Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 723

Renzid stopped in front of the Black Turtle Tower. It was taller than he remembered, its stone walls dark and rough. He felt a nervous flutter in his stomach as he looked up.

The tower was old, the dark stones worn smooth in places. It wasn’t a beautiful building, just a plain seven-story tower. But to Renzid, standing there now, it felt important, like it held many secrets and stories from the past.

He took a deep breath. ‘Okay,’ he thought. ‘I’m really doing this. I’m joining the Iactus Soup Club.’

He had thought about joining the smuggling club or the outing club, because his friends in the tower had suggested them. But in the end, Renzid chose the kitchen club.

The history and ideas of the kitchen club had touched Renzid, who came from a family of chefs.

‘Honestly, they didn’t have many ingredients last year, so they couldn’t cook much. If I join the kitchen club, I’ll be able to use lots of ingredients. I heard they have piles of them, like mountains…’

Renzid didn’t know that many older students had been tricked by the soup club before. He swallowed hard and walked towards the building.

“Uhaha! You’ve decided! Welcome, welcome!”

Senior Falcrius welcomed Renzid with great enthusiasm.

Renzid, after the hug, stumbled back, groaning in pain.

“Ugh, my ribs…”

“Renzid?”

“Woah, Wodanaz!”

Renzid recognized Ihan and was very happy.

Even though they lived in different towers, he trusted this friend from the Wodanaz family.

Renzid: “Wodanaz! Wow, you’re here too? Great! I decided to join the Soup Club.”

Ihan: “Oh, Renzid. Yeah, I’m here.” (He pauses, looking a bit unsure.) “Soup Club, huh?”

Ihan looked at Renzid. His eyes were a little sad, and his mouth was turned down slightly. It was a strange look.

Maybe the club was not what Renzid expected…

“How is it, Wodanaz? What’s the club like? What are the seniors like?”

Before Renzid could finish his question, someone shouted from behind.

“Wodanaz! Where’s Wodanaz!”

“Junior Wodanaz, let’s plan tomorrow’s meal together! Let’s work together and make something amazing for the club…”

“Well, I’ll be going now.”

Ihan quickly slipped away.

Renzid stared at Ihan as he left, looking confused.

What… What just happened?!

The professor in charge of the Wand Materials and Magic Amplification lecture was known as the most wicked and vile person in Einrogard.

“Good morning, Professor.”

Professor Verdus was bent over, only focused on the wand he was working on, even when Ihan greeted him.

Ihan glanced at the wand. It was giving off a magical feeling that he had never felt before.

‘Impressive.’

Magic was a subject that always became newer and more amazing the more you learned and mastered it.

There were things you didn’t see because you didn’t know them, but they became clear once you learned more.

Last year, he would have just felt it and thought, ‘There’s a lot of magic packed into the wand.’ But after learning about spell reduction and magic compression from Professor Voladi, he could see more.

‘That’s a magic that makes telekinesis easier to control, the next one makes telekinesis stronger, and the next one increases the range of telekinesis…’

If a wizard who used telekinetic magic a lot were to hold that wand, which had spells carefully compressed to work together…?

It was impossible to guess how powerful they would become.

After looking at it closely, Ihan walked up to Professor Verdus. Then, he gathered his magic power, spread it through his body, and shouted in Professor Verdus’s ear.

“Good morning, Professor!!!”

Professor Verdus was surprised and looked up.

Then, he saw Ihan and shouted.

“Speak quietly! You’ll make the wand shake!”

“I did greet you quietly at first.”

“Just greet me quietly enough for me to hear!”

Ihan just smiled quietly.

Professor Verdus, not thinking that Ihan would shout in his ear again, waved his hand.

“Anyway, sit down. Good to see you.”

“Do you need my magic power?”

Another professor would have at least pretended not to, to be polite, but Professor Verdus nodded confidently.

“Yes! Do you know how annoying it was for me when you left the school during the vacation?”

“Oh dear. It’s too bad that leaving the school during vacation is the rule.”

“You can stay if you have a good reason, you know? Just ask.”

‘A good reason? Like planning to kill a professor?’

Ihan thought it was unlikely that anyone had ever stayed behind during vacation in Einrogard’s long history.

