Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 267

Giselle thought learning from a Shadow Patrol member was better than learning from a Wasteland Star Hunter.

‘Wasteland Star Hunters are too flashy.’

They were skilled, but it felt too showy. Giselle didn’t like that.

“Wait, really? You want to learn from *me*?” Baishada’s voice cracked a little.

“Is that not allowed?”

“It’s not that it’s not allowed… cough. Just a moment.”

Baishada opened his water bottle and took a sip.

Then, he drank a potion to calm his nerves—something he didn’t even do when hunting large monsters.

“Honestly, I thought you’d all go over there.”

“The Shadow Patrol is better than the Wasteland Star Hunters, though.”

Baishada’s eyes went wide, and he blinked quickly. *They really think we’re better?* he thought, a huge smile spreading across his face.

In truth, it was because of their friendship with Nilia, but Yihan and his group didn’t bother to say so.

The hunter before them looked so pitifully happy.

Even Giselle remained silent.

“Good! I will definitely help you find and catch even more impressive prey than the other students.”

Baishada said with enthusiasm.

He never expected such a thing to happen at Einrogard.

He would be sure to tell the other patrol members when he returned to the Northern Mountains.

How delighted his colleagues would be!

“Uh… just a moment.”

” ? ”

“Actually, we’ve… already finished preparing for the final exam assignment.”

” ? ? ? ”

Baishada was taken aback.

Deurghyu was also surprised.

“When?!”

“Weren’t you friends?”

Baishada was flustered. The three of them seemed close.

“When we were chased by that lizard last time, we met a giant and cut off some of his hair.”

“Yihan, I may be your friend, but what you just said is too incomprehensible to simply brush off with friendship…” Deurghyu said, looking like he was getting a headache.

The fact that he spoke of the giant’s hair as if he had picked up a pebble on the road confused Deurghyu.

“It’s a bit of a long story.”

Yihan briefly explained what had happened: Meeting with the giant -> Can’t play chess -> Winning the bet -> Escaping with the spoils.

“Was the giant really that bad at chess?”

“He was bad.”

“……”

Giselle was about to say something but stopped herself. Saying it would only damage her own reputation.

“Sorry, Deurghyu. I should have told you, but I missed the timing because I was worried the other White Tiger Tower students next to me would be disappointed or jealous.”

“No. I understand. It’s a relief, really.”

“Wait a minute, wizards.”

Baishada, who had been unable to follow the conversation, finally understood.

“So, winning a bet against a giant… let’s say that’s true. There are other things I don’t understand, but let’s say they’re all true. So, you have the spoils now?”

“Yes.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“…Uh… would you like to hunt with us? We need some meat.”

“……”

Baishada’s shoulders slumped a little. ‘Oh,’ he said quietly. But then he straightened up, a grin returning to his face. ‘That’s right!’

More than anything, the students valued the Shadow Patrol more than the Wasteland Star Hunters, so what did it matter?

“That’s right. And what’s important is the result, isn’t it? The other students will think we defeated the giant thanks to you, Baishada.”

“That’s good… but is that okay?”

Baishada tilted his head.

Of course, he wanted to let the young wizards here know that the Shadow Patrol was superior to the Wasteland Star Hunters.

But that seemed like a trick…

“It’s fine. The teaching we learned at the magic school is that everything is okay if the result is good.”

“Really? That’s surprising.”

” ? ? ”

With time to spare, Baishada took the three of them to find suitable prey and gave them various pieces of advice.

“Do you know how to walk on these slopes?”

“You shouldn’t rush, try to step on the ground with your entire sole, and minimize fatigue by unifying your breathing and steps.”

“That’s right! Amazing!” Baishada was really surprised.

Judging by his appearance, he seemed to be from a great noble family, so he wouldn’t have grown up climbing mountains.

Yet, he was so skilled.

If it weren’t for the other person’s status, he would have thought he had learned from another member of the Shadow Patrol.

‘Hmm. It’s getting harder and harder to say.’

In fact, it was difficult to say that he had learned from someone in the Shadow Patrol.

The other person was very excited as he taught them one by one, and it took courage to say, ‘I’ve already learned all of this.’

“Okay. Try walking up once.”

“Is this right?”

“That’s right! You’re doing well!”

“……”

Deurghyu, who knew Nilia, stared at Yihan with a dumbfounded look.

Yihan ignored him, pretending not to see.

Baishada skewered a few birds he had shot down. After removing the feathers and innards, the roasted bird meat was a delicacy for hunters.

“Is it because it’s the Phoenix Festival? The fire is a bit strong.” Baishada poked at the fire with a stick. Sparks flew up as the flames crackled and danced, making his face glow orange.

Yihan, who had already received a warning from Professor Voladi, didn’t simply dismiss Baishada’s words.

‘The power of the flame is really getting stronger.’

“Come to think of it, has a phoenix ever been summoned to the magic school?”

“A phoenix??”

The three students were taken aback by the question.

A phoenix, of all things.

Wasn’t that a rather rare mythical creature? A monster whose origins were unknown.

“I’ve never seen one, but why are you asking about a phoenix?”

“Ah. I haven’t seen one either, but I’ve heard stories that they occasionally appear during the festival. I thought if one were to appear, it would be at the magic school. Since it’s a mythical creature, it would like a place with a lot of magic, wouldn’t it?”

