Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1161

Saratan still made Lee Han uneasy, so he looked at his friends.

“Aren’t you even a little curious about what kind of magic it is?”

Catton’s ears perked up at Lee Han’s question.

He had remained silent, not wanting to interfere with his juniors’ exploration as a senior student. But among all the students, this fifth-year student had the greatest passion for magic.

Whether they could learn it or not, they just wanted to know what kind of magic it was.

“I’m a l…”

“Not at all.”

“I’m really not interested at all. Not even as much as a short mystery novel by Gainando.”

“You should focus on learning. There are many difficult spells, so adding one more won’t even make a difference.”

Catton, who was about to say he was a little interested, lowered his head, disappointed.

Giselle, who was watching from the side, felt uneasy for no reason.

‘These guys… have no tact…!’

“The last one who spoke, step forward.”

“Heh. I thought I wouldn’t get caught.”

Bartrek was pushed out with a look of dismay.

He thought they would just move on, but as expected, Wodanaz was firm.

Lee Han, having scolded his friend, continued to lecture the other students.

The indifference they had just shown had provoked Lee Han.

“Even so, how can you not be interested in the magic in these ruins? Are you even Einroguard students?”

“Then tell us…”

“I can’t tell you yet because I’m not sure.”

The White Tiger Tower students cursed Lee Han with their eyes.

Isn’t that too much?

“Moradi, shouldn’t we go up and call the professor now? Or even Zicklin…”

“Stop with the nonsense. Even if my sister came down, she wouldn’t take your side,”

Giselle replied coldly. Her cold answer made her friends panic and ask back.

“We come from families known for their warriors… and there are even several from the North?”

Most of the families known for their warriors of the Empire were related to each other and inevitably close, especially more so than the Wodanaz family, which was a family of wizards.

“She wouldn’t take your side.”

“We’ve even met Zicklin?”

“Yeah. She wouldn’t take your side.”

“Is it perhaps because of the agreement between the powerful Northern Moradi family and the Wodanaz family you mentioned last time?”

“Amazing. To make such a decision, risking the unification of political enemies in the current imperial political system composed of loyalists, nobles, and neutrals. Especially since the western nobles will react even more sensitively. They have a strong sense of rivalry towards the North.”

“Moradi, don’t worry. Some of us are from the West, but as fellow Einroguard students, we will support this agreement. Trust your friends.”

Giselle quietly raised her scabbard and began to beat her friends.

“Ack! Aargh!”

Catton looked at his junior with renewed eyes.

He had always shown such a polite demeanor that he wondered if he lacked the qualities of a swordsman, but seeing him now, he realized he was mistaken.

‘A swordsman should be like that. Truly worthy of being Zicklin’s younger sibling.’

Outside, Professor Garcia groaned. Professor Kirmin spoke with pity at the sight.

“Professor Kim, why didn’t you just go with them if you were going to be like that?”

“Someone deceived me into trusting and entrusting my students to them. They must be masters of illusion magic.”

“…I’m sorry.”

At Professor Kirmin’s apology, Professor Garcia regained his senses and shook his head.

“No. I’m the one who should be sorry. We decided together.”

Professor Kirmin’s sincere advice in Marheim City had certainly struck a chord with Professor Garcia.

-Wodanaz is already skilled enough to mingle with the fourth-year students without feeling out of place, and is eager enough to be the first to subdue the evil god worshippers. Rather than unconditionally protecting and watching over them, it might be better to guarantee their freedom to act on their own and wait for their growth.

Of course, as soon as he heard that advice, he tried to send the other party back to Einroguard, but as time passed, a bright person like Professor Garcia could not deny that the advice made sense.

In fact, didn’t Lee Han and his friends ultimately solve the Marheim City incident?

So, for this ruin exploration, the two professors only assigned Catton and did not provide any other interference or accompaniment.

If the students could solve it on their own, there was no reason for the professors to accompany them.

Even if it was the same achievement of exploring ruins, the feeling was completely different when a professor led the exploration versus when the students solved it on their own. The former was ordinary and expected, but the latter was surprising and amazing.

