Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 584

Lee Han blinked, surprised by Professor Mortoom’s reaction. He quickly straightened his shoulders and said, “I’ve practiced a lot, Professor.”

Professor Mortoom coughed, a dry, rattling sound that seemed to shake his whole body. “So, tell me,” he wheezed, adjusting his spectacles, “what exactly *is* this… creation?”

“An Dark Elemental Skeleton Warrior,” Lee Han replied, keeping his voice steady.

Professor Mortoom coughed again, harder this time, his face turning slightly red. “And this… skeleton warrior…” He paused, catching his breath. “…it can…”

“Dance,” Lee Han finished. “Summoned with ancient necromancy.”

“Dance?” Professor Mortoom’s eyes widened behind his thick glasses. He seemed to forget all about his coughing fit. “A skeleton dancer? That *is* rather intriguing!”

To create a skeleton dancer using ancient necromancy, a dark wizard needed to give detailed commands directly.

Professor Mortoom wondered how much talent and effort Lee Han had put into it.

“Oh dear, I forgot something. Still, it won’t work.”

“Why ever not?”

Professor Mortoom coughed. “If Raphaelle sees your undead summon, he’ll be intimidated and disappointed.”

“……”

Lee Han couldn’t argue with such a reasonable point.

Raphaelle loved dark magic so much. It would be wrong to discourage him.

Considering the future of the Dark Arts school, with its small number of students, it was right to be considerate of students like Raphaelle, who had persevered to the end of the year.

“And you’re already getting full marks anyway. Cough. Now, go and prepare for the next exam.”

Lee Han walked out of the Dark Arts Hall, feeling a little empty. ‘Can exams even be like this?’

Lee Han sighed and walked towards the summoning magic hall. He had another exam to take.

A hush fell over the lecture hall. Students fidgeted in their seats, their eyes darting around. The air felt thick with anticipation, like before a storm.

Salco of the Tutankha family was not one to back down from such competition.

Salco smirked. “Tutankha, that book looks like it’s about to fall apart. Studying hard, were we?”

Nilia shrugged, trying to appear casual. “Enchantment magic has been keeping me busy, you know? Haven’t had much time for summoning.” She hoped her voice didn’t sound too nervous.

Salco’s lie spread quickly.

The students taking summoning magic began to compete over ‘who could take the exam with the most nonchalant attitude.’

“Look at this summoning magic textbook. Doesn’t it look brand new?”

“That’s not the textbook covering this semester’s content, is it?”

“Oh dear. My potion pouch has fallen. It must have been too heavy since I didn’t use any of the ingredients?”

“Looks like you refilled it, though? There’s powder around the opening of the potion pouch.”

A tense standoff.

Everyone glancing around suddenly stopped when they saw a new student at the back.

The basic summoning magic textbook was as clean as if it were brand new.

Who on earth?

“Huh? What’s wrong, everyone?”

Guinan was puzzled by his friends’ gazes.

“…It’s nothing, Guinan. Haha. Looks like you didn’t study.”

“Prince, you should at least study a little.”

“What? No, I did! I studied a lot??”

Guinan was flustered and made excuses, but his friends gave him warm smiles and patted him on the shoulder.

What a reliable fellow!

Lee Han paused at the entrance to the lecture hall, a smile touching his lips. This was a very different atmosphere from the Dark Arts exam. He wondered what was going on.

“Lee Han! These blokes are slandering me, saying I didn’t study…”

Lee Han glanced at Guinan’s book, then at his potion pouch, and said,

“You’re hearing that because you didn’t.”

“Oh, how…?! Is it magic?! Is it magic?!”

Whack!

Guinan, realizing he’d been caught, made excuses.

“I was busy preparing for dark magic!”

Whack!

“?!!”

“What did you answer for the undead creature question earlier?”

“Oh? That? Sand octopus.”

“……”

Lee Han was momentarily taken aback.

He had hit him expecting him to say ‘skeleton’…

“Why a sand octopus, of all things?”

“Because it’s a creature?”

“…That’s true. But a sand octopus has never been found in the undead realm.”

“But just because it hasn’t been found doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It could be discovered someday, couldn’t it?”

“!”

Lee Han was surprised by Guinan’s subtly logical point.

“Well, I suppose you could think of it that way.”

“Ah. So, was I right?”

“No. Not exactly.”

Lee Han began to explain to his friend ‘what inductive reasoning is.’

Guinan listened, then yelled that Lee Han was wrong.

“Take your seats.”

Professor Milly waved her wand as she entered the lecture hall.

The windows closed, and the curtains moved. The chairs, scattered haphazardly, returned to their places, and the students were forced to sit down.

“I’m curious to know how much you’ve all studied.”

“Yes, Professor!”

“Students who *think* they’ve studied enough often find out they haven’t. Confidence is good, but don’t be *too* confident!”

Guinan wore a confident expression upon hearing those words.

Lee Han hit him again.

“As those who have studied this year know, summoning magic fundamentally follows the experiences of our predecessors.”

Professor Milrei started to speak, his voice calm and steady.

Summoning magic is about bringing creatures from other worlds into our world.

Of course, summoning creatures can be dangerous. So, wizards who summon created safety measures to prepare for problems.

One safety measure is Professor Milrei’s magic circle. When students send their souls to other dimensions, they pass through it.

