Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 249

Cohorti blinked, confused. The demon was still standing? He was sure his spell had hit it. Diret had warned him, hadn’t he? *High-level demons don’t give up easily.* If they did, they’d be no more dangerous than grumpy badgers. But… Cohorti frowned. He could have sworn he saw the creature’s eyes flicker away for a moment, just after the magic struck.

“Diret. Diret.”

“Can’t you see I’m busy finding a way back? Do you want to find it yourself?”

Diret answered roughly. He was trying to find a new path because the one Cohorti was trying to take was blocked.

Diret groaned. “This is the worst time for this! It’s reallocation week, you know? Paths are changing all over the place!”

“That demon, can I hit it a few more times?”

“Fine, do what you want. But I’m going to be annoyed with you later.”

“…Ha, haha. Just kidding…”

Cohorti said that, but it didn’t really sound like a joke.

“Knock it down!”

With the magic words, Cohorti cast a spell on the demon trapped inside the crystal cage.

The demon, hit by the shockwave, cried out in pain, just like before, and looked away…

…No, it just stared blankly with an expression that said, ‘What is this wizard doing?’

Feeling silly, Cohorti asked the demon.

“Did I cast it too weakly?”

Of course, the demon didn’t answer. Cohorti cast the spell again.

This time, he focused harder and made the spell stronger.

Wham!

The shockwave was released, and the demon twitched. And that was it. It was very different from before.

‘…Did I see wrong??’

Cohorti thought for a moment before speaking carefully.

“Maybe, could you ask Lee Han to cast the magic again just once…”

“Do as you please.”

“Really!?”

“Yes! Ask Lee Han to do your assignments for you too. Ask him to take your exams for you. Why not just ask him to graduate for you too?”

“…J-Just… this once… only once…”

Diret stepped back, glaring at Cohorti. Cohorti, sensing the mood, barely got permission from Lee Han.

“Do I just cast it?”

-Yeah. Make yourself comfortable! Comfortable!

‘What’s going on?’

Lee Han wondered, moving his feet. He didn’t know why, but he thought his seniors must have been quite stressed.

Powerful demons might not give in to violence, but wizards were bound to get stressed.

If words didn’t work, it was natural to use magic.

The seniors probably needed to save their mana, so they were asking Lee Han, who had plenty of it, for help.

‘I understand.’

Any student doing hard experiments had to fight the urge to smash the equipment.

‘It would be easier to get closer.’

Lee Han approached the crystal cage. He could aim even now, but it was easier to cast from nearby.

Swish-

“?”

As Lee Han approached, the demon, who had been glaring confidently outside the crystal cage, lowered its gaze.

‘Did I see wrong?’

Lee Han tilted his head, looking at the demon. Then, the demon slowly backed away and clearly looked away.

“…Flash!”

-■■■■■! ■■■■■!

The demon, letting out a painful scream, knelt down and pressed its forehead to the ground. It was clearly surrendering.

“……”

“……”

Cohorti and Diret were so shocked that they dropped their wands.

Powerful beings from other dimensions are different. They don’t follow the rules of our world. Just by existing, they bring their own rules.

Having their own rules meant they strongly resisted magic, which was the power to change the rules of the world.

These beings had a lot of magical resistance.

The reason the demon gave Cohorti a ‘What is this wizard doing?’ look after being hit by his magic was because of this.

Of course, magical resistance wasn’t unbeatable. There were several ways to overcome it.

One could cast a high-level magic that breaks through barriers, or one could greatly increase the amount of mana in the same magic and break through with brute force…

However, the second method wasn’t very realistic.

Simply increasing the amount of mana in the same magic didn’t always work.

The magic did become stronger as the mana increased.

But in that case, it was better to just learn and cast a higher-level magic. There was no reason to waste a lot of mana on a lower-level magic.

There were limits to how much stronger the magic could become because of the magic itself, and it became harder to cast as the mana increased. Above all, a wizard’s mana wasn’t endless.

Acting recklessly like that was a sure way to run out of mana.

-Got it? Junior?

Diret and Cohorti warned him carefully, worried that Lee Han would collapse from mana exhaustion in the hallway.

They knew that Lee Han had a lot of mana from birth.

They also knew that he was learning magic faster than other students because he was very talented.

But that didn’t mean they could just stand by and watch.

As seniors, they had to warn him not to do anything dangerous.

-Mana exhaustion is more terrifying than you think!

-How are you feeling right now? Are you dizzy or sweating?

“Yes… I’m fine.”

‘They’re worrying too much.’

If it was enough to make him collapse, Lee Han would have already collapsed.

In fact, Lee Han already knew that he was using too much mana when he cast magic.

The length of his Light magic and Enchant magic proved that.

The effect of breaking through magical resistance just now was unexpected, but Lee Han hadn’t strained himself while casting the lightning magic.

If this was straining, he would have collapsed a long time ago!

“I’m really fine, so you don’t have to worry. So… did that demon give up because of the damage it took?”

-No.

-That’s not it.

As fourth-year students studying black magic, Diret and Cohorti answered firmly.

