Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 508

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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 508

‘Hmm.’

Today his junior must have consumed quite a bit of mana and mental energy making that cursed doll.

…Come to think of it, it wasn’t mana, but mental energy consumption was still an important issue.

Since magic originally required high levels of concentration, mental fatigue inevitably accumulated with each casting.

However, Diret didn’t stop his junior.

Seeing him earnestly pondering while taking out bone fragments from his reagent pouch, he didn’t feel like discouraging him.

‘Will he be… alright?’

Seeing Lee Han energetically taking out bone fragments and making various preparations, he wondered if he was worrying unnecessarily.

Shouldn’t geniuses be treated according to their genius?

Telling a genius to go slowly would just be meaningless interference.

‘Right. Let’s leave him be.’

“Senior. I’m trying to compress dark elements into this bone fragment…”

“That’s originally hard to do on the spot. I’ll lend you…”

“How about this much?”

Diret looked up and stared at the bone fragment placed on Lee Han’s palm.

In that brief moment of contemplation, this junior had accurately compressed dark elements into the reagent.

Like with the cursed doll, seeing him instantly solve preparatory work that would normally take ages in workshops or magic towers, Diret seriously pondered.

‘Could this junior bear some responsibility for the professors’ continued antics?’

Even though most of Einroguard’s professors were lunatics, didn’t his junior bear some responsibility for continuing to advance step by step when he could just stop?

Especially if he advanced through that curriculum all too well, wouldn’t he bear even more responsibility?

‘Ah! What crazy thoughts am I…’

Diret shook his head repeatedly, trying to dispel such wicked thoughts.

To blame his junior instead of the professors in this insane magic school.

No matter how excellent Lee Han showed himself to be at magic, it didn’t justify the professors’ actions.

If they had human hearts, they should think ‘He’s already doing a lot, I should stop him’ rather than ‘He seems fine, so let’s give him more.’

Clatter clatter-

“…”

Despite his firm resolution just moments ago, Diret felt his resolve waver as he watched his junior easily summon over ten dark skeleton warriors.

* * *

Summoning skeleton warriors and summoning skeleton warriors enhanced with dark elements didn’t differ greatly in their fundamental principles.

If one could control the dark elements contained in the reagents during the summoning process, the rest would be handled by the undead summoned from the Undead Realm accepting the power on their own.

Of course, the process was a bit more difficult for Lee Han.

Unlike other necromancers, he was learning ancient necromancy that built from the ground up rather than summoning from the Undead Realm.

But even considering that, it wasn’t impossible.

Lee Han already had plenty of experience summoning and fighting with skeleton warriors…

‘Is it a bit unstable?’

When the dark elements dwelling in the bones fluctuated and tried to leak out, Lee Han immediately poured in mana to stabilize them.

Since runaway was the most dangerous situation when handling unstable elemental types like dark elements, Lee Han’s response method was an advantage no one could match.

‘No need to summon Gonadaltes.’

Lee Han was satisfied looking at the skeleton warriors ominously emanating black aura.

Dark elements were peculiar elements that dealt damage to opponents through mere contact.

While ordinary skeleton warriors couldn’t defeat experienced enemies head-on, these skeleton warriors were different. Those who didn’t know how to counter them would have their life force drained in an instant.

‘Now that the summoning itself succeeded, if I combine them into one…’

Lee Han prepared to disassemble and reassemble the summoned skeleton warriors into one.

Doing such violent things to undead summoned from the Undead Realm could result in getting stabbed in the back, but ancient necromancy was much freer in this regard.

For Lee Han, who still couldn’t control multiple skeleton warriors simultaneously, this process was essential.

Swoosh-

“?”

Lee Han, who was about to swing his staff to disassemble them, was startled by the skeleton warriors’ movement.

‘What?’

It wasn’t his imagination.

When he swung his staff again and moved his mana, the skeleton warriors moved accordingly.

“Senior! The skeleton warriors are moving!!”

“…Huh? What? Um… of course skeleton warriors move?”

Diret was slightly flustered, not understanding why Lee Han was acting this way.

It felt like watching a friend smart enough to be scouted by the Empire’s treasury department suddenly exclaim ‘Gasp! 1+1=2! I finally figured it out!’

Why was he making a fuss over something so basic?

“I originally couldn’t move skeleton warriors.”

“You??”

‘Oops. Did I seem too complacent?’

When Diret exclaimed in a high-pitched voice of surprise, Lee Han thought ‘oops.’

Showing an incompetent and lazy side in front of his senior wasn’t a good idea.

“I was studying other magic at the same time, so my schedule got pushed back, but I was planning to solve it soon. If I’d had just a little more time, I definitely would have…”

“…Ah, no. I don’t think you need to go that far…”

He was just surprised that Lee Han couldn’t move them; if it were another junior, he wouldn’t have been surprised at all.

And thinking about it, he could understand why Lee Han couldn’t move them.

These were skeleton warriors created through ancient necromancy rather than the typical Undead Realm summoning method, and he was trying to control over ten simultaneously…

No matter how genius-level talent one possessed, it wasn’t easy.

Rather, maintaining them was more surprising.

‘He probably didn’t notice anything strange because he has too much mana.’

Normally other dark mages would experience mana depletion or exhaustion several times, then humbly learn ‘Ah, I’m doing something wrong,’ but this junior never had that opportunity, so he just kept forcing it until he adapted.

“It’s probably also because the dark elements made your control stronger and more precise.”

