Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 361

“Unbelievable!” Gainando pointed a finger at Raphael. “So, you’re safe now, but you think you don’t have to pay?”

Lee Han watched, surprised. He looked at Raphael, waiting to hear what he would say.

“You have no shame!” Gainando continued, his voice rising. “Are you even honest?”

Gainando’s friend also stared at Raphael, shaking his head. Suddenly, Raphael burst out, his face red.

“Who said I wouldn’t pay?!” Raphael shouted. “I will pay! I said I will!”

“See?” Gainando said, smirking. “Shouting like that just makes you look guiltier.”

“Shut up!” Raphael yelled, turning his back on Gainando.

“Those White Tiger Tower blokes always have such tempers…”

“They even beat up their seniors if they get upset.”

Lee Han stopped as he heard the Black Magic School seniors whispering nearby.

Lee Han remembered a time. He and Yumidihus had gone to learn water magic behind the mountains. They had even ambushed older students to steal their things.

“…The students from the White Tiger Tower aren’t that bad.”

“Covering for your friends, are you? How kind.”

“But Wodanaz, how is it that a student from the Blue Dragon Tower is so friendly with someone from the White Tiger Tower?”

Lee Han replied with a forced smile.

“We’re all here to learn magic, there’s no reason to fight just because we’re from different towers, is there?”

“…Is he really an Einroguard student?”

“Something’s odd? Did the rules change this year?”

Lee Han gave a textbook answer, but it didn’t work on the seniors.

Unfortunately, the seniors had already been thoroughly twisted by their Einroguard life.

‘How unfortunate,’ Lee Han thought. ‘Einroguard life has made them suspicious and unkind.’

Unlike the very normal himself, Lee Han genuinely felt sorry for the twisted seniors.

Professor Mortoom gave a very long speech. He talked about his sad life and a terrible event called the tragedy of Myotburi Fortress. It was so long that everyone was ready to listen to other stories.

“I’ve been trying to summon a Hroi-karl lately, but it’s difficult. I suppose it’s because it’s an undead that lives in the water.”

“Aquatic undead are even harder. Their poison is strong, making defense difficult. What are you using as bait?”

“I’ve been throwing rotten meat at it, but the blighter just eats it and refuses to make a contract with me. Ah. Should I look for another undead?”

“Dirette, are you going to stay for the fifth year?”

“I’m considering it. It seems Einroguard would be better for continuing my research.”

Dirette answered and turned his gaze to Lee Han.

He had been curious for a while but hadn’t had the chance.

“By the way, junior, what’s this about the professors fighting in the street…”

“Dirette, I have a dilemma. Should I stay at Einroguard next year too?”

“…Shall we talk about it separately later?”

“Originally, my goal was to take over the graveyard keeper job around the village. But I think I can take it over with my current level, and my parents seem to want me to come and settle down… I can do research there too, but… Ah. It’s difficult. Really.”

Dirette swallowed his disappointment and comforted the junior who was agonizing over his career path.

“Think once more about the magic research you’re trying to do now…”

“Senior, I received a rather suspicious offer this time. They’re looking for a black magician skilled in curse magic, but they won’t tell me what they want to curse. Should I take this offer?”

“No. You shouldn’t take offers that aren’t specific. Especially for a black magician…”

“Senior, I’m short on silver coins because I’m buying a new wand, and the adventurers of Langyen are looking for a black magician. Is it okay for me to participate?”

‘Intriguing.’

Lee Han listened intently to the conversation between the seniors.

Next to him, Gainando was playing magician cards with Imirgue, getting beaten senseless and turning pale.

“Y-you’re cheating, aren’t you!? You cheated, didn’t you?!”

“If I cheated, you would have lost even more miserably…”

“Lee Han! Lee Han! Be the judge! Isn’t he cheating?”

“No. You lost because you’re bad.”

“You didn’t even watch!”

Lee Han ignored Gainando’s words and played with his quill.

Professor Mortoom asked curiously at Lee Han’s diligent writing.

“Ahem. Wodanaz, you’re not going to take on requests during the vacation, so why are you writing that down?”

“I am going to take them, though?”

Professor Mortoom looked at Lee Han with a ‘what a bizarre fellow’ gaze.

“I think I know why the headmaster likes you… Ahem. You’re alike.”

“No, that’s too much!”

Lee Han shouted, involuntarily enraged.

It was an insult that even Lee Han, who was skilled at controlling his emotions, found hard to bear.

“Too much?”

“…You’re too kind!”

“Is that so? Ahem. I thought you might be offended… Well, even considering that, Gonadaltez is quite the archmage.”

Professor Mortoom seemed to already know the skeletal headmaster’s eccentric personality well.

‘Well, anyone who’s with him would have to know.’

It was a personality that anyone with eyes, or even without eyes, couldn’t help but know.

“Ahem. If you like working during the vacation… there will be a superposition phenomenon soon, how about participating in that?”

“Professor?!”

The Black Magic School seniors were even more surprised than Lee Han.

“Professor! He’s a first-year!”

“If he’s a first-year who survived facing the Frost Giant King… Ahem. It shouldn’t matter if he participates.”

“The Frost Giant King, you say?”

“Why would a first-year face that… how could he face that… Is Einroguard crazy…? Well, it was always crazy…”

At the sight of the murmuring juniors, Dirette was ashamed and lowered his head, covering it with his wings.

Vowing to bury Cohalti and Kumandas upside down in the graveyard when he returned to school!