These safety spells included things like ‘soul protection’ to keep the soul safe, ‘soul trace reduction’ to make it harder to follow, and ‘affinity enhancement’ to help connect with the other dimension. There were also spells to keep students on familiar paths in the other dimensions.

But, to truly learn new things, you can’t always stay on the safe path.

The wisdom unknown to wizards always lay beyond those dangerous realms.

‘Ominous,’ Lee Han thought, frowning. Professor Milrei’s words sounded like trouble. Around him, other students from the summoning magic class were writing notes, looking impressed. But Lee Han wasn’t easily tricked by fancy words.

Hadn’t Professor Voladi also spoken of ‘exploring beyond the limits of existing magical combat’ before thoroughly defeating Lee Han?

The words of professors suggesting to go ‘beyond’ rarely ended well.

“So,” Professor Milrei continued, “today’s exam is about turning off the safety measures and exploring the unknown.”

“!”

Students understood what this meant and were shocked. They started to whisper to each other. Then, one student carefully raised their hand.

“Professor, isn’t that too dangerous?”

“Good question,” Professor Milrei replied. “Of course, I won’t leave you completely alone in the unknown. I will keep some control.”

He waved his wand again. Chalk floated to the blackboard and began to draw. It showed a new gate to another dimension, and something was passing through it. Students leaned forward, trying to see.

‘Is that a net?’ one whispered. ‘Or a fishing rod?’ another wondered. ‘Maybe it’s like a golem’s arm?’ The strange shape of the artifact made them curious.

Salco spoke up, sounding like he understood. ‘Ah, I see! We’re not going in ourselves. We’re just sending the artifact in.’

Other students realized what Salco meant. ‘Oh, I get it now!’ one said. ‘Yes, it’s much safer to just send the artifact,’ another agreed.

Professor Milrei looked at the students over his monocle. He seemed annoyed by their eagerness to compete. The students felt awkward and became quiet.

‘This way is definitely safer…’ Lee Han thought. He was lost in thought. Usually, wizards went directly into other dimensions. But this time, they were just pushing the artifact in. It would be harder and less convenient, but much safer. For Lee Han, who had bad experiences in other dimensions, this sounded very good.

“Professor, can we use that in the spirit realm as well?”

“Lee Han, I don’t recommend trying to make deals with spirits this way. They are sensitive creatures. If you try to grab them like this, it won’t go well…”

“Ah, no, Professor! Just asking!” Lee Han said quickly. He felt embarrassed, like his thoughts were read. *How did he know what I was thinking?*

“Now, then…” Professor Milrei glanced at the clock. “You have until the end of the exam to find and bring back mysterious creatures from other dimensions.”

Before he even finished his sentence, students jumped up, grabbed an artifact each, and hurried back to their tables.

The magic circles on their tables, prepared by Professor Milrei, were glowing.

‘This time, I’ll show them!’ Lee Han thought. He was more determined than ever. He was tired of the professors ignoring him. He would use everything he knew to impress them!

“Yes, yes, thank you,” Nilia whispered back, nodding as she listened to the spirit. While most students were just pushing the artifacts into dimensions without thinking, clever students were trying to get information first. Nilia, who was good with spirits, was getting help from them.

Even without direct information, spirits could roughly confirm things through their own networks.

‘Stone, tell me, above or below?’ A student was using simple magic to see the future.

‘Ugh, I can’t see anything! It’s breaking up as it goes through!’ Another student quickly added magic to his artifact to try and get a better view.

‘Go in. Yes. Wait… um, it broke. Next! Go in.’ One student was lining up skeleton warriors and pushing them into the magic circle, one after another.

The students next to Lee Han stared, eyes wide. They completely forgot about their own exams. *What was he doing?* It was shocking. Even if they were summoned creatures, could he just use them like they were nothing?

‘Um, yes. Maybe a little more to the right?’ The sparrow spirit and the squirrel spirit whispered advice to Lee Han, perched on his shoulders. Meanwhile, all the skeleton warriors he’d sent in were gone. Lee Han reached into his pouch and pulled out more bone powder. ‘Again, rise…’

‘Whoa, Wodanaz!’ one student exclaimed. ‘Won’t the creatures you summoned get angry if you do that?’ ‘My skeletons are fine,’ Lee Han replied. ‘They’re not really from other dimensions. They’re more like magical dolls made from my magic.’ He explained, ‘It’s okay to treat them like this. They’re different from other summoned creatures.’ The other students were surprised by this.

‘Wait, no!’ Nilia said quickly, stepping in to help her friend. ‘Wodanaz’s skeletons are different!’ She explained, ‘He didn’t make a contract with them. He summoned them directly!’

‘Oh, really? You can do that with dark magic?’ one student asked, surprised. ‘I almost got the wrong idea,’ another admitted. Nilia’s explanation made her friends understand, and they nodded. They had almost misunderstood Wodanaz.

Then, Lee Han summoned a *real* skeleton warrior, Gonadaltez. ‘Gonadaltez,’ he said to it, ‘I think I found a safe area. Can you go in and lead the other skeletons?’ Seeing this, his friends smiled at Nilia. ‘He just named a skeleton he put together, right?’ one whispered. ‘If you hadn’t told us, we would have thought he was really talking to it!’ another chuckled. ‘…Y-yes!’ Nilia stammered, ‘Just a skeleton he put together!’