Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 785
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 785
“Such… such a senior existed?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
Karnella thought her junior’s voice seemed to rise a bit with excitement.
‘Must be my imagination, right?’
“Why haven’t I known about such a senior until now?”
“As I just said, because he’s antisocial and eccentric?”
“How many antisocial and eccentric people are there in Einroguard? That’s not even a flaw. I think this senior is someone who doesn’t waste time on useless things and diligently focuses on his own work.”
“Professor Verdus is like that too, but nobody likes him…”
“How dare you say such a thing!”
“S-sorry, hey. You were also in the Buyeo Magic School, weren’t you?”
Karnella belatedly remembered that her junior also belonged to the Buyeo Magic School and apologized.
To be precise, the mages of the Buyeo Magic School didn’t get angry when someone insulted Professor Verdus.
They just got angry saying it was ominous and unlucky to mention Professor Verdus’s name in any situation.
“…No, senior. I failed to control my emotions. I’m sorry.”
“Anyone can be like that when it comes to that certain professor. Don’t worry. This Hormashi doesn’t care about such things at all.”
“Then how about preparing a gift before meeting that senior?”
“…”
Karnella felt slightly hurt.
She was also a senior from the Transformation Magic School, so why did he only respect that crazy eccentric senior?
* * *
If there was a great mountain range in Einroguard’s territory, there was a small mountain range in the 7th floor area.
Of course, from the students’ perspective, great or small didn’t feel much different. Just because there were a few fewer mountain peaks didn’t reduce the hardship of students climbing there.
But fortunately, there were several climbing methods that students had prepared in the 7th floor area.
Kurrrrrung!
After entering the basement of some abandoned house and boarding a mine cart, Karnella knocked on the side three times.
Then the mine cart began racing quickly along the rails by itself.
“Living in an underground cave. He seems like a truly frugal and humble person.”
“Is… is that so…?”
Karnella looked at the bundle her junior was carefully holding with disbelief.
No matter how she looked at it, she wondered if they really needed to give such a gift to the senior they were going to meet.
Thud!
The mine cart stopped after just a few minutes. In that time, they had descended so deep that the surroundings were pitch black. All that was visible was the faint glimmer of plants and minerals twinkling far away beyond the underground valley.
Stopping in front of a large cave, Karnella extended her hand toward Lee Han.
“Junior. Don’t move carelessly from here. You might get caught in a trap.”
“Thoroughly guarding his own workshop. He has thorough security awareness.”
“…Senior Jarun! Senior Jarun! Hormashi is here! Please open the door!”
No sound could be heard.
Karnella spat out a curse and shouted again.
“Senior Jarun! It’s lecture time! If you don’t come out, I’ll set this place on fire!”
Still no sound could be heard.
Karnella spat and muttered.
“Having to do this every time I come here. Fierce flames, transform into a mouse and enter inside!”
The powerful flames poured from the bottle transformed into a mouse and began scurrying inside.
How much time had passed?
Flashing flames, curses, and shouts burst out from inside.
“Hormashi, you damned bastard! I’ll demand compensation!”
“Tell that to the professor! The professor ordered it!”
“The professor doesn’t pay!”
With huffing sounds, a short dwarf burst out from inside.
Having just been putting out fires, the ends of his beard and hair were singed, and the rest of his appearance was shabby and terrible like an eccentric hermit.
This person was Senior Jarun from the Western Steel Boot Dwarf Family.
Jarun held a hammer-shaped staff while rolling his eyes and looking around. It was as if he was wary of other attackers.
“Where are the other guys?”
“There aren’t any. Senior Jarun. I told you I came for the lecture!”
“Hmph. You say that and then attack me to extort gold. You think I’ve been fooled once or twice?”
Saying that, Jarun stepped back.
Among Einroguard students, there were several who would reassure him saying ‘The lecture started, Jarun, come out quickly, haha’ and then attack to plunder his gold.
Seeing this, Karnella muttered in an irritated voice.
“Completely insane. That senior. At this rate, he won’t even graduate and will remain forever as a madman of this Einroguard.”
“No, senior. Senior Jarun is just deeply wounded.”
“…Junior, have you met that senior before by any chance?”
Lee Han’s strangely favorable attitude toward Jarun was incomprehensible to Karnella.
Until now, there had been no student who showed a favorable reaction upon seeing Senior Jarun…
“I haven’t.”
“Then why do you like him so much?”
“I just respect him. Just like how I respect you, senior.”
“Hmm. But you seem to respect him more than you respect this Hormashi.”
Karnella looked at Lee Han suspiciously.
‘You’re quite perceptive.’
Naturally, Lee Han liked the senior who hoarded gold more than the senior who checked basilisk defecation schedules.
“Let’s hurry up and start the lecture.”
“…Study on your own today. I have business.”
“Are you going to the punishment room again?”
“If I go, I go! Don’t interfere!”
Seeing the senior who seemed unusually difficult to persuade today, Karnella expressed her dissatisfaction by tapping the wall with her riding whip.
“I came here for business too. Then let me inside. I need to see what’s going on so I can at least make excuses to the professor.”
“What? No way! You’re trying to covet my gold, aren’t you?”
“Ah, Senior Jarun! I have no interest in your smelly rocks! What kind of fortune is it when you don’t even keep a single mouse! Do you think everyone is crazy about yellow shiny stones like you?!”
Lee Han flinched slightly.
Jarun seemed to think Karnella’s words had some merit, pondered for a moment, then pointed at Lee Han.
