Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 452

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 452

“L-Lee Han. Wouldn’t it be better to listen to Moradi’s explanation?”

Durgyu, who noticed Giselle’s gaze, called out to Lee Han who was swimming ahead.

“Ah. Right. There might be something I missed. Sorry, Moradi. I was in a hurry. Go ahead and explain.”

“…If we go around in the opposite direction and approach, it’s near the Lumberyard Tower so there’s a lot of debris floating in the water… Forget it. Screw it. You bastard.”

“?!”

Lee Han was bewildered at suddenly being cursed at.

“Why is he acting like that? Don’t tell me it’s because I beat up those White Tiger Tower guys yesterday for not studying?”

“That seemed like the right thing to do though…”

Durgyu muttered.

The White Tiger Tower students complained ‘Why does that Wardanaz bastard hate us so much?’ but from Durgyu’s perspective, this wasn’t Lee Han’s fault.

If they didn’t want to get nagged, they shouldn’t have done those things in the first place.

“More importantly, Moradi. There’s something I’m curious about.”

“Speak. I’m listening.”

“Shouldn’t we tell the other friends too?”

“?”

“?”

Lee Han and Giselle looked at Durgyu as if asking what nonsense he was talking about.

And the two exchanged glances separately.

“Shall we depart?”

“Let’s depart.”

“Let’s go, Durgyu.”

“Ah, no… the friends…?”

Lee Han and Giselle began moving in the opposite direction, pulling and pushing Durgyu along.

* * *

“The students have impressive stamina.”

The Knights of the White Poplar Knight Order on the warship admired the students swimming toward them from the distant horizon.

People commonly thought of studying at Einroguard as sickly mages holed up in small rooms obsessing over magic books, but indeed the students were tough, befitting their knight family origins.

“It seems they haven’t forgotten to train their bodies even at Einroguard.”

“Hmm.”

Professor Ingoldel didn’t bother mentioning Einroguard’s harsh environment that trained the body even without doing anything.

“Fire.”

“S-Sir. If we keep shooting like this and they drown…”

“Tsk tsk. Where do you get off sympathizing with the enemy? Did I teach you that way?”

“N-No sir. I apologize.”

Originally, the young apprentice knights of the White Poplar Knight Order didn’t get along well with the White Tiger Tower students.

Starting from the difference between pure knight order affiliation and magic school affiliation, they had competed several times this year, so there was bound to be rivalry.

However, even those apprentice knights felt too sorry for the White Tiger Tower students now to attack them coldly.

‘This is too much…!’

‘Do we really have to go this far?’

The White Tiger Tower students swimming through the rough, rainy sea looked as precarious as drifting leaves.

“But can the students climb onto the warship with just their bare bodies without using magic?”

One of the knights asked out of curiosity.

Approaching while scattered would work given enough time, but climbing up the slippery warship’s outer wall on a rainy day like this was no ordinary task.

Knights who had broken through the wall of aura could climb the outer walls using superhuman physical abilities and mana, but it was still too much at the students’ level.

“Of course it will be difficult. But this test wasn’t prepared to examine only physical abilities.”

Professor Ingoldel pointed around the warship.

Equipment was floating among what looked like fragments and debris.

“Aha! You scattered boarding equipment!”

“That’s right. The students will surely find it.”

“I misunderstood and thought you expected them to just climb up with their bare bodies! Haha!”

“…Did I seem that way to you?”

Professor Ingoldel was slightly flustered.

Unlike the other professors at Einroguard, he thought he was teaching quite reasonably.

Splash!

“?”

At the sound from behind during their conversation, the professor and knights turned their heads.

Lee Han’s group, soaked with water, was glaring at them from the warship’s deck.

* * *

“Wait. Is it possible to climb up without using magic?”

“…!”

While their friends were playing dodge-the-water-spear in the other direction, Lee Han’s group successfully approached close to the warship.

However, the warship’s outer wall was tougher than expected. Without using magic, it didn’t look easy to hook fingers or support body weight.

Durgyu whispered cautiously.

“No matter how I think about it, I don’t think the professor would have told us to just climb this. Isn’t there something else somewhere? Aren’t we missing something?”

“Durgyu. I respect you, but you’re thinking like a first semester student right now.”

“Right. Choi. Get your head straight. Does this look like knight order barracks to you?”

Lee Han and Giselle scolded Durgyu very sharply.

Durgyu felt wronged but thought the two must be right and kept his mouth shut.

“I think… climbing up using mana manipulation is the answer.”

“Mana manipulation?”

“Right. Do you remember the Enge Family’s swordsmanship by any chance?”

“Wardanaz. Even if you don’t know, Choi and I are from knight families.”

Giselle threw a look filled with absurdity.

The Enge Family.

Among knight families, they were famous for using absorption sword techniques.

Lee Han had also learned the principles of using this absorption property in duels and was using it quite usefully, wasn’t he?

“I’m not skilled enough to use it perfectly in swordsmanship, but even that level should be sufficient for climbing up. This must be what they had in mind when they told us to capture the warship.”

“But… mana manipulation won’t be that easy.”

Giselle’s eyebrows curved.

It was called mana manipulation, but that was a transformation that strangely altered the properties of mana.

Unlike mages’ magic studied through logic, reason, and laws, it was a knight’s technique that had to be transformed through instinct and sensation, making its difficulty much higher.

“That’s the goal of this test? Really?”

“Moradi. Think carefully. This is Einroguard.”

“…”

Frustratingly, Giselle had no choice but to accept it.

After all, they had swum this far, so what couldn’t the professor make them do?

“…Fine. Wardanaz. Try explaining it.”

