Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 543

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 543

‘Is that really something to be so excited about?’

Professor Kirmin wondered as he watched Lee Han and Ratford enthusiastically dismantling the boxes.

Of course, as a professor, he was pleased that students showed interest and passion for the lecture content, but no matter how he thought about it, their enthusiasm for such uninteresting material was rather bewildering.

“Professor. Do you have any more difficult boxes?”

“Wardanaz. You’re not planning to go somewhere and steal, are you?”

Professor Kirmin said jokingly.

Lee Han’s eyes wavered very slightly.

“Wh-what do you mean? It’s academic curiosity about illusion magic.”

“Th-that’s right. There’s no way that could be it.”

“It’s a joke. A joke.”

* * *

Unlike the whip-loving professors and some professors who liked whips, Professor Kirmin was a gentle professor who preferred the carrot and stick approach.

Since the students had struggled with boring and tedious boxes, the next step should be showing them something interesting to maintain balance.

“Everyone worked hard dismantling those boring boxes.”

“Not at all. It was fun.”

At Lee Han’s words, his friends glared at him from behind as if they wanted to kill him.

Since they couldn’t glare from the front, they had no choice but to glare from behind.

This is why the top student of the year…!

“Then shall we continue explaining the magic I taught you last time? You all remember it, right?”

“Yes, Professor!”

The students’ faces brightened.

The boring analysis and dismantling were over, and a lecture closer to practical application had arrived.

The professor called one student and said.

“Now. Try it.”

“…Be-bend!”

When the student who cast the 【Projectile Refraction】 magic additionally cast Magic Missile, the fist-sized blue sphere that should have flown straight appeared to be coming from a different direction than reality.

It was illusion magic that confusingly showed the trajectory of magic cast by a mage in an unpredictable way.

“Uh oh…!”

When it looked like the Magic Missile would hit the professor’s face directly, the student who cast it made a flustered sound.

Lee Han watched with slightly expectant eyes.

Naturally, Professor Kirmin didn’t let himself get hit. The moment the magic exploded, the professor’s duplicate crumbled and disappeared.

“!”

“…!!”

Chills ran down the spines of the students present.

The professor they had been conversing with until just now was actually a duplicate. They couldn’t even guess when it had been switched.

“Well done, well done. But you’re too honest. You’ll need to learn how to use a bit more trickery.”

All outstanding illusion mages were skilled at deception.

If a situation arose where they had to attack a fortress, an enhancement mage would enter from the front like a knight armed with heavy armor, deflecting incoming attacks and crushing enemies.

But an illusion mage would eliminate the commander before the people in the fortress even noticed and pretend to be the fortress commander themselves.

Opposite to frontal confrontation or flashiness, surprise attacks and deception that caught opponents off guard were essential to illusion magic.

“Now. Let’s pair up in twos. One attacks, one defends. The person in charge of attacking should somehow deceive and subdue their opponent. Got it? Wardanaz. Where are you going? You have to do it with me. You did it with me last time too.”

“Yes…”

Lee Han returned to Professor Kirmin looking dejected.

The students sent respectful greetings to the professor. Professor Kirmin waved his hand as if he understood their feelings well.

“Honestly, it would be unfair if you, Wardanaz, competed with those guys.”

“Not particularly?”

Professor Kirmin pretended not to hear Lee Han’s words. Living as a professor at Einroguard, one developed the skill of pretending not to hear words unfavorable to oneself.

“You learned from Professor Bagrek like that, so ordinary students would be too much.”

“I didn’t learn much.”

“Wardanaz, did you erase from your memory when you pretended to be dead and attacked me last time?”

Professor Kirmin looked at Lee Han as if dumbfounded.

How absurd it had been when Lee Han suddenly collapsed pretending to have a heart attack during the last lecture, and when he approached, Lee Han immediately cast magic.

No matter how he thought about it, it was a suspicious trick that Professor Bae Mo would use.

“Now. Let’s stop the useless talk and begin.”

“Yes. Multiply!”

Lee Han chanted the 【Projectile Multiplication】 spell.

It was similar to the 【Projectile Refraction】 from earlier but a slightly more difficult illusion magic.

It involved placing an illusion on the staff that increased the number of projectiles a mage cast.

“Water!”

Lee Han lightly threw water orbs at Professor Kirmin while chaotically shaking their trajectories.

Since this was a place for practicing illusion magic, power sufficient to knock down the opponent wasn’t necessary.

Professor Kirmin said as if dumbfounded.

“You pretended to cast illusion magic but actually threw multiple real ones just now, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“What do you mean no.”

The professor swung his staff. Then the flying water orbs all split apart simultaneously and fell.

They were all real water with substance.

It was a splendid deception worthy of a high score. Of course, not just anyone could waste mana like that…

‘Is it fake?’

Lee Han focused his attention on Professor Kirmin in front of him.

It wasn’t just speculation from experience, but actually, a very subtle awkwardness could be felt from Professor Kirmin’s appearance.

It wasn’t that his outward appearance was awkward.

That subtle difference inevitably felt when magic was cast.

An ordinary mage wouldn’t be able to sense it, but someone with extremely sensitive senses for mana like Lee Han could feel it.

“Hmm.”

Lee Han suddenly poked a White Tiger Tower student who was earnestly competing in illusion magic with Ratford nearby with his staff.

“Ack!”

“Sorry. I thought you were the professor.”

“You call that…”

“Wardanaz. It’s commendable that you noticed, but that method won’t do.”

Professor Kirmin struck the floor with his staff as if that shouldn’t be done.

If an illusion mage had to hide in a village, they couldn’t attack all the village people, could they?

Lee Han surveyed the surroundings again.

