Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 542

Professor Voladi and Ikrusha waited below. They were confused because Lee Han was taking longer than they expected to come back.

“He’s late,” Professor Voladi said.

Ikrusha nodded, looking worried. “Yes, he is.”

Ikrusha knew the giants with Lee Han were strong fighters. Even in these dangerous mountains, few could beat them.

But giants were also known to be unpredictable.

Ikrusha imagined them seeing a Behemoth monster and shouting, “Food!” Then, they might all run after it, forgetting about Lee Han. A young student like Lee Han could easily get lost or hurt.

*Maybe Lee Han would have sent a message if something was wrong,* Ikrusha thought. *So, maybe everything is okay?*

“I think you are wrong,” Professor Voladi said.

Ikrusha looked at him, confused. “Huh?”

“Actually,” Professor Voladi said, “it’s more likely Lee Han is leading the giants.”

“What are you talking about?” Ikrusha asked, completely surprised.

*Is he saying a student is making the giants follow him?* Ikrusha thought, his eyes wide. *Like the giants want to go home, but Lee Han is saying, ‘No! We’re going this way!’?*

It sounded impossible. Giants were huge and strong. Why would they listen to a student?

“Lee Han likes to try difficult things,” Professor Voladi explained.

“No,” Ikrusha argued, “even if he likes challenges, making giants do what he wants is not just ‘difficult’…”

*Any wizard who likes adventure would change their mind if they had to deal with giants,* Ikrusha thought. *They’d quickly decide they liked peace and quiet much more.*

Ikrusha was absolutely sure of this.

Life with giants was always loud and chaotic.

“We’re back!” the giants shouted as they arrived.

Ikrusha jumped, surprised to see them. They were covered in mud and dirt from the swamp. He could even see scratches and cuts on their skin.

*Who could hurt giants like that in these mountains?* Ikrusha wondered.

“What happened?” Ikrusha asked.

“We fought a Ghoul Dragon,” one giant said. “With the old Yacha.”

“We didn’t want to,” another giant grumbled, “but the wizard made us do it.”

Ikrusha stared, shocked.

Ikrusha looked at Lee Han, his eyes wide with surprise.

Before, Ikrusha would have thought, *The Yacha asked for help, and the student helped too. That’s why the giants listened.* But now, because of what Professor Voladi said, he was confused.

“Really?” Ikrusha asked, his voice high.

“Huh? Yes,” Lee Han replied, tilting his head.

*Why is Ikrusha looking at me like that?* Lee Han wondered. He had never seen Ikrusha so surprised.

Then Lee Han understood. He had just gone to help the giants a little, but they had ended up doing something amazing.

“I’m sorry,” Lee Han started to say. “Because of the Yacha leader, I just had to…”

“It’s fine,” Professor Voladi interrupted, as if he knew this would happen. “It’s already done.”

“Oh. Yes.”

“But,” Professor Voladi added, his voice a little sharper, “try not to take on too many dangerous challenges. I think I’ve said that before.”

Lee Han looked at the professor, unable to believe his ears.

*Is he really saying that to *me*?* Lee Han thought.

Radford, seeing Lee Han unusually tired, asked,

“Didn’t you sleep well?”

“No… I was running around in the mountains this morning…”

“Oh dear. Is it because of the White Tiger Tower?”

A White Tiger Tower student passing by flinched.

‘Gasp. Is it really because of us?’

“No. It’s because of the Ghoul Dragon and the giants…”

‘Phew. It’s not.’

The relieved White Tiger Tower student took a few more steps before screaming,

“What? Ghoul Dragon? Giants??”

“Why are you listening to other people’s conversations! You’re like a thief!”

“No, no…! I just heard it while passing by. Just passing by!”

While Radford was arguing with the White Tiger Tower student, Lee Han stuffed a thick chicken sandwich with pickles into his stomach.

He felt the need to get his energy back before the Illusion Magic lecture started.

Crunch!

Looking to the side at the loud sound, Imirg was tearing into a thick chicken leg.

When their eyes met, Imirg hesitated and asked,

“D-do you want some?”

“I have enough with this. More than that… never mind.”

Lee Han was about to ask why Imirg wasn’t sitting next to his Black Turtle Tower friends but stopped himself.

Radford was friendly, but Imirg was a bit shy.

‘Hehe. It was worth helping him during the flood,’ Lee Han thought.

Lee Han felt pleased that his efforts were helping to change the bad reputation of the Wodanaz family.

When he first entered Einroguard, he helped the Black Turtle Tower students, but they still reacted with, ‘Hick! Wodanaz monster, no, family!’ which still bothered him a little.

“Huh? Why is Imirg sitting over there?”

“Oh no…! Too late! I should have sat next to Wodanaz!”

The Black Turtle Tower friends realized they should have sat next to Lee Han for the Illusion Magic lecture. They regretted their decision and slapped their knees.

When illusion magic confused their senses, having someone like Wodanaz, who was strong and steady, was very helpful.

They knew this and should have prepared in advance. The top student was always different.

“Damn it. I should sit behind him.”

“Move! I sat here first!”

“White Tiger Tower, don’t you guys have any confidence? You curse Wodanaz so much, but you try to use him at times like this?”

“N-no way! I didn’t even think about using Wodanaz as a shield…!”

Lee Han, who had been listening to the conversation, felt betrayed.

‘You ungrateful friends,’ he thought.

“Alright, alright. Welcome, everyone!”

