Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 641

“Can monsters usually be talked into things like that?”

“How would I know? I don’t exactly hang out with ghosts.”

“Oh… s-sorry.”

“I wasn’t asking for an apology!” Yoner snapped, though her voice softened a little. “Anyway, we got permission. Let’s hurry and find the treasure.”

Gainando sighed heavily. “Lee Han,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow, “even if you *love* treasure, looking for it in this creepy place is hard.” He shivered, looking around the dark tomb. The air was cold and smelled of old stone and damp earth. Hecatoncheires, the rock monster, loomed nearby, its stony faces like angry mountains. Any moment, Gainando felt, undead creatures might crawl out of the shadows. Finding treasure here felt more like a dangerous chore than fun.

“Yoner and Nilia are already helping themselves.”

“?!!”

Gainando turned around.

Yoner and Nilia were already picking out valuable items from the silver burial goods.

“T-they’re acting weird because they went to Einroguard!”

‘You went to Einroguard too…’

Thud-

From inside, Hecatoncheires called for Arsil.

After the two had a conversation, Lee Han asked, puzzled,

“What were you talking about for so long? Yes, they are Einroguard students… No, why are you telling us that?!”

As Lee Han became flustered, Gainando asked anxiously,

“What’s wrong, Lee Han? It’s nothing serious, right? Did he suddenly change his mind and want to eat us?”

Hecatoncheires spoke to Arsil. Arsil relayed the message to Lee Han, and Lee Han to Gainando.

“He says not to talk like a jerk. Why would he eat someone like you?”

“…S-sorry.”

Lee Han called his friends and told them what Hecatoncheires had just said.

“Apparently, this Hecatoncheires has a humiliating defeat from the headmaster in the past.”

Hecatoncheires spoke to Arsil. Arsil relayed the message to Lee Han, and Lee Han to his friends.

“…He says it’s not humiliation, but more like a debt.”

Hecatoncheires…

“Ah, whether it’s a debt or an old grudge, what does it matter! Let me speak,” Lee Han shouted, annoyed. Having to translate the message through so many people was taking twice as long.

“Anyway, he wants to take out his old grudge on us.”

Hecatoncheires…

“Not take it out on us, but he wants to test us fairly. Honestly, isn’t that the same thing?”

As Lee Han muttered, Hecatoncheires glared back furiously.

But this time, Arsil remained silent.

Hecatoncheires protested, asking why he was silent.

When Arsil firmly replied that he wouldn’t say bad words to his brother, Hecatoncheires became enraged and hurled insults.

-■■■■ ■!

“Why is he like that this time?”

Arsil answered with a smile, ‘He’s just excited.’ Lee Han thought he was a peculiar monster. ‘Are all highly intelligent monsters eccentric?’ Come to think of it, the headmaster, when you really think about it…

“No, why is he taking out his old grudge against the headmaster on us!” Gainando reacted.

That monster had so many heads, yet his level of thinking was lower than Gainando himself, who only had one head.

Hecatoncheires…

“He says that as the master’s honor is passed on to the disciple, and the master’s knowledge is passed on to the disciple, so too is the master’s debt passed on to the disciple. No. Isn’t that too much of a stretch?”

Despite Lee Han’s protest, Hecatoncheires didn’t care.

At that reaction, Gainando fell into deep thought.

As Yoner rarely saw his friend pondering so deeply, he asked, curious,

“What are you thinking about?”

“But here, isn’t Lee Han the only true disciple of the headmaster?”

“……”

“Wow, what a scumbag,” Nilia muttered, Gainando hurriedly waved his hands, denying it.

“I… It’s not that I’m not participating… I was just thinking!”

“Wodanaz. Gainando says he’s not participating.”

“No! No! I’ll participate! Let me participate!”

Hecatoncheires also looked at Gainando with eyes that saw him as trash.

He couldn’t believe that Gonadaltez’s disciple would try to abandon his comrades like that.

Hecatoncheires stood up. As he did, the entrance to a massive passage was revealed where he had been.

The monster hadn’t simply been guarding the room. He had been guarding the passage that led from this room.

Arsil cheerfully asked if they could just pass through, but Hecatoncheires flatly refused. When the spirits booed, Hecatoncheires roared.

Rumble!

Hecatoncheires rolled a massive boulder to block the revealed entrance to the passage. Then, he shouted to the four of them.

“Is passing through this the test?”

Arsil, who was translating, nodded.

The size was one thing, but the complex traces of magic coming from the boulder made it clear that it was no ordinary rock.

Lee Han thought to himself, ‘We grabbed the burial goods, so can’t we just give up?’

Unaware of his younger brother’s thoughts, Arsil argued with Hecatoncheires. It seemed some resentment had lingered from their earlier conversation.

“…No, brother. I’m not that… No, seriously, don’t do that!”

As Lee Han frantically tried to stop Arsil, Yoner asked, surprised,

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“My brother keeps taunting Hecatoncheires, saying that someone like me could solve this in the blink of an eye.”

“……”

Seeing Lee Han troubled by Arsil, Yoner felt a little sorry for him, but also a little gleeful.

Just as she had been humiliated in front of Lee Han because of her crazy sister, she hoped Lee Han would be humiliated with his crazy brother!

“…That sounds really difficult!”

“Yoner. You seem strangely happy.”

“Ah, no. It’s a misunderstanding. Maybe it’s because I grabbed the burial goods earlier?”

Lee Han and his friends put their heads together.

Having experienced this more than once or twice in Einroguard, they were used to encountering such obstacles.

