Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 74

Stopping a student obsessed with a dangerous new magic? Easy. Tell them it could kill them instantly.

Professor Volardi swung the water orbs wildly. This wasn’t a game. You could feel his real anger, like a storm about to break.

“These are heavier!” Lee Han gasped as the orbs slammed together. Professor Volardi had made them much harder to control.

The message was clear: stop focusing on spinning them, and make the water orbs stronger. Lee Han thought, *He could have just told me that.*

Sparks crackled in the air of the empty classroom. The air felt different now, thick with tension and the snap of magic.

They wrestled with the water orbs, eyes locked. It was a silent fight, each trying to break the other’s focus.

“Should I just knock him out?” Lee Han wondered. *Okay, maybe not kill him. Just… hurt him a bit.*

This wasn’t about feelings. Professor Volardi really was trying to hurt him badly with those orbs.

Lee Han had gotten much better at magic quickly, but he knew he couldn’t beat Professor Volardi in a straight fight. Not yet.

How could Lee Han get out of this? He had to stop the professor, distract him somehow… *Could he do it?*

Lee Han focused all his power. Keeping the spinning water orb steady, he spoke a new spell. “Gush forth!”

Casting two spells at once was almost impossible for beginners. But Lee Han didn’t care about ‘impossible’.

He knew wasting a little magic didn’t matter. Professor Volardi was much more dangerous right now than using too much magic.

Professor Volardi’s eyes flickered with surprise, just for a moment. *More orbs?* he thought. *A beginner’s mistake.*

More orbs would be harder to control, and Volardi could easily smash through them. *At least he’s doing something,* Volardi thought, *but it’s the wrong thing.*

“Shield!” Lee Han yelled, putting all his will into it. A huge wall of water rose up, solid and strong, wrapping around him.

A tiny smile touched the corners of Professor Volardi’s mouth.

*A Water Shield,* Professor Volardi noted. *A second-level spell, not too hard on its own.*

But this boy, Lee Han, hadn’t been taught the Water Shield spell. He’d figured it out himself.

He was using the basic Water Creation spell to make the water, and Lesser Manipulation to shape it. Clever.

Most students struggled to learn spells even when they were given the words and actions. But to create spells yourself? That was a sign of real talent.

*A great wizard doesn’t just copy spells from books,* Volardi thought. *They make their own.*

*Better than more orbs,* Volardi admitted to himself. *But still not good enough.* Admiration forgotten, he prepared to attack.

The orb, packed with magic, shot towards the shield like a bullet. Volardi just needed to break through this quickly made defense…

*Clang!* Professor Volardi’s eyes widened. The shield was much stronger than he expected.

Then Volardi understood. This wasn’t just a normal Water Shield. It was packed with magic, much more than usual.

Because the shield didn’t need to move fast, Lee Han had poured magic into it, making it thicker and stronger.

Water orbs needed careful control. But shields? Shields just needed raw power. And Lee Han had given it plenty.

Before Volardi could even think about it, another water orb shot past the shield, heading straight for his head. Suddenly, Lee Han was attacking.

Professor Volardi just tilted his head to avoid it. His face showed no surprise at all.

“Bite him!” Lee Han yelled to his bone summon. The small skeleton creature leaped from his belt and charged.

Lee Han kicked a chair out from behind the shield, sending it flying at Volardi too. He was clearly determined to hit the professor with anything he could.

Professor Volardi just smiled at all the attacks. Lee Han felt a chill, like facing something truly terrifying.

Then, another water orb appeared behind Volardi – he’d been holding back! This new orb smashed the bone summon with a *yelp*, cracked the chair to pieces, and sliced right through the Water Shield.

Professor Volardi looked at Lee Han. Lee Han waited, nervous, wondering what this terrifying teacher would say. ‘Well done.’ Lee Han blinked. *Was that… praise?*

Only after asking seventeen questions could Lee Han understand what Professor Volardi was thinking. No, he could only guess. He would probably never understand Professor Volardi’s thoughts completely and perfectly.

‘Ah. So…’

Although it was a class on controlling water orbs, Professor Volardi looked favorably on creative attempts by students (if they were effective). That’s why he had approved of Lee Han summoning the Water Shield, kicking the chair, and sending the bone summon.

Hearing that, Lee Han wondered if Professor Volardi would say the same even if he set fire to the classroom. He felt like he might set fire to the classroom if he was threatened again…

‘No. In that case, Headmaster Skull would kill me.’

Lee Han was disappointed.

“Your thoughts on rotation seem to have diminished.”

“It’s thanks to you, Professor.”

Lee Han had to try not to let any murderous intent seep into his voice.

