Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 732

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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 732

“I’d like to work on the basics too.”

“Huh?”

Diret was genuinely puzzled.

It really seemed like his junior had no need for that.

“Isn’t the poison element magic you can use now around 3rd circle?”

“It’s still incomplete.”

The 【Poison of Otherness】 creation magic he learned from the undead mage Verdus was around 3rd circle level, but his casting wasn’t perfect yet.

“You’re quite the perfectionist too, junior. Other kids insist they’ve mastered everything perfectly just by being able to cast it.”

“No, I’m saying it’s incomplete because it’s not complete!”

Lee Han felt a bit wronged.

Of course, given time he could summon poison, but wasn’t this still incomplete?

“Bone element magic was 4th circle.”

【Skeleton Warrior Summoning】 wasn’t originally up to 4th circle.

If you contracted with skeleton warriors from the Undead Realm and summoned them, the difficulty would be much lower.

But Lee Han had to learn ancient necromancy methods that weren’t even used much nowadays due to pressure from several evil dark mages, and the result was the 4th circle difficulty 【Skeleton Warrior Summoning】.

Since it was magic where the mage directly assembled bones one by one rather than summoning beings from another dimension, the difficulty had to be high.

Still, thanks to that, Lee Han’s bone element magic proficiency had become quite high. It was all thanks to continuously wrestling with 【Skeleton Warrior Summoning】.

“…Right. But aren’t there still basics you haven’t learned?”

Diret was a kind senior.

Even when his junior was being stubborn, instead of getting angry, he quietly did what was wanted.

Lee Han, who instantly succeeded at the various basic spells Diret brought out, said with a dejected face.

“Let’s start with the difficult magic.”

“Good thinking, junior.”

* * *

“You know why blood isn’t commonly used as an element, right?”

“Yes.”

The reason Empire dark mages didn’t directly handle blood elements even when dealing with bone, poison, or even darkness elements was due to its inefficiency.

“But actually, it’s not that blood isn’t used as elemental magic at all. Some mage criminals actually use it.”

“The Principal?”

“…Junior. When I say mage criminals, I’m not speaking metaphorically but about actual mage criminals.”

Blood elements not only lacked attack power compared to bone elements, but were also difficult to obtain or preserve.

Moreover, there were often cases where some mage criminals extorted large amounts of fresh blood needed for magic from innocent victims, so it couldn’t help but become even more unpopular.

But the school of dark magic that descended from Gonadaltes through Professor Mortum to Diret had the philosophy that ‘not using something just because it’s unpopular is foolish.’

At the very least, you should know it well to exploit weaknesses when you encounter someone who uses it.

Thud-

When Diret took out a small glass bottle and opened the cork lid, red liquid flowed out with a sloshing sound.

It smelled of blood but had an aura of some different magical power.

“This is artificial blood made through alchemy. Usually when casting blood element magic, you use this. It has good expandability.”

Just like using bone fragments containing mana as magical reagents, blood element magic often needed the help of such reagents.

Lee Han noticed the other meaning in Diret’s words and asked.

“You mean you don’t use it when using it as a reagent for magic other than blood element magic?”

“Right.”

The dark magic school senior flapped his wings as if satisfied with his clever junior’s answer.

While you had no choice when casting blood element magic due to the large amount required, real blood inevitably had better effects than artificially made blood through alchemy.

Diret took out a bone fragment with a bloody aura.

“This is a bone fragment I’ve periodically fed my blood. I could have fed it artificial blood, but there are advantages to feeding it my blood. Better magical control, and when needed, blood element magic becomes easier too.”

“I understand.”

Lee Han quickly understood Diret’s words since he had experience strengthening reagents by infusing darkness elements into bones like tempering.

Using blood to strengthen bone fragments ultimately connected to strengthening bone element magic too.

‘Even without forcing yourself to use blood element magic, just applying it this way increases power.’

“Of course, generally darkness elements or poison elements are preferred. Blood elements have no special effects and usage methods are somewhat limited… But as I said.”

“If you learn it, there’s always a place to use it, isn’t there?”

Diret nodded with a deep smile.

“Let’s start with this.”

“Yes. But how difficult is this magic?”

Diret just smiled without answering and gestured for him to hurry.

Lee Han was puzzled but began sprinkling his blood bit by bit on the bone fragment.

“Blood, gather here…”

The bone fragment was dyed blood-red and connected to Lee Han much more powerfully than before.

Lee Han could understand the advantage Diret mentioned earlier about feeding it his own blood.

If he summoned a skeleton warrior with this bone fragment, much more detailed control would be possible.

“Success.”

“Yes.”

“I figured that would happen so I didn’t bother saying how difficult it was. There’s no point in saying it, right?”

“…Just tell me…”

* * *

After that, Diret explained various magic that connected bone and blood, blood and poison, poison and bone.

Magic that used blood to amplify toxicity, magic that used toxicity to burst bones and scatter them around the area, etc.

Since there were quite a variety of difficult ones, Lee Han listened without losing focus.

“But senior. I suddenly became curious about something.”

“What?”

“What year is this lecture for?”

“Third year. Why?”

“…Isn’t it a bit strange that I’m attending it?”

“Huh? Not really?”

“…”

Diret took out a pocket watch to check the time and spoke.

“We have some time left. We could go and come back.”

