Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 642

“Wodanaz! How did you break it?!”

“Hehe. It’s a technique I often use to break through magical barriers. I condense my magical power and then release it all at once on a large area, smashing it like this.”

“Uh, isn’t that a bit… violent?”

“Violent? Nilia, there are things you can say and things you shouldn’t! This is an advanced magic called Valdor Orn’s Magic Hammer.”

“S-sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t realize it was such an advanced magic.”

Nilia was flustered by Wodanaz’s serious expression.

She thought, ‘So it’s a really great magic!’

In fact, Valdor Orn had no idea that Lee Han had named it that.

The Hecatoncheires watched in disbelief as the students made holes in the magically sealed rock.

If the Skeleton Headmaster were watching, he would have looked at the Hecatoncheires with pity and said, “Just because you couldn’t break it doesn’t mean no one else can. You’ll need two hundred years of service to smarten up!”

The Hecatoncheires certainly had natural magic strength and could turn that power into physical strength.

But that didn’t mean there weren’t others stronger than him.

Sometimes, people are stronger than the Hecatoncheires and know how to use their power cleverly.

“Ah. It’s deflecting magic again.”

“Step aside. I’ll break it again.”

Sometimes, people are stronger than Hecatoncheires and use their power without thinking.

He should have prepared for the possibility that such beings might exist.

Arsil patted the Hecatoncheires on the shoulder, comforting him.

The Hecatoncheires angrily told him to go away.

Guinando, walking behind Lee Han, almost tripped over a stone.

“Hey, Spirit-nim! Please shine a light here properly. I can’t see a thing!”

The Spirit of Light ignored Guainando’s request without a moment’s hesitation.

“…Spirit-nim! Spirit-nim! Are you even listening?!”

“Guinando, the spirits only listen to Hyung-nim. I already tried. Spirit-nim, please shine a light here properly…”

The Spirit of Light flared up even brighter.

Lee Han looked a little sad.

“I don’t think they used to run away like that before.”

“…I’ll just turn on the light for you.”

Yoner, unable to watch any longer, threw a glass bottle into the air. The potion inside glowed brightly, lighting up the path.

Guinando was impressed.

“Looking at it like that, alchemy seems pretty good…”

“What’s wrong, Guainando? You used to hate alchemy.”

Lee Han was surprised.

He thought, ‘Wasn’t Guainando’s hobby to annoy Yoner with nonsense about alchemy?’

“Compared to black magic, everything looks good.”

Lee Han didn’t know what to say when Guainando answered so sadly. Nilia whispered from behind.

“Hey, Wodanaz, you should say black magic is good too.”

“I was going to, but I couldn’t think of any good points right away…”

Thud, thud, thud—

Passing through the end of the passage, the rock Hecatoncheires stood up abruptly at the appearance of the intruder.

Guinando was startled and shouted.

“When did you get here?!”

“Originally, Hecatoncheires are triplets.”

“Ah. Is that so?”

The second Hecatoncheires stared at Guainando with contempt.

He thought, ‘How could a wizard be so foolish!’

Arsil once again stepped forward and explained what had happened earlier, how he had persuaded the first Hecatoncheires.

He continued to explain how outstanding his younger brother was, and how the first Hecatoncheires was defeated by being careless, a story that would be told throughout the spirit world for a long time.

“Hyung-nim. Please…”

Lee Han stopped Arsil, his voice full of shame.

The second Hecatoncheires was staring at Lee Han with eyes full of hostility.

Yoner patted Lee Han on the shoulder and said.

“It’s tough having unusual siblings, isn’t it?”

“…Yoner, it might just be my imagination, but aren’t you really excited?”

The second Hecatoncheires huffed and brought a huge rock. The four tilted their heads at the sight.

“Is it a different rock from before?”

“…It feels similar? I think it’s the same one?”

Arsil explained instead.

“You must think we’re too tired from the test earlier, so we absolutely can’t break this one? Hmm…”

Lee Han thought, ‘Didn’t these monsters learn anything under the Headmaster?’

Einroguard students learned a lot after just one year, but these Hecatoncheires were too proud.

He thought, ‘There’s no such thing as absolute in magic…’

The third Hecatoncheires, guarding the entrance to the deepest chamber of the tomb, burst into frustration.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Seeing him pounding the floor and walls as if he was dying from injustice, Lee Han’s friends became curious and asked.

“What is he saying?”

“He thought we’d be too tired after doing it twice, so we wouldn’t be able to break it the third time.”

The students felt they knew why these Hecatoncheires worked under the Skeleton Headmaster.

When the last Hecatoncheires finally gave in, Arsil excitedly opened the door.

As the bronze and gold door blocking the inner chamber of the ancient underground tomb opened, a chorus of darkness flowed out from within.

The chorus, made up of spells whose names had long been forgotten, was grand, serious, and, most of all, attacked the minds of the wizards.

“Uh… uh uh uh.”

“Uh uh…”

Lee Han’s friends, except for Lee Han, saw a magnificent illusion inside the vast, empty inner chamber.

It was the most prosperous time of the old kingdom.

A time when the heavens were in order for the kingdom and the earth obeyed its rules.

Court wizards in fancy clothes praised the roaring king with their bare chests exposed, and the people below raised their glasses and sang celebratory songs.

The wizards had left behind their most beautiful moments here to decorate the king’s tomb.

Arsil was pleased to see the students listening to the tomb’s chorus and watching the scene.

He thought, ‘This experience will be a great treasure for the young wizards.’

He thought, ‘The scenery and magic of the old kingdom, which were not even written down, will be a great inspiration for a wizard.’

“Uh, Hyung-nim.”

Lee Han called out to Arsil.