“I’ll think about it. So, where should I use my magic power?”

“Here and here.”

Professor Verdus pointed to the jewels on the messy workbench and told him what to do.

One was a gray jewel that you couldn’t see through, with wind swirling inside, and the other was a white jewel giving off a soft light, full of pure power.

“Are these two enough?”

“Huh? Everything in between!”

“……”

Basically, he was told to put magic power into everything on the workbench.

Ihan smiled slightly.

“But Professor, isn’t today’s lecture Wand Materials and Magic Amplification?”

“Yeah. Charge the magic power.”

“I’ll ask some questions about the lecture first. That’s my right, isn’t it?”

“Can’t you do it while charging the magic power?”

Ihan ignored him, pretending not to hear.

Once he finished charging the magic power, Professor Verdus would get lost in his own world.

“Why am I the only student here?”

“Why are you asking me that? You should ask the other students.”

‘So logical. I want to hit him.’

It was true that he would need to ask the students to find out why there were no students.

Still, shouldn’t the professor have some idea…

“What kind of lecture is this?”

“It’s a lecture for charging magic power.”

“What else do you do?”

Professor Verdus, realizing that his trick wasn’t working, grumbled and started to explain.

The real reason for this lecture was for the students to make their own wands.

“…?”

Ihan couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Of course, some of the best enchantment mages who studied artifacts could also make wands.

But that also meant that you needed a lot of experience to make a wand.

A wand was very important when a wizard was changing the world with their will, and it also helped to make the magic stronger and guide it.

A wand had so many uses in magic that it was hard to list them all.

So, making a wand was not easy…?

“Can a second-year student do this?”

Professor Verdus was studying a complicated device made of wood and metal, looking very focused. He suddenly looked up at Ethan, who was leaning against a workbench, looking bored. “Ethan,” Professor Verdus asked, his voice a little sharp, “are you even trying to understand this?”

Ethan sighed dramatically. “Why are you asking me that?” he said, trying to sound innocent.

Ethan thought to himself, *I just want to hit him with that hammer over there,* glaring at the professor.

Professor Verdus ignored the tone and repeated his usual point. “But as I said before, to make a truly good wand, you must understand the magic inside it!”

Ethan rolled his eyes, using his usual excuse. “Professor,” he said, in a complaining voice, “my magical power has suddenly gotten very weak. It’s hard to get it back. If I don’t understand why we are doing this simple part, my magic might just disappear completely!”

“Since it’s not about making a complicated wand, wouldn’t it be possible to make it?” Ethan asked.

Professor Verdus immediately answered kindly.

Ethan didn’t completely believe him.

Ethan thought that Professor Verdus didn’t understand what was easy or hard when it came to magic. If Professor Verdus said something was easy, it was actually hard. And if he said something was hard, it was impossible.

“For what reason is it not complicated?” Ethan asked.

“Do you see this now?” Professor Verdus asked, pointing at the wand.

“Yes,” Ethan replied, looking closely.

“Do you see what kind of magic linkage it is?”

“Yes, I think so,” Ethan said, nodding slowly.

The two geniuses calmly continued their conversation, a conversation that would have made other wizards weep with despair.

The wand that Professor Verdus was working on was far too difficult to be used as teaching material for students. Professor Verdus was making a special magical item called an artifact. It was for the Green Jasper Magic Tower. This tower was famous for wizards who could move things with their minds, called telekinetic mages.

As it was a commission from an external magic tower, the magic involved was high-level, and its security was quite thorough. If the magic within could be understood just by looking at it from the outside, the artifact’s weaknesses would be too great, so some level of security was essential.

With difficult magic and magic to protect secrets, Professor Verdus should have been explaining in detail, but instead, he was saying that they could just look at it and move on.

Professor Verdus was known for his unusual experiments, and Ethan was famous for understanding magic faster than anyone else. They were both strange in their own magical ways.

“What you guys are doing doesn’t need any of this. You just need to match the materials,” Professor Verdus said.

“Materials…” Ethan repeated.

Instead of weaving special magic into the wand, he meant that they just needed to get the mixing ratio of the wand’s materials right.

Of course, that wasn’t easy either. The wand’s components, as well as the balance of its form, could affect the magic.

