Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 568

“Are you alright, Lee Han?” Professor Volardi’s voice was sharp, his dark eyes fixed on Lee Han. Lee Han was hunched over, clutching his throat and making a strange, wheezing sound. Had he inhaled too much ozone from the last lightning spell?

Lee Han coughed again, a dry, rattling sound, and waved a hand weakly. “Yes,” he gasped, “I’m fine. Just… a bit of dust.”

Professor Volardi raised an eyebrow, unconvinced, but moved on. “So,” he said, his voice returning to its usual brisk tone, “about the form manipulation of the lightning element…”

“Cough, cough.” Lee Han couldn’t help another cough, his chest still tight. Professor Volardi waited, his gaze unwavering, patient as a predator watching its prey.

“…Yes,” Lee Han finally managed, his voice sounding strained and reluctant.

“I heard it’s still unstable.”

“Yes.”

“The lightning element is difficult to manipulate, so keep practicing.”

“Yes.”

Lee Han remained vigilant, keenly observing when Professor Volardi might attack.

Lee Han braced himself for the usual ‘practice until you drop’ lesson.

However, Professor Volardi didn’t say anything more after that. Instead, he opened the baby basilisk’s mouth and shoved the green lump of meat back in.

Lee Han was rather bewildered by this. ‘What is it? A trick?’

Professor Volardi, who was feeding the basilisk, felt Lee Han’s gaze and turned his head.

“Do you have something to say?”

“I thought you were going to attack, Professor.”

“Why would I do that?”

Lee Han was dumbfounded. Was that even a question?

‘Has there ever been a time when he didn’t attack during class?’ Frankly, it wouldn’t feel out of place to rename the class Professor Volardi’s Brutal Assault.

“Well, you often attack to help with magic practice, don’t you?”

“Ah.”

Professor Volardi nodded slightly, as if understanding what Lee Han was saying. Then, he looked at his overly hasty student with concern.

“You’re rushing too much.”

“Yes?”

“Form manipulation of the lightning element can be dangerous if you train that way.”

“Yes???”

Professor Volardi explained in detail to his surprisingly astonished student. Even if one failed to manipulate the water element and lost control, it wasn’t that dangerous. Water’s danger is greatly reduced unless it is sharply refined.

In comparison, the lightning element was far more dangerous if one failed while attempting form manipulation. He knew very well that this boy from the Wodanaz family exhibited abilities several times greater than usual when faced with dangerous situations, but even considering that, it was dangerous to train the lightning element’s form manipulation in that manner.

Lee Han’s mouth dropped open as the explanation concluded.

“Is it difficult to understand?”

“No! I understand!” Lee Han swallowed his shock.

He had thought that Professor Volardi had been adhering to a ‘you’ll learn if you don’t want to die’ style of teaching without much thought, but it turned out he had his reasons. It was like finding out a dragon was actually a friendly puppy in disguise.

‘Is this… a good thing?’ He felt complicated, but it was a relief that no attacks were coming. He couldn’t afford to return battered and bruised, especially with the final exams coming up.

“As I’ve said many times, don’t rush.”

Regardless of the relief, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger. Lee Han suspected that all of this was actually a ploy by Professor Volardi to provoke him into attacking.

‘Okay. Calm down.’ Seeing the baby basilisk eating the lump of meat while letting out mournful cries brought him back to his senses.

Lee Han decided to be genuinely grateful for the luck that had saved his life today.

“Yes. I won’t rush. I can currently fix it in the form of a spear on the staff, but other forms are difficult.”

“I would imagine so.”

In fact, freely changing even relatively easy-to-manipulate elements like water was very difficult, especially for someone who hadn’t been learning magic for very long.

As such, other wizards didn’t obsess over it too much. Even among the seniors at Einroguard, few saw the end of such form manipulation.

For example, with the fire element, mastering just three forms—arrow, spear, and barrier—wouldn’t significantly hinder spellcasting. If a different form was needed, one could simply respond with a new spell.

Lee Han wouldn’t have delved this deeply if it weren’t for Professor Volardi, who emphasized the fundamentals in magical combat.

“You were lucky to master the spear form first. It’s a versatile form. Next, try approaching it with the feeling of splitting the spear.”

“Do you mean dividing it into something like daggers?”

“Yes. Daggers are fine, or even a sphere shape. Try dividing it into a familiar form. That will be advantageous.”

Lee Han summoned a lightning spear on his staff and then manipulated its form. The tip of the spear split and solidified in the air. Just like when he changed the form of the water sphere, Lee Han concentrated on changing the form of the lightning.

‘It’s closer to a pebble than a sphere.’ Unlike the water element, which maintained a smooth spherical shape, the lightning element, even when formed into a sphere, sparked in all directions and had a bumpy appearance.

Bzzzt! Losing focus for a moment, the lightning element lost control and was discharged. The baby basilisk was terrified when the lightning flew in front of it.

“Keep practicing.”

Professor Volardi finished feeding the baby basilisk, grabbed the back of its neck, and stood up. The still-growing king of snakes resisted with whines, but couldn’t escape.

Plop-

“Go around.”

The basilisk looked at Professor Volardi as if dumbfounded by the toys placed in front of it. Toys and a race track placed in the center of the lecture hall.

Did he really mean for it to go around here? The baby basilisk desperately shook its head.

It was already upset about being forced to eat nutritious food, but this was truly a matter of pride. How could a wild, untamed beast and the noble king of snakes, the basilisk, run around jumping over toys that even pets would do?

