Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 243

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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 243

“I saw wrong… no.”

Giselle’s voice trembled.

Surprisingly, the Kurale Lizards were coming this way.

‘Why?’

Kurale Lizards were intelligent monsters.

They would target paralyzed prey and slow-moving ones, not chase after threatening mages for no reason.

Why…

-■■■! ■■■■!

-■■■■■!

The lizards made even sharper sounds than before and shot out paralysis poison.

Splat! Splash!

Anyone could see they were properly enraged and venomous.

“Persistent bastards… Bones, projectile! Projectile! Projectile!”

Bone fragments poured down like a downpour, scraping the ground and tearing through the thicket.

The lizards dodged frantically.

And howled even more.

-■■■■■!!

“Ah.”

Lee Han realized why the Kurale Lizards were chasing the two of them instead of leaving the weak ones alone.

Giselle realized it too.

“…They’re chasing us just because we hit them a bit.”

“Exactly.”

Lee Han immediately agreed.

Giselle was about to curse for a moment but held back. There was nothing good about fighting with an ally.

“Wardanaz… Moradi…!”

“For our sake…!”

The White Tiger Tower students retreating on a different path shouted with choked voices.

They clearly misunderstood that Lee Han and Giselle had sacrificed themselves for them.

“Those damn stupid bastards really…”

“What?”

“She says don’t mind us and retreat!”

Lee Han also wanted to hit them once but held back.

Since it had come to this, he thought he might as well take credit later.

Thud!

One lizard couldn’t contain its anger and attempted a charge. The lizard that collided with the rapidly flying shield howled.

Pop pop pop pop pop!

Lee Han mercilessly punished it. The lizard that received the bone fragment baptism couldn’t come to its senses and fled to the side.

‘This is bad.’

This charge was blocked, but the monsters’ patience running out wasn’t a good sign.

If the continuously increasing lizards all rushed at once, even Lee Han would have trouble stopping them.

Even if they all fell and only one succeeded in charging, it would be their loss…

Giselle seemed to be thinking the same thing as she drew her twin swords and shouted roughly.

“Wardanaz. I’ll buy time! When will your mana recovery be done!?”

It seemed Giselle was mistaken that Lee Han was temporarily out of mana.

Otherwise, there would be no reason for Lee Han, who had been beating up White Tiger Tower students just fine until now, to only use dark magic.

“It’s not a mana problem!”

“What?”

“I said it’s not a mana problem. I stayed up all night so precise control is difficult.”

“…This crazy… Ugh!”

Giselle strongly stabbed the mouth of a charging lizard and stepped back.

“Are you calling that an excuse?! Why did you stay up all night?!”

Mountain climbing was something that caused massive stamina consumption.

She couldn’t understand why he would stay up all night before that.

Wardanaz wasn’t even a White Tiger Tower student…

“I had too many assignments.”

“…”

Giselle was momentarily speechless.

It was truly an unimaginable answer that she couldn’t refute at all.

-Come to the riverside.

“?!”

Both were startled by the suddenly heard weighty voice.

-Come to the riverside. Those lizards hate the stream water here, so they won’t chase you.

They couldn’t tell who was speaking to them, but Lee Han and Giselle immediately turned direction toward the riverside.

They thought there was nothing more to lose in the current situation.

-■■■… ■■■…

With splashing sounds, as they submerged up to their waists in the river water, surprisingly the chasing lizards stopped, only glaring resentfully.

Giselle spoke as if she couldn’t believe it.

“Do you see that? Why are those lizards acting like that? Wardanaz? …Wardanaz!”

Giselle’s eyes widened as she saw Lee Han collapsing forward.

‘Paralysis poison?!’

They definitely hadn’t been hit by the lizards’ attacks, so why?

-He collapsed from exhaustion.

“…Excuse me?”

-I said he collapsed from exhaustion. Are you new students? Usually new students don’t study until they collapse from exhaustion. How curious.

“…”

* * *

When Lee Han opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a shield floating in the air.

‘Where is this?’

Seeing that he was lying on soft animal fur, it was clear he was inside some cabin rather than on the road.

When he turned his gaze, Moradi was sitting on a chair. Lee Han put his hand in his coat pocket and checked his belongings first.

‘Hmm. They didn’t take anything.’

-Are you worried you might have lost something? You haven’t lost anything.

“!”

Lee Han was startled by the voice coming from above and looked up.

An unfamiliar giant was sitting at the cave entrance, facing Moradi.

Moradi had both hands’ fingers placed on her temples, staring intently at the table. She was so concentrated that she didn’t seem to notice Lee Han had gotten up.

‘What’s the situation?’

Since the giant didn’t seem hostile, Lee Han got up and approached.

Surprisingly, what was placed between the two was a chess board.

‘It’s an endgame.’

Lee Han looked at the pieces and arrangement on the board and realized the game was in its late stage.

And Moradi was in an unfavorable situation.

-Why don’t you give up soon? No amount of thinking will change anything. In the opening, you can recover in the middlegame even if you make mistakes. In the middlegame, you can make up for mistakes in the endgame. But in the endgame, there’s nothing after that.

‘Hmm. I don’t know about other things, but he has a talent for making opponents feel bad when playing chess.’

Whether it got through properly, Giselle bit her lips hard enough to draw blood.

