Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 115

Pahite’s illusion magic was known to be especially challenging, even for experienced magic users.

Unlike basic illusions, Pahite’s magic included heat. This made it much more complicated and dangerous to control.

Even the simplest spell, ‘Pahite’s Lesser Illusion,’ could change the temperature to match the illusion – a fire illusion might feel warm, for instance. But the more powerful spells could create illusions that were truly dangerous, able to attack anyone who got too close.

‘Keep calm.’

The senior realized the ugliness of his actions and pulled himself together.

Just because someone was a freshman didn’t mean they had to fail at magic. It was possible that the magic suited them by sheer luck.

“You seem to have a real talent for fire magic. Let me guess – you impressed Professor Garcia in class, didn’t you?”

“The professor forbade fire elemental magic, though.”

“……”

The senior was speechless.

Talent or not, what on earth had he done to get fire elemental magic forbidden?

A strange feeling crept over the senior. ‘Just what is this kid?’ he wondered.

Time was precious. With the threat of walking armour or the mysterious storekeeper still looming, they hurried towards the kitchen. The senior, still clutching his paper and quill, gestured them onward. They reached a heavy wooden door, carved with a whimsical teapot. With a loud groan, it creaked open, revealing a dimly lit room.

“Here we are,” the senior announced, stepping inside. “The underground kitchen, nicknamed the ‘Teapot’. Thankfully, it’s easier to get to than some of the others in this place.” He paused, then sighed dramatically. “Though, sadly,” he added, his voice dropping to a mournful tone, “it seems to be missing one crucial ingredient… alcohol.”

‘Is alcohol that important?’

Contrary to Lee Han’s thought that he was wondering about such a thing, the Black Tortoise Tower students were very disappointed.

“No alcohol…”

“That’s such a shame.”

“Is it even okay for a kitchen not to have alcohol?”

Lee Han was dumbfounded by the strong desire for alcohol his friends were showing.

‘What are they…?’

Did they come to learn or to drink?

While the Black Tortoise Tower students were rummaging through the kitchen, filled with lingering regrets about the lack of alcohol, the senior called Lee Han.

He had shown an ugly side earlier with >Pahite’s Lesser Illusion>, but now was the time to show a more senior-like demeanour.

How touching would the school’s hidden places be to the naked and hungry freshmen who knew nothing?

The senior beckoned Lee Han closer with a sly grin. ‘Come on,’ he whispered, ‘Follow me. And try not to scream, alright?’

“?”

“Open that cupboard.”

At the senior’s words, Lee Han opened the cupboard with a puzzled expression.

‘Is there a trap or something?’

Lee Han’s eyes widened as he took in the sight. Rows and rows of sausages hung from the ceiling – plump, glistening sausages, some dark and smoked, others pale and salted. His stomach rumbled.

“Oh. Thank you.”

“……”

The senior was flustered.

Normally, freshmen would be overjoyed to find something like this.

He himself had been overjoyed when he had accidentally obtained a sausage in the professor’s lab in his first year.

He hadn’t even used a fork or knife. He had roughly sliced it with a pocket knife and devoured it. He could still remember the taste of that sausage.

But now, this freshman boy was showing a relaxed demeanour, even commenting, ‘It’s quite well made.’

No matter how he looked at it, it wasn’t the kind of behaviour a freshman would show.

What on earth…?

“Wodanaz. I’ve found the necessary ingredients. Could you come and help?”

“Alright. I understand.”

The Black Tortoise Tower students lit a fire under the cauldron and gathered the ingredients.

The senior watched them, puzzled. ‘What exactly are you doing?’ he asked, his brow furrowed.

“I’m trying to make a nutritious meal for my friend.”

“Not a bad idea.”

The senior nodded.

The magic school was too harsh a place to just eat what they gave you. This was especially true for freshmen.

To survive, you had to take care of yourself.

“…Wait a minute. Just a minute.”

“?”

The senior watched them for a moment longer, then his eyes widened in alarm. ‘Wait a minute,’ he said, stepping forward. ‘That’s not just cooking, is it?’

