Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 375

Professor Mortem coughed, a dry rattle that echoed in the silent ruins. “How very strange,” he murmured, peering into the dark opening ahead.

The older students tried to look calm, pretending they hadn’t just been tripped by a hidden root. Professor Mortem, ignoring their red faces, stepped past the fallen stone guards. They had been easy to defeat.

After the traps they’d already faced in these ruins, everyone expected something much worse than a few clumsy stone figures.

“What is it, Professor?”

“There’s nothing of note inside.”

Dirette nodded at the professor’s words.

Certainly, for ruins that looked so good, there were not many guards. Aside from the sentinel golems stationed at the entrance, there were no other visible enemies.

“Darkness, extend and resonate… Still nothing. Cough. Very strange.”

Professor Mortem, having extended his magic into the inner passages of the ruins and cast various detection spells, stared into the darkness, lost in thought.

“Perhaps… no.”

“What were you thinking?”

“I wondered if these ruins might have an owner. Cough. Ruins with owners tend not to have unnecessary traps, after all.”

Most of the ruins discovered by the Imperial mages had long been abandoned by their owners.

However, sometimes, ruins with owners still remained.

In such cases, the mage found themselves in a risky situation.

It was like going onto someone else’s property…

“If there were an owner, wouldn’t it be impossible to enter so easily?”

Dirette tilted her head in confusion.

Ruins that were actively managed by a living owner should have shown some signs before they even entered.

Warnings to deter outsiders, as well as minions patrolling the perimeter to prevent approach.

The entrance was very quiet. There were no signs of life. It seemed unlikely someone lived here.

“Cough. True, you’re right. If there were an owner, it wouldn’t be this poorly managed. Unless the owner is trapped somewhere, or seriously injured and recovering…”

Squelch!

“!”

Professor Mortem and Ethan were the first to sense the change in the flow of magic within the palace ruins.

Ethan looked around. The walls, floor, and ceiling around the palace entrance began to ripple like slime.

He knew transmutation magic could change the properties and shapes of matter, but to witness magic of this scale firsthand…

“Everyone, stay still!”

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Professor Mortem immediately took action.

Professor Mortem usually looked sick, but now he looked different. His eyes shone as he held up his staff.

“I command, open the path of shadow! Let the ropes of darkness bind!”

Instantly, a door connected to the shadow dimension appeared behind the students, and ropes made of dark magic burst forth.

Originally, it was a spell that used dark magic to open a door to the shadow dimension, briefly drawing in enemies, but Professor Mortem had changed the spell to teleport people.

With the right application, it could become a powerful defensive spell, temporarily protecting the students.

The students who passed through the shadow dimension emerged beside Professor Mortem. They felt sick and dizzy from the dark magic.

Rumble!

However, it soon became clear that Professor Mortem’s judgment was correct.

The floors that had been perfectly fine until just now began to ripple and sink downwards, and the walls moved closer as if to collide, changing the space.

If he had tried to move them himself, some would have fallen along the way.

“P-Professor!”

Crack!

Professor Mortem extended his palm to soothe the frightened student and began to bring the surrounding bones under his control.

A massive bone platform appeared in the dark void where there had been a solid floor until just now. The remaining bones surrounded it like walls.

Only then could the students breathe a sigh of relief.

“Professor!”

“Calm yourselves. The floor disappearing isn’t too dangerous. Judging by this reaction, these ruins aren’t that dangerous…”

“No, a junior has disappeared!”

“!!!”

At first, when the seniors teleported to the shadow dimension without him, Ethan thought he had done something wrong to Professor Mortem.

‘What did I do wrong?’

However, seeing the dark magic and the gaps in the dimension being deflected away from his body, he understood what had happened.

‘Professor…! You can’t just use attack magic anywhere…!’

It was strange. It was like Professor Mortem’s magic couldn’t touch him, just like curses and poisons bounced off him, and Ethan felt more confused than scared.

Feeling the floor disappear and falling downwards, Ethan immediately summoned an iron sphere.

“Move!”

It wasn’t originally a spell meant to withstand falls, nor was it strong enough to support Ethan’s weight, but Ethan’s strong magic power fixed the iron sphere in the air as if it were nailed there.

A strong impact shot up his shoulder.

Ethan poured magic into his body and endured.

“Feet, wrinkle the earth… Space, be recognized!”

He cast enhancement magic and space perception magic in preparation for any possible situation. The surroundings were still rippling, but thanks to the magic, his sense of distance returned.

‘There’s a floor!’

Ethan summoned a sphere of light. Then, he began to descend, changing the position of the iron sphere.

He vowed to learn slow-fall magic as soon as he returned to the magic school.

‘I should have learned it right after catching the Rock Drake… I’m suffering like this because I didn’t study.’

Ethan felt bad.

There was a reason why professors said, ‘Are you going to give away your studies? It’s all for you.’

He would study harder in the second semester.

Thud!

“?”

While safely descending, Ethan turned his gaze in surprise when something fell past him.

“What…”

“Arm, my arm…”

“Senior!”

Second-year senior, Ogoltos, was lying on the ground beside him, groaning in pain.

