Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 390

“Alright. I’ll forgive you.”

“Phew!”

The White Tiger Tower students breathed a collective sigh of relief.

That is, until Lee Han spoke again.

“Then, let’s go.”

” ? ”

The students exchanged bewildered glances.

“Where to?”

“To the storage. Since you did a bad job, you’ll have to do it again.”

“……”

“……”

The students finally understood what Lee Han meant. They stammered a question.

“W-we have to do this too?”

“Yes. You can come back and do it later. Come during the day.”

“It’s not just us who used loopholes, other guys did too…”

“Even better. Bring those guys over as well.”

“……”

The White Tiger Tower students glanced at the nearby stream, then at Lee Han’s staff.

The weather was getting cold. Falling into the stream would be very chilly now.

“To think you’d come to help us like this!”

The priests were very surprised to see the White Tiger Tower students offering their assistance.

“There really was no need for you to come.”

“That’s right. It’s our job, after all.”

The priests, however, failed to notice the gloomy and mournful expressions on the faces of the White Tiger Tower students.

Lee Han whispered from behind.

“Hey. Control your expressions.”

“……”

“Thinking about it, it seemed like too much for the priests to handle… so we came to help…”

“That’s right… if we… had done better last week… the priests wouldn’t have had to struggle in the first place… sniff!”

“It’s no wonder the White Tiger Tower is the tower of knights.”

“We’re truly touched.”

The White Tiger Tower students groaned inside at the priests’ heartfelt gratitude.

They’d rather be exploited than treated this way, making it hard to even get angry.

“That’s why I told you not to hide the trash. It’s the punishment room if you get caught.”

“We didn’t get caught! It was Wodanaz who found it.”

The White Tiger Tower students, as if proving that they hadn’t done it a week early for nothing, began to clear the trash piled up in the storage with practiced movements.

There were chairs with eight legs (two of which looked suspiciously like octopus tentacles), half-burnt magical books (with ‘Fully Cooked! Die!’ written on the cover), coats stained with three different colors of blood (not just red, but green and blue as well), and so on.

“Impressive, Anglago.”

“What?”

Anglago retorted with a disgruntled voice at Lee Han’s praise.

He had been summoned in the middle of the night when he could have been resting, so he was not in a good mood.

‘Is this bloke trying to pick a fight?’

“I’m talking about the storage cleaning. Your skill for it is impressive. Do you have anything to teach me?”

Lee Han’s praise was sincere.

Even though the priests weren’t lazy or unskilled, the speed of the White Tiger Tower students overwhelmed them.

It was all thanks to the skills they had accumulated over time.

“Hmph! Well… it’s not like I can’t teach you anything.”

Anglago, kind of liking the attention, grumbled as he began to explain.

“First of all, do you know what you need to clear out first?”

“Isn’t it the relatively light trash?”

Since it was piled up like a mountain, it was important to reduce the volume as much as possible.

Clear out the light stuff first, then the heavy stuff…

“Wrong. We thought that at first too.”

” ? ”

“What you need to clear out first is the trash that doesn’t look dangerous. You can just pick those up and drag them out. The dangerous stuff is the trash that looks dangerous at first glance, or the trash that you can’t identify. The trash that looks dangerous is actually better. You can just attack it first. The trash that you can’t identify is really dangerous…”

Anglago sighed deeply.

You could feel how difficult it was just from his words.

“There’s nothing you can do about this. The person in front has to carry a shield and approach, and the people in the back have to provide support.”

“……”

Lee Han was speechless.

‘Well, schoolwork can’t be easy.’

Magic items crashing together could cause explosions and strange things to happen. It would be very surprising if a storage room full of thousands of magical items was *not* dangerous and messy!

Of course, this storage cleaning was one of the most difficult tasks assigned to the first-year students this week, but that was no consolation to Lee Han.

“I have no choice.”

Lee Han shook his staff and threw a bone fragment. Sharkan popped out, and the Skeleton Warriors rose up with a rumble.

“At this rate, it’ll be impossible. I’ll have to combine them.”

