Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 219

The friends were confused, but Ethan remained calm.

Ethan was calm because he was thinking clearly, not just feeling.

Without Dergyu, the White Tiger Tower students would never cooperate with me. They would rather make trouble. And in the current situation, making trouble might draw the Rock Drake’s attention.

Yoner looked confused and tilted his head.

But couldn’t we just leave them be…

Let’s go.

……

Ethan used a stronger Invisibility Spell and moved forward.

Yoner followed him with a strange expression.

Everyone, stay put.

Ugh… Ugh!

The White Tiger Tower students looked like they were about to faint from shock.

The White Tiger Tower students were very shocked. Suddenly, students from Blue Dragon Tower appeared like magic!

What? It’s Wodanaz.

One White Tiger student muttered, ‘But we can’t relax yet…’

Ethan made sure to remember the student’s face.

Don’t make a sound. If you do, I’ll attack.

We know that without you saying it, Wodanaz. We are not fools, you know.

Ethan thought about how to tell them to surrender without making them angry. He wanted to say something like, ‘Put down your weapons, you are prisoners now,’ but in a nicer way.

We were looking for you, actually, Wodanaz. Dergyu really asked us to come.

Ethan paused.

Astonishingly, these White Tiger Tower students had come to cooperate!

…

The Blue Dragon Tower students were a bit late in understanding. They looked at each other.

…What do we do?

Let’s pretend we don’t know anything for now.

Do our stances with the wands look suspicious?

The Blue Dragon Tower students, who had been holding their wands ready to cast spells at Ethan’s signal, subtly lowered their hands.

Yes, they looked very suspicious.

The White Tiger Tower students, sensing the strange atmosphere, asked:

But Wodanaz, why are there so many of your friends…

As you know, the library is dangerous.

Is that why?

The White Tiger Tower students, who had been puzzled by the murderous aura emanating from the Blue Dragon Tower students, nodded, seemingly convinced for the moment.

Gainando was still confused. He whispered:

When do we attack?

Attack?

At Yoner’s signal, the other friends quickly subdued Gainando.

Ethan, without changing his expression, said:

I was talking about when we’re going to attack the Rock Drake.

Rock… Attack the Rock Drake???

The White Tiger Tower students stared at Ethan as if he were a madman.

They had suspected that Wodanaz was a crazed archmage who had devoted his entire life to magic and secrets, but they hadn’t realized he was this insane!

Oops. Made a mistake.

Because he was rushing, his excuse sounded a bit odd. Ethan quickly clarified:

It’s not that we’re definitely going to attack the Rock Drake, but that we’ll attack if the situation becomes truly unavoidable.

O-Okay.

Y-You’ll do it when we’re not around, right?

Despite the explanation, the White Tiger Tower students had already taken a couple of steps back.

Even the thought of attacking the Rock Drake, no matter how unavoidable the situation, was terrifying.

Even the bravest students from knight families would not think of attacking the Rock Drake!

Alright. Just tell me why you’re here.

In truth, the White Tiger Tower students were in a much better position than the Blue Dragon Tower students.

Blue Dragon students were strong because of their families and magic. But White Tiger students were different. They could take care of themselves anywhere, even without magic.

So, the White Tiger students acted faster.

Let’s split into groups of three and search for a path!

If they were confident, splitting up and moving was much more advantageous.

Ethan was not that reckless. But everyone knew White Tiger students were the bravest.

And this time, luck was on their side as well.

Found it! There’s a door leading down here!

Call the others! Tell them we found it!

When one group found the path leading down, Dergyu strongly asked his friends:

I’m sorry, but could you do me a favor?

Depends on the favor, Dergyu.

Do you remember when I gave you two slices of butter sponge cake last time?

…Alright. Just tell me what it is. What do you want?

I’d like you to subtly go and tell the Blue Dragon Tower friends the location of this place. I’d go myself, but I’m afraid it would be too obvious.

