Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 137

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

Chapter 137

Lee Han felt something was strange.

Though the current situation where he had to claim he lacked talent was rather odd, Lee Han did his best to defend himself.

“Isn’t relying only on abundant mana to create magic circles like this a simple method?”

“Even humble. That’s a virtue rarely seen among mages.”

“No…”

“Wait. Were you being serious?”

Kendri was puzzled.

He had naturally assumed Lee Han was speaking out of humility.

There were two types who excelled at magic circle creation.

One was the cerebral type.

These were those who excelled in the theory and structure of magic circles, thoroughly studying and completely understanding everything in their minds before creating magic circles.

The other was the intuitive type.

These were those who created magic circles through sensation and intuition, making magic circles through their own senses and intuition while directly channeling mana, even if their calculations or understanding were lacking.

At first glance, the latter might seem simple or crude, but this was actually the more difficult approach.

Magic circles weren’t simply created just because one had abundant mana.

Everything else had to be filled in by the mage.

Anyone who called this simple or crude repetition was someone who didn’t understand what magic was.

Without being born with natural intuition, no amount of mana would allow one to create magic circles this way.

‘This is the first time I’ve been so unhappy about receiving praise for aptitude.’

Though he had been told he had talent for magic circle creation, Lee Han felt more bewildered than pleased.

“The latter also… seems suitable for imperial government positions.”

After hearing the explanation, Lee Han tried to resist passively.

However, Kendri looked at him as if asking what he was talking about.

“You’re both.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said you’re both. No matter how excellent one’s intuition, for a new student to complete magic circles to this extent, your brain must be working at full capacity.”

Intuition had its limits.

The fact that a new student completed them at this speed proved that beyond mere intuition, his theoretical understanding of magic circles was also quite deep.

Being skilled in just one would qualify someone for imperial bureaucracy.

But excelling in both?

That meant one should dedicate themselves to magic for the Empire’s future.

‘As expected of the professor’s friend, completely unreasonable.’

Lee Han quickly gave up.

Seeing this kind of reaction, it seemed faster to just convince other people and aim for government positions.

Not all imperial bureaucrats could be like this!

“Thank you for the praise.”

“Right. Thanks for praising our bureaucrats. Mages usually don’t like them.”

“I like it though…”

“Hahaha! What a joke.”

‘I’d like to punch him.’

Lee Han inwardly fumed at Kendri’s attitude of looking down on new students just because he held a high position.

“Anyway… I saw something good. I’ll be cheering you on. To think Gonadaltes could raise such a student – maybe I shouldn’t view him so badly after all.”

‘Feel free to view him badly.’

Lee Han swallowed his words. He never knew when or where the Skeleton Principal’s ears might be listening.

“Contact me later if you need help. Supporting mages like you is part of our bureaucrats’ role.”

“!”

Lee Han’s face brightened.

“I’ll try to support any research at least once.”

“…”

Lee Han’s face darkened again.

That kind of help wasn’t really what he needed.

‘Don’t you support young mages’ startups instead of research?’

“There will be some outside guests this week, so don’t get distracted and stay focused. Got it?”

“Will there be others besides the priests?”

“That’s…”

Kendri hesitated briefly, wondering if it was okay to tell a new student.

Lee Han lied without missing a beat.

“I heard from the Principal that it wasn’t a joke.”

“Ah. You heard? Seriously, Gonadaltes is really… Sorry. I shouldn’t criticize a master in front of students.”

Mistakenly thinking the Skeleton Principal had already mentioned it, Kendri opened his mouth.

“Probably people interested in Einroguard are visiting because it’s festival season. Other magic schools too… Einroguard’s reputation is famous, you know?”

‘From other magic schools?’

Lee Han paused.

These were guests he hadn’t expected.

He thought there would only be priests…

“I’ll make sure to tell others about what I saw today.”

“No… that’s fine.”

“Why? It’s better to build a reputation early. It’ll help when you do research later.”

“It’s really fine.”

‘For someone from the Wardanaz Family, he’s surprisingly modest?’

Kendri found it curious but nodded.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with an excellent mage being humble.

One of the reasons mages were notorious among Imperial Bureaucrats was precisely because of their arrogant attitudes.

-The estimate explanation is insufficient, so you’ll need to rewrite it…

-You can’t understand this estimate? That’s because you’re a stupid loser! You fool! You’re just jealous of me because you have no talent!? Of my overflowing talent?!

Thinking about that, Kendri found Lee Han all the more remarkable.

‘I hope he stays this way as he grows.’

He hoped Lee Han would become an outstanding mage just as he was now.

The mundane affairs of the world would be handled by other people in the Empire.

* * *

When the sun had completely set, Lee Han stopped working and fed the students dinner.

The students, who had exhausted their mana to the limit, devoured the meat as soon as it was grilled. Oil dripped down and made crackling sounds in the flames.

“Yoner. How did the potions turn out?”

“I succeeded in identifying a few!”

Yoner answered with a bright face.

Thanks to the help of the Priests from the Flaming Order, he had succeeded in identifying several potions.

“First, one was alcohol.”

“…”

Lee Han was slightly dumbfounded.

‘Why did they put not just one but several bottles of alcohol in the potion box?’

Though it wasn’t incomprehensible.

Being in a magic school like this, it would be natural for upperclassmen to reach for alcohol.

“What about the others?”

“Transformation potion. We need to check more to see what it transforms into, but it’s probably some kind of animal.”

‘Not bad.’