The senior was startled and tried to stop them.

The atmosphere was different from ordinary cooking.

The ingredients in the cauldron were causing a chemical reaction, emitting a unique magical power.

This was a kind of alchemy.

Moreover, looking at what they had prepared, it was clear that the process was not simple.

‘I think I’ll need a magic spell too…’

“It’s not a difficulty level a freshman can handle. Make them stop!”

‘Is that so?’

Lee Han turned to Salco. ‘Tutankha, he says this isn’t just cooking, it’s alchemy, and really hard. Is that right?’

“It is.”

Salco nodded readily.

Lee Han was slightly relieved at the sight.

‘Seeing him act like that, it seems like he has something to believe in.’

Salco was not someone who would do reckless things. He wouldn’t have started this if he wasn’t sure.

“Seeing that you prepared this knowing that, it seems you have confidence.”

“That’s right.”

And Salco handed Lee Han a scroll. Lee Han paused.

“…?”

“Here, this is my family’s secret recipe, which I have recorded in as much detail as possible. I’m sure you can do it.”

“……”

Lee Han was dumbfounded.

Salco, trusting and handing over his family’s secret recipe, was dumbfounded, but more than that…

So, the thing that the Black Tortoise Tower students believed in was Lee Han?

Lee Han sighed inwardly. *These guys are really overestimating me*, he thought.

The rumours about black magic had already spread too far to be reversed, but wasn’t this a completely different area?

“Well, I’m not exactly an expert at alchemy…” Lee Han began hesitantly.

“Priestess Siana praised you so much. If a priestess of the Plamen Order praised you, there’s no lie.”

“Wodanaz. You don’t have to be humble in front of us.”

The Black Tortoise Tower students spoke as if to say, ‘What are you talking about?’

Lee Han seriously considered whether he should be less flattering to others in the future.

‘Hmm. But I don’t think I can’t make it.’

First, Lee Han read the secret recipe of the Tutankha family.

There were a lot of picky ingredients, but it wasn’t a difficulty level he couldn’t handle.

He had done much more difficult experiments several times, so there was no reason to be afraid of this much.

“It’s not a difficulty level a freshman can handle.”

Next to Lee Han, a senior student hunched over a piece of parchment, writing quickly with a quill. Lee Han looked at the complicated recipe and said calmly, “I think I can do this.”

*You’ll regret saying that,* the senior student thought to himself, pressing harder on his quill. He secretly wished this arrogant freshman would mess up the alchemy badly. He imagined the bubbling liquid exploding from the cauldron and splashing all over the boy.

*Isn’t figuring out what you can’t do part of being a first-year?* he grumbled in his mind.

The liquid in the cauldron turned golden, the bubbles gradually diminishing and settling smoothly.

The Black Tortoise Tower students gasped.

“As expected…” Salco nodded as if he knew it all along.

“Thank you, Wodanaz. I was sure you could do it.”

Lee Han felt awkward at the Black Tortoise Tower students’ faith in him, which exceeded his own, but he didn’t show it.

At least it turned out well!

Of course, unlike the warm atmosphere among the freshmen, the senior student watching from the side was so dumbfounded that he was speechless.

*You’re not a freshman, are you?? Tell me. What year are you in??*

“I am a freshman, senior.”

*There’s no such thing as a freshman like you!*

Ordinary freshmen didn’t master >Pahite’s Lesser Illusion> in one go. Ordinary freshmen would have been drooling over the food by now.

Moreover, he didn’t show a single mistake while performing the complex alchemy process.

“Wodanaz is indeed a freshman, senior.”

“That’s right. Why are you picking on Wodanaz?” The Black Tortoise Tower students began to eye the senior student, whose face they couldn’t even see, with suspicion.

Saying Wodanaz couldn’t do something he clearly could… Is he deliberately trying to interfere?

The senior student couldn’t possibly miss their gazes. He was speechless with indignation.

To be falsely accused like this!

