Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 382

Creak!

The Ghoul King told Ihan what to do. Ihan touched the wall behind the pillar. *Creak!* There was a sound of moving machines. A hidden space opened up!

Ihan suddenly felt uneasy.

‘Please don’t let it be more bones?’ Ihan thought.

Ihan thought undead treasures might be different from normal treasures. Maybe they don’t like gold and jewels.

Still, he’s a king, so surely there are a few jewels at least…

“JUNIOR!” Ogol-dosi yelled, his voice echoing with excitement.

Ihan hurried to look. “What is it? What did you find?” he asked, his heart beating faster. Maybe it *was* treasure after all!

Ogol-dosi popped his head back out, grinning. “Bones! It’s bones! So many bones!”

Ihan blinked. Bones? He stared at Ogol-dosi. For the first time in a long time, Ihan’s smile faded. He was serious now. “Bones?” he repeated slowly. “Just… bones?”

“Don’t you know what treasure is?” Ihan asked.

The Ghoul King was even more angry at Ihan’s rude answer.

He had bothered to reveal his hidden treasure, only to be met with such a rude answer.

“Those bones might be treasure to a necromancer, but they’re not treasure to me,” Ihan said.

Ihan summoned lightning elementals and compressed them, but failed once again and threw them at the Ghoul King.

Not satisfied, he also drew his Morning Star.

Ihan puffed out his chest and pointed at his Morning Star with a grin. “Do I *look* like someone who just wants bones? Remember when we fought last time.”

If it was to get what he wanted, Ihan would keep arguing until he got what he wanted.

And from the Ghoul King’s perspective, he couldn’t help but waver.

Thinking back to when Ihan fought last time, he wasn’t a typical necromancer.

“If you want us to trust each other! Shouldn’t you bring out something proper!” Ihan said sternly.

He looked like a professor scolding a student who hadn’t done their homework properly.

Ogol-dosi stared at him as if he were a madman.

Ogol-dosi remembered lessons about talking to undead creatures from other worlds, but he had never seen anything like this.

“You’re not hiding treasure, are you? Treasure you already have?” Ihan asked, narrowing his eyes.

The Ghoul King snapped, annoyed at being disturbed while concentrating. “Do you think I, as king, would remember every single treasure in the palace?”

Ihan was surprised.

If Ihan were king, he felt like he would have memorized the entire treasure list…

One thing came to mind.

“Of course! I knew it,” Ihan exclaimed.

The Ghoul King said, “Swear on your honor first.”

Originally, he wanted to bind him with a proper contract, but separated by the magic circle, all they could rely on was each other’s word.

“Promise you won’t find any more fault and will open the magic circle!” The Ghoul King demanded.

The Ghoul King had no intention of keeping his promise, yet he couldn’t imagine that the other party would break their promise.

It was because he believed that only he was wicked and vile.

However, an even more vile being than the Ghoul King was right in front of him.

“Of course. I swear,” Ihan said.

The Ghoul King said, “There’s another hidden warehouse on the other side.”

‘Do the undead have a habit of creating warehouses around themselves?’ Ihan wondered.

To install several secret warehouses, closely packed, in the space where the throne was located.

He could really feel how little he trusted his subordinates.

Ihan, who had revealed the appearance of the hidden warehouse as the Ghoul King instructed, paused.

The door was huge and black, like iron but darker. Strange patterns were carved all over it, twisting lines that seemed to move in the dim light. It hummed with a faint, cold magic.

Ogol-dosi, who was next to him, groaned.

“This is going to be tough,” Ogol-dosi said.

Inexperienced people often imagined that exploring dungeons or ruins involved a skilled technician (suspiciously close to the Thieves Guild, but definitely not a thief) skillfully picking locks and disarming traps.

But most explorations didn’t go so smoothly.

Usually, locked doors or traps were much sturdier than the skills of the person trying to disarm them, and most of the time, they had to go around or avoid them.

