Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 616

“Exactly. If you dislike fighting, you’d be better off as a wizard than a knight.”

Alshicl didn’t know Lee Han’s real feelings. He tried to convince Lee Han to be a wizard, acting like it was a wonderful idea.

Alshicl spoke with confidence, even though he seemed to know nothing about Einrogaard.

“Knights shed blood and sweat every day, wielding steel. But wizards can spend as much time as they want in their workshops, doing research.”

“Hmm.”

“??”

Lee Han just hummed. Alshicl looked at him, confused.

“Is being a wizard really a suitable job for someone who hates fighting?”

“!?”

Alshicl was surprised by Lee Han’s sudden question.

“Why, what’s wrong? Aren’t we supposed to be persuading him?”

“That’s true, but I’m wondering if Einrogaard is a suitable place for someone who dislikes fighting.”

“How much fighting could there be! Hey, look here. You’ll be meeting monsters every weekend!”

“In Einrogaard, you’ll be meeting monsters almost every other day…”

“……”

Alshicl was speechless.

What…?

After thinking for a bit, Lee Han turned to the future student and asked,

“Are you interested in magic?”

“Well… that is…”

“You can be honest. I don’t intend to force you.”

“I am, a little.”

Ulgan said carefully.

They looked like great wizards, and he wondered if it was okay for a woodcutter like him to be interested in magic.

However, Lee Han and Alshicl didn’t scold or laugh at him at all. Instead, they seemed pleased and asked,

“Oh, really? If you’re interested, that’s great. What kind of magic are you interested in?”

“Among those wizards, there are some who cast spells on axes or limbs, right?”

“Enchantment magic… specifically, enhancement specialization, perhaps.”

“Traditional. I hear those from the White Tiger Tower are usually skilled in that school.”

Lee Han and Alshicl exchanged interested comments.

Encouraged by their reaction, Ulgan added,

“There’s more than that.”

“Good. Tell me anything.”

“Spirits…”

“You want to make a contract with a spirit?”

“No. I also want to learn spirit banishment magic. They get in the way of logging. And I want to create potions that kill trees all at once. Sometimes, trees that come back to life can be a nuisance…”

“……”

“……”

‘I must never let him meet Ilendil-sunbae,’ Lee Han thought, seeing the potential in his junior to ruin Einrogaard’s forests.

“Ulgan, as someone who attends Einrogaard, I’ll be honest with you. Einrogaard isn’t a place where you can avoid fighting. It’s as big as these mountains, so monsters roam around.”

“Ah. I’ve heard stories.”

Ulgan nodded.

He knew about Einrogaard’s reputation from the patrol hunters who sometimes visited.

“It’s incredibly vast!”

“Indeed.”

“A sunbae who came from the Shadow Patrol hunters is at the top of his class, popular, and all the professors are trying to make him their disciple!”

‘Was there someone like that?’ Lee Han wondered.

“Sorry, I don’t know all the sunbaes. Anyway, as vast as it is, you can’t completely avoid fighting. You might encounter monsters while gathering alchemy ingredients in the mountains. And sometimes, the Headmaster attacks.”

“I see… Huh?”

Ulgan wondered if he had misheard.

Or if it was just a senior’s strange joke.

“I understand. Thank you for telling me. Of course, I hate fighting!”

Ulgan clenched his fist.

Alshicl and Lee Han leaned back slightly without thinking.

“But I won’t run away from a fight I can’t avoid. A woodcutter from the North is no coward!”

“Well thought out, well thought out!” Alshicl flapped his wings and applauded.

Seeing the young wizard’s determination, persuading him seemed easy.

“If that’s the case, Einrogaard will welcome you!”

“That’s right. I’m saying it like this, but there are ways to avoid fighting in Einrogaard. If you focus only on your research, you won’t have much to fight. Actually, I don’t like fighting much either.”

Eandurde, who had been dozing off while listening, stared in surprise, but Lee Han didn’t notice.

“I see. Sunbae doesn’t like fighting much either.”

“I’m a complete pacifist.”

“Oh, you’re Baegrek’s…” Alshicl started to say, then stopped himself.

He thought it wasn’t polite to ask about Lee Han’s teacher in front of others.

Crack!

“!”

At the distant crash, Lee Han immediately drew his staff and chanted a spell.

“Feet, wrinkle the earth!”

At the same time, he jumped to the side and rolled. This was to mess up the aim in case the opponent was making a ranged attack.

“……”

Alshicl looked complicated, seeing Lee Han react so strongly to the sound of a tree breaking.

“It’s just a tree breaking.”

“Is that so? I thought it was something else.” Lee Han dusted himself off and stood up.

He acted as if this level of alertness was as natural as breathing.

“No! It’s a real monster!!” Ulgan shouted urgently, grabbing his axe.

A ghost tree had appeared from behind the broken tree.

The ghost tree, a monster formed when an evil spirit joined with a tree instead of taking a ghost form, was a constant threat to woodcutters.

The act of cutting down trees itself messed up the order and balance of the forest, always leading to the creation of such monsters.

“I’ll stand in front. Please support me from behind!”

Lee Han shook his head at Ulgan’s words.

“No. I’ll stand in front, and Alshicl-nim can support me from behind.”

Eandurde shook his head at Lee Han’s words.

“Me! I’ll stand in front!”

“???”

Ulgan was confused by the wizards’ overly excited preference for the front lines.

Weren’t wizards usually supposed to provide magical support from the rear?

