Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 790

“Professor. Actually…”

Ethan was upset. He told Professor Willow what happened.

The tree spirit in his wand was really unreasonable.

It was supposed to be a special spirit with lots of powers.

But shouldn’t a spirit in a wand think about the wizard using it?

Ethan had fought the King of the Frost Giants and the King of the Ghouls, but the spirit complained, “Still not enough!”

It seemed more like a spirit of destruction than a tree spirit. It wouldn’t be happy until Ethan was ruined.

“Oh, is that so?”

Professor Willow was surprised when Ethan from the Wodanaz family came to complain about his wand.

He had only asked a simple question because the wand’s spirit seemed unhappy about not awakening him yet. He didn’t expect such a long complaint.

“Of course, it’s hard to have a good relationship with spirits. Even for me, and I understand spirits well, it can be too much sometimes. But if you listen carefully, you can understand what the spirit is thinking.”

“For example, the destruction of its master?”

“…It usually doesn’t go that far. Hmm. I think this spirit is a high-ranking one.”

Professor Willow looked closely at Ethan’s wand as he spoke.

The many powers and the strong desire to prove itself were common for high-ranking spirits.

“But Professor, I don’t understand. High-ranking spirits are not usually like this, right?”

Ethan asked, confused.

Ethan wasn’t popular with the lower-ranking spirits, but he got along with the powerful high-ranking ones. He knew the difference between them.

The stronger a spirit was, the more its ego and intelligence grew. Its very being became greater, not just its power.

Just look at Perkontras.

Unlike other spirits, it had a true name, a title, and spirits, lands, and powers under its control, right?

The spirit in Ethan’s wand had never said a word or shown any special power.

And it was a high-ranking spirit?

That sounded as wrong as saying a cat is a dog.

“That’s right. It’s not normal.”

Professor Willow stroked his leafy green beard as he explained.

“But there are exceptions. High-ranking spirits that have been sealed or trapped, spirits that have lost their power. They’ve lost their strength, but they still have their pride.”

“!”

Ethan was surprised by the professor’s explanation.

The tree spirit in the wooden wand, which he had thought was a low-level spirit, was actually a high-ranking spirit with a true name.

“It might want its powers awakened for that reason. It can get its strength back by connecting with its master.”

A spirit that had been badly hurt and lost its power could recover in a few ways. One way was to get help from the wizard it had a contract with.

As the wizard used the spirit’s weak powers, that power would slowly grow.

It would take a long time, but when it reached a certain point, the spirit could get its original power back with a strong connection.

‘Oh dear. Hearing it like that, I feel a bit sorry.’

Ethan thought about Professor Willow’s words.

He hadn’t been deliberately avoiding using it. He just thought the wand had a strange and difficult personality. But from the spirit’s point of view, it wasn’t like that at all.

As its master, he should have used and strengthened its powers, which would have slowly restored the spirit’s own strength. He hadn’t done that, so it must have been frustrating.

“Wait a minute, Professor. Even if I don’t know about other things, the spirit told me to use stronger magic instead of using magic power for the power of stubbornness. Shouldn’t it use its powers little by little, even if they are weak, to recover?”

“If it could use its powers like that, it wouldn’t be a sealed spirit. For a high-ranking spirit to get back its true power, the wizard must also show that they are worthy.”

It was hard to use the tree spirit’s power.

Instead of giving in and using the power of stubbornness weakly, Ethan had to learn stronger magic and fight stronger enemies to awaken the power of stubbornness.

‘Hmm, forget what I said about being sorry.’

Ethan quickly changed his mind.

This wasn’t Ethan’s fault, but the spirit’s fault.

What was that crazy spirit expecting from a second-year student at Einroguard?

‘It really seems like a spirit of destruction rather than a tree spirit.’

“Indeed. Thank you, Professor.”

“It’s best not to rush awakening it.”

“Haha. Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Ethan agreed with Professor Willow, as he didn’t want to rush it.

“Spirits sealed like this are very violent and wild, you see.”

“Indeed… Wait a minute, Professor. Aren’t all high-ranking spirits violent and wild?”

Like many powerful spirits…

Once spirits had power, they were usually arrogant and violent.

“That’s not true. Spirits have different personalities. For example, isn’t the Thunderclap King, who Ethan made a contract with, gentle?”

“…?!”

Ethan was shocked to hear that Perkontras was gentle.

Perkontras was considered gentle among spirits?

‘That’s crazy. What on earth are spirits?’

“The oak trees gave you this gift, right? If the oak trees were in charge, then this spirit must have been sealed by other spirits.”

Sealed spirits were usually in two groups.

Spirits sealed after fighting an evil enemy, and spirits sealed by other spirits.

The first group were often normal spirits, but the second group were often violent and wild spirits.

How much chaos and tyranny must it have caused for the other spirits to seal it away?

“A… A spirit of destruction!”

“?”

Professor Willow tilted his head at Ethan’s words.

He had never heard of such a spirit.

“To give something like this to me. What do those oak trees have against me?”

