Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 505

Professor Volardi leaned in close to the group of Transformation wizards, his voice low. “Listen carefully,” he said. “This student, Lee Han, has magic unlike anything you’ve seen. It’s… immense.” He paused, letting his words sink in. “Don’t try to fight him with brute force. You need to be clever. Use different kinds of magic, think outside the box.”

Lee Han stood behind the group, ears burning. *Friend or foe?* he thought, his mind racing. Professor Volardi was talking about him as if he wasn’t even there! He wanted to learn from these wizards, to see their amazing magic. But this? This sounded like the professor was telling them how to *defeat* him! *Why would he do that?* Lee Han fumed silently. *Just take my wand and tell me to hop on one leg! That would be fairer!*

“A secret?” The dwarf wizard, who was shorter than most chairs, bounced on his toes, his eyes wide. He wasn’t upset at all by Professor Volardi’s warning. “How much magic does he *have*?” he exclaimed. “That’s incredible! I’ve met wizards with strong magic before, but they couldn’t do *that*!” He pointed at Lee Han with a stubby finger. “Truly amazing!”

Lee Han mumbled, “Thank you, I guess.”

The dwarf wizard tilted his head. “But… is it really alright to say all this *before* the fight?”

Lee Han just stared, speechless. The dwarf wizard had a point. A very good point.

Lee Han swallowed hard. He couldn’t argue with his professor in front of everyone. It would look terrible. He forced a smile and said, trying to sound confident, “My professor… he just has a lot of faith in me.”

“Oh, how touching!” the dwarf wizard cried, clapping his hands together. He looked genuinely moved. “At first, I thought maybe this professor was a bit… odd,” he admitted, “but now I see! It’s trust! Wonderful!” He beamed at Professor Volardi.

“Alright, who’s next?” the dwarf wizard asked, bouncing again.

“Me! Me!” A human wizard, taller and more serious-looking than the dwarf, raised his hand quickly.

Professor Volardi gave a small smile. “Now, now,” he said, looking at the human wizard, “some of you are just showing off. You’re too experienced.”

Lee Han’s smile vanished. “But… Professor,” Lee Han said, a little nervously, “didn’t *you* fight me earlier?”

Professor Volardi waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, me? I’m nothing compared to you, Lee Han. Don’t you remember what happened to that mercenary in our last practice duel? He was quite… persistent.”

Professor Volardi’s eyes twinkled, but Lee Han just mumbled, “That was an accident. He wouldn’t give up.”

The other Transformation wizards were chatting amongst themselves, laughing and joking like old friends. Lee Han stood beside them, feeling more and more out of place. *Please, just keep talking,* he thought miserably. *Maybe they’ll forget all about me.*

“Start!” Professor Volardi’s voice boomed.

“Oh! Right!” The human wizard seemed to have been caught up in the chat too. He stepped forward into the dueling circle, smooth and confident. He looked like he’d done this a hundred times.

Lee Han glared at Professor Volardi, a look of pure frustration on his face. Professor Volardi, however, just nodded slowly, a strange glint in his eye. *Make it happen,* he seemed to be saying. *Make *what* happen?* Lee Han thought, his teeth gritted. *I just want to blast him with magic and get this over with!*

Instead of the fancy magic Lee Han expected, the human wizard did something completely different. He pointed his wand at himself, and with a flick, the wand turned into a thick, heavy chain that wrapped tightly around his own arm. *What is *this*?* Lee Han thought, completely thrown. Hadn’t Professor Volardi just warned them *not* to get into a power struggle? This looked like exactly that!

Confused, but reacting quickly, Lee Han reached out with his own magic, trying to seize control of the chain. He wanted to change its very nature, to make it bend to *his* will.

Suddenly, the human wizard yelled, pointing at the chain. “He’s doing it! Look, everyone!”

The audience gasped. “He’s actually taking control!” someone shouted.

“Incredible! How much magic does that take?” another voice exclaimed.