‘But it’s much better,’ Ethan thought.

“I might be able to do it in a year,” Ethan said.

“You have to do it. What if you can’t?” Professor Verdus asked.

“Professor, suddenly my magical power…” Ethan started to complain.

“You don’t have to!” Professor Verdus said.

After teasing Professor Verdus enough, Ethan prepared to start working.

Ethan felt he had teased Professor Verdus enough and should start working.

“How much magical power should I infuse?” Ethan asked.

“The maximum,” Professor Verdus replied.

Crack!

The jewel in Ethan’s hand shattered.

“Did you need a shattered jewel?” Ethan asked sarcastically.

“You should only put in enough until it doesn’t break!” Professor Verdus scolded.

“……”

Professor Verdus forgot what he had just said casually and scolded his student.

“You told me to put in the maximum,” Ethan pointed out.

“Did I? You have so much magical power, you shouldn’t put in the maximum,” Professor Verdus said.

“Yes…” Ethan replied.

After infusing magical power, Ethan carefully paid attention to any cracks in the jewel. He had to stop immediately if it seemed like it would crack or break.

As his student quickly charged and infused magical power next to him, Professor Verdus began working with about twice as much excitement as usual.

“Next!” Professor Verdus called out.

“Here it is,” Ethan replied.

“Next!”

“Here.”

“Quickly! Next!”

“Professor, doing it quickly is suddenly making my magical power…” Ethan complained.

“Slowly!” Professor Verdus corrected.

While the two were working, third-year students began to enter one by one. The sounds of students outside the room grew louder before they entered.

They stared at Ethan and Professor Verdus with bewildered eyes.

…Who is that?

“Was there… a kid like that in our year?” one student whispered.

“Isn’t he a fourth-year senior?” another asked.

“There was someone like that among the fourth-year seniors…?”

Einroguard’s lectures didn’t have any year restrictions, but in reality, it was as good as having them. There was no reason for a second-year student to come and listen to lectures that third-year students mainly took.

Occasionally, an upperclassman would beg to listen to a lower-grade lecture for some unavoidable reason, but it wasn’t a common occurrence.

As such, Ethan was a very foreign presence to the third-year students who came to listen to Wand Materials and Magic Amplification. They had never seen him in the same year, and seeing him helping Professor Verdus, he seemed like a fourth-year student, but was there someone like that among the fourth-year seniors?

“Uh, Professor, other people have come,” Ethan said.

“Do you think I don’t have eyes and ears?” Professor Verdus responded.

“…Shouldn’t you be giving a lecture? Wait, uh, isn’t this Wand Materials and Magic Amplification?” Ethan asked.

Ethan’s eyes widened. He looked around at the unfamiliar faces, his voice rising slightly. He was flustered because all the students were unfamiliar faces. Still, he remembered the faces of the students in the same year, even if only roughly, as they had worked together on various things last year.

“That’s right. Are you perhaps a senior?” Professor Verdus asked one of the students.

“Yes?” the student replied.

“Are you a fourth-year senior? You don’t have to worry too much. You can listen to third-year lectures,” Professor Verdus said.

“I’m a second-year…” the student corrected.

“……”

“……”

The atmosphere in the lecture hall turned chilly, and the third-year students whispered among themselves.

“Is Professor Verdus perhaps holding two lectures in the same lecture hall because he’s annoyed?”

“Surely he wouldn’t… but he might.”

“But wasn’t he helping with the work?”

As the atmosphere turned strange, Ethan quickly spoke.

“Seniors, I’m also taking this lecture. I’m not taking a different lecture,” Ethan clarified.

“This lecture? Isn’t it too difficult? You should change it now if you can,” one of the students said.

“Wardanaz doesn’t matter,” Professor Verdus said, waving his hand, annoyed by the noisy students.

“Wardanaz? Could it be him?!” one student whispered excitedly.

“I think it’s him, right?” another replied.

“He really is different…!” a third student exclaimed.

The name ‘Wardanaz’ went through the room like a shock. Wardanaz… everyone in the magic school knew that name. It was the name of a legend, a student genius.

That was the end of it. The seniors quickly understood and sat down at their respective seats to begin working.

“……”

Only Ethan, unable to understand, stared blankly at the seniors.