Gainando said with a serious expression, “If we combine our four powers, we can still produce magic around the level of a fourth-year in Einroguard. Let’s just pass this jerk’s… No, this gentleman’s test.”

“Gainando. You’re not seriously saying that gathering four first-years makes a fourth-year, are you?” Yoner asked, horrified by the miraculous arithmetic skills her relative had shown.

“Huh? I said it’s about fourth-year level because Lee Han uses fourth-year magic?”

“……”

“……”

It wasn’t exactly that they became a fourth-year by combining their powers, but his friends had no choice but to admit it.

They had seen Lee Han use fourth-circle magic.

“Guys. Using fourth-circle magic doesn’t make you a fourth-year level.”

“I know that, but the fourth-circle magic you use, Lee Han, is more amazing than the seniors’…”

Stopping Gainando, who kept making annoying nonsense, Lee Han began to explain.

“He’s saying that because he hasn’t seen the seniors’ magic. Even if it’s the same magic, it’s completely different.”

‘Honestly, I don’t think Lee Han would lose even if he fought the seniors?’

‘I think so too.’

Yoner and Nilia communicated with their eyes. Lee Han, unaware of that, was focused on how to move the boulder.

“A manipulation spell? I’ve only learned >Lower Manipulation>, but I could try >Intermediate Manipulation> this time.”

“Even with intermediate, it’ll be impossible. Even a few dozen kilograms would be cutting it close.”

The manipulation magic series, a non-attribute telekinesis specialization, was a versatile magic that many wizards learned.

The simplicity of lifting an object and moving it as desired was used very widely.

Wizards, including assistants who had to do a lot of chores, and especially those who wanted to be lazy (and show off their skills), used this magic for various tasks such as cleaning or delivering letters.

There was no better self-introduction than showing a neatly cleaned room with a single spell in a gathering of wizards.

Occasionally, among the bloodthirsty battle wizards, there were those who took note of the quick casting and versatility of this ‘manipulation’ magic and modified it for combat.

Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t learn under such a wizard, but sometimes a disciple as strange as the master would appear and learn from them.

Anyway, this manipulation magic series had such convenience and versatility, but it also had strong limitations.

The weight limit was quite tight for low mana consumption, quick casting, and delicate manipulation.

Even intermediate manipulation was barely able to handle a few dozen kilograms…

“Even if we all learn intermediate manipulation and do it together… Hmm. It’ll be impossible.”

“W-wait a minute, Wodanaz. I’m not confident I can learn intermediate manipulation magic right now! I can’t!” Nilia was startled and denied it, as Wodanaz overestimated her too much.

To naturally proceed with herself as a constant!

However, Lee Han laughed it off, thinking Nilia was just pretending to be modest again.

“What are you talking about? You can do it.”

“I can’t…!”

“Okay, okay. Let’s just say you can’t. Either way, manipulation magic is impossible right now.”

‘They’re my friend, but I want to hit them!’

Nilia suddenly understood why the White Tiger Tower students muttered, ‘Thanks to that Wodanaz, I avoided failing, but I still want to smack him upside the head.’

This friend from the Wodanaz family had a remarkable talent for teasing people.

“What other magic is there… Transformation magic, earth element magic.”

“There’s also alchemy. Melting that kind of rock isn’t a particularly difficult potion.”

Alchemists often handled acidic or corrosive potions, as they often had to melt hard materials.

It would take a long time, but they could definitely make a hole in that rock.

“I did learn >Rock to Sand Transformation>.”

“Oh? There was something like that among the transformation magic you learned this year?”

“I learned it at night while repairing Einroguard with the headmaster.”

“…?!”

“What I’m worried about is… No, let’s try it first.”

Lee Han held up his staff and approached the boulder.

“Boulder, become sand…”

Clang!

The magic bounced off, making a collision sound that only wizards could hear.

Lee Han realized that a very powerful magical structure was in place inside the boulder.

‘I knew it. It wouldn’t be easy.’

Hecatoncheires, who had been humiliated by the skeletal headmaster, wouldn’t present such an easy challenge.

This boulder was probably designed to be impervious to magic.

‘Who made this? It’s hard to even understand the structure. It deflects external magic and disperses the impact…’

Seeing Gonadaltez’s disciples struggling, Hecatoncheires clapped his many hands together.

The boulder that Gonadaltez’s disciples were struggling with was the very boulder Hecatoncheires himself had faced.

-Hecatoncheires! I’ve heard that you triplets are the strongest on this continent. But can you really break this boulder? I don’t think so.

-Hmph, don’t talk nonsense, wizard. I can break this kind of boulder with my eyes closed!

-Oh really? If you do, this insignificant wizard will serve you for a hundred years! But if you can’t break it? Honestly, I don’t think you can…

-I-If I can’t break it, I’ll do whatever you say, wizard. But if I do break it, I’ll break your skull too!

-Haha! Well decided!

How much had Hecatoncheires suffered after being tricked by the wizard who had deliberately brought that boulder?

Now it was the turn of his disciples to groan.

The wizards, having cast various spells, seemed to have given up halfway and started grabbing the boulder and directly slamming their mana into it.

Seeing that, Hecatoncheires’ heads burst into laughter.

No matter how desperate they were, for wizards to abandon magic and choose such a brute force method.

That was something only a monster with innate magic and strength like Hecatoncheires could do.

Even Hecatoncheires himself had tried and failed, hadn’t he?

Wham!

“I think it worked?”

“Wow. To think this method would work…”

-?????