Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 481

“The truth is, Nilia asked the Maykin family to hire you all.”

Lee Han spoke, but he knew they wouldn’t listen.

He needed an excuse for Nilia later.

He thought, -I told them clearly, but the hunters ignored me.

“Hahaha!”

“Puhahahahaha!”

The Shadow Patrol laughed even louder.

They found Lee Han’s words funny and laughed so hard they were gasping for air, with tears in their eyes.

Lee Han was beginning to understand why Nilia didn’t like the Shadow Patrol.

“Please, make sure to ask the Maykin family to confirm this later,” he said.

“Hold on,” Professor Thunderstride said. He had been listening and now tilted his head, sensing something was off.

“What do you mean the Maykin family hired us because Nilia asked them to?”

“Professor Baegreuk! I have a question about fighting on the sea before we board!” Lee Han shouted.

Professor Volardi, who was already on the ship, flew over as soon as he heard Lee Han’s shout. He moved so fast that even the Shadow Patrol was surprised.

The people of Isran City were very proud of their city.

From the romantic legend of the gates made with mermaid tears to the water statue left by a wizard long ago, the city had many attractions. But the port was the most important part of the city.

Located in the south, the port was where all the energy of the city came together, like the city’s heart.

Sailors who had just arrived got off merchant ships that filled the long pier. Imperial tax collectors ran around, checking goods and shouting to see if there was anything being smuggled.

If you looked further, you saw many different people on the main street. The street was wide, but it was so crowded! You would bump into someone every few steps. Peddlers in strange clothes had stalls and called out interesting things to trick travelers and steal from them.

Workers and tax collectors who had worked at the port for a long time walked by without paying attention, as if they were used to the busy scene.

Even when a strangely shaped ship made by dwarf or elf artisans appeared, they were not surprised.

The hunters from the north, who traveled in sleek speedboats, were different.

They amazed even the most experienced sailors.

“Turn 90 degrees to the right and chase after it!” one of the hunters shouted.

“Hunter, sir, ships can’t move like that!” a sailor replied.

“Ah. Is that so? Sorry! Then turn 270 degrees to the left and chase after it!”

The hunters on the sleek speedboats, with the Maykin family flag, were hunting aggressively on the deck.

“I can’t take it anymore. Throw me!” one of the hunters shouted.

One of the hunters tied himself to a rope, connected it to the mast, grabbed a spear, and jumped into the sea. After a while, he came back up, having stabbed a shark-like monster with his spear.

“Hunter, sir! There’s no need to hunt rock sharks! They don’t attack ships this big!”

“But might they attack smaller fishing boats?” the hunter asked.

“Isn’t that their problem?”

Lee Han listened to the conversation between the hunters and the sailors and thought, ‘I think I know why Professor Thunderstride came.’

The Shadow Patrol were skilled hunters, but they had some problems.

First, they loved hunting too much.

They only needed to catch enough monsters to find the Sangoria flower, but they would rush to kill any monster they saw, wasting time.

“Everyone, calm down. We will find the monsters that need to be caught,” Professor Thunderstride said.

Professor Thunderstride looked at Professor Lightningfoot, asking for help.

Professor Lightningfoot nodded and gave instructions. “First, let’s skip the rock shark since we don’t need to bother with it…”

The Shadow Patrol looked disappointed.

The hunters had spent their lives in the northern mountains. They didn’t understand the idea of ‘this monster is not dangerous, and that monster is dangerous.’

In the northern mountains, any monster could be dangerous. If they saw a monster, they caught it. They had always lived this way, so it was hard for them to stop.

“We have to wait for an order before catching anything,” one of them complained.

“Can’t we just catch them secretly?” another asked.

“I see a blade squid over there!”

Professor Lightningfoot was an experienced explorer and knew the hunters well.

If they always followed orders, they wouldn’t be so famous. Their stubbornness was part of what made them good hunters.

In this case, he needed to persuade them.

“Wodanaz, you’ll have to watch the hunters while we find the flower. Stop them from hunting without permission,” Professor Lightningfoot said.

Lee Han was surprised that he was being asked to do it, but he knew he was the only one who could.

Professor Thunderstride needed to focus on finding the flower, and Professor Lightningfoot and Professor Volardi needed to focus on the monsters.

“Understood,” Lee Han said.

He thought, ‘I don’t know if this will work.’

Lee Han had heard a lot about the Shadow Patrol from Nilia, but he wasn’t sure he could handle them. Could he get along with these strange hunters from the northern mountains?

“Oh. Isn’t he Nilia’s friend?” one of the hunters asked.

“No. When I asked earlier, he said he was from the Wodanaz family. He’s just in the same grade, not a friend,” another replied.

“We are friends, though,” Lee Han said.

“Yes, yes. ‘Friends,’ I’m sure,” the hunter said.

Lee Han glanced at the deck and thought, ‘Should I push them off?’

But then he thought, ‘Even if I push them off, they’ll just climb back up anyway.’

The hunters were strong, so it seemed pointless to push them off. Lee Han decided to deal with it.

“Is there anything I can do to help as a wizard? Please tell me,” Lee Han said.

He needed to keep the hunters busy so they wouldn’t cause trouble. Lee Han planned to talk to them until Professor Thunderstride found the flower.

“Hey,” one of the hunters said, leaning closer to Lee Han. He lowered his voice like he was telling a secret. “There’s just one little thing…”

“What is it?” Lee Han asked, looking at him.

The hunter shuffled his feet a bit. “Well,” he mumbled, glancing at the special arrows in the box, “we were wondering… could we maybe take some of these enchanted arrows with us to the mountains?”

Silence. Lee Han just stared.