“Does superposition mean the phenomenon of realms overlapping?”

“That’s right. Wow. You’re really something.”

One of the seniors exclaimed in admiration and began to explain.

Originally, for magicians to visit other realms, rather complex magic was required.

The magic circles set up by Professor Milray, who taught summoning magic, looked simple but were magic circles filled with advanced wisdom.

Even after visiting, there were considerable restrictions. It was only natural since it was forcibly visiting a world that wasn’t one’s own.

However, there was a moment when such means or restrictions disappeared.

When the other dimension overlapped and mixed with this dimension.

Lee Han also had a hunch.

‘Is it changing like it did with the Frost Giant King?’

At that time, the upper corridor of Einroguard was a school, but also somewhere else that wasn’t a school.

The dimension of the Frost Giants was overlapping, and a knife-like coldness spread around.

This phenomenon could also occur in the Undead Realm.

“Recently, I found a place where the Undead Realm will soon overlap. The magic power is very stagnant there.”

“If it’s stagnant, shouldn’t you release it?”

Lee Han asked, recalling what he had experienced while carrying out the graveyard keeper request last time.

Stagnant magic power meant that abnormal phenomena were more likely to occur.

“In principle, yes, but if it’s accumulated to that extent, it’s a shame to just release it. It’s also an opportunity.”

Lee Han looked at the seniors suspiciously.

The seniors realized the meaning of that gaze and hurriedly explained.

“We’re doing everything with the Empire’s permission!”

“Ah. In that case…”

Professor Mortoom coughed and took over the explanation.

“For black magicians, this opportunity of the Undead Realm overlapping is a very good opportunity.”

“Is it an opportunity to contract with a powerful summon?”

“Huh?”

The black magicians gathered in the room showed an unexpected reaction to Lee Han’s words.

“Haha. You can’t just go in and contract with a powerful summon like that, you need preliminary investigation.”

If it was a lower-level summon, you could just go in and scan the surroundings, but it was difficult to deal with named, powerful undead in such a crude way.

First, you had to gather information about the undead, investigate how to contact them, and how to make a contract.

‘Is Perkhuntra not that powerful of an existence?’

“Something else is more important than a contract.”

“What…?”

“Everything.”

Professor Mortoom moistened his throat with juice and said,

“Soil, bones buried in the soil, mushrooms growing from those bones, bugs eating those mushrooms, trees where those bugs grow… everything in the Undead Realm is a good material and reagent. Ahem. Originally, there are many restrictions, making it difficult to collect, but the story is different during superposition.”

“Of course, you can’t just dig up anything. You need a discerning eye.”

“If you’re really lucky, you can live off just one item for a year.”

Lee Han’s eyes lit up at the suddenly interesting topic.

“Is it that much?”

“Yes. A significant number of the things that come out are reagents only used by black magicians, but sometimes there are reagents used by other magicians or materials coveted by nobles. Those things jump in price. Senior Dirette here is a legend. He found the Everlasting Herb in his second year…”

Lee Han looked at Dirette with respect several times stronger than usual.

Of course, Dirette was more dumbfounded than pleased.

‘He’s looking at me like that because of this?’

“…Anyway, even if it looks good, it’s quite dangerous to enter the superposed Undead Realm. It’s difficult unless you’re a black magician who knows how to deal with undead. First-years are usually a bit…”

“As the professor said, if you give me the opportunity, I will do my best.”

The seniors nodded at Lee Han’s words.

Above all, Professor Mortoom guaranteed it, so there was no reason to stop him.

“Is this really okay…?”

“By the way, what happened to the Frost Giant King? Was that the blizzard from last time?”

“I thought Senior Cohalti had taken the blame and resolved it.”

Lee Han, who was listening, suddenly became curious and asked.

“But seniors, have you ever heard of… a basilisk, or a magician from the Doin family, or a ghoul… or anything like that?”

“Huh? I just came in three days ago.”

“I don’t go around the city much.”

“I’ve only been reading books in the dorm, what happened?”

Lee Han was touched.

There could hardly be anyone as simple and comforting as black magicians!

“…I really don’t say these things usually. I hope you don’t misunderstand.”

Yoanen spoke cautiously.

“Aren’t you doing too many things right now?”

“Yes? Is that so?”

Lee Han, who was carefully melting off the milky-white metal with a green flame to extract it, was surprised and asked back.

“I thought the last few weeks have been rather relaxed since the professors haven’t been around…”

“…Th, that’s right. Let’s continue with the extraction.”

People tend to become relatively normal when they meet someone more insane than themselves.

Yoanen used to say ‘Let’s focus on work’ when his assistant spoke, but…

‘Honestly, I’m curious…!’

Just from what he had heard directly from Lee Han, he had plans for magic studies, work at Puyo’s wand workshop, and visits to the Undead Realm, and even rumors of a professor brawl in broad daylight and the subjugation of the Ghoul King.

Yoanen, who usually didn’t think of anything else while working, found his curiosity piqued in this case.

“Shall we stop here? Let’s call the alchemists from the workshop and have a meal together…”

“Ah. There are impurities in the composition. I think we need to do it again.”

“…Maybe this is good enough?”

It was an astonishing sound that Yoner would have fainted at, but Lee Han shook his head.

“No.”

“Can’t we do it after dinner…”

“No. There will be waste in the extraction if we do that.”

Yoanen glared briefly at his past self who had thoroughly taught all of that.

Then he walked back and called a servant.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes, Master Yoanen.”

“Call Yoner.”