Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 551

Professor Thunderstride grumbled as he stepped out of the cabin.

“I don’t know about you, Wodanaaz, but we professors and students here usually stay in our own areas,” he said. “It’s like everyone has their own space.”

“I’m sorry, Professor.”

“Ahem. Don’t forget to clean the storage.”

Professor Thunderstride had no choice but to give in to his persistent student.

He couldn’t easily ignore a student like Ihan. Ihan always finished his assignments early and even helped other students. Professor Thunderstride knew he could always count on Ihan.

“Right. Let’s go find that spirit.”

“Why are you so obsessed with spirits anyway, eh?” Professor Thunderstride couldn’t understand it.

Of course, if a wizard received help from a spirit, their magic would become much stronger.

But Ihan seemed like the type of student who could do well without a spirit, just like Headmaster Skull.

“Professor, how many spirits have you contracted with?”

“…That’s not important right now…”

“Let’s go quickly.”

Ihan was determined to listen to no one, even if they knew more about spirits than he did. Professor Thunderstride shook his head and started walking.

The dwarf professor took out a crossbow and pulled the trigger. The bolt shot through the air.

Crack!

The corrupted entity, which looked like a tree monster and used a giant oak tree as its core, fell in one hit.

Ihan was impressed.

Even without knowing all the magic in that crossbow, he could tell it was amazing.

The bolt was special too. A small flask was inside it, filled with a bubbling alchemical solution.

‘I wonder if I could get one?’

“That’s strange.”

“Yes?” Ihan flinched, wondering if Professor Thunderstride had heard his thoughts.

“There are too many of them. If this was natural, they wouldn’t be increasing so fast.”

Professor Thunderstride was a skilled ranger, and rangers are very aware of changes in their territory.

The forest was full of shadows, even though it was daytime. This showed that the dark magic was getting stronger.

Normally, corrupted entities didn’t grow this quickly…

“Then maybe the Headmaster…”

“It must be a mistake by your seniors.”

“Ah, a mistake by our seniors, I see.”

Yoner and Siana, the priestess next to Ihan, looked away.

Professor Thunderstride shook his head. “The Headmaster could do this, but he wouldn’t. Dealing with corrupted entities is too much trouble.”

“Did you just say he could do this?” Priestess Siana asked Ihan and Yoner, who nodded.

“You heard right.”

“He is capable of such things, isn’t he?”

While Priestess Siana was shocked, Ihan asked, “When you say it’s a hassle, do you mean the contamination around it?”

“Yes.”

Professor Thunderstride looked at his student with respect. Even though he didn’t want to bring the students into this, he was impressed by how well Ihan understood things.

“The Headmaster’s attacks change every year, but he usually cleans up well. If he didn’t, he would have to deal with it himself. This is probably a mistake by the students.”

“I see.”

“Probably dark magic students.”

“Yes?” Ihan frowned.

He thought about the dark magic students, who always looked sad, unlike the students from other schools.

“No, does everything have to be the fault of the dark magic school? Aren’t you being too hard on them?”

“Ah, no…” Professor Thunderstride remembered Ihan studied dark magic. He spoke in a softer, sorry voice.

“I’m not only suspecting the dark magic students. Look. These are dark spirit corrupted entities, aren’t they?”

Ihan realized what he meant.

He lowered his voice and whispered to Professor Thunderstride, “Still, they are all Ainrogard students who have learned from you, Professor, so don’t punish them too much, okay? If you are nice to them, the seniors won’t forget it.”

‘Aren’t they not very close, actually?’

Seeing Ihan quickly blame the dark magic seniors, Professor Thunderstride wondered if Ihan was actually close to them.

“S-Senior Ilendil. Are we going to be okay?” one of the second-year students whispered, his voice shaking.

The second-year students looked at the Dryad-hybrid senior with pale faces.

This student had Dryad blood and was the oldest among them, but he wore old, shabby clothes.

He wore a coat that seemed to be made of fallen leaves, and mud dripped from his body, making him look like a beggar.

“Hmm. Sorry about this, everyone.”

The juniors were dismayed at Ilendil’s casual words.

The senior was doing an experiment in the forest.

He was injecting dark magic into a homunculus to create something like an artificial dark spirit!

Of course, if it had worked, he wouldn’t be here right now.

The homunculus grew too fast and escaped, causing dark magic to spread through the forest.

Seeing corrupted entities in the forest, he shivered, worried about how bad Ainrogard winter would be this year.

“I should have gotten help from the dark magic school.”

“No, the dark magic school wouldn’t have helped. Those people are grumpy and scary.”

“This is not the time for that, Senior Ilendil,” one of the second-year students said firmly.

“Let’s quickly erase the traces and run.”

“…You…” The students looked at him.

Then, patting him on the back, they shouted, “Good idea! Let’s erase the traces and run away!”

They had forgotten the basic rules of Ainrogard because they were scared.

If a problem happens, erase the traces and run!

“Hmm. But… if I leave it like this, the forest will get too dirty, so I have to stop it.”

“No, Senior! If we get caught, we’ll be in the disciplinary room until the end of the semester! We’ll have to take the final exams there! Is the forest more important than your own well-being, Senior?”

