Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 221

A student from the White Tiger Tower, who had been with Lee Han the whole time, started to guess what happened.

“I think Wodanaz wasn’t carried away by the Rock Drake,” he said. “I think he chased after it to catch it.”

Gainan, a student from the Blue Dragon Tower, didn’t believe it. “Isn’t he just trying to avoid helping those guys?” he asked.

“No way!” the White Tiger Tower student replied.

“What did I say!” he exclaimed. “What did I tell you!”

“Did he really catch it?” another student asked, surprised.

The Blue Dragon Tower students found it hard to believe and just stared at each other.

Even though some students from the White Tiger Tower or Black Tortoise Tower believed the silly rumors that Wodanaz had secretly studied magic before entering the magic school and mastered all sorts of evil spells, the Blue Dragon Tower students didn’t.

Because they lived together, they knew those untrue stories were false.

The Blue Dragon Tower students were calm and clever.

Lee Han had heard professors say things like, “You are a talent who will bring success to this school” in every class, and he was a promising wizard who wanted to learn all kinds of magic. But he didn’t believe those rumors either.

Besides, even if Lee Han was a genius, there was nothing he could do about hunting Rock Drakes right now…

“Wo, Wodanaz!”

Lee Han’s friends screamed as he walked out.

Lee Han walked out from between the Rock Drakes. His clothes were ripped, his hair was full of dust, and he looked completely exhausted. It was clear he had been through a lot.

Lee Han waved his hand to show he was okay. He wasn’t hurt.

“Did you catch the Rock Drake?!”

“What?” Lee Han asked. “What silly things are you saying?”

“It’s just lying there…”

Lee Han looked at his friends as if they were the most pathetic people in the world.

The Blue Dragon Tower students felt like they were becoming very stupid under his gaze.

“They fought and fell,” Lee Han said.

“Ah… I see,” one of the students replied.

The Blue Dragon Tower students glared at the White Tiger Tower student who had been talking so much on the way. ‘It’s all because of that guy!’ they thought.

However, the White Tiger Tower student was still muttering nonsense.

“He made them fight?” he wondered. “With mind magic?!”

“What’s going on?” another student asked. “Is it true that Wodanaz caught it?”

“They say he made two Rock Drakes fight each other?”

“I knew it!” one of them exclaimed.

“I knew it when he used mind magic to control Deurgyu!”

If Lee Han had been less tired, he would have noticed that the White Tiger Tower students were whispering silly things, but he was too exhausted to care.

He had kept his balance and survived in a situation where two Rock Drakes were attacking each other as if to kill each other.

Even though he had a lot of magical power, it used a lot of focus.

“Take apart the Rock Drake,” Lee Han said. “Since it’s so big, just cut out the good parts to eat.”

“Al, alright,” someone replied.

Lee Han was confused when the White Tiger Tower students, who were passing by, rushed over when he had spoken to the Blue Dragon Tower students. ‘Does it matter?’ he wondered. He just wanted to rest for a while.

Lee Han dozed off for a moment and then woke up.

Students were moving around him, cleaning up.

‘I have learned something,’ Lee Han thought.

What was annoying was that he was proving Professor Voladi right. The professor’s theory was that you learn quickly when you are in a dangerous situation, so you must keep experiencing dangerous situations.

Lee Han felt disgusted with himself as he learned and realized something every time he was in a truly dangerous situation. ‘Is this really the right way for a wizard?’ he wondered.

‘No matter what, this doesn’t seem like the right way,’ he thought.

Just using >Lower Manipulation> magic was enough to stay on the back of the Rock Drake that had come up from underground, but it wasn’t enough to withstand the head-on crash of two Rock Drakes.

He had to be firmly attached to the back of the Rock Drake, not floating in the air.

As a last resort, Lee Han grabbed the Rock Drake’s scales and sent magical power from his fingertips. This was to strengthen his magic and his physical abilities.

But it wasn’t enough. His body was constantly shaken as if it would fly away.

But there was no other way.

Lee Han desperately poured out his magical power.

And then, he realized something.

‘Magical power…?!’

Even if they couldn’t create high-level academic theories like wizards, knights also used magical power to perform many different techniques.

These techniques were part of the visions passed down in knight families, so they weren’t easily shared, and the knights themselves didn’t use them very often if they could avoid it.

However, Lee Han had recently seen a strange swordsmanship that used magical power.

It was when the young trainee knights of the Poplar Knights came to visit.

At that time, Rabda of the Enge family had used a rather strange swordsmanship.

It was a bizarre swordsmanship that used the magical power flowing through the sword to pull the opponent’s sword when the swords collided.

When he asked the other students, they said it was the Enge family’s unique sword absorption.

It was a rare swordsmanship, so it was quite famous even among knights.

It seemed that Lee Han had accidentally realized the secret of absorption.

Tap-

Lee Han sent magical power into his hand and stuck it to the rock.

Then, he felt a sticky attractive force between his hand and the rock.

“……”

‘I should be learning about magical power circulation instead of this,’ he thought.

He was able to barely survive by sticking to the back of the Rock Drake with this change in properties, but this wasn’t what Lee Han should be doing now.

He had to complete the continuous circulation of magical power within his body so that he could skillfully maintain magical power as a swordsman…

Why did he realize this strange change in the properties of magical power, which he would only think about when creating a new swordsmanship?

‘Professor Inguldel might be surprised if I told him,’ he thought.

Actually, Lee Han was wrong.

Professor Inguldel would be more pleased than surprised.

“-Excellent, Wodanaz,” he would say. “Great swordsmen have always found parts of their own swordsmanship when they were young. Because you are so serious about the sword, the sword has answered you. Now, let’s add that realization to your own sword. It wouldn’t be bad to recreate the moment you gained that realization. What moment was it?”