“Wait, wait, let’s think about the magic involved here,” a third wizard said excitedly. “It’s like that time in the Ghost Forest! Remember? Magic just wouldn’t work properly!”

“Yes! That’s a perfect comparison!” someone else agreed.

The human wizard struggled, pouring magic into the chain, trying to wrestle back control. But it was like throwing water at a stone wall – Lee Han’s magic just absorbed it all. “It’s really not working!” the human wizard yelled, amazed. “My magic is just bouncing off!”

The Transformation wizards in the audience erupted in cheers. It was like they were watching the most exciting show in the world, not a serious duel.

“Me next! Me next!” wizards shouted, raising their hands.

“I want to feel it too!”

Professor Volardi’s face grew darker and darker. This was not how it was supposed to go. He had imagined fierce battles, tense moments of learning, the kind of duels where wizards pushed themselves to their limits, where mistakes were punished, and defeat was a bitter lesson. But this… this was a magical playground. They were treating it like a fun experiment, not a serious contest. He watched, his shoulders slumping.

Professor Lezhie patted him gently on the arm. “Don’t worry, Volardi,” he murmured. “It’s… educational in its own way.”

But Professor Volardi just shook his head, his gloom deepening.

One by one, the Transformation wizards took turns trying to push their magic against Lee Han’s, and each time, their magic seemed to just… vanish. They were all thrilled. The Transformation wizards were happy, Lee Han was happy he hadn’t been hurt, and Professor Volardi was still looking gloomy.

“That was the best thing I’ve seen all day!” one wizard declared.

“Hey!” another protested. “Didn’t you say *my* magic was the best?”

“Oh, sorry!” the first wizard laughed. “Yours was great too! But this… this is something else! Can I have another go?”

“No! We said one turn each! Be fair!”

“I’m going to try and figure out how to use this for defense,” another wizard said excitedly. “I’ll write to you about it!”

“Let’s work on it together!” someone else suggested. “I want in!”

*Hmm,* Lee Han thought, feeling a little lost. He’d somehow ended up sitting with these wizards, who were now chatting like old friends. But he didn’t know any of them. He was starting to feel really awkward. *Shouldn’t someone else be here?* he wondered. *Like, a professor or a senior student? I’m just a first-year!* Normally, if guests were talking this much, someone from the school would come and join in, make sure everything was okay. But it was just him and the enthusiastic Transformation wizards. Something felt a bit strange.

“So, Wodanaz, are you interested in Transformation magic?” one of the wizards asked.

“Yes,” Lee Han replied, trying to sound interested. “I’m learning other kinds of magic too, though.”

“Oh, that must be a lot of work!” another wizard said sympathetically.

“But where else can you learn Transformation magic like this?” a third wizard added, gesturing around at the group.

“Exactly!” the first wizard agreed. “Wodanaz, you must come visit my home sometime. It’s a bit out of the way, but it’s very peaceful.”

“You should visit my lands too!” another chimed in. “They’re beautiful!”

Lee Han nodded, trying to keep up. These wizards weren’t just making polite small talk. When they said “visit,” they meant it. They were the kind of people who would send formal invitations and expect a reply.

“My research is mostly about metals,” one wizard said. “If you’re interested in transforming metals, get in touch.”

“And I specialize in living things,” another added. “We should talk about…”

While Lee Han was being bombarded with invitations and research topics, the senior students were huddled against the wall, watching from a distance. “Wow,” one of them whispered.

“Amazing,” another agreed.

But they weren’t talking about Lee Han’s magic. They were amazed by how he was managing to talk to the Transformation wizards without fainting or running away.

“We should probably help him,” one senior said hesitantly.

“Yeah, we should,” another agreed. “…You go,” the first senior said, nudging the second.

“No way! Let’s go together,” the second senior replied, grabbing the arm of a third. They all shuffled nervously, clearly terrified of approaching the group of Transformation wizards.

