Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 73

Spirits weren’t always happy to see visitors. They had their own rules about who they liked.

Of course, some visitors scared the spirits.

Professor Uregeoreum remembered a story.

It was about a wizard who wasn’t very interested in spirits. After becoming a great mage, he tried to summon one and contacted the spirit realm.

His magic made it easy to contact the spirit realm, but the spirits didn’t like him.

The intense aura from his soul frightened them.

He said that people who had fought a lot, like soldiers or strong fighters, changed inside. Their souls became different.

Professor Uregeoreum wondered why a powerful wizard, who knew so much magic, would be treated like those scary fighters.

What could he do?

If the spirits disliked it.

That’s why it was good to befriend spirits when you were young. The older you got, the harder it was to become friends.

But why me?

Could it be that the spirits have read your terrible meticulousness?

…

Just teasing! More likely it’s your mana, though.

Yihan was from the Wodanaz family, and it was unlikely he had killed anyone to get into school. So, Professor Uregeoreum thought it must be Yihan’s strong mana.

A wildly rampaging mana that even ordinary spirits couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by!

Fortunately, there is a solution. The great mage in the story I told you eventually succeeded in befriending a spirit, you see.

Oh. What method did he use?

He used magic to forcibly capture the spirit and then became friends with it.

Aren’t spirits usually stronger in the spirit realm?

Like an animal is strongest in its home, fighting a spirit in their realm was very dangerous.

There is that minor problem, I suppose. Anyway, good luck!

…

Yihan was not disappointed.

Being disappointed would have pleased Professor Uregeoreum.

‘Next time I go to the cabin, I should steal more food and bring it out.’

Fortunately, his friends worried about Yihan’s misfortune as if it were their own.

Oh no, Yihan, that’s awful!

??

The students from the Blue Dragon Tower were so natural that for a moment, Priest Siana thought they were students from the same tower.

‘Since when were you here?’

‘I don’t know either…’

Sometimes, due to misunderstandings with spirits, there are those whom the spirits fear. There have been such cases in our order as well.

Is there any way to resolve this?

At Yoner’s question, Priest Siana pondered deeply.

If the spirits fear and avoid you when you enter the spirit realm… one method would be to first meet and befriend spirits in the real world. If you are recognized or befriended by a spirit and receive a mark, their wariness may lessen.

Yihan looked down at the wooden staff he was holding.

…Come to think of it, isn’t this a staff imbued with a tree spirit?

Yihan sighed inwardly. It seemed that the tree spirit’s staff wouldn’t solve the problem.

Are there any other methods? Perhaps in the Flemange Order…

Our order usually resolves it with potions.

As an order of alchemists, the Flemange Order resolved it with alchemy.

At Priest Siana’s words, Yihan’s face lit up.

Is it possible to resolve it with potions?

Of course.

The one he drank during Professor Uregeoreum’s lecture was also a spirit-friendly potion.

A potion that made it easier to contact the spirit realm and allowed one to stay there longer.

That was a low-grade potion, so using a more powerful potion could erase the spirits’ fear and even make one appear more attractive.

Ooh…!

That’s possible!

The students from the Blue Dragon Tower were impressed.

The Flemange Order’s reputation was not in vain. Yoner also said with expectant eyes.

I’ve heard of it. Among the Flemange Order’s secret potions, there are potions specialized for spirits…

You know very well. Yoner of the Maykin family. I once helped manufacture one of the secret potions. If you wish, I will make it for you.

Priest Siana said kindly.

It was a secret of the Flemange Order, but it could be bestowed upon someone who knew and respected the greatness of the Flemange Order, like the boy from the Wodanaz family.

That was the ideology of the Flemange Order.

If it’s completed, can we also…?

Of course.

Priest Siana nodded even at the Blue Dragon Tower students’ cautious words.

Sharing it with other students wouldn’t be difficult once it was completed.

However, there are quite a few ingredients needed. Now, look.

Priest Siana took out a piece of paper and began writing down the necessary ingredients with a quill.

Even though she wrote quickly, the list was so long that it quickly became dense.

Reed Flute

Naisins Flower

Dadu Beetle

Ruby-Transformed Black Stone

…

…

…

Can we really get all of this?

It might be difficult to find if you look for them directly. But there is a way. Professor Uregeoreum’s laboratory, located on the upper floor of the Gaksugwan, has everything written here.

…

…?

Yihan, who had been listening quietly, was taken aback for the first time.

…What does this mean?

‘Ah. She must be suggesting we get Professor Uregeoreum’s permission.’

Yihan thought to himself. ‘Surely Priest Siana isn’t suggesting we steal?’

If your will is firm, I will secretly enter the laboratory with you and take out the ingredients.

…

Yihan was appalled.

No…

No…!

However, the other Blue Dragon Tower students were deeply moved.

Priest Siana!

I used to wonder why Wodanaz praised you so much, but now I understand!

Priest Siana, you’re amazing!

Yihan asked to calm down his wildly excited friends.

Priest Siana. I appreciate your words, but isn’t that method a bit… dangerous?

But Yihan of the Wodanaz family. This is even encouraged by the school.

…

That’s true!

Yihan couldn’t argue.

It was true that the Skull Headmaster had told him to do so.

