Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 353

“What is it?”

Alshicle looked at Yumidihus, his eyes empty and unseeing, like he didn’t understand the simplest question.

“Alshicle Pengaerin. What are these potions here?”

“Yumidihus, sir…”

Yumidihus’s question seemed strange, and Alshicle’s voice faded away, sounding sad and small.

“Don’t you even know what these potions are?”

“……”

Yumidihus felt a flash of anger and wanted to shout, but he stopped himself. He took a deep breath.

“It’s not that I don’t know them,” Alshicle mumbled. “They are… Frost Deer horn, Icecold Stone, Eternal Snow, and Snow Jade Elixir, right?”

“Then why did you ask?”

“I’m just saying… you don’t have much money. Are you sure you should use these expensive potions? You need to save some for research, you know.”

The biggest problem when learning ice elemental magic was the nature of the ice element itself.

Life inherently emits heat and rejects cold.

No matter how cold and harsh the surrounding environment, it wasn’t easy for a living wizard to accept cold into their body.

Therefore, ice elemental mages used potions to transform the properties of the cold.

Cold that retained its chill but didn’t harm the wizard’s body.

Of course, it wasn’t easy, and expensive potions were required.

The more expensive and rare the potion, the better the performance, so Alshicle bringing out such expensive potions wasn’t a bad choice.

…Except looking at them all laid out, it seemed like Alshicle had put his entire savings into these few bottles.

Alshicle’s eyes widened.

“Oh dear,” he whispered, finally understanding what he had done.

Alshicle’s way of acting – unsure and always looking around – made Yumidihus sigh again. It was quite sad to see.

Yumidihus shook his head.

“Even now… you’re still trying to show off.”

Alshicle mumbled, “Well, it’s probably because Pengaerin doesn’t really need these potions anyway.”

Yumidihus and Alshicle simultaneously looked at Ethan.

However, Ethan continued without a change in expression.

“A great wizard doesn’t care about the type of wand, does he?”

“That’s true, but what Alshicle is trying to do…”

“Right? Pengaerin?”

“Of, of course.”

Alshicle nodded at Ethan’s question.

“For me, those potions are just… decorations. I could just go outside and pick up a snowflake without needing that stuff…”

“I knew you’d say that. Go ahead and proceed.”

Yumidihus decided that he shouldn’t leave Ethan and Alshicle alone together in the future.

At first, he was worried that Alshicle might bully Ethan, but now it seemed that if they were left alone, Ethan might just devour Alshicle whole, and it wouldn’t be surprising.

Yumidihus made a mental note: never leave Ethan and Alshicle alone again. He had started worrying about Alshicle’s safety, not Ethan’s.

WHOOSH! Suddenly, even inside the closed magic tower, a freezing blizzard erupted. It felt colder than the snowstorms raging outside the thick stone walls.

Strangely, Ethan didn’t even shiver in this sudden blizzard. The icy wind seemed to pass right through him.

It was snow, but it didn’t feel cold to the touch.

A strange, magical snow – something only magic could make.

“Using ice magic is usually hard unless you are in a very cold place.”

Alshicle, walking with short, hurried steps, pointed his wand towards the high ceiling.

High above, fixed to the tower’s ceiling, was a huge, glowing magic core. It pulsed with a blue light, spreading waves of icy air through the room.

Ice magic is harder to keep going than other types of magic. It’s not easy to use unless you are in a naturally cold place, or you have magical tools like this core.

For wizards who had reached a high level, such inconveniences were no problem, but the problem was the wizards who were just starting to learn.

Alshicle dug around in a corner, making rustling noises. He came back holding a wand, his face beaming with pride.

“Here. Look at this. See it?”

“This is…?”

Alshicle puffed out his chest.

“Yes! It’s a Frost Argon egg!”

At the end of the wand, a huge insect egg was set in place. It glowed with an eerie light, and a faint blue mist of cold air drifted from it.

Wands like this, with ice magic inside, are very helpful for wizards just starting to learn ice magic.

“This wand is very rare. At the auction where I got it, among ice magic experts in the north, there was a huge fight to get it. Many people were injured just trying to bid on it!”

Ethan thought to himself.

‘Why were there injured people at the auction gathering?’

“I’ll lend you this wand, Wodanaz,” Alshicle said, stumbling over his words. “Someone… as talented as you would be perfect for it.” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say Ethan was *more* talented, or even *less*.

