Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 498

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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 498

‘Is it really Senior Diret?’

Actually, Lee Han hadn’t asked the question with great confidence either.

He had just suddenly thought of Senior Diret while talking and asked about it.

But when the other person suddenly stopped responding, his suspicion turned into certainty.

Who is that?

‘It really is Senior Diret.’

This time when Lee Han didn’t respond, the other person wrote a few more lines. Somehow it felt like rambling.

I don’t know who that is, but the habit of casually throwing out random names to test the other person isn’t a good habit…

-Senior. This is Wardanaz. The Wardanaz who shared punishment room meals with you.

Once again, there was no response.

Lee Han slightly regretted saying anything.

‘Should I have just pretended to be Moradi?’

Come to think of it, pointing out a senior’s mistake as a junior wasn’t a good habit.

Sometimes you need to pretend not to know and let things slide to become a beloved junior.

Why does a first-year have this kind of artifact…

Diret eventually gave up and admitted it.

The writing on the note looked particularly weak.

* * *

Diret gave Lee Han additional explanations about the artifact.

Since it requires quite a bit of mana, it’s probably drawing mana from the surroundings. That’s why you can’t move… You found it in a storage used by a graduate?

-Yes.

That would have been hard to find by chance, how did you find it?

-I asked a graduate senior who was trapped in the punishment room’s forbidden zone.

…Just say you don’t want to tell me if you don’t want to tell me, junior.

Diret responded with slight irritation.

‘But it’s true.’

Lee Han felt wronged.

-Actually, I caught the forest mouse guarding Polymorph Forest on the third floor and threatened it, then it told me.

Ah, that mouse…! That’s clever?

“…”

Feeling wronged, he had casually thrown out an absurd lie, but Lee Han was flustered by Diret accepting it without any suspicion.

‘Does he think this makes sense?’

It made him wonder what Diret really thought of Lee Han.

-Did you just think that made sen…

I need to leave soon too, so I’ll quickly tell you what you need to know. First, if you get more communication artifacts like this, don’t approach them carelessly like today. The upperclassmen here at Einroguard are absolutely not kind to underclassmen.

-But you’re so kind, senior. They must be really bad people.

Shut up.

Diret cut off Lee Han’s flattery with one stroke.

First-year students usually had fantasies since they rarely had contact with upperclassmen.

-Since Einroguard is dog-like, maybe the upperclassmen are somewhat decent?

-Since the professors are trash-like, maybe the upperclassmen are somewhat decent?

But if you thought about it carefully, there were many flaws in that fantasy.

What kind of beings would the Einroguard upperclassmen be, having gone through the same first-year life and advanced first?

These were people who could sell out their juniors without hesitation for their own survival and benefit.

Students who had just advanced to second year in their innocence could only gain the realization that ‘ah, here the upperclassmen and professors are all the same’ after experiencing being used to the bone several times.

For that reason, Diret was a bit worried about Lee Han.

Of course, this Wardanaz family boy had remarkably exceptional talent in many ways, but when it came to social experience, it was hard to keep up with the worn and weathered Einroguard upperclassmen.

Moreover, as could be seen from getting the communication artifact this time, having exceptional talent in this area was actually poison.

Wouldn’t it increase the opportunities for clumsy contact with upperclassmen?

I’ll tell you a few rules, so remember them. First, approach them strongly. You don’t need to use honorifics.

-Should I try approaching while cursing a bit?

That’s not a bad idea. You can hide your background.

‘Huh.’

It was something he said as a joke, but Diret answered seriously.

Lee Han nodded and made a note beside it.

1. Curse like a back-alley thug.

“…???”

Ratford, who was organizing luggage nearby, saw Lee Han’s note and tilted his head in confusion before turning away.

Never show that it’s your first time using an artifact. People who use these artifacts frequently have a lot of experience and are quick to notice.

-I’ll keep that in mind.

This was definitely sound advice.

It was fortunate that the other person was Diret, but if it had been someone with evil intentions, Lee Han could have easily been deceived.

Speaking little isn’t bad either. You can just ask what you want and what the other person wants. If they’re experienced, they’ll understand what you mean.

Lee Han added to his notes.

2. Speak little

“???”

Few people use blatant deception. But there’s no one who doesn’t use deception. You must keep that in mind.

Since communication artifacts like this were hard to obtain, people who openly broke promises with others weren’t common.

Even among thieves there was honor, and even chaotic back alleys had their own rules.

But ambiguous wordplay was within the allowed range.

Don’t believe everything the other person says. Don’t use this too long. Your grades will suffer. I need to go now. Do you have any questions?

-Senior.

What?

-I’m going to take dark magic in my second year too. Please take care of me.

…I didn’t ask to burden you. With the monster wave and all, I understand if you don’t take dark magic, I was just asking to know in advance. So I could say goodbye properly without you feeling burdened. I’ll say it again, I’m really not trying to burden you, and if you don’t want to take it, you don’t have to. You understand, right? Are you listening?

‘Was he always someone who talked this much?’

Seeing the notebook filling with writing at twice the speed as before, Lee Han felt slightly overwhelmed.

-I’m really taking dark magic just because it’s interesting.

After the ink was inscribed on the paper, there was silence again for a while.

Lee Han thought Diret had left and was about to close the notebook.

Then one more line was added.

That’s good then. See you next year too.

-Yes.

When Diret really left, Lee Han also closed the notebook.

