Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 399

The priest from the Siana order was too excited to hear and hurried away.

Soon, priests began rushing out of the tall, white Phoenix Tower in a flurry.

“Is it real?!”

“Ah… So close! If only I had picked the right lottery ticket, they would have surely awakened the divine magic of our order!”

“Krrr!”

Lee Han was surprised. The priests were not even trying to hide how they really felt.

Is it okay to treat divine magic like that?

“To treat divine magic like that…”

“Give me! Give me a chance this time! I might succeed if I try today!”

At the priest’s words, Nigisor and Siina shook their heads and replied.

“Divine magic puts quite a strain on the body, and you’ve already cast it twice today.”

“That’s right. Do it next time.”

“…They succeeded just now!!”

“No, no… It’s done in order…”

“But… but Wodanaz should have gotten that glory!”

“How can you even think that way!”

The Phoenix Tower priests began to argue, raising their voices at each other.

The priests argued, but it was much calmer than arguments at the Blue Dragon Tower or White Tiger Tower. Still, it was shocking to see them argue at all.

The skeletal headmaster floated closer, agreeing in his mind.

No…! How on earth!!!

The skeletal headmaster, who had floated over without much thought, was completely captivated by this unbelievably amusing scene.

How on earth did he do it?

“……”

Lee Han cursed inwardly, wishing the skeletal headmaster wasn’t such a powerful archmage, or he would have attacked immediately.

Traditionally, the flock of the Phoenix Tower never argued with each other, no matter what! Wodanaz, I am truly proud of you!

Lee Han received the skeletal headmaster’s sincere praise but felt no joy at all.

Lee Han sighed and said,

“Why have you come?”

Ogonin is waiting for you. You’re several weeks late, so he has every right to be waiting.

“Ah.”

Illusionist Ogonin was remotely teaching Lee Han illusion magic.

He was quite late, several weeks after the second semester had started, so he must have been waiting quite a while.

“I’ll go now.”

Let’s watch them fight a little longer. When else will we see this?

“…Can’t you just stop them?”

Lee Han couldn’t help but ask.

But the skeletal headmaster replied seriously,

It’s good for those priests to fight like that.

“Yes?”

The priests of the Empire are forced to endure similar vices, even in different orders. Devotion, sacrifice, patience…

“Not vices, virtues…”

Priests forced to endure these vices have their ways of thinking and values so rigidly fixed that it becomes difficult for them to think freely. I have always wanted the priests to break out of that egg and think outside the world.

“……”

Lee Han was honestly impressed by the skeletal headmaster’s words.

Certainly, the priests of the Empire had all grown up inside temples since they were young, only knowing the world of their order.

No matter how good their faith was, their way of thinking was bound to become rigid if they grew up like that.

Why should we fight? To learn how to reconcile with each other. Not fighting may sound good at first, but it means suppressing what you want. How can you talk about faith if you can’t even express what you want? Even to continue living as a priest, you must learn to express your intentions and clash with others.

“Headmaster…”

Lee Han called out to the skeletal headmaster in a slightly tearful voice.

I’m really touched for the first time…

Yeah! Grab him by the collar! That’s right! I said grab him by the collar! Geez, since they’ve never fought, they just keep trembling! Grab him by the collar! Grab him!

“……”

‘I was touched for nothing.’

Lee Han immediately regretted it.

-I’m sorry. I’ve been busy…

-Ah, no. You’re learning fast enough as it is.

Ogonin was indeed kind.

He kindly replied that it was understandable when Lee Han said he hadn’t been able to practice illusion magic much because he had been busy.

-I’ll try harder.

-…Just mastering Parkmu magic is amazing enough! You just need to refine what you’ve learned! Don’t push yourself too hard!!

Lee Han felt unnecessarily sorry at Ogonin’s kind words.

It wouldn’t be right to work hard because other professors grab you by the collar and attack you if you don’t learn, while taking it easy because Ogonin teaches you kindly.

What wrong had Ogonin, who had treated him kindly, done?

‘I need to work harder.’

It’s over. Good work.

By the time the lecture was over, the morning star was already up. Before he knew it, the week was over, and Saturday had arrived.

‘This is bad. I haven’t finished preparing for alchemy yet.’

“Thank you.”

Thanks for what? Ogonin was the one who taught you. Anyway, the smell has faded a lot from your soul.

The skeletal headmaster described the aura of the undead as if it were a stench, even though he himself was undead.

Getting rid of the undead smell so fast must be hard… Did you pray with the priests every day, or something like that?

“Something like that. I’ve been training in divine magic.”

What? Such a waste?

“…It’s not systematic, and the theory is a bit lacking, but it’s not a complete waste, is it?”

Divine magic certainly had its uses.

A power that overcomes a much more complex and difficult path to achieve with magic through faith.

Of course, it was a dismissive remark to an archmage like the skeletal headmaster.

What else could it be but a waste… Wait a minute. Could it be that the priests were arguing earlier…?

The skeletal headmaster was shocked.

He had been wondering what he had done to make the priests argue, but if that Wodanaz had awakened divine magic, it made sense.

It was a bait of a different dimension than simple donations or visits.

You awakened it? So?

“Yes.”