“Thank you…”

Suddenly, Professor Volardi’s voice cut in.

“Wodanaz,” he said, as if just remembering, “you already have that stone from the Frost Giant King, don’t you?”

Ethan cursed silently.

‘Damn it,’ he thought, ‘I got too relaxed. I should have kicked Volardi out!’

Professor Volardi was just *too good* at spoiling everything, even lessons that weren’t his.

Alshicle blinked, still confused.

“A stone from the Frost Giant King?” he asked, not understanding what was happening.

“That’s… um…”

Even Ethan, usually so good with words, couldn’t find anything to say.

Professor Volardi, with his usual helpfulness, answered for him.

“Yes,” he said, “the wand Ethan uses has a stone he got after fighting the Frost Giant King. It’s much better than a Frost Argon egg.”

Ethan could see tears welling up in Alshicle’s eyes.

Alshicle turned his head away for a moment and sniffled, then turned back. His expression was haughty, but his eyes were red.

“Then… I guess you don’t need the wand.”

“That’s right.”

“Could you… maybe leave for a bit, Professor Volardi?” Alshicle asked, his voice quiet and sulky.

But Professor Volardi replied, completely serious, “If there’s something wrong with the teaching, it’s my duty to point it out.”

Alshicle just made a small, frustrated sound. He couldn’t argue with Professor Volardi’s words, even though he wanted to.

Unlike Volardi Begreck, who had a lot of experience teaching students as a professor at Einroguard, Alshicle had no teaching experience.

Ethan was speechless.

‘I knew he was shameless,’ he thought, ‘but this is incredible!’

Lying so boldly when no one could prove him wrong about Einroguard…

“First, summon the cold,” Alshicle instructed.

“Say, “Freeze!””

Ethan pointed the wand and said clearly, “Freeze.”

Immediately, a swirl of cold energy began to gather at the tip of the wand.

The air around them turned icy, and goosebumps popped up on Ethan’s arms.

“Good, the basics are there,” Alshicle said.

“Now, let’s try shaping it. Cone shape.”

Ethan focused, and the cold energy at the wand’s tip twisted into a sharp cone.

“Arrow shape!” Alshicle called out.

Ethan changed the spell, and the ice reshaped itself into a thin, pointed arrow.

“Shield shape.” This time, the ice flattened and widened into a small, round shield.

Alshicle watched silently for a moment.

“Are you learning ice magic for the first time?”

“Yes? No. I’ve learned from Professor Volardi before.”

“What!” Alshicle shouted with a brightened face.

“Then you should have said so! You scared me!”

Alshicle had been terrified for a moment, thinking Ethan had mastered it instantly. Hearing that Ethan had learned before made Alshicle feel much better, almost warm inside.

Professor Volardi, who had been quietly observing, spoke up.

“Actually,” he said, “you don’t usually do so many different shapes like that…”

“Okay, next lesson!” Ethan said quickly, wanting to move on.

“What’s next?”

“Launch!” Alshicle declared, swinging his wand dramatically.

Suddenly, a chunk of ice that had been floating in the air shot forward with incredible speed, making a loud, cracking sound as it smashed into the wall.

CLANG!

“Maybe that’s why Master Yumidihus wants you to learn ice magic,” Alshicle said.

“Water magic isn’t really good for launching things.”

“But can’t you use water magic for manipulation instead?” Ethan asked, sounding confused.

‘Launch’ and ‘manipulation’ seemed similar, but their principles were different.

What Alshicle had just shown was shooting a piece of ice after completing accurate trajectory calculations and injecting a strong force at once.

In comparison, the water beads or iron beads that Ethan often used were methods where the wizard directly targeted and controlled each one.

Precise control was possible, but it required tremendous effort to become proficient enough to use it.

“Why make it so hard for yourself?” Alshicle asked, puzzled.

“You could just learn fire magic or wind magic if you want to launch things easily.”

“…Maybe to react fast if something dangerous happens?” Ethan suggested.

Professor Volardi nodded slowly, as if considering this for the first time.

Alshicle still looked confused. He didn’t seem to understand Ethan’s point at all.

“But you won’t be in danger very often, right?” Alshicle argued.

“I think you should just be careful *not* to get into those situations! If you try to prepare for every possible problem, you’ll never stop preparing. And anyway, it takes too much time to make manipulation magic strong enough for a fight.”