“Haha. If that were the case, the magic school would already be a den of countless monsters, Baishada.” Deurghyu said with a laugh. Yihan thought to himself, ‘It already seems like half a den of monsters.’

The fact that mythical creatures appeared because they liked places with a lot of magic was quite worrying information.

Yihan shook his head once to shake off the unease and said to Baishada.

“You’re good at shooting arrows.”

“Thank you. Would you like to try?”

“I’m not very confident with the bow.”

Yihan was willing to learn almost anything, but he couldn’t easily bring himself to try archery.

He knew how to nock an arrow and shoot it at a target. He had learned that when Knight Alarron taught him the basics.

However, hitting a small, moving target from afar was a completely different matter. It required bone-grinding effort to hit such targets.

“Well, it takes a lot of time to get used to the bow. Besides, wizards don’t necessarily need to learn how to use a bow. Well then, how about casting magic on the arrow and shooting it? There are spells for this kind of thing, aren’t there?”

Baishada brought this up entirely because he wasn’t a wizard.

An experienced wizard would know that what he just said was quite absurd.

Instead of shooting an arrow with the archer’s skill and experience, they would assist by using various enchantment spells.

At first, it sounded like a good idea. But really, it was too much work.

Casting several spells on an arrow every time one was shot.

Even simple magic spells use mana. Putting many spells on a small arrow uses even more mana. It also becomes much harder to do.

However, Yihan, still an inexperienced first-year, thought it was a pretty good idea before he could recall that fact.

‘I’ve certainly learned a few useful enchantment spells these days.’

It wasn’t that Yihan was only studying ridiculous attributes like ‘levitation,’ ‘automatic defense,’ or ‘reflection’ these days; there were actually many easier attributes as well.

Attributes that assisted in terms of power, such as ‘acceleration,’ ‘weight increase,’ or ‘penetration enhancement.’

Attributes that assisted in other areas, such as ‘shake removal,’ ‘hit enhancement,’ or ‘aim assist.’

Yihan was already handling magic in the form of orbs. He had been thinking of increasing the power with these enchantment spells someday.

It was too difficult to cast additional magic on objects that Yihan summoned and maintained with magic power, like water orbs…

But it was relatively easy on objects that didn’t require Yihan to maintain the magic power, like arrows.

‘I’ll start with arrows, and if it works well on arrows, I’ll try it on iron orbs next.’

The difficulty increased in the order of arrows, iron orbs, and water orbs, so practicing with arrows was not a bad idea.

“Become faster, become heavier, become sharper.”

Deurghyu and Giselle, who were eating grilled bird and watching from the side, stared with interest.

In fact, Giselle’s expression was closer to ‘what is he doing again,’ but interest was interest nonetheless.

“Yihan. You’ve also mastered >Lesser Weight Increase> and >Lesser Penetration Enhancement>?”

“It came up in the lecture, didn’t it?”

To be precise, it was one of the many basic enchantment spells written in the book rather than taught by Professor Verdus.

“It did come up. But it was in the back.”

However, those two spells were located relatively far back, and students who already had many spells to practice didn’t bother to touch the spells in the back first.

There were already enough spells to do without grabbing those.

“I practiced >Lesser Weight Increase> because there was something I wanted to test.”

“I see. …Oh? Then what about >Lesser Penetration Enhancement>?”

“I’m using that for the first time now.”

“……”

“……”

Deurghyu and Giselle agreed for the first time.

That’s ridiculous…

‘Ah, oops. What was I thinking.’

Deurghyu shook his head and brushed away his thoughts.

Yihan was a great friend, but when he showed off his talent for magic, it made him want to shout, ‘Stop cheating a little!’

“You’re really annoying.”

“…Moradi! You shouldn’t say such things to a teammate!”

“Why are you suddenly making a fuss? What is it?”

Whether his friends were talking or not, Yihan cast the next spell.

He accelerated, increased weight, enhanced penetration, enhanced hit, enhanced aim…

‘What else was there to cast? Ah. Shake removal.’

“Trembling, subside…”

Yihan, who was waving his wand, paused. The spell was not cast properly and bounced back.

It was the same even after repeating it several times.

“What’s wrong, Yihan?”

“Ah. That’s right. I forgot.”

Casting multiple enchantment spells on something like an arrow drastically increased the mana consumption and casting difficulty.

It was only natural that it wouldn’t work anymore after casting this many.

“……”

“……”

“Shouldn’t you usually realize that before casting?” Baishada asked the two White Tiger Tower students.

The two students ignored him, pretending not to hear.

“Then I’ll try it up to here.”

“Try hitting that rock over there.”

Yihan took a deep breath, his eyes narrowed as he focused on the rock. He raised the bow, the arrow pointing straight ahead.

Thwack!

Crash!

With a cracking sound, the arrow pierced the rock and became lodged about 1/3 of the way in.

Yihan was disappointed with the arrow’s position, which was quite far from the center he had aimed for.

‘Is this the extent with two?’

“It’s difficult after all.”

“What are you talking about…” Baishada said, looking at Yihan as if he were a monster.

He wasn’t a skilled archer, but if he had stuck an arrow into a rock, he had done well. There was no reason to be disappointed that he hadn’t hit the exact center.