Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 673

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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 673

“Professor. The griffin seems to be scared…”

At Nilia’s words, Professor Bendozol flew into a rage.

“Griffins don’t get scared! Don’t say such insulting things!”

“Eek.”

“Listen, all of you! Griffins like to play pranks by swishing their tails around. So if you ever have to take care of a griffin, stick your head out like this. To make it easier for the griffin to hit you with its tail.”

“Wouldn’t getting hit by a griffin’s tail cause serious injury?”

Durgyu cautiously raised his hand.

Griffins were among the most powerful monsters classified as beasts.

Naturally, even a casual tail swipe had the power of a mace. One wrong hit wouldn’t end as just a prank.

Professor Bendozol seemed to know this fact as he nodded and answered.

“Endure it!”

“…”

“…”

“…I’ll raise Ponrig myself.”

“You stupid fraud! Are you getting cocky because you think you’re receiving a griffin’s love!”

Professor Bendozol barked while crawling on all fours, but Lee Han ignored him, pretending not to hear.

If he had met him when first entering Einroguard, he would have been flustered, but by now Lee Han had encountered too many insane professors to be surprised by Professor Bendozol.

After ranting for a long time about ‘how to raise griffins’, Professor Bendozol finally gave up and shut his mouth when Lee Han ignored him.

“Basilisk!”

“Yes?”

“Griffins aside, I asked how you’re raising your basilisk!”

“I’m raising it well…”

From Lee Han’s sleeve, the basilisk’s tail peeked out and wiggled.

It understood it was being called and was greeting them.

Seeing this, Professor Bendozol’s spiteful face filled with a satisfied smile like a proud father.

“Looking at its playful behavior, it seems quite satisfied!”

“Thank you.”

“What about food? You should be feeding it premium minotaur shoulder meat. Are you doing that!”

“…”

It was a diet that would bankrupt him after a few meals.

Lee Han answered reluctantly.

“I’m sharing what I eat with it.”

“You… you… you… ignorant…!”

Professor Bendozol’s face, crawling on all fours, turned bright red and foam rose from his mouth.

Seeing this, Siana whispered.

“Doesn’t he have rabies?”

“Priest Siana…”

“No. Think about it rationally. We can’t just let it slide because he’s a professor.”

“%&%##%^#$!”

Professor Bendozol spewed curses in an incomprehensible dialect before finally regaining his composure.

Then he passionately lectured Lee Han on how to raise a basilisk.

“Meat is important, but you must periodically mix dragon’s blood with venom stone powder and feed it to them.”

Both were reagents that were obviously very expensive just from their names.

Lee Han ignored him, pretending not to hear. The basilisk also seemed uninterested, wrapping its tail around his forearm and shaking its head.

“Professor Bendozol. Stop being jealous that your student is loved by monsters. Let’s finish the unicorn story.”

“Grr… Why that young brat! He doesn’t even realize his good fortune! That ignorant, foolish fool who knows nothing…”

Since he seemed like he would continue finding fault with Lee Han if left alone, Professor Lightningstep kicked him once. Professor Bendozol rolled sideways.

Lee Han tried to comfort him, saying he was still a professor.

“Professor. Other animals love you. What does it matter if creatures like basilisks or griffins don’t love you?”

As far as Lee Han knew, Professor Bendozol was a fairly renowned animal expert in the Empire.

The variety of animals he had actually cared for was tremendously diverse, which would have been impossible without a certain level of affinity.

Professor Bendozol listened silently.

“I, on the other hand, don’t get along well with sensitive and timid creatures like spirits. I actually envy you, Professor…”

“This bastard keeps bragging! Who are you mocking!”

Professor Bendozol, who Lee Han thought was listening quietly, exploded in anger and tried to throw dirt from the ground at Lee Han.

Professor Lightningstep sighed and kicked Professor Bendozol to the side once more.

* * *

Professor Bendozol, finally calmed down, explained about the unicorn.

From when the professor first encountered it, the unicorn was severely injured. Professor Bendozol decided to care for the unicorn instead of returning to Einroguard.

Saving a unicorn was far more important than teaching wicked and despicable students.

“Stop adding unnecessary commentary, Professor Bendozol.”

Anyway, he had only planned to heal the unicorn’s injuries, but it turned out the unicorn even had a young foal.

The double burden of having to raise a young foal while injured.

It was natural that Professor Bendozol had resolved to take time off from school and pour his time into this.

“Moreover, the injury wasn’t an ordinary wound.”

“I see… There wouldn’t be many enemies capable of injuring a unicorn.”

Professor Lightningstep nodded and agreed with Professor Bendozol’s words.

Unicorns, regardless of their pure image, were very powerful monsters, and injuring them wasn’t easy.

Conversely, if a unicorn was injured, it meant the injury was difficult to heal easily.

“What enemy injured it?”

“Dochul. The creature sleeps here in the Bitter Mountains.”

“!”

Professor Lightningstep was a veteran Imperial explorer, but his complexion changed upon hearing the monster’s name Dochul.

It was that powerful a monster.

Dochul looked like a cow at first glance, but this monster’s nature was the complete opposite of a cow.

It was a greedy and cunning monster that avoided enemies stronger than itself and persistently clung to weaker enemies until the end.

Of course, temperament alone couldn’t make a powerful monster. There were many animals among weak creatures with such temperaments.

What made Dochul threatening was that its physical abilities were also tremendously strong.

Tough hide that deflected blades and magic, hooves that could split bedrock with a single stomp, and speed that wrinkled the earth when it ran after spotting an enemy…

On top of that, it naturally possessed several magical abilities, making it capable of injuring a unicorn.