“If we have time, how about rest? You seem to need rest now too, senior.”

“Where I’m going is rest. Junior.”

“?”

Diret smiled meaningfully and gestured for Lee Han to come out of the lecture hall.

That smile made Lee Han feel inexplicably anxious.

Usually when Einroguard mages wore confident smiles, it rarely turned out well for him.

“It’s a place I often go when I’m having a hard time.”

‘Hmm. That makes me more anxious.’

If it were someone from the summoning magic school it might be different, but since it was the dark magic school, he was honestly getting a bit anxious.

Couldn’t they go rest in places like cemeteries or underground stone chambers in swamps?

Diret was a good person, but originally even good people’s tastes could be a bit twisted.

Diret opened a side path on the 2nd basement floor and lightly tapped the wall of the passage that stretched endlessly ahead.

Then the stairs they were standing on began to surge forward and rush ahead.

“!”

“It’s a place a bit away from the main building.”

Diret explained so Lee Han wouldn’t be surprised.

Since Einroguard was so vast, upperclassmen didn’t walk on foot when moving around. That would take far too long.

One of the commonly used methods was the shortcuts connected to the main building.

The Einroguard main building had countless paths connected to the Einroguard territory outside the main building, as befitting its long history, and if you could find such paths well, they became shortcuts that allowed you to easily travel far with just one action.

Thud!

“We’re here. Let’s go out.”

Diret summoned stairs leading upward and walked up first. Lee Han followed behind, worried that something like a public cemetery or poisonous swamp might appear.

However, fortunately there was no public cemetery or smell of rotting corpses. All that could be heard from the surroundings was the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.

The place where the main building’s underground shortcut connected was in the middle of a forest.

“Where is this?”

“The Dark Forest. If you look around, you’ll understand why it has this name.”

Lee Han checked the forest beyond the clearing.

The forest, dark as if it were evening despite being broad daylight, was filled with dark green trees.

He could feel dark elements circulating periodically among these trees and thickets.

“A place full of dark elements?”

“That’s right. It’s a good place for dark mages who handle dark elements to recover their mana.”

As if it were true that he came here often, Diret summoned chairs and a table.

Confirming it was a safe place, Lee Han sat in a chair and looked around.

‘It’s definitely a good place for dark mages.’

For students of the dark magic school, places where dark elements were strongly concentrated like this were bound to be compatible.

Even if they didn’t directly handle dark elements, the effects would be excellent due to the nature of that mana.

Indeed, Diret, who had used quite a lot of magic during today’s lecture, quickly recovered his mana after breathing in the forest air a few times.

And aside from that, he seemed to like this forest itself, as Lee Han could feel Diret’s face brightening.

“Oh right. Junior. Don’t tell the other juniors about this place.”

“Not even the dark magic school seniors?”

“Especially not them. I didn’t think there was any need to tell them about this place. It’s not like they’re going to advance to 5th year anyway.”

“I understand.”

Lee Han, who was nodding, felt something strange.

He sensed something off about what Senior Diret had just said.

‘Then I’m supposed to advance to 5th year…?’

“Wait! Over there!”

“?”

“We need to catch that, junior. It’s a shadow snail!”

Discovering a rare animal that lived in the Dark Forest, Diret urged Lee Han.

After summoning his familiar, he quickly began flying through the air to chase the shadow snail.

“Hold on tight. Here we go!”

Carrying his junior, Diret chased the shadow snail that was fleeing like lightning in the distance.

Lee Han, sitting behind him, checked the rapidly changing scenery around them and tried to prepare for possible attacks from other monsters.

At that moment, the scenery before his eyes changed.

“…?!”

Lee Han realized he was seeing an illusion due to the sudden scenery.

Since he was in the middle of flying through the air following Diret, there was no reason for such a sight to appear before his eyes.

‘What is this? Ordinary illusion magic shouldn’t work on me?’

Having already experienced that external illusion magic and poisons trying to attack him didn’t work, Lee Han was bewildered.

In the illusion, a mage dressed in an old-fashioned manner opened his mouth. Even looking at his attire, it was clothing of such a unique and ancient style that it was impossible to guess where he was from.

-Master. I have come here as you instructed. Now please answer me. What should I, Antagondals, do?

‘!’

Having heard the name Antagondals before, Lee Han’s eyes widened in shock.

Why had that magical criminal come within Einroguard’s territory?

However, the person in front of Antagondals was even more shocking.

Surprisingly, it was the Skeleton Principal in human form.

‘…!!!’

Even normally, the Skeleton Principal in human form wasn’t a kind and gentle person, but the Skeleton Principal in this illusion had an ice-cold and arrogant attitude.

He seemed to be ignoring Antagondals despite his presence.

Despite continued pleas and requests, when the Skeleton Principal said nothing, Antagondals showed a slightly angry expression, but held back and spoke again.

-Then I will wait! Master. Until you give me your teachings again!

With those words, the illusion ended.

Diret shouted with joy as he saw the shadow snail getting closer and closer.

“Junior! Can you see it?!”

“Senior!!”

“Huh!? What!? Why!?”

When his junior suddenly grabbed his shoulder tightly and shouted, Diret nearly lost his balance and swayed.

However, that was nothing compared to what his junior was about to shout.

“This is terrible! The Principal has finally gone insane!!!”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about, so explain it slowly!”

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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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