Ethan unknowingly looked at Professor Volardi. Professor Volardi looked puzzled, as if asking why.

“If you want to use magic in a fight, it’s better to learn magic that’s *good* for fighting,” Alshicle declared.

“Let’s take a quick break, then we’ll practice launching more.”

“Ah, I’m okay,” Ethan said.

“No,” Alshicle insisted. “You might feel fine now, but ice magic uses a lot of mana. You’ll get tired soon.”

Alshicle popped the cork off a small bottle of mana potion and took a gulp. Then, he tossed another bottle to Ethan.

“Drink this to get your mana back,” Alshicle said, sounding very pleased with himself.

“Ice magic uses way more mana than you think. You can really hurt yourself if you treat it like other magic. Hehe! You didn’t even know *that*, did you?” Alshicle was clearly thrilled to be teaching Ethan something.

“Usele—” Professor Volardi started to say something, probably something unhelpful.

But Ethan quickly interrupted, “Thank you, Alshicle. I’ll drink it.” He took the potion before Professor Volardi could make things worse.

Of course, it had no effect.

Launching magic was important for many types of magic. Think of fire arrows, ice arrows, even rocks flying through the air. To make magic like that, you needed to learn how to ‘launch’ spells – to shape energy and then shoot it.

Learning to launch magic wasn’t easy, of course. You needed to judge distances, aim correctly, and know exactly how much magic power to put in to get the right strength…

CLANG! The sound of ice hitting wood echoed through the room.

“Like that?” Ethan asked.

The piece of ice he had shot was stuck perfectly in the center of the target.

Launching magic was supposed to be hard, but for Ethan, who could already do much harder ‘manipulation’ magic, it felt quite simple.

Alshicle stared, his mouth slightly open. He had been practicing shape-changing magic for ages, but launching spells? That was something else entirely…

“A-average,” Alshicle stammered, trying to sound unimpressed.

“Just average, really.”

“Is it?” Ethan frowned slightly. He thought he had done it perfectly. Average?

“What can I improve?” Ethan asked, wanting to get better.

“Well…” Alshicle hesitated, trying to think fast. “Water and ice magic are kind of related, right? One way they are connected is… this!”

CRACK! Alshicle swung his wand again. This time, the ice stuck in the wall didn’t just break – it vanished in a puff of steam, sucking in heat from the air around it. Suddenly, the cold air that had been around the ice spread out in a rush.

“To get a *really* good score,” Alshicle said, glancing nervously at Professor Volardi, “you need to make an exploding ice arrow! You have to add the ‘evaporation’ effect to it.”

Alshicle knew he was making things up. Just launching an ice arrow was already a fairly advanced spell. But now he was talking about adding ‘evaporation’ – that was incredibly difficult, a much higher level of magic!

CRACK! Ethan pointed his wand again, and this time, when the ice arrow hit the wall, it exploded in a burst of steam and cold, leaving a frosted patch on the stone.

Ethan’s face lit up with a smile. He had done it on his first try! He knew how to use ‘evaporation’ with water magic, but he hadn’t realized it would work so easily with ice too.

“I did it!” Ethan exclaimed, pleased.

“Ah… well…” Alshicle stammered again, “It’s still… a little bit lacking, maybe?”

“Really?” Ethan was starting to get suspicious.

‘This is definitely better than average, isn’t it? Are ice magic experts just *too* picky?’

“Professor,” Ethan started to ask, “is ice magic usually this str— Oh, never mind.” He stopped himself. Asking Professor Volardi was pointless. He never gave useful advice anyway.

“Okay, I get it,” Ethan said, hiding a smile.

“What do I need to fix now?”

“You have to do *everything* at once!” Alshicle declared triumphantly, his face beaming. He thought he had finally come up with a challenge Ethan couldn’t easily overcome.

Alshicle’s idea was actually quite reasonable. To really show you were good at magic, you had to be able to cast complex spells in one smooth motion, not step-by-step.

“That will definitely take a while,” Ethan said, pretending to be thoughtful.

“Right? Right? Right?!” Alshicle nodded eagerly, bouncing with excitement.

Ethan glanced at Professor Volardi, wondering, ‘Why is he so happy about this?’

Just then, Professor Volardi spoke up from the side.

“I can help with that.”

“Haha, no, it’s okay,” Ethan said quickly, cutting him off.