No way! Was he that stupid?! No, if he was that stupid, he wouldn’t have been able to learn magic until now, would he?

“…Isn’t it a bit much to make such a fuss over awakening it twice? I must have just been lucky.”

If you could awaken divine magic with luck, why would the priests go through so much asceticism? There has to be an almost fanatical level of devotion to have even the slightest chance. Huh? Twice?

The skeletal headmaster, who had been talking, felt a sense of unease at Lee Han’s number.

“But Headmaster, I have a question.”

Isn’t this not the time to be talking about other things? Twice, you say?

“I did it once, so I can do it twice. Why is that so important…”

What’s a guy with no faith talking about?

The skeletal headmaster was truly surprised.

To awaken two divine magics.

He could understand why the priests were going crazy and enthusiastic. In their eyes, that Wodanaz’s faith must seem like the real deal.

Well, just looking at his outward actions, there was no one as devout and diligent as him…

I still can’t believe it… Divine magic. And from the Wodanaz family.

Even now, several orders were expressing great favor towards Lee Han, a member of the Wodanaz family, for regularly visiting the temple and showing interest.

Among the Empire’s renowned great families, there was no family as indifferent to faith as the Wodanaz family.

And yet, he awakened two of them.

If this became known, it was highly likely that not only the Phoenix Tower priests would go crazy and enthusiastic, but also the priests outside.

If Lee Han had even a shred of faith, he would have said, ‘Ah, your deep faith and stupidity must have summoned several divine magics,’ but no matter how he thought about it, Lee Han was far from that in the skeletal headmaster’s eyes.

It was truly a mysterious thing.

The evil energy of the undead world will be gone quickly. So, what were you going to ask earlier?

“Do you know about space magic?”

I know it. I can even use it. But no matter how talented you are, it’s impossible for you to learn it now. It’s physically impossible. Professor Garcia would say the same thing.

“…I’m not saying I’m going to learn it.”

Lee Han was dumbfounded.

Why was the conversation going that way?

Wasn’t it? I thought you wanted to learn it.

“Just because I ask about magic doesn’t mean I want to learn it.”

Is there any other reason to ask?

“Yes, there is. More importantly, why did you mention Professor Garcia?”

It’s Professor Garcia’s main research area. So, if you don’t want to learn it, why are you asking?

“I was walking around the school and got beaten up and chased away by an enemy who used space teleportation magic…”

The skeletal headmaster threw back his skull and laughed, a dry, rattling sound that echoed off the stone walls. Dust seemed to puff out from his ribcage with each booming chuckle.

Oh dear! That’s too bad!

“…Yes. Well. Anyway.”

Lee Han was not shaken by the skeletal headmaster’s ridicule. It was because he had not expected anything from the other party in the first place.

“Is there a way to deal with someone like that?”

There is.

“What is it?”

Go to Professor Baegreg and ask for help.

“……”

Lee Han glared at the skeletal headmaster with a serious expression.

At the fierce gaze, the skeletal headmaster explained as if he was frustrated.

I’m not teasing you this time.

“Then was that just now teasing…?”

Listen carefully. If you were beaten up, it must have been someone who cast quickly without giving you a chance to react, right? If you use Einroguard’s magic power, that casting speed is more than possible.

The skeletal headmaster was evaluating Lee Han’s combat power quite highly.

Thanks to enduring the teachings of the crazy… no, Voladi Baegreg, and having innate magic power, he had quite a few advantages over other excellent magicians in terms of combat power alone.

Fighting is not just about using the hardest magic to win. It’s also about being quick and striking first.

Wodanaz was a guy who was specialized in the latter, both in terms of his constitution and the teachings he had learned, so it would be difficult to subdue him with ordinary space magic.

Whoever the opponent was, they had clearly overcome slow and complex casting.

“Yes.”

It’s not easy to respond to such a strategy with the magic you have now.

Originally, mages became stronger when given time to prepare, but this was an exception.

The power of space magic that had overcome its weaknesses was so tricky that even a mage like Lee Han, who had learned magic from all sorts of schools, would have a hard time dealing with it.

It wouldn’t be easy no matter what strategy you prepared.

But there’s always a gap. Even if magic seems to have no gaps, there’s always a gap for the magician.

No matter how flawless the magic is, there was a gap for the magician.

The flow of magic power shown before using space magic. The habit of choosing a location when casting space magic…

If you thoroughly analyze and prepare for these things, you can block one attack.

Furthermore, Lee Han was compatible with all sorts of magic, so this reckless method was quite possible.

You also have an aptitude for divination magic, so that’s good. You’re lucky.

“I understand, but… why do I have to ask Professor Baegreg for help?”

Well, to become familiar enough with space magic to catch something like that, you need someone to keep attacking you, and there aren’t that many people like that. Professor Garcia is too kind to do something like that.

Get beaten up by Professor Voladi repeatedly to learn how to sense the signs of space magic and read the patterns, then go back down to the basement to figure out the statue’s gaps (you’ll probably get beaten up again in this process).

Lee Han was impressed by this wise advice.

And he made a decision.

‘I shouldn’t go to the basement at all.’

Should I tell him for you if you’re embarrassed?

“Haha. It’s okay.”