“If I had to choose, the forest is more important, wouldn’t you say?”

“…”

“…”

Then the younger students suddenly remembered that this amazing alchemist thought differently than most people, and they sighed.

“Senior! You have to come with us!”

“There’s no choice. Grab the Senior! We have to take him away!”

Thud!

” ?”

“…?!”

Suddenly, a loud CRACK echoed through the trees, like thunder very close by. In the distance, the air seemed to shimmer and twist, like heat rising from hot ground, but stranger. The students were horrified.

If you were a student of Einroguard, you feared all professors, but you feared your major professor the most.

“It’s Professor Thunderstride!?”

“Ah, no, why is he here?? There’s no cabin here???”

“Did we get caught!? Did someone tell on us!?”

“Scatter! Scatter and run! Senior, you have to run away!”

“Okay. I understand. Everyone, run away.”

The next rule of Einroguard, after ‘if a problem arises, erase the traces and run,’ was ‘if you get caught, scatter and run.’

The students quickly scattered and began to run away according to the rule.

“How dare those rude students!” Professor Thunderstride tore at his beard, enraged.

Lee Han was puzzled. Professor Thunderstride was looking at that distant place where nothing was and was getting angry.

“Ah. Are there perhaps some seniors there?”

“Yes!”

“Are they perhaps seniors majoring in alchemy?”

“…Yes!”

“Professor! I told you the black magic seniors are innocent!”

Professor Thunderstride didn’t even notice Lee Han was changing his words. He clenched his jaw, preparing to catch the rude students.

“I clearly told them not to experiment carelessly in the forest… Track them down!”

“Wait. Professor…!” Lee Han was worried as Professor Thunderstride rode off on a spirit deer to chase after the seniors. He had almost arrived where the spirits were!

“Let’s go by ourselves? We’re almost there anyway.”

“I suppose we should.”

Lee Han nodded at Siana the Priest’s words. He was quite anxious as he didn’t know when the spirits would return.

“Darkness, gather here.”

Lee Han chanted a spell to clear the dark fog that had spread around them. Dark magic is very strange and different from other magic, the dark element itself approached as a hostile obstacle to life.

Even ordinary fog that formed in the forest became a deadly trap that drained your life when combined with the dark element. The dark fog was thick and black, like ink spilled in the air. It felt cold and heavy, and it smelled faintly of something rotten.

Fortunately, Lee Han was a rare dark element user even within the Black Magic School.

Lee Han waved his wand, drawing in the fog. The dark element, which was so difficult to gather outside, gathered easily in this forest.

‘I should clear it away.’

Although it was such a rare element, strangely, it became less useful in the forest because it was mixed with the bad magic of the dark spirits. The dark element itself didn’t have much of an impact.

“Wait, wait, wait!”

“????”

Siana the Priest screamed, “Eek!” and hid behind Lee Han.

A person had suddenly appeared out of thin air.

“Don’t throw away that dark element! Can you put it in this bottle for me?” The person who appeared looked very strange. He had bark-like skin and leaves growing in his hair, like a walking tree.

“Who are you?”

“Put the dark element in first. It’ll disappear soon!”

“It won’t disappear.”

Lee Han skillfully controlled the dark element and aimed it at the other person, showing he was ready to fight. The dark element was even more difficult to control because of its heterogeneity, but there were exceptions for some born magicians.

Lee Han, who had maintained the dark element like a spear at the end of his wand, prepared to respond immediately.

“Woah, Woahdanaz-nim. Isn’t that a senior?”

“Siana the Priest. Seniors are more dangerous. The order of danger is Headmaster, Professor, Senior.”

“B, but…”

Siana the Priest, still bound by common sense, hesitated, perhaps afraid of the act of aiming at a senior. Yoner also looked worried.

“Wait. I’ll apologize. But I really didn’t intend for this.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“For this entire situation…?” Ilendil said, tilting his head.

The three first-year students heard those words and realized everything. The one responsible was right in front of their eyes!

“Attack! Attack!”

“Lee Han, give the signal!”

Ilendil was surprised by the fierce reaction of his juniors and waved his hands.

“I didn’t intend for this…!?”

“Intended or not, didn’t you summon all of this right now!”

The tree-like senior thought for a moment about how to convince them, but then gave up.

“Um… you can attack, but could you put the dark element in the bottle for me?”

“…”

“He, he seems crazy,” Siana the Priest muttered from behind.

Lee Han lowered his wand for now. The other person seemed crazy, but he didn’t seem like someone who would launch a surprise attack.

Ilendil, who explained what had happened in a slow tone, looked at the three and asked.

“So, what brings you here?”

“Uh…”

“Well…”

Yoner and Siana the Priest naturally looked at Lee Han. Lee Han answered firmly.

“We couldn’t stand by and watch the spirits being chased by the bad magic, so we came in like this.”

“You…” Ilendil opened his eyes wide for the first time today and showed a strong reaction. It was rare for students at Einroguard to show such interest in the forest or spirits.

“You’re a really kind person!”

“Not at all. It’s just a natural thing to do as a magician.”