Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 576

Students walked out of the dormitory tower. They felt many things: some were tense, some frustrated, others afraid, regretful, resigned, and even excited.

“Is Nilia *actually* looking forward to this?” one student whispered.

Another sighed, “Wow. She must be really confident.”

Nilia quickly said, “No, no! I just… I’m excited for the semester to end this week, that’s all!”

“Come on, Nilia, don’t be shy,” a student chuckled. “*We’re* the ones who didn’t study. You deserve to be confident.”

Nilia insisted, “Seriously, I’m not confident either!”

Large snowflakes started falling from the grey sky, covering everything in white.

“Snow,” one student said simply, looking up.

“It’s actually beautiful when you’re wearing warm clothes,” another replied, pulling their scarf tighter.

“Yeah,” a third student added, “Maybe it will snow even *more*.”

The students were surprisingly relaxed, bundled in thick layers of borrowed clothes and warmed by potions in their pockets. This snow was nothing to fear, not like the biting winds that used to chill them through their thin school robes.

“Don’t say things like that,” Nilia said sharply.

Her voice was serious. She remembered a night spent shivering in the northern mountains, understanding how dangerous snow could truly be.

*What a terrible thing to wish for,* she thought.

“Everyone, let’s hope the snow doesn’t get worse before next week, okay?”

“S-sorry, Nilia,” someone mumbled.

“We didn’t mean it,” another added quietly.

The students from Black Turtle Tower looked down, suddenly quiet. To them, it was just pretty snow. Nilia seemed too serious.

Lee Han arrived at Professor Garcia’s lecture hall before anyone else. He’d planned a busy morning – visiting Ponryg the grumpy stable creature, then making breakfast. But the eager acolytes had finished everything early.

“Good morning, Professor,” Lee Han greeted.

Professor Garcia looked up, surprised, from the exam he was setting up. “Lee Han! Why are you here so early?”

“I wanted to help,” Lee Han offered.

“I told you to rest! Go study for your own exams,” Professor Garcia said kindly, waving him to a seat. “The exam prep is done anyway.”

“Okay, Professor. But call me if you need anything.” Lee Han glanced at the exam area. It was a pool of water, ready for the practical test. *Underwater Breathing, Lower Detoxification, Vision Amplification…* He knew the spells; Professor Garcia had shown them last week.

But something felt off. “Professor,” Lee Han asked, frowning slightly, “Shouldn’t the water be… darker?”

“Hmm?” Professor Garcia considered the pool. “I thought it looked fine like this.”

“Really?” Lee Han wondered. *Darker water would be harder, wouldn’t it?* He hesitated, then nodded. “If you think so, Professor.” He trusted Professor Garcia’s judgment.

“Oh, and what about fake passages?” Lee Han asked. “Did you add those?”

“Fake passages? No, that seems too difficult,” Professor Garcia chuckled.

“Maybe… maybe it would make it more exciting?” Lee Han suggested. He knew dark magic was off-limits, but fake passages…

“Too hard,” Professor Garcia repeated gently.

“Right,” Lee Han said, a little disappointed. Professor Garcia was always so kind. Lee Han wanted to show his gratitude, to somehow make things better for him. *How can I improve this exam?*

“Maybe… more poison?” Lee Han mumbled, thinking aloud.

“Lee Han,” Professor Garcia said, a smile in his voice, “Go and study.”

“Yes, Professor.” Lee Han sat down, a little dejected. He pulled out a textbook.

“Lee Han,” Professor Garcia said suddenly, as if a thought had just struck him.

“Yes, Professor?” Lee Han looked up, hopeful.

“Do you… by any chance… raise giants?”

Lee Han stared, completely surprised. “?!?!!”

“Hey, is it just me, or is Lee Han sitting right next to the Professor?” Gainando muttered to his friends, nervously adjusting his robes before the exam. Lee Han was indeed there, calmly reading a thick book near Professor Garcia.

“So?” one friend shrugged. “He probably saw the exam first.”

“Or he already passed,” another joked. “Focus, Gainando! Did you remember *Underwater Breathing* properly? Don’t cough up water again like last time.”