“If you’re so worried, I’ll go down and take a look.”

Zicklin suddenly spoke, and the two wizards were so taken aback that they couldn’t even answer.

The Death Knights were staring intently, as if they were just as shocked.

‘She wants to go down to gain the reputation of the students solving it themselves, but what is she going to do by going down?’

If it had been a knight from another family who had just said that, the Death Knights here would have immediately suspected them.

As they were also from knight backgrounds, the Death Knights knew very well how dishonorable knights could become in the face of ambition.

Were they suddenly jealous because the Einroguard wizards were going down to the ruins, or were they trying to steal the credit, and so on.

Fortunately, however, the Death Knights knew very well what kind of knight Zicklin was.

As a genius who had proudly made a name for himself among the Empire’s renowned swordsmen even at such a young age, it was only natural.

Born with the same talent as Catton, the swordsmanship genius that the Death Knights admired, and with even more experience…

These picky Death Knights were even considering accepting Zicklin into the Death Knights after his death.

‘She must be acting like that because she wants to move with her younger sibling.’

-It’s the students’ contribution, what would it be if you went down, Sir.

“Ah. Is that so. I hadn’t thought of that. …Then how about I disguise myself as Giselle? The credit I earn will become Giselle’s credit.”

Professor Garcia gaped in disbelief. His eyes were already saying, ‘Are you even saying that seriously?’

The Death Knights, their black armour gleaming in the dim light, sighed deeply, as if they had heard this argument many times before.

“Then what about Giselle’s reputation?” one of them repeated. “What about her pride as a knight?”

“Indeed…” another murmured.

Zicklin frowned, lost in thought.

He realized he had been so focused on protecting Giselle, like a brother would, that he almost forgot she was a proud knight. He didn’t want to damage her honour.

“Then how about disguising ourselves as Wodanaz?” Zicklin suggested slowly.

“Zicklin,” one Death Knight said, his voice low and firm. “Go and check around. See if anyone suspicious is nearby.”

The Death Knights coldly dismissed Zicklin.

Zicklin was stubborn and inflexible, they knew leaving him alone would only lead to more trouble.

Only after Zicklin retreated did the Death Knights finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“…It would have been dangerous if the heir had heard,” one said.

“He would have definitely agreed,” another replied.

Since the heir wasn’t from a knightly family and didn’t care about such tactics or tricks, he would have likely permitted it without hesitation. Someone with strong pride in such matters wouldn’t even create a name like Stedal Nago.

Ibinta mumbled that she hadn’t heard anything just now, shaking her head.

Garko, his beard half-burned and his hat and cloak missing, regenerated his half-blown-off arm with a magic scroll and greeted the adventurers. “Phew. Thank you all for your hard work.”

“W-what on earth was that thing?” one of the adventurers stammered.

The guardian of the ruins was a chimera unlike any they had ever seen. It had six legs, like a giant insect, and a long tail that whipped around like a dangerous snake. It wasn’t like the monster Bokabat. When it opened its mouth, it let out a terrible screaming sound that felt like a curse. If you didn’t block it properly, your body would stiffen as if turned to stone.

Then, it would stick the sharp stinger on the end of its tail into its opponent and immediately absorb all their life force. It was a powerful and threatening attack that occurred almost at the same time as the ultrasonic scream.

If there had only been adventurers, they would never have been able to win. Even if they had escaped, about half of them would have died.

But fortunately, Garko was an outstanding wizard. Even though a chimera he had never seen before appeared, Garko didn’t panic.

He immediately swelled his body up like a flesh golem to about five times its size, and then divided it to create clones. This clone magic was one of Garko’s specialties, and it was made of real flesh and blood. The ruin guardian chimera couldn’t tell the difference and ate one of them.

“Cover your ears and prepare for the cursed sound!” Garko shouted. “Also, be careful of its tail!”

“Let’s, let’s retreat! Wizard! Such a threatening monster,” one adventurer cried.

