Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 1173

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1173

You speak the truth. They didn’t fall from grace for nothing.

Hoping such an opportunity would come someday, the Demon Hag made excuses.

If you want their heads, I’ll cut them off and bring them to you. It’s not even a difficult task.

How wonderful it would be if the other guys were as spirited as you. This grandmother’s contractor would be delighted.

Contractor?

The bishop of the evil deity’s order was greatly surprised.

That Demon Hag was lending power to a mortal?

Either she was quite fond of that mortal, or the Heretic Worshippers had properly insulted her.

‘It must be the latter.’

The Demon Hag was a powerful being, but she had too eccentric a personality to take a liking to mortals.

She must have chosen them as a chess piece to attack the Heretic Worshippers.

The bishop guessed that the contractor’s fate would end tragically. It was truly a pitiful destiny.

Why, shouldn’t grandmother make contracts?

No.

The Demon Hag was a being who became more dangerous the more kindly she spoke.

Having heard the enemy’s name, the Immortal decided not to provoke his opponent any further.

You may tell the contractor. That we can cooperate when it comes time to cut off their heads.

The Immortal never suspected that the contractor was a magic school student.

Having made a contract with the Demon Hag, he thought they would at least be a mage criminal or apocalypse believer.

Having obtained what she wanted, the Demon Hag smiled sinisterly.

‘What an easy fellow.’

How refreshing. Yes, I understand!

What kind of being is the contractor? An apocalypse believer after all?

The Demon Hag pretended not to see the last question and burst the toad.

* * *

“By the way, junior.”

“Yes.”

Lee Han was concentrating on the blueprints again as if nothing had happened after the Demon Hag left.

Catten felt renewed awe at his junior’s concentration and continued speaking.

“I heard you’re planning to keep stealing the evil deity orders’ divine powers, is that correct?”

“Yes? Yes. I’m especially planning to steal about ten divine powers from the Sainguiros sect.”

“…Is, is that so?”

Catten shuddered at the meticulousness of already having decided on numbers.

“Hmm, junior. You probably know magic better than I do. Divine powers from orders would be the same since they’re divine magic. But I’m a bit concerned about you stealing divine powers.”

“Concerned? In what way?”

Lee Han turned his gaze with curiosity.

Theoretically, evil deity orders’ divine powers were no different from regular magic to Lee Han if he could just steal them.

They required mana as payment, and that was something Lee Han had in abundance.

“When wielding a sword, sometimes you become obsessed with secret techniques that your current abilities can’t handle.”

Catten told an anecdote from when he had just awakened his aura in the past.

Awakening aura meant a warrior had learned to handle their own mana as naturally as their hands and feet.

Naturally, Catten got excited and tried testing various sword techniques’ secret arts he had never used before, one by one.

But that was too hasty thinking.

Just as having hands and feet doesn’t mean you can perform all movements naturally, awakening aura doesn’t mean you can perfectly handle all sword techniques’ secret arts.

His greed immediately returned tragic results. Catten made a deeply regretful expression.

“I still regret it. Unable to control the power contained in my sword, I ended up cutting down a passerby…”

“Su, surely you didn’t cut down another student?”

“…I destroyed the ranch the giants were tending. The sheep inside all ran away.”

“…”

Lee Han, who had been tense, glared slightly at his senior.

You scared me!

Of course, those large sheep running away was also quite serious. The giants would be furious if you told them it was no big deal.

“Everyone makes mistakes in life, don’t they?”

“The story doesn’t end there.”

“Yes?”

“No matter how much I thought about it, the secret technique kept nagging at me, so the next day I went back and tried it once more. But I lost control again…”

“…”

“I destroyed the freshly repaired ranch. The sheep they had just brought back ran away again.”

Catten repeated this for about a week.

So much so that the giants gave up on the ranch and left for somewhere else.

“Was there a particular reason you had to do it there?”

“To confirm the secret technique’s power, I needed at least two large cliffs nearby, and such places weren’t easy to find.”

Catten spoke in a voice full of regret.

Lee Han wanted to ask what kind of sword technique required two large cliffs, but he held back.

“Anyway, junior. I learned a lesson from that day.”

“Don’t practice grand magic near ranches?”

“That too, but when people become too obsessed with power, they actually become weaker.”

Catten was serious.

Training in magic would be fine, but continuously stealing evil deity orders’ divine powers was a different story.

Power gained through one’s own accumulation and power granted by evil deities were clearly on different tracks.

No matter how much they said there was no price, would there really be no influence?

Catten was skeptical about such aspects. Especially since his junior had been focusing even more on power lately, he was worried.

“…Indeed.”

Lee Han seriously considered his senior’s words. Hearing the concern, there was one aspect that came to mind.

‘Certainly, the structure of divine magic’s powers is quite alien.’

Others offered faith and borrowed that power, but Lee Han himself was offering mana instead and borrowing it, which he interpreted as such.

If the former was worship, the latter was equivalent exchange.

Lee Han couldn’t explain exactly why this was possible either.

Whether it was because of his mana capacity, because he approached faith skeptically and pragmatically, or thanks to innate intuition…

But if there was one certainty, it was that he was using mana as payment.

No matter how much it was a being without self-awareness, like a lump of unconsciousness, was it wise to pour mana into an evil deity?

In terms of overall scale, it might be like adding a drop of water to the ocean, but it was unsettling nonetheless.

