Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 988

Catton watched, confused by what Lee Han’s junior said. The Frost Giant continued to explain.

“This contest will show how well a warrior uses both strength and magic.”

“I understand,” Lee Han replied carefully.

Lee Han looked at the glacier ice. He thought melting ice with magic would be good for him in this contest.

His experience using magic with the Orichalcum would also help.

‘But what if there’s an even better contest later?’

Lee Han didn’t want to choose too quickly. What if a better contest came next? He decided to wait.

“The next contest is this.”

Thud!

“…?”

The Frost Giant dragged a fallen comrade over and dumped him heavily on a rock with a thud.

Lee Han and Giselle were shocked by this unexpected event.

What on earth was this contest?

“Wake this fellow up by hitting his head hard.”

“…I don’t know much about Frost Giant bodies, but hitting his head hard like that seems like it would put him to sleep forever.”

“Haha! Challenger, you humans know nothing! This helmet is a magic helmet.” The Frost Giant laughed at Lee Han’s words and pointed to his fallen comrade’s helmet.

Lee Han could feel a magical aura coming from the helmet.

Lee Han was good at sensing magic. But he still hadn’t noticed the magic in the helmet until the Frost Giant pointed it out.

‘Amazing. Is it because it’s Frost Giant magic, so it’s made differently? Even so, it’s incredible.’

If the helmet could hide magic like that, it was no ordinary item.

“It’s an invincible helmet that blocks all hits.”

“…Didn’t he just fall over?”

“I hit his face. Even an invincible helmet can’t protect what it doesn’t cover.” The Frost Giant looked at Lee Han like he was saying something stupid.

“So, are we supposed to wake him up by hitting his face?”

“What are you even saying? If you hit a fallen warrior’s weak spot, he might never wake up. Of course, you have to hit the helmet.”

“You said it was an invincible helmet…”

“It’s an invincible helmet, but if you hit it hard enough, there will be an impact. That’s what this contest is testing.”

“……”

Lee Han decided to believe only half of what the Frost Giants said. He thought they were probably exaggerating.

For an invincible helmet, it wasn’t very invincible at all.

‘Okay. A contest to kill… no, wake the opponent by hitting the helmet, right?’

This contest also had good points for Lee Han.

Since the helmet blocked hits with magic, if he could break the magic, it wouldn’t work anymore.

No matter how strong the Frost Giant’s magic was, if he used Valdor Orn’s magic hammer, he should be able to stop it, at least for a moment.

‘It doesn’t seem like that helmet has extra magic to stop the magic hammer. It will probably work.’

“Junior.”

“?”

Catton came up from behind without Lee Han noticing.

The worried Beastman senior whispered, “Are you okay? Just give me the signal now…”

“Ah. I’m still fine. I’ll listen a little more.”

“!!!”

Catton was very surprised.

He had come to check because he wasn’t sure if Giselle was right, but Lee Han said the same thing?

“Are there any other contests?”

“Yes, there is. The last contest is very fun. A contest of drinking poisoned liquor.”

Drinking strong liquor wasn’t just a Frost Giant thing.

You could find it all over the Empire, and giants and dwarves liked it too…

“It’s liquor with poison made by magic.”

“…Excuse me?” Lee Han asked again, wondering if he had heard wrong.

But he had heard right. The Frost Giant brought a large barrel and said,

“It’s liquor filled with poison made by our shaman. If you want to show how strong a warrior is, you drink this liquor.”

The Frost Giants didn’t just like strong liquor, they even liked liquor with poison in it.

Sometimes a giant would die from drinking it, but that was the same with fighting. No giant would stop fighting because someone died.

Catton made up his mind this time.

“I will draw my sword, Junior.”

“How lucky. This is very good.”

“?!?!!”

Catton stared at the delighted White Tiger Tower junior with wide eyes.

…Could it be that he didn’t get along with Wodanaz?

‘They seemed close though…’

* * *

The contest ended with Lee Han winning, who chose the third match.

“Kroooooh…”

“……”

But Lee Han couldn’t be happy even after winning.

Because the number of fallen giants had doubled.

“Too much, too much poison…”

“If you fall, who will protect my honor! Senior, do you know how to remove this poison?”

“Junior, there’s no way I would know that.” Catton said confidently.

Not many people could say they didn’t know something so confidently. Lee Han nodded, convinced.

‘He’s definitely right.’

“I’m seeing that liquor for the first time too, Lee Han. It’s Frost Giant poison.”

“Has the Moradi family ever fought the Frost Giants?”

“Not every family fights monsters from other dimensions.”

Arguing with Giselle wouldn’t help. Lee Han gave up and tried something else.

Gonadaltes’ Decline!

This strange magic that moved the target’s bad condition to himself was something he wouldn’t normally use, but this was different.

He could take as much poison as he wanted…

“Cough!”

The Frost Giant, whose face had turned dark from the poison, woke up.

“Are you awake?”

