Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 321

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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 321

Lee Han looked at Gainando with confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah… no. You’re not angry because I snacked too much, are you?”

“No.”

Lee Han sighed and approached the window.

Then he shouted.

“It’s a professor!”

“See! I told you it’s a professor!”

Professor Verdus, with his face buried in the ground, struggled and shouted.

The knights under Alarlong asked in confusion.

“But young master. Why is the professor infiltrating secretly?”

‘I’m curious about that too.’

Lee Han thought so but held back and spoke diplomatically.

“There must have been some misunderstanding.”

“What kind of misunderstanding could possibly…?”

Lee Han pretended not to hear the knight’s question and ignored it. Then he asked a servant.

“Did he do this because you said I wasn’t here?”

Given Professor Verdus’s personality, it was quite possible.

Even if he heard Lee Han wasn’t at the manor, wouldn’t he be the type to break through and enter, then wait?

However, the servant’s answer was unexpected.

“Ah, no. He just snuck in without even asking and got caught.”

“…”

Lee Han briefly considered just sending Professor Verdus to the Granden City guards.

* * *

Professor Verdus, who had brushed off the dirt and sat down, gnawed on tree bark and said.

“So, are you ready to make artifacts?”

Even though the knights at the manor had caught him and buried his face in the ground, Professor Verdus didn’t care at all.

He only cared about artifact creation.

Lee Han played dumb.

“Artifact creation? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Huh? Didn’t we agree to do it together?”

“My memory is poor…”

If it had been the Skeleton Principal, he would have grabbed him by the collar saying ‘what kind of nonsense is this,’ but Professor Verdus was naive in this regard.

“Ah. Really? Last time you said you wanted to participate in artifact creation. You were incredibly passionate about it. It’s good that we can do it now.”

“…”

Lee Han was speechless at Professor Verdus blatantly lying right after he said his memory was poor.

What kind of person is this…

‘Ah.’

Lee Han finally remembered the Helm of Wisdom.

Come to think of it, there was no expert on artifacts like Professor Verdus.

“Professor. Please take a look at this artifact.”

“What is it?”

Professor Verdus, who received the Helm of Wisdom, looked it over and immediately answered.

“It’s a nasty artifact. It’s cursed.”

“As expected. Is there perhaps a way to lift the curse?”

“It seems difficult.”

There were two types of curses on artifacts.

One was when an evil curse was placed on a normal artifact.

In this case, if you lifted just the curse, you could use that artifact.

The other was an artifact created with an evil structure from the beginning.

In this case, lifting the curse was meaningless. The moment you lifted it, the artifact’s power would disappear too.

The Helm of Wisdom was a typical example of the latter.

“Ugh, artifacts usually have restrictions to prevent them from harming their owners, but this one doesn’t. If it wants something, it will put its owner in danger without hesitation.”

“I see. I thought there might be a way if it were you, Professor.”

Lee Han muttered without much thought.

Then Professor Verdus suddenly got angry and shouted.

“I didn’t say there was no way!”

“No… why are you angry?”

“Just wait and see!”

Professor Verdus put down the tree bark he was gnawing and began glaring at the helmet.

Lee Han was slightly flustered by the unexpected reaction. Gainando whispered from the side.

“Isn’t the professor too weak to provocation?”

“Hmm.”

If Gainando was saying such things, he was definitely too weak to provocation.

But Lee Han left Professor Verdus alone.

‘Maybe he’ll modify it into something useful?’

If that happened, Lee Han was thinking of selling it with a title like ‘The masterpiece of Einroguard’s greatest artifact craftsman Bibble Verdus.’

“There is a way.”

“What is it?”

“Remove its function of intentionally selecting and telling information.”

“?”

Lee Han wondered what Professor Verdus was talking about.

“But the ability to put its owner in danger would still remain, wouldn’t it?”

“You can just avoid that yourself.”

“…”

Whatever the Helm of Wisdom said, as long as it didn’t hide things, the listener could make calm judgments.

That was Professor Verdus’s argument.

‘Is that… is that right?’

Lee Han felt there was logic to Professor Verdus’s reasoning, but somehow didn’t want to acknowledge it.

But it was also true that it was better than not changing it.

“Hmm. Then let’s modify it. What do I need to do to change it?”

“Cast a few spells to disable it and change the incantations inside. If I start working now, it’ll be finished around sunrise.”

“What should I help you with?”

“You? There’s nothing for you to help with.”

Professor Verdus answered honestly.

These were spells Lee Han couldn’t do yet, and there was no opportunity to utilize his large mana capacity trait.

“I see. Then I’ll go to sleep now.”

“Yeah. Go sleep.”

Professor Verdus waved his hand, forgetting his original goal. Lee Han politely bowed and left the reception room.

“I should go to sleep. Everyone sleep well.”

“…Uh… is this okay?”

“It’s fine. It’s fine.”

The servant was flustered, but Lee Han exchanged farewells with his friends and went to his own room to sleep.

The servant was left alone, looking confused at Professor Verdus who was holding the helmet in the reception room.

Is this really okay…?

Is this really okay!?

* * *

Morning.

Professor Verdus struck the Helm of Wisdom and asked.

“Hey. Tell me your purpose.”