Diret gently pushed a skeleton warrior with the tip of his staff while explaining.

Since he was controlling them not just with mana but additionally using dark elements, it was natural for control over summoned creatures to become stronger and more precise.

Of course, this increased mana consumption and magic difficulty, but that meant nothing to this junior.

Mana consumption and magic difficulty had no effect on him whatsoever.

“And you must have gained experience too. You’ve been consistently summoning skeletons all this time.”

“Yes. When I was stranded last time, I also summoned skeleton warriors to fight the King of Ghouls.”

“…Uh, uh-huh…”

Diret had tried not to be flustered, but he couldn’t manage his expression when his junior mentioned fighting the King of Ghouls with skeleton warriors.

Still…

Was that really okay?

“Senior. Now that I can move them, I’d like to practice a bit more.”

“Mm. Alright. It’s a bit difficult here, so let’s move somewhere else.”

Diret guided the way to a place suitable for his junior to command skeleton warriors.

‘For testing skeleton warriors… dark elements are involved too, so I need to consider that. Wait. There are many of them, so I need to be mindful of that too. The dungeon near the ossuary would be too low difficulty. Toward the storage area? That might be too easy too?’

Even while moving to another location, Diret didn’t realize.

The fact that he was falling into the exact same trap as the professors he had been criticizing.

When talking with the junior before his eyes, he would unconsciously raise the difficulty level as if hypnotized, without realizing it.

* * *

Swish!

‘What?’

While blocking an arrow flying overhead with a water shield, Lee Han was puzzled.

The dungeon’s difficulty had suddenly increased too much.

Of course, the very first was a dungeon for testing basic dark element curse dolls, and now it was a dungeon for testing the next stage – dark element skeleton warriors.

So it was natural for the difficulty to increase…

But the difficulty gap between the vampire bat dungeon earlier and this current Wooden Soldier Dungeon completely exceeded expectations.

The moment they opened the dungeon door, the wooden soldiers waiting inside began pouring out wave attacks like precisely meshing gears.

The wooden soldiers in front approached the mages with shields raised to protect themselves, the ones in the middle charged with long spears, and the ones in the back continuously fired crossbows.

An ordinary mage would have panicked, but Lee Han had already cast various enhancement magic before entering the dungeon.

With 【Gonadaltes’ Nimble Steps】, 【Spatial Awareness】, and even 【Bagrec’s Instant Divination】 added, he achieved reflexes rivaling a master swordsman.

Overall enhanced physical abilities.

Plus the 【Spatial Awareness】 magic that detected enemy attacks.

Thanks to that, the more accurate 【Bagrec’s Instant Divination】 warned of the future. Lee Han quickly dashed to the side, escaping the attack range.

“Skeleton warriors forward. Shield, spread out!”

Spreading a giant water shield in the air to further strengthen defense, Lee Han advanced the skeleton warriors enhanced with dark elements.

‘They’re moving properly!’

Seeing the skeleton warriors advance slowly but steadily in formation was honestly moving.

It felt like all the worries accumulated from failed magic were being rewarded.

Thud!

The wooden soldiers seemed to be made with quite strong magic, as they overwhelmed the skeleton warriors in strength when they clashed.

Despite both holding shields, the skeleton warriors were visibly being pushed back little by little.

However…

“Hold your ground!”

Lee Han had something he believed in.

Sure enough, the wooden soldiers that came into contact with the dark elements began to slow down and lose strength little by little.

In a prolonged battle, this side was bound to have the advantage.

After enduring and persisting until he finally brought down the opponents, Lee Han let out a sigh of relief and looked at Diret.

“Senior?”

Diret had been thinking ‘Wait, why did I bring him here? Isn’t the difficulty too high?’ when he was startled and answered.

“Huh?”

“Thank you. But is this a Dark Magic School dungeon?”

“You’re quick to notice. This is a dungeon managed by the Enchantment Magic School.”

“Ah. I thought so.”

Artificially maintaining wooden soldiers of that caliber was quite high-level magic.

It made sense that it was a dungeon managed by the Enchantment Magic School.

“Do you have connections with the Enchantment Magic School too, Senior?”

“No. They don’t socialize much.”

“Then how? Ah.”

“You get it?”

“Did we perhaps sneak in?”

Lee Han sent a meaningful look as if he understood.

Diret was dumbfounded and paused before answering.

“…We came in after telling Professor Verdus. You’re taking enchantment magic too.”

“Ah.”

Lee Han felt slightly embarrassed.

“It seems like you’ve confirmed things, shall we go back?”

“Could I test a little more?”

“More here?”

Diret flapped his wings in confusion.

He had already confirmed command by advancing and retreating the skeleton warriors, so he couldn’t understand what more there was to test.

As for mana…

‘No. Mana should be fine.’

Was he trying to test bone-type weapons or applications?

“Can you do more?”

“Yes.”

“Alright then.”

With Diret’s permission granted, Lee Han led the undead deeper inside.

And a thunderous roar erupted.

BANG!!!!!

“…?!?!!!”

While Diret stared in shock, Lee Han didn’t even blink as he advanced the remaining skeleton warriors toward the formation of wooden soldiers shattered by the bone explosion.

‘If an explosion of this magnitude occurs, I can somehow endure it with shields up.’

One skeleton warrior was consumed, but it was worth it. The explosion mixed with dark elements slowed the wooden soldiers even more.

“Senior. I’m trying to combine poison elements too, could you give me some guidance… Senior? Senior??”

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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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