“Was it Dochul’s horn that injured the unicorn?”

“Correct.”

“So that’s why the wound won’t heal for so long.”

Professor Lightningstep clicked his tongue.

Dochul’s horn was an evil object imbued with curses and resentment, so even creatures like unicorns had difficulty healing easily once pierced by it.

“Of course, it was also quite injured by the unicorn. You can tell just by how it fell into a long hibernation to recover from its wounds. Originally, I tried to find it then and cut off its breath…”

“You failed… So that’s why the monsters are showing strange behavior now?”

The monsters of the Bitter Mountains seemed to be running here and there as if fearing something, and they were probably instinctively sensing that Dochul would soon awaken.

Due to its nature, Dochul didn’t just hunt what it needed to eat but enjoyed merciless slaughter. For the surrounding monsters, it was like a disaster.

Professor Lightningstep put leaves in his tobacco pipe, lit it, and puffed on it.

It was to organize his thoughts.

“There’s no need to fear just because Dochul is about to wake up. With this number of people, we can definitely catch it. Isn’t that right, Professor Bendozol.”

Professor Bendozol didn’t deny even that.

“Now that we know the situation, we’ll have to change our plan once more. Students, stay with Professor Bendozol to guard the unicorn in case of emergency. The hunters and I will find Dochul and cut off its breath before it awakens.”

“Wait!”

When Professor Bendozol interrupted, Professor Lightningstep turned his gaze.

“Even if we wanted to search for the Dochul together, it’s not possible. Professor Bendozol. We also need someone to care for and protect the unicorn.”

“That’s not what I was trying to say. I was just wondering if we couldn’t take the students along too.”

“…”

“…”

The students looked at Professor Bendozol in bewilderment.

Professor Lightningstep didn’t even answer and just called the hunters to depart.

* * *

“The unicorn is a noble and powerful creature.”

Professor Bendozol began walking with the students along a narrow mountain path behind his campsite.

It was such a steep and narrow path that they couldn’t have imagined there was a road here if the professor hadn’t stepped foot on it.

Clack, clack clack, clack clack clack!

Thin rock chunks flew from the air and attached themselves. Then a new path was created in the empty space.

“You students who are young, clumsy, savage, cowardly, and vulgar are a thousand years too early to care for a unicorn, but since it’s an unavoidable situation, I’ll teach you how to care for it. Understand?”

“Wow! A unicorn!!”

Gainando excitedly chattered to his friends.

Seeing Gainando spread his wings of imagination about what he could do if he obtained unicorn hair, Professor Bendozol’s eyebrows twitched.

His expression looked like he wanted to remove the stone slab beneath Gainando’s feet and drop him down below.

“…The most important thing when caring for a unicorn is gaining the unicorn’s minimum recognition. If you can’t receive even minimum recognition from the unicorn, you can’t care for it. The moment you approach, you’ll be kicked by its hooves or stabbed by its horn.”

“How can we receive it?”

“It’s not something you do to receive it! The unicorn sees and judges what kind of people you are.”

Professor Bendozol lectured as he climbed the path that wrapped around the enormous mountain peak.

“Those the unicorn dislikes stand guard at the entrance here. Those the unicorn acknowledges go up and care for it. Remember. Those the unicorn dislikes shouldn’t even think about going inside and hanging around. I can’t guarantee your lives!”

With those words, the path ended. The flat land atop the mountain peak revealed itself. It was terrain that couldn’t be seen from outside due to the thick fog surrounding it.

And in that space were two unicorns.

One was fully grown but had dark red wounds rippling like curses on its body, while the other was still a foal, fast asleep.

“There are two types the unicorn likes. One is the strong and righteous. This is similar to pegasus. The other is the good and pure. This is a more difficult condition than the first. If you think you’re ambiguous, don’t bother the unicorn and step back.”

“I’ll just stay back a bit.”

Due to his professional nature, Ratford didn’t want to approach the unicorn.

No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t foresee a good outcome for either of them.

In contrast, Durgyu wanted the unicorn to evaluate how knight-like he had lived.

“I’ll try taking one step forward.”

When Durgyu approached one step, the unicorn raised its head and slowly shook it.

It meant he wasn’t qualified to approach.

Though disappointed, Durgyu readily accepted it and stepped back. The unicorn smiled faintly as if telling him to come again someday.

“It’s more particular than I thought…”

“We should send Nilia.”

“Only Nilia would work.”

“Ah, no, why me?? I’m a hunter! If the unicorn dislikes me, it really dislikes me…!”

Nilia was disgusted and reluctant, but her friends pushed her back.

Surprisingly, instead of refusing, the unicorn actually stood up and walked right up to Nilia. Then it slowly looked her over.

Suddenly the unicorn made a displeased sound. Then it turned around sharply and went back to its place.

“What, what?! Why did it do that to Nilia…?!”

“Isn’t that unicorn a strange one?”

To the students’ complaints, Professor Bendozol kindly explained.

“Unicorns are very jealous. You must have made several contracts with spirits recently. It’s jealous after smelling that scent.”

“…”

“I see. It thought Nilia was a player.”

“What crazy talk is that?!”

When even Nilia didn’t work, the students lost motivation.

“Let’s just stand guard at the entrance.”

“Yeah. Let’s make a campsite.”

They all turned to leave, but someone grabbed Lee Han’s sleeve and held on.

Surprisingly, the unicorn was holding Lee Han’s sleeve as if telling him not to go!

“…Uurrrgh…”

Professor Bendozol glared at Lee Han with jealous eyes.

Why on earth was that guy so beloved by such powerful monsters!

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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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