Professor Kirmin entered as the lecture hall door opened. His clothes were so stylish that he could easily be called one of the best-dressed professors at Einroguard.

Professor Kirmin took out a small stone from the front pocket of his dark blue vest made of soft velvet and threw it at the nearest student.

Bang!

“Ugh… Ack. Aargh!”

“Stop, no! You have to do it calmly. Calmly.”

Professor Kirmin had taught basic and interesting magic in the first semester, but from the second semester, he was teaching how to deal with illusion magic.

To learn how to deal with illusion magic, you had to get hit by it a lot.

“Not just in Einroguard, but all over the Empire, you’ll see illusions and enchantments. If you don’t learn it now, you could have problems later. I told you the story of the dwarf named Guriangem who had bad luck and was tricked by illusion magic, right?”

“Yes!”

“Alright. Gap!”

Professor Kirmin slyly blew smoke trapped in a glass bottle at the student who had just answered.

The smoke scattered the student’s magic power, stopping him from resisting, and pulled him into an illusion.

“Headmaster! Ack! It’s the Headmaster!!”

Professor Kirmin smiled apologetically as he watched the student fall into an illusion of the Headmaster who looked like a skeleton attacking him.

“Sorry. This is how you learn.”

There were two main ways to block illusion magic.

One was to avoid being affected by illusion magic in the first place.

Like Lee Han, who had strong resistance, wore magic items to protect him, or was careful about illusion magic and avoided touching things.

Illusion magic couldn’t be used just by saying magic words without needing to touch anything.

Usually, you had to touch something, and just avoiding this could help.

“Hoo…”

As the professor came closer, one student held his breath and closed his eyes.

Then, Professor Kirmin smiled and waved his wand. Magic flew and pulled the student into an illusion.

“Ah. Wodanaz. Can you do me a favor?”

“Yes, Professor.”

Lee Han stood up carefully. Professor Kirmin waved his hand as if to say it was okay.

“You naturally have strong resistance, so you don’t have to be so careful. I’m not Professor Begreck.”

“The Headmaster always tells me to trust him too.”

Professor Kirmin looked really hurt.

“Hey, I’m trying to teach you how to deal with illusion magic, and you’re comparing me to the Headmaster? That’s too much, isn’t it?”

Lee Han carefully took the note and went out into the hallway. Luckily, no one attacked him before he left.

‘What does he want me to do?’

Stand in the hallway while the students are being attacked.

Kirmin Ku

Lee Han was speechless.

-Ack! Wodanaz! You stupid Wodanaz! How could you just leave!

-Haha, you can’t let your guard down like that! Have you forgotten that illusion magicians must always be careful?

While Lee Han was out, Professor Kirmin defeated all the students who had been depending on Lee Han.

After everyone woke up from the illusion, covered in sweat, Professor Kirmin said sadly,

“It’s almost impossible not to get caught. Especially when you’re not very good. So…”

Professor Kirmin looked at Lee Han.

“Yes. Except for you, Wodanaz.”

“I didn’t say anything, Professor.”

“You have to know how to calmly escape even if you get caught.”

The second way to block illusion magic was to calmly make it disappear after being caught.

It started with knowing you were caught.

Once you knew, you slowly noticed the things that felt wrong around you, and when those things felt wrong enough, you understood how the magic was working and made it disappear.

The more you knew about different kinds of magic, the easier it was. It was easier to know what kind of magic it was if you already knew it than to figure it out by yourself.

“Illusion magic is easier for wizards who know a lot, but that doesn’t mean you can skip practicing. Wodanaz, I’m just saying this in case, but you know you can’t just destroy the magic today, right?”

“Professor. I’m really sorry for destroying all the magic circles last time. But I really didn’t know what would happen and made a mistake…”

Lee Han was annoyed at Professor Kirmin for still being upset about him accidentally destroying the magic circles during the last lecture.

How could he have known that would happen!

“Yes. You can make mistakes. But someone like you, Wodanaz, probably did it on purpose.”

“Huh.”

“Did you really do it on purpose?”

The students next to him looked at him with respect and admiration.

Did Wodanaz destroy the magic circles for them?

“No, you crazy guys.”

“Aww…”

The students immediately became uninterested when Lee Han looked serious.

Thud!

As the professor waved his wand, mountains of chests piled up in front of the students.

The boxes were made of roughly carved wood, but each one had locks that were sharp and complicated.

The students groaned at the magic coming from them.

They knew what they would be doing today.

“When you’re walking around old buildings or dungeons, you’ll often see illusion magic connected to machines. A good magician can stop the machine from working just by looking at how the illusion magic is set up.”

“Professor. I’m not going to go into dungeons in my life…”

“You’re very confident, aren’t you? But you should stop being so confident for a while. When you’re in Einroguard, you don’t get to choose if you go into a dungeon or not.”

The student, who had complained for nothing and been given a bad guess about his future, grabbed a box with a sad face.

Psh!

“Ugh!”

The student who touched the box the wrong way was hit by smoke and fell under illusion magic.

The students who saw it were even more disgusted.

Who would like such small and hard work?

Most magicians only liked the exciting parts of magic and didn’t like the difficult parts.

“Hey. Is this fun? Radford, can you look at this? Did I solve it right?”

“Very good.”

“How good do you have to be to not need a technician when you go into a dungeon?”

“I think you’re good enough…?”

“What are you saying? Radford. You’re good at everything, but you think I’m too good.”

“No, I really think you’re good enough…”