Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 507

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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 507

The raven beastman mage he was seeing for the first time hugged the straw doll with both arms and set it down.

“It may look roughly made, but it’s a sturdy item with proper magical treatment.”

Dark elements had powerful and unique characteristics, but they weren’t elements that could easily dwell in just any object.

Even the relatively easy water element had objects that were waterproof, but with dark elements, it was faster to just find objects that could house them.

The powerful and unique characteristics that opposed life force actually hindered such processes.

So even this crude-looking straw doll had to be made through proper magical treatment.

“Of course, even considering that, it takes quite a while. You have to repeatedly soak it in dark elements dozens of times.”

To people who didn’t know magic, magic was all about flashiness, but in reality, magic consisted more of tedious repetition and groundwork.

Even making a simple cursing straw doll took much longer than one would think.

“Now. Give it a try.”

“Yes.”

Lee Han swung his staff to summon dark elements.

With the straw doll right in front of him, it was actually easier than usual.

He didn’t need to control his power; he just had to summon the dark elements toward the straw doll and let it absorb them.

However, even though the straw doll was absorbing the dark elements, behind Lee Han, dark elements materialized visibly and intensely, emanating a terrifying aura.

Diret shook his head and opened the window to call in some wind.

As someone who specialized in handling dark elements, Diret had strong resistance to them, but he couldn’t let his guard down in front of this junior.

A moment’s mistake could lead to Professor Mortum’s Dark Tower being shut down.

“Reduce your mana. What you have now is enough.”

“Oh. Is that so?”

“Behind you… no, focus.”

He wanted to tell him to look behind, but Diret just increased the ventilation instead.

If his concentration broke and caused an accident, that would be troublesome.

Whoooosh-

The straw doll that absorbed the dark elements rapidly shrank in size.

Looking at the straw doll that had shrunk to almost palm size, Lee Han was amazed.

“Does it have this structure to compress the dark elements and not let them show externally?”

“No. It shrunk because it’s completed.”

“…”

“…”

The cursing straw doll that should have taken several weeks to make was completed immediately, but Diret responded calmly.

“Professor! I’ll go into the dungeon next door for a moment!”

“Why?”

“The straw doll is completed!”

“What? Cough, why is that… Ah. I understand. Go ahead.”

Professor Mortum also coughed a few times and accepted it calmly.

All the dark mages except Lee Han were accepting it calmly.

“Is it normally okay for it to be completed this quickly? Are there any problems…”

“None. It just finished quickly because you injected too much dark element. The structure is simple, so there’s nothing that could go wrong, so don’t worry.”

Diret paused while speaking.

“Actually, something could go wrong. Put in a moderate amount of mana. It’ll be troublesome if the straw doll explodes.”

“You said it was a sturdy item with magical treatment…”

Diret pretended not to hear his junior’s question.

“Oh, cough. Diret!”

Professor Mortum opened the door again and called for Diret.

“Before entering the dungeon…”

“You mean defensive artifacts? I’ll prepare them.”

Since he was taking a first-year student into the underground dungeon, equipment like defensive artifacts was essential.

“Cough. No. Bring some of Atalap’s bones from the storage on the 2nd floor. Handle the defensive artifacts yourself… honestly, you probably won’t need them much anyway.”

“…”

Even so, isn’t that going too far when a junior is going in?

Diret looked at Lee Han and said.

“Don’t worry too much about it.”

“The Professor just called my name…”

“Why are you, a first-year about to enter a dungeon, worrying about such things first?”

* * *

The large and small dungeons hidden throughout Einroguard were so numerous that even the Skeleton Principal couldn’t keep track of them all.

With such strong mana, naturally occurring dungeons were inevitable.

Some school students artificially secured or managed dungeons due to the nature of the magic they studied, and one of them was the dark magic school.

Due to the nature of dark magic, dungeons were necessary.

“…You understand, right? I’m telling you this so you don’t misunderstand – other schools also manage dungeons. I’m not lying, so make sure to ask around. If they say there aren’t any, then they’re really deceiving you. I can prove it too.”

Unlike when explaining magic, Diret made very lengthy excuses.

Even though it was the same dungeon management, somehow when it came to the dark magic school’s dungeon, he felt a bit self-conscious.

“As a mage, managing dungeons is natural. They’d be hard to find outside anyway.”

Dungeons varied greatly depending on their location and environment, but they also had basic commonalities.

Namely, mana had to accumulate to an excessive degree.

Mana had to accumulate for strange phenomena to occur, and those phenomena had to happen for mages to utilize them, so dungeons were surprisingly difficult to find.

“…Right?”

Diret’s voice rose slightly, sounding somewhat relieved.

Lee Han continued speaking to encourage his senior.

“Yes. A professor I know even took me into a Rakshasa Hungry Ghost dungeon.”

“…That’s not the same thing.”

‘Huh?’

Lee Han was slightly flustered by Diret’s serious denial.

He had meant it as comfort…

Diret was about to say more but gave up and sighed.

What was the point of saying anything?

The professors wouldn’t change anyway.

“The monsters in this dungeon aren’t Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts, but vampire weasels. The structure is simple. It’s linear and not very deep.”

The dungeon next to the Dark Tower that Diret brought him to was quite ordinary, except for using the area near the cemetery pit as an entrance.

Compared to the dungeons Professor Boladi had taken him to with deadly intent, there were no hidden terrain features or places good for ambushes, and it truly felt like a naturally formed underground area.

“Do you know about vampire weasels?”

“Yes.”

They weren’t particularly strong monsters, but they had excellent ability to detect the presence of living beings.