“It’s natural to find the rotation attribute attractive right now. But don’t be impatient. You’ll learn the rotation attribute intensively someday. Sometimes, the roundabout way can be the shortcut.”

It would have been touching if another professor had said it, but it wasn’t very touching when Professor Volardi, who always chased after him with a knife, telling him to take the shortcut, said it.

‘I think I’m already taking the shortcut enough.’

“Yes. I won’t even dream of the rotation attribute and will focus only on what I’m learning now.”

“You probably have an idea.”

Lee Han wasn’t surprised, as it wasn’t the first or second time Professor Volardi had omitted words.

‘Let’s calmly figure it out.’

“The next training you’ll challenge is that very thing.”

“…Excuse me, what are you talking about?”

“What you just showed me.”

Once the control of one orb became useful, he had to move on to the next step. A wizard couldn’t stop even for a moment. He had to constantly evolve and explore.

Professor Volardi gestured. The surrounding tables and chairs rose up all at once, as if threatening Lee Han.

“From now on, you’ll learn how to concentrate in chaotic surroundings.”

“…Wow.”

“You can use the things you just showed me again.”

“Is that so?”

Lee Han was slightly surprised. He thought Professor Volardi would say, ‘Block it with only orbs to increase your skills.’

To allow the shield…

“Yes. I’ll adjust the difficulty accordingly, so don’t be impatient and just focus on the task at hand.”

If Lee Han could handle the orbs while using other magic, there was no need to stop him. It would be more beneficial to control the orbs while using other magic at the same time.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to concentrate if I gave up the shield or summon, just like I gave up rotation?”

“No. Rotation directly affects the control of the water orbs, but the shield and summon don’t. The sooner you adapt, the better.”

Lee Han was grateful to Headmaster Skull. He hadn’t told the story of creating a flame in the mountains and baking a mud golem, had he? He couldn’t even imagine what terrible situation would have occurred if he had told the story of the flame.

Evening. Professor was worried when he saw Lee Han’s face, who was tending the garden behind the cabin, looked particularly tired.

Of course, fatigue was something all the students at this school had, but the boy from the Wodanaz family was a much tougher boy compared to the other students. But to be so tired…

“What have you been doing lately to be so tired?”

“Is that so? I’m fine, though.”

Lee Han dug up potatoes and put them in a basket. Even though he tried to appear calm, the fingers holding the potatoes twitched greedily.

“Tell me your daily schedule.”

“I’m really okay, though.”

Lee Han explained his daily schedule as if asking why he was asking. First, he woke up early in the morning and went to the stable, forcibly threatening the disobedient horse to eat, washing its body, brushing it, and then taking it for a walk before returning. Then, he chose the ingredients that needed to be eaten quickly from the groceries and prepared breakfast with relatively easy-to-increase recipes.

After feeding the Blue Dragon Tower students generously, he attended morning classes, came back to prepare lunch, and then went to afternoon classes…

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, no. Continue. What classes do you take? Now that I think about it, I’m curious.”

“Today, I took Professor Volardi’s Repetitive Learning of Basic Magic Combat class.”

Lightning-Walk’s expression twitched wildly. Why did he have to take a class from a madman like Professor Volardi…?

“…Anyway, after roughly finishing all the classes, I come back and tend the garden like this.”

“You are truly a guy born to be the representative of the Blue Dragon Tower.”

“Never mind. So… you’ve had such a hard day, but you don’t have any complaints about working in the garden?”

Lee Han was suspicious for a moment. He had to be suspicious when professors usually said, ‘Tell me if you have any complaints.’ There was a high possibility that it was a trap.

And apart from that, he didn’t have much complaints about the garden work itself.

“Not really, though?”

Lee Han said, holding a potato and a carrot in each hand. He was very satisfied with the rewards he got from the garden.

Lightning-Walk suddenly felt a sense of guilt at the sight. …Should the best talents of the Empire be doing this??

“Well… yes. Right. There’s a cow I brought behind there, and if you want, you can milk it and take the milk whenever you need it.”

“Professor…!”

Lee Han looked at Professor Lightning-Walk with a respect he had never shown before. Professor Lightning-Walk was dumbfounded and tried to say something, but stopped himself.

While Lee Han was working in the garden, Professor kept asking questions, perhaps because he was bored. There was also the story of running away because he was afraid of spirits (even though there were tree spirits?), and the fact that the crops in the garden were growing better than expected thanks to the tree spirits, so he could try growing more things (don’t give it to Thunder-Walk, take it away)…

Lee Han, who had finished working and was washing his hands in the flowing stream, suddenly thought of something and asked.

“Professor. By the way, can I get a flying vehicle at school?”

“Why, why are you asking that?”

Professor’s voice cracked strangely, and he seemed worried, but Lee Han didn’t notice.