“Did, did I lose?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t remember! I can’t accept it! Let’s have another contest…”

Sreak-

Catton held his sword to the Frost Giant’s neck. The Frost Giant nodded.

“…If I ask, it would hurt my honor as a warrior. I will protect the challenger’s honor in my name. Thank you!”

The Frost Giant woke up his helmeted comrade who was lying next to him.

He grumbled as he did.

“Deciding honor with just one contest. Why not two or three times?”

“……”

“……”

The helmeted Frost Giant woke up late and shouted.

“I should have used my fist instead of a club… What happened!?”

“The challenger has passed the test. I promised to protect his honor.”

“Y, you idiot…! You should have passed it on to me then! You’ve taken away all our honor!”

“Hmph. Then you should have challenged him first.”

The recovered Frost Giants argued with each other, growling.

When they were done, they looked at Lee Han.

“If we have one more contest, we might get the honor of the challenger being recognized by the king…”

“To be honest, one contest is too little, isn’t it? True honor comes from many contests…”

“What kind of guys are these?” Giselle said, sounding shocked.

They looked like proud warriors, but they were acting worse than the giants in the Einrogard Mountains.

They lost, but they kept looking over and complaining, ‘Ah, one contest is too little,’ ‘I wish we had more contests.’

“W, what are you saying? We didn’t say anything.”

“We won’t let you insult us, stranger!” The Frost Giants, feeling insulted, stopped complaining and led the way.

Other Frost Giants in the snow and ice fortress in the valley were surprised to see the visitors.

“Who is it? Why is a stranger from another world here?”

“That is the honorable challenger recognized by the king.”

“What!? Then that honor is mine…”

“It’s already over. I challenged and lost, and I promised there would be no more challenges.”

“Who do you think you are!”

The Frost Giants rushed out and angrily attacked their comrade.

Because of this greedy guy, they had lost the chance to gain great honor!

“I know you’re upset, but what can you do? Everyone, give up…” Even with Lee Han’s words, the Frost Giants didn’t give up easily.

One of them muttered, “Doesn’t it reset when the one who promised disappears? We might be able to compete again.”

“Right! …Can you come over here for a moment?”

“How dare you?! You can never get rid of me!” The Frost Giant, about to be dragged away by his comrades, shouted angrily.

But the other Frost Giants wouldn’t give up.

Since they had lost the chance to be recognized by the king, they wanted to get rid of this selfish comrade and get it back.

“That’s enough. You bunch of trash. Are you still fighting over such small things?”

The Frost Giants were angry at the human wizard’s voice from behind.

Even if some of them were recognized, the Frost Giants wouldn’t let strangers from other worlds insult them.

“Who dares… Gasp! Gonadaltes!”

“G, Gonadaltes!”

“Gonadaltes???”

The Frost Giants, about to explode with anger, looked at the wizard behind them and were terrified.

No matter how bad the Frost Giants were at knowing what other races looked like, they couldn’t forget that face.

The nightmare of the giant race, Gonadaltes!

That wizard was standing at the entrance of the valley with his servants.

“What brings you here?”

“The royal family’s student came as an envoy, but it’s taking too long.”

The White Tiger Tower students behind the crazy clone nodded.

The Skull Archmage’s clone was a dangerous archmage, but at least he was on their side now.

‘Please show those Frost Giants what’s what!’

“He was Gonadaltes’ student?!”

“Once.”

-?

“I have been nice once. There will be no second time, so watch what you say.”

The Frost Giants hesitated and nodded.

“He was that archmage’s student?”

“…Yes.”

The crazy clone who came late after the contest was annoying, but it was good he came now.

Thanks to him, the Frost Giants’ attitude completely changed.

‘What did he do to the giants in the past?’

Lee Han had seen the young Skull Archmage beating up giants and demons since long ago.

But they were still so afraid even after so much time. Even though they were from another world.

‘No. That’s not important now.’

“Everyone, let’s stop worrying about honor and contests! We have to get to the main point!” Lee Han shouted quickly.

He had to say it while the Frost Giants were scared and make sure they couldn’t talk about it again.

“I understand. Let’s get to the main point.”

“But wait a moment.”

The Frost Giants nodded and agreed, then took something out of their pockets.

It was a wax notepad.

Lee Han was curious as they wrote with their large hands.

Lee Han grabbed the helmeted Frost Giant who had fallen first and asked, “What are you all writing now?”

“Challenger, can’t you read?”

“…I can’t read Frost Giant letters, but I can read other things.”

“It’s good to learn letters.”

He was annoyed at how they looked at him like they felt sorry for him knowing only one language.

But Lee Han kept going.

“So, what does it mean?”

“This means ‘Honorable Challenger Recognized by the King.’ It’s what we call you, Challenger.”

“…What about the one below?”

“The one below means ‘Student of the Wizard Gonadaltes.’ This is also what we call you, Challenger.”

“Then what is the last line?”

“Since you have two honors that you can never give to others, it means you must take them first.”

Lee Han nodded.

And then he decided to take the letters from the Frost Giants.