Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 552

Lee Han frowned, scratching behind the squirrel elemental’s twitching ear. “No,” he said, his voice low, “not all wizards care about elementals like Professor Uregeoreum does.”

The squirrel, perched on his shoulder, bobbed its head as if agreeing, its tiny claws gently kneading his robes.

Most wizards, Lee Han knew, wouldn’t risk a singed eyebrow for an elemental, let alone their lives. They might keep one as a pet, or even make a contract for extra power, but brave a forest twisted by dark magic? That was a different story altogether.

“But how did you appear before us, Senior?”

“I have a potion that briefly stops the Headmaster’s magic.”

“!”

“!!!”

All three were outstanding alchemy students, so they immediately understood how amazing what Senior Ilendil was saying truly was.

To be able to stop the skeletal Headmaster’s magic, even for a moment!

Just moments before, they saw Ilendil as a crazy, suspicious senior. Now, their eyes showed respect for an amazing one.

“That’s incredible!”

“Truly…!”

“Huh?”

Ilendil looked confused. He didn’t understand why his juniors were suddenly acting like this.

“Why?”

“Senior, I apologize, but we need to save the elementals. The time we have…”

“I’ll help. The potion’s effect still lasts.”

“Uh…”

Lee Han hesitated. Did he really have to go with this senior? He still seemed suspicious. And it was Ilendil who caused all this trouble in the first place.

Besides, he also needed to make contracts with the elementals…

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous, considering we don’t know when the professor will return?”

“Well, the forest and the elementals are more important than me.”

“How admirable…!”

“I must have misjudged you, Lee Han.”

As Siana Priest and Yoner sent Ilendil even stronger gazes of respect than before, Lee Han thought to himself.

‘Have they all forgotten that this person is the cause of the contaminated creatures?’

But there was no time to waste now.

“Understood. Let’s go.”

In any case, he was a senior and an alchemist several times more skilled than Lee Han, so he would be of help.

…Even though it was a bit unsettling that he was the cause of this whole mess…

“Why were you trying to create an artificial dark elemental?”

Ordinary students might talk about dinner while walking, but alchemy students talked about alchemy even while walking.

Ilendil answered Siana Priest’s question in his characteristically slow voice.

“Well, I wanted to use it as a forest keeper.”

“A forest keeper?”

The forests of Einroguard possessed powerful strength close to the primeval forests.

However, not all of the Empire’s forests could be like that.

In particular, one of the elements vulnerable to forests was the dark element.

There were cases where a single dark elemental, if summoned incorrectly, could contaminate an entire vast forest.

Ilendil was sad about this. So, he tried a different idea.

What if he used a dark elemental from the start as a forest keeper?

“Wow! That’s really…”

“Isn’t that a crazy idea?”

Siana was about to agree with Lee Han, but then she blushed, realizing she was praising his muttering.

“Isn’t it a good idea?”

“Siana Priest, look at the contaminated creatures in front of us right now.”

Ilendil became dejected at his juniors’ conversation. The leaves connected to his hair drooped as if dispirited.

“It would have been nice if it had succeeded.”

‘Oops. He’s a senior.’

Lee Han realized his mistake.

He was so caught up in the elementals that he made a mistake he wouldn’t normally make.

Ilendil was clearly a senior.

What if the older alchemy students started saying bad things about him? That could make things difficult in class.

‘Can’t I use the Moradi family? That would be impossible. I already said the name and family earlier.’

“No. Senior, I think it’s a meaningful attempt.”

“Huh? You said it was a crazy idea.”

“Pioneers always seem crazy at first. It was meant as admiration.”

“You’re a really kind person.”

Ilendil’s leaves quickly perked up.

“But wouldn’t it be better to get help from an expert for elements as difficult to handle as the dark element?”

“Help me?”

The dryad hybrid senior stared intently at Lee Han.

Lee Han quickly answered without taking a breath.

“I was talking about the seniors from the Black Magic Department.”

“Well, everyone in the Black Magic Department is eccentric and scary.”

“Pardon?”

Lee Han paused, wondering if he had misheard his senior.

