Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 323
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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 323
“Wait a sec…”
Before Diret could even call out, Lee Han threw a punch at the jaw of the adventurer who had just spouted nonsense.
“Gack!”
“Try spouting that again.”
Lee Han drew Dawn Star with its sheath and without stopping, struck another adventurer in the solar plexus. The adventurer who took the hit properly foamed at the mouth and collapsed forward.
“You crazy bas…”
“I said try spouting that again?”
Thwack! Thwack thwack thwack!
As the adventurers fell, Lee Han beat them down like he would White Tiger Tower students.
Then the reaction came immediately.
“We… we were wrong…!”
“What did you do wrong?”
“Well, that…”
“You haven’t been beaten enough.”
Lee Han swung his sword again. The adventurers screamed and curled up their bodies.
Passersby just watched with interest, expressions saying ‘another fight broke out,’ but no one interfered.
Thanks to that, only Lee Han could comfortably beat them down.
“Kheuk… the dark mages said we were grave robbers…”
“Still not enough.”
“What? What do you… Kheuk!”
“Think about it. People who creatively frame others for stealing corpses, why can’t they apologize creatively?”
Getting beaten tends to create intelligence where there was none.
The adventurers finally realized.
“The great dark mages…?”
“More.”
“We’re sorry for framing the great dark mages who protect the city with accusations like grave robbing…!”
“Right. They’re already having a hard time protecting the city, so how could you frame them with such accusations?”
“We were wrong…”
The beaten adventurers answered while staggering.
“Keep in mind that words have that much power. Since you’ve reflected, I’ll forgive you.”
“Thank you!”
The adventurers cursed the crazy dark mages inwardly.
They would never go near the cemetery again.
‘How underhanded to hide a knight…’
“Follow me.”
“What?”
“I said follow me. Since you’ve reflected, you should help with work.”
“…”
The adventurers were flustered by this logic they’d never heard before, but Lee Han kindly persuaded them again.
When he pointed the sword he was holding, the adventurers shouted simultaneously.
“Please let us help!”
“I thought so.”
Diret, who had been watching from below, asked in bewilderment.
“…Does anyone know what he’s doing right now?”
* * *
“I see. In places where mana flow is strong, you release the stagnant mana by changing the terrain.”
The explanation resumed.
Lee Han nodded after hearing Diret’s explanation.
If mana gathered abnormally in one location, the possibility of strange phenomena occurring would also increase accordingly, so they had to first find such places and somehow disperse the mana.
“Now. Dig out that soil and bring new soil to mix with it.”
“…”
“…”
The adventurers silently picked up shovels and dug soil. Lee Han watched contentedly and encouraged them.
“You’re doing well. When you finish that work, let’s proceed under the wall over there too.”
“Everyone’s working well!”
“Gainando. Don’t just stand around either.”
“I’m not confident since I don’t use earth magic.”
“Then you’ll have to scoop with your hands. Here.”
“…”
Diret thought about this strange sight.
‘This is quite different from what I expected…’
He had imagined a heartwarming scene where seniors taught and juniors learned while working together to prevent accidents, not this scene that looked like prisoners laboring.
Though the progress was fast…!
“Lee Han. Is this really a place where a lot of mana has gathered?”
“You found it well. It’s correct that this place has more mana gathered than other places.”
“Wa, Wardanaz. What about here?”
“Wait… I don’t think we need to bother with this place. Compared to other places, it’s not that much, and the mana flow seems fluid, so there’s a high possibility it will go down again.”
But excluding the part about catching passing adventurers and forcing them to work, Lee Han was definitely an excellent junior.
With mana detection abilities overwhelmingly superior to others, plus a brain that efficiently carried out work.
The way he wrote logs on paper while organizing places where mana might accumulate looked like a dark mage who had worked for several years to anyone watching.
‘At this rate, there’s nothing for me to teach…?’
“Senior.”
‘Still, as a senior I should teach something. What should I teach. What useful dark magic is there.’
“?”
Lee Han was puzzled when Diret was lost in thought alone.
What is he thinking about?
“Is there some problem?”
“Huh? When did you get here?”
“I’ve been in front of you since just now… I came to ask what we should do if discovery is too late and we can’t disperse the mana.”
“Oh no… I should have explained that.”
Diret felt sorry.
His junior handled work so well that he had forgotten.
“In such cases, we have to use somewhat rough methods. Using holy water or sacred objects blessed by the temple is one way…”
Objects blessed by the Order were incompatible with negative energy-type mana. When the two clashed, the collision could disperse the accumulated mana.
“Or we could solve it with magic, but that’s a rather difficult method. Junior. Do you know how to use darkness element by any chance?”
Even as Diret asked, he naturally thought Lee Han wouldn’t have learned it yet.
The scope of dark magic being covered in the 1st year alone was already quite broad.
When keeping up with those areas was already overwhelming, how could one learn high-difficulty elemental magic like darkness element?
“I can use basic level only. Perfect control would be difficult though…”
“Right. Of course… of course what???”
Diret was about to casually pass it over when he was shocked.
Has Professor Mortum gone crazy??
“Did Professor Mortum teach you? Why? When??”