“Didn’t you say you needed to ask about bat transformations?” one senior whispered to another, trying to find an excuse to stay back.

“And you said you had a question about that new metal alloy!” another senior hissed back.

Just then, Professor Lezhie walked back in, looking much calmer than before (he’d somehow managed to calm down Professor Volardi). He stopped dead, staring at his students pressed against the wall like frightened mice. He shook his head slowly. “Honestly,” he muttered under his breath. “Honestly!”

Lee Han carefully folded the pieces of paper with the wizards’ addresses. They were surprisingly thick, almost like a small notebook. “Professor,” Lee Han said, looking at Professor Volardi’s back. “Don’t worry too much.”

Professor Volardi’s shoulders were slumped, and he walked slowly, like a very sad man. Lee Han didn’t really care if the professor was sad or not, but Professor Volardi was a bit unpredictable. Sad professors could do strange things. “I actually learned a lot about Transformation magic today,” Lee Han added.

And it was true. Hearing about all the different ways wizards used Transformation magic – turning into animals, changing metals, even trying to break down curses – it had opened his eyes. He’d seen wizards who could become any creature, wizards who knew every kind of metal, wizards who were trying to use transformation to fight the darkest magic. Professor Volardi probably wanted him to learn by getting thrown around in duels, but Lee Han thought listening was a much better way to learn.

“So,” Professor Volardi said suddenly, turning around, his face completely normal, not sad at all. “What kind of magic are you thinking of learning now?”

Lee Han froze. *Wait, he wasn’t sad?* He’d completely misread the situation. *Damn it!* He’d fallen right into the professor’s trap. Saying he’d learned a lot was like saying, “Okay, Professor, what’s next?” He scrambled to think. *What’s the easiest magic they talked about?* He needed something that wouldn’t be too hard, wouldn’t make him suffer too much, but would still look like he was learning something. Something that would give him time to figure things out.

“Transformation magic!” a cheerful voice called out.

Lee Han jumped and turned around. It was the dwarf wizard, beaming at him. “He’s clearly fascinated by it!” the dwarf wizard declared. “And what’s more useful than transforming things?”

Professor Volardi raised an eyebrow, looking at the dwarf wizard expectantly. The dwarf wizard puffed out his chest. “Transformation magic is the *heart* of all magic!” he announced. “It’s useful in fights, it’s useful when you’re not fighting. Need to sneak in somewhere? Turn into a bird! Need to escape? There are always animals around!” He went on, listing all the amazing things about transformation magic.

Professor Volardi listened, nodding slowly, looking more and more interested. “Hmm,” Professor Volardi said finally. “That’s… reasonable.”

“I knew you’d see it my way!” the dwarf wizard exclaimed. “So, can I lend him a book?”

“No, no, no!” Lee Han blurted out, finally understanding what was happening. This was going too far. “That’s too much! I couldn’t possibly…”

To a wizard, a magic book wasn’t just paper and ink. It was like a part of their soul, their deepest knowledge. They didn’t lend them out lightly. Wizards would fight to the death for a magic book.

“Wodanaz,” the dwarf wizard said, leaning closer. “Lending books isn’t usually done, it’s true. But connections are important! If a talented wizard like you is interested in Transformation magic, *especially* transformation magic, I’d be honored!”

“You can’t just focus on transformation magic,” Professor Volardi muttered, but the dwarf wizard ignored him completely. He pulled a thick, leather-bound book from his bag and pressed it into Lee Han’s hands. The book felt heavy and old.

“If you have any questions, write to me!” the dwarf wizard said. “Or come visit during the holidays!”

“But… what is this?” Lee Han stammered, looking at the book in disbelief.

“Oh, and one more thing,” the dwarf wizard whispered, leaning in even closer. “Keep it quiet that I came to see you, okay? Don’t tell the other wizards.”

And with a wink, he was gone, leaving Lee Han holding a mysterious magic book.