Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 379

The Ghoul King’s voice echoed through the stone hall, thick with contempt. “Just some worthless trash.”

He ignored the masked mage for now. Ogoltos and Yihan were small annoyances, buzzing flies compared to the real threat.

He turned his attention to the berserker, a hulking brute still recovering from the earlier attack. “Let’s see how valuable you really are.”

The Ghoul King dodged the berserker’s clumsy charge. Quick as smoke, he turned into a swirling black mist, smelling of decay and shadows.

The mist enveloped the berserker. The sounds of bone cracking and flesh tearing filled the air – a gruesome feast had begun.

‘He’s recovered quite a bit more than I thought.’

As the berserker was devoured, the undead mage calmly considered the situation.

He didn’t regret drawing his sword against the Ghoul King.

The undead mage knew the rule of this dark place: attack weakness, or lose your chance forever.

However, the Ghoul King had recovered remarkably quickly in that short time.

By devouring the minions around the palace and absorbing the ambient magic, he must have regained a considerable amount of power.

‘I should have come sooner…’

Regret aside, the undead mage’s incantation flowed seamlessly. Consecutive bursts of poison mist erupted, beginning to fill the space.

“Poison? Really? You think *that* will bother me?”

The Ghoul King scoffed, seizing and devouring another berserker.

Having started as a mere ghoul and risen to his current status through countless battles and victories, the Ghoul King possessed several powers befitting his achievements.

The ability to dissolve his physical form into a mobile mist, the power to absorb an opponent’s essence, the ability to summon contracted undead…

Even unable to use many of his powers due to his weakened state, the Ghoul King displayed a ferocious combat prowess with the strength he had left.

Crack!

Another berserker melted away. The Ghoul King, who had been circling and evading, seized an opening and sank his fangs in.

Even the mighty berserker was reduced to a mere puppet when confronted directly by the Ghoul King.

Yet, the undead mage remained calm.

It didn’t matter that his opponent had recovered faster than expected. From the start, the mage had assumed that the Ghoul King possessed superior combat strength.

The reason mages were frightening was their ability to devise stratagems that exploited vulnerabilities, regardless of their own combat strength.

The undead mage had been preparing a spell to strike at the Ghoul King ever since he had been forced to serve him.

“Is this really going to work?” Yihan asked, his voice tinged with panic as he watched the Ghoul King tear through the berserkers in the hall.

He was, inconveniently, far stronger than when they had last met.

‘Wouldn’t it be better to retreat?’

“-Don’t worry,” the undead mage said, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes. “I’ve been preparing a way to stab the King in the back… since the moment I became his loyal subject.”

*‘Then maybe you shouldn’t have sworn loyalty in the first place…’* Yihan thought, shaking his head.

He had sworn loyalty when asked, only to reveal he had been planning this from the start. It was absurd.

The logic of the undead dimension was too perplexing for Yihan.

“What’s the plan?”

-You’ll see. Just buy me as much time as you can.

With those words, the undead mage seized a berserker and began to absorb its magic.

He was short on the magic needed for the spell.

“Need magic? Take mine!” Yihan offered, holding out his hand.

The undead mage grabbed it without hesitation. “-Faster this way!” he snapped, pulling Yihan closer.

‘Should I not have said anything?’

The Ghoul King, having felled more than half of the berserkers, let out a satisfied roar.

His eyes then fell upon the undead mage standing in the corner.

Humph!

Normally, the Ghoul King would have wiped out the berserkers first before dealing with the mage.

These berserkers were the strongest of the prisoners in the dungeon.

And the undead mage hadn’t been able to inflict any real damage on the Ghoul King.

Though a powerful poison element mage, he was a poor match for the Ghoul King, whose natural elemental resistance and powerful movement abilities allowed him to neutralize the undead mage.

From the Ghoul King’s perspective, the one who was more bothersome was the one nipping at his heels with low-level elemental magic.

Even though the level of magic was low, his movements were unpredictably fast and accurate, and his firepower was strangely potent.

Normally, he would have left such an incompetent and presumptuous wretch until last, to inflict maximum terror before finishing him off…

But something about him bothered him.

Unbeknownst to the Ghoul King himself, his recent defeat had altered his arrogant nature.

His mind changed.

-!

The undead mage was startled.

The Ghoul King was starting to move towards the mage, even though preparations weren’t complete.

-What… Stop him!

The remaining berserkers roared and blocked the way. The Ghoul King lightly transformed his body into black mist, intending to pass through them.

“Ice, like mist!”

A cloud of bright blue ice mist burst into existence.

Someone of the Ghoul King’s caliber could tell the level of a spell just by looking at its structure.

What had just been cast was a >Low-Grade Ice Mist>.

It was a low-circle spell that was yawn-inducing. The Ghoul King tried to ignore it and break through.

But at that moment, a chilling cold emanated from the mist.

!

The Ghoul King hastily twisted his body to avoid the mist. In the meantime, the undead mage cast another cloud of poison, creating distance.

-I don’t know why the fake king is acting like this!

“Did the plan go wrong!?” Yihan shouted as he also created distance.

The undead mage spoke as if he couldn’t understand.

-With his original personality, he wouldn’t have attacked me first out of pride. He would have thought it was beneath him. That’s why I thought it would be okay, but why is he acting like this… Did his personality change because of his recent defeat?

