Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 218
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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 218
Gulp, gulp-
Once drinking water was secured, the Blue Dragon Tower students looked around with slightly relieved expressions.
Human hearts are fickle – as soon as their immediate thirst was resolved, their mood changed too.
Just moments ago it was ‘What sin did I commit to enter a school like this,’ but now they were thinking ‘Maybe having this kind of experience with friends isn’t so bad.’
A few students sat on the barren rock hill and gazed at the horizon.
“Still, it’s not as terrible as I thought it would be. Right?”
“Right.”
‘Just moments ago you were whining about how hard it was…’
Yoner thought this to himself, but didn’t bother scolding his friends who were already having a hard enough time.
“I hope the White Tiger Tower guys are suffering more.”
“Me too.”
“…”
Yoner looked at his friends as if they were ridiculous.
‘Aren’t we going to get punished for saying things like that?’
“Aaaahhh!”
“!!!”
As soon as the words ended, a scream erupted from the opposite side.
Lee Han grabbed his staff and ran over.
“What’s wrong!”
“O-over there…!”
Lee Han’s face hardened as he looked in the direction his friends were pointing.
In the distance on the horizon, a medium-sized monster with a heavy build was approaching.
‘Rock Drake!’
It was a monster well-known enough in the Empire that not only Lee Han but several other students could identify it by sight.
A drake monster of the lesser dragon species, so large and powerful that rumors circulated about dragon blood mixed in its ancestry.
Among them, the Rock Drake with its hard rocky shell was notorious for its absurd level of defense.
-Be careful in places where Rock Drakes appear. Even seasoned mid-level adventurers can get torn apart in the blink of an eye if they’re unlucky.
-I went to a place where Rock Drakes appear before. Do you know what the people there call Rock Drakes? They call them ‘the mage’s nightmare.’ They just bounce magic right off.
It was absolutely not a monster that 1st year students should face.
Even for Lee Han, who had experience fighting Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts!
In terms of rank, it was several levels higher. Not just any monster gets rumors about having dragon blood mixed in.
“Everyone get down. Don’t provoke it.”
“I-it looks like it’s coming this way?”
The Rock Drake approaching with heavy footsteps wasn’t fast, but it had a menacing sense of pressure.
Lee Han gathered the students.
Since the Rock Drake was moving in their direction, they needed to quickly come up with a plan.
“We need to run right now! Let’s move to the other side.”
“That’s nonsense. Rock Drakes aren’t particularly aggressive monsters, but they’re the type that will definitely attack any monster that enters their territory. If we move carelessly and provoke it, that’ll be the end!”
“Then you’re saying we should just stay still while it’s coming?”
“It’s coming this way, but we’re not certain it’ll climb up to the hill where we are. There’s a higher chance it’ll go somewhere else.”
“If we wait any longer, we’ll really lose our chance to escape!”
His friends’ opinions were evenly split.
‘This isn’t easy.’
The problem was that from Lee Han’s perspective, both sides had valid points.
Rock Drakes weren’t monsters with particularly keen senses, but if several students moved around in a group, there was a possibility it would notice even from far away.
But just hiding behind the bookshelf here would be completely leaving it to chance with no other plan…
“Should we flip a silver coin?”
“…That’s not a bad idea.”
“What? Lee Han. Are you really okay?”
Gainando was flustered when Lee Han agreed after he had brought up the suggestion.
He thought Lee Han would definitely say no…
“I’ll just use it as reference. Stone, show me the future.”
Lee Han threw colorful stones on the ground while concentrating his mind intensely.
Originally he tried not to use divination magic if possible, but with the situation like this, he had no choice.
At least it was fortunate that it was the near future, not the distant future.
‘This much should be manageable.’
Of course, if Professor Paselette or Professor Garcia had been there, they would have said ‘Easy or hard, this is absolutely not something a 1st year should be doing right now,’ but unfortunately, neither professor was present.
The answer he wanted was: would the Rock Drake come this way or not?
For a moment, several blurry images flashed by. Lee Han was barely able to focus on one of them.
“…It looks like it’s coming.”
“Damn!”
Seeing the image of the Rock Drake destroying the bookshelf on the hill and rampaging, Lee Han decided to escape with his friends.
“There’s not completely no way to get out. I do have invisibility magic…”
“Ah!”
“The problem is I can only use it on myself so far.”
“Ah…”
Even with the same magic, casting it on others was much more difficult than casting it on the mage himself.
“But fortunately I have artifacts. Gainando. Try putting this on.”
Gainando obediently put on the belt that Lee Han handed him.
Then he collapsed forward onto his knees.
“Ma… mana is…”
“Oh my. The mana consumption is worse than I thought.”
“Lee Han… you’re trying to assassinate me…”
“Yoner. Could you give him a potion?”
Lee Han uncorked the bottle and fed the potion to Gainando.
Fortunately, Gainando recovered his energy after a moment.
“Then lending out artifacts will be difficult.”
At Lee Han’s words, all his friends nodded enthusiastically.
No matter how much they needed invisibility magic, they didn’t want to wear those artifacts.
‘He really manages to wear artifacts like those!’
“Lee Han. I have a good idea.”
Gainando spoke up.
“What is it?”
“You just need to learn invisibility magic that you can cast on other people right now.”
“…”
“…”
“Can’t we use that guy as Rock Drake bait?”
As his friends’ mood turned menacing, Lee Han reached out to stop them.
‘He’s certainly right in principle.’
