Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 716

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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 716

Professor Verdus’s ‘Watchmen’ were notorious among Einroguard students.

Despite looking like wooden or metal dolls roughly cobbled together from scraps of wood or bronze chunks, they displayed combat power unbelievable for small golems.

Of course, it wasn’t transcendent power beyond common sense.

After all, these watchmen were artificial summoned creatures that Professor Verdus had casually assembled from leftover materials and miscellaneous items, then enchanted with magic.

Such summoned creatures couldn’t exceed the quality limitations of their materials and reagents.

However, Professor Verdus’s magic extracted the maximum possible limits within those constraints.

-Fire elemental! It’s a fire elemental immune watchman! I prepared fire magic for this!!

-Retreat! Retreat!

-Another watchman appeared in the rear! Type is… area curse! Curse watchman!!

-That crazy professor should really tone it down!

Professor Verdus, knowing the limitations of materials and reagents, didn’t create all-purpose summoned creatures.

Instead, he specialized in just one thing. Other watchmen could handle the lacking functions.

He made watchmen immune to fire elementals, watchmen with magic-reflecting shields, and finding it amusing as he worked, he made watchmen that spewed poison fog, and even watchmen that self-destructed when touched, knocking students unconscious until they ended up in the punishment room…

These summoned watchmen created vicious synergy effects with each other, tormenting the students.

Originally, flexible responses according to situations were a mage’s weapon, but Professor Verdus’s watchmen turned that weapon against them.

The watchman Sevius had just seen was a mana-absorbing watchman that would definitely rank in the top ten if you were to pick the most vicious watchmen.

A wicked enemy with a maw that devoured most projectile spells.

If caught carelessly, it would simply absorb your mana, magic or otherwise.

To deal with that thing, you’d need to retreat first, then carve magic into the terrain and lure it…?

“Swordsmanship?!”

“Is that not allowed?”

“It’s not that it’s not allowed… but!”

Sevius hesitantly answered while watching Lee Han swing his dark purple sword.

Just because he was a Blue Dragon Tower student didn’t mean he couldn’t wield a sword. He could wield one well enough.

…He just didn’t know he could cleave a watchman in two with a sword!

“Did you perhaps take swordsmanship lectures too?”

Sevius threw out a joke to ease the awkward atmosphere.

He wasn’t confident with jokes, but now was the time to lighten the mood as a senior.

“How did you know?”

“…Let’s go!”

Resolving again not to do things he wasn’t used to, Sevius started walking.

“Professor Verdus’s watchmen are connected to each other, so when one is destroyed, the others approach. If a fight breaks out, we need to finish it as quickly as possible and move.”

“Is that the one coming over there?”

“Yeah. It’s already coming.”

Spotting the creaking tin doll emerging from among the pile of junk in the distance, Sevius narrowed his eyes and glared at it.

“That one is… Ha. Today we’re only running into troublesome ones. Cutting defense coating, plus a projectile deflection device.”

It was a troublesome opponent at both close and long range, neutralizing more than half of slashing attacks and deflecting incoming projectile spells to make them miss their trajectory.

Sevius combined in his head the path they had just taken, the paths he had mapped out, and the paths he could now see.

‘If we escape to the left then go east…’

“Gather, rotate!”

While he was pondering how to escape, his junior cast a spell, greatly surprising Sevius.

“That thing deflects projectiles! Don’t waste your mana…!”

A mage wasn’t someone who could freely create something from nothing. Rather, they were closer to frugal managers who had to efficiently distribute the limited resource called mana.

From that perspective, his junior’s current actions bordered on recklessness.

If he wasted mana like that from the start…

Water orbs spun heavily and flew menacingly. The projectile deflection field created by the watchman twisted the water orbs’ trajectory, deflecting them to the side.

However, Lee Han paid no heed and created the next water orb.

Create and shoot.

Create and shoot.

‘Rapid fire!’

Realizing his junior’s strategy, Sevius was shocked.

The opponent was currently defending by twisting the trajectory of incoming projectiles.

Then what if projectiles were fired continuously from all directions without pause?

The projectiles would collide with each other, bounce off, and create irregular reflections.

It was a clever method, unbelievably so to have thought of it just now.

…It was also a brutish method!

Crack!

When one of the deflected water orbs finally smashed the watchman, instead of admiring it, Sevius asked his junior.

“Is your mana okay?!”

“Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“…You didn’t catch the Rock Drake head-on like this too, did you?”

Until now, he had naturally assumed it was caught through schemes and traps, but seeing this, he suddenly had doubts.

This guy didn’t catch it head-on through magical combat, did he?

His junior hesitantly asked.

“Would I not qualify for club membership if I caught it head-on?”

“…”

* * *

Perhaps encountering the watchman upon entry served as a charm against bad luck, as things became a bit easier after that.

“【Mage, Do Not Repay the Gold Coins You Received as Investment】. Here it is.”

Sevius found a book in the third storage and collected it.

Since it was a storage for keeping sticky slime-type reagents, the surroundings were humid and smelled terrible.

“Why on earth did Professor Verdus put books here?”

“We’ll never understand what goes on in the professor’s head for the rest of our lives. Let’s go.”

“I never thought I’d come to think the previous storages were better.”

Lee Han spoke as if he couldn’t believe it.

Who would have thought he’d already miss the junk storage where watchmen attacked and the flooded storage that was half lake and required swimming.

