Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 648

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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 648

However, Alsicle was not fooled.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Alsicle swung his staff to summon the helmet back and threatened the insolent artifact.

“A mere helmet daring to act arrogant toward a mage? I’ll lock you in eternal cold.”

P-please help me, Master.

The helmet abandoned its usual arrogant attitude and called out to Lee Han.

Unlike Einroguard’s students, there was no telling what outside mages might do.

Alsicle summoned thick ice and trapped the arrogant helmet inside to teach it a lesson.

Then he asked Lee Han.

“An artifact like this shouldn’t be completely useless though.”

“Well, the thing is…”

Lee Han explained what kind of artifact this 【Helm of Wisdom】 was.

Regardless of the artifact being evil, if it had been useful, Lee Han would have used it often, but this helmet knew little yet had far too long cooldown times for answers.

It wasn’t for nothing that Lee Han hadn’t brought it out during the semester except for the flood incident.

However, despite such explanation, Alsicle showed interest in the helmet.

The purpose of creating the helmet to collect knowledge was interesting in itself, and he was curious about what knowledge it possessed.

“I’m envious. To obtain something like this.”

“Then why don’t you buy it, Penguerin?”

“Huh? Really?”

“!”

Lee Han hesitated when Alsicle reacted to his casually thrown remark.

“You really want to buy it?”

“If you’re selling, I’d naturally buy it.”

“This helmet was refused purchase even by shops…”

“Of course ordinary shops wouldn’t buy it. It’s an evil artifact. But I’m a mage. Artifacts like this are good to take and research.”

Lee Han’s eyes sparkled.

Since the sale had failed, if he couldn’t sell it to Alsicle at this opportunity, he might never be able to get rid of the helmet.

“Then just pay one silver coin and take it!”

“What? No way! What are you talking about?”

Alsicle was appalled by Lee Han’s ridiculous words.

No matter how much he lacked financial sense being from a great noble family, to say such things.

If rumors spread that he took a junior mage’s artifact for one silver coin, from that day Alsicle’s nickname in the Empire’s magical circles and social circles would become 【Artifact Thief】 or 【Junior Exploiter】.

“How could I buy such an artifact for just one silver coin? Absolutely not.”

“Oh dear.”

Lee Han pretended to think as hard as possible before opening his mouth.

“Then what would you consider an appropriate price, Penguerin?”

“This isn’t something you pay for with money.”

As a senior mage, buying Lee Han’s artifact with money went against custom.

Though better than rumors of taking it for one silver coin, nicknames like 【One Who’ll Die Buried in Gold Coins】 or 【Junior Oppressor】 could still stick.

To prove there was no pressure or coercion, an exchange was appropriate.

Alsicle would gift Lee Han an artifact slightly more valuable than the artifact Lee Han was giving him.

“…I really prefer gold coins. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Don’t say ridiculous things. Honor doesn’t disappear just because no one’s watching. Hmm. What suitable artifacts were there.”

Alsicle ignored Lee Han’s words and browsed through his list of artifacts.

The list was somewhat sparse since he’d recently converted several expensive artifacts to Empire gold coins for magical research.

Moreover, weren’t all of Wardanaz’s artifacts uniformly powerful?

Though sinister and bizarre, their power couldn’t be denied.

“Hmm. A staff embedded with Count Jeongryeong’s seal… this would be unnecessary since you have the Frost Giant King’s gemstone… how did you even come to possess the Frost Giant King’s gemstone?”

Alsicle paused his pondering to look at Lee Han accusingly, as if feeling wronged.

“There was a dimensional gate at school… no, more than that, didn’t I tell you when Yumidifus was here before?”

“Did you?”

Alsicle tilted his head.

His memory of when Yumidifus, Wardanaz, and Bagrek visited was still somewhat hazy.

He remembered crying his eyes out from shock at Wardanaz’s tremendous talent…

“You were going to lend me a staff embedded with a Frostagon egg, Penguerin, but Professor Bagrek stopped you. He said the stone I received from battling the Frost Giant King was better than that egg.”

“Thanks so much for reminding me of a memory I wanted to forget.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What fault could you have? It’s Professor Bagrek’s fault.”

Alsicle grumbled as he rummaged through artifacts. Nothing suitable seemed to appear.

“Penguerin. Why don’t you take it first and give me something later?”

“No way. Then I’d become 【Alsicle the Junior Deceiver】.”

“Pardon?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

But no matter how much he searched, no artifact suitable to give Wardanaz right now appeared.

‘This won’t do.’

Alsicle resolved to participate in several auctions even now.

Seeing Alsicle quickly pull out catalogs and letters, Lee Han asked puzzledly.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Participate in an auction. To join the Crescent Moon Auction, I need to send a letter by tomorrow.”

Among the Empire’s auctions, some required direct attendance, but there were also auctions for those who couldn’t attend.

Given how vast the Empire’s territory was, gathering in one place was quite an undertaking.

For such people, the Crescent Moon Auction sent treasure catalogs and received bids for desired items by letter until a set date.

“The Crescent Moon Auction!”

Lee Han and Yoner were startled.

“Why? Do you want to look together?”

“That auction with heavily inflated prices…!”

“Isn’t it too wasteful?”

“…That’s not what’s important right now.”

Unlike other auctions, since they couldn’t gauge each other and bought items with just a letter, they inevitably had to bid higher prices than usual.

Otherwise it would be their loss.