‘And separately from this, Senior Catten’s words are fundamentally correct too…’

Power itself wasn’t guilty, but blindly pursuing power inevitably narrowed one’s vision.

Looking back at his memories, Lee Han had almost fallen to corruption several times too.

Mainly when trying to torment Professor Verdus or trying to torment Verdus’ Disciple…

“I understand what you mean, senior.”

“Then that’s fortunate.”

Catten spoke in a slightly relieved voice.

He had been worried because his junior might have rejected his advice.

Mages originally didn’t listen to others well. Especially the more skilled the mage, the more so.

“I should be careful about using them unless absolutely necessary.”

“You thought well, junior.”

“And I’ll reinterpret the stolen divine powers as magic and launder them too.”

“I, I hadn’t thought of that but…”

Catten almost recoiled.

Though Catten considered himself quite serious about magic, when talking with his junior, he often felt ‘I still have a long way to go.’

Shouldn’t one be at this level to be a real mage?

Lee Han asked with curiosity.

“Isn’t it better to bring it back with my magic rather than just sealing it away forever?”

“…You’re right! You’re absolutely right, junior. Haha.”

Catten was about to say ‘normally people think of just sealing it, only those obsessed with magic would think of recreating it with magic’ but held back.

He should encourage his junior rather than needlessly dampening his spirits.

-Are you inside?

“Please come in.”

Lee Han personally opened the door upon hearing the familiar voice from outside. Professor Taswan from Calarograd entered with a grateful expression.

“Thank you so much for welcoming me.”

“Not at all. Calarograd and Einroguard are fellow magic schools of the Empire, aren’t we?”

Taswan smiled faintly at the warm words of encouragement.

“Did you bring something to ask the Demon Hag? I should mention beforehand that there’s no guarantee she’ll answer everything.”

“That’s more than enough.”

Lee Han set down warm honey tea as a gesture of welcome. After taking a sip, Taswan let out an exclamation of admiration.

“This is the most delicious tea I’ve ever had!”

“Your first time?”

Taswan nodded while sipping. Lee Han glanced at Catten briefly, then shouted fiercely.

“Senior, attack!”

Catten, befitting a 5th year senior, didn’t ask for reasons. He immediately rushed at the opponent and beat him savagely.

To seal off movements needed for magic, attacks first targeted the throat, wrists, and staff. Screaming as he collapsed, Taswan returned to his original form.

“Wait, stop! Stop! I’m not a suspicious person!”

“…”

“…”

Surprisingly, it was a Descendant of Ahrak who cried out while bleeding from his nose.

He had brazenly come disguised as Professor Taswan.

“Move and I’ll cut you down. Assassin.”

True to his knight family origins, Catten showed no courtesy in such situations. He bristled his ears and beard, emanating killing intent.

Before the senior could reduce the Empire’s dark mage count by one, Lee Han hurriedly intervened.

“Senior, please calm down. He probably came to ask questions about the Demon Hag, not to assassinate.”

“Right, right! Why would I assassinate, you little brat!”

The descendant dark mage protested at the truly absurd misunderstanding.

However, Catten didn’t even pretend to listen.

“Junior has many enemies, so it wouldn’t be strange if anyone came here after being bribed.”

“…I don’t want to admit it, but thank you for your concern.”

While the two conversed, the dark mage sniffled and wiped his nosebleed.

To think he’d be ambushed and beaten like this by a young brat at his age.

“How? How did you see through the transformation?”

This wasn’t ordinary disguise. The Descendants of Ahrak didn’t use the obvious disguises that regular mages employed.

Being excellent mages themselves, they knew well the reasons why such disguises were easily detected.

One of the most common reasons was the mana patterns emitted by living beings, followed by the shape of the soul.

Regular mages only changed the surface coating to mimic the form, but skilled mages could see what lay within.

So this descendant had prepared very meticulously.

He had forged his mana to match the reagent pouches and artifacts that Professor Taswan carried, and transformed his soul’s shape to appear identical from the outside.

Deep investigation or losing composure might reveal inconsistencies, but there was rarely reason to go that far in normal situations.

It was truly the essence of cunning from over a century of dark magic experience.

‘But how was I discovered?’

“The professor hasn’t had honey tea for the first time.”

Lee Han explained calmly.

When the professor and Calarograd students had visited the school before, Professor Mortum had arbitrarily served the honey tea that Lee Han had made to the guests.

That tea had been made for other seniors, including Senior Diret.

“Even now, thinking about it… to arbitrarily show such generosity to others with that, it’s truly absurd.”

‘…Pet, petty!’

Catten cried out inwardly.

To still remember such a trivial incident from early this year so vividly…!

It was an unbelievably petty side for a mage who had just displayed such magical abilities.

The dark mage seemed to think the same, looking bewildered.

“You, you were caught because of such a trivial reason?! That… wait, if you have complaints about Einroguard’s Black Magic Department, come to the Descendants of Ahrak! I’ll gift you enough ingredients to fill a bathtub with that honey tea!”

If the other party accepted, it would be an absurd enough trade to go down in dark mage history.

A historic dark mage changing affiliations because of a cup of honey tea.

Nervous, Catten watched anxiously. Finally, Lee Han answered.

“I refuse.”

“Why?!”

“A place that disguises as other dark mages to extort questions is a bit…”

“…”

Faced with an irrefutable point, the dark mage was left speechless.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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