“The next storage should probably be okay. As far as I know, it has no watchmen and no particular traps, so it’s a relatively normal storage.”

Professor Verdus’s storages were connected to each other.

Students would use these connections to open doors to poorly guarded storages and move to other storages, and the strategy Lee Han and Sevius had chosen now fell under such strategies.

Of course, this strategy wasn’t perfect either. If you wanted to go to Storage A, you had to go through Storages B, C, and D, but there was no guarantee these storages would be intact.

The storages they had just crossed were representative examples of strange storages.

‘Could there really be a normal storage?’

Lee Han looked at Sevius with slight suspicion about his words.

To think there was a normal storage among Professor Verdus’s storages.

Could that really be…

Creak-

The door opened and the new storage revealed itself.

The interior was reminiscent of a cafe or coffeehouse located in a great city.

There were several chairs and tables, well-organized items, and no particular enemies…

“Isn’t this a trap?”

“…I had the same reaction when I first came here. This is a storage that Professor Verdus forgot about but students frequently visit. That’s why it’s relatively normal. Let’s rest for a moment.”

Sevius pulled over a chair and gave it to his junior, then sat down, drank a mana recovery potion, and spread out a map.

There were still many storages they needed to visit to finish collecting the books.

“Don’t you need a recovery potion?”

“I’m fine. Please drink it, senior.”

Lee Han declined while feeling pleased inside.

From the senior’s perspective, wouldn’t Lee Han look like a thoughtful junior taking care of him?

‘Is this bastard a monster?’

Sevius looked at Lee Han with disgusted eyes.

He had used that much mana yet didn’t even need a recovery potion.

Indeed, taking classes from all schools wasn’t something just anyone could do.

“We’ll enter through the Poisonous Mushroom Warehouse, just borrow the path from the Hell Swamp Warehouse, then go to the 2nd underground floor of the Sacred Workshop. We won’t enter the Metal Warehouse since it’s too dangerous.”

“What are these places marked with X’s?”

“Places where we couldn’t find the entry method. There are many warehouses Professor Verdus has forgotten, but there are also several he hasn’t forgotten.”

It was a bitter story, but the students weren’t properly looting Professor Verdus’s assets.

They could only steal items that Professor Verdus had forgotten about or neglected to manage properly, but breaking through places Professor Verdus had deliberately blocked was nearly impossible.

That’s why students were always burning with motivation.

-I swear that before I graduate, I will definitely loot a warehouse that Professor Verdus has blocked! I’ll find out what’s really inside!

-Wait, if you can’t loot it, does that mean you’ll stay another year?

-…Do you want to die?

“These places have no meaning as passages. Actually, even though there seem to be many warehouses on this map, they’re just a fraction compared to all the warehouses.”

“…”

Watching Sevius express regret, Lee Han was dumbfounded.

The senior who felt regret despite finding this much was absurd, but Lee Han couldn’t even guess how many warehouses Professor Verdus had built.

‘This person… just how many warehouses did he build and forget about?’

“If you later figure out how to enter here, try conquering it together with the club members.”

“You should join us too, Senior!”

“…I’m going to graduate, you bastard.”

‘That was about this year though.’

Lee Han grumbled inwardly.

Since Sevius was also a fourth year, he seemed to have some sensitive spots.

* * *

“【Mages, Do Not Repay Invested Gold Coins】, 【Introduction to Imperial Investment Law】, 【The Genius Buyeo Mage Who Received a Hundred Investments】, 【Imperial Artifact Trend Guide】, 【Imperial Materials Encyclopedia】…”

Sevius muttered with a troubled expression.

Thanks to their forced march, they had secured all the other books, but only 【General Theory of Gemology】 was nowhere to be seen.

When he took out the silver bookmark artifact, it spun around and pointed in a direction. It was toward a warehouse Sevius had never entered.

“…It seems to be in a different warehouse.”

“What would you like to do?”

“Let’s give up and retreat. We’ve taken plenty for today.”

When it came to infiltration, nothing was more dangerous than greed.

Though he desperately wanted to grab that last one, Sevius decided to retreat rather than risk sending his junior to the Punishment Room by attempting a reckless challenge.

“Can’t we try to find a way just once?”

“It’s not something the two of us can solve just by putting our heads together. If you don’t believe me, go check for yourself.”

The direction the bookmark artifact was pointing to was a warehouse Sevius had tried to enter several times but failed.

The door’s defenses were so solid and complex that it couldn’t be easily breached.

Not only did the magic writhe and change as if alive, but it was probably prepared to immediately recover after being damaged by any external shock.

Though frustrated, Sevius didn’t have confidence he could break through something like this.

Clang clang clang-

His junior stood in front of the warehouse, swinging his staff several times and knocking on the door. However, the door didn’t budge at all.

Seeing this, Sevius unconsciously smiled slightly.

Originally, such obstacles made thieves frustrated and helped them grow.

This Wardanaz Family junior had talent several times greater than Sevius himself.

Already being at this level as a second year, if this junior became a third or fourth year, he might really be able to break through Professor Verdus’s treasure vault.

‘I won’t be able to see it after graduation. A bit regrettable.’

“Senior!”

“What is it?”

“I opened it!”

“…What?! How?! Don’t tell me by force…?!”

When Sevius shouted in a shocked voice as if he couldn’t believe it, his junior answered with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“Now that I think about it, I had the key to this warehouse.”

“…”

‘What the hell is this bastard’s real identity???’

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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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