But when urgent, what choice was there? Alsicle pushed away the two bothersome students and opened the catalog.

Seeing the outline of the colorful, magically enhanced Crescent Moon Auction item catalog, Lee Han’s eyes sparkled.

For Lee Han, who dreamed of high-efficiency income at low cost, auctions were one of the gateways he must eventually pass through.

When finding treasures in various ruins or commissions, where else would he sell them?

Though some mages disassembled and analyzed everything themselves, Lee Han had no intention of committing such waste.

‘I’m curious what’s listed.’

“May I take a look too?”

“Looking is free, but complaining about prices from the side is forbidden.”

“Why can’t I call expensive things expensive…”

Lee Han grumbled but Alsicle was firm.

Having someone make a fuss about prices while choosing artifacts was mentally exhausting.

“Spadurus egg, estimated price two hundred Empire gold coins… No. Why is a Spadurus egg so expensive?”

Though he immediately broke his just-made promise, Alsicle grumbled and explained.

“Spadurus has feathers that shine in thirteen different colors.”

“But it’s a bird with little magical use, isn’t it? And it doesn’t have other abilities either.”

“That’s right. But it’s pretty.”

“…”

At Alsicle’s words, Lee Han lamented.

‘An egg from such a pretty-colored bird costs over two hundred nip!’

By Lee Han’s standards, it was an unbelievable luxury.

Henagon’s Staff

The staff used by Henagon, a famous mage from the Western Empire, contains the magic that Henagon used for a long time.

Estimated price: fifty imperial gold coins.

Roznata Blossom

The flower of flowers with the most perfect harmony of pink and red hues, and the most beautiful flower in the Empire.

To cultivate this flower, Feltel the 【Flower Grower】, unmatched among the Empire’s horticulturists, devoted nearly a year of care.

The history of this flower is…

…

…

Estimated price: thirty-two thousand imperial gold coins.

“Cough.”

Lee Han had never experienced the feeling of being hit by a mental attack, but looking at the auction catalog gave him a similar experience.

A pretty flower with no use for magic seemed more expensive than a fortress.

“I don’t understand why people don’t buy artifacts. They’d be much better than flowers like that!”

Lee Han said indignantly.

For Lee Han, who was thinking of excavating and selling artifacts later, this was almost a livelihood issue.

Why was there such a huge difference!

“Well, artifacts… ordinary people have no use for them…”

Alsicle sympathized with Lee Han’s feelings.

Really, they save money on magical research that truly deserves gold coin investment, while wastefully spending on such useless things.

In Alsicle’s opinion, the money spent on such things should be taken and given to mages.

“Isn’t that robbery?”

“Rather than robbery, a more elegant and noble expression would be…”

“Banditry?”

“I was wrong. Let’s stop.”

Alsicle changed the subject and turned the pages of the catalog. This auction didn’t originally have many items that mages could use, but this particular auction was especially so.

‘Hmm. Seeing things like that makes me want to sell something too.’

Looking at the auction items in the catalog, Lee Han also wanted to reverse his life in one shot.

The items he had were…

‘Manma’s Bracelet or the Dawn Star wouldn’t work, right? Same with the Behemoth necklace. And the staff too… Should I try selling the silver spoon for poison detection? Honestly, it’d probably be fine even if it can’t detect poison. No, I probably wouldn’t get much for this. The design should have been better. Or it should have had a story.’

Lee Han seriously pondered how he could fraudulently sell the artifacts he possessed.

During this, a pocket watch with cracked glass came rolling toward him. Lee Han reached out and caught it.

“This is…”

It seemed unfamiliar at first, but then he remembered.

It was something he had bought when visiting the 【Night Goblin’s Tangled Treasure Pile】 shop that dealt in used artifacts with the excellent mage Baldoron.

This wasn’t exactly an artifact. The shop owner had said so, and Baldoron had agreed.

But…

-It seems you’ve earned some silver coins from selling artifacts… How about buying this? Once you miss a pocket watch in such good condition, it’ll be quite hard to find another.

-Indeed. If Master Baldoron says so…

-No, no. I didn’t mean it with such deep meaning!

Thinking about it now, there seemed to be some meaning in Baldoron’s words.

Like the Skeleton Principal and Arsil, people who had lived long and become bored tend to convey messages indirectly through metaphors rather than speaking directly.

What if Baldoron’s words were some kind of hint?

‘There’s quite a possibility of that.’

Having thoughts that would have made Baldoron flip if he had heard them, Lee Han began delicately examining the cracked pocket watch.

Starting with detection magic, he searched for any secrets hidden within this pocket watch using various methods.

However, there was nothing special about the pocket watch. Lee Han wondered if he had been too sensitive.

‘Should I try putting in some mana?’

Lee Han very carefully let mana flow into the pocket watch.

Sending mana like this to check the internal structure was one of the specialties of enchantment mages.

To be proficient in creating and repairing artifacts, you couldn’t open them up every time.

Lee Han started with the disadvantage of naturally low mana capacity, but he also had correspondingly sensitive mana detection ability.

And beside him was the Crazy Beaver Beastman Professor who annoyingly helped control mana amounts.

Thanks to this, Lee Han could send an appropriate amount of mana. The increasingly complex structure of the pocket watch became clearly felt.

Click!

As Lee Han’s mana precisely touched the escapement inside the pocket watch, the sound of the second hand stopping rang clearly in his ears.

And Lee Han felt the surrounding time momentarily slow down.

‘…Time magic?!’

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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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