He would say such things and be happy.

Wasn’t it true that a student who was very serious about swordsmanship (at least in Professor Inguldel’s opinion) had gained an understanding to go to his own swordsmanship?

“Wodanaz. Are you alright?”

“Ah. Yeah. Thanks,” Lee Han replied.

Lee Han took his hand off the rock and got up completely from his seat.

He would think about the realization later, and he had to solve the immediate problem first.

“Here, have some,” a student said.

“What’s this?” Lee Han asked.

“Roast beef. I used Rock Drake meat.”

‘But if it’s Rock Drake meat, isn’t it beef?’ Lee Han thought.

Lee Han received the plate while thinking about that.

Of course, the White Tiger Tower students didn’t dislike these things at all.

They were already so hungry they were boiling dandelions and acorns to make coffee. So, real meat, like drake or beef, would be a huge treat.

“I’ll enjoy it. Thank…”

“No need to thank me, Wodanaz. You caught it.”

The White Tiger Tower student, looking slightly awkward, rubbed beneath his nose.

It was strange to see them offer Wodanaz food. Before they came to this library, who would have thought they would ever serve *him* a meal?

“This is really…”

“I said, it’s fine, Wodanaz! Don’t worry about it.”

“No, it’s too dry. Who cooked this?”

The White Tiger Tower student stared at Wodanaz, dumbfounded.

“Isn’t it delicious enough… or is it not?”

“What nonsense.”

Lee Han stepped forward.

Glancing to the side, he saw the Blue Dragon Tower students wearing subtle expressions.

He appreciated the White Tiger Tower students’ hard work in cooking, but their faces clearly showed something was lacking!

“Lee Han! You’re awake!” Gainando yelled, jumping up so fast his chair almost fell over. He didn’t even think, just blurted out what everyone in Blue Dragon Tower was secretly wishing for. “You could cook in— *Mmph!*”

Someone quickly stuffed a hand over Gainando’s mouth.

“Shut UP, Gainando!” hissed another Blue Dragon student, face red with embarrassment. “Do you want everyone to think we’re the Tower of Blue Beggars who can’t even cook for themselves?!”

But everyone who needed to hear it already had.

“…Wodanaz, you can do it if you want.”

The White Tiger Tower student standing before the meat called out to Lee Han.

Several crossed their arms and stared at Lee Han. Their eyes seemed to say, ‘Let’s see how good you really are!’ ‘Even if you are a great wizard, you can’t possibly be skilled at cooking, the flower of camping, can you?’ ‘I’ve been grilling meat since I could walk. Wodanaz, how many years have you been grilling?’

‘They weren’t even this eager when it was about swords!’

Lee Han stood before the meat with a reluctant expression. Cooking was not exactly what he had in mind for dungeon exploration, but he also didn’t want to eat dry, tasteless meat. The strangely intense gazes were absurd.

“Everyone thinks Lee Han won’t be able to do it,” Deorgyu muttered to Giselle, who was beside him.

Giselle, who was wiping dust off her sword, looked at Deorgyu with an ‘I don’t care’ expression. She had no interest in the pointless things he had been doing since earlier.

“But Moradi, Lee Han’s cooking skills are beyond imagination.”

‘So what…’ I don’t care!

Giselle shook her head as if she couldn’t even be bothered to curse, and grabbed her sword again.

Some of the White Tiger Tower students cast gazes of respect that he had never seen before, not even when Lee Han defeated them with magic or swords. That’s how delicious the meat was. It was juicy and tender, with a smoky smell that made their mouths water. Each bite was full of flavor, like a taste of magic.

‘…Should I have just grilled meat and brought it with me on the first day of swordsmanship class?’ If he had, he might have seriously won over about a quarter of the White Tiger Tower students…

“If you’re done eating, let’s move.”

“Wait, Wodanaz, hold on.”

” ? ”

“We need to gather water. See this grass here? If you pull this grass, the roots hold water…”

“Spring forth.”

The White Tiger Tower students could understand why knights grumbled about wizards whenever they drank. The sense of futility when wizards could accomplish with a single staff what knights had to endure all sorts of hardships for!

“Wizards are really…!”

“Aren’t you guys wizards too?”

Meanwhile, Lee Han checked the door leading downwards.

“There’s a lock.”

“It’s a lock that’s opened by manipulating mana.”

“We were searching around for books.”

The White Tiger Tower students shared the information they had gathered. A lock that opens by manipulating mana to create a specific shape. As such, it was difficult to open if you didn’t know the shape.

Lee Han thought, ‘I have plenty of mana, so should I just try a few commonly used shapes?’

“Step aside.”

Lee Han placed his hand on the lock and sent a stream of blue mana into it. He started with a simple circle shape. *Bzzzt!!!* The lock pulsed with a dark red light, and Lee Han felt a jolt of resistance. It felt like the inside was cracking…

‘…I’ve messed up.’

Lee Han felt the gazes of the White Tiger Tower students staring from behind. If he were to say that he had accidentally broken the device, they were the type to scream, ‘Wodanaz, you wicked wizard! Revealing your true colors!’

“???”

Of course, the White Tiger Tower students, who weren’t thinking any such thing, tilted their heads. ‘Is he doing it?’ ‘I guess so.’

Clunk!

As the device shattered, the part that was holding it in place also broke, and the door opened, revealing stairs leading downwards.

The White Tiger Tower students’ eyes widened in admiration.

To open it right away without even taking a breath!

“…How did he figure it out?” Giselle asked, as if she couldn’t believe it. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t deduce the answer.

Lee Han kept his face still and answered, ‘Just a bit of clever thinking, and maybe a little luck.’

Giselle bit her lip, trying not to look impressed. *Cooking, magic, and now this,* she thought grudgingly. *Was there anything Wodanaz couldn’t do?*