Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 170

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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 170

Lee Han pondered how to convey that this week was midterm exam period and that he wasn’t only taking Professor Boladi’s lectures.

“This week is midterm exam period, so would it be alright to go to the dungeon?”

“Yes.”

“…”

Lee Han gave up.

‘Well, of course that wouldn’t work.’

Even if the magic school was destroyed tomorrow, Professor Boladi would surely still hold his classes.

Would such a person show consideration just because it was midterm exam period?

“Yes. Let’s go!”

“Don’t be excessively cheerful. It could lead to mistakes.”

“…”

Should I kill him?

* * *

Last time, Professor Boladi had failed to properly control the dungeon, causing a Rakshasa Hungry Ghost to appear in the Demon Zone.

And Lee Han had defeated it again.

At this point, it would be difficult even for the Imperial Court to determine whether it was the master’s fault or the disciple’s fault.

Of course, Lee Han had a firm opinion.

‘Professor Boladi is the crazy one.’

“Aren’t we going to the Rakshasa Demon Zone?”

When Professor Boladi stopped walking, Lee Han was puzzled.

To go to where the Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts appeared, they would need to go down a bit further…

At Lee Han’s question, Professor Boladi smiled very faintly.

Lee Han got goosebumps.

“As I said, don’t be excessively cheerful. Emotional fluctuations lead to magical mistakes.”

“…”

Seeing Professor Boladi interpret his single question as being excited to see Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts, Lee Han sighed.

“I understand. You must want to go and practice as soon as possible.”

“No.”

“There’s no need to be modest.”

“…”

“We stopped here because of illusion magic.”

“Illusion magic?”

Lee Han was puzzled.

Of course, Professor Boladi was someone who didn’t particularly stick to specialized magical fields and would use anything necessary for magical combat.

But still, when Professor Kirmin Ku was available, why bother?

“I was originally planning to teach how to deal with illusion magic later.”

Professor Boladi had judged that new students like Lee Han would rarely encounter illusion magic.

In magical combat, it would be sufficient to first conduct other practical training and then teach how to deal with it.

That’s what he had thought.

‘Isn’t that right?’

Lee Han agreed with that as well.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with that.”

“It’s wrong.”

“Excuse me?”

“You faced Ogonin, didn’t you.”

“No…”

“Thinking about the future, you’ll need to know how to deal with illusion magic.”

‘I think you should study logic and statistics.’

Lee Han thought to himself.

Facing Ogonin was close to an accident, not because Lee Han had some ambition like ‘I should chase after and defeat Imperial illusion mages.’

Regardless, Professor Boladi raised his staff. Lee Han tensed up.

Fortunately, Professor Boladi didn’t attack Lee Han. He waved his staff and summoned an illusion.

Duplicates that looked exactly like Professor Boladi appeared.

‘Several times more terrifying.’

“If we broadly classify illusion magic, it’s divided into magic cast directly on the opponent and magic cast on the external environment.”

Illusion magic cast directly on the opponent was so difficult that it was classified separately as mental magic.

Properly executed mental magic could control the opponent like a puppet…

In comparison, illusion magic cast on the outside was relatively less difficult.

Since there was no need to directly attack the opponent’s mind, you just had to summon the illusion and that was it.

That didn’t mean it was absolutely useless though. Depending on the situation and location, the latter could be used more effectively.

‘So is that why the mage called Ogonin failed?’

Lee Han thought that if Ogonin heard this, he would grab his neck and collapse.

The fact that he tried several times but it was completely useless had left such a strong impression.

“You have high resistance to the former due to your constitution.”

The mana that a mage possessed created resistance to external magic by itself.

Of course, that resistance wasn’t that remarkable. If simply having mana could provide resistance to magic, half of the Imperial mages would be unemployed.

But if the amount of mana was unimaginably vast, the story changed.

At that point, the resistance created couldn’t be ignored either.

‘Not bad.’

Since he suffered from having too much mana, such advantages made him happier.

“To what extent can I defend?”

“That’s unknown. Magic resistance due to mana quantity is extremely rare, and many other variables come into play. You’ll have to find out for yourself.”

“Understood.”

‘I hope the mage called Ogonin was reasonably skilled.’

Lee Han thought to himself.

If Ogonin’s abilities were decent, wouldn’t that mean he could defend against a considerable number of mental magic attacks?

Of course, that possibility seemed unlikely…

“But the illusions cast outside are different from the former.”

Professor Boladi’s clones spoke in unison simultaneously. The sound echoed.

“Since your magic resistance has less effect, you must learn the knack of distinguishing them. How would you differentiate?”

Lee Han immediately created a water orb and threw it at one of the clones. Professor Boladi’s clone ducked its head to avoid it.

‘What a shame.’

He wanted to hit even an illusion…

“Not bad. Illusions are vulnerable to external attacks. But in combat situations, you can’t check them one by one like that. You must learn to verify through your senses.”

“Through senses, you say?”

“That’s right. No matter how elaborately crafted, illusions inevitably have differences from reality.”

Excellent observation skills.

It was an essential condition for dealing with illusion magic.

‘It’s like a spot-the-difference game.’

“Find them.”

Professor Boladi’s clones lined up on both sides. Lee Han resisted the urge to throw water orbs and concentrated.

“The clone on the far left is fake.”

“Correct.”

One clone disappeared.

“The shoe color was different. Well noticed.”

“…Yes.”

Actually, he had said it was fake because the expression looked too gentle for Professor Boladi…

“The clone on the far right is also fake.”

“Did you notice from the staff’s color?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Well done.”