“Wait. The elementals are that way.”

Ilendil pointed his finger, correcting their direction.

“Can you sense the elementals’ energy?”

“Yeah. I’ve been close to elementals since I was young.”

Yoner shook his head, seeing the veins popping out on his friend’s hand holding the wand.

What’s so great about elementals…!

“We’re here. The elementals are gathered over there.”

Lee Han had no choice but to acknowledge the skill of the senior who had taken on the role of temporary guide in place of Professor Uregeoreum.

People with elemental powers were different. Some were very sensitive to elementals, others didn’t care.

Ilendil said he was close to elementals. It was clear he had a natural connection with them.

“Wait.”

Suddenly, the senior’s expression changed.

“A homunculus is coming this way.”

“!”

Lee Han’s eyes changed.

Unlike the other contaminated creatures, the artificial dark elemental, which was the cause of the situation, was a different story.

“I’ll stop it. You guys take the elementals and go.”

Lee Han, who was about to nod, paused.

If Ilendil showed a devoted side with the elementals right next to them, wouldn’t the story go back to square one?

“No. I’ll stop it with you.”

Ilendil gave his junior a look that said, ‘You’re a really, really kind person’.

“Hmm. What was your name again?”

“Mo…”

“He is Wodanaz-nim.”

“Lee Han of the Wodanaz family.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Ihan of the Wodanaz family. Ihan of the Wodanaz family. Yes. I’ll remember that.”

The older wizard, who had Dryad blood, waved his wand.

Instantly, the already dense trees tangled even more, growing into a solid wall of dark and twisted branches. The tree wall looked strong and scary.

Thud!

The artificial dark spirit, which had been charging, was trapped in the tree prison.

However, the spirit was not to be underestimated. In an instant, it freely changed its form, squeezing its entire body through the gaps in the tree prison and beginning to crawl out.

“Darkness, gather here!”

Ihan responded immediately, even without the senior’s instruction.

Ilendil, who was trapping the spirit with trees, nodded at Ihan. This was exactly what needed to be done right now: to continuously absorb dark elemental energy from the artificial dark spirit.

Dark elemental energy, like black smoke, gathered at the tip of Ihan’s wand.

Bzzzt!

The spirit reacted very sensitively as its essence was torn away.

The spirit, trying to hold onto the dark elemental energy by force, immediately switched tactics when it was outmatched by Ihan in terms of control.

‘This is…!’

As the dark elemental energy condensed at the tip of his wand flickered and threatened to explode, Ihan quickly took out a bone fragment from his magic pouch and hastily compressed it.

Some of the bone fragments burned away, but there was no choice.

‘Dark Wave Diffusion!’

Ihan recalled the magic from the magic tome Professor Voladi had given him.

A type of magic that condenses dark elemental energy and then detonates it in the form of a wave to affect the surroundings.

With other elements, it wouldn’t have been particularly powerful, but the nature of dark elemental energy made even this wave-form attack deadly.

Wizards with living bodies would have their life force diminished if they were directly hit by this dark elemental energy a few times.

The spirit he was facing was instinctively trying to cause a similar phenomenon.

“This is… harder than I thought. Absorbing it… is really difficult!” Ilendil panted, spitting out the words in short bursts.

He was using potions to keep it contained, but as it was such a large-scale spell, it seemed the consumption of magic and stamina was extraordinary.

Yoner and Siana the Priestess were also helping from the side, already sweating from their efforts. Siana looked worried.

Ihan sensed that if he backed down in this situation, things would become even more complicated.

‘If necessary, I’ll have to fight back with magic.’

Dark Wave Diffusion was something he hadn’t even practiced yet and had put off, but in this situation, he had no choice but to try it based on what he had read.

With a recklessness that Diret would have grimaced at, Ihan waved his wand.

“Darkness, gather here!”

Once again, dark elemental energy gathered.

The spirit, struggling in the tree prison, reacted even faster this time, having learned from experience.

As the dark elemental energy immediately flickered and threatened to explode, there was no time to contain it in a magic pouch.

Ihan cast Dark Wave Diffusion as he had read in the magic tome.

