Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 587

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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 587

‘Did I answer too hastily?’

Lee Han had answered quickly because there were many things that made him feel guilty.

Arriving early before final exams to finish the test wasn’t exactly an honorable attitude.

But now the wood spirit’s reaction made him suspect he was missing something.

What could it be?

“Do you know me?”

-From Master…

The characteristically slow and heavy voice of a wood spirit.

Lee Han realized that the master was the Skeleton Principal.

‘Ah. Is this one of the Principal’s subordinates?’

If that was the case, it wouldn’t be strange for it to have heard stories.

Lee Han felt slightly relieved.

-…heard.

“Ah. Yes. I see. But about coming to help… do you happen to manage this jungle?”

The Bijanamu Spirit nodded its head.

To be precise, it was closer to having to clean up a mistake it had made rather than management, but the Forest Keeper didn’t like talking much.

And cleaning up was somewhat close to management anyway.

‘No. How lucky.’

Lee Han was amazed at his current good fortune.

With the help of the Forest Keeper who managed this jungle, he could easily pass through the jungle.

If he could just confirm the jungle’s secrets…!

“Priest Siana. Sharucal Priest. This is lucky.”

“I understand perfectly.”

“We just need to pretend we came to help with work, right? Haha!”

The priests understood Lee Han’s meaning and quickly prepared to lie.

Pretend to be people who came to help with work and follow the Forest Keeper to check the jungle’s paths!

From their innocent appearance, there wasn’t a trace of the stubbornness that priests shouldn’t lie.

Lee Han suddenly hesitated.

‘Is it okay for priests to become this accustomed to lying?’

And a second later, he thought again.

‘It’s good that they’re adapting to Einroguard.’

“Then let’s go!”

The Bijanamu Spirit was pleased by the appearance of Lee Han and the students.

Even though it was surely final exam period, they were trying to help with jungle cleanup that had nothing to do with tests.

They were truly good students.

* * *

The characteristic of Abaltara, one of the plant monsters the Skeleton Principal had ordered to be brought in this time, was its strong vitality and reproductive power.

It possessed the strong power to instantly turn the surroundings into a jungle with just one thrown seed.

To cleanly deal with Abaltara, they needed to remove the plants that had settled in the jungle and served as the core.

Of course, it wasn’t an easy task.

While Abaltara wasn’t a monster that actively attacked or devoured intruders, it wasn’t a monster that stayed still either.

The more it was wrongly provoked, the more Abaltara would bloom the jungle even more densely to push out intruders.

Despite its slow speech, the Forest Keeper moved quickly and smoothly within the jungle.

-Here…

“This tree?”

“Is there something about this tree?”

-De…

“…”

-Stroy…

Unable to wait any longer, the students said to the Forest Keeper.

“Could you speak just a little faster?”

-It…

The Forest Keeper continued speaking slowly with an expression that said it had already talked plenty for today.

The students guessed among themselves.

“Destroy here?”

“Does it mean to destroy?”

“It could be ‘understand’?”

“Maybe it means to dig up…”

-Stroy…

“It was telling us to destroy it!”

Having gotten their answer, the students immediately drew their staffs and swung them.

Sharucal pulled out nearby tree branches and changed the ends into axe blades. Then he swung with force.

Clang!

“Uh… what?”

Sharucal was flustered.

A strong rebound force returned as if he had struck solid rock with an axe, making his hands tingle.

“It doesn’t seem to be an ordinary tree.”

At Lee Han’s words, Siana nodded.

“It certainly seems that way. Step aside.”

“Wait, wait. Just one more time…”

“Ah. It’s one try per person. Move aside. Quickly.”

‘Was there such a rule?’

Lee Han was puzzled, but Siana pushed Sharucal aside and took out a potion bottle.

“Die!”

“Ohhh!”

The priests shouted cheers of support from behind.

Seeing this, Lee Han had the same thought as before.

‘Is it okay for priests to be this combative?’

Hiss-

Whatever Siana had mixed and carried around, a considerably toxic liquid burrowed into the tree’s roots.

But the tree remained intact without showing any signs of withering.

“Move! Move aside!”

“Ah, really!”

“Next is the power of the Sisenza Order…”

“If you fail, does that mean the Sisenza Order’s power is weak?”

“What nonsense are you talking!”

-Fire…

While the priests were chattering actively, the Forest Keeper slowly opened its mouth.

Hearing this, Siana told her friends.

“Fire! It’s telling us to use fire?”

“Is that okay?”

It wasn’t that the priests didn’t know fire magic and weren’t using it.

Since it was a jungle and they didn’t know how it might spread to the surroundings, they had been restraining themselves from using fire.

Sizzle-

“Seeing how it doesn’t burn well, it should be fine.”

“Then I’ll summon fire.”

When the priests showed that even if fire caught around the trees, it wouldn’t spread much, Lee Han stepped forward with his staff.

Since the tree that needed to be destroyed had stronger defensive power than expected, it seemed Lee Han would have to take action.

‘As long as it doesn’t spread to the surroundings.’

Lee Han concentrated with a slightly excited heart at the thought of using flame magic after a long time.

“Burn…”

Flames imbued with powerful mana slowly rose up.

The flames that seemed about to spread explosively barely regained control and struck the tree’s bark.

Though the tree had withstood other methods, it couldn’t endure this flame. The fire slowly spread and wrapped around the tree.

The priests clapped and cheered.

“As expected!”

“It’s the power of the Plemang Order!”

“It’s the Afha Order!”

“It’s neither of them…”

While Lee Han stopped the arguing priests, the Forest Keeper thought to himself.

