Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 277

‘Damn it! It’s like talking to a wall.’

Lee Han felt disappointed, but he wasn’t really surprised.

Everyone knew officials in the Empire were honest and fair. It was hard to change their minds with personal feelings.

Still, he had hoped that because they went to the same school, they might understand each other better…

“If I wanted a government job, what job do you think would be good for me?” Lee Han asked directly, still hoping for a chance.

Lee Unradé looked like he had heard the silliest joke ever. Seeing this, Lee Han quickly changed what he said.

“It was a joke.”

“Haha. I thought as much.”

Lee Han was annoyed inside.

He’s so honest and good!

Lee Han understood why Lee Unradé was sent to Einrogard. It was because he was so honest.

“Anyway, Student Wodanaz… thank you for talking to me today.”

“It was no problem. It was my job.”

“As someone older, I’m a little worried you might have too much to handle.” Lee Han’s face brightened.

“But don’t worry, I don’t want to stop you. Isn’t a challenge a good thing for talented people?” Lee Han’s face darkened.

‘Just like a graduate, talking nonsense so easily.’

While Lee Unradé was worried about what the Emperor and other officials would think, somewhere else, people were sweating.

Kilbedek, an adventurer, wiped sweat from his forehead with his dirty sleeve. He looked at his friend, waiting for an answer.

“How is it?”

“Still seems a bit lacking.”

“Don’t give me that! This is more than enough! I didn’t prepare this much even when I went to hunt a rampaging cave troll!”

“Don’t get angry. It’s not like I want to do this either. You know that mad wizard won’t be satisfied.”

Kilbedek stopped talking.

Even though these adventurers had never met before, doing a dangerous job together often made them friends fast. That’s what happened to Kilbedek.

He had tried to cheat a wizard from Einrogard and now he was stuck in this mess!

-If we knew he was a wizard from Einrogard, we wouldn’t have tried to cheat him!

Kilbedek and the other adventurers said, but it was too late.

The mad wizard asked the adventurers who had tried to trick him if they would help him with a job, or be punished by the Empire…

The adventurers, of course, said, ‘We’ll help!’

Choosing punishment might mean being secretly buried alive.

-What on earth does he want us to do?

-I heard the Einrogard grounds are vast. Maybe we have to gather materials?

-Maybe we have to raid a dungeon…

-Nonsense. Why would a wizard affiliated with Einrogard call adventurers like us?

-Then, what?

-Human experimentation… maybe he wants to do human experimentation?

The captured adventurers trembled.

Luckily, it wasn’t what they expected.

-Work together.

-Sorry?

-Imagine someone is breaking in. Work together to stop them.

-We can do that right now!

-I know my reputation isn’t that great, but I’ve handled dozens of requests in the West!

-Understood. I will test you.

And the mad wizard easily stopped all their attacks, then beat up the adventurers badly.

-Again. Prepare properly.

-Ugh… Ugh… Uuuugh…

The mad wizard beat up the adventurers, made them prepare again, beat them up again, and made them prepare again.

Begging, excuses, trying to calm him down, or offering him money – nothing worked.

He was truly the mad wizard the adventurers feared.

Why else would there be a saying among adventurers, ‘Don’t get involved with wizards’?

Having strong people like wizards in your group could be very helpful.

But the saying ‘Don’t get involved with wizards’ existed because of people like this mad wizard.

Once you got tangled up with them, you couldn’t escape until you died!

“…I’ll prepare again.”

Kilbedek sighed deeply. He wanted to spit, but he was too afraid to do so.

Since he couldn’t escape, all he could do was prepare until the wizard was satisfied.

“Firing an arrow the moment the basement door opens seems good. But what we do after that is not clear enough.”

“How about setting up a pressure-activated trap in front of the door?”

“Good. Let’s add more. Have one person wait to the side and attack.”

“Can you time it right?”

“Damn… I guess I have to try now that it’s come to this.”

“Good. Then I’ll load the crossbow and jump forward.”

“What about the potion?”

“I’ve set it up. It’ll fly as soon as it’s activated.”

The adventurers were really excited to plan how to stop the person who would open the basement workshop door and come in.

Not only Kilbedek but all the other adventurers were preparing so seriously for the first time.

Adventurers didn’t usually spend their free time training and preparing for the next mission in advance.

Rather, there were more of the type who lived extravagantly, eating, drinking, and having fun.

It was a dangerous job, and they earned a lot to spend a lot, so it was, in a way, natural.

But today was different.

Thanks to the mad wizard, all the adventurers were working together as hard as they could, using all their skills and even more.

“How about changing the spear shaft? Let’s increase the length.”

“That might not be bad… Good. Should we add some padding to the shield too?”

“My toothed blade and your iron mace. Swinging them together will be quite effective. Let’s work together.”

Clang!

“!!!!”

At the sound of the door opening, the adventurers jumped back.

The mad wizard had returned.

“P-Please give us a little more time!”

“It’s not ready!”

The adventurers begged. They knew the mad wizard would be very angry when he finished his work.

Professor Volardi looked at them without any expression.

“How much longer?” he asked.

“One hour… Wait, no! Thirty minutes! Yes, thirty minutes should be enough!”

“Okay,” Professor Volardi said. “We will start in thirty minutes. You will fight a student.”

“Thank… Wait, who is it?”

Professor Volardi didn’t answer. He just nodded, as if to say ‘get ready,’ and left the workshop.

The adventurers who were left behind stared out the workshop window, their eyes wide.

