Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 520

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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 520

Lee Han suddenly fell silent at Yoner’s words.

Was that…

Was that it?

‘The other person wouldn’t have seen me as a first year, and probably not as a second year either. There’s a high chance they saw me as a third or fourth year.’

If it was the Skeleton Principal, it wouldn’t be too surprising if he had prepared a hydra for third or fourth years.

However, Gainando offered a negative opinion.

“If it’s that principal, he might have prepared the hydra to use on us. Just because there’s a hydra doesn’t mean we have to defeat it. What if avoiding it is the trial?”

“That’s… true.”

At those words, his friends wavered slightly.

Certainly, defeating a hydra and sneaking past a hydra’s gaze were completely different levels of difficulty.

“Even if we have to defeat it, that would be Lee Han alone.”

“Right… huh?”

Lee Han, who had been nodding, looked at Gainando.

The shocking thing was that the other friends also showed reactions like ‘That sounds reasonable?’

‘These bastards.’

While Lee Han was resolving to definitely bring his friends along if he had to fight the hydra, a new figure appeared from above.

It was Professor Boladi.

“…”

Lee Han froze.

He had thought it was a test prepared by the Skeleton Principal, but could it possibly be a test prepared by Professor Boladi??

‘No. That doesn’t make sense. The final exam is against giants, right? Don’t tell me I have to face giants riding hydras??’

“What’s wrong?”

“Shh.”

Lee Han poked Gainando’s mouth with his staff to shut him up and concentrated.

Professor Boladi stopped in front of the Death Knights and looked at the hydra.

“Still wild.”

-We apologize. They’re naturally fierce creatures…

“Is what I requested ready?”

-Yes. We’ve fed them plenty, so we can extract it now.

One Death Knight approached the hydra and went so deep into its massive maw that it seemed like it might get eaten.

Shortly after, the Death Knight emerged from the hydra’s poison gland with several drops of viscous venom collected in a glass bottle.

-Here it is. But what are you planning to use this for?

“As food for the basilisk.”

-You’re raising a basilisk too?

The Death Knights exchanged glances that said ‘As expected of Professor Muje, only choosing crazy things to do.’

While Einroguard’s professors were generally insane, those without disciples tended to be even more mad.

But the Death Knights said nothing.

It wasn’t their business anyway.

-The basilisk will love it.

-That creature. I hope it eats well and happily bites students around.

“I hope so too.”

Professor Boladi gave a brief greeting and left.

At that sight, Lee Han breathed a sigh of relief.

‘It wasn’t for a test.’

He had just come briefly to get food for the basilisk, not to prepare Lee Han’s test.

Lee Han felt deep relief washing over him.

-Kiiiiit!

The baby basilisk made sharp, sensitive hissing sounds, showing rejection.

Lee Han was puzzled.

“Isn’t poison good for you?”

‘Of course it wouldn’t be good for me…’

The baby basilisk tapped its tail as if it absolutely didn’t want to eat it.

No matter how good medicine was for the body, not wanting to eat it couldn’t be helped.

“I see. Hmm… but if the professor tries to feed it to you, I won’t be able to stop him.”

-…

The baby basilisk became dejected.

Then Gainando made a sound.

“Mmph mmph mmph.”

Gainando, with the staff in his mouth, pointed far away and gestured.

The Death Knights had finished their work and were moving away to another area.

If they were going to check, this was the perfect opportunity.

“Let’s go!”

The students quickly opened the door and crawled out from below.

The hydra, perhaps having vented its anger earlier, was lying down peacefully with all nine heads sleeping soundly.

Lee Han discovered a sign erected in front of it.

Large Hydra

4th Year Dragon

Next to it was another sign.

Small Hydra

3rd Year Dragon

What they couldn’t see from underground was that there was another smaller hydra next to it. The small hydra was spinning its heads around and yawning.

Even with invisibility magic cast, the students froze upon witnessing the awake hydra.

‘Even with invisibility magic, a monster’s senses cannot be ignored.’

Lee Han carefully waved his staff.

Even with invisibility magic, if the hydra felt something strange and just swung its tail, it would be a disaster.

‘Gonadaltes. Please!’

Among the summons he could currently call, the skeleton warrior Gonadaltes was the easiest to cast and the most intelligent.

This skeleton warrior was capable of much more precise movements than what Lee Han could directly control.

When the summoned skeleton warrior made noise behind the small hydra, the small hydra turned all its heads at once and promptly devoured the skeleton warrior in shared bites.

‘Thank you. Gonadaltes.’

Lee Han silently expressed gratitude to his summon and escaped the hydra’s territory with his friends.

Ymirg, who took dark magic classes with them, asked in confusion.

“D-doesn’t your summon get angry when you treat it like that?”

Dark mages didn’t roll around in cemeteries and smear rotten mud on their clothes to get along with undead summons for nothing.

Summons called from other planes were beings that could hold grudges at any time, and even if bound by contract, they could somehow stab you in the back if treated carelessly.

As such, openly using an undead summon as bait like Lee Han just did was quite dangerous.

“No. Gonadaltes is loyal and kind, so it’s fine.”

“…”

Ymirg was amazed watching the skeleton warrior being torn apart by the small hydra’s heads and reverse-summoned.

Was it really okay?

‘Maybe such ruthlessness is essential to be good at dark magic…’

Even the same action felt different when Wardanaz did it versus when Gainando did it.

Seeing the top dark magic student act this way, Ymirg felt somewhat tempted.