“Darkness, sweep over!”

A wave of darkness rippled through the air above his head. Ihan had cast it first, before the opponent could detonate, thus expending the energy.

Ilendil asked again, puzzled.

“Why, just now…?”

“It’s because it’s the first time I’ve used this magic!”

“What?”

Ihan couldn’t explain any further to Ilendil.

The spirit, realizing that it couldn’t possibly keep up with the wizard in terms of dark elemental energy, changed its tactics once again.

Grass and branches combined with dark elemental energy and rose up like puppets.

At the sight, Ilendil let out a scream filled with pain.

“You bastard!”

“Hands, tear the enemy apart!”

Without even giving him a chance to draw his Morning Star, Ihan barely managed to chant the spell as the enemy latched onto him.

The Headmaster Skeleton’s close-combat spell, Hand of Force.

Unlike other magic, he wondered when he would ever use this…!

Whack!

“Flash!”

He slashed with one hand and waved his wand with the other to cast the spell, but the numbers and momentum were not to be taken lightly.

In such a chaotic battle, a wizard was always at a disadvantage.

“Flash!”

The moment lightning formed, another grass puppet charged at him. Ihan forcibly fixed the lightning at the end, stabbing his wand like a spear.

If he had even a moment’s gap, he could summon all his familiars to buy time, but there was no such gap.

If only there was a moment’s gap!

Bzzzzzt!

As if responding to Ihan’s wish, the lightning elemental energy gathered at the tip of his wand grew even larger, covering the wand.

Ihan himself, however, was too busy dealing with the enemy approaching from the other side and staring at the spirit trapped inside the tree prison to notice.

It was only after he realized that all the enemies around the hand holding the wand had fallen that he noticed the change.

“…?”

Ihan was startled when he realized that his wand had transformed into a lightning spear, crackling with energy and smelling like ozone. He looked at his wand in shock.

‘Wait. How did I do this?’

Judging by the looks of it, he had clearly fixed the lightning elemental energy in the form of a burning spear, using the wand as a core.

Professor Voladi had talked about fixing the form of lightning elemental energy like that, so he recognized it immediately.

But what was perplexing was that he himself couldn’t remember how he had done it. He wondered how he had done it.

He had done it so instinctively in such a desperate situation…

‘This is no time for that!’

Ihan immediately summoned Sharkan and the Skeleton Warriors.

The summoned creatures blocked the grass puppets that had been pushed back by the lightning spear. Ihan took advantage of the gap to run, holding the lightning spear.

Kraaah!

The spirit trapped between the tree prisons screamed in terror, as if realizing its fate. It felt dark and tight, smelling like tree sap and earth.

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

Unlike the shock of lightning that was fired and passed through, the power of lightning that was condensed and fixed was sharp and ferocious.

Moreover, it didn’t disappear and continuously burned the spirit.

Ihan pulled out the spear and thrust it again.

Bzzzzzzzzzt!

Ihan intended to stab the spear until the opponent was banished.

Of course, as it was something created by the seniors of Einrogaard, it wouldn’t be as easily banished as a normal spirit.

But it didn’t matter.

If it was a battle of endurance, Ihan’s magic would never disappear first.

Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab!

Kraaah! Kraaah! Kraaah! Kraaah! Kraaah!

At the end of the chorus of thunder and screams, the artificial spirit gave up all resistance and knelt down. Ihan was surprised.

It caused its mark to rise on the back of Ihan’s hand.

It was a signal that it was entrusting its fate to the wizard, that it had completely surrendered.

“???”

Of course, Ihan was only bewildered as he had no intention of making a contract with the opponent at all. He was confused.

Wasn’t it a rampaging, ferocious thing in the first place?

There weren’t many wizards who would make a contract with someone who might stab them in the back at any moment.

Unless they were crazy about spirits…

“Ihan, remember you wanted a spirit? This is perfect!” Siana said excitedly.

“Yes, I think it’s a good idea too. It might be a bit wild, but it could be a good spirit to have,” Ilendil added.

“……”

Ihan frowned at the shouts of Siana the Priestess and Senior Ilendil.