Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 428

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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 428

“Is there really something to gain by going that far?”

“What are you talking about, Priest Nigisor. Of course there’s plenty. Where do you think that stew we had for dinner came from? Could you make something like that with the black bread and cold rice balls Einroguard gives us?”

The priests who had eaten deliciously had nothing to say even if they had ten mouths.

No matter how frugal and simple the priests had lived, if they kept eating warm and rich meals, they would naturally adapt to it.

At first, the priests who said “You shouldn’t do this,” “We don’t eat such meals,” “If you insist that much, I’ll just eat a little of this bread” were now naturally responding with “Thank you for the meal” and “We’re always grateful.”

“If, if that’s the case, I’m sorry. You didn’t have to prepare all this…”

“No. You don’t need to be sorry. I prepared it because I wanted to.”

Though he had already made them feel guilty, Lee Han continued speaking.

“But what I want to talk about is a different point. We need to take action rather than just staying still. What would you do if Blue Dragon Tower’s Gainando collapsed from starving?”

“I would share my bread with him.”

“Right. But what if there were two people? Three people? The entire tower?”

Priest Siana, who was listening from the side, tilted her head in confusion.

“What could have happened to Blue Dragon Tower that all the students would starve to death?”

Lee Han pretended not to hear and ignored her.

“The important thing is that such situations are difficult to overcome with an individual priest’s good heart alone.”

If it were Black Turtle Tower or White Tiger Tower students, they would have ignored it saying “What nonsense,” but the priests were kind enough to listen quite attentively.

Moreover, it was quite a relatable topic.

“Indeed…”

“That makes sense.”

“Right? What would be the solution to this problem?”

“Uh… since it’s difficult for individuals to solve, if all the priests joined forces and shared a little of what they have to eat with each other…”

Priest Nigisor spoke hesitantly, unlike his usual confident attitude.

The madness Lee Han had shown today had made Priest Nigisor somewhat intimidated.

“That’s not it.”

“N-no?”

“Then if White Tiger Tower and Black Turtle Tower students are also on the verge of starving to death, that wouldn’t solve it.”

“???”

Priest Siana, who was listening, became even more confused.

What on earth could have happened that students from three towers would all starve to death…?

“Then what?”

“The answer is to raid Einroguard’s storage in advance and bring in supplies from outside to stockpile them. Then we can overcome such crises when they come.”

“…”

“…”

The priests were bewildered, but Lee Han continued speaking seriously. Then his voice, filled with strong persuasive power, began to bewitch the priests.

“It’s not like you’re raiding the storage and smuggling from outside for your own luxury. You could be raiding the storage and smuggling from outside to help your friends.”

“Indeed… now that I listen to it, it seems to make sense.”

“Certainly, even if we want to help, it’s not easy to help when we have nothing. Right now, even if we try to make potions and distribute them, we’re troubled by the lack of materials.”

Priest Nigisor, who belonged to the radical faction, and the pragmatic Priest Siana were quickly persuaded.

Priest Tiziling, who was beside them, looked at the two priests with very bewildered eyes.

Is this…

Is this okay?

“I understand.”

“Tell the other priests later too. That we’re not doing it for luxury, but for doing good deeds. It would be good if everyone did it in advance.”

“I’ll definitely tell them!”

The three mages exchanged glances with firmly determined eyes.

‘If the Phoenix Tower priests help, Einroguard’s black market will become more abundant.’

Since they had advantages over other tower students for night walks, if they actively participated, supplies would flow better in the black market, prices would stabilize, and students would be all smiles.

Of course, there was an ethical issue of whether it was okay to make priests steal, but Lee Han judged that part to be fine.

‘This is self-defense. Even the gods would approve.’

Everything is self-defense at Einroguard!

* * *

Priest Nigisor went around lightly setting fires here and there to check, and Priest Siana poured strong acid solutions to verify whether walls were real or fake (Lee Han regretted bringing her as she enthusiastically insisted on searching even though they had already confirmed with the light of truth)…

After continuing such exploration repeatedly, it was Priest Tiziling who caught the lucky break. While checking beyond the wall with a cursed artifact she was wearing, Priest Tiziling immediately called the three of them.

“There’s a path here!”

“Finally found one!”

Lee Han, who had been monitoring from behind to prevent Priest Nigisor and Priest Siana from causing trouble, ran over with delight.

Priest Nigisor expressed regret.

“Oh no… I should have tried setting fire there.”

“Ugh. I couldn’t check because I was saving the potion.”

“…”

Lee Han pretended not to hear and ignored them, pushing the wall.

Rumble-

Fortunately, the wall opened without any complicated mechanism, revealing hidden underground stairs behind it.

“Eyes, let darkness…”

As Lee Han was about to cast the dark vision spell, Priest Nigisor spoke as if he understood.

“Is this that spell? The one that greatly enhances overall physical abilities, but causes severe muscle pain afterward…”

“Ah! That’s the one! I know it too!”

Lee Han was flustered by what Priest Nigisor and Priest Siana said.

“That’s not it?”

“…No?”

“That’s a different spell… No. More than that, why do you two know about it?”

“The White Tiger Tower people often talked about it?”

“…”

Lee Han thought he should grab those ungrateful, loose-lipped White Tiger Tower guys by the collar when he met them later.

Even though Gonadaltes’ enhancement magic had somewhat strong side effects, he had cast it for the White Tiger Tower guys’ benefit, yet they went around badmouthing it behind his back!

‘Ungrateful bastards. Unforgivable.’