“Hey. Ghoul King! What’s going on?” Ihan asked.

The Ghoul King said, trying to hide his cunning, “I clearly told you. You just can’t open it. Originally, that door could only be opened with my power.”

In fact, the door to that warehouse was made by the top undead sculptors and blacksmiths in the domain, under the Ghoul King’s orders.

A door forged by gathering eight metals, feeding it the blood of thirteen races, and tempering it with the flames of six dimensions.

As a masterpiece completed during the kingdom’s heyday, it was not a door that could be opened by a few wizards trying their best.

“If you let me out, I’ll open that door for you,” the Ghoul King offered.

“I see. I understand. I’ll try to open it really hard,” Ihan said.

“Didn’t you swear you wouldn’t find any more fault and would open it!” The Ghoul King shouted.

“That’s a story for when I get the treasure,” Ihan replied.

He hadn’t intended to keep his promise even if he had gotten the treasure, so he had no intention of even pretending to listen since he hadn’t gotten it.

The Ghoul King cursed from behind, but Ihan didn’t hear it.

“Senior. Step aside for a moment,” Ihan said.

Ihan moved Ogol-dosi out of the way and poured magic into the door.

Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!

From Water Bomb to arrows with overlapping enhancement magic.

He poured in as much firepower as he could, but the door didn’t even have a scratch.

“Wouldn’t it be better to give up on this and just wait?” Ogol-dosi suggested.

“Hmm. I suppose there’s no other choice… Wait a moment. Senior. Look over here,” Ihan said.

Ihan pointed to the wall of rock, rough and grey, next to the door guarding the warehouse.

One of the Water Bombs that had missed had left a small mark on the massive rock.

“Shall we try breaking through this way?” Ihan asked.

Ogol-dosi’s eyes went wide. Break through the *rock*?! He looked at the massive wall, then back at Ihan, sure his junior was joking. “Are you *serious*?!”

“We don’t have anything else to do anyway,” Ihan said with a shrug.

Ogol-dosi thought to himself as he looked at his junior trying to break through the bedrock because he couldn’t open the door.

‘He’d be really popular if he went to the punishment room.’

He was a talent that other students trapped in the punishment room would drool over and try to recruit.

“Are you actually saying that right now!”

Professor Garcia’s voice boomed, making Professor Mortoom flinch. Garcia’s face was red, and his eyes flashed.

“If there’s a dangerous ruin, the students should be outside this village! Safe!”

Professor Mortoom shuffled his feet, avoiding Garcia’s furious gaze.

“But… isn’t that a bit too much? Too… protective?” He mumbled, his voice barely a whisper compared to Garcia’s roar.

Professor Garcia was usually calm. But when he was angry, it was frightening.

Professor Mortoom avoided Professor Garcia’s eyes.

“Besides, why did you take a first-year student into the Undead Dimension!”

“Well… that… I thought it would be alright since they faced the Frost Giant King too.”

Even Professor Garcia, who was furious, was momentarily speechless.

Seeing a chance, Professor Mortoom quickly asked Headmaster Skull for help.

“Headmaster Gonadaltes, please help me. It’s not always good to spoil the students. They need to overcome hardships to become great wizards…”

Professor Mortoom expected Headmaster Skull to agree, as the Headmaster usually tried to force crises upon the students, even against their will.

The Headmaster believed that protecting students was meaningless and that they needed crises to improve their magic.

Wasn’t that Headmaster Skull’s usual belief?

However, Headmaster Skull coldly refused.

Taking a first-year student into the Undead Dimension was too much.

“!??!”

Professor Mortoom stared at Headmaster Skull, feeling betrayed.

He understood Professor Garcia’s anger, as he was always fond of his students.

But Headmaster Skull’s actions seemed hypocritical.

“Aren’t you going too far!”

“Going too far is you taking a first-year student in there. Do you even think? That’s why fewer students are taking Dark Magic classes.”