My purpose is to increase the wisdom within me, even if it means destroying my master…

“Perfect.”

It was truly an amazing achievement.

To fix the performance of an ego artifact in just one night.

It was magnificent craftsmanship that even skilled artifact artisans wouldn’t dare attempt.

Despite accomplishing such an amazing achievement, Professor Verdus showed no particular emotion. He yawned once and asked.

“Where’s Wardanaz? I need to make an artifact.”

“Um… Mr. Wardanaz went out with his friends 30 minutes ago. He said you seemed to be concentrating, so he wouldn’t disturb you.”

“…”

Professor Verdus frowned.

He wasn’t sure why, but he strangely felt like he’d been tricked.

* * *

“Are you really sure this is okay?”

“I just happened to go out early by coincidence.”

Lee Han answered that way.

If he had to work with Professor Verdus by force someday, it was better to postpone that time as much as possible.

Then at least until then, he could endure by using that excuse, couldn’t he?

Ratford glanced back worriedly with an anxious expression. He seemed concerned about Professor Verdus’s reaction.

“Let’s stay at Gainando’s house today.”

“Really?!”

Gainando’s eyes lit up.

Last time, other imperial family members who weren’t even close had come and interfered, but this time was different.

He could invite his friends and have a really proper time.

Gainando wiggled his fingers and touched the card deck in his pocket.

Just as Lee Han, the top student of their year, could easily recite the contents of magic books with his eyes closed, Gainando could also easily recite a list of fun activities with his eyes closed.

Mage card games, polo, pétanque, gambling, Ascension Magic Diagram…

‘I shouldn’t play chess since Lee Han is too strong.’

“Ratford. You brought them, right?”

“Yes.”

“Yoner. You said you have them too?”

“I always carry them around.”

“!!”

Gainando got even more excited at his friends’ conversation.

His friends had definitely brought mage cards with them.

“You brought them?!”

“Of course. We need something to do when we go to your house.”

Lee Han answered while taking out a book from his bag.

It was 【On Basic Dark Element Magic and Its Applications】.

“…”

Gainando’s face contorted with sadness and bewilderment.

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh… it’s nothing…”

“You brought books too, right? Gainando? Let’s study dark magic together.”

“I also plan to do some studying I’ve been putting off today.”

“It’s nice studying together like this.”

Watching Lee Han, Ratford, and Yoner chat warmly and laugh, Gainando cried inside.

‘Magic isn’t everything in life…!’

* * *

‘I can see why the dark element is difficult.’

Lee Han, who had rented a private room, closed his eyes and concentrated on the dark element.

The basics of elemental magic were feeling that element and clearly materializing it.

The dark element wasn’t that difficult in that regard. Actually, this was also a difficult part for other mages, but Lee Han had specific concepts in his mind that were different from other mages.

Just as these concepts had helped when handling the lightning element, the same was true for the dark element.

The problem came after that.

‘It’s similar to the fire element.’

The water element rarely hurt its master even if control failed, and the lightning element disappeared before growing even if control failed, but the dark element was different.

If control failed, it would hurt the master and wouldn’t disappear either.

These elements, like fire elements, if you made a mistake…

Whoooosh!

The private room that had been bright with light coming through the window suddenly became dark.

It wasn’t natural darkness. It was artificial darkness created by magic. Within it, negative energy writhed and a cold chill circulated somewhere.

Lee Han threw a leaf he had prepared.

Then the leaf’s vitality withered and it instantly turned into a dead leaf.

It was a characteristic unique to the dark element – depleting life force.

‘…If I’m not careful, I’ll collapse.’

For dark mages who handle the dark element, accidents of depleting their own life force and collapsing are like companions. This point must be most carefully watched first.

Of course, the power of the dark element first learned is extremely weak. You wouldn’t even get out of breath staying in such darkness for hours. So at first, you must start by strengthening the power of the dark element…

“?”

Lee Han looked at the leaf that had just died from touching the dark element.

Then he looked at the dark element strengthening section.

‘I can skip this part.’

…Thus, if the power of the dark element has been sufficiently strengthened, now the foundation of genuine elemental magic has been established. The key in operating dark element magic is that the mage must be able to control the characteristic of life force depletion. If they cannot do so, that mage would be wielding a sword that could cut themselves…

‘It would be nice if he always explained this thoroughly.’

Reading the unnecessarily detailed book, Lee Han summoned the dark element again.

In short, a mage who handles the dark element should be completely unaffected even when putting their hand into that element.

‘In the end, I need to be able to control the characteristics myself…’

What increases proportionally with mana is the power of magic.

And what increases along with it is the difficulty of control.

For Lee Han, who still couldn’t completely handle the fire element and wore various artifacts to control it, the dark element had an even higher difficulty.

But he couldn’t just eliminate the mana he had…

‘Until I can control it, I have no choice but to handle it in ember-sized portions like the fire element? Unlike the fire element, the dark element would be meaningless if I did that.’

“Lee Han! Lee Han!”

Gainando knocked on the private room door. Lee Han closed his book and answered.

“How many hours have you been studying?”

“…That’s not what’s important right now! A good job opportunity has come up! They say only dark mages can do it!”

‘…How could that be a good thing?’

Lee Han immediately felt suspicious.

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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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