“……”

Yihan cursed his past self.

Even if silver coins were tempting, why did he have to go into that cave so readily, leading to this mess!

How long was he planning to run away? Huh? If he was going to try to take the throne, shouldn’t he at least try to fight back! If he kept running away like this…

The Ghoul King swelled his body, blowing away the poison cloud, and was about to chase the undead mage again when he paused.

He felt a sense of unease.

…Wait.

The Ghoul King turned his gaze to the floor.

Unbeknownst to him, a magic circle of bizarre patterns was densely filling the floor of the hall.

This bastard…

The king’s eyes, gleaming within the mist, shone with a murderous light.

He belatedly realized that the undead mage, whom he had been toying with, had actually been preparing a great magic.

-Things have gone awry. I didn’t think he was this perceptive. I apologize in advance.

“…It’s alright.”

Normally, Yihan would have yelled at the undead mage, ‘Because of you, I’m going to die too!’, but he didn’t.

He bore some responsibility!

“Do you think you’ll get away with this? I’ll grind you to dust.”

-Undead, return to your original place!

Though incomplete, the undead mage had no choice but to activate the magic circle.

Surprisingly, a divine power surged from the magic circle. It was a divine magic system used by the clergy.

-May the holy judgment bind and banish you!

Both Yihan and the Ghoul King were astonished.

Of course, if a being weaker than the king was to strike at him, an extraordinary method was needed, but who would have thought that the mage, an undead himself, would bring out divine magic.

A holy radiance began to swirl in the place where a dark conflict between undead had just occurred.

‘How can an undead do that!?’ Yihan was amazed.

Even with the power of the magic circle, an undead was manifesting divine magic.

His determination was extraordinary.

With the flood of light, the Ghoul King began to scream as if he were burning. The other berserkers couldn’t move and lay scattered.

The undead mage also seemed to have taken damage, kneeling and staggering. If not for the magic barrier he had erected in advance, he would have been shattered long ago.

How… dare you!

-!

The undead mage cast a look of horror. The Ghoul King charged straight at him and slammed him into the wall.

-You shouldn’t be able to move…

“I knew your shallow tricks from the start.”

The Ghoul King spoke, revealing the armor that adorned his form.

Thanks to this armor, made by stitching together the flesh of heroes, he had been able to withstand the flood of divine magic and charge forward.

-Fake king. You’ve become much wiser. You weren’t like this before…

“Shut up, you scheming rat.”

The Ghoul King quickly dealt with the undead mage and gathered his strength, intending to dispel the magic spread across the hall.

At that moment, Yihan swung Dawn Star. As the black blade cut through the Ghoul King, the king howled savagely at the feeling of his magic being absorbed.

Wh…!

Confusion came before the anger of being struck. The Ghoul King was perplexed, unable to discern the identity of his attacker.

Could it be… Could it be??

“When will the magic be complete!”

-Im… possible…

The undead mage’s voice was weaker than before.

He had suffered a serious injury from just one blow from the Ghoul King.

-Instead… complete…

“Does that even make sense!?”

-Contract… summon…

The undead mage pointed his fingers alternately as he spoke.

Normally, he would never enter into a summoning contract with a greenhorn mage from another dimension, but in this emergency situation, he had no choice.

“I understand!”

-My true name is… Verdus. Summon me now…

Even amidst this bewildering situation, Yihan almost lost his focus for a moment.

*Verdus… that name sounds ancient, powerful…*

Fwoooosh-

As the incantation was spoken and the contract was made, a powerful magic was infused into the undead mage.

Taking a breather with that magic, the undead mage squeezed out the last of his power to complete the magic circle.

You!

Regaining his senses, the Ghoul King charged forward, unleashing the most vicious rage he had ever displayed.

He had finally realized Yihan’s true identity.

His audacity was so extreme that it couldn’t be described as merely presumptuous.

To chase him all the way here to defeat him, after only managing to defeat him by luck.

Well, so be it. Here…

As the undead mage blocked his path, the Ghoul King consumed his essence and struck him down in one blow.

As he was being reverse-summoned, the undead mage poisoned the Ghoul King as a final act of desperation. And he thought to himself.

‘I’ve never seen him so angry before!’

The divine magic prepared by the undead mage had clearly struck a nerve with the king.

Satisfied with that fact, the undead mage collapsed.

Die…

The Ghoul King, heedless of the consumption of his essence or the poison, tried to kill Yihan first.

His resentment had seeped into his very bones.

Kwaaaaah-

But a power of divine magic, on a completely different scale from before, engulfed the Ghoul King.

The Ghoul King knelt, overwhelmed by an oppressive force that prevented him from moving any further.

Ogoltos muttered without realizing it.

“D… Did we do it?”

“Senior, please don’t say things like that…”

Did they do it, indeed.

The Ghoul King glared at Yihan, still kneeling.

“Do you think you’ve won? Do you think this magic circle is some omnipotent sword? This magic circle only serves to bind me! I may weaken while I’m inside, but that’s all! How long do you think you can maintain this magic circle! You’re already panting.”

“…Ah.”

Yihan listened to the Ghoul King’s words with tension, then let out a sigh of relief.