s do that.”

“I think that’s right.”

Ihan, who was sitting in his seat, suddenly thought of something and spoke to the clerk.

“Ah. I have something to tell you.”

“Is there something wrong…?”

Ihan carefully put down his backpack and took out what was inside with delicate movements.

Blanche and the others were very nervous, wondering if another fragment of an evil being would come out.

“These are geranium flowers, Seorak grass, and wormwood. I harvested them with the roots and leaves intact, so please check them. And this is a Rapella vole.”

“…Ah… yes…”

Blanche recorded it in the document and was confused inside.

‘What the…?’

After Ihan and his friends returned for a rest, the remaining people organized the personnel and made plans to check the situation in the cave.

“Just in case, I’ll send a request for support to Einrogard as well.”

“We sent a request for support during the last plague incident, so would that be okay? Einrogard might be a little reluctant…”

“No. Above all, it’s an incident involving Einrogard’s students, and they even solved it themselves, so there’s no way they’d dislike it. The wizards of Einrogard wouldn’t do that.”

Daihal nonchalantly said something that would make the professors of Einrogard grab him by the collar if they heard it.

In the meantime, Blanche organized the testimonies of other adventurers and mercenaries.

In fact, compared to Ihan’s calm and specific testimony, their testimonies were very chaotic.

Especially the testimonies of the mercenaries who rushed in first and were caught were even more so.

“So, he said he would kill you if Buldahak didn’t follow him?”

“Yes. Waaah.”

“All of these people by one person’s threat?”

“Waaah. That’s how much Buldahak…”

“If you keep acting up, I’ll call the interrogator instead of me and interrogate you.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

Blanche, who had organized the mercenaries’ testimonies, looked at Gu Bon and Bijidek with slightly expectant eyes.

Why would the guild recommend the two of them?

It was because they were experienced veterans.

Of course, a calm and composed report…

“He took the mercenaries in with bone handcuffs. Ah. And he summoned a bone hand, too.”

“When the evil spirit appeared, he fired lightning magic in a row, and when it dodged, he immediately used fire…”

“The wide cave completely burst into flames with one swing of his staff!”

“The evil spirit tried to put out the fire to struggle, but he swung his staff again…”

“Wait. Wait.”

Blanche realized something was wrong and restrained the adventurers.

“Isn’t that too much magic casting, no matter how you think about it? How many potions did you use in the middle?”

“…I don’t think we used any…?”

“What… it’s too wasteful no matter how I think about it. Even more so if you didn’t use potions…”

“Well, isn’t that what wizards are usually like? He even lit the fire and summoned water for me during camping…”

“Light too when entering the cave…”

“What did you say???”

Blanche’s quill clattered onto the desk, ink splattering across the papers. Her eyes widened in disbelief. ‘Wait,’ she said slowly, ‘did you just say you made the *wizard* carry water and light fires?’

“Ugh.”

Ihan woke up from his bed, feeling pain.

Even though he rested all weekend, he still felt stiff. He remembered the cold, damp air of the cave, the slimy feel of the Ghoul King’s skin, and the echoing sounds of battle. It was fortunate that it was only this much.

Ihan thought of his friends from the White Tiger Tower.

‘I hope the rest of them, except for Deurhyeu, suffer more from muscle pain.’

He probably used several enhancement spells, so he must be lying in bed groaning by now.

“Wouldn’t it be better to rest more?”

Alarron ran over as soon as he heard that Ihan had woken up.

He had heard the news that he had fought against the evil being in the cave, so there was no way he wouldn’t be worried.

“It’s okay. I’m fine. I don’t have any problems moving.”

“Still…”

“More than that, what happened to the cave?”

“They say the confirmation is over. As a result of the search, no evil magic power was found, so it must have been completely reverse summoned. The wizards of Einrogard have also stepped up to support, so it’s certain.”

“The wizards of Einrogard have also stepped up to support?”

“Yes. Isn’t it a matter related to magic? Even students are involved. Of course, they have to participate.”

Ihan tilted his head.

‘I don’t think the professors would think that way.’

“I’m really… glad.”

Alarron said with a worried voice.

“I heard that the opponent wasn’t an easy one. It was a great fortune that you were able to win without getting hurt like this.”

“I was lucky. I also had the help of other friends.”

Ihan put his White Tiger Tower friends in between as a matter of courtesy.

“The Adventurers Guild sent a gift as an apology and thank you.”

Ihan tapped his chin, thinking hard. *The Adventurers Guild isn’t just magic and monsters,* he thought. *It’s a business. If you do amazing work, they should reward you properly. Maybe I should have made a bigger deal about my part in this.*

“Yes? Of course, they’ll be aware of it.”

Alarron didn’t understand why Ihan was acting like this. Ihan regretted it.

‘Damn it. I should have exaggerated my contribution a bit more.’

Thinking about it, the Adventurers Guild is also a place where people live, so if you do a much better job than the given request, wouldn’t they give you something?

If he had known this would happen, he would have put down his White Tiger Tower friends a bit more.

“I should check and go.”

“Do you have any appointments today?”

“Ah. It’s the day to go to the Maykin family’s alchemy workshop.”

“I’m just happy that you cherish your friendship with your friends and don’t neglect your studies.”

“…Oh… um… that’s right. I am.”

Ihan was slightly embarrassed.

He’s going because they give him a lot of silver coins…

‘It’s heavy.’

Ihan, who had finished the request and checked the silver coins he had received before going out, was pleased.

Ihan knew some people thought adventurers just wanted to live a fancy life, spending all their money as soon as they got it. But he was different.

Soon, a new era of adventurers will come, earning a lot and spending efficiently.

‘I should take the White Tiger Tower guys out again when they recover.’

Ihan stacked the silver coins neatly and put them in the safe, and then reached for another box.

Inside the box, nestled on a bed of velvet, was a ring. It was made of dark silver, and three jewels – one red, one blue, and one green – glittered on its surface. Beside it lay a small, folded piece of parchment – the instruction manual.

To Ihan of the Wodanaz family, who has perfectly carried out valuable requests to trivial requests for his own honor, we present this >Lightning Emission> ring with sincere gratitude.

“Oh…”

Ihan put on the ring.

And he cast the magic as written in the manual.

“Ring, summon lightning.”

One of the three jewels embedded in the ring lost its color.

It was written that it could be used three times a day, and one of them seemed to have been consumed.

A streak of lightning flew out of the window.

The ring was supposed to be a great gift, a powerful artifact. But Ihan just stared at it, a frown forming on his face. ‘Lightning magic?’ he thought. ‘That’s it? I already know how to do that!’

Ihan was disappointed in the magic, which was not much different from what he had done.

Rather, it was more inconvenient because it was an already imprinted magic, so it was impossible to control it in detail.

‘What is this… No.’

Ihan changed his mind when he was about to complain.

Thinking about it, lightning magic is quite difficult to handle even among elemental magics, and they imprinted it on the ring.

This ring is quite valuable.

‘I should sell it.’

If other students heard it, they would say, ‘Why are you selling that useful artifact!?’ but Ihan wasn’t.

He already knew how to use the magic, and he had plenty of magic power, so there was no need…

‘Ah. That’s right.’

Ihan rummaged through the luggage he had brought from school.

Something suddenly came to mind.

‘Where is it… here it is.’

A helmet appeared from the dusty luggage.

It was the ego artifact he had found in the Einrogard underground dungeon, the Helmet of Wisdom.

…You’ve finally called me…

The Helmet of Wisdom seemed to be very angry for some reason. Ihan sighed. Dealing with angry magical helmets was just another Monday for him. He wondered what kind of trouble this week would bring.