Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 255

Lee Han answered earnestly, as if he truly didn’t understand.

“Wodanaz!”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“Not that! I’m asking for instructions! What should I do!” Raphaël cried out urgently.

Then Gainando spoke, sounding utterly dumbfounded.

“You’re from a knightly family! You should be taking the lead in situations like this!”

“Shut up, you princeling! Why are you so useless if you’re royalty!”

“I…!” Gainando was momentarily speechless at the absurd accusation, and then he grew angry.

“Hey! What does me being a prince have to do with anything! Are you even really from a knightly family?! What kind of knight are you?!”

“If you’re royalty, then show some royal ability! The Princess of the Blue Dragon Tower has followers even in our tower, so what are you?”

“I’m already showing my ability! Everyone in our tower knows my ability! Lee Han! You know my ability, right?!” Gainando shamelessly exploited the fact that the other didn’t know the situation in the Blue Dragon Tower.

“Lee Han??”

Lee Han and Imirgue were already retreating far away, leaving them behind.

Gainando cried out in horror.

“Lee Han!! You should only abandon that Grall! Why me too?!”

“Just run faster. I thought you had time to spare since you were busy fighting uselessly.”

Gainando and Raphaël cursed at each other as they scrambled to run.

Watching them, Imirgue whispered with a bewildered expression.

“I… not that I should be the one to say it… but is this really okay???”

“It’s fine. This is how they come to their senses and get along better.”

“…?!” Imirgue thought it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard, but Lee Han’s face was so serious.

‘If it’s… if it’s Wodanaz, he must have some plan…?’

‘Those two need to be caught once to come to their senses.’

Unfortunately, the two were not caught. They came panting up the hill.

“I-is this, pant, is this place okay? Should we just go to the exit… pant.”

“It’s too far to just go, it’s dangerous. Let’s deal with them once and for all.”

The true strength of the undead lay in their limitless tenacity. Even when other monsters grew tired and gave up the chase, the undead could continue to swarm endlessly. Attempting to flee hastily just because they were a little faster could lead to being surrounded and put at an even greater disadvantage.

“This place doesn’t look very sturdy.” Raphaël looked around the ruins of the temple with an uneasy expression.

Even though it was another dimension, it wasn’t an empty, desolate world. There were bits and pieces and ruins that had drifted in from various places. In the undead realm, tombs, graveyards, and buildings on the verge of collapse were common sights. The four of them had now arrived in front of the crumbling ruins of a temple.

It was better than facing the undead in an empty field, but even so, the temple ruins seemed too weak.

“This wall… won’t it collapse if we push it? What if the undead push against it…”

“It’s not that weak, so you don’t have to worry. And I’m planning to reinforce it too.”

“How?”

Instead of answering, Lee Han waved his staff.

“Gather, earth!”

Soil piled up behind the ruin wall. Seeing this, Raphaël hesitated.

“Piling up dirt behind the wall will help, but this much…”

“Gather, earth. Gather, earth. Gather, earth…” Without taking a breath, Lee Han piled up mounds of dirt in various places inside the ruins, reinforcing the wall to prevent it from collapsing.

The temple ruins, which had seemed quite flimsy just moments ago, had now become a reasonably decent makeshift fortress. A makeshift fortress where it was easy to hold out in the wide open space inside, as it was blocked on all sides by walls and earth. Except for the temple entrance passage, it seemed impossible for enemies to enter.

“That’s it.”

“……” Raphaël was once again astonished.

Every time he saw it, the abilities that Wodanaz showed in regards to magic were truly… He wondered if those who became great wizards were like that.

“Can’t we just block the entrance completely?”

“It’ll be difficult to clear up later, and if we block it completely, the undead might come in from strange places. It’s better to lure them in at the entrance and deal with them one by one.”

“I see.”

“Alright. Then go lure them in.”

“…What?”

“Lure them in at the entrance.” Lee Han waved his staff.

He planned to wait in the open space inside and cast a spell to knock down the enemy the moment they passed through the entrance passage. To do that, Lee Han had to wait here. Instead, someone was needed to lure the enemies in at the entrance, and the person to take on this role was, of course…

“You’re a knight, aren’t you? You’re not thinking of making friends who can’t even handle a sword do it, are you?”

“……” It wasn’t wrong, but for some reason, he felt very angry.

Raphaël cursed Lee Han inwardly as he walked towards the entrance.

Crack!

“That’s right!” Another undead passed through the entrance passage and poked its head out, only to collapse right there.

Raphaël, who had been nervously aiming his wooden sword, let out a sigh of relief. It was going much better than he had expected. He glanced outside and saw that the number of undead that had been swarming earlier had been reduced to about a quarter. At this rate, it seemed like they could handle it.

“…Lee Han. Didn’t the professor say last time…?” Gainando, who had regained some composure, whispered to Lee Han.

Last time, he had clearly said that Lee Han’s magic flowed out and attracted other undead…

“Gainando. It seems like you have plenty of time since the undead are pushing in from outside. Do you want to lure them in?”

“Ah… no. It’s nothing.” Gainando quickly shut his mouth.

Lee Han thought to himself.

‘Surely more won’t swarm in.’

