Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 733

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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 733

Diret wondered why her junior was suddenly acting like this.

Wasn’t the Principal already somewhat insane to begin with?

It was also a bit strange that her junior, who was practically the top student, was only now realizing this.

“I saw this vision.”

Lee Han hurriedly explained the vision he had just seen.

Knowing that visions seen by mages, especially those who had learned divination magic, were not to be dismissed lightly, Diret listened with a serious expression.

“What was the height of the trees?”

“Pardon?”

“In the vision, what was the height of the trees here like?”

“There was almost no difference, but they seemed slightly smaller. Could it be?”

After carefully confirming the height of the trees, length of shadows, and other scenery details from the vision her junior had seen, Diret fell into thought.

Having watched the Dark Forest since she enrolled, she could determine temporal changes from even simple differences.

“It was recent, at most within two or three months…”

“…!”

Lee Han’s face hardened at the news that the vision he had seen was from recent events.

“Two or three months ago? This is serious. Senior, we need to return immediately.”

“Return to do what?”

“Send an anonymous tip to His Imperial Majesty, and contact the Family Head to prepare for subduing the Principal.”

As such a strangely specific plan immediately emerged, Diret suspected whether her junior often pondered such plans.

“Calm down first, junior. There are several strange points.”

“You mean why the Principal is plotting such a scheme? The Principal has always enjoyed plotting such schemes.”

“That’s not what I meant… It’s strange that you saw this vision in the first place. You didn’t foresee the future, but saw a vision left behind by a mage.”

Diret already knew well from last year’s experience that her junior had strong resistance to poison and illusions.

As such, this was closer to an echo of memories intentionally left by a mage, rather than a hostile magical attack.

So that someone qualified could see it when they arrived here.

If the Principal was plotting an evil conspiracy, why would he deliberately leave such evidence?

“I think I understand.”

“What?”

“The Principal enjoys that kind of thrill.”

“…Junior…”

Diret showed reluctance, but Lee Han was rather frustrated.

“The Principal is filled with madness, so he might plot conspiracies while revealing his plans to others!”

“Couldn’t it be an existence similar to the Principal?”

Though feeling the possibility was low, Diret threw it out to calm her junior for now.

Then Lee Han hesitated.

“Wait. Come to think of it, I have heard stories about the Principal’s insane doppelganger.”

“What? Really?”

“But that itself might be the Principal’s evil scheme. To make excuses when he causes trouble later, such lies…”

“Junior. I think it’s like an insane doppelganger.”

“Is that so.”

When his senior spoke firmly, Lee Han could no longer be stubborn and reluctantly backed down with regret. If Diret said so, it might really be an insane doppelganger.

‘It might be fake rumors created by the Principal though.’

“Why would such an insane doppelganger be with a mage criminal? And why would the mage criminal serve such a doppelganger as master?”

“Junior. That’s certainly urgent too, but aren’t you really curious about why the Principal’s insane doppelganger came to exist?”

Of course, confirming what purpose the mage criminal and insane doppelganger came here for was priority, but Diret found it truly curious that her junior wasn’t curious about that as a mage.

Did he really feel no curiosity?

“It probably happened from breathing wrong or sneezing.”

“…This is my guess, but it likely arose when the Principal was advancing his realm.”

Having inherited some of Gonadaltes’ magic through Professor Mortum, Diret knew a little about the magic the Skeleton Principal used.

The Skeleton Principal’s magic was rooted in secrets developed during the kingdom era, corresponding to the distant past even among the times called ‘ancient.’

The Skeleton Principal, who was a prince from a small kingdom, was an outstanding mage even among the mages of that time, and relentlessly devoted himself to all kinds of magic to reach higher realms.

Diret didn’t know what powerful and extraordinary magic existed in that process. Even if Diret was an excellent student, grasping that was beyond her.

But she had heard that the process included great magic that severed one’s own five desires and seven emotions.

“There aren’t no liches in the Empire. There are several dark mages who became liches with legal permission.”

“I’ve seen it in newspapers too.”

Dark mages who reached certain realms transforming their own bodies into undead to aim for higher realms wasn’t particularly secret.

However, surprisingly few people made such choices, because lichification had greater penalties than expected.

When even changing wands required an adaptation period, how much adaptation would be needed to change one’s own body?

There were quite a few liches who hoped for lichification, changed their bodies, but eventually despaired and went berserk.

“Last time an insane lich contaminated the southern granary region.”

“Let’s not get sidetracked, junior. As you probably guess, liches aren’t originally such perfect beings. But the Principal is a lich yet nearly perfect.”

Though the Skeleton Principal often spoke of the golden ratio beauty of the curvature of his skull, the perfection Diret spoke of now wasn’t that kind.

To survive from the distant ancient times until now would have been impossible as an imperfect being like ordinary liches.

“There must have been great magic of a different dimension from ordinary lichification, and it wouldn’t be surprising if an insane doppelganger appeared in that process.”

“Right. I suspect the great magic that severed the five desires and seven emotions was the direct cause. I’ve never seen such magic in any book. Judging by the results, it wouldn’t be strange if uncontrollable side effects like doppelgangers occurred.”

‘That makes sense.’

Lee Han deeply empathized with Diret’s hypothesis.

As could be seen from the Skeleton Principal’s usual proud talk about severing the five desires and seven emotions, this didn’t seem like ordinary-level magic.

If even the Skeleton Principal was proud of it, it must be truly remarkable ancient magic even among ancient magic, and it wouldn’t be strange if unexpected side effects occurred in the process.

“I’d like to support senior’s hypothesis. But senior, if the doppelganger was created through such a process, what purpose did it come to Einroguard for?”

“I don’t know that either.”

Diret lightly furrowed her brow.