Though it wasn’t confirmed what animal it was yet, if it was a transformation potion, it was likely to have many uses.

If it was a winged animal…

‘I don’t know how the sky above the magic school works, but it’s worth trying.’

“Oh right. What Gainando ate before was indeed a Confidence Potion.”

“I thought so.”

“And a Curse Removal potion. They said it’s a very powerful potion. Right. Besides the Confidence Potion, there was also a Calmness Potion.”

“…!”

The students nearby also showed interest.

“Calmness Potion? If we drink that…”

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous if the Professor catches us?”

“We should think about not getting caught.”

The Blue Dragon Tower students were quickly adapting to the magic school.

They had started thinking of exams not as battles with themselves, but as battles with professors.

“I’m planning to check the remaining ones next week. I want to finish checking while the Priests are still here.”

“Thanks, Yoner. You must be busy.”

“Not as much as you… Professor Thunderstep was worried about you.”

“?”

Lee Han paused.

“What kind of worry?”

“He said he wanted to call you but couldn’t bring himself to do it.”

Professor Thunderstep, who was forced to prepare something for the festival, called the students who excelled in alchemy.

Yoner was naturally called as well.

The students who were called wondered why Lee Han wasn’t there.

-Isn’t Wardanaz coming?

-I felt too sorry for him to call him.

“…Wait.”

Lee Han felt a chill.

Could it really be that the Skeleton Principal was trying to call Lee Han?

‘Wait. Professor Thunderstep isn’t the type to not assign work because of just one Skeleton Principal.’

If it wasn’t just one…

For a moment, a certain vampire professor flashed through Lee Han’s mind.

“Aaaahhh!”

A Blue Dragon Tower student who had entered the common room first screamed. Lee Han looked up in surprise.

“Is it another attack from the Principal!?”

“It’s not that!”

“Thank goodness!”

‘Is it really good news?’

Lee Han thought this as he moved forward.

The common room was a mess as if thieves had broken in.

Tables and chairs were overturned and scattered in the corners, and books from the bookshelf were rolling around on the floor.

His friends looked at Gainando and asked.

“Don’t tell me you did this because of food…”

“You crazy bastards! We were together!”

“Ah. That’s right.”

The culprit was quickly revealed.

Sharkan, who had been left in the common room for magic circle work, was growling with something in his mouth.

Lee Han looked at Sharkan and spoke firmly.

“Sharkan!”

At his master’s angry voice that he was hearing for the first time, Sharkan was terrified. The powerful mana trembled and intimidated the summoned creature.

But for the sake of the poor misunderstood white horse, it couldn’t be helped.

Sharkan growled while carefully holding the curse removal potion in his mouth.

“Sorry everyone. I should have taken Sharkan with me.”

“It’s not your fault. We all found Sharkan cute too.”

“Who would have known Sharkan would do such a thing… Hey! Wardanaz! Sharkan is running away!”

Instead of reflecting, Sharkan watched for an opportunity and quickly ran outside. The Blue Dragon Tower students were flustered and missed Sharkan.

‘I’m starting to miss when he was just bones!’

Lee Han complained inwardly as he ran after him.

When he was just bones, he didn’t cause trouble, but now that he had regained his body, he started causing mischief.

It was better than trying to kill his master, but this kind of playfulness was quite annoying too.

“Yoner. Sharkan stole a potion! What kind of potion is it?”

“That’s… wait a minute…!”

Yoner stared at the potion clutched in the fleeing Sharkan’s mouth.

A vivid green color.

It was either a curse removal potion or an animal transformation potion.

“I’m not sure! There are similar potions…!”

In the meantime, Sharkan quickly widened the distance and arrived at the stables.

As Sharkan entered the stables, a tremendous commotion erupted from inside.

The horses suddenly began crying out frantically as if they had all been terrified at once.

‘What on earth is happening?!’

Lee Han ran forward, tense with fear and worry.

Upon entering the stables, he could immediately tell what kind of potion Sharkan had stolen.

“…He stole a transformation potion.”

Yoner, who arrived late, exhaled with a surprised expression.

There was a griffin inside the stables.

“Into a griffin…!”

“Yeah. It must have been a griffin transformation potion.”

Since it had transformed into a griffin that eats horses, it was natural for them to be making such a fuss.

Yoner whispered while looking at Sharkan.

“Maybe the horse asked him to do it? Monsters like Sharkan have quite high intelligence.”

“To find a transformation potion?”

“Yeah. That could be it. You know… maybe it wanted to show off its abilities to you.”

Lee Han immediately understood what Yoner was talking about.

Among proud animals, there were some that would try to show off their abilities even more when they felt ignored.

Of course, that was behavior typically seen in monsters, but it was possible that the white horse had such pride, rare as it might be.

As Yoner said, the white horse might have been so frustrated by Lee Han’s constant distrust that it asked Sharkan to find something that could make it stronger.

“I apologize. I was too suspicious of you.”

The white horse that had transformed into a griffin, or rather, returned, joyfully raised its front hooves at Lee Han’s words.

Pop!

As the effect of the potion wore off, the griffin returned to being a white horse again. The curse was so powerful that it couldn’t be completely resolved with a potion.

Still, the griffin was satisfied.

Lee Han must have finally realized its true identity!

Yoner spoke to appease the griffin.

“You’re smart. I’ll trust you.”

-…Puhihing??

“But Yoner. Isn’t there a possibility that it’s a real griffin rather than a transformation?”

-Puhihing! Puhihihing!

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