Even if the undead were swarming in because of his magic, the fact that more had appeared than last time was unsettling. If it was a coincidence, it would be fortunate, but if…

‘If the ones who came close last time have gathered again this time…’ If the undead who had come close last time but hadn’t seen Lee Han were waiting nearby and had gathered again this time, then the story was different.

Wouldn’t that mean that more and more undead would be drawn in each time they entered? If spirits avoided him when he entered the spirit realm, and undead attacked him when he entered the undead realm, then summoning magic would definitely become quite difficult in the future.

Lee Han resolved that if that were the case, he would definitely have to take Raphaël and Gainando with him.

“…I think we’ve knocked them all down.” Raphaël said hesitantly.

He couldn’t hear the sounds of any more undead outside the passage.

“I should go out and check.”

“Stop ordering m-… Ah. You were going to do it.”

“……”

“…..” Lee Han and Gainando, who were about to go out, looked at Raphaël with pity.

Raphaël’s face turned red.

“I just misheard!”

“Y-yeah.” Lee Han and Gainando passed through the passage and poked their heads out.

The many undead from before had disappeared, and what remained was…

“Ugh!” Gainando screamed and hid behind Lee Han. One undead was still left.

It seemed to have arrived late because it was located in the back.

“Don’t worry. One is easy to deal with…”

-■■■■!

The skeleton warrior, who had approached nearby, prostrated itself without even being attacked or suppressed.

Lee Han and Gainando were speechless at the sight.

“Well, if that’s the case, we could have just waited without fighting earlier, couldn’t we?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. The more the undead gather, the more violent they become, so they would never have submitted this easily.” Lee Han said firmly.

However, his voice was trembling slightly.

After defeating the undead, the four managed to find and contract with additional undead. When they returned to the exit, Professor Milay was talking with some of the students who had been in the lecture hall.

“Hello, Professor.”

“Did you perhaps enter the undead realm and come out?”

“Ah. Yes. Because of the assignment.”

“It would be best not to enter for about two days.” Professor Milay adjusted the position of her monocle slightly and said.

“The flow of magic felt in other dimensions is unstable. If you go in now, you might suffer…”

“…Gasp! We did suffer!” Gainando cried out as if he understood.

“We were wandering around inside when dozens of undead swarmed us! That’s why…!”

“?” Professor Milay tilted her head as if something was strange.

“If the flow of magic is unstable, the nature or behavior patterns of the undead change, but dozens of them swarming you despite the safety device is completely different…”

“Indeed. The flow of magic is truly amazing. Even if there is a safety device when entering in the future, we must make it a habit to check again before entering.” Lee Han said firmly.

Not only that, but he quickly changed the subject.

“Professor. Would you please check the undead we contracted with?”

“Let’s take a look.” Professor Milay nodded without noticing her student’s wicked intentions.

The final assignment for summoning magic was contracting with a summoned creature. Students always wanted to find and contract with strong and cool summoned creatures, but the professors’ evaluation criteria were slightly different. Finding powerful and rare summoned creatures could be done after becoming an upperclassman. What was important now was how well they could handle the summoned creature.

Even with the same summoned creature, there were contracts that received absolute loyalty and contracts that were almost impossible to control, so caution was needed. Of course, Professor Milay didn’t expect the first-year students to control their summoned creatures with complex and thorough contracts. That was impossible at the first-year level. What the professor expected was for them to show as much control as possible, even if they could only make simple, informal contracts.

“Make it turn around.”

“Turn around. Turn around. Please turn around. Hey. Please…!” After Gainando said it about ten times, the skeleton warrior slowly and sluggishly turned around.

Professor Milay moved her quill as if she understood.

“It was a little friendlier earlier, but it must be tired today.” Gainando put his arm around the skeleton warrior’s shoulder as if to prove that he was friendly with it. The skeleton warrior pushed his arm away as if it was annoying.

“This time, try to express the number 4 with your fingers.”

“Number 4… number 4…” Not only Gainando, but Raphaël and Imirgue were similar. They had made contracts, but the summoned creatures were more bothered by detailed instructions than they had thought.

When it was Lee Han’s turn, Professor Milay had to manage her expression to hide her expectations. As the student who had achieved the best score in the midterm exam, she was curious about how he would persuade his summoned creature.

“Make it lie down.”

“Lie down.”

Plop!

The skeleton warrior immediately lay down. It might sound awkward to say that discipline was established among the undead, but there was no other word that fit the expression as well as that one.

“…Express the number 4 with your fingers…”

“Express the number 4.”

The skeleton warrior immediately folded four fingers.

Professor Milay was dumbfounded.

As a master of summoning magic, she was naturally aware of how Lee Han was controlling the undead. So, right now…

‘He’s intimidating the undead to make them obey his orders?’ It wasn’t a wrong method in the end, but she couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.

The assignment was given to learn how to handle them in preparation for contracting with powerful beings later, but he was just suppressing them with force.

“…Well done. Full marks.” Professor Milay didn’t say anything, even though she was dumbfounded. That was still amazing in its own way.

“Good job, Gonaltes.”

“……” Professor Milay decided to pretend she didn’t hear that last part.