Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 270

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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 270

One student frantically tore off his cloak and shook it up and down to extinguish the fire that had caught on it.

However, there were more red feathers than expected. As the number of feathers increased like rain growing heavier, the students screamed.

“Take cover under the shade!”

“Which shade?! Hiding under a tree won’t solve this!”

Swoooosh!

Professor Alpen swung his staff and cast a huge barrier above the students’ heads.

The red feathers struck the barrier with sharp sounds.

“Th-thank you!”

“Phoenixes are mischievous creatures in many ways. Since they love to play pranks, it’s best to be careful.”

‘If it pranks twice, we’ll get burned.’

Lee Han suppressed his bewilderment and looked up.

Unaware of the situation below, the phoenix was shaking its body high in the distant sky, shedding feathers.

The students stared at each other, then threw the accessories they had made to commemorate the phoenix onto the ground.

“That’s why Wardanaz told us not to commemorate the phoenix and just study.”

“How could we have known this would happen!”

* * *

“Cough. A phoenix appeared? What bad luck.”

Professor Mortum clicked his tongue at the news that a phoenix had appeared.

The new students already had plenty to do, and now a phoenix had to show up too.

“It did set some fires, but nothing more than that. It was just staying still.”

Gainando seemed to like the phoenix and subtly made excuses for it.

‘Isn’t setting fires already a problem?’

“Cough. That may be true for now. But the temperaments of magical beasts are mostly eccentric. Even if it’s fine now, who knows when it might act on a whim?”

Lee Han had already witnessed the scene of fires starting just from the phoenix shedding its feathers a few times.

Naturally, he couldn’t help but worry.

“What do you think the phoenix might do?”

“Cough. You still don’t understand. Magical beasts are disasters just by existing. They’re like storms that don’t know how to control their own power. If it flies over and tries to embrace you, wouldn’t your whole body burst into flames?”

As Professor Mortum said, powerful magical beasts were beings that brought destruction and chaos wherever they went, regardless of their intentions.

Since they couldn’t control their own strong power, they couldn’t help but cause damage to their surroundings.

And if they acted on incomprehensible whims with their eccentric personalities…

“Cough. In comparison, how beautiful are the undead? This beauty of being well-controlled and predictable.”

“…”

“…”

Lee Han and his friends fell silent, at a loss for words.

‘Even if it’s a bit dangerous, a phoenix would be better than undead.’

‘Shh. The professor will get upset.’

“So, is the work going well?”

“Yes.”

The fields of dark magic that Lee Han and his friends had learned this semester were mainly curses, poison, and bones.

They were magic types that shared the common trait of being truly unpopular anywhere.

-Cough. I won’t give you a separate assignment before the final exam.

-Hooray! -Cough. Instead, I’ll substitute it with simple talisman creation.

-…

Talisman.

Originally, it was used by splitting an accessory in half and sharing it, then later matching the shapes to verify identity when meeting again…

But in dark magic, talismans were used with a somewhat different meaning.

-Watch carefully.

Professor Mortum split a bone plaque in half. Then, intense curse energy burst forth from one side.

Clack!

However, that curse energy disappeared instantly when the talisman was rejoined.

-One side contains the power of curses. The other side contains the power of dispelling. When combined, it’s an ordinary accessory, but the moment you split them, that power is revealed.

Curse magic was relatively easy in difficulty and fast in casting speed, but if the opponent was a skilled mage, there were too many ways to block it.

Poison magic was similar. It was lethal if properly inflicted, but since it was magical poison, it was difficult to poison skilled mages.

To compensate for such weaknesses, dark mages usually carried around stronger curses and stronger poisons they had prepared in advance.

If they used pre-prepared items, their power would naturally multiply several times.

In dark magic, talismans were items for safely storing such things.

The problem was…

“Cough. Hack. Cough.”

Raphadael coughed up tears, his eyes watering from the acrid smoke.

A lump of curse had leaked outside the magic circle and flew in through the air.

“Achoo. Achoo! Achoo!!”

“Ah. Sneeze more quietly! Are you using the workshop alone!”

When Gainando scolded him, Raphadael glared back in frustration, but Raphadael’s condition wasn’t good enough to argue back.

“This bastard… Achoo! Achoo!!”

“Those lacking in skill always get angrier. Isn’t that right, Lee Han?”

Gainando, who had been acting smug because he was still fine, suddenly changed expression.

“…L-Lee Han. My body… my body won’t move…”

“You’re poisoned.”

Lee Han spoke as if he felt sorry.

Raphadael was making a talisman containing curses, and Gainando was making one containing poison, but this was absolutely not easy work.

Since they had to soak and store highly concentrated curses and poisons in the talismans, even mages could easily fall victim if they weren’t careful.

Ymirg carefully submerged half of a bone medal into a bronze basin. With a bubbling sound, he felt the sensation of the curse in the basin transferring to the bone.

‘Ugh.’

Having giant blood, he had higher magic resistance than other students, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t afraid of poison or curses.

As long as he was human, he couldn’t help but fear poison or curses.

“Ugh… Ughhh.”

Ymirg shuddered as he pulled out the bone medal half with thick tongs, fearing that even the slightest contact with his body might transfer the curse.

Hiss!

Only after barely attaching the other half of the bone medal could Ymirg breathe a sigh of relief.

“…Aaaahhhhh!!”

“?!”