“So, Tutanta, is it done?”

“Yes. This is our family’s secret recipe, the Beer Candy.”

“???” Lee Han doubted his ears for a moment.

However, despite its playful name, the Beer Candy made with the Tutanta family’s secret recipe was a rather serious nutritional and preservative food.

It could be stored at room temperature for months, and eating a Beer Candy the size of two fingers would provide two days’ worth of nutrients.

“Try it, Wodanaz.”

Lee Han carefully put the reduced Beer Candy in his mouth. The sweet and soft taste was slightly reminiscent of 엿(Korean taffy).

Salco said with a proud expression, “You can feel your magic power recovering, right?”

“…Y-yes.” Lee Han recalled the last time he drank a magic potion and managed his expression.

“But why is it called Beer Candy?”

“My family made it up when they ran out of beer in a mine. Silly name, right?”

“I see…” Lee Han, having heard a truly useless origin story, nodded vaguely, cut the Beer Candy, wrapped it in paper, and put it in his pocket.

Now that he had made the dish he wanted, it was time to take whatever was good to take from the kitchen and return.

‘Where was that sausage earlier?’

-Big trouble!!!

The senior student wrote urgently with his quill. He was in such a hurry that the last word wasn’t even finished properly.

“What is it?”

“-The storekeeper is coming! Hide in the corner!”

The senior student waved his hand, and the air shimmered. A wave of heat rose, blurring the messy kitchen and making it look neat and tidy.

“Can we fool the storekeeper with this?”

“-I… I really don’t know if it will work! Just be quiet and don’t move!”

The senior student’s tension was transmitted to the other students.

Lee Han and the Black Tortoise Tower students watched the kitchen door with stiff faces.

“…?”

However, the storekeeper walking down the hallway did not open the door. Lee Han felt the storekeeper casting a spell outside the door.

“He’s using magic!”

“-Magic… Wait. How did you know?” The senior student was flustered while writing with his quill.

He had floated a clairvoyance summoning into the hallway to see who was coming first, but the freshman had nothing of the sort. How did he know?

“Didn’t he use magic because magic power moved?”

“-You can sense that from here? No. That’s not important right now. It seems the storekeeper is determined.”

The senior student looked at the hallway and was taken aback.

The storekeeper, who would normally just pass by, was casting magic on each door, as if something had changed in his mind.

That magic is… ‘Space magic!’ The senior student’s complexion turned ashen. Other types of magic were one thing, but space magic was several times more difficult to break.

Magic that was notorious for being the most difficult among all magic.

To cast such magic on the doors… ‘Why is he doing this! Is he crazy!’ Shouldn’t he just patrol as usual and go rest if there’s nothing unusual?

He couldn’t understand why he was suddenly casting space magic on every single door today.

After the storekeeper disappeared, the senior student opened the door and tried to go out of the kitchen. And then immediately returned to the kitchen.

From inside, the senior student could see the door open and the hallway beyond. But to Lee Han and the others, it seemed like the door opened normally, and then closed again right away.

“What are you doing?”

“-…You’ll know if you try it yourself.”

The freshmen went out and came right back in. They stared at the door with the same dumbfounded expression as the senior student.

“-He twisted the space of the door. It’s the storekeeper’s magic.”

“Do you have a way to solve it, senior?”

“-No. We’re doomed.”

At the senior student’s writing, Lee Han nodded as if there was nothing he could do and said, “I guess we’ll end up in the disciplinary room after all.”

“Sorry, Wodanaz. It’s all because of us.”

“It’s okay. It was something I was prepared for from the start. Remember what you said you would do for me later. Even though we didn’t steal, it’s still better to hide, just to be safe.”

“-……” The senior student was astonished at Lee Han’s expression, which didn’t change even though he was about to enter the disciplinary room.

What is this…?

“-Actually… there is a way.”

“Oh. Is that so?” Lee Han could not help but think, *This senior is making a big deal out of nothing.*

The senior student was seriously curious about what kind of situation this freshman boy would have to face to be flustered.