Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 497

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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 497

“That sounds like a poetic metaphor.”

Ratford didn’t panic, befitting an Einroguard student.

Just as the ceiling had become the floor moments ago, walking on the ceiling instead of the floor wasn’t surprising at Einroguard.

“Somehow make the ceiling into the floor again…”

“Huh?”

“…”

Ratford was left speechless seeing Lee Han already doing a handstand upside down.

Lee Han had floated a water orb high in the air, grabbed it with both hands, then turned his body upside down to do a handstand.

Seeing this, Ratford was impressed.

‘If you have a good body, there’s no need to use your head!’

He had wondered why someone like Lee Han hung out with those beast-like bastards from White Tiger Tower, but seeing this, he understood.

Thud-

When Lee Han forcibly placed his feet on the ceiling and took a few steps, his vision suddenly shook and gravity’s direction reversed.

The scene was complete with Ratford standing on the floor while Lee Han walked on the ceiling.

“Let’s go, Ratford.”

“Wardanaz sir.”

“What?”

“Do you think the other students who came here walked like this too?”

“Probably?”

‘I doubt it…’

Ratford thought to himself while clutching his trembling arms.

Basically, mages were a profession with good heads, not good bodies.

* * *

Fortunately, there were no other difficulties after that. Lee Han easily arrived in front of his destination.

The so-called 【Kettle’s Secret Base】.

However, there were no doors or windows in front of it. Ratford was confused looking at the wall.

“There’s nothing here.”

“There’s an incantation. Wait a moment.”

Lee Han looked below the map and cleared his throat.

“As an honorable Einroguard student, I swear that I will never trust, be bribed by, or inform on professors.”

“…”

Ratford made an expression of being at a loss for words at the entry method created by the upperclassmen.

It seemed like the initiation ceremony was more severe than a thieves’ guild.

“Especially the Principal, I shall suspect even more.”

‘It wasn’t over?’

“This shall continue until I graduate, so I am a hidden puddle that will wet the professors’ ankles, bird droppings that fall on the professors’ heads…”

“…”

After cursing professors for about another minute, a small door reaching about waist height appeared in the wall with a rumbling sound.

“Done. Ratford, let’s go in.”

“Einroguard seems like a truly frightening place.”

“How is that surprising now?”

After crawling through the low passage, a large storage room finally revealed itself.

Lee Han pushed aside a sign that read 【PROFESSORS FORBIDDEN!!!】 and looked around the storage room.

“This is…”

Ratford opened his mouth with a trembling voice.

As a skilled thief, he had an intuition of success.

Of course, no special treasures were visible on the surface.

On a large table in the middle of the storage room, all sorts of unmarked magic books were scattered about in disorder, and on the bookshelves positioned against the walls, there were more strange reagents and broken artifacts than books.

Going further inside was even more spectacular.

Starting with broken golems, there were half-eaten canned food boxes, empty wine bottles, polo sticks, rusty bronze mirrors, and other miscellaneous items that filled the storage room so completely it was overwhelming to know where to start cleaning.

But treasures were usually found in places like this.

Just thinking about searching through all this made his heart race.

“It wasn’t a place only Senior Kettle used.”

Lee Han muttered.

No matter how he looked at it, this wasn’t a place used for just one or two years. Even graffiti from decades ago was commonly visible.

It was probably a place that had been used by graduates for generations.

“It seems no one has entered for the past few years. The dust is…”

“It seems to have been forgotten.”

Considering Einroguard’s structure, it was common for rooms or lecture halls to be forgotten for several years.

“I’m not sure how to use this place.”

“Please think about it, Wardanaz sir.”

“What about you, Ratford?”

“I’ll do some treasure hunting.”

Ratford immediately rolled up his sleeves and began checking the nearest miscellaneous items one by one.

‘This is definitely not a job to do alone.’

Lee Han summoned Sharkan and called forth a skeleton warrior.

“Sharkan, try to find something useful. Gonadaltes, you prioritize moving the large items first. We need to expand the usable space.”

Being a merciful master, Lee Han used bone fragments to strengthen Gonadaltes several times over to help the skeleton warrior.

Even so, the skeleton warrior’s back somehow looked displeased.

‘Must be my imagination?’

Lee Han turned his gaze away.

Even with the summoned creatures helping, he couldn’t even guess how long this would take.

‘I should just do what I can for now.’

Lee Han organized the books scattered on the table, dusted them off, then placed them on the bookshelf.

If it looked like a magic book, it went in the magic book section; if it looked like a notebook, it went in the notebook section.

And he separately removed the reagents and broken artifact fragments stuck in the bookshelf and put them in a wooden chest.

‘I should casually ask Professor Verdus to fix these later.’

If he placed broken artifacts next to Professor Verdus when he was concentrating, he might unconsciously fix them.

‘What’s this?’

Lee Han paused looking at a white notebook with nothing written on it.

All the other notebooks had graffiti like ‘Professors die,’ ‘Skeleton Principal die,’ ‘Just wait until I graduate,’ but this one was completely empty, which strangely bothered him.

When he tried to lift it from the table, surprisingly it didn’t move as if it were firmly fixed in place.

Suddenly, a drop of blood formed at the tip of Lee Han’s finger that was holding the white notebook.

And the notebook absorbed that drop of blood.

‘Magic!’

Having recently heard from the Skeleton Principal to ‘beware of evil mage criminals,’ Lee Han immediately reacted.

“Ratford, be careful! There’s evil magic here!”

“Huh!”

Ratford screamed and cowered.

Lee Han also let go and pointed his staff at the notebook.