Come to think of it, hadn’t Ymirg himself been treating undead summons too gently until now?

‘I need to be more ruthless like Wardanaz…!’

Lee Han, sitting on top, looked puzzled at Ymirg clenching his fists.

‘What? Is he vowing to catch a hydra next time?’

Lee Han briefly considered whether he should stop his friend.

“Looks like we’ve gotten away. Wardanaz.”

“Yeah. Everyone did well.”

Once they were sufficiently far from the hydra, the students sat down to rest.

They were quite exhausted from passing through the secret passage and encountering the hydra.

Lee Han passed around a bottle of lemonade to his friends.

‘At least it’s fortunate this was a 3rd and 4th year exam.’

Looking at the sign in front of the hydra, it was truly a stroke of luck that it was an exam unrelated to Lee Han.

In a way, he had only lost out from dealing with the other person beyond the mirror, but Lee Han wasn’t angry at all.

Rather, it was fortunate!

‘The other person really thought I was a third year or above…’

He had tried his best to disguise himself, but he hadn’t expected it to work this well.

After taking a brief rest and recovering their energy, the friends looked around the area a bit.

“Lee Han. Did you see this?”

Gonadaltes’ Garden

Students Keep Out!

“As expected, it was the Principal’s exam.”

“Look at this one too.”

Gonadaltes’ Garden

Students Absolutely Keep Out!

“This one too.”

Gonadaltes’ Garden

Students Absolutely Absolutely Absolutely Keep Out!!!!

“…I can tell from just one, so stop bringing more signs.”

Lee Han stopped Gainando from bringing another sign.

They could already tell sufficiently where they were.

‘It must be like a dangerous animal stable.’

While ordinary horses or non-dangerous animals could be kept in stables throughout the school grounds, Einroguard had many beasts far more dangerous than horses.

Basilisks, hydras, griffins…

Lee Han suddenly wondered if there weren’t too many dangerous beasts around him.

‘Huh. When did they multiply like this?’

Anyway, if these beasts were carelessly released, even in the free-spirited Einroguard, the damage to students would be considerable.

Naturally, there had to be a place that specialized in raising such dangerous beasts.

Especially with the Skeleton Principal’s personality, there was no way such a place wouldn’t exist.

“Th-that’s a fire dog, isn’t it?”

“That’s a Stymphalian bird! I heard their feathers are so expensive…”

“What? Can’t we take one?”

Seeing rare animals swiftly passing by, Lee Han suddenly regretted not studying more magic normally.

Professor Boladi’s words had actually been right.

You never know when or how magic might be needed!

‘If I could have caught them, I definitely would have taken them!’

Seeing them fly like arrows over the jungle and disappear, there seemed to be no way to catch them.

“D-did you see that?? It’s a ghostly chicken! There’s a ghostly chicken over there!”

“Ymmmiiirrrgggg. You don’t need to shake me to talk.”

“Ah, s-sorry.”

Ymirg stopped shaking Lee Han and pointed carefully.

In one clearing, there was a peculiarly shaped chicken.

It was several times larger than other chickens, with dark, gloomy eyes, constantly pecking fiercely at tree stumps in a fit of rage.

‘A curse?’

Befitting the top student in dark magic, Lee Han immediately noticed the aura flowing from the ghostly chicken’s entire body.

That ominous arrangement of magical power was close to a curse. It probably cursed anyone who touched it by nature.

“Th-that ghostly chicken is really precious. I… I’m seeing one for the first time too.”

Ymirg was excited and kept swallowing. Lee Han said without much thought.

“Then shouldn’t we just take it?”

“Huh?”

“Shouldn’t we just take it? It was put here to be taken anyway.”

Of course, the Skeleton Principal hadn’t put it there to be taken, but Lee Han tended to respect the Principal’s teachings.

If you have the skill to take it, you may take it!

“Th-that’s a bit… there’s nowhere to raise it…”

“We can find a place to raise it. But does that ghostly chicken have any advantages other than being cute?”

Just from seeing him find the chick cute earlier, it was clear that Ymirg liked chicken-type creatures.

He probably thought that ghostly chicken was cute too.

“Ad-advantages? The f-feathers and eggs are expensive…?”

Ymirg spoke dejectedly, wondering if this counted as an advantage.

Lee Han answered decisively.

“Let’s take it. Seeing it emit curses, I should be the one to catch it.”

“!?”

* * *

Monday.

With his muscle pain somewhat recovered, Lee Han headed to attend Professor Lightningstep’s lecture.

Beside him, skeleton warriors supported their master who still couldn’t move freely.

“…”

“…”

The White Tiger Tower students saw this and whispered among themselves while avoiding him from a distance.

‘Why is that Wardanaz guy acting like that?’

‘I don’t know. Don’t make eye contact. Looks like he wants to start a fight.’

Spotting Professor Lightningstep, Lee Han bowed his head.

“Good morning, Professor.”

“Yeah. I’m not doing well though.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Well now. I trusted the Principal and left today’s lecture materials with him, but he says he lost them. I don’t know if you can call that an excuse.”

“Oh my. You should protest firmly, shouldn’t you?”

With a premonition that today’s lecture difficulty would decrease, Lee Han felt slightly pleased but professionally maintained his expression without showing it.

“Of course I’ll have to protest more later. I left it there because he told me to trust only him! Though I did leave it with a troublesome creature since he’s picky…”

“What kind of creature was it?”

“Do you know what a ghostly chicken is? You probably haven’t seen one directly since it’s a rare creature.”

“…!”

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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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