“It was *one* time!” Gainando protested, but he checked his spell anyway.

“One time is too many. Go on, get in.”

*Splash!*

Students entered the water one by one. Lee Han, still absorbed in *Wodanaz’s Water Orb and its Basic Principles*, looked up as Nilia emerged from the pool, gasping for air.

“Ugh, finally out… I almost fell for a trick passage!” Nilia exclaimed, shaking her head.

“Nilia,” Lee Han called, approaching her with a warm cup in his hand. “Nilia, here.”

Nilia’s face softened as she saw him. Professor Garcia’s exam had been tougher than she expected, demanding every bit of her focus in the murky water, avoiding hidden traps. Seeing Lee Han waiting for her, offering comfort, a warmth spread through her despite the cold. *Is this… is this what friends do?*

“Here, drink this,” Lee Han said, offering the cup.

“…Thank you,” Nilia said quietly, accepting the warm drink. She felt a little less sharp, a little more grateful.

Lee Han asked carefully, as Nilia sipped her coffee, “Was the water… too bright inside? Did you find the passages too easily?”

Nilia frowned. “What are you talking about? It was dark and hard to see.” She shivered, remembering the chill. “And freezing cold.”

“Really? You didn’t… miscast any spells or anything?” Lee Han pressed, a worried look on his face.

Nilia’s eyes narrowed. “…Wodanaz, what are you *really* asking?” Her earlier warmth vanished, replaced by suspicion. He’d seemed so kind just moments ago… now she wasn’t so sure.

“No, nothing!” Lee Han said quickly, offering her a small pastry. “Here, eat this too.”

Lee Han offered Yonel a small pastry. “Trying to make up for something?” Yonel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Just being friendly,” Lee Han replied, nudging his friend playfully. “It was snowing heavily today, wasn’t it? Does the Shadow Patrol still go out in weather like this?”

Yonel took a bite of the pastry. “More or less,” he mumbled through a mouthful. “It’s not like the snow stops the monsters, does it?”

Lee Han nodded, glancing sideways as another friend came out.

“Yonel! Here, coffee,” Lee Han called, holding out a steaming cup.

“Huh? Thanks…” Yonel took the cup.

“Was it too bright inside after coming in from the snow?” he asked, blinking slightly.

Yonel pondered for a moment, sipping his coffee, then stared at Lee Han as if struck by a thought, and asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice, “Did you perhaps ask Professor Garcia to raise the difficulty of the exam?” He had noticed Lee Han talking to the stern-faced Professor Garcia just before the exam details were announced.

Lee Han looked at his friend, startled.

Yonel shook his head.

Alchemy Final Exam.

Professor Thunderfoot watched, aghast, as students brought in bundles of reagents. “In all my years of teaching, I’ve never seen students take an exam as comfortably as you lot.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“Then, no thank you, Professor.”

Professor Thunderfoot, known for his eccentric teaching methods, dangled Ratford upside down, a playful glint in his eye. “Normally, exams start with gathering the ingredients, but you’ve all come so prepared…”

“Isn’t preparation also a skill?”

“Wodanaz! I should have known it was you behind this! Bringing in a whole shop’s worth of ingredients!” Professor Thunderfoot was dumbfounded by the brazen attitude of his star pupil.

The lad had taken a horde of friends outside and swept up all the reagents!

“Alright, preparation is a skill. I won’t say anything. It’s the Headmaster who dislikes going out, I don’t really care if you lot go out.”

“Then, please put me down…”

Professor Thunderfoot dropped Ratford with a thud.

Then, he moved the chalk and inscribed words on the blackboard: Potion of Resistance

‘Yes!’

Lee Han felt relieved upon seeing the name of the potion. Many students who had prepared extensively for the exam showed similar reactions to Lee Han. The Potion of Resistance was one of the topics they had anticipated might appear on the final exam.

“What’s the Potion of Resistance?”

Of course, not all the students had studied diligently.