After thinking for a long while more, Giselle laid the white king on its side. It meant she had lost.

“…lost.”

-Don’t feel too bad about it. There aren’t only stupid giants in this world.

The giant spoke in a gentle voice.

Of course, it wasn’t comforting to Giselle at all. Lee Han could understand the other person’s feelings.

A mage losing at chess to a giant known for being stupid.

Maybe this is how it would feel to lose at chess to Gainando?

“Um… if it’s not rude, may I ask your name?”

-That’s not difficult.

The giant told them how long he had lived in this area, and that he occasionally enjoyed small conversations or bets when he met magic school students or professors.

“Well, but…”

-Are you curious about the source of my un-giant-like intelligence?

“I apologize if it was a rude question.”

-No. You can be curious. But I don’t think I can give you a satisfying explanation. Think of it this way. Aren’t there particularly stupid people among humans too?

The giant was certainly logical. Lee Han found it hard to argue.

“I understand.”

-Good. Thank you for understanding.

“…But why chess?”

Hearing the question, the giant shrugged his shoulders.

-I told you I like betting.

“Betting in this situation?”

Lee Han was shocked at Moradi’s greed.

How greedy must one be…

Giselle shouted irritably.

“You collapsed and played it, you bastard!”

According to the giant, he would talk to passersby but wouldn’t force bets on them.

But if debt or favor was involved, the story changed.

Since they brought the collapsed Lee Han to the giant’s cave and nursed him, the mages should give appropriate compensation according to the giant’s logic.

“What kind of compensation?”

-There are several options.

The giant tapped the wall. There were lists written in crooked handwriting.

-Tasks for mages who lost bets

1. Cave basement deep cleaning (must throw away all expired potions and attach new labels)

2. Library organization (something seems to be hiding among the books)

3…

-If you choose one of these and do it, there will be no remaining debt between us.

Lee Han looked over the list again.

At first glance, it didn’t seem like it would take long, but Lee Han knew well how terrible schemes were hidden in the simple ‘to-do lists’ that professors presented.

‘The basement might be larger than the cave. Same goes for the library.’

-If you don’t like this, you can compete with me in a bet.

“A bet… would something like a mana contest work?”

Lee Han asked casually.

Then the giant smiled and shook his head.

-Bets should be fair to both sides. What fun would there be in a bet that’s only advantageous to me? Similarly, I don’t accept bets based on strength either.

“No… that’s fine though…”

-If you have a bet you want, suggest it. If it’s fair, I’ll accept it.

‘A mana contest would be good.’

Lee Han clicked his tongue.

The giant’s unnecessary consideration made things troublesome.

‘Now I understand why Moradi chose chess.’

The giant was more formidable than expected.

Having lived much longer than the students, he would have more experience and knowledge, and judging by the wisdom he occasionally showed, he might be superior in intelligence as well.

Lee Han looked at the chess board once more.

At least in the current situation, chess was the only thing where he could gauge the giant’s skill.

The problem was that he wasn’t confident in chess.

Lee Han had never once thought he was excellent at chess.

He had beaten a few opponents since entering magic school, but that was only because his opponents played poorly.

His record when playing against professors in the past was terrible too…

“May we discuss this for a moment?”

-Go ahead.

“Moradi. Moradi.”

“What.”

“Why did you move the rook here? You could have just kept it fixed on the third rank and moved only the king to avoid check for a draw.”

“…”

Sometimes correct criticism was more annoying than wrong criticism.

That was exactly how Lee Han was being right now.

“Why did you move it?”

“Shut up. Please.”

“Was it a mistake? I see. What opening did that giant use?”

-Are you thinking of challenging with chess again? Not bad. But you’d better think carefully. You might regret it.

“Would you play with one or two pieces removed for fairness?”

-We don’t know each other’s skill, so that’s not possible. But I’ll allow you to get advice from your friend.

The giant sat in a relaxed posture and waited.

With the leisurely attitude that only a master could show, Lee Han suddenly felt nervous.

‘Damn. From what I hear, he has quite an aggressive style. Can I manage a draw?’

What Lee Han was basically aiming for was a draw.

It would be nice to win if luck followed, but if not, he’d aim for a draw and move to the next bet.

‘With the skill level I heard from Moradi, I should be able to do that much.’

The problem was if the opponent was hiding his skill.

Lee Han prayed that the opponent had the expected level of skill.

* * *

30 minutes later.

Lee Han was shocked.

“…No…”

-Grrrr…

“…It seems to be over.”

-Wait. Just give me 5 minutes.

“No. It’s over. If you move here, the knight blocks it, and if you move there, the pawn blocks it.”

-…Wait. Still, just 5 minutes.

“…”

The giant’s chess skill was more than expected…

…very weak.

When Lee Han firmly blocked and held his ground, the giant tried to force attacks and pathetically self-destructed.

Lee Han looked at Giselle.

‘Moradi was just bad at playing.’

‘Why do I feel unpleasant somehow…?’

-I lost. I lost.

The Giant laid King down and acknowledged it.

Lee Han let out a sigh of relief and asked.

“Then can we go now?”

-No.

“?”

-I just repaid this friend’s defeat. There’s still the debt of gratitude for saving him.

“…Have you perhaps ever worked as a professor at a magic school?”

At The Other Person’s shamelessness, a question unconsciously slipped out of Lee Han’s mouth.

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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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