Hunters in some regions even used these monsters instead of hunting dogs…

“Their attacks aren’t fatal, but they hurt quite a bit if you get bitten. Wear this artifact. It’ll form a physical barrier to protect you.”

Lee Han received the artifact from Diret.

However, instead of operating, the artifact malfunctioned, emitting strange lights and sounds.

“Why is this happening? There’s nothing around that should interfere with magic.”

Diret tilted his head in confusion.

Lee Han said carefully.

“It might be because I carry quite a lot of artifacts around.”

“How many do you have? Two?”

“…Add one more zero to the end…”

Even though he had resolved not to be surprised by this junior anymore, Diret was shocked once again. He was so surprised that the wings on his back bristled backwards.

“Why are you carrying around so many artifacts?!”

There was a reason why Empire fairy tales included stories like ‘a mage who wore dozens of rings and exploded’.

Wearing many artifacts wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Since they weren’t fundamentally made with the calculation of being worn together, the more you wore, the more frequent conflicts became inevitable.

It was easy to understand if you thought of dozens of spells crowding onto one person without any buffer. Even if exploding was a bit extreme, frequent malfunctions had to be expected.

“But since most of these are mana absorption types, there weren’t any major problems.”

Lee Han quickly explained since Diret seemed too worried.

Mana absorption bracelets and belts.

Fire absorption rings, bracelets, and necklaces.

Mana emission suppression bracelets.

Even though these artifacts were numerous, their magical principles were simple and all similar types, so there were no particular problems.

Besides, Lee Han would take off several depending on the situation.

“I see… Wait. There are still remaining artifacts?”

Diret pointed out the remaining artifacts, showing he wasn’t an upperclassman for nothing.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a necklace with invisibility magic.”

“This isn’t ordinary invisibility…? Where did you get this? No, that’s not what’s important right now. Anyway, this one’s fine.”

Diret strangely thought of the Skeleton Principal when he saw the invisibility magic necklace, but decided to let it pass for now.

Seeing how clean the magic was, it wasn’t something that would affect the outside.

“This is an underwater breathing ring.”

“This is fine too. Magic like underwater breathing doesn’t usually cause conflicts.”

“This is a poison detection silver spoon.”

“Why do you have this… you haven’t been attempted to be poisoned, have you?”

“What a joke. This is a signal copper ring.”

“This isn’t an artifact that would cause conflicts either. Wait, who gave you this?”

“The Principal?”

“…”

“This is a bracelet of ten thousand magics.”

“Right. …Wait, what??”

Diret was shocked at the artifact that looked like the culprit no matter how he looked at it.

What crazy bastard made a 1st year student wear that?

* * *

After hearing the full explanation, Diret said firmly.

“The Principal has really lost his mind.”

“Senior. Birds hear words spoken during the day and mice hear words spoken at night…”

“Right. I know. The Principal has really lost his mind.”

‘Cool.’

Lee Han was slightly moved by the spirit shown by his upperclassman senior.

This was what a senior should be like.

‘Will I be able to boldly curse professors when I become a senior?’

“To give this to a 1st year student… Sigh. Fine. Anyway, you won’t be able to use this artifact with the others then.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault… And honestly, someone of your level can easily block vampire swallows.”

Diret said that and turned around.

“?”

Lee Han wanted to ask what he meant by that, but the raven beastman mage he was meeting for the first time started walking, so he missed the timing.

‘No way…’

“The reason we raise vampire swallows in this dungeon is because there’s no monster better than vampire swallows for checking dark element related things. Wait, stop there for a moment.”

Diret positioned Lee Han behind him and then walked forward.

After walking a few steps, something flashed in the darkness and bumped into Diret with a ‘thud’.

“See? How they charge right at you?”

“Yes.”

“Now let’s experiment with this.”

Diret threw a pre-made cursed doll forward.

Then the vampire swallows hesitated and couldn’t approach the cursed doll, as if there was an invisible wall.

“Since they’re creatures that sensitively detect life force, they feel the ominousness from dark elements just as much. Basically, if those guys can’t approach, you can consider it successfully completed.”

After finishing his explanation, Diret returned to his position and gestured to Lee Han. It was the junior’s turn.

“…”

“…”

Quiet silence.

When Lee Han stood in front, the vampire swallows became quiet even before he threw the cursed doll.

To anyone watching, it would look like a dungeon with no monsters at all.

Instead of saying anything, Diret had Lee Han come back.

“I’ll test your doll.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me for something like this…”

Diret checked his junior’s cursed doll.

Seeing the vampire swallows retreat even further than before, the effect was very clear.

“Well done. I was slightly worried since the time was short, but there was no need. Expanding this basic process is the beginning of dark element application.”

Adjusting the cursed doll imbued with dark elements to specialize the curse, or making it dwell in other places.

Diret threw blackened bone fragments into the air and summoned skeleton warriors.

Lee Han admired the skeleton warriors that emitted dark elements, unlike their original appearance.

This was undead enhancement magic that combined other elemental magics.

Rather than just ending with adding bones or making them hard, he enhanced them with various attributes.

The magic was so sophisticated that it seemed like this was what you needed to do to be called a necromancer.

“Excellent! What a combination!”

“…You like this that much? You’re really quite peculiar…”

Diret was flustered by his junior’s intense reaction to the undead summons.

It didn’t feel bad, but normally people didn’t generally admire such undead summons.

Especially if they were from noble families!

“Then I’ll try it.”

Lee Han took out bone fragments from his reagent pouch.

“?”

Diret was puzzled by this sight.

It wasn’t particularly something he had shown him to do today…?

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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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