Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 457

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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 457

Of course, they couldn’t challenge the submerged dungeon. Professor Boladi wouldn’t allow his cherished disciple to dangerously challenge an incomplete dungeon.

-Of course, as a professor, he would teach better than me. But since this involves giants, this is something I can’t compromise on.

Ikurusha thought that if Lee Han was going to be tested by giants, he needed to get familiar with them in advance.

If they clashed in an unprepared situation, unexpected accidents could occur.

How dangerous would it be if a young mage like Lee Han developed hatred toward giants due to such a mistake?

If an archmage with a title like 【Giant Slayer】 were to appear in the future…

‘He already seems likely to develop hatred.’

Lee Han felt that hatred might bloom just from what Ikurusha had said to the professors.

“I’ll respect that.”

Professor Boladi conceded as if doing a great favor. He had no conscience whatsoever.

-Then let’s go meet the other giants. Are you ready?

Ikurusha winked to ease Lee Han’s tension.

Of course, being a giant, it wasn’t very effective.

Crash!!!!!!!

-Hmm. It would be better to wait a bit more before going out.

It seemed another goat had escaped outside.

* * *

Only after all the goats were caught could Lee Han go outside.

Following behind Ikurusha who was walking leisurely, Professor Boladi advised Lee Han.

“Don’t lower your staff in front of giants.”

“…”

‘I really want to hit him once.’

Calling something like that advice…

“Don’t you have any other advice?”

“Giants are generally hard to predict.”

Wise and intelligent giants like Ikurusha were rare, and most giants were difficult to understand in terms of what they were thinking.

It wasn’t for nothing that explorers traveling through the remote regions of the Empire feared giants approaching them to talk.

If you got involved wrongly, you’d be forced to participate in unreasonable bets…

“?”

Lee Han tilted his head.

Professor Boladi’s words had ended there.

“Is there nothing more?”

“Didn’t I just tell you?”

“…Ah.”

So ‘Giants are generally hard to predict’ was the advice.

Lee Han closed his eyes.

‘Giants would be better.’

Giants whose thoughts he couldn’t understand would be better than the professor beside him.

Bubble bubble-

Upon arriving at the sloping pasture on a mountain ridge where the giants were resting, a huge cauldron first caught his eye.

Giants were cutting rock chunks with tired faces and throwing them into the cauldron.

“?”

Looking again, they weren’t rock chunks but cheese. Lee Han had never seen such large chunks of cheese before.

-It’s goat cheese. Are you interested?

“Huh? Yes.”

Lee Han nodded for now.

Living at Einroguard, he couldn’t help but be interested in food ingredients.

Ikurusha approached a giant and gestured for him to bring out cheese.

-Bring it out.

-Why…?

-We need to treat our guest.

-Why…??

-Just bring it out!

Smack!

Ikurusha got angry and snatched the cheese from the giant’s hand. Then he cut off a piece and offered it to Lee Han.

The giant behind glared at Lee Han with eyes mixed with sadness, anger, and resentment.

“…Ah, no. You don’t need to snatch it to give it to me…”

-Don’t mind it. They’re originally quick to sulk. They’ll get over it soon.

Ikurusha said that, but the eyes of the giant glaring at Lee Han contained far too deep emotions.

Lee Han received the cheese with an uncomfortable feeling.

Clang!

“?”

The cheese that looked like stone was as hard as stone.

…Then isn’t it just stone?

“Isn’t this stone?”

-Hmm? Wait a moment.

Ikurusha checked the cheese.

It wasn’t stone, nor old hardened cheese, but freshly made cheese.

-It is cheese.

‘Can’t use it as an ingredient.’

Lee Han gave up and returned the cheese to the giant. The giant snorted so hard that Lee Han nearly flew away and took back the cheese.

“Ikurusha sir. Um, I need to build rapport with the giants, but isn’t it dangerous to start like this?”

-It’s fine. It’s okay.

‘It doesn’t seem okay.’

Lee Han quickly assessed the situation.

Ikurusha was a wise giant, but being a giant, he wasn’t too worried about the part of befriending other giants.

He believed that even if the giants got a bit angry and sulked, they would soon become friends.

However, from Lee Han’s perspective, that was too optimistic thinking.

‘I need to approach them as much as possible.’

“Good day to you.”

-…

-…

The giants sitting around the cauldron made openly displeased expressions when Lee Han came and hid their large brass bowls in their arms.

Their faces showed they didn’t want to give Lee Han any food.

‘It’s not like I’m Gainando…’

“I didn’t come to receive food. Everyone, I came to greet you…”

-Give him some!

Ikurusha rushed over again and scolded them.

Lee Han covered his face with both palms and despaired.

-This… the human race can’t eat this.

-They can’t even eat it well.

The giants protested, but Ikurusha sternly scolded the young giants who were being greedy with food.

Then he ladled out plenty of porridge from the cauldron and served it to Lee Han.

“Th-thank you.”

-Can’t eat it anyway.

-It’s a waste of food.

The giants grumbled and complained. Lee Han felt even more uncomfortable.

‘I absolutely have to eat this deliciously.’

With the atmosphere flowing like this, he had no choice but to eat it deliciously.

Lee Han looked down at his bowl.

“…”

‘Isn’t this lava?’

Seeing the bright red liquid bubbling up, he couldn’t tell if this was porridge or lava.

“…I’ll eat well.”

Lee Han cursed the professors of Einroguard as he brought it to his mouth with a dying expression.

‘Ugh.’

It was a taste that made him want to scream after a long time.

Spicy, salty, bitter, and sour – it was a fiery taste that seemed to have condensed every possible flavor.

Lee Han concentrated all his mental energy to maintain a smiling face. And he completely emptied the porridge bowl.

