Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 248

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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 248

“Why? Do you have something to tell Wardanaz?”

“No… no.”

Salko shook his head.

He had definitely heard the name Ogonin before, but it was probably just someone with the same name.

If it was that Ogonin, he would be teaching students at the magic tower by now.

There was no way such a person would waste time teaching a first-year student.

“By the way, about Master Baldoron…”

“Ah. Master Baldoron. I met him when I went out last time too, and he was truly wise.”

A Black Turtle Tower student who had met Baldoron with Lee Han when they went outside last time answered as he passed by.

“Indeed. How impressive.”

Seeing all his friends react this way, Salko had no choice but to believe it.

He must really be an amazing mage!

* * *

A barrier made with illusion magic was similar to a kind of lock.

Just as there were weak and loose locks as well as solid and sturdy ones, there were simple structured ones and complex structured ones.

A barrier cast by an excellent illusion mage was like having multiple complex and solid locks layered on top of each other.

For an intruder to break through this barrier, they had to understand the structure of each lock and know how to disable them all.

Inevitably, such disabling work was only possible when the attacking side had a higher level than the defending side.

Of course, Lee Han wasn’t at a higher level than the stellar mages of the magic school, but…

Bang!

‘I’m lucky.’

Lee Han had a method he learned from Baldoron.

The method of wielding massive amounts of mana to smash the lock itself!

Of course, some barriers were prepared to prevent being broken by force, but quite many barriers had poor defenses in this regard.

From the mages’ common sense, breaking barriers in such a crude way was truly an absurd method.

Why would an archmage with such massive mana reserves bother to break barriers in such a crude way?

They could just understand the structure and disable it!

It was natural not to prepare defenses against such crude disabling. In a way, that would be wasteful.

The barrier opened with the sound of fabric tearing.

Luckily, it was a barrier that Lee Han could break through.

Lee Han thanked Baldoron once again.

…Of course, Baldoron hadn’t taught him to go around disabling things so crudely!

‘The stairs are quite long though.’

The spiral staircase that appeared after disabling the barrier.

Even though he seemed to have climbed quite a bit, the end wasn’t visible.

At least the path wasn’t blocked and no particular obstacles appeared, so it seemed okay…

Clatter, clatter!

A door connected to a corridor at the end of the spiral staircase came into view.

Quite noisy sounds were leaking from the open door. Something seemed to be happening on the corridor side.

‘A magic experiment?’

Lee Han approached the door and looked over the corridor.

The sight of incomplete magic circles carved here and there, with materials rolling around disorderly throughout the corridor, was very familiar.

Whether mages or not, the appearance of students struggling with countless assignments was similar everywhere.

“Is anyone there?”

Lee Han called out carefully.

Regardless of what year students were around the corridor, it seemed better to speak first rather than just stepping in without saying anything.

Besides, the upperclassmen wouldn’t even be visible to Lee Han…

Crash bang clatter!

Before Lee Han finished speaking, material containers toppled over from all directions and wooden boxes rolled around.

And a piece of paper floated up into the air.

-How did you get here, junior?

* * *

First-year students and fourth-year students at the magic school weren’t fundamentally very different.

Of course, fourth-year students were more skilled at securing meals than first-year students, knew more about the magic school, and could use more magic…

But basically, there wasn’t much difference in that they had to do assignments when assignments were given and prepare for exams when exams were approaching.

Diret and Cohorti, who were among the rare dark magic majors among fourth-year students, were the same.

“There’s nothing good about wandering around during the relocation period, right?”

“Right. Normally that’s true. If only some cursed bastards hadn’t released an Ice Giant King in the corridor and wasted a whole week.”

“…”

Cohorti had nothing to say even with ten mouths.

The accident where another dimension overlapped in the upper corridor after a magic experiment with friends failed.

The first years might have spent a happy and miraculous time with the white snow that came in spring, but Cohorti and his friends were frantically trying to clean up the mess.

Even after the Ice Giant King returned, the aftereffects of the overlapped dimension didn’t disappear immediately, so they had to install various magic circles around the area for preparation, periodically check the situation and write reports…

And they had to do all this while preparing for assignments and final exams.

The professors might be kind and gentle to first-year students, but they were like blades to fourth-year students.

They would never forgive failing to submit assignments or failing exams because of experimental mistakes they caused themselves.

“That… that’s right. Whoever it was, they were really bad.”

“Yeah. Right. Whoever it was, I wish they were dead. Right?”

“Uh, uh-huh.”

“Shut up and finish the magic circle. Considering the time left, we’d have to work even if it was Great Demon week instead of relocation week.”

The assignment Diret and Cohorti were currently working on was a magic circle for controlling powerful beings from other dimensions.

Beings summoned from other dimensions were always looking for opportunities to stab their master in the back and escape from control.

Lower-level summoned creatures could be controlled with relatively simple methods, but the more powerful the summoned creature became, the higher their intelligence and stronger their will became.

Simple methods wouldn’t work to control such beings. High-difficulty magic had to be employed.

The magic circle the two were currently attempting was one of those methods.

If completed properly, it would have the effect of weakening the summoned being’s power and breaking their will, but…

“Did you finish drawing on the wall?”

“It’s done.”

“Check it.”

Cohorti rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a round bead. It was a bead contracted with a lower demon.

Obviously, they couldn’t summon a powerful summoned creature to an unverified magic circle, so they had to summon a weak monster first to test it.

Pop!

A demon popped out with smoke.

The demon that appeared seemed to suffer at first, but after some time passed, it looked around and tried to sneak away to a corner.

