Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 897

‘Still, it wasn’t a meaningless request.’

For now, the most dangerous person regarding the Brainwave was Professor Volardi.

Of course, Professor Onramo, who teaches Transformation magic, could also become dangerous. But Professor Onramo was not someone who pushed students too hard.

It was fortunate that Professor Volardi had said he would forget about it…

‘Looks like I’ve put out the immediate fire.’

“To awaken such magic and then ask to have it forgotten as if unseen? I simply cannot understand it. I may not be a wizard, but shouldn’t one strike while the iron is hot?”

“I agree. To throw away an opportunity that comes along once in ten thousand tries, it’s arrogant, even for the top student! Opportunities are precious.”

The knights, who had been listening to the conversation, murmured from behind.

Even to those who didn’t know magic, Leehan’s actions seemed like tossing away a stroke of good luck.

Whatever the reason, if he had succeeded in such powerful high-level magic, he should be grateful for the opportunity and throw himself into it wholeheartedly. Only then would he not forget it and make it his own.

Of course, from Leehan’s perspective, who was already working on half a dozen high-level spells similar to Brainwave, it was just annoying noise.

Once in ten thousand tries? That’s nonsense!

Such opportunities came along every now and then just by attending lectures.

According to the knights’ logic, Leehan would have mastered about ten 5-circle spells by now.

‘Once in ten thousand tries? That’s ridiculous. No wonder wizards dislike knights.’

When Leehan first entered Einroguard, he had thought, ‘I must learn magic calmly and coolly and not adopt the irrational hatred of knights,’ but after dealing with the White Tiger Tower friends and external knights, hatred naturally accumulated.

“Wait, wait. Everyone calm down. Wodanaz has his reasons.”

Professor Inguldel, noticing the glint of hatred in Leehan’s eyes, stopped his friends.

“What reasons?”

“He is already practicing several spells of a similar level, so he can’t learn it right away.”

“Professor Inguldel. Even if he is your student, such ridiculous lies are a bit much…”

Professor Inguldel, feeling wronged, almost swung his sword for a moment.

If the students of Einroguard built their own information networks to prepare for exams, the professors of Einroguard tried to trick them.

Professor Thunderstride of this year was one such professor.

Green light danced from the old lamp Professor Thunderstride held, making long, strange shadows jump on the walls of his cluttered office. Dust motes floated in the magical light.

“Heh heh heh.”

‘He’s my nephew, but he’s truly pathetic.’ Professor Lightningstride thought to himself, watching Professor Thunderstride smile slyly.

“Do you have to deceive the students to that extent?”

“Deceive? What nonsense are you talking about?”

Professor Thunderstride bristled at his elder’s words.

This was something that every Einroguard professor had to do.

If they didn’t occasionally poke at the students’ weaknesses, they would become arrogant and complacent.

“Professor Kim doesn’t seem to do such things…”

“Professor Kim is too soft. He doesn’t try to trick the students like Professor Thunderstride.”

“Professor Verdus doesn’t seem to do such things either…”

“……”

“That was a slip of the tongue. Not a good example.”

“Thank you.”

Professor Lightningstride apologized for using Professor Verdus as an example.

Come to think of it, Professor Verdus probably had no thoughts about exams.

“Einroguard students are more cunning and petty than you think. Seniors and juniors band together to try and trick the professors!”

Professor Thunderstride, feeling wronged by the criticism, unloaded things he had been holding in.

It was somewhat better during the isolated first year, but the second-year Einroguard students used all sorts of tricks that the professors couldn’t imagine to pass the exams.

Asking seniors to check the records of previous exams or predicting new exams was just a very basic method.

If one prepared carelessly, one could suffer the humiliation of all the students getting perfect scores.

“Couldn’t that happen anyway? Are you going to set traps like this every time then?”

“Even if it’s impossible to do it every time, I have to catch them off guard at least once in a while. That’s how the students stay on their toes.”

If the professor gave off the impression of being unpredictable, the students would naturally be on edge.

That’s why, even if it wasn’t every time, he had to prepare exams that exceeded the students’ expectations like this occasionally.

The trap that Professor Thunderstride had prepared for this exam was Nefertem (Nefertem is a rare magic plant).

By showing the students the carefully cultivated Nefertem, he would induce the illusion that ‘this exam will be related to Nefertem.’

“I’ve prepared it so cleverly that the students won’t even realize it’s a trap.”

A hideout hidden beneath a cliff.

The powerful Aquilaria(沈水香) (Aquilaria is a strong-smelling wood) blocking that hideout.

After breaking through these obstacles and discovering the Nefertem cultivation pond, they wouldn’t suspect it was the professor’s trap.

“Wait. If you hide it so carefully, the students might not be able to find it.”

Professor Lightningstride raised an obvious question.

His nephew’s plan sounded plausible, but if the students couldn’t find it, Professor Thunderstride would just be doing something useless by himself.

“I’ve thought of that too.”

“What is it?”

“Wodanaz is there, isn’t he? He’ll find it somehow.”

‘It’s strangely convincing, which is annoying.’ Professor Lightningstride thought to himself.

His nephew was clearly being stubborn, but it was strangely difficult to refute.

If it was a boy from the Wodanaz family, he really seemed like he could find something like that.

“And Wodanaz won’t hide this fact from his friends. Ha! Students are like toys in his game.”

“Stop with the unlucky alchemist metaphors. Please.”

Professor Lightningstride chided from the side, but Professor Thunderstride ignored him.

To work as a professor at this magic school, you had to know how to find your own enjoyment.