Unlike Ethan, Ogoltos was not bold enough to cast spells while falling through the air.

It was fortunate that he had called an undead creature to soften his fall, or else his whole body, not just his arm, would have been shattered.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m, I’m fine. I’m alright.”

Ogoltos waved his hand, sweat dripping down his pale face.

As a senior by one year, he didn’t want to show weakness in front of his junior.

Moreover, hadn’t Ogoltos suspected that Ethan and other tower juniors like Gainando weren’t truly serious about black magic?

He couldn’t possibly receive help from a junior he had said such things to.

“Your arm is broken, though?”

“I said I’m fine. Fix my arm…”

By the time they were second-years at Einroguard, students were capable of providing first aid for most injuries, except for those that caused instant death.

Ogoltos raised his staff and tried to cast a spell. However, it wasn’t easy due to the pain. The spell missed several times, and the magic didn’t work.

“Senior, just let me do it.”

“I’m…”

Slightly annoyed, Ethan hesitated for a moment before grabbing Ogoltos’s shoulder and holding him down.

Being targeted by the skeletal headmaster would make his years at the magic school difficult, but at most, being targeted by a second-year senior from another tower wouldn’t be that bad.

“What are you doing… Aargh!”

“Stay still!”

Surprisingly, instead of applying a splint and providing first aid, the junior raised his staff and cast a spell.

Ogoltos screamed at the sudden healing magic.

“Stop! What are you doing! No!”

Ogoltos desperately tried to stop him, remembering when a fellow second-year priest had failed a healing spell and badly hurt his friend’s finger.

If a sprained finger was dangerous, a broken injury would be even more so…

“Try moving it.”

“?”

Ogoltos moved his arm, dumbfounded.

Surprisingly, there was no pain.

Ethan nodded silently and said.

“It was an emergency, so I had no choice but to cast it first.”

“……”

Ogoltos thought for a moment before trying to open his mouth.

“Th-Th…”

-Grrrr.

“SharKhan. You say there’s a path over there? Thank you. Senior, there’s a path over there… What were you trying to say?”

“Hurting a lot.”

“Oh dear. Your injury must have been severe.”

-Grrr.

“SharKhan. You shouldn’t act like that. It’s not like Senior wanted to get hurt.”

“……”

Ogoltos had never sat on a bed of nails.

One of the third-year seniors had claimed to have sat on a bed of nails in the upperclassmen’s room in the basement of the place for bad students (Ogoltos was still unsure whether it was a lie or not), but Ogoltos had fortunately never had such an experience.

But right now, Ogoltos felt like he was sitting on a bed of nails.

“…D-Damn it. Magic…”

Mages were delicate creatures.

The shock of failing a spell, as well as the shock of falling when the surrounding walls danced and the floor disappeared, could mess up their magic, preventing them from using magic for a certain period.

No matter how hard Ogoltos tried to concentrate, the flow of magic within his body was twisted and wouldn’t work.

“Senior, it’s alright. I can use magic.”

“…I said I’ll do it. Just wait… Ugh.”

“Gonadaltes, support Senior.”

“I’m fine… What? What did you say?”

“Huh? What is it?”

“No… It’s nothing. Never mind.”

Ogoltos was about to say something about the skeleton warrior’s name but stopped himself.

It was the mage’s freedom to name their summons whatever they wanted, but…

…Wasn’t that a little too free?!

-■ ■■■■■■.

“……”

Ethan walked forward.

He had dismissed all the other skeletons except for SharKhan and Gonadaltes. They were too slow and made it harder to move.

Of course, Ogoltos understood it in another way.

‘Because of me…!’

His face turned red as he thought that his junior was canceling even other undead to support him.

“That’s…”

Ethan stopped walking.

A scary scene came into view at the end of the underground passage.

Ogoltos, who still had dark vision magic active, blinked and said.

“A prison…”

“A punishment room… Ah, a prison, I mean. Habit.”

“……”

Surprisingly, the end of the passage connected to an underground prison. Ethan was amazed that there was such a place in the ruins.

‘I thought all ruins were just broken and destroyed places.’

Walking straight through the passage, they arrived at a round room with rooms around the edge.

One strange thing was that there were no iron bars. There were no walls that would have originally blocked prisoners from escaping.

For a moment, Ethan wondered if someone had come and torn down the bars.

-Who is it? Which person who broke in is hanging around in the king’s prison?

“!”

Ethan was shocked that he hadn’t noticed the other person so close. Unless the opponent was a stronger magic user, he would always detect their magic first.

-You’d better hide quickly. If you’re caught, you won’t get away safely.

The one who spoke was an undead mage inside a nearby cell. Ethan realized why he hadn’t noticed the other person. Only when the other person removed the cloak they were wearing did he finally sense their magic.

Seeing no signs of the monster’s unique hostility, Ethan asked carefully.

“Who are you?”

-Who am I? Someone who didn’t do what the king said.

“So, who is the king?”

-…What are you talking about… You, how did you get in here? Don’t you know that this is the palace where the Ghoul King rules? What about the soldiers outside??

“?!!”

Ethan paused at the somewhat familiar name.

Surely not?