Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 404

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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 404

No matter how you looked at it, he seemed angry, but Professor Lightningstep was different from Professor Thunderstep.

The experience of an adventurer who had traveled from one end of the Empire to the other, going through all kinds of hardships, was on a different level.

If you ask an angry person ‘You’re not really angry, are you?’, even anger that was about to subside tends to flare up.

Professor Lightningstep skillfully changed the subject.

“They’ll probably come.”

“The summoning mages?”

“Wait…”

Professor Lightningstep folded his fingers and calculated.

Lee Han was horrified at this sight.

The fact that he was counting them meant at least two or more teams would be visiting!

‘Those damn bastards!’

Unlike the priests who came for good deeds, the mages’ visits had far too impure intentions.

Weren’t they coming to check the students’ abilities and hone their magic skills?

Even demons from hell wouldn’t be this heartless.

“Are they visiting to see the students’ magic?”

“That would be it, right?”

“How can people be like that?”

“…Huh?”

Professor Lightningstep was slightly flustered by Lee Han’s anger.

Why is he getting angry about this?

“Anyway, next week it’ll be the summoning mages. And don’t worry too much. They’re not crazy… I mean, skilled ones like the Paragranium Guild. There’ll be quite a few mages with less skill than you guys.”

Next week’s summoning mages’ festival, 【Boltzmann’s Call】, was a festival and social gathering to honor the great ancient summoning mage Boltzmann.

Festivals where only mages gathered were a bit different from the Empire’s typical festivals.

A place where mages who normally had no chance to meet each other showed off their magic, received evaluations, and honed their skills.

But if you wanted to take it seriously, you could stake your pride on it, and if you wanted to enjoy it lightly, you could enjoy it as lightly as you wanted.

Thanks to this, quite a few mages with inferior skills also participated.

Einroguard’s first-year students might be treated like blockheads within the school, but this was a place that gathered the Empire’s greatest talents and passed down the Empire’s most orthodox magical traditions.

Among the mages outside who were self-taught or worked under eccentric mages, many had skills inferior to first-year students.

Since these mages would also participate in the festival, situations like the Paragranium Guild wouldn’t occur…

“They won’t bring anything when they come from outside. The priests always brought us food.”

“…Just finish your work.”

“Yes.”

Lee Han increased his work speed while controlling the golem.

Even while grumbling, his increasingly skillful control made even Professor Lightningstep admire him.

‘But what is he muttering about?’

As Lee Han muttered on top of the golem, Professor Lightningstep became curious.

Was he gaining insight from the advice the professors had given earlier and reciting additional spells?

“Summoning mages. I won’t let them off easy when they come.”

“…”

Professor Lightningstep was shocked to see him skillfully controlling the golem while saying other things, when he should have been concentrating on golem control.

* * *

After finishing the hard labor and returning to the tower, a subtle silence hung in the common room.

It was different from tense silence. There was somehow a reflective atmosphere.

Lee Han asked Priest Tijiling with curiosity.

“Did something happen?”

“Everyone is reflecting.”

“!”

The priests who had rarely raised their voices and fought with each other.

However, the priests were indeed different from students of other towers.

After continuing heated discussions, they had decided to understand, consider, and respect each other’s positions.

Lee Han was moved upon hearing this explanation.

‘Even the Skeleton Principal’s poison doesn’t work on the priests!’

In fact, the priests’ fight had nothing to do with the Skeleton Principal, but Lee Han thought so.

“So now I can comfortably ask about religious orders without worry?”

“Pardon?”

Priest Tijiling stared at Lee Han as if asking what he was talking about.

“…No? Well… since they reflected, now faith is a matter of personal freedom…?”

“No. Everyone determined that the dissatisfaction this time arose from deciding the order by leaving it to chance. So we changed the method.”

“…What kind?”

“The winner will have the right to recommend faith to Lord Wardanaz.”

“…”

Lee Han turned his head to look at the priests.

Looking closely, the priests he thought were just sitting in silence were gathered in small groups planning strategies.

-Who would have thought 【Geometry and Arithmetic】 would be the competition event.

-Don’t worry. We have the priest from Sisenza Order.

-I’ve never been interested in other orders before, but I’m impressed by Sisenza Order’s abilities.

-Haha, I’m just embarrassed…

“???”

-We don’t care that there’s Sisenza Order over there.

-That’s right! Let’s share information with each other and discuss how to beat them.

-Our order…

“…”

In a competition with many participants, winning through individual strength alone had low probability.

Smart people would gather and cooperate with each other, even if the rewards were somewhat reduced.

The priests were gathering with those whose intentions matched or whose orders had similar tendencies, actively planning strategies.

It was a scene that anyone could see the Skeleton Principal would love.

“…What have I done?”

“Pardon?”

At Lee Han’s words, Priest Tijiling tilted her head.

Priest Tijiling didn’t think the current situation was bad.

Weren’t the priests, who usually focused only on their own work, now talking with other priests and having discussions about faith?

The priests themselves were enjoying conversation topics they wouldn’t normally have and getting to know each other.

“I need to go in and rest… Thank you, Priest Tijiling. See you tomorrow.”

As Lee Han went upstairs with a dejected face, the other priests stopped their conversations and asked.

“Lord Wardanaz’s face seemed dark, or was it just my imagination?”

