Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 458

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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 458

Poison to feed to giants.

But why on earth?

“Could it be that the alchemy exam opponent is a giant?”

“That must definitely be it.”

“What are you guys talking about…”

Lee Han asked back in confusion.

“It has nothing to do with the exam.”

“Got it, Wardanaz.”

“Trust us.”

His friends seemed to understand Lee Han’s answer differently and waved their hands as if telling him not to worry.

“No, it really has nothing to do with the exam…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“We get it.”

Regardless, his friends opened their alchemy books on their own and began reading 【Precautions When Using Potions on Targets with High Resistance】.

Since the exam opponent was a giant, it was better to prepare the strongest and most penetrating potions possible.

The Imperial Princess glanced around, tilted her head in contemplation for a while, then finally closed the book she was reading and opened the same book as her friends. Priest Siana, who was sitting next to her, had already opened the book long ago.

Bartrek, an alchemy major student from White Tiger Tower, was shocked when he saw this scene while passing by.

‘The exam opponent must be a giant!’

Bartrek turned around and hurried off to share this secret information with his friends.

A little later, Yoner, who had finished his duty shift, asked Lee Han.

“Is it true that the alchemy exam opponent this time is a giant?”

“…”

* * *

“This exam is about making 【Dobrooke’s Guardian Potion】.”

【Dobrooke’s Guardian Potion】 was a defensive potion that preserved life force even in places filled with dark and negative energy.

It was a very useful potion not only for dark mages who worked long in such places, but also for adventurers or mages who might need to enter such places.

“Are the giants going to drink it?”

“Does it need to be effective on giants too?”

“??”

Professor Thunderstep was flustered by the students’ questions that suddenly multiplied the difficulty several times over.

‘What’s this? Did they catch it from Wardanaz?’

As far as Professor Thunderstep knew, students never wanted to raise the difficulty of exams on their own.

Except for a certain student from a family that starts with War and ends with naz.

“No?”

“Huh? It’s not? If not giants…”

“If not giants… Ah! It must be some other race with strong resistance. Wardanaz is crazy so he practiced with giants on purpose.”

“I’m right behind you.”

“S-sorry. It was a habit.”

Professor Thunderstep realized that false rumors had spread without his knowledge.

It was a common occurrence.

Einroguard was a place where strange rumors sprouted the moment you closed and opened your eyes.

“I don’t know what story you heard, but you’ll be testing the performance of the potions you make yourselves. Once you’ve all finished drinking your potions, come out here and walk.”

Professor Thunderstep opened the back of the lecture hall and pointed to the dark blue shadows he had prepared in advance.

It was a space mixed with dark elements and negative energy where just a few steps would drain your life force.

“Ah. Wardanaz, you… you’re excluded.”

“Pardon?”

Lee Han was surprised.

Why?

Behind him, the White Tiger Tower students nodded as if they had expected this.

“The giant was exclusively for that Wardanaz guy.”

“Indeed, that’s reasonable…”

‘What’s reasonable, you crazy bastards.’

Professor Thunderstep looked at Lee Han as if asking why he was asking something so obvious.

“You’d be fine even without drinking the potion, so the test wouldn’t work. Don’t drink it and just submit it to me.”

“…”

Lee Han clicked his tongue.

It had been a chance to get by easily!

“Professor. But we need to gather ingredients from outside right now, and it’s raining too much. If you could give us a bit more time…”

“Use the reagents from the pantry next to us.”

“?????”

“…Why are you surprised? You didn’t actually think I’d make you gather reagents outside in this weather, did you?”

The alchemy exam proceeded surprisingly sensibly.

The students were flustered by Professor Thunderstep’s appearance as he prepared all the reagents and tools.

-Isn’t this a trap?

-It’s a trap. Be careful. The tools might suddenly break.

-The reagents might be spoiled.

However, surprisingly, nothing particular happened until the end.

While his friends were stirring restlessly, Lee Han worked with the mindset that ‘if there’s a trap, it’ll show up as I work,’ and was the first to complete his potion.

Professor Thunderstep carefully examined the potion and took a sip to taste it.

“Perfect score.”

No matter how many times he heard it, it was always pleasant to hear.

Lee Han nodded.

“Thank you.”

“Oh right. I heard you get along with giants? You’ll probably handle it well on your own, but be careful when making potions for giants. You need to make them much stronger.”

“…How on earth…!”

How many hours had it been?!

* * *

Ogoldos, a 2nd year student of the dark magic school, checked his back with irritated movements.

“I told you there’s nothing there, Ogoldos.”

“Hmph. How can I trust you?”

“I said I’m sorry… I’ll stop teasing you.”

Cohorti apologized.

After Ogoldos had gone missing with a 1st year junior during this vacation and returned, Cohorti had stuck notes saying 【I survived thanks to a 1st year junior】 on Ogoldos’s back several times.

Because of this, Ogoldos now growled and showed wariness whenever Cohorti approached.

“Good job. Really good job. You’re going to reduce the already few juniors even more. If he quits, you’re definitely going to tell the professor. Got it?”

“N-no, Ogoldos said he forgave me too!”

“Hmph. I don’t know.”

Though Ogoldos had forgiven him with his words, his face was full of dissatisfaction. Diret flapped his wings and kicked Cohorti’s shin.

“Ow!”

“You also got help to solve your problem in the first place.”

“Th-that’s a little different…”

Ogoldos, who had been listening from the side, perked up his ears.

Hearing about Senior Cohorti’s shameful failure story would probably make him feel a bit better.

“I want to hear it, Senior Diret.”

“Good. If this makes you feel a bit better.”

