Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 709

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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 709

Lee Han, startled, immediately apologized.

“I’m sorry, Professor. Do you perhaps dislike pocket watches?”

If it had been Professor Verdus, he would have shouted ‘Does being good at magic make you special? Even if I die today, I’ll cast at least one spell at your face!’ But since it was Professor Garcia, he thought there must be some reason behind it.

Professor Garcia, regaining composure through heavy breathing, covered her face with both hands in despair.

“…Student Lee Han, where did you get that?”

“Pardon? I bought it cheaply from an antique shop outside the school.”

“…”

Professor Garcia cursed Einroguard for making secret items pop up somewhere eventually, cursed the Einroguard students who would sell anything first and think later, and cursed the Einroguard Principal who drove those students crazy for gold coins.

Whoosh-

As the professor weakly waved her staff, the pocket watch that had flown away returned and the shattered wall was restored to its original state.

“Student Lee Han. Actually, this watch… I made it.”

“What?!?!?!”

Lee Han was more shocked than when he learned that the Skeleton Principal was actually of royal blood.

How could such a sincere and good Professor Garcia have engraved such words on a pocket watch?

Congratulations, foolish and stupid junior. If you’re reading this, you must have experienced great magic.

If you master the magic engraved in this watch, come find me. Then I shall rightfully teach you the secret arts!

-From your Great Senior

Click!

“…There’s no need to read it again, is there?”

When Lee Han opened the pocket watch and read the words written inside again, Professor Garcia quickly closed the lid.

“Ah. Did the Principal perhaps force you to do this? To write such phrases?”

“Honestly, I’d like to answer yes… but no, no one forced me. Student Lee Han. I wrote it myself. And why would the Principal force such a thing?”

“He forces me to…”

“…”

Professor Garcia thought she should grab the Skeleton Principal later and interrogate him about what kind of conversations he has with Lee Han.

She couldn’t understand why he was making such a sincere and good student go through a period of storm and stress.

“Student Lee Han. People… change as they live. It may be hard to imagine, but there was a time when I was very different from now.”

“Was Professor Verdus also different in the past?”

“The Professor was like that even back then… Student Lee Han.”

“I’m sorry. I was just too curious.”

Professor Garcia cleared her throat and said.

“Student Lee Han. During my school days, I was a bit rough.”

“!”

Lee Han was shocked.

To think Professor Garcia had been a rough person.

It was as unimaginable as intellectual Gainando or thoughtful Professor Verdus.

How could such a person have been rou…

‘Hmm. Now that I think about it, I can imagine it.’

Looking at Professor Garcia’s fist and the wall that had just been shattered, it seemed imaginable.

Rather, he wondered why he couldn’t imagine it until now.

“Especially when it came to magic, I was even more so. I couldn’t understand why my friends couldn’t keep up with my magic and got angry.”

“Anyone would do that.”

“Usually they don’t. Don’t force yourself to agree with me.”

Professor Garcia had already regained her composure. She firmly blocked forced flattery.

Lee Han became slightly dejected.

“I think it was probably because I was taking all the school magic courses.”

“Anyone would become strange.”

“Student Lee Han, please look in a mirror after this ends. Anyway, at that time I was researching space-time magic alone, and I succeeded in achieving some results. When I managed to put that into a watch, I had this thought.”

“What kind of…?”

“If I left this watch in Einroguard, wouldn’t some motivated junior see it and become interested in space-time magic?”

‘I don’t think so.’

Lee Han made a dubious expression.

As could be seen from the Black Magic Academy or Music Magic Academy, creating new or unpopular magic schools was no ordinary difficult task.

You had to strategically gather juniors and comrades and show them a rosy outlook for the school, not write provocative phrases on strange artifacts expecting people to come.

Fortunately, even without Lee Han telling her, Professor Garcia seemed to have realized it herself.

“But no one came.”

“Since the magic difficulty is quite high…”

“That’s not really the problem.”

Professor Garcia let out a deep sigh.

“It was surprising that Student Lee Han came to take this lecture, but to think you got hold of that watch during vacation. I never imagined it even in my dreams. Is this what they call karma…”

“Professor, you are still the object of my respect!”

At Lee Han’s flattery, Professor Garcia’s worried face softened slightly.

“Thank you, Student Lee Han.”

“From now on, if anyone asks about this watch, I’ll say the Principal wrote it.”

“There’s no need to go that far.”

Professor Garcia answered coldly.

* * *

After the explanation about her embarrassing past ended, Professor Garcia began explaining space-time magic.

“Time magic, actually when you study time magic, you inevitably learn about space magic. The two have somewhat complementary aspects. So if Student Lee Han learns time magic, you’ll build foundations in both magics before advancing to advanced levels…”

Professor Garcia, who had been speaking, hesitated.

“But is Student Lee Han really okay?”

“Pardon?”

“I know you’re already taking all the school courses. To add even more schools that don’t exist here…”

“I’m fine, Professor. I want to hear your lectures.”

Lee Han was sincere.

With all sorts of bizarre lectures squirming around in the course list, Professor Garcia’s lecture seemed much more trustworthy.

If he carelessly changed courses because of high difficulty, he might encounter a second Professor Boladi.

“Student Lee Han…”

When Professor Garcia stared at him intently, Lee Han felt awkward.