What?! Why!? Is it because of Wodanaz…

…It’s not like that. I owe him a debt. Think about your knightly honor! Don’t you owe Wodanaz something?

…It’s not that we don’t, but…

Dergyu’s words left his White Tiger Tower friends speechless.

As members of knightly families, they had their honor. They couldn’t completely deny the fact that Ethan had helped them.

However…

No matter how much we think about it with the honor of a knight, we’ve been treated unfairly by Wodanaz too many times!

That’s right. We’ve been treated unfairly by Wodanaz too many times.

Honor or not, they felt they had been treated unfairly by Wodanaz too many times!

But in the end, the friends couldn’t win against Dergyu.

When words like ‘honorably’ and ‘repaying received favors’ came up, they couldn’t ignore them as members of knightly families.

I really don’t want to go.

That’s right. Who knows what that Wodanaz will do.

If we’re going, shouldn’t we increase the number of people… This number seems a bit insufficient?

So, we came here because of Dergyu’s strong request.

The White Tiger Tower students omitted all the lines where they grumbled and complained.

Ethan was slightly moved.

Dergyu…

Dergyu proved that some White Tiger students were honorable and had a conscience.

Ethan thought, ‘I can’t believe Dergyu is helping us!’

A student from the Blue Dragon Tower looked surprised. “You really came to find the Wodanaz family? I thought you didn’t like them.”

The White Tiger Tower student replied, “…Hmmph. Personal feelings don’t matter when there’s a job to do. Maybe people who are just rich wouldn’t understand what it means to be a knight.”

And the third student said, “We forgot about any old fights with the Wodanaz. We just remembered we owed them help. That’s what honor is.”

Lee Han watched them. *They really didn’t want to be here,* he thought. *You can see it on their faces.*

The Blue Dragon Tower students were surprised but stayed quiet. They knew they needed to thank the White Tiger Tower students for showing them the way to go down.

Lee Han nodded. “Okay, thank you. Could you show us the way then?”

The White Tiger Tower students nodded back and started walking, leading the Blue Dragon Tower students.

The ground was still rough and rocky, just like before. It wasn’t like following a clear road, but they could still see the path they had taken earlier.

“Look! A Rock Drake!” someone shouted.

The monster that had been causing trouble for everyone in this dungeon was still there, hiding in the dry, dusty land. The Blue Dragon Tower students looked tired and worried. But the White Tiger Tower students sounded sure of themselves.

“What? You don’t know how to fight a Rock Drake?” one White Tiger student asked, sounding a little bit mocking.

A Blue Dragon student replied, a bit annoyed, “Well, do *you*?”

“Of course!” the White Tiger student boasted. “We met a Rock Drake on our way here. If we didn’t know what to do, we wouldn’t be here right now!”

Lee Han raised an eyebrow, surprised by how confident they sounded.

*Is there some secret way to beat them that only knight families know?* Lee Han wondered.

He had read every book in the Wodanaz family library and learned even more about monsters from a Professor of Monster Studies. But he had never heard of an easy trick for Rock Drakes.

*What could it be? If it’s a special knight family secret, I have to see it.*

“Okay, watch this!”

The White Tiger Tower students suddenly threw themselves onto the ground. Dust flew up from the hot, dry dirt. They didn’t seem to mind getting their clothes dirty.

“Rock Drakes see things from up high,” one explained. “If we lie down, it won’t see us.”

Then, one of them started to crawl, flat on his stomach, like a beetle pushing itself along the ground. He made sure to keep his body as low as possible.

One of the Blue Dragon students whispered, watching them crawl. “They look like insects…”

“Shhh! Be quiet!”

The White Tiger student said, standing up and brushing himself off. “You can sneak past a Rock Drake by crawling like that.”

Lee Han spoke up calmly, “Or… I could just make us invisible.”

The White Tiger students stopped dusting themselves and stared at Lee Han.