Diret glared at Cohorti with a look of disdain and began explaining in detail what had happened.

When he told the story of why winter had come to Einroguard’s corridors in early summer, and which lunatics had summoned the Frost Giant King, Ogoldos looked at his senior with contemptuous eyes.

“…It wasn’t a mistake I made alone. Ogoldos.”

“Yes…”

“There were other guys too! And I have less responsibility!”

“Yes…”

“Get ready. Everyone stop chattering.”

Diret opened the chest and took out intact bones, scattering them everywhere.

This was to prepare for the upcoming midterm exam.

While other schools pushed first-years harshly from the beginning to temper new students who would learn in earnest in their second year, dark magic was a bit different.

If the dark magic exams in the first semester of first year served to separate the wheat from the chaff, then the dark magic exams in the second semester of first year were…

“But honestly, after learning this much, wouldn’t they not quit just out of spite?”

“All my classmates quit except for me.”

“…Th-that’s right.”

…a kind of enticement strategy.

Dark magic is this great, dark magic is this fun, dark magic can do things like this.

So please don’t quit!!

Even new students who somehow endured the first semester would think ‘Should I quit the worst one first?’ when their bodies and minds became exhausted in the second semester.

And usually dark magic had a high probability of being included in ‘the worst one.’

“This should be enough, right?”

“An undead wave should be sufficient.”

Ogoldos answered with a voice full of confidence.

Ogoldos himself could be certain because he had experienced something similar during his first year second semester.

The image of being a supreme commander pushing forward countless undead like waves.

Few things were as intense as that.

“Uh… B-but Diret. If we use up all these reagents, what will we use for our experiments this semester?”

“…I’ll talk to the professor and somehow get supplements.”

Diret spoke while suppressing a sigh.

Even after making so many supplements during vacation, the dark magic school’s budget was far from abundant.

The Skeleton Principal, despite being a grandmaster of dark magic himself, was stingily harsh toward dark magic, and the Empire was particularly picky about dark magic research and experiments.

-What reason is there for flesh golem defense research to benefit the Empire?

-W-well, you see, with stronger summoned creatures we could fight the Empire’s enemies…

-There are many other golems, so why must it specifically be flesh golems? Couldn’t summoning magic be substituted?

-…May I ask the examiner’s name?

Cohorti comforted the sighing Diret.

“Don’t worry too much. Still, few things would make as strong an impression on the juniors.”

“That’s right.”

“Except for that Wardanaz kid.”

“…”

When Diret glared at him, Cohorti hastily made excuses.

“N-no. But honestly… he fought with the Frost Giant King, so he wouldn’t be moved by an undead wave…! He’s the principal’s favorite disciple!”

This wasn’t the seniors’ fault.

Having followed the Skeleton Principal around and directly witnessed all sorts of evil magical secrets, how could they give him an even more intense impression?

“And he’ll keep attending even if he’s not moved. He takes all the school magic classes. He’ll probably take dark magic too.”

“I wonder. Will he really?”

Ogoldos spoke cautiously.

“No matter how outstanding a mage, there are limits to human ability. When I talked with him last time, it seemed precarious. It wouldn’t be strange if he quit dark magic…”

“This bastard is being annoying now… Then you should have done well! A senior getting trapped together and then being carried out??”

When Cohorti scolded him, Ogoldos also got upset.

“Why are you bringing that up now…”

“Hey. Stop it. Stop it.”

Diret made everyone shut up with an irritated face.

However, he couldn’t help feeling anxious.

While all the first-year juniors were precious, among them Wardanaz would really make his heart ache several times over if they lost him.

“…By any chance, when you were trapped together, did Wardanaz mention any food he likes?”

“…”

“…”

“What. You bastards.”

* * *

When the lecture hall door opened, beyond it was a pitch-black other dimension.

Normally he would have been surprised, but since it was midterm exam period, Lee Han responded calmly.

‘Hmm. I guess it’s a test.’

The dim plain rippled with evil and sinister energy. It seemed a grand magic of the dark magic type was being prepared.

And in the distance, white waves began to appear. Gainando, who had been yawning and rubbing his eyes, opened them wide and then rubbed them again.

“Th-th-th-that…!”

“…”

It wasn’t white waves but an army of undead.

The first years were shocked to see the suddenly charging army of undead.

“Let’s use Raphadael as bait!”

“You bastard!”

Raphadael, who was nearby and suddenly became bait, got angry.

Lee Han’s mind raced quickly as he saw the undead army approaching in the distance, filling the space with no place to escape.

What method was there to deal with that now?

‘Think. There must be a way.’

“Uh… M-maybe it’s not actually a test but just for show?”

Ymirg cautiously offered his opinion.

Honestly, the difficulty seemed too high to be a test.

“It’s probably a test.”

“Don’t escape from reality!”

However, both Gainando and Raphadael answered negatively.

Because it seemed quite possible at Einroguard.

Meanwhile, Lee Han took action.

“From the abyss, you are called…”

“Are you calling that sharp-tongued spirit?!”

When Lee Han began chanting, Gainando asked with a brightened expression.

Lee Han shook his head. Perkuntra would likely not be very active in the current situation even if summoned.

Given the large number of enemies, Perkuntra’s firepower would be overkill.

“Mage of the ancient palace, servant of the king, one who pierces tyrants, the one who made a contract with you calls you with the right of blood alliance!”

The undead mage who had resisted together with the King of Ghouls during the recent vacation slowly revealed himself.

-If this weren’t an urgent situation I would have scolded you, but this truly is a critical situation!

“It’s a test… no, please help us!”

Lee Han decided to explain later and urgently shouted.

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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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