“The east is the life gate. We need to block it.”

“I’ll block it now!”

Cohorti ran hard to block it.

Hoping his friend would forget about the Ice Giant King.

“Did you block it?”

“I blocked it.”

“Check it.”

Cohorti summoned the demon again. The demon that appeared suffered a little at first like before, but after time passed, it immediately adapted and tried to escape.

“This time the north opened.”

“…”

Cohorti let out deep sighs.

This was how high-level magic circles always were.

Complete one part and another part would cause trouble, then fix that part and the previously fine area would create problems…

“Let’s modify it again.”

“Yeah… ugh.”

“?”

When Cohorti flinched, Diret frowned.

Anyone could see it was the reaction of someone who had something going on.

“…What is it. What’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“What do you mean nothing. You definitely just said ‘ugh.'”

“I said it’s nothing…”

“Do whatever you want. If you hide it and get caught, I’ll really cast a black plague curse on you.”

“…Actually, the intruder prevention barrier we set up down there broke…”

“Are you seriously kidding me right now?!”

‘Damn. I should have kept it hidden.’

Cohorti regretted it inwardly.

He should have held out to the end instead of giving in to Diret’s persuasion…

“You call that something to say now? Why did it break? I told you to set it up properly, didn’t I?”

“No… really… I did set it up… properly…”

“Then why did it break?”

“…I guess I made a mistake…”

Cohorti said while shrinking down.

The main building rearrangement period, when even non-existent shortcuts would appear.

During this period, upperclassmen had to be more careful.

What if new students wandered in while they were experimenting in the upper floors and got hurt?

-You’ve attended this magic school for years, so what exactly have you learned? Leaving juniors to get hurt in this magic school. Does it make sense for injuries to occur in this honorable school?

-It doesn’t make sen… No. I’m sorry.

Naturally, Diret and Cohorti had also set up measures to prevent underclassmen from setting foot on the newly connected shortcut.

They cast barrier magic and wrote phrases like ‘This path is protected by barriers, those without skill should turn back!’…

But Cohorti must have made a mistake when casting the barrier, as it suddenly broke.

“Hurry up and go set it again!”

“O-okay!”

Cohorti tried to rush down.

However, the customer arrived faster than that.

When a familiar-looking 1st year student climbed up the shortcut stairs and came out through the door, Diret and Cohorti were shocked.

* * *

“It said ‘Shortcut to the Upper Floors’ so… isn’t this right?”

-It is right, but.

Lee Han conversed naturally with the invisible Diret.

For a new student at the magic school, this wasn’t a particularly surprising sight.

-Wardanaz. I was really grateful last time.

When different handwriting appeared, Lee Han was puzzled but then realized.

“Ah. Are you perhaps the one who was there during the Frost Giant King incident?”

-Right. Wow. I’m really grate…

Diret couldn’t hold back and jabbed Cohorti’s back with his elbow.

“How impressive. You solved it with help from a junior and now you’re bragging about it?”

“Cough. Cough! Diret, right now, a junior is watching, so violence is…”

“He can’t see us anyway!”

Diret used magic to engage in fisticuffs.

Lee Han tilted his head when the seniors suddenly disappeared in the middle of their conversation.

“Are you there?”

-Just dropped the quill for a moment.

‘Something’s suspicious.’

Lee Han thought so but didn’t bother to pry further. The seniors probably had their own circumstances.

-How did you come up? Wasn’t there a barrier?

“Ah. I tried to dispel it… I was lucky.”

“…”

“…”

Diret looked at Cohorti as if dumbfounded. Cohorti’s face turned bright red as he hung his head.

‘Dispelled by a 1st year…?’

If this rumor spread to other friends, Cohorti’s nickname would definitely become 【One Who Lost to Ironhead】 or 【Below Ironhead】.

‘That’s not what’s important right now.’

Diret decided to ask how he dispelled it when he had the chance later, and asked about the important thing.

-Why the upper floors?

“I’m looking for the Spire Stables you mentioned before.”

Diret was speechless.

Of course, it was Diret who had told him that fact, but he never thought a 1st year student would seriously try to forge a path all the way to the upper floor spire.

…Is he really a 1st year??

-…Since I told you, I can’t really say anything. The Spire Stables are close from here. Walk straight along the corridor, then turn to the side and go up the stairs, and you’ll be right there.

“Really?!”

Lee Han was overjoyed as if he could jump.

Who would have thought such luck would come thanks to rearrangement week.

‘Right. I’ve had bad luck continuously, so it’s about time for some good luck!’

Considering what happened during weekdays and weekends so far, it wouldn’t be strange if a shower of gold coins poured down while walking.

There had been too much misfortune.

-Wait. But you can’t pass through here right now. We’re in the middle of an experiment.

Diret drew an arrow on the paper.

At the end of the corridor with complex magic circles drawn on it, there was a crystal prison.

And inside it was a large demon that was clearly very angry.

-We can’t remove that until the experiment is finished.

Diret briefly explained what kind of experiment they were conducting. Lee Han nodded and listened.

“Do I need to subdue that demon?”

-That’s right.

“Does that cage allow magic to pass from outside to inside?”

-It does, but why?

“Flash forth!”

Lee Han struck the unknown demon trapped in the crystal with a bolt of lightning.

The demon screamed in pain.

-Junior. I appreciate you trying to help, but demons don’t submit just from being beaten.

“I see… I’m sorry.”

‘Huh?’

Unlike Diret who was watching Lee Han while talking, Cohorti beside him could clearly see the demon trapped in the crystal prison.

Didn’t the demon just avert its gaze?

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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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