Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 502

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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 502

‘If I leave this alone, it’ll become troublesome.’

The Skeleton Principal became slightly anxious as Ifadur began showing more and more interest in Lee Han.

Ifadur’s interest in Lee Han itself wasn’t a problem, but if it got entangled with Einroguard, it would become quite troublesome.

-So how was the spirit flood resolved?

-That was Wardanaz who…

-There’s still ice in this corridor. Wait! Duke Gonadaltes. Isn’t this frost giant ice!? Has a frost giant been summoned to the school!? Who resolved it?

-That was also Wardanaz who…

Normally, creating songs praising a student wouldn’t be bad at all.

But in Lee Han’s case, it was a bit…

The degree was severe.

A song about ‘a 1st year student succeeding in lightning elemental magic’ would make Empire people smile, but a song about ‘a 1st year student dueling the Frost Giant King’ would shock Empire people.

The Emperor was already glaring and saying ‘tone it down a bit’, so if songs like ‘a 1st year student fought the Frost Giant King~’ spread in the capital…

You bastard. Your face is full of exhaustion!

“Principal, the mage crimin… mmph mmph.”

The Skeleton Principal summoned a bone hand from the air to cover Lee Han’s mouth.

Saying ‘I learned secret arts to fight against mage criminals’ in front of Ifadur wasn’t a very good idea.

You’ve worked hard! Now go in and rest well. Sorry for making you work at dawn!

“I’m still fine though?”

No! Go in and rest!

Lee Han was puzzled, not knowing the Skeleton Principal’s inner thoughts.

He had tried to do his best to repay what he received…

‘Why is he acting like that?’

Since the Skeleton Principal seemed desperate to send him in, Lee Han nodded.

“I understand. Then I’ll see you next time. Lord Ifadur. It was an honor to meet you today.”

“It was an honor for me as well.”

The old bard spoke with a pleased smile.

It wasn’t just courtesy but genuine.

As a bard, students with such fascinating story collections weren’t common.

‘I managed to send him back somehow.’

The Skeleton Principal inwardly felt relieved.

Now that Wardanaz had returned, Ifadur would probably turn his attention to other parts of Einroguard.

…That was problematic in its own way though…

Ah. Professor Thunderstep.

In the distance, he could see the dwarf professor walking over with a handful of moonlight-infused herbs in one hand.

Professor Thunderstep, recognizing Ifadur’s face, spoke with great delight.

“Are you perhaps Lord Ifadur? I heard you were invited, but I didn’t expect you to actually come!”

…

The Skeleton Principal looked at Professor Thunderstep with a displeased gaze.

Of course, some quick-witted nobles of the Empire sometimes didn’t come even when invited to Einroguard, but to say it so openly like that.

Fortunately, Ifadur didn’t seem to catch the meaning behind those words.

“I’m glad everyone is welcoming me.”

Ifadur was pleased by Professor Thunderstep’s welcome and smiled with gentle wrinkles.

“The students too, and with such a warm welcome, I don’t know how to repay this kindness…”

“Oh. You met the students too?”

“Yes. A student from the Wardanaz family helped guide me.”

“Ah. Wardanaz. It hasn’t been long since he went traveling and fought a sea serpent, yet he’s such a diligent fellow.”

“A sea serpent?!”

Ifadur was startled and pulled out his quill.

Seeing this, the Skeleton Principal sighed deeply enough to make the ground cave in.

‘Every single one of them is unhelpful!’

* * *

Weekend afternoon.

“Wardanaz. Here.”

The White Tiger Tower students came carrying boxes and set them down in front of Lee Han.

They had gone to check the location of materials they heard from the person beyond the mirror.

“Was there any trouble?”

“Huh? There wasn’t.”

‘Hmm.’

Lee Han was slightly surprised.

The person beyond the mirror hadn’t pulled any particular tricks, contrary to his expectations.

‘They didn’t pull tricks… If so, there’s a high possibility that it’s really not Black Turtle Tower or White Tiger Tower.’

Lee Han subtly badmouthed White Tiger Tower in front of the White Tiger Tower students.

“Got it. You all worked hard, take this.”

When he pointed to the food supplies promised as part of the deal, the White Tiger Tower students quickly grabbed them…

…or rather, hesitated instead of leaving.

“?”

“Wardanaz. Um…”

‘What is it?’

Since they weren’t usually the type to hesitate like this, Lee Han was even more puzzled.

Had something happened while they were collecting the materials?

“Tell me honestly. I won’t scold you. Did something happen?”

Encouraged by Lee Han’s kind words, the White Tiger Tower friends gathered courage and asked.

“You met Lord Ifadur?”

“We heard you’re helping Lord Ifadur…”

“…”

Whack!

“Ow! You, you said to speak honestly! You said you wouldn’t scold us!”

Whack! Whack!

Lee Han hit them once more each with his staff, then waved his hand dismissively.

“Go. Don’t talk nonsense.”

He was already nervous about having to make the high-difficulty prophecy potion, and now they were talking nonsense.

The White Tiger Tower students left grumbling, and Lee Han’s real friends who would help him arrived.

Reliable friends who were achieving excellent grades in alchemy lectures.

Yoner pulled up a chair and sat beside him, asking.

“By the way. Lord Ifadur came?”

“…Huh, you know Lord Ifadur?”

Lee Han looked at Yoner with a ‘no way’ expression.

He thought Yoner wouldn’t know!

“Of course I know…? My family has invited him occasionally. My sister likes songs too.”

“…”

When Lee Han showed slight despair, Yoner tilted his head as if wondering why.

‘I thought he was a comrade.’

He thought they both only read the economics section of Empire newspapers together, but the basic level of the Meikin Family was on a different dimension from the basic level of the Wardanaz Family.