“…Huh?”

“Wait, can you really do that?” one asked, surprised.

“Yes,” Lee Han said simply.

“…Then why did you make us watch you crawl around in the dirt?” another asked, sounding annoyed.

“I wanted to see if your way was actually better,” Lee Han replied.

The White Tiger students just stared at him, not happy at all.

One of the White Tiger students pointed. “The entrance we found is over there, on that hill with the sloping side.”

“I see,” Lee Han said, nodding. He looked at the hill. One side was a steep drop, maybe four or five meters high. *They must have climbed up the easier side,* he thought, *the one that slopes gently up.*

“…Wait a minute,” Lee Han said suddenly. “Are there still students up on the hill?”

A White Tiger student asked. “Hmm? Why? Did some of our friends get left behind?”

“Looks like it,” Lee Han replied. He focused his magic, making his eyes see much further, even though it used up a lot of magic power. Now he could see the White Tiger Tower students clearly on the hill in the distance. *Are they waiting for friends who haven’t arrived yet? Are they going to show them how to climb down?* If so, Lee Han thought, *these knights are really loyal friends…*

“-Stop it! Don’t let it come up here!-”

“-Get out your potions! We’re going to die if that Rock Drake gets up here!-”

Lee Han frowned, hearing the shouts. He looked closer. The White Tiger Tower students on the hill were running around wildly, their faces full of fear.

Completely unaware of the chaos on the hill, the White Tiger students next to Lee Han kept talking. “Hey, Wodanaz,” one said, “being good at magic doesn’t mean you’re good at finding paths. That’s a totally different…”

Lee Han just clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Tsk.”

The White Tiger student got nervous. “…Did I say something wrong? You’re not mad, are you?”

“-The door is locked! How do we open it?-”

“-Maybe there’s a key or a way to open it in the library around here. We should look.-”

“-Okay, let’s go… Wait! Rock Drake!-”

“-What? What about a Rock Drake? We don’t have time to find one now!-”

“-No, look! There’s a Rock Drake right there!-”

Suddenly, a Rock Drake stomped into view, right in front of the White Tiger Tower students who were panicking about the locked door. *ROOOAAAR…*

The students froze, showing all kinds of fear – wide eyes, pale faces, shaking hands. The Rock Drake slowly walked closer and stopped at the bottom of the hill, looking up at them. It stared at them with angry eyes. Anyone could see this was one very, very angry monster.

Time seemed to stop. The White Tiger Tower students stood frozen, sweat dripping down their faces. Finally, when the Rock Drake just stood there, not moving, one of them spoke, his voice shaking. “-I… Do you think it’s telling us to go away?-”

“-Let’s just go! Run!-”

“-But what about the door? The way down?-”

“-Does the door matter right now?! Just run!-”

Just as he shouted, the Rock Drake started to move forward, climbing up the hill.

It wasn’t charging at them, but even just the way it walked up the hill was terrifying.

“It’s coming up!” someone screamed.

“We have to stop it! Even if we have to run back the way we came, we need to slow it down!”

“Get out all your monster spray! Spray it at it!”

“Get ready to use magic! Aim for its eyes! We have to scare it away somehow!”

*Plop!* A ball of water suddenly shot out of nowhere and hit the Rock Drake right on the nose.

The Rock Drake, which had been walking slowly before, whipped its head around so fast it was like lightning. It was clear to everyone that it was now very, very angry.

“I-Is that really okay, Wodanaz?” one of the White Tiger students asked nervously.

“I don’t know…” Lee Han said quietly, still staring at the Rock Drake with a calm, cold look on his face.

The White Tiger students next to him suddenly remembered something they had heard earlier. -Someone had said something about when to fight a Rock Drake. -It wasn’t about wanting to fight them, but only fighting when you absolutely had to. *…Wait a minute,* one of them thought, his eyes widening. *Is he really going to fight it now?!*