“Ah. Professor Mortum didn’t teach me… Another professor taught me saying it was necessary.”
‘What kind of crazy person is that?’
Diret cursed the professor who taught Lee Han darkness element.
No matter how necessary it was, did it make any sense to teach dark elements to a first-year student?
“Th… that’s right. I see.”
“As I mentioned, perfect control would be impossible, so I don’t think you should expect much.”
“I wasn’t expecting anything! What kind of crazy senior would expect a first-year junior to use dark elements!”
Diret shouted as if he was dumbfounded.
Then he recalled the events from the first semester.
Starting from the Frost Giant King all the way to the final exam assignments.
He was the very image of a shameless fourth-year student dragging a first-year into his own affairs.
“…No. I can’t say anything if you think that way, junior.”
“??”
“Dark elements… of course perfect control would be impossible. Even I can’t control them.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s how high the difficulty level is for that element. It’s completely different from something like fire elements.”
“I can’t perfectly control fire elements either though.”
“…Really?”
Diret was flustered.
Honestly, he was surprised that Lee Han couldn’t control easy elements like fire.
“Everyone has different elemental aptitudes, so don’t worry too much about it, junior. What elemental magic do you mainly use?”
“Well, water and…”
“See? That’s why. You might not be compatible with fire elements, junior.”
“Lightning and ice?”
“…”
Diret stared at Lee Han as if he was absurd.
Was he joking right now?
* * *
After a longer conversation than expected, Diret was able to understand.
“Ah. Because of mana… Right. That would explain it, junior.”
The Frost Giant King, and the final exam assignment requiring demon suppression.
If what Lee Han had just explained was true, it made some sense.
Of course, deep in his heart remained the thought ‘But just how much mana would you need to make that possible?’
“Wait a minute, junior. You said you can handle lightning and ice elements, right? With that much mana, the already difficult advanced elements should be even harder?”
“Ah. That’s true.”
“…That’s it?”
“They just matched well from the beginning… I can only say I was lucky.”
“…”
For the first time, Diret wanted to hit his junior.
This is why those genius types…!
In short, wasn’t he saying that despite having abundant mana, he was born with enough talent to control lightning or ice elements even accounting for that?
It was truly an infuriating thing to say.
Moreover, those two elements were difficult to manifest even before control. Being able to manifest either one would earn recognition for having talent in elemental magic, yet he could easily manifest both.
“Lightning and ice elements seem sufficient enough.”
“But I can’t control fire or darkness well.”
“Junior… know when to stop wanting things. You can’t have everything. Those two elements have properties that expand outward, so that would be even more the case. Anyway, dark elements… if you know how to handle them, they’re convenient for this kind of work. Though they are difficult.”
Diret paused his words and then swung his staff.
Then pitch-black darkness began to envelop Diret’s staff and transformed into the shape of a spear.
“Do you see? It’s tiring so answer quickly, junior.”
“I can see it.”
In that state, Diret poked with the spear tip. The weeds located where he stabbed lost their vitality and died.
“By the way, this isn’t perfect control. I just roughly shaped it. Look at the tip.”
As Diret said, the spear’s outer appearance was rough and wavering.
“It would be nice to have perfect control, but it’s not unusable before that. You give up on perfect control and just utilize the element’s properties. Even if you’re not a master of fire magic, everyone knows how to use torches. In the end, it’s about technique.”
“I see…”
“Let’s try it once, junior. The simplest… right. A sphere form would be good. Try shooting it as a sphere.”
Lee Han summoned dark elements as Diret instructed.
And gathered them into a sphere form like other elements.
Pop!
Then like compressed flames exploding, the dark elements scattered in all directions.
“Darkness, gather at this end!”
Diret was startled and swung his staff to control the dark elements.
“Why did it explode!?”
“It seems… because I have too much mana.”
“…I made a mistake, junior. I thought based on my own standards.”
Diret frowned as if he had a headache.
Unlike himself, rough control didn’t work for this junior.
Unless he controlled with several times stronger force than other mages, the elements would run wild due to that tremendous mana.
“I’m fine. It’s not your fault, senior.”
“Wait a moment. Still, I’m your senior. Since I brought it up, I should at least give some advice.”
Diret drew out all his knowledge about dark elements and fell into thought.
What kind of advice should he give to help such a junior?
‘Should I look for a form that’s easier to control? No, it wouldn’t make much difference. If he uses it by completely giving up control and just summoning it… that won’t work. Fire is already dangerous, but darkness would be even more so. It would scatter in all directions, and if it scatters wrong, it would be like stabbing himself. Should I apply other magic? Come to think of it, he’s probably taking enchantment magic too. Using enchantment magic might be safer. But enchantment magic wouldn’t be easy either… What else was there among other school magics?’
“Senior! Senior!”
“?”
At Lee Han’s call, Diret looked up.
A sphere made of dark elements was spinning round and round while maintaining its form above the staff.
“Thanks to your advice, I succeeded!”
“…Junior. Do you really think that was thanks to my advice??”
Seeing how he had lightly overcome the obstacle in that brief moment while he was pondering if there were other methods left him speechless.
What on earth was that…
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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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