Headmaster Skull coldly cut off Professor Mortoom.

The Emperor had already warned him. Professor Mortoom not only failed to stop the situation but also caused trouble, which made him look bad.

Rather than supporting him and facing the Emperor’s scolding together, it was better to blame Professor Mortoom.

‘Just you wait!’

Professor Mortoom gritted his teeth, feeling betrayed by his respected teacher.

He decided never to give up any useful undead, even if Headmaster Skull asked for them later.

“So… is that the whole situation? You’ve cleaned things up more neatly than I expected.”

Headmaster Skull floated around, looking around as he spoke.

Professor Mortoom had made the best choice.

As soon as Lee Han and Ogol-dos disappeared inside the palace, he immediately took the remaining students outside and began searching with the undead.

If he had found them easily, he would have been praised, but reality was different.

The palace was protected by powerful magic, making the search difficult.

As the opening day approached, Professor Mortoom contacted Headmaster Skull, who then informed the other professors.

Thanks to that, the professors of Einrogard gathered in a village near the dimensional gate.

“I was thinking of getting rid of any other adventurers. I didn’t know knights had such a knack for this. Were you perhaps…?”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Then I won’t give you the praise. Summon the knights. I need to praise them.”

To break through the defenses of the deep ruins inside the dimensional gate, it was best to minimize risks.

If any adventurers were acting cocky because a path to another dimension had opened, he planned to chase them away, but the knights had already done it.

Headmaster Skull was impressed.

The knights accepted Headmaster Skull’s praise respectfully.

Professors could joke with Headmaster Skull, but the knights never could.

If they did that to Gonadaltes, the Empire’s infamous Archmage, they might end up as frogs in a cage.

“Thank you, Headmaster Gonadaltes!”

“Good. Keep doing that in the future.”

“Um… but, the adventurers are strongly requesting to be released. What should we do?”

“Keep them locked up. There’s no good in releasing those noisy adventurers.”

Headmaster Skull said indifferently.

He needed to focus on breaking through the dimensional ruins and didn’t want to release the troublesome adventurers.

It would be annoying if they secretly came back after being released.

Professor Garcia asked cautiously.

“Won’t they protest?”

“Let them. If they want to die.”

Headmaster Skull ignored it, as if such trivial matters didn’t matter.

Saving his students was important, so a few adventurers being locked up for a few more weeks didn’t matter.

They’ll be well-fed anyway…

Of course, it was a shock for the imprisoned anti-magic activists.

“-No! Why can’t you release us! Is this how an Imperial Knight should act!?”

“-I have the right to be protected under Imperial law! Call the administrator!”

One day later.

“How much progress have you made?”

“I’ve found about half of the rules.”

“That’s a relief.”

Professor Mortoom replied with relief.

Even as he got older, his teacher was always reliable.

Two days later.

“How much progress have you made?”

“There’s a bit of a trap in the rules.”

“Oh dear…”

“That’s really unfortunate.”

Professor Garcia was sitting next to him, and Headmaster Skull started to say something but stopped.

Three days later.

“How much progress have you made?”

“I’ve removed the defensive magic and reinforced the palace so it doesn’t collapse… Wait a minute. Why are you all increasing in number?”

Headmaster Skull was surprised by the increasing number of professors in the village.

The semester had already started, so who was teaching the classes?

“I just stopped by for a moment after teaching.”

“Professor Garcia is fine… but I don’t think the other professors are that diligent. Do I really have to evaluate this seriously? Professors who abandoned their classes should go back immediately.”

The professors grumbled and got up from their seats at Headmaster Skull’s petty threat.

However, one person didn’t get up.

Headmaster Skull looked at Professor Volardi and said with an absurd expression.

“…Professor Begreck. Go back quickly before I hang you upside down and kick you out.”

“??

“Why are you the one who’s dumbfounded? I’m the one who should be dumbfounded!”