“It’s really delicious.”

-Amazing. A human ate that.

-Unbelievable.

The giants murmured in amazement.

Other races couldn’t eat the giants’ food well.

Even experienced explorers who had been through everything would turn pale saying ‘I’d rather cut off my arm and eat it than eat this’ when it came to giant food…

The giants’ eyes became slightly more favorable. Lee Han let out a sigh of relief.

‘Somehow I managed to take one step forward.’

It seemed he had barely managed to regain the lost favor.

Actually, if Ikurusha hadn’t stolen the cheese, this wouldn’t have happened…

Rattle-

“You want some?”

When the basilisk’s egg rattled, Lee Han scooped up a spoonful of the remaining porridge and poured it on the egg.

Then the basilisk’s egg convulsed like crazy.

Rattle rattle rattle rattle!!!

“…You said you wanted to eat it…”

Who would have thought it would hate it so violently after saying it wanted to eat it.

One of the giants who finished eating pulled out a lushly grown tree, wiped his mouth, and called Lee Han.

-You. Follow. I’ll guide you.

“Ah. Yes. Thank you.”

The giant moved his steps slowly. Lee Han tried hard to check the location and terrain while looking around.

He had to avoid this area as much as possible even after the flood ended and the water receded.

‘I should write 【Beware of Giants】 on the map.’

In the distance, Professor Boladi, sitting with Ikurusha, pointed at something with his finger.

It was a staff.

“…”

Lee Han cursed the professor as he picked up the staff again.

If this was going to happen anyway, he should have just with the giant…

-Here pasture. We raise. Sheep.

“Isn’t there a fence?”

-Break it.

The giant shook his head and answered. Lee Han could understand what he meant right away.

‘Well, with that sound from earlier, they’d easily break fences.’

No matter what kind of fence they made, with a giant’s size, they could easily break it.

“Where are the sheep now?”

-…

The giant looked at Lee Han with a reluctant expression.

Another mage would have been flustered by such unpredictable behavior from the giant, but Lee Han wasn’t.

He had seen that similar look somewhere many times before.

When he asked Gainando ‘Where did you put the cake I gave you last time?’…

“I hate eating sheep. I have absolutely no intention of eating them.”

The giant looked at Lee Han with a pleased expression. A satisfied smile hung on his lips.

-Over there. In cave. We lock them up.

At the cave entrance, there was a huge boulder.

It was an excessively large rock for confining a single mountain goat, but to Lee Han who had heard the sound earlier, that rock felt like paper.

“Can’t they get out if you do that?”

-They get out. Sometimes. So we have to catch them.

The giant grumbled.

He seemed disappointed that the mountain goats wouldn’t listen to him.

‘Things I can do…’

Lee Han followed behind the giant, checking the surroundings and observing the giants’ daily routine.

1. Taking care of mountain goats.

2. Catching them when the mountain goats escape.

3. Preparing meals, etc.

Helping with these tasks was very important as it would help him become friends with the giants…

‘No. Can I actually help?’

No matter how he thought about it, these weren’t tasks Lee Han could help with.

Rather, Lee Han was more concerned about having to face these giants during the final exam.

He might have to fight mountain goats, or giants, or maybe even giants riding mountain goats.

-Caught it last time too. But caught it again this time.

“Oh dear.”

Lee Han spoke without much thought to console the grumbling giant.

“I’ll ask Ikurusha to give you some snacks.”

He didn’t know if the giant had snacks, or if Ikurusha would allow it, but Lee Han just said it first.

It was a habit from consoling the whining Gainando.

-Really?!

However, the giant’s reaction was much more intense than expected.

-Really?!

“…Uh, no. Well, please wait a moment.”

* * *

-Really? Take it.

When Lee Han made the request, Ikurusha accepted as if it wasn’t difficult at all.

Since he was struggling to become friends with the giants, he could certainly help with this much.

Thud-

When Ikurusha held out a blackish club, Lee Han was flustered.

“What is this?”

-Dried jerky. Made with plenty of special spices, so everyone likes it.

“…Thank you.”

Lee Han also learned how to make it from Ikurusha.

Since the giants liked it, he might need to learn how to make it.

‘But the giants aren’t all like Gainando, so I don’t know how far snacks will work.’

1 hour later.

-Human legs hurt. I’ll carry you.

-Get out of the way! I’ll carry him!

The giants grabbed each other by the collar and fought over who would carry Lee Han on their back.

Seeing this, Lee Han thought to himself.

Getting along with giants might not be as difficult as he thought!

* * *

“Sage, water parsley, cloves, turmeric, geranium… five spoonfuls each… add and boil thoroughly… grind the meat… hmm… what kind of taste should this have…”

As Lee Han sat at the table muttering about materials and reagents while deep in thought, the other alchemy students glanced over at him.

Since it was a potion brewing method that the top alchemy student was studying, they couldn’t help but be interested.

“What is that? What kind of combination is that?”

“Priest Siana. Do you happen to know?”

“…It’s too dangerous a potion to tell you what it’s used for… Ahem. Ahem.”

When the question came to her, Priest Siana subtly deflected.

This made the other students even more surprised.

“Is it a highly toxic potion?”

“Dark magic related?”

“Why is Wardanaz preparing that? Is it related to this exam? Imperial Princess, do you happen to know?”

“…”

Adenart was flustered and just blinked her eyes.

Then her friends interpreted it for her.

“It must be a dangerous potion after all.”

“She’s probably acting like that because it would be dangerous if other students tried it recklessly.”

“But why is Wardanaz researching that?”

Just then, Lee Han closed his book and stood up.

His friends asked cautiously.

“Wardanaz. What are you planning to use that for?”

“Hmm? I’m going to feed it to the giants.”

“…!!”

“!!!!”

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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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