Priest Siana smiled, narrowing her vertically elongated pupils, characteristic of the snake-werewolf race.

Oh my. You must be worried about me. But it’s okay. Yihan of the Wodanaz family has been wandering around the school at night several times, but he’s never been caught.

Yeah, Yihan’s been sneaking around!

The Blue Dragon Tower students were proud as if it were their own accomplishment. Asan wiped under his nose, feeling embarrassed instead.

Even if we get caught, we won’t blame you at all.

Us too. Wodanaz.

…Thank you very much.

It’s nothing.

Apart from his friends’ friendship, after thinking about it, Priest Siana’s words were tempting.

Why do the bank robbers in stories always insist on one big score instead of just retiring?

It was because life became easier with just one big score.

Uregeoreum’s laboratory was like that.

‘Thinking about the upcoming semester, alchemy class is likely to become a hell of assignments.’

Not only alchemy class but also other lectures could suddenly change and unleash an assignment hell.

If he had a large supply of alchemy materials, he could respond flexibly to these assignments.

If he could just pull off one big score…!

Poke poke-

??

Yihan turned his head.

Nilia was lightly poking Yihan’s side.

At that sight, Yihan came to his senses slightly.

‘Oops. Was I thinking too crazy?’

What’s wrong, Nilia?

…Don’t take Ratford without me this time, seriously.

…

Yihan raised his head and looked at the sky.

Regardless of Yihan’s complicated feelings, the magic school’s sky was blue without a single cloud.

Even though familiars sometimes escaped and professors were always thinking up new homework, some things at the school stayed the same.

That was Professor Voladi’s teaching method.

Thwack!

‘Ugh.’

Once again, a bead broke through his defense and flew into his back, and Yihan gritted his teeth.

Yihan had become somewhat accustomed to it, but he couldn’t completely keep up with Professor Voladi’s control.

The control that twisted up, down, left, and right to create an unpredictable path and then pierced through the gaps had a chilling sense of oppression that only those who experienced it directly could understand.

Moreover, its penetrating power was extraordinary.

If Yihan made the water bead even a little less firm, she would notice right away and try to break through.

You’re not concentrating.

I am.

Yihan was concentrating.

It was just that Professor Voladi was gradually increasing the difficulty.

It wasn’t that his skills weren’t improving, but every time his skills improved, Professor Voladi raised the bar even higher, so he couldn’t help but fail.

However, Professor Voladi had no idea that Yihan was being penetrated because she was giving it her all.

‘Why?’

Professor Voladi was flustered when Yihan, who had been doing relatively well until now, suddenly started to falter strangely.

It would be one thing if it were a student who couldn’t do it from the beginning or gave up and ran away, but that boy from the Wodanaz family had been doing relatively well until now.

Of course, Professor Voladi thought he was ‘doing relatively well,’ but if another professor saw it, they might think, ‘Shouldn’t we report this to the Skull Headmaster and His Majesty the Emperor?’ That’s how much classwork it was, but anyway, that’s how Professor Voladi saw it.

Drip-

The bead stopped in mid-air.

??

Yihan was wary, wondering if it was a trap.

‘Is it a new pattern?’

Pretending to take a break by stopping the bead and then attacking again…

It was something Professor Voladi would really do.

I know why you can’t concentrate.

!

Yihan was surprised.

Could it be that she found out that Yihan was trying to rob Professor Uregeoreum’s laboratory?

Are you trying to add a rotational attribute to the water bead, like you did when you defeated the golem last time?

…

Yihan thought he knew where the story had leaked from.

‘Skull Headmaster…!’

Professor Uregeoreum wasn’t very close to Professor Voladi, so there was only one person who would have gone to Professor Voladi and chattered about it.

No, I don’t have such greed…

It’s excessive.

‘I know that too.’

Yihan sighed inwardly at the absurd misunderstanding.

Just because he had defeated a mud golem by luck, he never had delusions like, ‘Ah, I’m a genius, I should add rotation to water beads from now on.’

Don’t be impatient.

Anyone who knew Professor Voladi would have been surprised to hear advice like ‘It’s excessive’ or ‘Don’t be impatient’ now.

Basically, Professor Voladi was a person devoid of the concept and common sense of teaching.

-If I can do it, so can you. Just do it!

…Professor Voladi was the one who sincerely believed in that.

For such a person to say things like it’s excessive or don’t be impatient…

It was like the sun rising in the west, but Yihan naturally didn’t know the weight of those words.

‘I’m not going to do it…’

He really didn’t have any intention of doing it, but Professor Voladi was acting like this, so he was just dumbfounded.

Anyway, professors!

Wait.

??

However, Professor Voladi reached out her hand and fell into thought again.

For the first time, Professor Voladi thought from the student’s perspective.

It was a great step that she didn’t even notice herself.

-If I were that boy from the Wodanaz family?

He wouldn’t be relieved by hearing the words ‘Don’t be impatient.’

A person who doesn’t go when there is a path in front of them is not qualified to be a wizard.

I see.

What… do you see?

Yihan felt uneasy. Usually, when professors were convinced on their own, good results never came out.

From now on, you can be impatient. Because I’ll make you concentrate.

Wait…!

Before he could even say ‘a moment,’ Professor Voladi’s storm began again.