“Stay in the back, Junior.”

“Hmph.”

“What do you mean, ‘hmph’? You’ll meet ghost trees again when you go to Einrogaard anyway, so fight then. Leave it to me for now.”

As a senior, Lee Han couldn’t let his juniors take the lead.

He cast >Baegrek’s Instant Foresight> and >Gonadalthes’s Surging Power>, and even chanted >Spatial Awareness>.

“Space, be aware…”

“…Do you usually cast all those spells when you fight?”

“Do I?”

Lee Han didn’t know why Alshicl was asking.

Why wouldn’t a lion use all its strength to catch a single rabbit?

The answer was, ‘Because you never know what an Einrogaard rabbit might do.’

Rabbits might teleport, spit venom, or cast evil curses, so it was best to be as prepared as possible.

‘That’s what a lot of magic power looks like!’ Alshicl clicked his tongue inwardly.

He was shocked to see Lee Han casually wasting so much magic, something that would horrify other wizards.

Wouldn’t this ability be highly praised if he fought as a combat wizard?

-■■■…

As the ghost tree got closer, Lee Han lightly launched a Water Orb.

With a dull thud, the ghost tree staggered. The rotating water orb caused internal damage with a gruesome sound.

At the same time, Lee Han charged forward, holding Dawn Star in one hand. As the black obsidian sword slashed through, the evil spirit inside the tree howled in pain.

‘Magic Absorption!’ Alshicl was amazed to see Dawn Star’s blade tearing magic power from the monster.

And he was even more surprised to realize that Lee Han was using Dawn Star.

‘Why is a wizard using an artifact like that…?’

Magic absorption equipment was almost forbidden for wizards.

Many wizards were already unwilling to use items that affected the flow of magic power, let alone magic absorption equipment.

The ghost tree tried to fight back with a chilling sound. Long branches rippled like whips, threatening Lee Han.

However, Lee Han had already created distance when the counterattack came.

With foresight magic and spatial awareness magic, he could read the opponent’s simple movements like the back of his hand.

Thwack!

Lee Han quickly finished off the ghost tree without giving Alshicl a chance to help him.

He used the imbalance caused by the counterattack, launching a Water Orb and then striking the fallen foe.

Lee Han, who had sheathed Dawn Star and returned, spoke with a pleased voice when he saw Ulgan staring intently at him.

“You said you were interested in enhancement magic, right? You must have liked the magic you just saw.”

However, the junior said in a quiet voice,

“Seeing how Sunbae fights, I’m worried about whether I’ll be able to do well in Einrogaard…”

“?!”

Even a pacifist sunbae who didn’t like fighting was so skilled, so he suddenly worried about whether someone like him could survive.

*

*

“That’s how I got funding for >Research on Races Trolls Like to Eat>.”

“T-That’s amazing.”

‘He’s exaggerating a lot,’ the knights thought.

The skeletal Headmaster was sharing his recent stories while chatting with the knights in front of the log cabin.

The knights pretended to be impressed, but they didn’t believe him.

No matter how they thought about it, it was too far-fetched.

Getting funding for >Research on Races Trolls Like to Eat>…?

It was likely that he had made up other funding.

“I’m not just saying this because he’s my student, but he really deserves the nickname Bureaucrat Destroyer. You all should train talents like him to make it easier to get support.”

“…We’ll compete with our skills.”

The knights were jealous but didn’t show it. Showing it here would hurt their pride.

“Skills, my foot. How much has Einrogaard done for the Empire? But those bureaucrats only think about taking gold.”

‘Aren’t you forgetting the damage Einrogaard has caused to the Empire?’

‘If you really got funding for >Research on Races Trolls Like to Eat>, shouldn’t you avoid saying such things!’

“That’s right. Those bureaucrats!”

Even if they thought differently, the knights agreed for now.

They also had many bad memories of the Empire’s bureaucrats.

Especially for knights who fought monsters in harsh places like the North, the bureaucrats’ stinginess was always annoying.

“We stayed in the fortress for almost half a year last time, and those bastards didn’t give any support. They said we could survive with the stockpiled supplies!”

“That’s right.”

“When we asked for more wizards, they said a magic criminal had escaped and they had to focus on that!”

“Hmm. The bureaucrats must have had their reasons.”

“!?”

The knights were surprised by the skeletal Headmaster’s sudden change in attitude.

“Your Excellency.”

The old knight, who had been waiting for a chance, spoke when the conversation paused.

No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t understand the skeletal Headmaster’s intentions.

‘Wisdom?’

The knights next to him thought, ‘What wisdom is being shared here?’ but they couldn’t say it.

With Gonadalthes’s power, even nonsense became wisdom.

“We are foolish and can’t understand Your Excellency’s intentions, so we are curious as to why you keep telling us this.”

“Hmm. Maybe it’s time to tell you.”

The old knight listened closely as the skeletal Headmaster nodded.

What was the meaning of this conversation?

At that moment, Lee Han’s group came up from below with Ulgan.

“Headmaster, my junior said he’ll enter Einrogaard.”

“Well done, Bureaucrat Destroyer.”

“Don’t call me by that nickname.”

“That’s all, so let’s go. Everyone, it was nice talking to you.”

The skeletal Headmaster stood up lightly, encouraged the knights, and cheerfully left with Lee Han’s group.

The knights stared at them leaving, shocked.

The knights stared as they left, suddenly understanding. The Headmaster had just used them to impress Lee Han, making Einrogaard seem important!