‘I was going to say fire wouldn’t work…’

Originally, the Forest Keeper had planned to tell the students that fire wouldn’t work either.

Since they had swung axes and poured potions, he judged they would try flames next.

The trees that served as cores of Avatara’s domain were quite thoroughly protected. Usually, axes, potions, or flames wouldn’t work.

To remove a tree, the standard method was to first cut off connections with other areas of the jungle, then absorb the tree’s life force to weaken its defenses, and strike weak points with special spells…

The 1st year student before him had simply used brute force to set it on fire and burn it down. It was truly amazing.

But instead of being flustered or amazed, the Forest Keeper just blinked.

The Forest Keeper, who had originally intended to explain how it should have been handled but got lazy, pointed to the next direction.

-Next…

“Yes. Everyone, let’s move.”

The students moved without ever imagining that originally it wasn’t supposed to be dealt with using fire.

“I guess flame really is the answer.”

“Let’s keep this secret from Priest Nigisor, shall we?”

-To the location…

* * *

“How can you find your way in the jungle?”

Lee Han asked persistently.

One thing he had learned since entering Einroguard was that all knowledge had its use someday.

Right now he could just follow behind the Forest Keeper, but later he might be dropped alone in the jungle.

-The energy…

“Energy? Ah. The core trees from earlier had defensive power that distinguished them from other plants. Naturally, the energy they emit would also be distinguishable, so you’re saying to identify and remember those differences, then use them as markers for movement?”

The Forest Keeper nodded contentedly.

The fact that he didn’t need to say everything made the Forest Keeper pleased.

What a praiseworthy 1st year!

“I see.”

“No, no, no.”

Priest Siana, who was nearby, interrupted in confusion.

“What was that just now??”

“Huh?”

Lee Han was puzzled.

He wondered if Priest Siana hadn’t heard.

“So, Priest Siana. Just like you can feel the flow of mana in magic, you can feel the flow of mana in this jungle too, right? Even though it seems complex and chaotic and meaningless, there are patterns of mana among them that can serve as markers. The tree we destroyed earlier was one of those.”

“How do you detect and remember that…? No. That’s not what’s important right now, so I’ll ask later.”

Priest Siana didn’t ask how he could capture and identify the mana patterns he wanted from this disorderly flow of mana.

She had become quite close to this Wardanaz Family boy to ask such amateurish questions.

He had probably solved it with his own mysterious and special ability.

Or it might be some evil secret magic passed down in his family, but that wasn’t particularly important…

“You didn’t just communicate telepathically, did you?”

“Huh. No, we didn’t. Did it seem that way?”

“It seemed like you communicated telepathically.”

“Wasn’t that telepathic communication?!”

“…”

Lee Han was rather flustered by the priests’ reactions.

Why was that?

* * *

After that, Lee Han’s group continued following the Forest Keeper and diligently helped with the tasks assigned.

In the process, they learned from the Forest Keeper how to find paths in the jungle, how to recognize dangerous plants, how to collect useful parts when removing plants, and so on.

“Did… did we learn?”

“Can you call that learning?”

The priests whispered among themselves.

Rather than the Forest Keeper teaching, it was closer to Lee Han realizing things on his own with the Forest Keeper placed in front of him.

Even if they had placed a crushed rock or Gainando instead of the Forest Keeper, he probably would have realized similar things.

Unaware that the priests were whispering like this, Lee Han, who was walking ahead, realized something and hesitated.

‘Wait. This is strange.’

Come to think of it, this was a Forest Keeper who was supposed to manage this jungle.

But rather than managing the jungle, the Forest Keeper was going around trying to destroy specific trees.

Of course, forests sometimes became dangerous due to some of those trees being contaminated.

If a disease spread to trees, it would quickly spread to other trees, so in such cases, dealing with the diseased trees was the priority.

But the trees the Forest Keeper was destroying seemed more like trees that were cores of domains rather than such trees.

Movements as if trying to eliminate this jungle.

‘Eliminating the jungle wouldn’t be bad for us either… but what? Is it somewhat problematic to keep it here?’

Lee Han wondered why the Forest Keeper was eliminating the jungle.

It definitely wasn’t because the students were inconvenienced…

While pondering this, they arrived at the last tree. Following the Forest Keeper’s instructions, Lee Han burned down the tree with flames.

At that moment, the jungle plants suddenly began to collapse.

As if time had been fast-forwarded, the thickets withered, leaves became fallen leaves and dropped, and trees rotted into the ground.

And all of these things gathered and gathered to form into a single seed. The jungle that had been here felt like an illusion.

“Uh… did you really come to remove the jungle?”

-?

The Forest Keeper showed a different reaction for the first time today.

He couldn’t understand what this master’s disciple was talking about.

Of course he came to remove the jungle, so what else would he have come here for?

Creak-

As the jungle disappeared, the door of the revealed lecture hall opened, and Professor Yonramo appeared from inside.

“Did you clear it all? Thank you… Huh, Lee Han? What are the other students doing here?”

Professor Yonramo was puzzled to see the students gathered in front of the lecture hall.

There was still plenty of time left until the exam.

“Wait, don’t tell me you helped clear the jungle together? I’m grateful, but it’s final exam period, so why aren’t you preparing for exams…”

“Professor, uh, wasn’t breaking through this jungle also an exam?”

One of the priests asked carefully.

Everyone seemed to feel an ominous feeling as their expressions were serious.

“I clearly said the final exam was transforming your arm. No, wait, did I not mention it?”

“…”

“…”

-Thank… you… very… much…

Leaving behind the students with rotting faces, the Forest Keeper expressed its gratitude and departed with a flutter.

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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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