“No,” Garko said firmly. “We have to defeat it to find clues.”

Garko was determined to find clues in order to go further down. That chimera was a dangerous element, but it could also be a clue.

Garko acted fast. With a wave of his hand, the stone floor turned into thick, sucking mud, and the chimera sank down, roaring in surprise. Then, with another gesture, the mud burst into flames, turning into bubbling lava stone that burned the monster’s flesh. The chimera shrieked in pain and rage.

The enraged chimera abandoned the other clones and focused solely on Garko. Ultrasonic waves were fired out relentlessly.

However, Garko had already transformed into a bird-of-paradise. The bird-of-paradise, immune to these sonic attacks, lightly broke through the opponent’s attack and flew, embedding its claws into its shoulder.

Those claws were no ordinary claws. The moment they touched, they turned into dozens of venomous snakes, poisoning the opponent. The poison used by a skilled transformation wizard was never ordinary. The poison that had penetrated the body was constantly changing, trying to tear the chimera apart from the inside.

The extremely enraged chimera tried to bite Garko as a last resort. No matter how rampant the poison was, it still had the strength to launch this much of an attack.

But surprisingly, Garko willingly let the opponent eat one of his arms. And at the same time, he shouted, “Attack!”

The chimera couldn’t move anymore the moment it bit off one of his arms. Garko had clearly done something magical to his arm.

The adventurers watched the fight with wide eyes, too scared to move. The chimera was terrifying, and Garko’s magic was so fast and powerful they could barely follow it. For a moment, they just stood frozen, then, remembering their duty, they finally raised their weapons, ready to attack.

That’s how they barely defeated the enemy, but… the adventurers were completely fed up.

Wouldn’t it be better to retreat from the ruins where such dangerous guardians appear and investigate again later?

Without knowing the adventurers’ feelings, Garko kindly explained. “It’s not a typical ruin guardian, but it seems to have been contaminated through some route. It’s likely due to the evil god worshippers.”

The chimera that had just appeared had a roughly similar appearance to the guardian monsters that he had seen several times in other ruins, which were commonly used in ancient times, but its characteristics were very different. It was likely contaminated by contact with evil magic or power.

“Evil god worshippers? W-why their name? Did they come in here?” an adventurer asked, his voice trembling.

“Oh dear. That’s not what I meant. Didn’t you say that the North is ominous these days?” Garko replied.

A region being ominous had various meanings: disasters, the rise of evil god worshippers, the magic of the region being contaminated or violently fluctuating… all of these things could be a possibility for the chimera in the ruins hidden underground to be contaminated.

Even if the evil god worshippers didn’t come in here, this could still happen.

“‘That’s even more terrible!’ one of the adventurers thought. It would have sounded better if the evil god worshippers had come in first.

“I, I see,” the adventurer mumbled.

“We need to track the direction this chimera came from. We need clues to go down below,” Garko stated firmly.

The adventurers wanted to cry at Garko’s firm will. They wanted to leave this wizard behind and run away on their own, but they weren’t irresponsible mercenaries. They were adventurers who had built up some reputation. Since they had promised to escort the client, they had to go with him, even if it was a very dangerous place!

‘From now on, no matter how decent and reputable a wizard is, I’ll check more thoroughly,’ one thought. ‘What check? I shouldn’t receive it at all,’ another grumbled to himself.

“I-isn’t there another way to get clues?” one adventurer asked, trying to sound hopeful.

“No,” Garko replied simply.

“There might be someone wandering around upstairs who has information,” another suggested.

“If that were the case, they would have found the passage and come down,” Garko said.

Garko didn’t lose his dignified gentleman’s appearance, but he didn’t easily fall for the adventurers’ words either. Wizards originally couldn’t be swayed by any words unless they were convinced themselves.

“Oh. There’s someone who came first?” an adventurer whispered.

“We came in a bit late. Let’s not approach too closely and cause misunderstandings, let’s just pass by,” Garko instructed.

“…?!!!”