Professor Garcia seemed moved by the firm trust her excellent student was showing.

“In first year, I still denied it somewhat, but lately I’m thinking someone should stop Student Lee Han…”

“…”

While Lee Han was dumbfounded, Professor Garcia changed the topic.

“Then shall we start with 【Time Perception】 and 【Space Perception】?”

“Ah. I’ve mastered both of them.”

“…When? Did you perhaps learn them with someone else?”

Professor Garcia crossed her arms and sent a suspicious look.

Lee Han, who didn’t notice that look because he was focused on magic, answered straightforwardly.

“I learned them with Lord Alsicle during last vacation.”

“I see.”

Professor Garcia secretly wrote in her grimoire ‘Hang Alsicle of the Penguerin family upside down.’

“Wait.”

“What’s wrong, Student Lee Han?”

Wondering if she had been caught, Professor Garcia subtly closed her grimoire. Lee Han didn’t notice at all and answered.

“I learned 【Space Recognition】 early last year with Senior Balpatan.”

“Aha!”

Professor Garcia added ‘hang the Balpatan student too’ below the memo.

External mages and seniors all did exactly the same things.

Smiling so Lee Han wouldn’t notice, Professor Garcia said:

“Then we can move on to the next magic, Student Lee Han!”

“Professor, are you perhaps angry…?”

“What are you talking about, Student Lee Han. I’m not angry at all?”

Professor Garcia deflected while inwardly stung by his sharp disciple’s intuition.

“The next magic is 【Minor Internal Time Extension】. It’s a 2nd circle magic, but the difficulty rivals 3rd-4th circle, so don’t rush too much. Understood?”

“Yes.”

The extreme difficulty of time magic lay in the fact that the very concept of the magic directly collided with the laws of the world.

If a mage wanted to light a fire?

They could simply trick the world’s laws slightly to make it seem like a spark had caught on kindling.

Since fire catching on kindling wasn’t a particularly difficult phenomenon, deceiving it wasn’t very hard either.

But if a mage wanted to slow down time?

That itself was close to a collision and rebellion against the world itself.

To handle this, a mage needed tremendous resistance.

Before using such full-scale magic, the magic that was close to a workaround was 【Minor Internal Time Extension】.

Magic that extended not the time outside the mage, but the time inside the mage – that is, perceived time.

What veteran combat mages or swordsmen described as experiencing time slowing during battle were primitive forms of this magic.

‘Since it only deals with the interior, the difficulty would be lower.’

Lee Han felt that Professor Garcia was trying to help him adapt with relatively low-difficulty magic before full-scale time magic.

Of course, it was on the easier side within time magic, but in terms of absolute difficulty, it was definitely not easy…

“Thoughts from instant to moment, from moment to awareness!”

Unlike other 2nd circle magics, Lee Han concentrated while reciting the long and complex incantation.

Fortunately, Lee Han had experienced time slowing several times before.

…Whether having done this a lot was good was unclear, but at least it helped now.

“For magic like this, the caster must directly confirm whether they succeeded or failed. Student Lee Han. Judge using time perception magic.”

“Thank you.”

Professor Garcia offered a teacup as if telling him to take it easy.

She thought there was no need for Lee Han to overexert himself here when he would be overworked by professors from other schools anyway.

Lee Han drank the hot tea in one gulp and cast the magic again. Professor Garcia looked at the empty teacup and thought to herself.

‘…Should I make it hotter next time?’

* * *

‘Tsk.’

Lee Han moved his steps with regret.

In the end, he had failed to completely master the magic.

He had felt the sensation of time slowing several times, but if he couldn’t completely control it, he hadn’t mastered it.

Professor Garcia had comforted him saying this was already very fast, but Lee Han wasn’t fooled.

‘Professor Garcia is lenient in these matters.’

Just as it was hard to believe when Professor Verdus said ‘You’re slow!’, it was also hard to believe when Professor Garcia said ‘You’re already fast!’

“I think we need to persuade that junior directly. That kid was born with the qualities for the Stonemason Club. We need to take him before those Library Club guys snatch him up.”

“I’ve heard many rumors about the Wardanaz family, but this is surprising.”

‘Damn.’

Lee Han immediately cast invisibility magic upon hearing sounds from beyond the corridor.

He hadn’t even seen the underclassmen yet, but now he had to avoid the upperclassmen first.

‘I need a more reliable way to keep watch.’

-But that junior supposedly takes magic from all schools, is that really true?

-Hmm. I couldn’t believe it either so I checked, and it seems to be true. The mad rumors involving the Wardanaz family didn’t arise for nothing. Truly terrifying…

-Between moving seawater entirely to create a reservoir and taking magic from all schools, which is scarier? I think the latter is scarier.

“…”

Lee Han almost couldn’t resist blasting magic at the seniors’ backs as he passed by.

How dare people who didn’t even know why he ended up taking everything talk so casually.

Woong-

Suddenly Lee Han felt a mana change only he could perceive. It was the artifact notebook Diret had made, 【Whispers of Einroguard】.

‘What?’

Lee Han wondered if his friends had already charged it with mana and started doodling.

I have a proposal for you.

-Hmph. Get lost.

…

‘Oops. Was that too harsh?’

Lee Han felt slightly regretful when the other person fell silent.

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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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