Of course, they were amazed by the powerful magic Lee Han had just shown.

But that wasn’t why the demon gave up. High-level demons weren’t that weak.

“Then why?”

“……”

A moment of silence followed.

“??”

Lee Han was confused when his seniors didn’t reply.

What was it?

-That’s… well…

-It’s… like… well… it’s not exactly… right…

The two seniors avoided the question instead of giving a clear answer because it was too strange to say.

“Was it scared??”

“Is that… possible?”

“It doesn’t make sense… but there’s no other reason…”

“……”

What if two seniors told a first-year, ‘The demon got hit by a few spells and got a little scared, and since you have a lot of mana and look cold, it must have been frightened’? That first-year would probably go back to the tower and say this:

-Hey. Do they just let people pass in Einroguard just for breathing? I saw some crazy seniors today, and instead of saying they didn’t know, they were talking nonsense…

But what else could they say when they couldn’t think of any other reason!

“Seniors?”

-…It’s a very complex and hard-to-explain, something strange that has never happened before.

-R-Right. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s definitely not because we don’t know.

The two fourth-year students explained as vaguely as possible.

The demon was hit by you a few times and got scared and gave up, and this sounds like nonsense, but don’t think it’s too nonsensical, and there’s some academic proof…

From ‘The shape of the clouds today shows that demons are especially weak’ to stories like ‘That demon might be weak against lightning,’ they talked for a long time without making sense.

“Oh… well. I understand.”

And Lee Han wasn’t really interested.

What did it matter if the high-level demon blocking the hallway was scared of Lee Han when the Spire Stables were more important?

-Right. You can pass now. That’s great!

-That’s right! You can go to the Spire Stables! Congratulations!

Lee Han felt like the two seniors were trying to get rid of him quickly, but he didn’t care and asked.

“But seniors, you said you were working on an assignment, but because of me, the assignment…”

They were preparing a magic circle for demon fighting, but the demon, who was supposed to be the test subject, had already given up, so things had gone wrong.

Lee Han felt sorry.

-No? It’s even better.

“Yes?”

-Since the demon gave up, we can just take this demon and say the magic circle was successful. The professor is too lazy to come and check in person anyway.

Diret hit Cohorti, who was excitedly sharing tips with Lee Han, hard on the back of the head.

Thwack!

“Teaching good things, teaching good things!”

Following the directions Diret had given him, Lee Han felt his heart beat faster as he heard the distant murmuring.

Sounds that weren’t human, but the low cries of various beasts, the sounds one would hear in a stable.

‘This weekend…!’

It was Amur’s visit this week. If he could just bring Phonriig, he could fly out proudly.

Lee Han looked around to prepare for any possible situation.

‘There are no dangers… the Death Knights are the problem.’

Death Knights were guarding the stables. They were chatting among themselves, no matter who passed by, but he couldn’t relax.

‘Those Death Knight guys. They’re more annoying than I thought.’

If they suddenly started a friendly conversation as he passed by, it would be a scary moment for Lee Han.

Swish-

The wall in front of Lee Han melted away, and a familiar person walked out of the passage inside.

It was so sudden that Lee Han couldn’t even cast Invisibility.

“…!”

A strange figure with his mouth tightly wrapped in bandages. It was the Spire Keeper, the headmaster’s helper and volunteer at the magic school, whom he had met before.

The Spire Keeper didn’t seem surprised to see Lee Han, nor did he call the Death Knights. Instead, he greeted him lightly.

‘Ah. It’s daytime.’

Lee Han sighed in relief. Unlike the middle of the night, when anyone wandering around was caught and thrown into the disciplinary chamber, the sun was still in the sky.

It was natural for students to be wandering around, so the Spire Keeper didn’t think anything was strange.

Lee Han hoped that the Spire Keeper wouldn’t remember that the student in front of him was a first-year. Even so, it would be a bit strange for a first-year to be here.

What brings you here?

The Spire Keeper wrote on a piece of paper and showed it to him, Lee Han replied right away.

“Actually, I got lost while preparing for my mid-term assignment.”

You’re out of luck. Would you like me to guide you?

“Thank you. Ah. Is that the stables?”

The Spire Keeper nodded. Lee Han asked with innocent eyes.

“Could I maybe take a look at the Spire Stables? Professor Lightning Foot’s lectures are so hard that I’m struggling. Looking at the stables might help me a little.”

The Spire Keeper looked worried. He couldn’t just let a student look around a place where students weren’t allowed.

Lee Han continued with a sad look.

“No, it’s nothing. I guess I asked for too much. Unlike my friends who have been riding horses since they were young, I’ve always been clumsy with physical activities… I was just being stubborn because I was ashamed. Please understand.”

Lee Han casually told a lie that would make the students of the White Tiger Tower throw their swords and spears at him.

The Spire Keeper looked around, thought, and then nodded.

Alright. Follow me.

He had received help from him at the warehouse last time, and he couldn’t just leave a student who was trying to overcome his weaknesses. The Spire Keeper’s master would have certainly acted this way!