“Ah, that’s not it. You misunderstand. They must have given it to you so it could think about its actions for a long time, calm down, and help a young wizard to make up for its sins.”

“……”

Even after hearing the explanation, Ethan didn’t feel any better.

They should fix a troublemaking spirit themselves. Why were they dragging Ethan into it?

“I think you can persuade this spirit and become friends with it. Haha…”

“Haha, haha, hahahaha.”

Ethan laughed insincerely and made a decision.

‘When I make a new wand, I should ignore this spirit’s opinion…’

“Wodanaz, this is a red maple.”

“I see.”

“This is a blue maple. This is a black maple. This is a jade maple…”

“…You don’t have to remember the maple trees so precisely…”

Nilia was excited to show Ethan around the greenhouse and ignored what he said.

“I’m surprised that there are trees here that I’ve only seen in the northern mountains. Let’s go to the cold, dry climate zone!”

‘I should have come with someone other than Nilia.’

Nilia showed him all her favorite plants and was finally satisfied. She started to explain things properly.

“In the last class, we each got a plot in this garden. We’ll be growing things here all semester. Last week, your friends divided up your area, Wodanaz.”

“Nilia!”

Ethan was touched by his friends’ thoughtfulness.

Even in the desolate Einroguard, there was such a thing as friendship.

Such friendship always moved people…

“…Wait. Is this a Mandragora seedling???”

Ethan was a very good student, so he knew what kind of plant it was just by the shape of the leaves.

Nilia was impressed.

“Amazing! How did you guess?”

“……”

Despite her admiration, Ethan glared at Nilia with betrayal instead of happiness.

“To plant Mandragoras in my garden while I’m away. Isn’t that too much?”

Ethan was taking classes above everyone else, but he didn’t expect his friends to act like professors.

This was a true betrayal.

“What? No, no! Me too, it’s Mandragora!”

Nilia jumped up and down, denying the misunderstanding.

All the other friends had planted Mandragoras in their gardens too.

Professor Willow had given them Mandragora seedlings…

“Ah. The semester assignment was just Mandragoras. Wait a minute, Nilia. You said you didn’t do much earlier.”

-I didn’t do much. It was the first class, so they explained what kind of class it was, showed us rare and interesting plants…

Ethan asked, remembering what Nilia had said.

Nilia replied, confused.

“I didn’t do much, did I? I just got the seedlings and planted them.”

“…Nilia, you seem to have gotten used to Einroguard. To say planting Mandragora seedlings isn’t much.”

“…!!!”

When Ethan sighed and spoke as if he felt sorry for her, Nilia almost collapsed from anger.

‘Hey! For you to say that…!’

It was unfair that a friend who said ‘I should be careful’ even though a crazy doppelganger was targeting the outskirts of the territory would say such a thing.

“Kheuheueuk…!”

“What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing. Look. I’ll tell you how to take care of the Mandragora seedlings.”

Ethan nodded and listened.

He had learned about it from books, but it would be better to hear it from Nilia, who had heard it from Professor Willow.

“First, you give them water like this.”

Nilia poured water from the bucket into the watering can and sprinkled it on the Mandragora seedlings.

“Give… water.”

Ethan, who was taking notes, was puzzled.

‘Shouldn’t she use water magic?’

Unlike Guinan, who wasn’t good at water magic, Nilia had a spirit and knew how to use basic water magic.

So why was she moving around like that?

“I see. Mandragoras like pure water, not water touched by magic. I didn’t know that.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Nilia listened carefully, confused by what Ethan said.

“I thought you were fetching water from the stream with a bucket instead of summoning water with magic…”

“Ah, that.”

Nilia emptied the watering can, stretched her back, and refilled the watering can.

“I have to give them water five times with this bucket, so I’m saving magic power. I don’t want to use magic because they drink too much water.”

“…I’ll just summon the water.”

When Ethan summoned the water, Nilia looked at her friend, proud of him.

She always felt the Wodanaz family boy was most helpful when doing simple, repetitive work.

Splash!

The water filled the bucket. The work went faster.

“Huff, huff. Okay. They should have enough water now.”

Nilia said, sweating a lot.

The Mandragora leaves were wet, but Nilia looked tired.

“Why don’t you drink some water while you do it?”

“Ah, I’ll drink it after I’m done. I don’t have time for that. Now, next, we have to catch the magic aphids. They appear after the Mandragoras drink all the water. This guy is transparent, you know? So we have to make this potion to make them visible.”

Nilia filled the watering can with the potion she had made and began to find the pests hiding near the seedlings.

Ethan shook his head as he watched Nilia working hard in the hot and humid greenhouse.

“This class isn’t going to be easy.”

“What are you talking about? This is an easy class.”

“How can you say that when you’ve been working non-stop before the class even started?”

“But Wodanaz, you’re taking so many more difficult classes than this. Last year, you managed the garden and the stables every morning. This year, you’ve joined several clubs…”

“……”

Ethan, hit by his friend’s words, turned the watering can towards Nilia.