Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 883
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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 883
But even amid such fear, not a single adventurer stopped or tried to turn back.
Those who would turn back out of fear wouldn’t have become adventurers in the first place.
These were people who overcame fear with desire, terror with greed.
Moreover, having worked under Antagondals for so long, their greed was certainly not weak.
“Death Knights. Scrolls!”
When Death Knights and bone wyvern flocks appeared in the sky above the forest, the adventurers belonging to Kangle’s Shadow all responded in unison.
Not only invisibility magic, but also magic that erased their presence and aura, and even caused confusion when the surroundings were observed.
“Is it working?”
“Wait a moment. Death Knights can easily see through veils.”
Even after the patrolling Death Knight disappeared, the adventurers cautiously held their ground.
Just as they were about to move again, more Death Knights appeared from another direction.
“…”
“What the hell, does this damn territory have Death Knights in legions?”
Death Knights were enemies that, if encountered even once in any decent ruins or dungeon, could be said to have received a year’s worth of bad luck all at once.
Yet here in Einrogard’s territory, Death Knights appeared and wandered around every few minutes. From the adventurers’ perspective, it was as chilling as having a cold blade slipped along their spines.
“…Alright. We’re moving. Candlemaker. Have you confirmed the position?”
“Just a moment…”
The adventurer called Candlemaker took out a long brass telescope and carefully confirmed their position.
They had crossed Einrogard’s infamous barrier and entered the territory, but there was still a long way to go.
This territory was as vast as any decent region, so if they weren’t careful, they could easily get lost and stick their heads into extremely dangerous places.
Crack!
Suddenly the brass telescope’s lens shattered and the Candlemaker collapsed forward.
The adventurers were horrified but couldn’t even scream. The Archer quickly checked the Candlemaker’s pulse.
“…Wrong. His soul has been absorbed.”
“Cr-crazy… These damn cursed mages. What kind of trap did they set up?”
“Probably looked in the wrong direction. Should have looked toward the mountain range, but seems like he looked at the mage tower where the mages stay.”
The adventurer called Craftsman made a cold assessment.
Being the most experienced adventurer among them with the most knowledge about magic and artifacts, he could guess what had happened.
Mages always set up defensive magic to protect the treasures stored in their workshops or mage towers.
The mages of Einrogard here had certainly set up such magic too.
It was hard to believe that just observing from afar, not even approaching, had caused his soul to be absorbed…
“That’s impossible. No matter how notorious Einrogard is, it’s not some great labyrinth located on an isolated peak. Would they really set up such threatening magic within their territory? Outsiders wander around here too.”
“It’s entirely possible. Lord Antagondals infiltrated, didn’t he? It wouldn’t be strange for them to be on guard.”
“Hmm…!”
In reality, it was because of the Insane Doppelganger, not Antagondals, that the territory’s alert level had risen, but the adventurers didn’t know that much.
“We abandon the Candlemaker. Let’s move quickly. Since his soul was absorbed, our location might have been discovered.”
“We haven’t confirmed the destination yet…”
“Can’t be helped. We’ll have to go with a temporary measure.”
The Swordsman opened a silver cover and took out a compass. The needle spun around and then pointed in a direction.
This artifact that showed the destination’s location with a fifty percent probability was less reliable than the Candlemaker’s telescope from earlier, but in the current situation, there was no choice.
“Let’s go!”
The adventurers ran without even breathing. The fear that Death Knights might swarm from all directions if they hesitated even for a moment spurred them on.
How long had they walked?
The Swordsman thought to himself.
‘Strange. I don’t see any pursuit teams.’
Since the Candlemaker had his soul absorbed, there should have been pursuit teams coming out to find his body.
But whether he looked at the sky or outside the forest, there were no pursuit teams, just silence.
As if they wouldn’t bother making a fuss over catching just one outside adventurer who happened to wander in.
That silence made the Swordsman even more afraid.
“The mountain range!”
When massive peaks revealed themselves before the adventurers who had escaped the dark forest, they breathed sighs of relief.
They had arrived at the mountain range within the territory that was their original destination, not the mages’ tower.
The place that Antagondals had indicated he was staying in his message.
Since it was a remote and barren place, now that they had come this far, they could catch their breath. If they started searching around the mountain range for Antagondals…
Whoosh!
“Will we be able to find those intruder bastards in the mountain range? What if they’ve already gone deeper inside?”
“Of course that’s possible. But the inner parts of this mountain range are tough even for Einrogard students. Those intruder bastards won’t be able to endure it and will come down several times. That’s when we’ll target them.”
Einrogard’s mages were having an ominous conversation while setting up magic traps everywhere.
These were deadly magic traps that would activate the moment outsiders who weren’t Einrogard students stepped on them.
That wasn’t all.
“Tsk tsk. Those lazy bastards. Do they think apples will fall just by waiting under a tree?”
“You’re right, Hormashi. We need to actively pursue them. They can’t step up at times like this because they don’t properly care for their mounts usually.”
-Grrrrowl…
There were also mages searching for traces while leading three-headed dogs, Cerberus, that breathed sulfurous breath.
“Anfargon. Isn’t this device too expensive?”
“It’s a reasonable price. It’s much better to observe like this than to have people run around directly. If there are intruders who entered from outside, it’ll catch them right away.”
