Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 174

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

Chapter 174

The reason Lee Han didn’t reveal the fact that he was entering the underground dungeon in front of Professor Boladi was simple.

…It was because he couldn’t predict what kind of reaction would come out.

Professor Boladi was the most difficult professor to predict among all professors.

He had no choice but to be even more careful.

“A picnic? We came out to conquer the underground dungeon, didn’t we?”

However, the clueless White Tiger Tower student asked as if he didn’t understand.

Lee Han gritted his teeth and muttered.

“Be quiet…”

“What? I can’t hear you well. Wardanaz. What’s this about a picnic and why do we have to go back?”

Lee Han regretted that he should have just quickly knocked the other person unconscious.

However, Professor Boladi had already climbed the stairs and stood in front of the students.

The White Tiger Tower student who had just spoken also noticed Professor Boladi’s appearance and straightened his posture.

“Good day, Professor.”

“What’s going on.”

Lee Han quickly snatched the answer.

“We’re all going on a picnic underground…”

“Wardanaz gathered the students to conquer the underground dungeon.”

‘Should I kill him?’

Professor Boladi listened to the White Tiger Tower student’s words and looked around the corridor with an expressionless face.

Students who had finished all preparations and were about to descend into the underground dungeon came into the vampire professor’s view.

Lee Han could see a very faint smile appear at the corner of Professor Boladi’s mouth.

The anger toward the White Tiger Tower student completely disappeared and ice-cold fear rose up.

“Well done.”

“…It’s really nothing much.”

Lee Han spoke while carefully paying attention to try to read what Professor Boladi was thinking.

“Continuous training is an essential condition for skill improvement, but few mages actually practice it. Keep up the good work.”

“We’re going because we need materials for the midterm exam, Professor.”

“There were other dungeons available.”

“…I thought we’d be short on time to find them…”

“I suppose so.”

Professor Boladi nodded.

Excellent mages achieve multiple goals simultaneously even when doing one thing.

When they need materials from underground dungeons, weak and lazy mages enter easy places, but promising battle mages deliberately enter difficult places to train themselves.

Wardanaz was exactly that kind of mage.

“I just finished managing the dungeon.”

“…”

If it were a naturally occurring dungeon located in a remote area, no one would care whether monsters burst out or strange incidents occurred inside, but the dungeons located within the magic school were different.

If the monsters inside the dungeon came out right now and caused a rampage, it would be the professors’ workshops that would be destroyed.

Even someone like Professor Boladi regularly checked the dungeons and inspected their internal conditions.

How was the mana flow inside the dungeon, what were the monster numbers like, were there any signs of them going berserk and bursting upward, and so on.

However, to Lee Han, Professor Boladi’s words seemed to carry a slightly different meaning.

‘Wasn’t it because he specially prepared for me last time that all that chaos didn’t happen?’

A chilling unease that swept down his spine.

Unaware of Lee Han’s feelings, his friends threw out words of gratitude.

“Thank you, Professor.”

“We’ll be back safely!”

“He’s quite kind, contrary to the rumors, isn’t he?”

“See, I told you rumors can’t be trusted.”

“…”

* * *

“Blaze up.”

A flame about the size of two finger joints was created in the air.

The advantage of the fire element was that even simple low-circle magic had sufficient destructive power.

The agwi that was hit by the flames summoned by the Phoenix Tower priest instantly slowed down.

“Blaze up!”

“Burn!”

Even the simplest 1st circle magic 【Flame Creation】 became more powerful when multiple students layered it together.

The agwi instantly burned and collapsed.

“Excellent.”

At Lee Han’s praise, the priests lightly nodded their heads.

The White Tiger Tower students following behind snorted derisively.

“Using magic with so many people just to catch one monster, what’s so excellent about that.”

“It’s too wasteful, isn’t it? Combat should be done with swords after all.”

The White Tiger Tower students spoke confidently while preparing to cast enhancement magic on their wooden swords.

Lee Han, who still held a grudge from their earlier remarks in front of Professor Boladi, spoke coldly.

“Draw your swords. Let’s see if you can block my magic too.”

“…Wo, Wardanaz. Why are you looking so serious…”

“We, we were a bit rude to the priests, weren’t we?”

The White Tiger Tower students were startled seeing Lee Han’s expression.

They hadn’t expected Wardanaz to look so seriously upset just because they had boasted a few words.

‘Oops. What have I done.’

Lee Han immediately came to his senses.

He needed to work well with the students, but starting from the beginning…

“Sorry. I was too harsh with my words.”

“No, no. We were also harsh with our words to the priests.”

Asan proudly wiped under his nose with a satisfied expression.

A person who stands up for another’s honor is truly an honorable person.

He was proud that such a person was his friend.

“I’m proud of you, Wardanaz.”

“??”

Lee Han looked at Asan as if he were looking at a strange person.

“Wait. We’re going around this way, not that path.”

“An agwi appeared. White Tiger Tower, handle it.”

“Be careful of that wall over there. It’s a section where agwi hide well.”

“Watch the floor. The mud is deep.”

Lee Han, refocusing, gave instructions in succession.

The students who had initially followed without much thought gradually began to sense something strange.

‘…Huh?’

‘Why does he know this so well?’

Of course, since Wardanaz was the one who discovered this dungeon, it wouldn’t be strange for him to know the entrance well.

But even though they had gone quite deep, Wardanaz completely knew the dungeon inside and out.

As if he had come and gone several times.

“That guy Wardanaz knows this dungeon suspiciously well.”

“Earlier, the professor was the ‘Repetitive Learning of Basic Magic Combat’ professor, right? I heard that lecture is a bit strange – didn’t he have lectures here?”