Lee Han did his best to explain the principles of absorption to his friends.

Drawing mana from deep in the center of the body to circulate it, while thinking of viscous properties to transform it and simultaneously releasing mana…

“The principle is similar to elemental magic. It’s about changing properties through mental imagery, but you have to maintain this while circulating it. And you also have to release some at the same time.”

“…”

“…”

The two were appalled by the explanation of impossible difficulty. Durgyu asked carefully.

“Isn’t there some kind of trick?”

“Uh… well. You could give up on circulating and just focus on conversion and emission.”

“Really? Wait. But wouldn’t that waste too much mana?”

“Yeah… that’s true.”

“…”

“…”

An awkward silence settled over them again. Giselle gave up and said.

“Just climb up. I’ll manage to follow somehow.”

There were several more attempts after that.

Giselle and Durgyu, being among the top talents in their year, succeeded in converting their mana to have absorbing properties, but they couldn’t maintain it long enough to be usable.

They needed to maintain it at least until they climbed onto the ship.

“This won’t work. We’ll get caught at this rate. Catch this.”

Lee Han took off his coat and made it into a rope. Then he threw it to Giselle.

Giselle looked at Lee Han with eyes full of wariness.

“What are you thinking?”

“…I’m thinking we tie ourselves together for support.”

“Ah.”

Giselle felt embarrassed but didn’t show it as she tied the rope around her body. Durgyu beside her blushed slightly.

‘Good thing I didn’t say anything.’

Actually, Durgyu had also thought Lee Han was planning to tie up Moradi and use her as bait.

“Let’s try again. Three, two, one… go!”

Thwack!

Lee Han struck down with his hand like chopping with an axe and stuck it to the ship’s exterior.

In a situation where he should have naturally slipped, the mana emitted from his hand firmly secured his body.

‘It works!’

This was the most stable of all the attempts so far.

Lee Han slowly and carefully crawled up the ship’s exterior wall.

Crack-

“…”

When a piece of board fell off because he had emitted mana too strongly, Lee Han was horrified.

Since he didn’t need to worry about mana depletion, he hadn’t paid attention to circulation, but seeing this made him feel its necessity.

‘I need to reduce the force.’

Lee Han took a long deep breath and circulated mana within his body. With the stable flow, the amount of mana emitted from his fingertips began to be controlled.

Lee Han felt amazed.

‘Have I improved?’

This was a much more stable flow than what he had done in swordsmanship lectures before.

Come to think of it, after going through countless real battles since then, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had become accustomed to this kind of circulation.

Moreover, Lee Han had at some point given up on circulation and just relied on brute mana quantity for emission…

“…!”

Giselle, who was climbing up below Lee Han, was startled.

A faint mana light was flickering around Wardanaz’s entire body above her.

For a boy Giselle’s age to show a phenomenon that was only seen when knights gathered their breath and drew up mana before using aura.

If she hadn’t seen that phenomenon wrong, Wardanaz was now close to the wall of aura.

A situation where he could cross the wall if he just gained enlightenment!

Giselle had to feel endlessly complicated emotions.

She felt jealous, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel supportive as a fellow knight.

Falling into such a state of immersion was tremendous luck. Depending on how long he stayed in that state, the time it would take to break through the wall would vary…

Thud!

“Done! Come up!”

As soon as Lee Han reached the deck, he immediately released his mana, threw his body down, and pulled up the rope.

Since they could be discovered at any moment, he had to hurry and pull up his friends.

Of course, the mana light he had just shown had long since disappeared.

“You…!!! You crazy bas…!!”

Giselle nearly fainted.

What kind of opportunity had this crazy mage boy just thrown away?

“You just now…! You…!”

“What’s wrong? Are you crazy?”

“■□○●☆◆!!!”

“Be quiet. We’ll get caught! Durgyu. Come up.”

Lee Han quickly pulled up Durgyu as well.

Then he crouched down and approached. Fortunately, the people on deck were still far away and hadn’t noticed yet.

‘Thank you, White Tiger Tower students.’

Lee Han felt grateful for their friendship and tried to approach closer…

“…scattered the boarding equipment…”

“…if it’s the students, they’ll surely find…”

“?”

“???”

Lee Han, Giselle, and Durgyu fell silent simultaneously.

Durgyu looked at his friends with resentful eyes.

Splash!

Lee Han threw off his coat. Since they had to fight the apprentice knights on deck anyway, he needed to lighten his body.

“Ah, no, why from that side?”

“…wasn’t going around that way the standard approach… Ah. Never mind. Moradi. Take the left. Durgyu. Please take the right!”

Lee Han felt that saying more would only lower his friends’ morale, so he immediately launched an attack.

Giselle seemed to have similar thoughts as she moved right away.

‘Wasn’t flanking the right answer?’

‘I naturally thought they meant to flank…’

Lee Han ran forward with bitter feelings.

The apprentice knights of the knight order, who had been aiming cannons toward the bottom of the ship, were startled and took their positions.

“How on earth did you guys come around!? No, more than that, how did you climb up? You don’t even have equipment!”

“…”

Lee Han decided to approach as efficiently as possible instead of wasting unnecessary emotions.

“Cough… cough. Cough, cough! Cough cough!”

Lee Han coughed like a patient with lung disease. He looked like a patient with hypothermia from staying in the sea too long.

“Wardanaz! Are you okay! I told you this was dangerous…”

“You fool! Looking behind you with an enemy in front!”

The apprentice knight turned around to call for a knight but was startled by the scolding and turned his head.

Lee Han, who had been coughing as if dying just moments before, was fiercely charging at him.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————