Invisibility magic cast on oneself and invisibility magic cast on others weren’t that different in principle.
It’s just that the latter required a much more complicated and delicate process.
‘Let me try a few times.’
Lee Han decided to make the most of the time before the Rock Drake got close.
Having a lot of mana meant he could afford to waste some.
If he could get the hang of it, that would be great, and if he couldn’t, he planned to give up cleanly.
“Gainando.”
“…I’ve been feeling like I’m a test subject since earlier, but that’s just my imagination, right…?”
Gainando grumbled as he stood in front. Lee Han aimed his staff.
“Cloak, swallow my friend.”
‘As expected, it doesn’t work.’
He had concentrated properly and his movements were accurate, but the magic didn’t activate.
The mana moved in the air and collided and stagnated while forming the magical formula structure, resulting in failure.
It was because he wasn’t completely familiar with the concept of magic yet.
“Cloak, swallow me.”
Lee Han cast the magic on himself for reference.
Naturally it succeeded, and at that moment…
Gainando’s arm, who was nearby, disappeared.
“Ahhh my arm!!”
“It’s fine though?”
“Oh. You’re right?”
Gainando, who had been terrified because his arm became invisible, was relieved when his arm returned to normal.
When he stretched out his arm again, it became invisible again.
“Everyone look at this!”
Invisibility was spreading in a space of about 2-3 meters centered around Lee Han.
‘Amplification!’
At that moment, Lee Han realized what had happened.
Lee Han had cast another magic while activating the invisibility necklace given by the Spire Keeper.
Two magics of the same type influenced each other and were amplified.
‘This… I didn’t expect this. Was this what the Principal meant?’
It was natural for Lee Han to be surprised.
Originally, this kind of amplification wasn’t a common result.
-What happens when you cast a magic you’ve already cast again?
A question that any mage would inevitably have.
Casting strength enhancement magic again, or agility enhancement magic again, or invisibility magic again…
What happens in such cases?
The answer was ‘unknown’.
Since it was affected by so many variables like situation, location, magic, etc., proper prediction was impossible.
But to think such an amplification result would occur.
It was bewildering, but it was fortunate in the current situation.
‘Wait. Then why wasn’t the belt amplified together?’
The belt received from the Frisinga Order.
This belt was also a belt with invisibility magic cast on it.
But the reason it wasn’t amplified was…
‘The method is different!’
A moment of quiet realization struck through Lee Han’s mind.
Even if they appeared to be the same invisibility magic on the surface, there were differences in how invisibility was implemented.
If the Frisinga Order’s belt was magic that disrupted vision by surrounding the caster with camouflage that refracted light…
The Spire Keeper’s necklace or the Principal’s magic was closer to magic that caused confusion in the observer’s perception, making them unable to recognize it.
The latter had the same method, so they amplified each other.
‘So that’s why he told me to think more about it. He wanted to teach me this.’
Lee Han felt his mind clearing up.
Lee Han himself didn’t notice, but this was exactly the kind of thing a mage’s enlightenment was.
Gaining very minor insights about blocked magic and making progress.
In a way, it was natural that Lee Han didn’t notice.
He had rarely experienced blockages while learning magic so far.
Talent was both a reliable guide for mages and something that could intoxicate them at the same time.
If the Skeleton Principal had been nearby, he would have said ‘Yes, that’s exactly it. If you’ve gained enlightenment, with a grateful heart…’
“Lee Han! We need to move!”
“Sorry. I got distracted for a moment. Let’s move.”
Instead of gratefully thinking about how precious what he had just experienced was, Lee Han immediately went into action.
Enlightenment or whatever, only one thing was important.
‘I can now expand transparency magic to area range.’
Lee Han cast 【Gonadaltes’s Invisible Cloak】 magic to amplify the range once more.
How much should he cast to complete an appropriate range?
At first there was no control or anything, but after a few attempts he soon got the hang of it.
“Cloak, swallow me… Done. This should be enough. Let’s go!”
The established theory was that when you gained enlightenment, you should immerse yourself in it with a grateful heart.
The hard-earned enlightenment might disappear somewhere.
However, there were occasional exceptions.
A genius who had no blockages at all even when moving immediately after enlightenment, regardless of gratitude or immersion!
Lee Han put his friends in the invisibility range and ran.
If the Skeleton Principal had been nearby, he would have been unable to contain his irritation and personally added trials.
* * *
Even after shaking off the Rock Drake, the Blue Dragon Tower students couldn’t rest easily.
They found a new bookshelf, searched through books, then relied on the bookshelf to camouflage themselves.
“Isn’t it okay now?”
“What if it comes chasing again? We need to watch a little more.”
“I want to light a fire…”
To prepare proper rest, they needed to start with fire and put down various luggage.
But the friends who had just barely escaped couldn’t completely shake off the nightmare of the Rock Drake.
“Th, there!”
“?!”
When someone shouted in a hushed voice, everyone quickly turned their heads.
Fortunately, it wasn’t the Rock Drake.
“It’s not!!”
“I didn’t say it was a Rock Drake…! Look at that!”
The people who appeared were White Tiger Tower students. The group of four students was walking around looking around.
It was clear they hadn’t discovered them yet because the Blue Dragon Tower students had hidden themselves.
“What should we do, Wardanaz? Should we call out to them?”
“Is Durgyu there?”
“Durgyu? He’s not there.”
“Then there’s no choice. We subdue them.”
“…”
What was unavoidable about this?
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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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