Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 791
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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 791
Nilia quickly dodged as if she had expected it. Having seen Gainando get hit several times, she was well-prepared.
“Wind, become a wall!”
“…Why are you using magic to block that?”
Lee Han looked at his friend with bewilderment.
Nilia was quickly crouching behind the wind wall, preparing for a second attack.
‘She was just saying mana was precious when she scooped water by hand earlier.’
“…I thought you’d attack a second time. You did that when Gainando dodged.”
“Gainando just deserved a bit more beating. Come on.”
Lee Han used telekinesis to brush off the mana aphids that had revealed themselves.
It wasn’t difficult, but it certainly required patience and persistence.
“Wait. Nilia. Can’t we have spirits do this?”
“We could, but spirits hate it. Mandrakes emit weak toxic fumes.”
It wasn’t enough to harm mages, but it was sufficient toxicity to make lower spirits uncomfortable.
Lee Han felt slightly remorseful inside.
‘I thought it was fine to just endure it since it wouldn’t threaten our lives, but I guess this is the difference.’
He wondered if this was partly why spirits liked Nilia but were reluctant about Lee Han himself.
Though mana was probably 99% of the reason…
“Then I’ll have to use undead.”
Pop!
Lee Han summoned the Skeleton Warrior, Gonadaltes, and ordered him to clean up the mandrakes.
Weak toxic fumes emanated, but Gonadaltes didn’t dare disobey the tyrant’s command and silently brushed off the mana aphids.
Nilia watched this with inner awe.
‘Dark magic…! It’s much more convenient than I thought…!’
* * *
Students entered one by one and took their seats, and when it was time, Professor Willow Tree began the lecture.
“Now. This plant is…”
“It’s a Barometz, Professor.”
Bartrek raised his hand and answered confidently.
The unusual plant with sheep-like fruits blooming like flowers, the Barometz, was a familiar plant to Bartrek, who came from an eastern alchemy specialist family.
The sheep-like fruits were full of nutrients, and the stems and leaves below were also used as alchemy materials…
“Excellent, Bartrek.”
When Lee Han praised him from the side, Bartrek awkwardly scratched under his nose.
“I wasn’t asking for the plant’s name, young boy.”
“…”
The embarrassed Bartrek glared at Lee Han. Lee Han shrugged his shoulders.
‘Did I tell you to speak?’
“Knowing the name is good, but a 2nd year student should know a bit more than that. Yes. Where is this Barometz…”
“The stems are used as blood-related attribute reagents, the leaves as buffering reagents! The fruits have too many uses to mention!”
Bartrek spoke once again. Lee Han clapped quietly.
“…It would be good to listen to the question until the end. I was going to ask where it sells well and what the price is like. The fruits, I mean.”
“Pardon?”
Bartrek was flustered by the unexpected question. The students felt similarly.
The book 【Oh! Such Plants Exist in the Empire?】 contained plant names, habits, and uses, but not current market prices or quantities.
Professor Willow Tree spoke with a slightly mischievous look.
“Probably most students taking this botany lecture are also taking alchemy. Then you should know that among Imperial Mages, no one struggles with reagents as much as alchemists.”
The alchemy school and botany lectures had quite a deep relationship.
It was similar to how transformation magic school students often took zoology lectures.
Since gathering and managing materials was part of alchemy’s domain, botany lectures were half-mandatory.
“Now. Then how should you obtain reagents?”
“We should gather them directly… shouldn’t we?”
Bartrek answered as he had heard in alchemy class.
Then Professor Willow Tree shook her head.
“You can’t do that for everything.”
“B-but Professor Thunderstep said we should develop the habit of gathering directly?”
Professor Willow Tree smiled broadly.
“Of course he’d say that in 1st year. But later on, he’ll tell you to develop the habit of buying too.”
“…”
Surprisingly, Einroguard professors were also skilled at changing their words.
A professor who said in 1st year ‘What? You want to buy reagents with money after becoming a mage? Are you even a mage?’ would change their tune by 3rd year to ‘What? You want to gather all reagents one by one after becoming a mage? Are you even a mage?’
In 1st year when relatively few reagents were needed, they cultivated frugal habits and gathering abilities, but in 3rd year when many reagents were needed, they cultivated the ability to secure them by any means necessary!
“Now. Then you understand? The reason you need to grasp market prices.”
Professor Willow Tree took out a small booklet and enlarged it. On the cover was written 【Imperial Horticulturist Club Journal】.
“Where which plants are trending, what events cause price fluctuations, from whom you can get good plants… Don’t neglect these things and learn them in advance. If you try to learn urgently later, it’ll be too late. Mages aren’t kind enough to give good plants to outsiders.”
“Would it be good to join the Imperial Horticulturist Club?”
“That’s also a good method, but it won’t be easy. The Imperial Horticulturist Club has strict membership requirements… Try getting information through other methods. Make mage friends, or have informants…”
The Imperial Horticulturist Club was an honorable club that not just anyone could join – only horticulturists who had achieved outstanding accomplishments in the Empire could join.
Professor Willow Tree recommended relatively easier methods to the students rather than such difficult approaches.
“Now. So. Where does it sell well, and what’s the price?”
“I, I don’t know well.”
“Indeed. Next young boy?”
“I also don’t really…”
“How about you?”
Starting with Bartrek, several failed to answer, so the question came around to Lee Han.
Lee Han was slightly flustered but answered with what came to mind.
“Around now, wouldn’t it sell well around the southern Baltane Mountain Range? The price is… about twenty silver coins per gold coin?”
“Oh. The reason?”