*A student? We have to fight a student?* they thought.

It was better than fighting the mad wizard, but now they had a different worry.

*Is this right? Should we really attack a student?*

“Wait…” one adventurer whispered, “Won’t we get in trouble with the law?”

Another one sighed, “We are already in trouble.”

Ethan arrived at the hidden workshop under the ground, just like Professor Volardi told him. He wasn’t surprised at all.

*I knew something like this would happen,* Ethan thought.

It was exam week, after all.

If Ethan hadn’t expected something strange after seeing Professor Volardi send adventurers to school in boxes last time, he wouldn’t be able to survive in Einroguard.

Professor Volardi nodded slightly to Ethan. Ethan was ready for anything.

*Good. He’s ready to fight,* Professor Volardi thought.

“The adventurers are inside,” Professor Volardi said. “Go in and defeat them.”

“Yes, Professor,” Ethan replied.

Battle mages needed to be ready for anything.

They had to be able to fight enemies hiding inside buildings.

*Why do I have to do this in my first year?* Ethan wondered. But he didn’t argue. He just held his wand tighter.

*I need to get ready.*

He started to cast spells to make himself stronger and faster. He thought about using magic to trick the adventurers’ eyes and then send in his summoned creatures.

Ethan had expected this test since Professor Volardi brought the adventurers to school. But still, he felt worried.

He had to go into a basement where experienced adventurers, who had been through many tough battles, were waiting for him, ready to fight.

Even if he prepared very well, he might still lose.

*At least there are no phoenixes or Cerberuses in there,* Ethan thought, trying to be positive.

Ethan took a deep breath and got ready.

Suddenly, he felt someone watching him. He looked to the side and saw the adventurers staring at him through the workshop window.

Ethan’s face became serious.

*They are really adventurers,* he thought.

They were watching him closely, trying to see what he could do. He knew he couldn’t underestimate them.

*If I show them my magic now, they might attack me before I’m ready.*

*I don’t know if this will work, but…*

Ethan turned to Professor Volardi and said in a shaky voice, “Professor… I’m really scared.”

Professor Volardi raised an eyebrow, looking surprised.

“Are you feeling alright?” he asked, sounding a little annoyed.

Inside the workshop, the adventurers heard the student’s voice from outside. He sounded scared and worried. They started to feel uneasy.

They wondered if they should really attack him.

“Wait a minute,” one adventurer said, “Are we part of some kind of trick?”

“What do you mean?” another asked.

“Maybe,” the first one said, lowering his voice, “Maybe the professor wants to get rid of a student who made him angry. But he doesn’t want to do it himself, so he’s using us.”

“…”

The idea made sense. The adventurers became quiet, thinking about it.

Because they were distracted and less ready, Ethan had the perfect chance.

*BANG!*

Ethan kicked the workshop door open with all his strength. Arrows shot out from inside right away.

*Thump, thump-*

The arrows hit the water shield that Ethan had already made. Ethan had used spells to make himself more aware of his surroundings, so he knew the arrows were stopped even without looking.

“Light, appear!” Ethan shouted.

Instead of going inside, Ethan sent a huge amount of magical power into the workshop, casting the Light Creation spell.

Suddenly, a ball of blinding white light, like a small, hot sun, floated into the workshop.

“Light! Light! Light!” Ethan chanted, making the light even brighter.

Normally, a simple light spell didn’t need so much magical power.

Magical power, called mana, was limited, and using it wisely was important for a mage.

But Ethan didn’t care about saving mana right now. He just flooded the workshop with light. The adventurers, who were used to the dim light inside, were instantly blinded.

“Rise, skeleton warriors! Heat, twist the air!”

Ethan threw small pieces of bone into the workshop to summon skeleton warriors. The skeletons were still forming, not fully ready to fight, but they looked scary enough to the blinded adventurers.

“Undead creatures! Dark magic!” one adventurer yelled.

“Get ready!” shouted another.

Even in the bright chaos, the adventurers moved like a well-trained team. Their movements were smooth and perfect. Ethan was impressed.

*I thought they were just tricksters, but they are really skilled,* Ethan thought. *They must be good if they dared to trick a professor at Einroguard.*

Inside the workshop, it was so bright that no one could see clearly.

Thanks to Ethan’s illusion magic, the few skeleton warriors looked like many more than they really were.

But the adventurers didn’t panic. They swung their weapons with precision and smashed the skeletons to pieces.

They had trained hard in this workshop, and it showed.

“I… I defeated one!” Kilbedek said, surprised that he had actually hit something in the blinding light.

“Bones, grab them!” Ethan shouted again, launching his next attack right away.

The light and the skeletons were just a distraction. Ethan’s real plan was to stop the adventurers from using their own attacks.

Using the bones of the broken skeletons, Ethan sent bone magic everywhere.

“Bones, grab them!”

With a horrible cracking sound, sharp bone pieces flew from all directions, wrapping around the adventurers to trap them.

The adventurers who were still standing hid where Ethan couldn’t see them from the door and yelled.

“He’s not just a student! He’s strong!”

“Don’t give up! He can’t keep using so much magic! He’ll run out of power soon!”

“Ugh…!”

One adventurer wasn’t fast enough and was hit by many bone spells. He fell to the ground.

The others held on, fighting through the pain. They had become stronger because of the mad wizard’s harsh training.

*It will be over soon!* one thought, gritting his teeth.

*Mages can’t use magic forever,* another thought. *His mana must be running low…*

…But why was Ethan still so strong?