Actually, he had said it was fake because the eyes looked too kind for Professor Boladi, but he got this one right too anyway.

‘Maybe this is what he meant by verifying through senses.’

After all, senses are still senses, aren’t they?

“Now we go to face the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost. Be mindful of illusions.”

Professor Boladi began summoning illusions of the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost.

It was already difficult to face just the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost, but he was deliberately adding illusions to increase the difficulty.

Lee Han was impressed.

‘So this is why he explained how to deal with illusion magic.’

He really wanted to hit him once.

* * *

When Lee Han returned to the common room after spending the morning with the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost in the dungeon, Blue Dragon Tower students sprawled everywhere greeted him.

“You should have drunk in moderation.”

Lee Han spoke coldly.

Even for a school that didn’t feed its students properly, drinking whatever was given the night before an exam was too much.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if everyone had collapsed from hangovers.

It was safe to say that almost all the Blue Dragon Tower students had been drinking.

Starting with Gainando, who was groaning and clutching his head, to Yoner, who sat with a pale face drinking only water. Even the Imperial Princess seemed to have drunk, as she couldn’t properly lift her head.

“Ugh…”

“Are you okay?”

“I thought it was suspicious…”

Yoner stood up with a pale face.

Excellent alchemists tend to love alcohol too.

The temptation was too strong to refuse the alcohol overflowing in the banquet hall.

“Everyone wait. I’ll boil something up for you.”

“Thanks, Wardanaz…”

“You’re the only one…”

‘Is hangover soup really worth this much gratitude?’

Lee Han thought this as he lit a fire under the cauldron.

He peeled and boiled potatoes dug up from the vegetable garden.

Then he mashed them, mixed them with milk and cheese, and put them in the cauldron where they began to simmer gently.

They had brought in new supplies over the weekend, but there was no point in being wasteful. Potato soup would be sufficient.

‘I suppose I could add some mushrooms.’

Lee Han stirred the soup with a ladle, then ladled out generous portions and handed a bowl to each of his friends.

“Alchemy class is in an hour. Will you all be okay?”

“Of… of course. 90% chance I can make it, Wardanaz.”

“Me too… naturally…”

‘These guys are pushing themselves too hard.’

Looking at their condition, he was worried they wouldn’t be able to attend other lectures properly either.

Just how much alcohol had the Skeleton Principal distributed…

“The alchemy midterm is due by Friday, so don’t worry too much. I’ll go listen and tell you about it.”

“No, Wardanaz. Together… urk.”

“The world is… spinning…”

“…You’d better just stay put.”

* * *

“??”

Arriving at alchemy class, Lee Han found himself unconsciously looking around.

The number of students…

Wasn’t it too few?

“It’s not really surprising.”

Professor Thunderstep spoke nonchalantly.

It seemed he wasn’t surprised at all that only a few students out of the many had come to the lecture.

“Does this happen every year?”

“You guessed right.”

“…”

Lee Han was dumbfounded.

Well, given the Skeleton Principal’s personality, it wouldn’t be strange for him to pull this kind of stunt before every midterm exam…

But the fact that new students fell for it every time was truly absurd.

“Now. You guys who came today, tell those who couldn’t make it. Of course, you don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to.”

Professor Thunderstep tapped the blackboard where the midterm assignment was recorded in detail.

【Vitality Bone Regeneration Potion】

Required materials – Birch Branch, Dendrobium Leaves, thistle flowers, bone-growing flowers…

Crafting Method – First, stir the water with the birch branch clockwise…

‘What? He’s telling us everything?’

Lee Han was surprised.

Since they were given plenty of time, he naturally expected the problem to be unreasonably difficult.

Like telling them to find the crafting method themselves, or to figure out what materials were needed on their own, and so on.

But to give such detailed information.

‘Birch trees are over there, and I know where dendrobium is, and thistle too… Hmm?’

Lee Han, who had been taking notes on the materials, suddenly felt something was off and hesitated.

Nilia beside him seemed to feel the same way as she raised her hand.

“Professor?”

“What is it?”

“As far as I know, bone-growing flowers grow deep in dungeon underground areas.”

“So?”

“Uh… Yes? I mean, wouldn’t it be difficult to obtain them within the school?”

“What nonsense are you talking about.”

Thunderstep said with a satisfied smile.

“This school has plenty of dungeons, so just find one and go down.”

“Ah…”

Lee Han could feel the emotion contained in the ‘Ah’ that Nilia let out.

It would be something like ‘Ah, this is really too much.’

“So we just need to go down to the dungeon underground and bring them back?”

“You don’t necessarily have to go all the way to the dungeon underground. If there’s another way to obtain them, you can get them that way too.”

‘Is this why the upperclassmen raid the professors’ workshops?’

Lee Han felt like he understood why the upperclassmen, whose faces he didn’t even know, had turned to thievery.

With lectures like this, how could they not do it?

Nilia grumbled as if she couldn’t believe it.

“When and how are we supposed to enter a dungeon again? Even if the submission is by Friday, there are exams for other lectures too.”

“That’s right.”

Lee Han deeply empathized.

Other lectures had midterm exams, so what the hell was this dungeon business?

“Finding a dungeon is also a problem. Do dungeons just appear when you look for them? We don’t even know where underground they are. Wardanaz, do you know of any dungeons?”

Even as Nilia asked, she didn’t really think Lee Han would actually know.

Lee Han was also a new student, so how could he know about dungeons located underground?

She was just asking as a way of venting.

“Well, there is one.”

“…?!?!”

Nilia stared at Lee Han as if she couldn’t believe it.

How on earth?

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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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