“What about that guy? Who is that guy? I’ve never seen his face before. How can I trust that guy?”
“Hah. Senior Jarun. He’s from the Wardanaz Family. He’s attending all schools. He has the least interest in gold. He’s just a kid crazy about magic!”
“…”
Lee Han had much to say but stood still with the most harmless and gentle expression possible.
He wanted to go inside and take a look.
Karnella’s shout seemed quite effective as Jarun flinched.
“All… all schools?”
“Yes!”
“Isn’t that guy insane?”
‘That’s too harsh.’
Lee Han felt slightly hurt.
Karnella didn’t care and defended her junior.
“Are you any better, senior? Anyway, hurry up and open the door. I need to check what you’re doing to report it.”
Jarun grumbled while stopping the magic spells he had set up throughout the cave one by one.
‘What is he muttering about?’
-That bastard Hormashi… might have joined hands with those coveting my gold… must never let my guard down… that guy next to him too… seems like a crazy guy… all schools…
“…”
Lee Han pretended not to hear and moved on.
Finally arriving at the end of the cave, an iron door revealed itself. Jarun opened the door and went inside.
‘What is this…?’
It was a strange space that seemed part mage’s workshop and part miner’s workplace. If you mixed the two half and half, it might result in a space like this.
On one side, small golems were diligently mining ore with excavation equipment. The ore collected this way was immediately loaded into handcarts and moved to the workshop.
Once moved, the ore was hit with transformation magic to break it into small pieces, then soaked in alchemical solutions to extract the essence.
“Gather, my children.”
As Jarun cast the spell, pure ingots began to emerge from the essence infused with melted ore.
The completed metal ingots looked very pure and clean even to Lee Han, who was not an expert.
“Ugh. Why are you treating ore like children?”
Karnella muttered with disgust. Jarun shouted as if displeased.
“That’s better than you treating an ugly wyvern like a child!”
“Are you crazy, Senior? How can you compare the cutest creature in the sky with these rocks??”
“Senior Hormashi. Does Senior Jarun do this work every day?”
Lee Han asked carefully while looking around the workshop. Then Karnella nodded and answered.
“He does nothing but this damn work.”
‘My goodness!’
Now he understood why they said Jarun had the best talent for making money at Einroguard.
Einroguard was the Empire’s finest magic school, but at the same time it was also a territory with the most abundant reagents.
If he abandoned class time and constantly roamed around mining areas to dig, how much wealth would accumulate by graduation?
‘I want to become close with this senior!’
Unaware that Lee Han was rejoicing, Karnella clicked her tongue.
A good junior had finally arrived, but this senior was only doing things that would make the junior run away, so she couldn’t help but be annoyed.
“Other dwarfs make liquor to treat their juniors when they arrive and feed them until their bellies burst, but what’s wrong with you, Senior?”
“Those are Eastern dwarfs, you idiot! I’m a Western dwarf!”
Jarun replied irritably.
Unlike Eastern dwarfs who were sociable, loved alcohol, and enjoyed feeding others well, Western dwarfs enjoyed quiet and solitary mining.
Of course, Jarun was particularly introverted even among them…
“Senior. I would like to help with the work.”
“What?”
Jarun was slightly flustered by his junior’s sudden words.
“You want to help with the work?”
“Yes. I have experience with transformation magic as well as working in an alchemy workshop.”
“Hmph. You’re just a novice anyway. Try turning this into sand.”
Jarun took out a hard stone and held it out.
Rock-to-sand transformation magic was simple basic transformation magic, but it was sufficient to gauge the opponent’s skill.
How finely and minutely it was ground showed whether one was familiar with transformation magic.
If this couldn’t be done, he couldn’t assign work. Forcing it would only increase losses.
Pop!
“…Not bad. Do you happen to know 【Component Amplification】 or 【Component Transformation】 magic…”
“I can use them.”
“What’s the most difficult potion you’ve handled when working in the alchemy workshop?”
“I assisted in making Dobrooke’s Soul Revival Potion.”
“…!!!”
Jarun looked at Lee Han with shocked eyes.
A mere second-year student at this level. It was unbelievable.
‘Indeed, not just anyone can take all schools of magic…!’
“Senior Jarun. So what’s preventing you from attending lectures? Tell us.”
“…Follow me. I’ll show you.”
Jarun moved forward with heavy steps.
Inside the workshop sat a fist-sized golden sphere. Lee Han instinctively stared intently at the golden sphere.
“What is this… Wait, it’s growing?!”
Karnella screamed in surprise.
Current Imperial transformation magic could not create gold from nothing. At best, it was limited to temporary or fake gold. This was due to gold’s inherent perfection.
But gold was increasing, even if just a little bit.
Had this crazy senior made a new discovery that surpassed the limits of Imperial magic?
“You created gold!?”
“Don’t be stupid. How could I make gold? I applied dimensional connection.”
Jarun scolded his junior while explaining.
While creating gold was impossible, bringing gold from another dimension was possible.
Jarun had created a magic circle where connected dimensions constantly transformed and flickered in brief moments, then built magic to secure gold when it was observed.
Even Karnella let out an exclamation of admiration at the completeness.
“Amazing, Senior. With this, graduation would really be easy.”
“It’s still far from completion. I need many materials to build it stably. I started it for the first time today. So, you want to help with my work?”
“Yes!”
Lee Han answered filled with eagerness to learn under this respectable senior.
Jarun glanced at Lee Han and said.
“I can’t pay you though?”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Suddenly coming to his senses, Lee Han coldly straightened his face and glared at his senior.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————