Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 48

Tiziling leaned closer, lowering his voice. “You know, the priests here are all good people, mostly. But even in a holy place like this…”

Someone interrupted, sounding doubtful. “But they *live* here. Can everyone really be perfect?”

“Quiet, I’m trying to pray,” Tiziling hissed playfully. “Anyway, even among good priests, some still have… human feelings. Like wanting to be the best, or feeling jealous. It doesn’t help with faith, you know?”

He chuckled softly. “Last week, a new priest, fresh to the Tower, made fatigue recovery potions for everyone. He wanted to share what he’d learned. Very kind, right?”

Lee Han thought, ‘If it were me, potion shop for sure.’

Tiziling continued, mimicking the voices of the other priests. “‘Wow, this really works! Thanks so much!’ Someone even joked, ‘This is so good, Priest Siana herself would be impressed! Maybe it’s even *better* than hers?'”

Tiziling paused, then added, “Priest Siana just smiled and nodded. Seemed fine, right? No problem.”

He leaned in again, his voice dropping to a whisper. “But… the next day, Priest Siana arrived with her *own* potion. She placed it on the table with a little *thump*.”

Tiziling made a surprised face. “‘Huh?’ everyone said. ‘You made one too?'”

He went on, “‘Try mine as well,’ she said, all sweet and innocent. Of course, everyone thanked her and said it was excellent. But the next day… and the day after that… Priest Siana kept bringing potions! Each time, she’d ask, ‘Is mine good too? Is it *really* good?'”

Tiziling grinned. “Finally, everyone got it. ‘Priest Siana’s potion is definitely the best!’ someone declared. ‘No one can beat it!’ Only *then* did she stop bringing them.”

Lee Han shook his head, still thinking about Priest Siana’s strange behavior. “People are really weird,” he muttered. Then, his thoughts shifted to his own problems.

“She does have a bit of a strong competitive spirit,” Lee Han said.

It wasn’t just that she heard a joke; she kept making and bringing potions until she was recognized as the best.

“That wasn’t the only incident.”

‘Wasn’t that the end?’

Tiziling continued the story. The priest who made the fatigue recovery potion before Siana later approached her and praised her.

“As expected, you are Priest Siana. I don’t think just anyone could make a potion of that caliber,” he said.

Tiziling, who was there, saw it clearly: Siana pretended not to hear and left.

In the end, it took several days for Siana to accept the priest’s greeting.

‘How narrow-minded can she be?’ Lee Han thought, astonished. ‘If she’s like that just because she got a slight compliment on a potion… what kind of compliments did I get in the lecture hall?’ He remembered hearing all sorts of embarrassing compliments, starting with the genius of alchemy…

Tiziling, having said all he wanted to say, finished his prayer to Freisinger.

Lee Han, still not convinced, asked again, “Perhaps Siana wouldn’t put poison in other people’s food, would she?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tiziling said, closing his mouth as if he wouldn’t say any more.

Lee Han made a decision. ‘If I ever move with Priest Siana, I should never eat any food she recommends.’

Even as pain, despair, and tasks piled up like mountains, the sun set and rose.

‘Tasks are tasks, but I’m worried about other things,’ Lee Han thought. The two things he was most concerned about right now were: How to infiltrate the White Tiger Tower? And he had to go to the mountains behind the school to get alchemy ingredients, but what kind of crazy traps would there be in the mountains?

‘I don’t know which is more difficult.’

But the magic school didn’t give him time to worry for long. It immediately sent the students to the next lecture to squeeze them dry.

In the lecture hall, Professor Voladi began as soon as Lee Han entered, “You’re 11 seconds late.”

“I’m sorry. I was late because I went to the stables early in the morning to take care of the horses,” Lee Han replied.

“There’s no need to be sorry. It’s you who loses out by being late.”

‘Do professors learn how to talk somewhere?’ Lee Han wondered, sitting down.

Only the two of them were in the quiet lecture hall. Professor Voladi flicked his finger, signaling Lee Han to take out his wand and rotate the steel bead.

The battle with the anti-magic activists gave Lee Han a clear realization: his control of the lower-level manipulation spell was at a level that could not be compared to before. The steel bead rotated in a near-perfect circle at a constant speed.

‘It’s about two years faster than I expected,’ Professor Voladi thought with an expressionless face. It was fortunate that Lee Han didn’t hear it; he would have been seriously offended. ‘Are you telling me that you chose a training that takes more than 2 years to even take the first step as the first content of the class?’

“Not bad,” Professor Voladi said.

“Thank you,” Lee Han replied.

Lee Han knew very well that if someone like Professor Voladi said ‘not bad,’ it meant ‘very excellent!’

He didn’t expect praise in the first place.

“I heard you learned water creation magic,” Professor Voladi said.

“Yes.”

“Do it.”

“Spring forth!” With the spell, a mass of water appeared in front of Lee Han. Thanks to Professor Garcia’s punishment, no, education, he could still maintain the shape.

“Reduce it to the size of a bead.”

“I’ll try,” Lee Han said, grabbing his wand and concentrating. The shape of the water mass that appeared in the air distorted, protruding here and there and becoming crumpled. Reducing the amount of water and shaping it into a bead was no easy task for Lee Han, who already had a huge amount of magical power.

Professor Voladi picked up the steel bead placed in front of Lee Han. Lee Han felt an unknown sense of foreboding at the sight.

Whoosh! With a sharp sound, the steel bead flew towards Lee Han’s face.

‘Ah, this crazy professor…!’ Lee Han instinctively compressed the water mass into a bead shape. The huge water mass was compressed to the size of a fist, and its strength and hardness rapidly increased.