Since he couldn’t know which space the professor was hiding in or how, an area attack…

“Wardanaz. Area magic won’t do either.”

Lee Han looked at the professor in front of him irritably.

“If nothing works, then what am I supposed to do?”

“This is an illusion magic lecture, not Professor Bagrek’s lecture, isn’t it?”

That was certainly a valid point.

Lee Han reflected slightly and threw a water orb at the professor. The professor lightly defended.

‘I need to find the sense of incongruity.’

A distinctly different alien flow from the general flow of mana felt in nature.

Usually, such flow was a clue that could help notice a mage’s magic.

The problem was that other students’ magic kept exploding throughout this lecture hall.

With magic flying around everywhere, the flow of mana was very erratic.

“Mist, spread.”

“!”

Professor Kirmin showed a slightly moved expression as he watched Lee Han cast 【Ogonin’s Thin Fog】.

To think a mere first-year student could cast a 3rd circle spell so cleanly, and Ogonin’s secret magic at that.

Even though he constantly broke lecture magic circles with mana or destroyed materials with mana, seeing things like this made students like Wardanaz truly rare and precious.

‘I need to hide myself first.’

Lee Han faithfully acted according to the teachings.

No matter how much Lee Han was in the attacking role, if he let Professor Kirmin continue observing him, it would inevitably be disadvantageous.

He had to somehow shake his vision momentarily.

“Cloak, swallow me…”

‘He’s doing well?’

Professor Kirmin was impressed as Lee Han’s form became completely transparent in the swirling mist.

It wasn’t for nothing that he was a student with the title 【Boladi’s Only Disciple】.

To think he’d become this skilled after being taught this kind of illusion magic duel just a few times.

‘Right. You need to know how to hide yourself even when attacking.’

Swoosh!

Suddenly the windows closed and curtains were drawn.

The students who had been swinging staffs and kicking each other’s shins also paused and turned their gazes.

Professor Kirmin shouted unconsciously at the ominous premonition.

“Hey, wait…!”

Crash!!

Lee Han mercilessly smashed the magic lamps on the lecture hall ceiling.

The artifacts that had been emitting light shattered with a loud noise and the lecture hall instantly became dark.

The professor simultaneously felt the desire to praise him and the desire to call Professor Bagrek to argue ‘stop making the kid so weird.’

‘He’s breaking that!’

But the inside didn’t become completely dark.

Light penetrating through the curtains and the afterglow of magic emitted by students remained.

“Darkness, flow forth!”

“…!”

Professor Kirmin let out a hollow laugh at the tenacious will to even mobilize that rare dark element to create a blackout.

He was thoroughly enjoying the attacker’s privilege.

“So, Wardanaz? Calling darkness was a good idea, but it seems finding the real body has become more disadvantageous.”

“No. I found it.”

Lee Han stopped behind Ymirg, then dispelled his invisibility magic and lightly tapped his back with his staff.

Then Ymirg’s appearance changed to Professor Kirmin. When the lecture hall brightened, the students nearby screamed in surprise.

“How did you find me?”

Professor Kirmin asked, genuinely unexpected.

Wardanaz was approaching in the right direction, but was still far from finding the answer.

But how?

“After casting invisibility magic, I also cast 【Ogonin’s Emotion Detection】 magic together.”

“Ah. 【Lord Ogonin’s Emotion Detection】? That’s a really clever choice?”

“Uh… Yes. Lord Ogonin.”

Lee Han glanced around and added the honorific.

It seemed he should be more careful with titles in front of Professor Kirmin.

The reason for using 【Ogonin’s Emotion Detection】 was simple.

If Professor Kirmin was hiding as one of the students, he thought he would show calm emotions unlike the other students.

The professor seemed very satisfied with Lee Han’s idea and clapped his hands.

“Right. You noticed well? Did you notice because the magic bounced off? Ymirg does have strong magic resistance, but not enough to block all emotion detection type magic.”

“Uh… Well, the magic itself succeeded.”

Professor Kirmin was flustered hearing Lee Han’s words.

Since it wasn’t a combat situation, Professor Kirmin didn’t go around school with multiple defensive spells.

Still, being fundamentally an illusion mage, there were spells he habitually cast for security…

He just broke through that and saw?

“Well I’ll be. There’s a reason Professor Bagrek likes you so much.”

“What???”

Lee Han turned serious for the first time in a while.

* * *

Though Professor Verdus’ calls, which used to summon Lee Han whenever he was bored, had drastically decreased, Lee Han didn’t mind at all.

He knew very well that going to ask ‘Are you alright, Professor?’ would mean falling deep into the swamp called Professor Verdus.

He would just enjoy the peace created by the senior who was probably still in the underground prison.

‘Thank you, Senior Kettle.’

But he couldn’t avoid Professor Verdus forever.

Lecture time was a prime example.

“Wardanaz. It’s an enchantment magic lecture, so why do you look so bright?”

Angrago couldn’t understand.

Wasn’t Wardanaz the one who had to go fetch the professor!

If it were Angrago, just thinking about it would give him stomach pain…

“Ah. Thinking that I only need to meet the professor during lecture time makes me newly happy.”

“…”

Giselle, who was passing by, looked at Lee Han like he was crazy.

“Professor?”

Before the lecture started, Lee Han knocked on Professor Verdus’ workshop door.

Professor Verdus gestured from afar to open the door and told him to come in.

“Oh. Were you working? Should I come back later?”

“No. Have to go to lecture. They said they’d kill me if I don’t go.”

Lee Han didn’t ask ‘who?’ He just smiled serenely.

Professor Verdus grumbled while quickly finishing his work.

“This is annoying to death! What crazy bastard is smashing lecture hall magic lamps?”

“…”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————