Around them, the other hunters suddenly found the ground very interesting. They coughed and looked away, but Lee Han could see they all wanted the arrows too. One even nudged his friend with his elbow, trying not to be too obvious.

The arrows the Maykin family gave out were very high quality.

These arrows were special. The wood was strong and light, from a seven-year-old tree. The feathers were from magical Pegasus birds. And they had magic because of the careful patterns carved into them.

“I’ll talk to the Maykin family about letting you take any leftovers,” Lee Han said.

That wasn’t too difficult. The Maykin family was known to be kind. Lee Han thought they would probably give away any arrows left over when they were done.

“That’s…”

However, the hunters hesitated even when Lee Han said that.

“The problem is that there might not be any left,” one of them said.

“At the rate we’re using them, it seems like we’ll run out and then some…” another added.

Lee Han thought, ‘Why not just hunt less?’ But he was polite and said,

“How about mixing in some regular arrows?”

“No, we can’t do that,” one hunter said. “Sea monsters have very tough skin. Normal arrows might not hurt them enough. We need these special arrows to stop them. We have a job to do, and we can’t mess it up just to save arrows. That would be doing things in the wrong order.”

The Shadow Patrol were good hunters.

They knew it was silly to be cheap and risk getting hurt. It was better to use the right tools and be safe.

‘So, if you reduce the hunting…’

Of course, Lee Han thought it was an absurd thing to say.

If they reduced the hunting, that problem would be solved too!

“If that’s the problem, I also have a way…” Lee Han offered.

“Could you enchant regular arrows for us, Wizard?” one of the hunters asked.

“!”

The hunters finally got to the point.

They weren’t just saying things without thinking; they had it all planned out.

They used these expensive arrows to have magic even when there was no wizard around.

But if there was a wizard, there was no need to use these expensive magic arrows. They could just enchant regular arrows.

The problem was…

‘It doesn’t work that way,’ Lee Han thought.

Lee Han was a little surprised.

People who didn’t know much about magic didn’t understand the different types. It was like going to a dark wizard and saying, ‘I have food poisoning, please heal me.’

Of course, dark wizards who hadn’t learned healing magic couldn’t do that. At best, they could bring you back to life after you died.

The situation was similar now.

Lee Han didn’t know where the Maykin family bought the arrows, but they probably bought them from a workshop run by skilled enchantment wizards.

They used high-quality materials for everything, from the arrow shaft to the feathers. They carefully carved all sorts of complex magic circles on them so the magic would last a long time…

Even a quick look showed how much skill and ability went into making them.

For Lee Han, a first-year student, to try to replace those arrows with regular arrows enchanted with a few spells…

The difference in power would be very noticeable.

‘The only thing I’m better at is casting spells right away, isn’t it?’ he thought.

Since he had no advantages except casting on the spot, Lee Han explained this to the Shadow Patrol hunters.

“So, these were made by a great wizard, and I’m still a student…”

“No, you’re wrong!” one of them interrupted.

“???”

What was wrong?

“Wizard, I don’t know anything about magic, but I’ll say one thing. You never know what you can do until you try.”

“That’s right. Our work is similar. A rookie always thinks he can’t take down prey. But if you give a rookie an arrow and a bow and have him face the prey alone, the rookie will realize he has hidden abilities inside,” another hunter added.

“……”

Lee Han was speechless.

‘Einroguard hunters?’ he thought. ‘Did the Skull Headmaster pay them to say this? This is crazy!’

What kind of nonsense were they spouting?

According to that logic, Lee Han also had a chance of beating the Skull Headmaster in a fight.

“We think you can do it, Wizard!” one of them exclaimed.

“Don’t be scared just because these arrows are fancy and made with expensive stuff. You can do it! Believe in yourself, Wizard!” another encouraged.

The Shadow Patrol, who knew nothing about magic, were very brave.

They urged Lee Han and pushed him to try.

“No… alright. I’ll show you once,” Lee Han sighed, deciding he would have to show them.

If he didn’t, they would keep bothering him, saying, ‘You’re a wizard, and the person who made these arrows is also a wizard, so why can’t you do it!’

“The magic on these arrows… wow, this is really… amazing,” Lee Han said, examining the arrows the Maykin family had bought.

He was really impressed. *Wow,* he thought, *these are amazing.* He remembered seeing magic like this when he studied with Professor Verdus.

The magic names were long and complicated, like ‘Zenbaya’s Eternal Penetration.’

Lee Han knew basic magic, like ‘Lower Penetration Enhancement.’ But these arrows were much, much better. They were like advanced magic from another world.

These arrows were amazing. Magic usually doesn’t last long, but these arrows were made to keep their magic for a long time. The wizard who made them was very clever!

As a fellow wizard, Lee Han had to stop and admire them.

“Do your best, Wizard!”

“You can do it too, Wizard!”

“…Yes. Well.”

Lee Han prepared the magic, feeling very unsure of himself.

He felt like he was drawing a simple child’s drawing on top of a beautiful painting.

Fwoosh!!

“I’ve cast penetration, weight, and hit enhancements for now, but there’s just too much difference in quality, and it’s too rough…” Lee Han said.

Lee Han started to explain how his magic was not as good as the magic on the special arrows. But the hunters just nodded, like they understood.

Lee Han could see they didn’t understand. *’I have no idea what he’s talking about,’* one hunter thought, glancing at the others. Right away, they took the arrow, put it on their bows, and pulled back the string.

Whoooosh!

The hunters’ eyes widened as they looked at each other.

“This is better, Wizard!” one of them exclaimed.

“Are you seriously trying to take the arrows now?” Lee Han asked, surprised.