“That’s a physical enhancement spell, so there’s no need to cast it now, and more importantly, the muscle pain is quite severe, so it’s a bit much.”

“Oh no…”

“I was prepared for it.”

“…”

As the two priests showed visible disappointment, Lee Han and Priest Tiziling exchanged glances.

‘Are those two priests perhaps excited?’

‘…It seems so.’

Whether their self-rationalization had worked properly, the two priests were extremely excited about the permanent relocation of items they had never done in their lives.

Lee Han understood.

‘Certainly, playing the righteous thief is quite enjoyable.’

Strictly speaking, it was closer to work done to survive, but it would be a lie to say that work wasn’t enjoyable.

The pleasure of finding the principal’s storage and cleaning out all the useful supplies.

When he thought he was resisting the evil archmage, the pleasure doubled.

‘Is this how righteous thieves came to be?’

Lee Han had such thoughts as he moved forward.

Through the green vision that pierced the darkness, humid air began to flow in.

It was the smell of water.

“…There’s water. Everyone be careful.”

“You don’t need to worry. I won’t fall in.”

“No. I’m worried about monsters appearing.”

“!!”

Priest Nigisor immediately tensed up and stiffened his posture.

Lee Han had helped him refocus his mind, which had been carelessly relaxed since they were inside the school.

Priest Tijiling whispered quietly.

“Do they really come out? You’re lying, right?”

“No… they really do come out.”

“…”

He was worried that Priest Tijiling might come to hate night walks, but he couldn’t hide the truth.

With a body of water that size, there was a high possibility that monsters were hiding in it.

“The lake…!”

“My goodness!”

The priests who came down the stairs unconsciously let out gasps of amazement.

When the stairs leading underground ended, a dark blue lake spread out vastly in the darkness.

It was so large in scale that they couldn’t even guess where the other side of the lake connected to.

“Why on earth is this inside the school…?”

‘How surprising at this point.’

It really was quite surprising.

Whether this place was outside or inside Einroguard, whether it was an external space or an expansion space – that was unknowable, but it wasn’t something to be shocked about anyway.

What mattered was what was in this lake and where the other side connected to.

If it connected to the outside, it would be tearfully joyful, but Lee Han had also attended over half of his first year, so he didn’t harbor such absurd expectations.

‘I hope there’s at least some hidden storage or something.’

Priest Siana cautiously scooped up some lake water, put it in a potion bottle, and checked the water quality.

She didn’t sense any toxicity or residual magic power.

“The water is fine… What are you doing!??!”

“Huh?”

Seeing Lee Han splashing into the water, Priest Siana was horrified and let out a sharp scream.

“I’m going into the water…”

“Poison check!! You need to check for poison!! What are you doing!!”

“Ah. I checked by putting my hand in.”

“…”

“…”

At his crude answer, the three priests’ eyes filled with shock.

Realizing the atmosphere was strange, Lee Han quickly made an excuse.

“…Traveling with those White Tiger Tower guys has made me accustomed to such crude methods. I should be more careful from now on.”

“Y-yes.”

In truth, the White Tiger Tower had nothing to do with it, and Lee Han had just gone in trusting only his own magic power, thinking ‘even if there’s poison, it’ll probably be fine,’ but there were no White Tiger Tower students present.

Lee Han cast an underwater breathing spell and submerged his body into the water.

Bubble bubble-

“Let there be light!”

As a sphere of light filled with magic power hung above his staff, light began to spread through the dark lake water.

No matter how much dark vision magic he had, there were many limitations to seeing through the pitch-black underwater.

‘Wait, there are no monsters?’

Lee Han was surprised.

To think there were no monsters in such a wide area.

And then he was surprised again.

‘To be surprised that there are no monsters…’

There might not be any!

It seemed he had adapted too much to Einroguard.

When Lee Han came out of the water, Priest Nigisor immediately lit a fire. Although it wasn’t cold weather, since he had submerged his body in water, the chill was bound to rush in.

“I could cast 【Heat Bestowal】.”

“No. Let’s save magic power. We don’t know what might happen. I’ll cast…”

“Wait!!”

“Please wait!”

“I’ll just cast it myself!”

“…”

Lee Han grumbled and stopped his motion.

This was the first time he had received such distrust regarding magic.

“Since there are no monsters at the bottom of the lake, I think it would be okay to make a boat and go out a bit further.”

“A boat, a boat…!”

“Such…!”

The faces of Priest Nigisor and Priest Siana brightened.

Even though they pretended otherwise, their eyes showed undeniable anticipation.

“Are you going to get some wood?”

“I saw earlier that there were reeds near the lakeside, so we could weave those together…!”

Lee Han drew up the abundant water from the lake and held its form.

Water element was one of the elements he had handled most, so he could really easily transform and fix its shape even with his eyes closed.

Then he cast the ice magic he had learned from Alsicle.

“Freeze!”

The power of the 1st circle ice generation magic had limitations for freezing water the size of a small boat.

In fact, only the edges of the boat froze a little.

However, Lee Han didn’t care and cast the magic continuously without rest. In an instant, the cold overlapped consecutively and an ice boat began to form.

Thunk thunk thunk-

Lee Han lightly checked the strength and nodded.

“This should be enough. Would you all like to try getting on?”

“…Understood.”

“Hmph.”

“???”

Lee Han was confused when the two priests became dejected.

“Is it because it’s an ice boat? Even though it looks like this, it’s quite solid, so you don’t need to worry about safety.”

“That’s not the problem right now…”

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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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