Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 157

A loud WHACK! echoed in the darkness. Gainando crumpled to the ground, unconscious. A monster attack – and he hadn’t even seen it coming.

‘I didn’t notice at all.’

It was dark, but he should have noticed something. How could a monster get so close without him seeing?

It was clear the creature could hide itself well.

“Light, be!” Lee Han said.

Balls of light appeared around him as he turned invisible.

“Heat, distort the air!”

He didn’t stop there.

An illusion took Lee Han’s place as he turned invisible.

“Sharkan, attack if an enemy approaches!”

With a growl, Sharkan ran forward, barking into the darkness.

‘It’s over there!’

Lee Han quickly made another ball of light. The darkness went away fast.

He could see the monster a little. It looked like shadows stuck together like clay.

The shadow monster jumped back from the light. It seemed scared. It slipped back into the darkness, and its shape disappeared completely.

‘It doesn’t seem like a normal monster.’

Lee Han stared where the shadow monster had gone, thinking hard.

Unlike normal monsters, this shadow monster felt like it had no life in it. It was like someone had made it.

And this was a magic school.

The problem was that too many people could make something like that.

‘First, I need to stop it!’

“Burn!”

Lee Han knew what the monster was, so he decided to attack it harder.

If it was scared of light, it would probably be scared of fire too.

Whoosh!

Flames appeared, but the shadow monster easily moved away, as if making fun of him.

It wasn’t scared of the light anymore, and it was calm again.

Making light and fire was good, but it was still night.

There was plenty of darkness to hide in.

But the shadow monster didn’t know how strong Lee Han was.

“Burn.”

-?

“Burn, burn, burn, burn…”

-!

The shadow monster should have run away right away instead of circling around when it moved away.

Lee Han quickly made many flames around himself.

Whoosh!

A fire net was quickly made.

Before the shadow monster could get away, it was surrounded by flames from everywhere.

The monster couldn’t dodge or hide because there was too much magic power!

The shadow monster was trapped in the remaining darkness. It held its breath, watching carefully.

Sharkan growled, telling it to come out.

“Got it.”

The shadow monster didn’t want to come out of the darkness.

Instead, it waited for the flames to go out.

It thought that Lee Han was young, so the flames wouldn’t last long.

-…???

But the flames didn’t stop.

Lee Han had been waiting. He spoke in a cold voice.

“If you don’t come out, I’ll burn you and the darkness. Three. Two. One…”

He wasn’t scared of the shadow monster. He was just waiting with flames because he wasn’t good at fire magic.

The shadow monster heard Lee Han’s voice and got scared. It crawled out.

Tap tap tap tap tap-

” ?”

Someone was walking in the distance.

Lee Han turned his head. He saw someone he knew running towards him from the dark. It was the caretaker of the magic school’s storage.

-These are the monsters I’ve made for this festival. What do you think?

-There are many of them.

-…You’re no fun. You must take care of these monsters.

The headmaster said this to the caretaker in a serious voice.

These monsters were for the festival. They weren’t just to be used once or twice and thrown away.

They were like chess pieces that would make the headmaster’s plan perfect.

-I will do my best.

But the headmaster had made too many monsters for the caretaker to take care of alone.

Also, the monsters didn’t listen well.

-Stay still, do not move.

Thud! Thud!

The headmaster had told the monsters to find and attack students with outing passes. They tried to break out of their cages.

The caretaker tried his best to take care of them, but something happened.

Some cages broke, and the monsters got out.

The caretaker didn’t panic.

He calmly caught the ones nearby and locked them up. Then he went to find the ones that had escaped.

“!”

The caretaker stopped. He felt a lot of magic power in the distance.

He couldn’t see, but he could feel magic well. But even with that, he couldn’t feel all of the magic power.

Normally, he would have asked, ‘Is that you, Headmaster?’ but the headmaster had already scolded him.

“Is that you, Headmaster, or a student?”

Lee Han thought quickly. *Headmaster here? No, that’s too risky. But lying might be worse.* He decided to be careful. “I’m a student,” he said, trying to sound calm.

“Is that so.”

The caretaker didn’t attack Lee Han, like he was saying, ‘You tricked me last time!’

Instead, he looked at the shadow monster that Lee Han had surrounded with flames.

Lee Han couldn’t see his eyes, but he felt like the caretaker was curious.

“Did you capture it by setting fires around it?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t it try to get away?”

“I didn’t give it a chance to escape. I set them up all around.”

Sharkan growled proudly.

The caretaker was surprised by Lee Han’s words.

If he was telling the truth, he had quickly set up the flames without letting the shadow monster escape.

All those flames, like that?

Even if someone was good at fire magic, it would be hard for a freshman to do that.

