Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 737

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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 737

“Wait a moment!”

“?”

Lee Han paused at the professor’s shout from behind.

He wondered if perhaps some advice was coming.

“Since it’s a dangerous place, how about leaving the basilisk behind?”

It was Professor Bendozol’s gentle voice that he was hearing for the first time.

‘I shouldn’t have listened.’

Lee Han resolutely ignored it and moved his steps forward.

* * *

“Sharkan. Find traces and scents.”

The jade panther, Sharkan, nodded and declared he would faithfully follow his master’s command.

“Gonadaltes. Lead the other skeleton warriors and search the surroundings. If you encounter evil spirits, don’t fight and retreat immediately.”

The warrior of the undead realm, Gonadaltes, nodded and waved his dark green bone sword.

“Basilisk.”

-!

“Eat this snack here and sleep a bit more. If you’re awake, I don’t know what Professor Bendozol might do.”

-…

The baby basilisk was bewildered but bit into the jerky as given and closed its eyes again.

‘Moving quickly.’

Unlike Professor Bendozol, Lee Han had confidence regarding evil spirits and spectral monsters, having experienced them several times.

He knew that most monsters would retreat without approaching.

Rather than wasting time being overly cautious, it was better to quickly announce their arrival and gather the students.

“Light of truth, dwell within!”

Light orbs of a completely different dimension from before, shot with Lee Han’s full determination, began gathering one by one.

The light pierced through even the darkness of Nightmare Echo Forest, where damp and humid magical fog drifted, spreading in all directions.

“Everyone answer!”

“…”

“Everyone answer! If you can hear me…”

“Wardanaz?”

Nilia’s voice full of wariness came from ahead. Lee Han shouted joyfully.

“Nilia! It’s really Wardanaz!”

“Are you lost too?”

“No. I made it out but came back in to bring you all.”

“…That does sound like something you’d do…!”

Upon hearing Lee Han’s words, Nilia thought it was truly like Wardanaz, but she hadn’t lowered her guard yet.

She had encountered too many fake friends on the way here.

“Make me believe you’re real!”

“What… Ah. Did you see illusions by any chance?”

“Yes! It wasn’t this bad last year! You said you didn’t use illusions!”

At his friend’s gritting voice, Lee Han realized Professor Bendozol’s meticulousness and shuddered.

To deliberately choose a time when the already high-difficulty forest had become even more sinister to call the students.

This level of evil was probably around 0.8 Skeleton Principal.

‘To even show illusions. This really will be troublesome.’

Spectral monsters were already bothersome, but when combined with illusion-showing abilities, even experienced students could be caught off guard.

Lee Han resolved to hurry even more.

“Nilia. I’m the real Wardanaz.”

“Yes! But fake Yoner and fake Siana said the same thing!”

“I see. Then Nilia. I’ll attack and subdue you now. If you get caught, you’ll know I’m not an illusion.”

In his urgency, Lee Han came up with the optimal method.

Nilia would get hit a few times, but after getting hit, she’d know Lee Han was real.

“…You really are real!”

Nilia was convinced and ran out.

She judged that evil spirits who showed desired illusions and tempted people wouldn’t show such an absurd illusion.

“Nilia! The power of friendship!”

“Y-yes. The power of friendship, though I’m not sure if this is what that means…”

Nilia was covered in mud and dust from rolling around in the forest several times. After roughly brushing off her hair and shoulders with her hands, Nilia spoke with a serious face.

“Wardanaz. I think we’ve been tricked.”

“What? Are you talking about enrolling?”

“Not that! This lecture. It seems like a fake lecture.”

What started as suspicion had turned into conviction as Nilia continued wandering this forest.

A normal lecture wouldn’t be conducted in a place like this.

“Nilia.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Sorry, but it’s a real lecture.”

Lee Han laid out Professor Bendozol’s educational philosophy and all sorts of bizarre situations that could occur in second-year and above lectures.

Some lectures required stealing the professor’s work to learn, and in some lectures, the lecture hall walls would be smashed by an angry professor’s strike.

Nilia’s eyes, which couldn’t believe it, trembled, then burned with hatred toward Professor Bendozol.

“If someone like that existed in the Northern Mountains, they would have disappeared immediately!”

“…Shall we go look for the other friends?”

Instead of asking about the Shadow Patrol’s covert execution methods, Lee Han changed the subject.

“Yes. Let’s go. I don’t want to attend lectures on weekends.”

“Me neither.”

Nilia chuckled. Then she belatedly saw Lee Han’s serious expression and hesitated.

“…Uh, that wasn’t a joke?”

“What part of what I just said was a joke?”

“Well, that’s… you attend too many lectures.”

“Does someone who attends many lectures have to attend lectures on weekends too?”

As her friend’s voice turned cold, Nilia hastily explained.

“It’s not that, but the more lectures you attend, the higher the probability of attending weekend ones!”

“…That’s true.”

Lee Han nodded with a bitter expression.

That was certainly undeniable.

Someone who attended many lectures had a higher probability of attending weekend lectures than someone who attended few.

“Ch-cheer up.”

Nilia wasn’t confident in encouragement, but she did her best to cheer up her friend.

“I ended up giving up summoning magic.”

Students who showed interest in three or more schools as first-years would focus and choose when advancing to second year.

As new students, they could try various things since they hadn’t fully grasped their abilities, but from second year onward, focus was necessary.

Nilia was such a case, having given up summoning magic she took as a first-year when advancing.

Everyone acted this way, yet Nilia’s friend who stubbornly took all schools was truly remarkable…

“Why? You should have just continued taking it.”