“The Walpurgis festival should be happening around the Baltane Mountain Range now, and Barometz fruits are popular at such festivals, aren’t they? And last winter, the south wasn’t that cold, so many Barometz would have grown. Then the price probably didn’t rise much above average…”
“You got it almost right. The price is a bit higher though. It’s because adventurers who collected Barometz formed a cartel and are negotiating, but it would be difficult to know that much.”
“I considered that too, Professor. However, I thought the adventurer guilds in that region are in financial difficulties, so they wouldn’t hold out long in negotiations and would compromise.”
“…”
Professor Willow Tree opened the 【Imperial Horticulturist Club Journal】 to check.
Barometz Fruit – Current Imperial 25 silver coins (Southern Baltane Mountain Range)
“Interesting prediction. But you were wro…”
Barometz Fruit – Current Imperial 20 silver coins (Southern Baltane Mountain Range)
“Am, amazing!”
Professor Willow Tree was impressed for the first time in a while.
“How did you predict this?”
“I read Imperial newspapers diligently.”
“Excellent. Well done.”
“Grr…! That bastard Wardanaz!”
Bartrek stamped his feet in frustration.
Who would have thought he was studying even such aspects in advance.
The wall of being the top student of the year was truly high and insurmountable.
‘That’s not what I meant…’
As a fellow avid reader of the Empire newspaper’s economics section, Yoner felt slightly embarrassed.
It seemed like Bartrek was having some strange misunderstanding.
* * *
Professor Willow Tree spent half of the lecture time on education and allowed students to tend to their mandrakes for the other half.
No matter how much they utilized time outside of lectures, they still needed opportunities to ask the professor directly.
“Right. Wardanaz. Do you want to join us?”
“Join what?”
“For mandrakes to have good effects, they need really strong sunlight, right?”
To grow mandrakes, you had to constantly water them, catch pests, expose them to strong sunlight, and do many other miscellaneous tasks.
Even after doing all that, the terrifying thing about plants was that if the mandrake got moody, it could wither or die.
‘A basilisk would be better.’
Lee Han petted the baby basilisk. The basilisk, which had been dozing off in the greenhouse air, excitedly wrapped its tail around his finger.
“Right?”
“We’re going to create that sunlight ourselves.”
“…”
Lee Han momentarily wondered if his friends had gone insane.
Creating sunlight with solar properties was on a completely different dimension from summoning light or flames.
You’d need not only light or flame attributes, but also dozens of attributes symbolizing the sun to achieve even a similar effect.
“Are you perhaps thinking about your graduation project right now?”
“What are you talking about, Wardanaz. We’re not you.”
“What did you just say?”
“I heard a rumor that there’s an artificial sun artifact in the Principal’s storage. If we steal that, we’ll definitely get full marks on mandrakes this semester!”
“…Well, if you do steal it, let me know. I’ll pay money to borrow it too.”
“Wardanaz! What happened to you this year! Last year’s you was much more spirited!”
Lee Han ignored his mischievous friends’ temptation.
Things were already dangerous with many enemies around, so he didn’t particularly want to visit the Skeleton Principal’s storage.
“So if we do it this way over here…”
“Hmm. This one isn’t pretty.”
“What are you two doing?”
Discovering Ratford and Bartrek whispering in front of the vegetable garden, Lee Han asked curiously.
The two were having a conversation with very serious and cautious expressions.
Bartrek hurriedly pointed at the vegetable garden and said.
“It’s nothing. Right, Ratford?”
“Ah. We were trying to create patterns on mandrake leaves.”
“Hey!”
Bartrek was furious at the betrayal. Regardless, Ratford didn’t care.
“We’re just business partners at best, so why are you acting like this? It’s my freedom to decide who I tell.”
“Th-this is why Black Turtle Tower guys are…!”
“What do you mean? Patterns?”
“Mandrakes are valuable for their medicinal effects, but if they have rare patterns, they sell for high prices.”
At Ratford’s explanation, Bartrek’s face turned red with shame.
To be talking about making money by playing around with patterns in front of the top student of the year!
Sure enough, Wardanaz had a shocked expression.
“You two are… geniuses?!”
“…”
“Right. That’s how it was. Why was I forgetting this? Damn. I’ve been learning magic in vain.”
If there were people like Lee Han who obsessed only over efficacy, there were also people who obsessed over appearance and beauty.
There were Empire collectors who would pay fortunes depending on what patterns were drawn on mandrake leaves.
“How far have you completed it?”
“We made a potion and tried it, and we got about dot patterns…”
“These are common. You need to make rarer patterns! Bartrek. Is this measly amount all you’ve got?”
“S-sorry.”
Bartrek apologized and then suddenly wondered to himself.
Why did I just apologize?
* * *
“Thoughts from an instant to a moment, from a moment to a brief time.”
“Very good.”
Professor Garcia checked the magic that extended the perceived time within a mage, 【Lower Grade Internal Time Extension】, and spoke.
Considering Lee Han’s year level, it was an unbelievably fast learning speed.
Of course, he himself was dissatisfied…
“Ugh!”
“I told you there’s no need to rush…”
“Yes. I understand. Ugh!”
“…”
Professor Garcia considered giving him a smack.
“Oh right. Lee Han. Next week is club week, so quite a lot of outsiders will be coming.”
“I understand.”
“Since you belong to many clubs, Lee Han, you’ll probably be called to many places.”
“I under… Huh. What did you just say?”
Lee Han, who had been absorbed in magic, flinched.
It seemed like Professor Garcia had just said something ominous?
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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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