Lee Han was a little embarrassed because he couldn’t feel or see anything himself.

“Did you bring us here just to listen to this song?”

Arsil realized something.

The magic of the ancient tomb didn’t work on this younger brother!

Arsil looked confused and started to explain instead.

“So, this is some kingdom’s tomb…”

“…I’m alright… No, really, I’m fine.”

Lee Han quietly stepped back. He didn’t want to stop his friends from being excited.

Arsil was genuinely upset and complained to the Hecatoncheires outside.

“Ah, no. It’s not even a tomb I made, so why are you blaming me…”

The friends woke up from the illusion and exclaimed together.

“It’s… it’s really amazing. I never imagined it would look like this!”

“Right! Did you see the magic he used during the ceremony? What kind of magic is that, anyway?”

“The palace was gorgeous! I’m going to ask my mum to remodel our manor like that!”

The friends were chattering, and they noticed Lee Han was quiet, so they asked him curiously.

“Wow, wasn’t that illusion amazing?”

“Yeah, yeah. It was interesting. That… the palace was gorgeous.”

“Right?! What did you like about it in particular?”

“I liked the sparkly bits.”

“Sparkly and dazzling, wasn’t it!”

“The dazzling bits were good too.”

“See, see! Lee Han knows what’s what!”

While Gainando was excited, Yoner tilted his head, confused.

Lee Han used simple words to describe the magic, just like Gainando.

Creak!

From the bas-relief on the wall, a sculpture suddenly started walking as if it were alive.

The excited Gainando didn’t notice and kept chattering.

“You have to come once I finish remodeling the manor, Lee Han.”

“Alright. I’ll go with you.”

“…Uh, Yoner and Nilia too?”

“Hey!” Nilia said, sounding surprised.

“I don’t want to go to your manor either, you know? The Maykin family manor is better, you know?”

“Ah, no. It’d be nice if you both came… Never mind…” Gainando’s real feelings showed, and he quickly tried to calm Nilia down.

He knew that if Nilia and Yoner didn’t come, Lee Han probably wouldn’t either.

“I’ll release deer in the garden, so come. How about it?”

“Do I look like a hunter who’d excitedly run after you release deer right now?”

“Don’t you like deer?”

“I do like them.”

“Huh…?”

While Gainando was puzzled, Lee Han quickly grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him.

“Gak!”

“An attack!”

Only then did Lee Han realize that enemies had come out of the wall and were surrounding his friends.

Gainando, who had fallen to the floor, coughed and shouted.

“I-Is that Headmaster?”

“No. They are guardians of the tomb! Everyone, move!”

Lee Han remembered being too relaxed when he was defeated by Giselle’s sister last time.

He promised himself he wouldn’t be too relaxed this time, and he started to cast spells as many as possible before the enemies got close!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The dark and spacious room became as bright as day. The spheres of light that Lee Han cast lit up the shadowy figures crawling out of the bas-relief.

Lee Han saw the guardians and quickly summoned the undead to block their path.

“Arise, warriors made of bone!”

The bone fragments flew from the air, mixed with magic, and turned into warriors.

Seeing this, Gainando cast black magic to help his friend.

“Bones, become armor and swords!”

Gainando tried to make the bone warriors stronger with magic. But he lost focus for a moment.

The spell went wrong and turned into a bone sweater and a bone flag.

“Hey, you didn’t study properly, did you!”

“I, I did study! I made a mistake because it’s a tense situation!”

While Nilia scolded him, Gainando quickly prepared the spell again.

Lee Han focused and quickly cast more spells.

Once the battle preparations were done, Lee Han looked at the tomb guardians.

‘Is it dark elemental magic?’

Now that he thought about it, the singing magic from before was strange.

It was a spell in the form of a song.

Like the skeletal Headmaster had said, if it was a word of power, it was, and if it wasn’t, it wasn’t. The intermediate form of music magic was not efficient and outdated, and it had been lost a long time ago.

To think he would see traces of that kind of magic here.

Since it was an old tomb, it made sense in a way…

‘Dark element, music, illusion. About three schools, then. In that case, don’t use dark elemental magic…’

Lee Han noticed his undead and Gainando’s black magic were stronger here. This made him think there was a lot of dark magic in this place.

Bzzzt!

Lee Han’s staff turned into a spear of lightning and hit an approaching guardian.

The guardian, a mass of shadows, couldn’t stay together and scattered.

“Gainando, get inside!”

“H-Headmaster! The Headmaster is over there! Lee Han!”

“What nonsense are you spouting…”

“Ah, no! It’s not the Headmaster, it’s a Yeti Raider!”

Lee Han realized the situation was serious when even Nilia started seeing things.

“Yoner, take cover behind me! They’re using illusion magic! Gainando, Nilia! This way!”

Lee Han pulled on Gainando’s cloak and slapped him hard on the cheek, and pointed to Yoner.

Yoner quickly gave Nilia a potion. Nilia drank a strong shock potion and woke up from her fear.

‘Such a method?!’

Lee Han felt sorry for Gainando and summoned flames.

“Burn… in the name of Aphah!”

The sacred white flames flickered in the air.

Now Lee Han understood. The enemies weren’t attacking with weapons. They were using illusion magic!

‘I need to feel the flow of magic. There will definitely be signs!’

Concentrating, he started to feel the flow of magic around him even more.

Lee Han found the place where the magic was moving and growing.

‘Found it!’

Whoosh!

The flames burned the guardian who was trying to create fear. But the guardian finished the spell anyway.

Lee Han blocked the magic with his body, pushing Gainando away.

“Get out of the way, Gainando!”

“C-Can’t I just get hit?” Gainando said weakly, crumpled to the side.

Maybe it would be easier to just feel the fear.