“I heard from the Blue Dragon Tower people earlier that the White Tiger Tower people kept bothering them while they were working…”

“What a sad thing. Next time I’ll go to the White Tiger Tower people and ask them.”

“I should go with you. But who did you hear that from?”

“Lord Gainando told me.”

“I should remember that.”

The next day, the angry White Tiger Tower students threw balls made of crumpled paper at Gainando as soon as they spotted him.

* * *

“As with any magic, precision is a special virtue in summoning magic. Outstanding summoning mages must be able to control any situation. The great summoning mage Boltzmann said this: ‘The easiest summoning magic succeeded through calculation is more valuable than the most difficult summoning magic succeeded by chance.’ As such…”

Professor Milay, who had been discussing how to further develop the 【Paper Bird】 summoning magic they had covered in the first semester, raised her eyebrows at the distracted atmosphere.

“Does everyone have something to say? Student Raphadael. Please speak.”

Raphadael, the dark magic major who hated dark magic, was flustered when called as a representative.

When Lee Han made eye contact with Raphadael, he quietly advised him.

-Just be honest.

Given Professor Milay’s personality, if you admit your mistake, she’ll move on cleanly without tormenting you like the Skeleton Principal would.

“We, we were chattering about whether summoning mages were really coming.”

“…”

Lee Han let out a deep sigh. Seeing this, Raphadael asked in confusion.

“Wasn’t this what you told me to do?”

“I told you to apologize honestly, you idiot…”

“You may sit down, Student Raphadael. It seems everyone is concerned about the 【Boltzmann’s Call】 festival. It’s natural that you’d all be excited about summoning mages from outside visiting the school.”

‘Are they excited?’

Lee Han was puzzled.

At least Lee Han and his friends had reacted with ‘Oh, what kind of crazy people are coming from outside to torment us this time?’…

One of the Black Turtle Tower students bravely raised their hand and asked.

“Are they bringing food by any chance?”

“No. It’s not that kind of festival.”

The atmosphere stirred at the firm answer.

Murmurs like ‘Then why are they coming?’, ‘Is the school joking?’, ‘Isn’t it rude to visit the great Einroguard without bringing anything?’ could be heard from various places.

Professor Milay stopped the students’ murmuring with a light gesture and said.

“I’m sorry for not meeting everyone’s expectations, but the 【Boltzmann’s Call】 festival isn’t a festival for eating, drinking, and enjoying. It’s a festival where summoning mages observe each other’s magic and honor Boltzmann. Naturally, I don’t expect much from the students.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Right?”

“…”

Lee Han inwardly lamented seeing his friends still being so naive.

When a professor said ‘I don’t expect anything,’ there was no possibility they were being sincere.

Even the kind Professor Garcia would inevitably feel disappointed if her disciples didn’t produce results.

That was an unavoidable burden for any professor.

“However, showing embarrassing behavior in front of mages from outside will hurt the students’ own pride.”

“That’s right!”

“I’m glad you understand. Let’s focus on summoning magic. 【Paper Bird Summoning】 may look simple at first glance, so many summoning mages stop paying attention to it once they learn it. But the Empire’s outstanding summoning mages never underestimate the potential in this magic.”

Professor Milay summoned a paper bird from thin air.

The paper bird circled around the lecture hall once. Professor Milay looked at the White Tiger Tower students and said.

“Think about golem repairs after the lecture ends.”

“…!”

The White Tiger Tower students blushed and closed their books.

They had been caught pondering how to make their golems more impressive.

‘Remote viewing magic.’

Lee Han realized that Professor Milay had surveyed the lecture hall through the paper bird’s vision.

Though it looked modest on the surface, connecting the summoned creature’s vision with one’s own to explore like that was a very advanced technique.

Summoning, vision connection, flying the summoned creature while simultaneously maintaining focus with the main consciousness.

“You don’t really need to go this far…”

-Consider the golem’s center of gravity!

When the paper bird opened its mouth and chirped, the students were startled.

Though less difficult than remote viewing magic, recording and transmitting voice through the paper bird like that was also very useful magic.

‘I want to learn that.’

Lee Han definitely felt the necessity.

He did need a means to send messages to students from other towers.

To check current market prices with the Black Turtle Tower black market managers or to check how many meals his Blue Dragon Tower friends had skipped…

“…There’s also this method.”

As the professor finished speaking, the paper bird charged into the lecture hall wall and collided with it.

Then the paper bird disappeared with a flashing light, leaving a magical inscription on the wall.

She had used the paper bird as a medium to inscribe magic on the wall.

“Outstanding mages don’t obsess over flashy, high-difficulty magic. Even with easy magic, the effects vary tremendously depending on how you use it. Everyone keep this in mind. Now then… let’s each try improving the paper bird. I’ll see how you all improve the paper bird during this semester.”

The simpler the magic, the more it revealed the personality of the mage modifying it.

Professor Milay hoped that through the experience of improving the paper bird this semester, the students would gain many insights.

‘To embed voice…’

Lee Han began flipping through books to try embedding audio first.

Professor Milay looked at Lee Han, adjusted her monocle, and asked.

“What will you be doing, Student Lee Han?”

“I’m trying to embed voice.”

“Hmm…”

“?”

When Professor Milay looked at Lee Han with a stern expression, Lee Han was puzzled.

Had he made some mistake?

“It would be better to increase the difficulty.”

“…Professor. I haven’t even tried this yet…”

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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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