Not only Asan, but White Tiger Tower and even Phoenix Tower students were chatting enthusiastically about topics related to Ifadur.

“I saw it with my own two eyes. He took out a flute from his shell…”

“You had your song evaluated?”

“I did get criticized for the lyrics, but I still received quite a bit of praise. I’m planning to send it to my older brother and sister too.”

Lee Han swallowed his dejected feelings and prepared the materials.

Seeing even the Imperial Princess talking about Ifadur, he really must be famous.

“Wardanaz. Wardanaz.”

“?”

Nilia poked Lee Han and whispered quietly.

“Who is Ifadur?”

“…You’re the only one, Nilia.”

“Why, why are you saying that? All of a sudden!”

* * *

Even after gathering all the materials, making a high-difficulty potion was no easy task.

He had used up all of Saturday, and even though it was now Sunday, Lee Han was still glued to the cauldron.

“I’m worried about the amount of materials.”

“If we fail any more, that’ll definitely be the case.”

Adding exact amounts of ingredients without the slightest error, carefully controlling mana while reciting incantations, stirring in the prescribed direction when the potion boiled up…

No matter how genius-level talent Lee Han possessed, he couldn’t succeed at all these tasks in one go. There had already been several failures.

The fortunate thing was that there hadn’t been a single failure severe enough to require starting completely from scratch.

But it was true that even minor failures reduced materials with each repetition. Lee Han threw blue meanil flowers into the cauldron once more with a tense expression.

Then he fed the basilisk egg placed beside him.

“…”

Priest Siana, who was watching from the side, was dumbfounded.

He claimed to be nervous, yet seeing him so calmly taking care of feeding the egg, he didn’t seem nervous at all.

‘Is he really nervous?’

That’s when it happened.

Priest Siana cried out in surprise.

“Uh… uhh?! Lord Wardanaz! Lord Wardanaz!”

“I know. Priest Siana! Don’t worry!”

Lee Han quickly added dongha grass and poured cold fresh water to prevent the potion from boiling over the cauldron.

But even that wasn’t enough. The potion that generated its own heat glowed as if it would melt the cauldron itself.

‘I knew this would happen!’

But thanks to experiencing several failures, Lee Han was prepared.

He immediately cast frost magic to prevent the cauldron’s temperature from rising any further.

“Cold air…!”

Normally, such heat generation during the alchemical process should be resolved through material combinations or special reagents, not with separate magic.

Without knowing the proper cause, even if you block it with magic, the problem would keep recurring.

However, Lee Han fired off magic spells as if he didn’t care.

‘If the problem recurs, I’ll just block it with magic again!’

If he couldn’t solve the problem with his brain, he planned to settle it with mana quantity.

“Lord Wardanaz!”

“I’ve blocked it all, Priest Siana! I told you not to worry!”

“That’s not it, look at the egg! The egg!”

“??”

Lee Han unconsciously turned his head.

Crack!

The surface of the basilisk egg had cracks running in all directions. They looked ready to break at any moment.

Crack!

The egg suddenly broke and something about the size of a scarf crawled out from inside.

The baby basilisk looked at Lee Han and scurried toward him as if delighted. It moved like a newly hatched chick running toward its parent.

However, Lee Han reacted differently than the basilisk expected.

“Priest Siana, get down and close your eyes!”

Lee Han covered the baby basilisk’s eyes with his hand and shouted. Priest Siana hurriedly got down in surprise.

-…

The baby basilisk looked at Lee Han with hurt eyes.

* * *

After a brief commotion (three small cauldrons toppled over and one crate broke), Lee Han realized that the baby basilisk didn’t indiscriminately fire off its evil eye.

If it didn’t recognize someone as an enemy, it wouldn’t shoot its evil eye at them.

‘Still, just in case, I should keep its eyes covered.’

Lee Han wrapped the baby basilisk’s eyes tightly with silk. The baby basilisk hit Lee Han’s wrist with its tail, seeming very displeased.

“Priest Siana. Are you alright?”

“Ah. Yes. I’m fine. But it really was a basilisk! I thought the White Tiger Tower folks were talking nonsense…”

Priest Siana was quite sharp-tongued too. Lee Han nodded and said.

“The Professor asked me to raise it. But… it came out much faster than expected.”

While Lee Han wasn’t an authority on raising basilisks, from what he’d learned so far, he could tell the basilisk had emerged too early.

“Really? Didn’t you give it too much food?”

“I gave it the proper amount…”

“Perhaps you kept the egg in a place with excessively strong mana?”

“There’s no way I’d put an egg in such a place…”

Lee Han paused mid-sentence.

Come to think of it, he had been carrying the egg around with him quite a lot lately.

“…I did carry it around a lot.”

At Lee Han’s words, Priest Siana chuckled.

“What nonsense are you saying, Lord Wardanaz? If the basilisk egg had absorbed Lord Wardanaz’s mana, you would have noticed it for sure. Lord Wardanaz isn’t an idiot, there’s no way you wouldn’t notice something like that.”

“…”

Lee Han felt slightly hurt. The basilisk wrapped around him like a scarf patted him as if to comfort him.

“Still, you don’t need to worry too much about it. Even if it came out early, it’s just smaller in size but can still do what it needs to do.”

Priest Siana took out a brass syringe with a sharply pointed end.

It was one of the alchemist’s tools used to extract liquids by inserting it into plants or animals.

“Now. Lord Wardanaz. Please hold it still.”

“…Excuse me, Priest Siana, what are you trying to do right now?”

“Huh? Weren’t you raising it to extract venom?”

The basilisk wrapped around his neck trembled, sensing something ominous.

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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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