Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 76

“Thank you for the warm welcome,” Professor Millei said. She was the teacher for Summoning Magic. She walked into the noisy classroom and looked a little surprised.

Professor Millei was old, but she stood straight and tall. You could tell she was a noble from an old Imperial family just by looking at her. Nobles from important families often showed their high status just by how they walked and talked.

*Except for the students from Azure Dragon Tower lately,* Lee Han thought to himself.

Of course, the students who had been stuck in the tower and gone hungry were different. When people are very hungry, they forget to be polite, no matter if they are nobles or not.

Professor Millei touched the small round glass over her eye, called a monocle. This made her look very strict and like she wanted everything perfect.

But Lee Han was not scared of her.

*Anyone would be better than Professor Voladi,* he thought, remembering his last, terrible teacher.

Professor Garcia, standing next to her, started to explain.

“Like Dark Magic, Summoning Magic is something students start learning in their second year. But we asked Professor Millei here today not just to teach you about Summoning Magic, but also because…”

Just then, a creature that had been summoned escaped from the school grounds and howled outside the classroom. The windows shook.

“…because of what’s happening at the school right now, I thought this might help you all.”

“Professor Garcia…!”

“You’re our only hope, Professor!”

Some students took out handkerchiefs to wipe their tears.

Professor Millei watched without changing her expression. Then, she said clearly,

“Professor Garcia, can I start?”

“Yes, please do.”

“Who here is interested in Summoning Magic?”

Every student raised their hand. Lee Han raised his hand too. He wondered why Professor Mortum’s sad face came to his mind.

*But Summoning Magic is really wonderful magic.*

Just like Dark Magic is divided into curses, elemental magic, undead summoning, and dark energy, Summoning Magic includes many different skills.

These include summoning spirits, demons, monsters, artifacts, and magical objects.

This magic covers everything from living things to objects (and sometimes overlaps with Dark Magic), so you can use it in many ways.

Old stories said that some wizards worked hard their whole lives just to find a powerful summoned creature. Then, they could relax and live easily.

You can’t believe everything in stories, but Summoning Magic, once you learn it well, can make your life comfortable.

“Thank you. But maybe only one of you will be good enough to learn Summoning Magic.”

Professors are good at making students less excited. Professor Millei was the same. She spoke seriously,

“I won’t lie to you. Summoning Magic is hard. If you can’t learn it, taking the second-year class will just be difficult for you.”

*Now that’s a professor.*

Lee Han was impressed.

A professor should either discourage students who can’t learn or be patient. They shouldn’t yell, ‘Why can’t you learn? Let’s see if you can learn before you die!’ That’s not a professor, that’s a bully.

“You can’t learn Summoning Magic with just one type of magic. To summon spirits, you need to know a lot about spirits. To summon demons, you need to know about demons. To summon monsters, you need to know about monsters. Even summoning simple objects is not easy. So, I’ll say it again. If you’re not confident, don’t be interested in Summoning Magic.”

But the students seemed even more interested.

Since they were young, they weren’t going to give up just because it was hard. They looked even more motivated.

This was the opposite of Dark Magic, which the students didn’t care about even when it was said to be easy.

Professor Garcia whispered softly,

“They are all talented students. Will you give them a chance?”

Professor Millei nodded.

Pop!

With a flick of her wand, magical scrolls with strange symbols appeared in front of the students.

These weren’t scrolls you tear to use once. These were scrolls with magic circles drawn on them.

“You are all taking >Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic>, right?”

“Yes.”

When they heard the name of the class, the students’ faces showed they really disliked this subject.

Few students could handle the difficult numbers that were neither magic nor liberal arts.

*Actually, that’s the easy part,* Lee Han thought, knowing his friends would be angry if they heard him.

“It’s too hard!”

“Then you can’t learn Summoning Magic.”

Guinan knew he would be kept out of Summoning Magic if he said another word, so he shut his mouth.

“Pay attention in >Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic>. Creating and calculating magic circles is important in Summoning Magic.”

Lee Han looked at the magic circle.

Unlike Guinan, whose eyes were already spinning, Lee Han could tell what kind of magic circle it was.

*I see. Magic power is used this way…*

A magic circle was like an electrical circuit.

The difference was that an electrical circuit carries electricity, while a magic circle carries magic power.

Any wizard who had cast magic knew that it was very difficult.

The more difficult the magic, the more difficult it was to cast.

You needed more magic power, and the magic you had to create with that power became more complex.

That’s why people said, ‘This is not magic that a human can do.’

Magic circles helped those wizards.

It was a tool that made it easier for the wizard by moving magic power in different ways, like making it stronger in some places, weaker in others, skipping some places, and blocking others.