Ratford, who had been organizing nearby, approached and asked carefully.

“Um, Lord Wardanaz. Do you perhaps need to act like a back-alley thug?”

* * *

After clearing up the misunderstanding, Lee Han finished the work together with Ratford.

After sending back Sharkan and Gonadaltes who had worked hard all day (Gonadaltes looked at Lee Han with eyes that mourned his situation every time he moved a large piece of junk), and pushing in the trash, some space was created.

“Was there a window here too?”

“Yes. There was so much graffiti above that it seems to have been forgotten.”

Looking up through the small roof window, stars were already twinkling.

Lee Han placed the necessary books on the long, stately table located in the center of the storage room and let out a sigh.

“The day just passed by. I should start soon.”

“Huh? Did you have an assignment?”

Ratford, who was cutting cheese for the two of them to eat, looked puzzled.

This week’s lectures were all canceled and last week was midterm exams?

No matter how many courses Wardanaz was taking, there shouldn’t be time to receive assignments…

“I received a separate assignment when I went out last time. I have to write two books.”

“Ah. You received it separately. Having to read two books must be difficult.”

Ratford nodded and walked to the side.

Lee Han sat in front of the table, opened his book, and prepared to concentrate.

“…Wait. You said you have to write them?”

“Huh? Yeah. I said I’m writing two books.”

“…”

Ratford was about to say something but gave up and changed the subject.

It was so pitiful that he couldn’t bear it without changing the subject.

“By the way. Since you’ve newly acquired this place, shouldn’t we give it a name? Like Wardanaz’s Secret Base?”

“Wouldn’t Moradi’s Secret Base work?”

Lee Han preferred a name that wouldn’t be traced back to him in case they got caught later.

“Why Moradi…?”

“Alright. Let’s call it Wardanaz’s Secret Base. Any name is fine.”

Ratford’s eyes looked so innocent that Lee Han quickly changed his words.

“By the way, Ratford. Do you have nothing to do right now?”

“Huh? That’s right.”

Ratford said while biting into a thick piece of cheese without much thought.

“Then sit in front of me and open an alchemy book. We can study together.”

“…Ah, oh right. Come to think of it, there are still many miscellaneous items over there. Please let me search a bit more!”

“Hmm. Isn’t that too much? Trying to do everything in one day seems greedy…”

“You can only improve little by little by doing your best!”

Ratford quickly ran off to the pile of miscellaneous items. Lee Han shrugged his shoulders and turned his gaze to his book.

【On Wardanaz’s Water Jade Bullet and Its Basic Principles】

Water element combat magic is often underestimated, but its true value cannot be easily denied by any Imperial mage. Imperial Mage Yumidifus organized classical water element combat magics…

【On the Limitations of Water Jade Bullet Magic and Its Development Direction】

What is Water Jade Bullet magic? To explain this, we must first talk about the underestimated water element combat magic… Imperial Mage Yumidifus…

‘Hmm. My skills haven’t died yet.’

Lee Han was slightly impressed with his own ability to skillfully insert the same content into two different books.

Professor Boladi or the Skeleton Principal might dislike such useless prefaces, but books originally needed such prefaces.

There had to be consideration for the readers.

…First, the following prerequisites are needed… Such massive mana consumption is a disadvantage… To compensate for this, mana amplification methods like blood magic…

‘Is this too extreme?’

While writing the basic introduction to 【Wardanaz’s Water Jade Bullet】, Lee Han hesitated.

As he wrote that heavy mana consumption was a disadvantage that needed to be compensated for, it seemed a bit extreme.

“Wardanaz, sir?”

“Ah. Ratford. Are you going to study alchemy?”

“…No, no.”

Ratford became a little scared of Lee Han.

“There’s an unusual artifact here.”

“!”

Lee Han put down his quill and walked toward where Ratford was.

As the mountain of miscellaneous items was cleared away, a mirror firmly fixed to the floor revealed itself.

The bronze mirror was heavily scratched, its surface cloudy and unable to properly reflect faces.

However, Lee Han instinctively recognized what kind of artifact this mirror was, thanks to having just played with the notebook.

Their mana wavelengths were similar.

‘It’s a communication artifact!’

So there wasn’t just one in the storage room.

Lee Han approached the mirror with curious eyes. Then he activated it the same way he had activated the notebook earlier.

“…”

“…”

However, unlike before, nothing happened.

‘Could it be that the connected artifact has also lost its owner?’

It was entirely possible.

There were many abandoned places in Einroguard, and in such cases, the artifacts connected to them would also be abandoned…

Earlier, he was lucky that Diret had the connected artifact and was nearby when Lee Han connected, otherwise it would have been difficult to hear any response at all.

“Hmm. That’s unfortunate. I was hoping to talk with another senior.”

“I’ll keep watch.”

“No. Only the connected person can see it anyway. Let’s clean this up now and sit down to study.”

“…Yes…”

Ratford became dejected and sat in front of Lee Han. He instinctively felt that excuses would no longer work.

‘Is the old saying that knowing alchemy makes you an excellent thief really true? Isn’t it a lie? Is alchemy really necessary?’

As he opened the alchemy book, skeptical thoughts trapped within the book began to torment Ratford, wielding boredom.

Wooong-

“!”

Lee Han, who was working with his quill nearby, was startled by the sound of the mirror vibrating.

“It’s here!”

“Let’s go look!”

“No. You continue studying what you were doing.”

“…”

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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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