“…”

At her friend’s voice full of malice, Nilia subtly increased the distance.

In some ways, the friend beside her might be more dangerous than evil spirits.

“Lee Han!”

“It’s Yoner.”

At the voice heard from afar, Lee Han looked at Nilia with joy.

However, Nilia had a cautious expression.

“It could be a fake Yoner created by an evil spirit.”

“Don’t worry. If it’s an illusion created by an evil spirit, it’ll scatter the moment I approach.”

Nilia, who realized anew that her friend was a monster, sent him a look of admiration.

It was an ability that displayed almost invincible power in forests like this.

“Right. You… who would have thought there was such a method. If we had met first, we wouldn’t have been fooled earlier either.”

The dark elf friend ground her teeth as if frustrated. Lee Han suddenly became curious and asked.

“How did the illusion you met earlier approach you?”

“It approached saying it would quit Blue Dragon Tower and come to Black Turtle Tower. Tsk.”

“…”

Lee Han momentarily thought, ‘Isn’t it strange that you fell for that?’

Nilia seemed to realize it too as she blushed and shouted.

“It sounded really convincing when you heard it directly!”

“I, I see.”

* * *

Lee Han began gathering his friends one by one.

Occasionally there were illusions that approached pretending to be students, but they didn’t last long. The moment Lee Han ran toward them, the illusions scattered and the hidden evil spirits screamed and fled.

“Ahhh! Wardanaz! Why, why are you running over! The assignment hasn’t been given yet!”

“Ah. Sorry. I was trying to check if you were an illusion or not.”

Some real friends were terrified and fell over when they saw Lee Han running toward them to verify if they were illusions, but fortunately there were no serious injuries.

“Is this everyone?”

“Looking at the numbers, it seems right. The rest will attend at different times.”

The gathered students checked their numbers.

Since it was a 2nd year lecture and a required course rather than a school-specific one, it was possible to predict how many would attend each lecture.

“Then let’s move again.”

“Lord Wardanaz. It seems like the evil spirits are gradually increasing…”

The Phoenix Tower students spoke cautiously.

Since they were all priests from the Order, they could sense the movements of monsters with evil intentions a bit more sensitively.

Right now they couldn’t approach because Lee Han was there, but they were waiting while surrounding them in a large circle.

Lee Han also nodded as he noticed the uneasiness through the movement of mana.

“They’re more persistent than I thought. I didn’t expect them to follow us like this instead of just running away or scattering immediately.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m thinking of just dragging them all the way to Professor Bendozol. Then the professor will handle it.”

The students were startled and shouted at Lee Han’s aggressive method.

“That’s a really good method!”

“Let’s do it right now!”

Lee Han was pleased to see that even the Phoenix Tower students agreed.

The time spent together for a year had certainly solidified the bond between friends.

Swoosh!

“!”

Along with the sensation of hair standing on end at the back of his neck, 【Bagrek’s Momentary Foresight】 traced the trajectory of an incoming attack.

Lee Han immediately activated one of the spells stored with 【Lesser Magic Storage】. Two was too much since he hadn’t mastered it perfectly, but one was manageable somehow.

‘Gonadaltes’s Swift Agility!’

As he accelerated quickly and dodged the attack, a dark spectral arrow struck where Lee Han had been standing just moments before.

“It’s an ambush!”

“Defensive positions!”

The students all moved quickly without exception and began preparing their defenses.

Potions rose with smoke, calling nearby fog to block the enemy’s vision, and several scrolls formed protective barriers.

The students who had bought time chanted additional spells to try to detect the enemy’s location.

“Reveal your malice, enemy…”

‘Over there!’

As the magic dyed the enemy’s form red, Lee Han immediately rushed out.

“Lightning Spear!”

His staff blazed with lightning and took the form of a spear. Lee Han explosively shot mana from his feet, kicked off a tree, and leaped vertically upward.

Perhaps not expecting a mage to approach this quickly, the enemy fluttered and tried to flee.

“…?”

Surprisingly, the opponent was a sparrow. However, Lee Han didn’t let his guard down.

Even though it was a small sparrow, the mana it possessed was extraordinarily powerful.

Moreover, it was so sinister and eerie that unless someone had strong magical power like Lee Han, even a mage would likely suffer mental damage.

Crack!

The tree branch where the sparrow had been perched just moments before shattered and lightning scattered.

The sparrow shot out evil spirits like waves, but quickly realizing they didn’t work on Lee Han, it gave up and retreated.

Instead, it poured out ghosts with sinister nature indiscriminately, making Lee Han’s spear heavy.

At that sight, Lee Han frowned.

‘Can I make it in time?’

The opponent commanded so many spectral monsters that it wasn’t easy to break through quickly. Even though the Lightning Spear kept burning enemies, they kept surging endlessly.

If the opponent escaped like this…

Snap!

Suddenly, the baby basilisk leaped out from his sleeve and precisely bit the sparrow hiding among the spectral decoys.

Befitting the king of serpents, it wasn’t fooled by all sorts of flashy deceptions and instinctively grasped the enemy’s location.

“…Well done!”

The baby basilisk nodded its head as if proud.

* * *

When all the students arrived on time, Professor Bendozol began the lecture while complaining.

“As you probably felt on your way here, the forest is now full of negative energy and death energy. That’s because a cute Nightmarebird has settled in. It looks like a cute sparrow, but its power is so great that ordinary bird monsters can hardly match it! You coming here today is the luckiest of luck. To be able to see such a precious monster…”

“…”

“…Huh…?”

Watching Professor Bendozol get slightly excited while talking about the monster, the students made bewildered expressions.

The monster description seemed familiar somehow.

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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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