And one of Professor Thunderstride’s joys was this.

“Then is Nefertem not used anywhere else?”

“It will be used. In the place where the performance of the completed exam is tested.”

“The students will love that.”

Even after hearing the sarcastic words, Professor Thunderstride laughed heartily.

No matter what Professor Lightningstride said, it only served to enhance Professor Thunderstride’s enjoyment.

Fwoosh!

The color of the flame emanating from the lamp finally changed to purple. Thunderstride’s Red Sandalwood(紫檀香) (Red Sandalwood is a special scent potion) was complete.

The real test of this >Instead of complex magic, a drop of potion> lecture was not making potions using Nefertem, but rather reversing this Red Sandalwood(紫檀香) into a Disaroma(解香) (Disaroma is a potion to remove scents).

Releasing a scent was a tricky task that even excellent alchemists were prone to making mistakes. With just a slight mistake, the scents would immediately mix and become a mess.

Complete Disaroma was possible only by neutralizing the components of the scent one by one with accurate analysis and meticulous progress.

“Nefertem will now be used to test whether the Disaroma has been done properly or not.”

“You’re really wasting it properly. More than that, isn’t the exam too difficult? Isn’t it a second-year exam?”

As far as Professor Lightningstride knew, his nephew’s Red Sandalwood was quite complex and difficult, even among the secret arts.

Wasn’t the difficulty level too high for a second-year student’s exam?

At those words, Professor Thunderstride showed a hesitant expression for the first time today.

“…This can’t be helped. If I make it easy, Wodanaz will help his other friends and make the exam meaningless.”

“……”

His words sounded plausible, but in the end, it meant that he couldn’t find a suitable difficulty level and just brought a difficult exam.

Professor Thunderstride said defensively at Professor Lightningstride’s reproachful gaze.

“I’ll tell them the content starting this weekend and give them a week. Very generously, that is.”

“I suppose…”

“No. To be honest, how much benefit and comfort have the second-year students enjoyed thanks to Wodanaz? Then they should naturally be able to handle the exam becoming difficult because of Wodanaz!”

‘This guy. Why is he so good at saying things that are hard to refute today?’ Professor Lightningstride was once again overwhelmed by his nephew’s argument.

Considering the benefits that the second-year students had enjoyed, they shouldn’t complain about the exam being a bit difficult.

Wasn’t the difficulty level raised this high because they kept receiving help in the first place? In a way, it was their own fault.

“You’re right. Yes. This level of difficulty might actually be a reasonable consideration when considering the average of the second-year students.”

“Haha! Thank you for understanding.”

“But let me ask just one last thing.”

Professor Lightningstride asked with a serious expression. Professor Thunderstride also became nervous for no reason at his elder’s serious attitude.

‘What is he going to ask?’

“You said you prepared the Nefertem trap because you read Wodanaz’s movements, right?”

“That’s right.”

“The exam difficulty also increased because you read Wodanaz’s movements?”

“You could say that.”

“Then why are you excluding the possibility that Wodanaz will easily solve this exam too?”

At the other’s question, Professor Thunderstride relaxed and laughed heartily.

Perhaps because he wasn’t a professional alchemist, he revealed a side of himself that missed the point in these areas.

“Because that’s impossible!”

“Huh?”

“I know that Wodanaz has powerful magic resistance, of course. Red Sandalwood won’t work either. But this isn’t a resistance test, it’s a Disaroma test. It has nothing to do with resistance. You have to analyze and release it one by one, which requires knowledge and perseverance. It can never be solved easily.”

“Hmm. I’m not as good an alchemist as you, but I’m wise enough not to use the word ‘never.’ There’s no such thing as absolute in magic.”

Professor Thunderstride grumbled as his elder kept nitpicking.

“Of course, there’s no such thing as absolute. If there’s a powerful Disaroma agent, it could be easily solved. Like the elixir I made.”

“Do you have any made?”

“Ha! I’ve even gotten rid of the ones I made.”

Professor Lightningstride made a slightly disgusted expression.

‘Does he have to go that far?’

“What about other Disaroma agents?”

“Well, another rare potion or… it would take a year to make that. A legendary stone? You’d have to bring that out of legends.”

As Professor Thunderstride listed them one by one, Professor Lightningstride had no choice but to admit it.

Honestly, it didn’t seem like there was anything among those that an Einroguard student could obtain within a week.

“Okay. You’re great. But don’t be too complacent. I may not know potions as well as you, but I’ve seen more people. Wodanaz is a genius like the headmaster.”

“…Is that an insult?”

“Damn it. I said it, but it does sound a bit like an insult.”

“Leehan. What are you doing?”

“Oh. I’m writing promotional phrases for the lectures so that Caton senior can receive more students next semester.”

“…You know our exam is next week, right?”

Leehan burst out in anger, “I know, okay?”

Leehan knew about the exam too.

But what could he do? Professor Inguldel’s teachings hadn’t been very helpful to Caton senior.

He should just fill it with plausible phrases and finish it.

“Ugh… Professor Thunderstride is crazy!!”

“What?”

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

Everyone buzzed as a friend taking the alchemy lecture rushed into the lounge with a pale face.

“The midterm exam is out!”

“Isn’t it a bit much to say he’s crazy just because it came out in advance on the weekend?”

“Nefertem isn’t in it at all! I only prepared for that!”

“That crazy professor!”

The students immediately burst into curses.

What were they supposed to do if he gave an exam that was different from what he had announced (though he hadn’t actually announced it)?

Leehan stared, surprised. What was this new exam about?