Professor Volardi patiently explained to the young beast that didn’t understand.

“The reason your growth is slow might be due to a lack of exercise.”

The baby basilisk hissed in protest, but Professor Volardi didn’t listen anymore. He picked up a toy stick and started poking the basilisk from behind until it moved.

The baby basilisk had no choice but to endure the anger and humiliation as it went around the course.

“Don’t stop.”

Lee Han, who was concentrating on lightning magic nearby, watched Professor Volardi and the baby basilisk circling the center of the lecture hall as if taking a stroll, with curious eyes. Did the basilisk like such walks?

“Does the basilisk normally like taking walks?”

“Yes. Professor Lightning Foot told me that it’s quite a territorial monster.”

“Oh dear, I haven’t been giving it any exercise…”

“You can start giving it exercise from now on.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Lee Han nodded, reflecting on his actions. He had thought that the baby basilisk only liked being wrapped around him all the time and disliked walks, but seeing it crawling so quickly now, it seemed that it actually liked moving around.

He felt sorry for making it endure because of his own circumstances. ‘I should take it for walks from now on.’

While Lee Han was thinking that, Professor Volardi relentlessly poked the basilisk with the toy stick.

“Increase the speed. More. More. More. More. More. More. More.”

The baby basilisk hissed fiercely as it went around and around and around the course. Jumping through hoops, climbing toy stairs, swimming through sections filled with rough sand…

Just as it was about to collapse from exhaustion, Professor Volardi stopped poking it with the toy stick. Instead, he started waving the stick in front of the basilisk.

It was to enhance the monster’s wild instincts.

“Bite it.”

“Looks like it still needs more walks.”

As Professor Volardi was about to stand up again, the baby basilisk hurriedly bit the stick. Only then did Professor Volardi look satisfied.

If he continued to train it like this, someday this baby basilisk would become useful.

“Oh, Professor. Have you heard the story about the vampire monster appearing?”

Professor Volardi stopped the stick and let out a faint sigh.

“Giants are enough for the final exam. Stop being so greedy.”

“…No, I was just saying!”

“Is that so?” The professor answered with a voice that said, ‘I don’t believe you, but I’ll pretend to because you said so.’

Lee Han nearly lost his mind for a moment.

“Do you have any advice? …It’s not that I’m trying to catch it, absolutely not. I’m asking because I’m worried about a vampire monster attacking.”

“You almost died to the Death Knights, and now they’re reappearing near the school?”

“…It could happen.”

“I see.”

Professor Volardi glanced at his student expressionlessly and continued.

“It’s a typical regeneration-specialized monster.”

Countless monsters emerged from unpredictable places in Einroguard, and it was impossible for even the professors to know the names of all these monsters.

However, Professor Volardi, having only heard the stories of the Death Knights, was able to discern what type of monster the enemy was.

No matter how unique and bizarre a monster was, it couldn’t exist while defying the laws of nature itself. If one learned the habits, characteristics, and laws of monsters, it became possible to identify even unusual monsters.

The fact that it had managed to regenerate even after being hit by the Death Knights’ attacks meant that it possessed a regeneration ability that most monsters couldn’t even dream of imitating.

“Such regeneration is a powerful ability, but it requires a price.”

Lee Han nodded as if he understood what he meant. Magic was the same.

Just as powerful magic required more mana, longer casting times, and complex reagents, the vampire monster’s regeneration was the same.

“It kept looking for blood, which might be the fuel for its regeneration.”

“That’s highly likely. Blood is a powerful reagent, even in terms of magic.”

Of course, that alone wasn’t enough. It had to sacrifice defense or other abilities to achieve that level of regeneration. Besides, its speed was beyond imagination, wasn’t it?

“It’s probably hundreds of years old.”

There were quite a few monsters with vampiric abilities, but the level of ability that the vampire monster had shown yesterday was something that only monsters that were at least hundreds of years old could display.

“Are there monsters over hundreds of years old roaming around Einroguard??”

“There are monsters over a thousand years old.”

Lee Han paused for a moment, about to ask, ‘Are you talking about the headmaster?’ but stopped himself. It didn’t seem like that’s what he meant.

“It must have been sealed somewhere underground or hibernating.”

‘That’s terrifying in itself.’ It was frightening that monsters far older than the vampire monster might be lying around like junk somewhere in the basement.

Was this a magic school or a hellish labyrinth…

Bzzzt! As the lightning finally took shape, Lee Han beamed.

Even if it wasn’t perfect, he had somehow created a new form.

“Oh, Professor. I think I succeeded in one. I used the shape of an object as a core, but still…”

“A dagger?” Professor Volardi thought that Lee Han had created a new form of the lightning element using a dagger or sphere as a core, based on Lee Han’s words.

A dagger was a fragment of a spear. A sphere was the form Lee Han had been handling the most recently.

In comparison, difficult forms would be armor, shield, and a cloak. Since the lightning element wasn’t suitable for defense, armor or shields, which required expanding the area and maintaining it, didn’t suit it well.

Furthermore, a cloak had the added attribute of fluttering softly, making it even more difficult.

“No.”

“A sphere?”

“I somehow managed to fix it in the form of a cloak. Look.” Lee Han proudly pointed to the cloak crackling with sparks.

Seeing that, Professor Volardi seriously wondered if he had been underestimating his student too much.