It seemed there wasn’t just one or two insane doppelgangers, and she couldn’t tell which doppelganger it was, making the purpose even harder to predict.

Even the normal Skeleton Principal was hard to predict, but an insane Skeleton Principal?

“But I can guess the mage criminal’s purpose you mentioned. He probably wants to learn magic.”

“You mean disguising as an Einroguard student!?”

Lee Han was flustered, thinking the person seemed too old to be a new student.

“Not that. From the Principal’s doppelganger.”

“Ah. True. It was quite different from a typical master-disciple relationship.”

Usually masters chased disciples around tormenting them to learn, not coldly ignoring them like that.

‘The master-disciple relationship you think of is also a bit strange, junior…’

Diret only thought to herself after hearing Lee Han’s description of master-disciple relationships.

Her junior was already pitiful enough.

“If it’s the Principal’s doppelganger, it would be more than qualified as a master to teach magic. I can understand why that mage criminal is gaining notoriety.”

“If it’s the Principal’s doppelganger, I can understand it being capricious while giving teachings too. It wouldn’t be strange to act whimsically just from boredom.”

“Junior… you didn’t recently fight with the Principal, did you?”

“Huh? No, I didn’t.”

Lee Han was puzzled when Diret looked at him with concern.

He had been speaking analytically and rationally, so why?

“I, I was just asking.”

“I don’t know what the Principal’s doppelganger was thinking bringing a mage criminal to Einroguard. Maybe it’s trying to assassinate the Principal.”

“Certainly.”

Diret’s complexion hardened.

She thought they should immediately tell the Skeleton Principal what happened as soon as they returned.

“But senior.”

“?”

“Don’t we need to catch the darkness snail? Seeing how you were chasing it, it seems quite useful…”

“It’s useful but not important enough to chase again now. Just dark elemental mana recovery, general dark magic amplification, undead summon enhancement, reagent enhancement and such…”

“…”

Lee Han squeezed his eyes shut as if blaming himself.

He had brought up the story of the Skeleton Principal’s doppelganger for nothing.

The shadow snail was much more important!

‘Damn it. To miss it because of such useless talk.’

As Lee Han was blaming himself, his senses suddenly felt something was off.

At the same time, the bracelet Diret was wearing jingled and made a warning sound. Both mages’ expressions changed.

“Senior!”

“Hold on tight!”

Diret reacted immediately like a 5th year student who had been through all kinds of battles.

If an enemy could trigger the warning artifact without being caught by his own senses, it was definitely not a weak opponent.

Diret put his left thumb in his mouth and bit it to draw blood, then sprayed that blood into the air.

Then bone fragments with stored magic shot out from his chest and activated their magic all at once.

-What is that! How ominous!

A powerful summoned creature appeared, on a completely different level from the shadow summoned creature he had temporarily called earlier.

It was a large monstrous beast that seemed to possess intelligence as it spoke human words while pointing behind them.

However, Diret’s magic wasn’t finished yet.

As the other bone fragments burned one by one in the air, powerful black magic spells were cast.

Golems emitting green light grabbed onto a massive bone barrier and pushed it forward as if striking the enemy.

“!”

Lee Han’s expression also changed when he confirmed the enemy’s appearance with his eyes.

A massive lump of black, sticky, evil mana was rushing through the forest like a wave.

That was definitely not some monster that had naturally occurred in the forest.

‘The Principal’s insane doppelganger? A mage criminal?’

He didn’t know which of the two had left it, but that wasn’t important right now.

Lee Han immediately finished preparing to cast various spells to keep the enemy in check.

Crackle! Snap!

3rd circle ice and lightning magic flew like bullets being fired rapidly.

Seeing this, Diret smiled unconsciously even while hastily preparing magic. Such a reliable junior was rare.

“The damage…”

When the struck enemy quickly restored its form, Lee Han made a troubled expression.

Enemies with such powerful recovery abilities were difficult to attack by striking their physical form. It would lead to an endless war of attrition.

He needed to either summon firepower to burn it all at once or strike the opponent’s weakness…

“Blood dwelling in my bones, transform into poison and become a vicious curse!”

Meanwhile, Diret completed his magic.

‘Curse magic?!’

Curse magic that dealt damage to the opponent’s very existence would certainly be effective.

However, curse magic could be easily blocked with just a little defensive measure, and honestly was more often used for harassment among mages.

Seeing it enhanced so viciously, Lee Han couldn’t help but admire it as a fellow member of the Black Magic Academy.

“…Weak!”

However, Diret clicked his tongue upon realizing that the curse hadn’t dealt a critical hit.

-Dangerous! Diret! Dangerous!

The monstrous beast carrying them both warned.

Despite the golems and bone barriers restraining the enemy, its pursuit speed was getting faster and faster.

‘…I’ll strike first!’

Diret took out a black rippling sphere from his chest along with an ominous incantation.

The mana was so compressed that as soon as he took out the sphere, the surrounding space warped and screamed.

‘Miniature world!’

Lee Han realized what magic his senior was trying to use.

Thanks to the Skeleton Principal forcing him to learn it, he had studied it quite a bit in the meantime.

He didn’t know what that sphere was, but it was definitely something to help temporarily activate a miniature world.

Despite all that compressed mana, it seemed insufficient as Diret began pouring more mana into the sphere while gripping it.

His expression instantly turned pale and blood flowed from his nose.

Becoming urgent, Lee Han grabbed the sphere together to help his senior.

“I’ll help too!”

“…!!!”

Unlike himself who was gathering and pouring in all the mana from the surrounding area, Diret’s eyes widened in shock at his junior trying to pour it in directly with his bare body.

“…Crazy bastard…!”

Lee Han pretended not to hear and averted his gaze.

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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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