“You’re going to be a great wizard, you know.”

“Thank you.”

“Then, can I take the monster?”

“…Is it one that escaped without the Headmaster’s knowledge?”

Lee Han was smarter than the caretaker thought.

He thought of the headmaster right away when he heard ‘monster,’ ‘caretaker,’ and ‘take away.’

The caretaker didn’t show it, but he was a little surprised.

For a freshman to know so much.

Could it be?

“Did the Headmaster tell you?”

“In a way, you could say that.”

Lee Han didn’t answer directly.

Of course, the headmaster hadn’t told him, but he had guessed it from what the headmaster was doing. So, in a way, the headmaster had told him.

The caretaker didn’t know that a freshman could be so cunning.

“That’s right. It’s one of the escaped ones.”

“Are there still many escaped ones left?”

“Yes, there are.”

……

Lee Han cursed in his mind.

‘This school shouldn’t be allowed to summon anything if they can’t take care of it.’

“Can I help you?”

The caretaker was surprised by Lee Han’s words.

He didn’t think a freshman would say something so good.

Other freshmen might have said no, but he had seen Lee Han stop the shadow monster. He was good enough to help.

Besides, he was like the Headmaster’s student.

There shouldn’t be any problems if they worked together.

“Would you?”

“Yes. It’s my honor to help someone who cares about this magic school.”

“You will truly become a great wizard.”

“Haha. Thank you.”

‘Easy,’ Lee Han thought to himself, a small smirk playing on his lips. *Too easy.*

Dealing with the caretaker was easy after dealing with the headmaster.

The headmaster’s plans had trained Lee Han well.

‘The headmaster definitely has a plan.’

He would help while finding out information.

Lee Han knew that he had to take the chance when he could, or he wouldn’t survive in this magic school.

“Wait a moment. I’ll wake Gainando up before we go.”

“Please do.”

Lee Han made a ball of water and splashed it on Gainando’s face.

“Ugh!”

“Gainando! Are you alright!”

Gainando rubbed his head, looking around wildly. ‘What was that? Did you see it?’ he mumbled, still dazed. “My, my outing pass! Where’s my outing pass?”

“You’re fine. Don’t come out of the tower today.”

Gainando didn’t ask questions.

When Lee Han spoke seriously, Gainando nodded seriously.

“Alright.”

“Okay. Go in carefully.”

“But when I come back, do you want to play a round of cards?”

……

Lee Han caught three more shadow monsters while moving with the caretaker.

The shadow monsters were from a dark world of magic. They were used by black mages.

They were good at hiding, tracking, and ambushing.

‘Just like the headmaster.’

Lee Han kept getting information from the caretaker. He learned about the shadow monsters’ weaknesses.

They were very scared of light and heat, like he already knew.

‘I need to know for sure since I might see them again.’

“So… when these guys are summoned, they’re told to find students with outing passes.”

“That’s right.”

……

‘It’s still crazy even after hearing it again.’

Lee Han was surprised again.

The headmaster gave out outing passes too easily. There was a bad plan hidden.

After the festival, the students would be excited to go out on Saturday morning and move towards the main gate…

They would be attacked at that moment!

‘I’m really glad I found out in advance.’

Lee Han felt relieved.

If he hadn’t known, how would he have been caught?

‘Wait a minute.’

Lee Han felt worried.

‘Let’s think like the headmaster.’

He had made these monsters. Would he only use them to attack students leaving on the weekend and steal their outing passes?

…Wouldn’t he also use them to attack students coming back?

Lee Han spoke to the caretaker calmly, so he wouldn’t notice.

“By the way, where are the monsters waiting when the students return?”

Lee Han spoke like he already knew, so the caretaker didn’t suspect anything.

“They will be waiting near the hill in front of the main gate.”

“If they are late in dealing with the monsters… they could be sent to the punishment room.”

“That’s right.”

“…Come to think of it, isn’t next week the midterm exam?”

“That’s right.”

“If they return on the weekend and get trapped… they won’t be able to study for the midterm exam, which is even better.”

“Indeed. You are worthy of being the Headmaster’s disciple. You will become a great wizard.”

……

Lee Han almost punched the caretaker.

“Why are you so gloomy?”

Thunderfoot was confused by Lee Han’s sad face in front of the alchemy tent.

But Lee Han just sighed.

“That’s why you shouldn’t have listened so much. Here. Here’s a potion to make you feel better.”

Thunderfoot gave him a cup of barley potion with golden bubbles.

The people around him were drinking the barley potion and were happy.

“Professor.”

“Why?”

“If you had to break through a place where someone was waiting to attack, what would you do?”

“…What kind of plan are you plotting?”

Professor Thunderfoot was scared.