Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 379
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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 379
‘Just worthless trash.’
When no follow-up attack came, the King of Ghouls lost interest in the masked mage.
Ogoldos and Lee Han posed no particular threat to the King of Ghouls right now. There were far more enemies in this place that needed to be dealt with first.
Let’s see how much value they have.
Dodging the attack of a charging Warrior Monk, the King of Ghouls expanded his body like black mist.
And that mist enveloped the Warrior Monk. Along with crushing sounds, a horrific feast unfolded.
‘He’s recovered quite a bit more than expected.’
While the Warrior Monk was being devoured, the Undead Mage thought calmly.
He didn’t regret drawing his blade against the King of Ghouls.
It was the law of the Undead Realm that if you didn’t strike when your opponent was weakened, the opportunity would never come again.
However, the King of Ghouls had recovered well in that short time.
He must have devoured the minions around the palace and absorbed the accumulated mana to recover quite a lot of his strength.
It would have been better if we had come sooner…
Regardless of his regret, the Undead Mage’s incantations flowed gracefully. Poison mist began bursting forth continuously, filling the space.
Do you think scattering poison will make any difference?
The King of Ghouls snorted and grabbed another Warrior Monk to devour.
The King of Ghouls, who had started as a ghoul and reached his current existence through countless battles and victories, possessed various powers befitting that achievement.
The power of mist transformation that allowed him to dissolve and move his own flesh, the power of absorption that could directly drain an opponent’s existence, the power of summoning that could call forth contracted undead…
Despite being unable to use most of his powers due to not being fully recovered, the King of Ghouls was displaying lethal combat prowess with just his remaining strength.
Crack!
Another Warrior Monk melted away. The King of Ghouls, who had been circling and keeping his distance, had rushed in to exploit an opening and sunk his fangs in.
Even those formidable Warrior Monks were toyed with like scarecrows when directly facing the King of Ghouls.
However, the Undead Mage remained calm.
It didn’t matter that his opponent had recovered faster than expected. The mage had assumed from the beginning that the King of Ghouls possessed greater combat power than them.
What made mages fearsome was their ability to create secret strategies that exploited situational weaknesses, regardless of combat strength.
The Undead Mage had been preparing magic to strike down the King of Ghouls even while serving under him in submission.
“Is this really okay?”
Lee Han spoke in a panicked voice as he watched the King of Ghouls roaming the hall and tearing apart Warrior Monks.
Troublingly, he was in a much stronger state than when they had met him before.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to retreat?’
-Don’t worry. I’ve been preparing a way to strike down the king ever since I served as his subordinate.
‘…Then you shouldn’t have said you were loyal…’
When he had asked earlier, the mage had claimed loyalty, but now he was saying he’d been preparing from the start – it was absurd.
The common sense of the Undead Dimension was too difficult for Lee Han to understand.
“What is that method?”
-You’ll see when you see it. Buy as much time as possible.
With those words, the Undead Mage grabbed a Warrior Monk and began absorbing mana.
He was lacking the mana needed for the magic.
“Um, if you need mana, would you like to absorb some from me?”
-Wouldn’t it be better to absorb from those Warrior Monk bastards? Those guys are…
The Undead Mage, who had casually extended his bony hand to grab Lee Han, was startled.
The mana that had been depleted from casting magic was instantly replenished.
“How is it?”
-Excellent! When I signal, come running again to replenish my mana! With this, I can complete it much faster!
‘Did I speak up for nothing?’
* * *
The King of Ghouls had defeated more than half the Warrior Monks and let out a satisfied roar.
Then the Undead Mage standing in the corner particularly caught his eye.
Hmm!
If it had been the King of Ghouls’ usual personality, he would have swept away all the Warrior Monks first before dealing with the mage.
These Warrior Monks were the strongest among the prisoners in the underground prison.
And the Undead Mage hadn’t been able to deal any significant damage to the King of Ghouls.
Though he was a powerful poison elemental mage, he had poor compatibility with the King of Ghouls, and with just his natural elemental resistance and powerful movement abilities, the King of Ghouls could neutralize the Undead Mage.
Rather, from the King of Ghouls’ perspective, the one pestering him with low-level elemental magic from the side was more annoying.
Though the magic level was low, his movements were unpredictably fast and precise, and his firepower was strangely powerful.
Normally, he would have saved such an insufficiently capable yet impudent climber for last, to instill fear before dealing with him…
But strangely, he was bothered by him.
Though the King of Ghouls himself didn’t realize it, the recent defeat he had suffered had changed his arrogant personality.
His thinking had changed.
-!
The Undead Mage was startled.
The preparations weren’t finished yet, but the King of Ghouls had begun moving to target the mage.
-What the… Block him!
The remaining Warrior Monks shouted and blocked his path. The King of Ghouls lightly transformed his body into black mist to pass through the Warrior Monks.
“Cold air, like mist!”
Bright blue ice mist spread through the air.
Someone at the King of Ghouls’ level could tell what level magic was just by looking at its structure.
What had just been cast was 【Lower Cold Mist】.
It was a yawn-inducing low circle magic. The King of Ghouls tried to ignore it and break through.
But at that moment, a chilling cold flowed from the mist.
!
The King of Ghouls quickly twisted his body to avoid the mist. In the meantime, the Undead Mage launched another poison cloud and increased the distance.
-I don’t know why that fake king is acting like this!
“Has the plan gone wrong!?”
Lee Han also increased the distance while shouting. The Undead Mage spoke as if he couldn’t understand.