Lee Han compressed the Skeleton Warriors by combining them with each other, as he had learned in the Ghoul King’s palace.

Having a large number of them wasn’t really helpful in the current cleanup.

“And… I’ll have to call Gonadaltes too.”

“What?!?!?!”

“Ah. Don’t be surprised. That’s the name of my summoned creature.”

‘Isn’t this guy crazy?’

Undead creatures appeared in the storage along with an eerie magical power.

Some of the priests coughed uncomfortably at the sight.

“Oops. Sorry. I needed some help.”

“No, it’s alright. We also know that black mages don’t actually try to insult death, but rather try to understand death and comfort the dead.”

” ??? ”

Lee Han tilted his head.

Was that… so?

‘I don’t think so.’

The priests attending Einrogard were less prejudiced than other priests, as they were seriously learning magic in addition to divine magic.

Naturally, they tried to understand black magic rather than blindly hating it.

…But there were still misunderstandings, as they didn’t actually learn it themselves.

“Alright. Now that we’re ready, let’s divide the work. White Tiger Tower students, this way. I’ll cast an enhancement spell on you.”

“Oh…!”

The students’ faces lit up at Lee Han’s words.

Regardless of how much they disliked him, everyone acknowledged Lee Han’s magical skills.

It would be several times easier to work with an enhancement spell cast on them.

“Thank you, Wodanaz.”

“You’re saying all sorts of things. We’re working together, so we have to help each other.”

“…Wait, Wodanaz. Why aren’t you casting it on the priests?”

“The priests will be taking the luggage we’ve brought out here outside.”

“…Then what about us??”

“……”

“……”

The White Tiger Tower students glared at Lee Han.

“I’m going in with you too.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re mistreating us.”

“…Should I get you something to eat when we’re done?”

Angrago, a student from the White Tiger Tower, looked annoyed at Lee Han’s question. Lee Han seemed to think all it took was feeding them delicious food.

“Is that all you think this is…?”

“Gasp! What are you going to do for us?”

“……”

“S-sorry, Angrago.”

“Honestly, the food Wodanaz (Lee Han) gives us is delicious. I’m tired of eating just jerky for two weeks.”

Lee Han asked, puzzled.

“Why don’t you just trade with the Black Turtle Tower? What have you been doing all this time?”

“We went to their black market last time and got into a fight…”

“Those people are too proud to apologize first…”

Lee Han stared at the students as if they were utterly ridiculous.

‘Even so, isn’t fighting each other for two weeks a loss?’

‘Do these people think that no one will try to reconcile unless I’m around?’

The White Tiger Tower students looked at Lee Han with hopeful eyes.

They were also suffering from resource depletion, so they secretly hoped Lee Han would mediate.

“Alright. I understand. Let’s sort it out.”

“Wodanaz…?!”

“T-that’s it?! Don’t you have anything else to say?!”

“I don’t think so.”

A White Tiger Tower student, a boy with messy brown hair, frowned at the strange object in his hands. It looked like a large, clumsy wing, made of wood and cloth. “What is this thing even for? It’s like… a broken hang glider?”

Lee Han glanced at it. “Probably. Someone probably wanted to use it like a bird’s wing. Maybe to fly from somewhere high up. Might have worked, maybe.”

“But… why would *we* need it?” the student asked, still confused.

Lee Han shrugged. “To escape? You never know.”

“Ah,” the student said slowly, looking at the wing thing with new respect. “Someone actually tried to fly with this? Wow.” He sounded impressed by the unknown student who had built such a strange invention.

“Is there any way we could repair this and use it?”

“You’re thinking of… riding this?”

“Huh? Is it dangerous?”

“What makes you think it wouldn’t be?”

Lee Han almost told him to just try it out, but stopped himself. He was worried the other student might actually do it.

“I see. So, is it okay to ride it, then?”

‘Should I hit him?’

Activation. Activation. Activation.

“!?”

As if reading Lee Han’s mind, a golem’s hand suddenly shot out from the pile of trash. It immediately tried to smack the White Tiger Tower student.