“That Wardanaz kid. He makes such strange requests. I’m doing it because I owe him something, but… why does he want to catch thieves who entered from outside?”
Still other mages were floating magic devices in the air, attempting to observe the surroundings…
Seeing more mages than expected combing through the area near the mountain range like catching mice, the adventurers froze solid.
No matter how experienced the adventurers were, having been through all sorts of battles, and no matter how young and inexperienced the opposing mages were, when the numbers differed this much, they couldn’t even think of doing anything.
This was the mages’ territory, after all.
“Our location was discovered when the soul was absorbed earlier. No doubt about it.”
“Gah…!”
The adventurers let out deep, dark groans.
They never could have imagined that regardless of any traps, some student was going around making requests.
* * *
After posting giants as guards, receiving some praise from the Insane Doppelganger, and petting the hamster once (the hamster tried to bite him), Lee Han returned to school and asked his upperclassmen.
“Senior. I’ll take care of my own exams, submit exam materials to the club, and help a lot with regular club work, so could you please grant me one request?”
“Haha, Wardanaz! Even if you said just one of those three things, we’d have no choice but to grant your request!”
“Intruders have entered the school, so could we possibly mobilize club members to catch them?”
“It’s not difficult, but… why?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why are you, Wardanaz, doing this?”
Falkrious tilted his head.
Intruders entering Einrogard was something that happened constantly.
And catching them was the job of the Skeleton Principal, his minions, or the professors.
It wasn’t a problem for a second-year student who would be taking midterms in a few days to worry about.
“Well… you see…”
Lee Han hesitated because it was hard to say that he had scammed a mage criminal and mocked his hamster state.
Then Falkrious nodded as if he understood.
“Haha. I think I know without you saying.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s because you’re the Principal’s disciple, right? The Principal is really too much. Making you do such things.”
“…That’s not it!”
When Falkrious made a strange misunderstanding, Lee Han immediately began explaining.
Though it was somewhat doubtful whether he was convinced, Falkrious promised to ask club members and friendly underclassmen to search the surroundings.
Lee Han hadn’t only asked Falkrious for help.
“Senior Hormashi. I’m taking care of a baby basilisk, unicorn, griffin, and His Majesty Jowurin, so could you possibly help me out?”
“…By any chance, are you asking me to guarantee something in my family’s name?”
Karnella was horrified.
What kind of request could he possibly be making to start with such a story?
“No. There are intruders…”
“Why are you, a junior, handling that?”
“…Well, you see…”
“Ah. Never mind. I think I know without you saying.”
“You’re not thinking it’s because I’m the Principal’s disciple, are you?”
“That’s right? What? How did you read my mind?”
“…”
The requests continued after that.
Various club seniors.
And the seniors from Lee Han’s academy (practically most of them) readily nodded at their rare junior’s request.
Diret, who had promised to patrol with the Black Magic Academy underclassmen, suddenly became curious and asked.
“But junior.”
“I’m not doing this because I’m the Principal’s disciple!”
“…Ah, no. What are you talking about?”
Diret was flustered.
He hadn’t particularly thought Lee Han’s current search for intruders was related to the Skeleton Principal.
If anything was related, wouldn’t it be connected to the Insane Doppelganger instead?
“…You’re right. Senior. Senior Diret is Einroguard’s greatest senior!”
Lee Han exclaimed with slight emotion. At those words, Diret became rather embarrassed instead.
“That much? There must be many seniors better than me.”
“Who exactly? Just name one person…”
Pretending not to hear his junior’s words, Diret returned to the main topic.
“What I was going to ask about was the Divination Magic Guild seniors.”
“Ah. I didn’t ask them.”
“Why… actually, I can guess without asking.”
Diret could guess why his junior hadn’t asked without needing to inquire.
Unlike other magic academies, since they didn’t particularly care what their junior did, there was no need to ask.
“There’s a way.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Just say the intruders have expensive reagents or artifacts.”
“Huh? I don’t know what the intruders have though.”
“Right. I don’t know either. But it doesn’t matter.”
“…”
Lee Han was flustered by the bold suggestion to lie.
Could it be that Senior Yukveltire was sitting there in disguise instead of Senior Diret?
Perhaps noticing his junior’s gaze, Diret hurriedly began explaining. If he left it like this, he might lose his position as Einroguard’s greatest senior.
“No! I don’t usually lie like this either. But it’s okay to do it to the Divination Magic Guild kids! …It sounds strange, but it’s true!”
As Diret spoke, he felt like he was sinking deeper into a quagmire.
The more he spoke, the stranger it sounded.
But Lee Han was indeed an excellent junior. He immediately understood Diret’s meaning.
“I see. I understand. Since the Divination Magic Guild seniors usually don’t give me any reward even when I work hard for the academy, it’s a kind of self-defense if I deceive them.”
“Uh… that’s true, but… how did you understand that from what I just said?”
“Thank you. Senior Diret. I’ll do that. You really are Einroguard’s greatest senior!”
“Hey. It’s nothing. It’s not a big deal.”
While waving his hand pretending to be nonchalant, but secretly fluttering with pride behind him, Lee Han thought to himself that he should give him a cup with “Einroguard’s Greatest Senior” written on it as a year-end gift.
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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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