-With his usual personality, he wouldn’t have attacked me first out of pride. He would have thought that itself was beneath his dignity. So I thought it would be fine, but why is he like this… Has his personality changed because of the defeat he suffered?
“…”
Lee Han cursed his past self.
No matter how much he liked silver coins, wasn’t this the result of recklessly entering caves!
How long do you plan to keep running? Huh? If you’re going to challenge me for the throne, shouldn’t you at least swing something! If you keep running away like that…
The King of Ghouls expanded his body to blow away the poison cloud and was about to chase the Undead Mage again when he hesitated.
He felt something was off.
…Wait.
The King of Ghouls turned his gaze to the floor.
Without him noticing, a magic circle with strange patterns was densely filling the floor of the hall.
This bastard…
The king’s eyes flashing in the mist glowed with murderous intent.
He belatedly realized that the Undead Mage, who had been acting pathetically, was actually preparing grand magic.
-Things have gotten complicated. He wasn’t this perceptive before. I apologize in advance.
“…It’s fine.”
Normally Lee Han should have been angry at the Undead Mage, saying ‘I’m going to die because of you!’ but he didn’t.
He bore some responsibility too!
Do you think you can die peacefully after this? I’ll grind you to pieces.
-Undead, return to your original place!
Though incomplete, the Undead Mage had no choice but to activate the magic circle.
Surprisingly, divine power surged from the magic circle. It was divine magic used by the Order.
-Sacred judgment shall bind and banish you!
Both Lee Han and the King of Ghouls were shocked.
Of course, for a being weaker than the king to stab the king would require extraordinary methods, but who would have thought that an undead mage would come wielding divine magic.
Sacred radiance began to swirl around the place where dark conflict between undead had just occurred moments before.
‘How can an undead!?’
Lee Han was astonished.
Even if it borrowed the power of a magic circle, for an undead to manifest divine magic.
This was no ordinary obsession.
Along with a flood of light, the King of Ghouls began screaming as if burning. The other warrior monks couldn’t even move and collapsed.
The undead mage also seemed to have taken damage, kneeling and staggering. If not for the magical barrier cast beforehand, it would have been destroyed long ago.
How… dare!
-!
The undead mage cast a look of shock. The King of Ghouls charged straight out and slammed the undead mage into the wall.
-You shouldn’t be able to move…
I knew about your petty tricks from the beginning.
The King of Ghouls revealed the armor embedded in its form as it spoke.
Thanks to this armor made by stitching together the flesh of heroes, it had been able to endure and charge through the flood of divine magic.
-False king. You’ve become quite wise. You weren’t this much before…
Shut up, you scheming rat.
The King of Ghouls quickly gathered power, intending to deal with the undead mage and dispel the magic covering the hall.
At that moment, Lee Han swung the Morning Star. As the black blade cut through the King of Ghouls, the king howled savagely at the feeling of its mana being absorbed.
What…!
Rather than anger at being dared to be struck, confusion came first. The King of Ghouls was perplexed, unable to identify its opponent.
Could it be…
Could it be??
“When will the magic be completed!”
-Impossible… now…
The undead mage’s voice had less strength than before.
It had suffered serious injuries from just one strike from the King of Ghouls.
-Instead… completion…
“How does that make sense!?”
-Contract… summoning…
The undead mage pointed alternately with its fingers as it spoke.
Originally, making a summoning contract with such a young mage from another dimension was something it would never do, but in an emergency situation like this, there was no choice.
“I understand!”
-My true name is… Verdus. Summon me now…
Even in this confusing situation, Lee Han almost lost his concentration for a moment.
What kind of name is that!
Faaaat-
As the incantation was recited and the contract was made, powerful mana was infused into the undead mage.
With that mana providing relief, the undead mage squeezed out the last of its magical power to complete the magic circle.
You bastard!
The King of Ghouls, having regained its senses, charged with the most vicious anger it had ever unleashed.
It had finally realized Lee Han’s identity.
The audacity was so beyond measure that it couldn’t be expressed with words like “presumptuous.”
Having luckily defeated it once, to chase it all the way here to bring it down.
Actually, this worked out well. Here…
When the undead mage blocked its path, the King of Ghouls consumed its very existence to strike it down in one blow.
As it was reverse summoned, the undead mage poisoned the King of Ghouls as a final act of defiance. And it thought to itself.
‘This is the first time I’ve seen it so enraged!’
The divine magic the undead mage had prepared had definitely rubbed the king the wrong way.
Satisfied with that fact, the undead mage collapsed.
* * *
Die…
The King of Ghouls didn’t care about the consumption of its existence or the poison and tried to kill Lee Han first.
That’s how deeply the grudge had penetrated to its bones.
Kwaaaaaaaa-
However, divine magic of a completely different dimension from before struck the King of Ghouls.
Under the pressure that made it impossible to move any further, the King of Ghouls fell to its knees.
Ogoldos unconsciously muttered.
“Did… did we get it?”
“Senior. Please stop saying things like that…”
Get it, my ass.
The King of Ghouls glared at Lee Han while kneeling.
Do you think you’ve won? Do you think this magic circle is some omnipotent sword or something? This magic circle can do nothing more than bind me at best! If I’m inside this, I’ll become weaker. But that’s all. How long do you think you can maintain this magic circle! You must already be getting out of breath.
“…Ah.”
Lee Han, who had been listening tensely to what the King of Ghouls was saying, let out a sigh of relief.
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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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