‘Good thing I used Spatial Prediction in advance! Lee Han could sense danger coming!’

Lee Han read the trajectory of the golem’s hand and shouted urgently.

“Turn to steel, cloak!”

He was worried because it wasn’t his own cloak, but fortunately, the White Tiger Tower student’s cloak turned into solid steel.

Lee Han immediately threw the student backward. The student rolled over the pile of trash, groaning.

“Everyone, prepare for battle! It’s a golem! How did we fight it last time?”

“We… We never fought a golem!!!”

“What?”

“We’ve never seen a golem, you crazy bloke! Why would a golem appear here!” The White Tiger Tower students shouted in panic.

No matter how many unidentified pieces of trash there were, a golem had never appeared before.

Only then did Lee Han realize his mistake, and he said sheepishly.

“Oh, right. I just assumed it had appeared before.”

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have come here even if you beat me to death…!”

Golem, >Die Flying Skeleton> Activated. Executing orders.

“……”

“…It certainly seems like the seniors made it.”

The students present could only marvel at the golem’s name, which was filled with hatred towards someone.

The golem, made of granite, basalt, two unidentified rocks, and birch wood, was about half destroyed but was moving slowly.

“Sharkan. I’ll enhance the Skeleton Warrior. Let’s cooperate.”

Lee Han prepared for battle as he had done before.

He explosively enhanced the Skeleton Warrior and then unleashed elemental magic.

The golem’s strength seemed quite solid, but it was half-broken, so they had the advantage. If he kept shooting, he was bound to hit the core, which was the golem’s weakness.

Beginning cleanup.

However, instead of preparing for Lee Han’s attack, the golem silently picked up trash and began throwing it outside.

Angrago, terrified by the suddenly flying trash, threw himself to the side.

“It’s an attack!!”

“I-it says it’s cleaning?”

Lee Han and the White Tiger Tower students stared in amazement at the golem, which was suddenly doing their work for them.

Even though one of its legs was gone, the golem quickly cleared away the trash.

‘But it won’t be able to move for long.’

Lee Han read the magical power emanating from the golem’s entire body.

The amount of magical power emitted with each movement was considerable, and the amount lost from the damaged parts was also significant.

It needed to recover or replenish its magic, but the golem’s magic itself was gradually weakening, so it didn’t seem like it could move for long.

‘Well, if it were a bloke that could move for a long time, it wouldn’t be here like this.’

It was clear that it had been reactivated by accidentally touching something.

“You… You’re amazing! I wish we had met you last week!”

Did not understand.

“You don’t have to understand!”

Executing orders. Explosive potion detected. Please step back.

“Th-thank you.”

However, unlike Lee Han’s expectations, the White Tiger Tower students quickly became friendly with the golem.

“Can’t we use this to make its leg again?”

“Rather than that, let’s find the fallen leg for it. It might be in the junkyard.”

The people who had been whining about not wanting to clean just a moment ago were now scouring the warehouse as if their lives depended on it.

“It’s good that you’re working hard, but time’s up. Let’s do the rest tomorrow.”

“Is it already that late?”

“The golem will clean everything up by itself while we’re gone, won’t it?”

At the words of the White Tiger Tower students, Lee Han replied as if they were talking nonsense.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Why?”

“Because it’ll probably stop working in about half a day?”

“……”

“……”

The White Tiger Tower students looked at Lee Han with eyes that seemed to say, ‘How could you say such a terrible thing?’

“No… It’s damaged, and it’s consuming a lot of magic, so it’s hard for it to keep running for long. Look. If it were in perfect condition, would it be running like this right now?”

“N-no, even so, you shouldn’t say that in front of the golem!”

“Wait. Is that important right now? Wodanaz. So, can you fix it? There’s a way to fix it, right? You can fix it, can’t you?”

The White Tiger Tower students spoke desperately, but he couldn’t say that the impossible was possible.

Lee Han was also a first-year student, so how could he fix a golem?

“Can you do it?”

“Phew. He says he can.”

“That’s a relief.”

“He’s indeed Wodanaz.”

“……”