Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 260

As the lecture ended, Professor Verdus walked up to Ethan with a hopeful smile.

“Now, do you have time for another lesson?”

Ethan sighed. “Professor, I’m really busy with my final exam right now,” he said, pointing to the shield. “As you can see, it’s taking up all my time.”

Professor Verdus looked surprised. “What are you talking about? This shield still needs a lot of work!”

“Of course,” Ethan said patiently, “but I need to fix it in ways that I can actually do at my level.”

“Ah!” Professor Verdus exclaimed, like he just realized something. Ethan felt annoyed.

“It’s difficult, isn’t it!”

“I guess so?” Ethan replied.

“Hmm… hmm… hmmm… Something you can do at your level…” Professor Verdus closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and then opened his mouth. “I have it!”

“Oh? What is it?” Ethan asked.

“How about adding an attack reflection enchantment?”

“…How is that something I can do?” Ethan asked. He didn’t know much about enchantment magic, but he knew that ‘reflection’ was not easy.

Redirecting attacks couldn’t be simple, especially compared to things like levitation or defense.

“That’s the easiest thing there is!” Professor Verdus said.

“Is that so…” Ethan wondered if he should just paint the shield and say he upgraded it, or try to learn the reflection magic.

‘If I fail the final exam, my score will be bad…’

Professor Verdus asked again, “So, now that you’ve chosen, do you have time for a lesson?”

“No,” Ethan said.

Professor Verdus looked very disappointed, like he had lost something important.

Ethan sat down and smiled, thinking about Professor Verdus’s face.

This was very important to Ethan.

If he said ‘Yes, I’ll learn,’ Professor Verdus would bother him until he was done.

He had to keep saying no.

‘I hope I can do this until graduation,’ Ethan thought, imagining telling Professor Verdus ‘I’ll learn tomorrow’ the day before graduation.

But that might be hard.

“Has anyone finished the Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic assignment?” someone asked.

“Who’s done that already? Wodanaz?”

A student from the Blue Dragon Tower looked at Ethan.

Ethan was surprised. “I haven’t finished it either! Can’t you see all the assignments I have?”

His friends took only one or two magic classes, but Ethan was taking Black Magic, Summoning Magic, Illusion Magic, Enchantment Magic, Divination Magic, Transformation Magic, and Healing Magic.

His friends looked down, seeing his pile of books. They didn’t want to study extra subjects with him.

‘I need to start the Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic assignment soon,’ Ethan thought.

It was Saturday, a weekend, but everyone was studying hard because final exams were a week away.

Next week was the pre-final assignments, and the week after that were the final exams.

Some classes combined assignments and final exams.

The Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic assignment was one of those.

It said:

– Submit a simple magical structure. If it’s approved, you can build it. We will look at how efficient and economical it is.

– You must get the materials yourself.

– No, you can only use the materials we give you.

– Thank you!!

It wasn’t too hard, like Enchantment Magic, but it still took a lot of time.

You had to choose a structure, choose the right magic, choose the materials, estimate everything, and then build it if it was approved.

‘I thought wizards were more mysterious,’ Ethan thought.

Since coming to Einroguard, wizards seemed less and less mysterious.

Ethan looked out the window. The sun was high in the sky.

If he took Phoneg to the stables this evening, the whole weekend would be gone.

He needed to finish as many assignments as possible.

“Yoner, what’s the simplest structure?” Ethan asked.

“Huh?” Yoner looked up from drawing a potion box.

“A magic lamp or a box? A simple trap?”

“Hmm,” Ethan made notes, thinking hard.

Something simple, easy to finish, cheap, and good… was there anything like that?

“…If there was, I would have done it already,” Yoner said.

Yoner worried that Ethan was going crazy from studying too much.

But Ethan was thinking hard.

He looked like he had an idea.

“…Yoner, I found it!” Ethan said.

“What?” Yoner almost broke his pen.

He had found something that met all those conditions?

“Look at this.” Ethan drew a long magic lamp, like the ones on streets in cities and towns.

They lit up the dark streets and were a source of income for many wizards.

But there had been a lot of research on them.

There were brighter, cheaper, longer-lasting, and more efficient magic lamps.

Professor Alpen Knighton said they would look at efficiency and economy, so if it was too similar to existing designs, it would be bad.

Had Ethan made a new design?

“…?!” Yoner was surprised at the magic lamp Ethan showed him.

Yoner stared at the simple drawing. It was just a long, straight line, nothing more.

“Could it be?”

Yoner thought back to how long his friend’s light spell lasted, and then the shield spell too.

“Could it be… that you’re removing all the design and trying to solve it with magic alone?!”

Yoner realized what Lee Han was doing. This must be Lee Han’s last resort.

That was to ditch the magic design and distribution and just cast the magic himself.

Someone else might laugh at the idea, but it actually made sense.