As Lee Han calculated the magic power moving through the magic circle and imagined it in his mind, he suddenly saw a quill.

*…What is this?*

There are no coincidences in magic.

Lee Han realized that the quill he had just seen was related to this magic circle.

“This magic circle is for summoning a quill.”

“A quill?”

“A quill…?”

The students were confused.

Summoning a quill, not even a dagger, made them wonder, ‘Why a quill?’

Lee Han shook his head.

*They don’t appreciate this.*

What if Professor Millei cleared the desks, put down a demon summoning circle, and said, ‘Summon something or die’? Would they take responsibility?

Luckily, Professor Millei was not like Professor Voladi. The professor spoke in the same clear voice,

“It is a magical quill made of magic power. What you summon will not last long, so just focus on summoning it for now.”

As soon as the professor finished speaking, the students waved their wands and started the magic circles.

“Quill, come out!”

“Magical Quill, please appear!”

With the spells, magic circles caught fire or scrolls tore apart in different places.

Magic circles are made to handle magic power, but they can be easily damaged by a wizard’s mistake.

Professor Millei knew this would happen, so she waved her wand.

The broken magic circles disappeared, and new magic circles appeared.

About thirty minutes passed.

Some students started to summon something like a quill.

The Azure Dragon Tower had the most successful students, including Yoner, Adenart, and Asan. The Black Tortoise Tower and the Phoenix Tower also had some students succeed.

The White Tiger Tower had the fewest successful students, but even they had a few talented students who summoned something like a quill.

Professor Garcia smiled as he watched the students looking happy.

*They shouldn’t be so happy yet.*

Professor Millei’s face was still and hard like a statue.

That’s where Summoning Magic gets difficult.

Summoning something similar is the same as failing!

Elemental magic is successful as long as you create it, even if it’s a different size or shape. But Summoning Magic is different.

It only works if it’s perfect.

You can’t help it. Since you are putting your will into the summoned objects, even a small mistake can make the object attack you.

It was lucky that it was just a quill…

“Dal… Dalcard, that jerk, attacked me with a magic quill!!”

“It’s a mistake, Guinan! The quill moved on its own! Besides, it’s just a quill!”

“It’s attacking me! Lee Han, help me!”

“I’m telling you, it’s just a quill! You won’t die from a quill!”

Of course, even that quill caused a lot of noise.

Angaro of the Alpha family, from the White Tiger Tower, felt proud as he watched the sleek quill take shape.

He felt like he was behind in different types of magic because of his status, but Summoning Magic was different.

He might even be better than Giselle.

Angaro saw Lee Han sitting in front of him and felt happy.

There was nothing in front of Lee Han, no quill or anything else.

Angaro thought he could finally show up that arrogant young archmage from the Wodanaz family, so he called out to Lee Han,

“Wodanaz. Did you fail to summon anything?”

“Wodanaz! Don’t ignore me! Look at my quill!”

Yoner, who was next to him, answered instead,

“Didn’t you have a quill at home? Do you have to brag about having a quill?”

“Here, look at my quill…”

Thud!!!

There was a loud sound. Angaro thought Lee Han had used Dark Magic, so he was scared and fell to the ground.

Magical quills started to fall from above Lee Han’s magic circle.

Lee Han stared at the falling quills, surprised.

*I failed.*

Angaro was saying something behind him, but Lee Han couldn’t hear him. He was very focused.

To finish the summoning magic, you had to put magic power into a weak magic circle.

It was just hard for the other students, but it was very hard for Lee Han.

If he lost control, the magic power would break the magic circle.

That’s why Lee Han had almost given up when the others were starting.

*Summoning Magic might not be for me.*

Maybe Lee Han was meant to be a combat mage like Professor Voladi.

…But, the magic circle didn’t break.

Lee Han was surprised.

*Was I this good?*

He understood the magic circle perfectly.

And he had recently learned to control his magic power better.

Because of these two things, Lee Han didn’t destroy the magic circle.

It was amazing.

*Oops. The task was summoning.*

Lee Han was happy that he could move magic power without breaking the magic circle, so he kept putting magic power into the magic circle until he realized what he was doing.

The task was not to avoid breaking the magic circle, but to summon a magic quill.

“Come out, quill.”

Lee Han said simply and waved his wand.

Thud!!!

At that moment, with a loud sound, magical quills fell from above the magic circle.

Professor Garcia was shocked by this strange failure, so he looked to the side.

Professor Millei’s eyebrows were raised higher than he had ever seen before.

“Lee Han just has a lot of magic power, so this kind of failure…”

Professor Millei returned to her normal expression and said calmly,

“That is not a failure, Professor Garcia.”