“…”

“…”

However, nothing happened.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Lee Han explained as if making an excuse.

“The notebook absorbed blood.”

“Isn’t that an evilly cursed artifact?!”

Ratford came running in panic.

“Let’s burn it right away!”

“Looking at how it’s not moving, ordinary fire probably won’t work. And let’s not start fires in here.”

Lee Han still had many fears about fire magic.

Having finally secured the storage, burning it all down would be very bewildering from a graduated senior’s perspective.

“First, let’s check what kind of artifact this is…”

A new master?

“!”

Letters appearing on the notebook page.

Lee Han was surprised, but Ratford showed no change in expression.

“Ratford. Can’t you see these letters?”

“Huh? What letters are you talking about?”

‘Only I can see them.’

Lee Han guessed that the drop of blood he had spilled earlier was the cause.

It seemed to be the condition for activating this notebook.

‘Should I write a reply?’

Lee Han pondered.

He didn’t sense any particularly suspicious mana patterns, but wasn’t it dangerous to mess with unfamiliar objects?

Especially a notebook that sucked blood.

What if some evil demon was sealed inside?

-Who are you?

You seem to be using this for the first time? It’s rude to ask who someone is.

“…”

Lee Han’s face hardened.

Whoever was sealed in this notebook was definitely a very evil, vile, and shameless being.

Since he couldn’t sense any mana at all, it probably possessed power beyond Lee Han’s level…

-I already know your identity.

Lee Han moved his quill without hesitation. The notebook quickly absorbed the ink.

…Tell me.

Though he couldn’t see their face, he could feel the other person’s tension.

-You’re sealed in an evil artifact, and seeing how shamelessly you deflect, you’re a powerful demon, aren’t you?

…Listen here, you clueless fool, the artifact you’re using isn’t a sealing artifact but a communication artifact.

The faceless other person lectured Lee Han as if exasperated.

Lee Han was slightly flustered.

-Aren’t you trying to deceive me? In old stories, evil beings dwell in notebooks like this…

Are there such stories? More importantly, you’re bad at studying, aren’t you? If you’re going to imprison an evil being, you’d use a special artifact, so why imprison it in a notebook? What if someone sells it to an old bookstore?

‘Hmm. That’s a valid point.’

Lee Han felt slightly embarrassed by the other person’s lecture.

Come to think of it, if it was an artifact with no detectable mana, it was much more likely to be just a harmless artifact.

There was no way an artifact imprisoning a great demon (and in the unusual form of a notebook at that) would be in such a student storage area.

‘I’ve read too many novels.’

-Then this notebook is…

A means created by us students.

The unnamed other person kindly explained.

Upon advancing to second year, one could meet upperclassmen, but that didn’t mean they could have completely open conversations.

There was an atmosphere of students sticking together by grade and by tower, and sometimes there were even professor spies among the students.

Perhaps because of this, at some point these artifacts began appearing in Einroguard’s hidden places.

The base objects for the artifacts varied.

Notebooks that were easy to write on were most common, but parchment, mirrors, or anything that could absorb ink well would work.

This was how they communicated with each other.

Rather, because they didn’t know each other’s identities, honest conversations were possible.

It depends on your conversation partner, but basically asking about identities is rude, so you’d better keep that in mind. You might be mistaken for a professor.

-Thank you for the advice.

Lee Han first expressed his gratitude.

Without the other person’s explanation, he would still be fumbling around.

‘A means for Einroguard students to communicate anonymously.’

While Lee Han openly cursed the Skeleton Principal, most students were careful about voicing their complaints about the Skeleton Principal.

For such students, this anonymous communication method would serve as a kind of confession booth.

-It seems like the notebook was left unattended for a while before I got it. Was there someone writing in it before me?

There wasn’t. That’s why I thought this notebook was a dud and just left it there.

‘This person has multiple artifacts.’

Lee Han inferred several pieces of information from the other person’s words.

Seeing how well they knew about these communication artifacts within Einroguard, they definitely possessed several other artifacts besides this notebook.

‘Then they must know much more about Einroguard’s situation than I do.’

-May I ask if I have questions?

That’s your freedom. Answering is mine too. It’s usually equivalent exchange. You know what I mean, right?

Since they were anonymous to each other, there were no one-sided questions or answers.

If someone wanted to ask a question, they had to be able to pay commensurate value.

-I understand. What I’m curious about are the hidden places on the main building’s third floor.

Third floor? Are you a second year?

-Well.

Fine. If I can answer this, let’s make an exchange.

Lee Han tensed up.

Could he meet the other person’s demands?

Should he resort to trickery?

‘But if I’m caught using tricks, contact will be cut off afterward.’

There should be a first-year student named Wardanaz in your school.

‘How?!’

Lee Han was startled.

It was surprising that his name came up, but he couldn’t believe how the other person had guessed his school correctly.

Was there a way to measure what school someone beyond the notebook belonged to??

‘Ah. That’s not it.’

Come to think of it, Lee Han was just affiliated with all of them.

-Yes.

Find out what school magic you’ll take in your 2nd year.

-I know that contact with 1st year students results in severe disciplinary action.

So you just need to not get caught.

‘Who is this person really?’

Lee Han frowned.

First of all, mentioning Lee Han’s name was somewhat puzzling.

Had they heard through rumors?

Some upperclassmen knew Lee Han’s name from helping professors…

‘Did it spread through that route?’

And…

The other person hesitated.

It seemed like they were hesitating whether it was okay to say this or not.

‘What is it?’

Make sure to ask if you’ll take dark magic.

-…Are you perhaps Senior Diret?

The notebook suddenly went silent.

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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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