If the magic lasted for more than a few days, it could be called a magical structure, even without a design!

Yoner wasn’t sure if Professor Knighton would like such a strange idea, but he thought it was clever.

“…What nonsense are you talking about, Yoner? I haven’t drawn it yet.”

Lee Han looked at Yoner as if he was dumbfounded. Yoner blushed slightly, feeling embarrassed.

“It’s not?”

“No. There’s no way the professor would accept such a strange idea.”

“Maybe he would…”

Yoner trailed off, sounding unsure.

“What I was thinking was this, Yoner. I’m going to put magic circles on top of each other here. This will make the magic stronger and use less power. There will be trial and error, but it will cost much less in materials.”

Lee Han’s explanation was certainly reasonable.

The production difficulty would increase, but if you had the skill, it was a plan that could save on material costs.

But Yoner asked, still slightly regretful.

“…You’re really not going to do that thing from earlier?”

“I told you, no.”

Lee Han equipped Phone Ring with the invisibility artifact.

“Phone Ring, good boy. You have to be quiet until we get there. Understand?”

-Puh-heung…?

Phone Ring gave him an uneasy look, wondering why Lee Han was acting like this.

Compared to other students, Phone Ring’s owner was quite peculiar.

“Yes, yes. You’re a good boy.”

Phone Ring tilted his head repeatedly and followed behind Lee Han.

The Death Knights waved at Lee Han as he walked towards the main building’s front gate.

-Don’t wander around too late, Wodanaz.

“Yes, I will keep that in mind.”

-Why are you nagging like that? He can wander around late if he wants. Anyone would think you’ve never taken a night stroll!

-Shhh, shhh! Wodanaz might hear you!

‘How heartwarming.’

Thanks to having already spoken with the Death Knights around the front gate, Lee Han was able to move without arousing much suspicion.

Lee Han felt uneasy for no reason as he approached the spire stables in less than 30 minutes.

Having been in Einroguard for a long time, he had developed a habit of becoming unnecessarily anxious even when things went well.

‘Cover my face with the cloak…’

Lee Han pulled his cloak over himself like someone casually going out.

If Amur visited from outside, he could pretend to be friends with Amur and leave together.

‘There’s a chance.’

He was a little worried at first, but seeing the people coming and going from the stables, it seemed quite promising.

Unexpectedly, it was busy with many visitors.

From professors to trade company employees, merchants, and errand runners from outside.

People jostled each other as they moved through the crowd.

No one paid attention to Lee Han.

“Aren’t you wizards going too far!? Asking me to bring you a Fire Spirit Bird’s egg within a week! How am I supposed to get that in a week!?”

“Hey! Put that box down carefully! We could all die if that breaks!”

“Is there… is there a demon inside?”

“No. It’s a glass sculpture the headmaster ordered.”

“……”

While listening to the heartwarming conversation, a familiar face flew in from afar.

‘Amur!’

Amur landed skillfully and filled out the entry log.

Then he looked around.

“Over here.”

“…Finally!”

Amur hadn’t expected much, but he was overjoyed to see Lee Han.

“You’re really amazing. I didn’t expect it! I didn’t think you’d be able to pull this off.”

“It’s too early to celebrate.”

“You don’t have to worry. Now that we’re here, it’s as good as a success. We’ll leave together when those merchants depart.”

Lee Han nodded.

He kept his expression calm, but Lee Han’s heart was also pounding.

If he succeeded, Lee Han would secure a way to leave the school periodically.

While Amur was unloading the cargo he brought, Lee Han fed Phone Ring the Potion to Remove the Curse.

Plop!

Phone Ring, who had returned to his original form, scratched the floor and rejoiced.

“…I thought it was a joke, but I can’t believe it was real.”

Amur was once again surprised to see the griffin yawning contentedly in the corner of the spire stables.

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t a monster that a first-year student could tame.

“Won’t they notice because the griffin is unusual?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. There are creatures here that are even more peculiar than griffins.”

As Amur said, the creatures nearby were too unique.

Lee Han tried to avoid the gaze of the human-faced bird staring intently at him.

“Our turn is coming soon. Prepare yourself.”

“Yes.”

The spire stables were so wide that you couldn’t see from one end to the other, but when large vehicles tried to enter and exit, it became meaningless.

Naturally, there was a set order for this.

People waiting outside, flying towards the entrance, and people sitting and waiting at the exit.

Lee Han gestured around. Many people were wearing cloaks because of the cold weather in the upper air.

-Next group, depart! Depart!

The stable keeper didn’t stop Lee Han. Lee Han slowly walked away with the griffin.

Wham!

The griffin kicked off the brick and soared into the sky. Lee Han felt a great sense of liberation.

“You tamed a griffin.”

“…?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?”

Lee Han almost dropped the griffin’s reins and fell to the ground at Professor Voladi’s calm voice from the side.