Clang! The flying steel bead collided with the water bead and lost its power and fell.

“Professor, are you going to keep doing this?” Lee Han asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you throwing a steel bead at me just now.”

“Ah. Was that what you were talking about? Yes.”

“Isn’t it a little dangerous?” Lee Han tried to persuade Professor Voladi as he had persuaded the other students.

However, Professor Voladi was not persuaded like the students.

“But wasn’t it effective?”

“Yes?”

“As in the fight against the Imperial anti-magic activists, the sudden crisis sharpened your concentration and instincts and increased your control over magic. Why try to go around when there is such a method?”

Lee Han was speechless, not because he couldn’t argue, but because he was just dumbfounded. People become speechless when they hear something too absurd!

“It seems you’ve understood. Now, rotate it,” Professor Voladi said.

From spirit stone beads to steel beads, and from steel beads to beads made of water, rotating the water bead was definitely the most difficult thing he had done so far. He had to maintain the created water in the form of a bead and rotate it at a constant speed.

He felt his nerves being strained, just like when he fought the Imperial anti-magic activists. A subtle shape that couldn’t be called a circle was drawn in the air, and then drawn again. And Professor Voladi shot the steel bead.

Clang! Lee Han blocked it right away. Even if he didn’t have the control to draw a perfect circle, he could block an attack as long as he was on guard.

‘I knew it!’ he thought.

However, Professor Voladi was also expecting Lee Han to block it. At the same time, another steel bead rotated in the opposite direction and flew in.

Thud!

Lee Han hurriedly turned the water bead, but it was too late. The steel bead hit his back exactly. He gritted his teeth.

‘Damn it!’ He felt the impact even though he tensed his muscles and endured it. He was reminded of the time when he was learning swordsmanship from Allarong.

“Concentrate,” Professor Voladi ordered.

Lee Han didn’t even have time to answer now. He just moved the water bead like crazy, avoiding the flying steel beads.

One thing was certain: ‘A lecture with a lot of assignments is better.’

“Wodanaz looks really tired,” one student said.

Another replied, “It must be because of the assignments. I couldn’t sleep properly because of the assignments either. Besides, Wodanaz isn’t someone who would just take ordinary lectures.”

“Well, if it’s a lecture that Wodanaz would take, it wouldn’t be easy. It’s Wodanaz, after all.”

A student asked, “By the way, when are we going to enter the White Tiger Tower?”

Another responded, “I wonder…”

The students of the Blue Dragon Tower whispered among themselves as they gathered in the lecture hall. Lee Han’s face, as he closed his eyes and leaned back, looked quite tired. It was the aftermath of the life-or-death bead fight with Professor Voladi.

It wasn’t just the students of the Blue Dragon Tower who were talking; the students of the Black Tortoise Tower were also talking.

“Is there anyone taking the alchemy class? I heard we’re going up the mountain tomorrow, is that true?” one asked.

Another replied, “The rumor has already spread? Yes. Students from other towers have also decided to go together.”

A student wondered, “Isn’t there a way to get out in the mountains?”

‘They’re dreaming a vain dream,’ Lee Han thought, feeling sorry for the students of the Black Tortoise Tower. ‘To think there’s a way to get out. They would be very disappointed when they found out the truth.’

“Wait, then we’re going with Wodanaz? If we make a mistake, we’ll be punished…” a student said, worried.

Another responded, “N-No way that would happen. We’re from different towers.”

Lee Han sighed deeply inside.

“Welcome, everyone,” Professor Garcia said as he entered.

“Hello, Professor!” all the students greeted him politely.

The students were now realizing that Professor Garcia was one of the most conscientious people in this school. What’s scarier than a troll was a professor who doesn’t know the human heart.

“Until last time, we’ve been doing various training to become familiar with elemental magic,” Professor Garcia said. “But in this Understanding of Basic Magic class, we’ll briefly learn not only elemental magic but also various magic… illusions, prophecies, or summoning and transformation magic, and so on. You will learn these magics professionally as your grade increases.”

The world of magic was infinitely vast and deep to the point where the bottom was not visible. It is impossible for a person to master everything in that world. Naturally, wizards specialized in a specific field and researched it. Lee Han already knew this, so he wasn’t very surprised.

“Today, we’ll have time to learn what other fields of magic are like. Instead of me teaching directly, a professor who is an expert in this field of magic will speak directly,” Professor Garcia announced.

At Professor Garcia’s words, the students’ eyes sparkled with anticipation and curiosity. Everyone had a field of magic they were interested in. Some were interested in elemental magic, some in spirit magic, and some in enchantment magic…

‘I hope they’re an excellent spirit mage! I want to learn spirit magic…’ one student thought.

‘I came here to learn physical enhancement and healing. Please teach me enhancement magic,’ another hoped.

“Now! Come in,” Professor Garcia called out.

As the door opened, the temperature in the lecture hall suddenly dropped. The students shivered at the sudden cold.

“Nice to meet you all… Cough, cough. I’m Professor Mortum,” a voice rasped.

Lee Han thought the professor was a dwarf for a moment, but the professor was just short, not a dwarf. Professor Mortum coughed so much while speaking that he looked like he would collapse even if only the wind blew.

“Are you okay?” a student asked.

Another added, “It looks like you should go to the hospital room rather than give a lecture…”

“Cough, I’m okay. I’m okay…” Professor Mortum said weakly even while coughing. One of the students raised their hand and asked, “What kind of magic do you teach, Professor?”

“I teach black magic,” Professor Mortum replied.

The atmosphere froze coldly. Black magic was among the magic with the worst image.