Professor Thunderfoot, looking disdainfully at the student who asked despite him clearly explaining it during the lecture, elaborated: “As I’ve said several times, this Potion of Resistance must work in a broad range of ways. Sometimes, clumsy alchemists create potions that only work on one aspect and delude themselves, but I expect you all to avoid such mistakes.”

The Potion of Resistance makes you stronger and more able to handle pain and hardship. It’s not just about blocking attacks, but about making you tougher inside and out.

A defense potion would harden the skin to deflect an arrow, but the Potion of Resistance would reduce the pain even if a powerful arrow shook the body internally. Sometimes, peculiar monsters inflicted damage through sight or hearing. These were the types of monsters that could make you vomit blood just by looking at them or collapse just by hearing their cries. Moreover, even without going that far, illusion mages often cast spells by targeting the opponent’s five senses. To prepare for such situations, something like the Potion of Resistance was essential.

‘Grind the bearstone with a bronze mortar three times, change the direction twice with the wand, and then, when the water boils to a golden hue…’

Lee Han carefully ground the bearstone, a dark, rough rock that smelled faintly of pine, in the bronze mortar. He and the other top alchemy students proceeded with their work without hesitation.

Professor Thunderfoot watched them and asked: “I don’t think you forgot to measure the ingredients beforehand, did you?”

At those words, the students took out the newly purchased artifact scales from outside. Seeing the scales automatically adjusting and measuring, Professor Thunderfoot frowned deeply.

‘I can see why the Headmaster dislikes going out so much!’

Seeing the freshmen easily making potions with artifacts, he felt a sudden urge to find fault.

“Hmph. The Potion of Resistance isn’t so easy. If you rush like that, you’ll surely…”

Bang!

Flames erupted from Nilia’s pot. Nilia’s potion exploded in a flash of green flame, leaving a smell of burnt sugar in the air.

Only then did Professor Thunderfoot’s expression soften, and he looked pleased. “See? This is what happens. It will be quite difficult to revive that.”

However, Nilia, unperturbed, emptied the contents of the pot. Then, she took out new reagents from her reagent bag and immediately started working again. She had enough ingredients to fail several more times, so it didn’t really affect her. Nilia is always calm and collected.

Professor Thunderfoot resolved to create exam questions for next year’s freshmen using reagents that could never be found on the market.

“Wodanaz, do you have any magic you’d recommend for checking the effects?” Bartrec spoke to Lee Han. Bartrec is more expressive and worried.

As skilled in alchemy as he was, he seemed to be checking the potions for the other White Tiger Tower students.

“Originally, you should drink it and then take a magical hit, but if you can’t do that, you have to stimulate the five senses.” You could check if the potion worked by using loud noises, strong smells, or spicy tastes.

Hearing that, Bartrec fell into thought.

“Stimulation…”

“Here’s an onion. How about this?”

“That might be a good idea.”

“Did you drink the potion? Try it.” Lee Han fed Bartrec a piece of onion.

Bartrec frowned.

“This one’s made wrong.”

“Oh dear. Try the next potion. Did you drink it? Here.”

“Ugh.”

Bartrec drank the potion, ate the onion, drank the next potion, and ate the onion again. Before he knew it, tears welled up in Bartrec’s eyes.

“Bartrec! I’ve made another one!”

“…Th-this one seems to be working. The onion isn’t spicy.”

“Really?!”

Lee Han, who had been watching from the side, tilted his head and said: “It’s not, though? The color is murky.”

“…Thank you very much, Wodanaz. I almost overlooked it.”

“Don’t mention it.” Lee Han cheered on Bartrec. He found it very admirable that he was helping his tower friends after finishing his own potion. When he helps Bartrec, we could see his inner thoughts about wanting to be a good friend.

“Wodanaz, if you’re done, leave.”

“I was going to filter it more to increase the purity.”

“Full marks. Leave.”

“You didn’t even look, did you?”

“It’ll be full marks. Get out of the way. Yep, full marks.”

“No, but I worked so hard…” Professor Thunderfoot chased Lee Han, who was still lingering, out of the classroom with the ladle he was holding. When Professor Thunderfoot praises him, we could see if he is proud or humble.