“Don’t make such ridiculous jokes. What crazy lecture would be conducted in a dungeon like this?”

Listening to the White Tiger Tower students chatter, Nilia closed her eyes.

Wardanaz was someone who rarely drew sympathy from others, but this time she truly felt sorry for Wardanaz.

How did he end up taking such a lecture…

The narrow passage ended and a plaza terrain wide enough for all the students who had been walking in single file to gather in one place appeared.

Lee Han spoke seriously.

“Now. From here on, you really need to be careful.”

“Wardanaz. You can stop worrying so much now.”

The confidence of the White Tiger Tower students, who had handled the agwi that appeared on the way down well, was quite high.

In fact, not only the White Tiger Tower students, but the other tower students also had somewhat relaxed faces.

It was natural since they had come down more easily than they had initially been so tense about.

“From here, rakshasa hungry ghosts appear.”

“…”

“…”

“…Don’t lie.”

“I’m not lying. From now on, rakshasa hungry ghosts will appear, so we’ll move while avoiding their territory.”

The structure of Professor Boladi’s underground dungeon that Lee Han was forced to learn was as follows.

First, the narrow passages leading down underground connected to the entrance.

Here, agwi would hide and then jump out to startle the mages.

Going down like that, wide plaza-type terrain would appear.

In such wide places, there were actually almost no agwi. Unless some madman deliberately gathered monsters there.

And if they went further down from here, it was the area where Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts appeared.

As befitting the size of the Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts, the terrain had become much wider, but it had also become more complex.

A vast rocky mountain valley with naturally formed caves scattered throughout.

If this weren’t an underground dungeon, Lee Han would have thought so.

“There are caves scattered throughout the descending path. Some of these caves contain Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts. Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts are gluttonous monsters, so they just sleep inside their caves until they detect signs of prey. So we avoid caves with Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts from a distance. Then we won’t have to deal with them.”

“How can we tell?”

“I’ll give you signals.”

“Wardanaz, how can we trust your signals? How can you tell?”

“If you don’t want to trust me, go ahead and enter one.”

“Ah… no, I was just asking.”

The student backed down when Lee Han turned serious after being questioned unnecessarily.

One Black Turtle Tower student tilted his head and muttered.

“Wardanaz seems unusually sharp.”

“It’s probably because this is a dangerous place. He’s someone with a strong sense of responsibility.”

The students never imagined that Lee Han had already risked his life rolling around first in this underground dungeon valley.

* * *

How much further had they descended?

The students who had come down while avoiding caves as much as possible were delighted to see plants growing in clusters.

Priest Siana’s eyes lit up as she whispered in a small voice.

“Those are bone-eating flowers!”

“We found them.”

Two or three students from each tower came out and began carefully digging up the flowers.

The remaining students stood guard in various positions. They had avoided all the caves with Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts, but there was always the possibility of ‘what if.’

“Wait. Isn’t that light?”

One White Tiger Tower student who was standing guard pointed with his finger behind a rock located below on the slope path.

Though it was quite a distance away, a bluish light was softly emanating from there.

“That’s light, right? Isn’t that an artifact?”

Durgyu spoke cautiously.

“I think it would be better not to move carelessly.”

“Wardanaz said that cave doesn’t have Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts. That place is fine.”

“That’s true, but what if…”

Before Durgyu could finish speaking, the White Tiger Tower student took a torch and carefully descended the steep slope path.

And he checked behind the rock. There really was a helmet emitting a bluish light.

“It’s an artifact! I said it’s an artifact! Durgyu, look at this!”

“I got it, so hurry back!”

“Yeah. I’m coming now!”

The White Tiger Tower student tried to climb back up the slope path.

-■■■…

Before the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost suddenly appeared from behind the rocks, glaring at the student and growling.

“…!”

At the sudden appearance of the monster, the student’s muscles stiffened. His hand slipped and his weight shifted, causing the rocks on the slope path to fall away.

The path suddenly disappeared, trapping him below with the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost.

Durgyu called out to Lee Han in shock.

“Lee Han!”

“!”

Lee Han immediately reacted. He could feel the urgency in Durgyu’s voice.

“What’s…”

He could understand the situation without asking.

The White Tiger Tower student and the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost were down below on the steep slope path.

‘Wait. It definitely wasn’t in that cave before?’

Lee Han couldn’t understand it.

Of course, the White Tiger Tower student had carelessly gone down, but how could this happen when there was no Rakshasa Hungry Ghost around?

For a moment, Professor Boladi’s face flashed through Lee Han’s mind.

-I just happened to manage the dungeon.

“…”

What if Professor Boladi had positioned the wandering Rakshasa Hungry Ghost for Lee Han’s sake to provide appropriate stimulation when he entered next time?

“Hold on! I’ll come help you!”

Realizing his mistake, Lee Han spoke decisively to cover up that mistake.

If he left it alone, there was a possibility it would flow toward Lee Han’s responsibility with ‘Huh? Lee Han said no Rakshasa Hungry Ghost would appear, so why did one appear?’

The White Tiger Tower student who had fallen below was even more surprised.

He had expected that bastard Wardanaz to abandon him, saying ‘you reap what you sow.’

Durgyu shouted as if he had expected this.

“Hold on somehow! Lee Han will help you!”

“What’s going on?”

“The White Tiger Tower guy fell down below!”

“Why?”

“I don’t know! He must have been trying to pick something up!”

“What an idiot!”

Lee Han stopped his friends’ criticism.

“Anyone can make mistakes. Stop it.”

“Wardanaz…!”

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