Lee Han looked at Ymirg in surprise.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Bare, bare hands! Bare hands!”

“Ah. I thought it was something else.”

Since his friend learning the same magic was so calm, Ymirg momentarily wondered if he had misunderstood something.

But looking again, that friend from the Wardanaz family was indeed plunging his hands into the bronze basin filled with curses.

“This much is fine.”

“…????”

“It’s okay. I won’t die.”

“N-no.”

Ymirg looked bewildered at Raphadael and Gainando, who were lying behind the table.

It looked like they could very well die…

Whether Ymirg was staring at him like he was a monster or not, Lee Han focused on his own work.

It wasn’t like Lee Han was working barehanded without gloves and tongs for no reason.

Talisman creation was more difficult than expected.

While bones were a good medium for harboring curses or poisons, they wouldn’t properly absorb them just by dipping them a few times and swirling them around.

To make a proper talisman, one had to put their heart and soul into it.

Combining various reagents to apply to the bone so it would better absorb the curse, soaking it in the curse and checking if the bone was properly absorbing it, and if not, using mana to force the curse into the bone…

This process of applying curses layer by layer like carefully adding coats of paint required persistent patience rather than brilliant inspiration.

‘And the more I do this, the more I understand why dark magic isn’t popular.’

Lee Han held the bone fragment with his bare hands and tried to feel the flow of the curse.

Using gloves or tongs made it difficult to sense such flows.

“Ughhh… Lee Han. Pass me that coat next to you.”

Gainando, who had barely managed to get up from the workshop floor, pointed to the coat next to the chair.

Having been lying down in a paralyzed state made him feel three times colder.

“Catch.”

“Thank… Ack, I can’t see! I can’t see in front of me!”

“Oops. Sorry about that.”

* * *

When the time came, Professor Mortum opened the workshop door and appeared again.

“Cough. Have you all finished?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Lee Han and his friends nodded and held out their talismans. Despite how little time had passed, the students’ faces had already become haggard.

“Let me see…”

Professor Mortum broke open Gainando’s talisman. A fairly decent poisonous aura burst out from inside.

When the professor flicked his finger, the poison that had spread from the talisman swirled around in a circular flow before entering back into the talisman.

“Cough. You made it quite well.”

“…Really!?”

Gainando was so surprised he nearly fell backward. He grabbed Raphadael’s arm to barely maintain his balance, and Raphadael glared at Gainando with disgust.

“Why are you so surprised?”

“Well, I’ve never heard anyone say I made something well in other lectures…”

Gainando said with an embarrassed face.

Having never received praise in other lectures, he was shocked by Professor Mortum’s compliment.

Professor Mortum then smiled with rare kindness.

“Cough. A mage cannot excel at all types of magic.”

“?”

“?”

Ymirg and Raphadael glanced at Lee Han. However, Professor Mortum didn’t notice and continued speaking.

“Your talent lies in dark magic. As long as a dark mage excels at dark magic, there’s no reason to envy other magic. Cough. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right!”

“Prince, you just don’t study at all.”

Raphadael said incredulously.

Since White Tiger Tower students with poor grades were forced to learn from Lee Han, Raphadael knew well how much Gainando hated studying.

While other White Tiger Tower students reluctantly sat down and moved their quills, Gainando alone had attempted to escape.

“Be quiet. Are you jealous?”

“This crazy bastard…”

Raphadael was dumbfounded by Gainando acting arrogant just because he made one talisman well.

“Cough. This is…”

Professor Mortum broke open Lee Han’s talisman.

After remaining silent for a while, he looked at Gainando. Gainando, sensing the situation, burst out emotionally.

“Professor. Please evaluate me objectively without comparing me to Lee Han!”

* * *

Professor Lightningstep looked up at the mountain peak with curiosity.

The phoenix that had been floating in the sky scattering feathers had apparently grown bored and flown to the peaks of the mountain range. Thanks to that, a red halo was shining behind the peak.

“How curious. A phoenix isn’t something you can see so easily.”

Lee Han glared at his friends. His friends avoided his gaze.

“You’re very lucky. A phoenix isn’t a creature you can meet even if you want to.”

‘There’s a logical flaw in that statement.’

Professor Lightningstep’s words were hard to accept easily.

By that logic, the Frost Giant King was also a being you couldn’t meet even if you wanted to, but Lee Han hadn’t particularly felt it was lucky.

No matter how rare it was, a magical beast that rained fire from the sky couldn’t be good.

“That’s enough talk about the phoenix, let’s start today’s lecture.”

Professor Lightningstep gestured toward the huge cauldrons. The students were puzzled by the cauldrons that looked like something from alchemy class.

What for?

“What we’re doing today isn’t very difficult. It’s much easier than what you usually do. I felt sorry seeing you all suffer because of final exams, so I decided to give you a change of pace…”

Lee Han absolutely wasn’t fooled.

‘What exactly are you planning to do.’

Thud!

“Come here. Cerberus.”

The students froze at the sight of the three-headed dog with its massive build.

The head in charge of Cerberus’s center looked around at the students and its eyes sparkled.

-Woof!

“Do we… do we have to defeat it?”

When Lee Han asked without thinking, Professor Lightningstep responded as if he was talking nonsense.

“Don’t make such ridiculous jokes. Would I assign something like that?”

“Right? Haha.”

Lee Han inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

I thought we’d have to fight it!

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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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