Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 715

At the sight of the junior burning with enthusiasm, Sebius gave a faint snort of amusement.

People facing a trial fell into two categories.

One was the kind that ran away from trials.

And the other was the kind that actively rushed straight toward them.

The junior in front of Sebius was clearly the latter. Sebius felt like Sebius could now understand, at least a little, why the others in the Teleportation Club wanted to bring this junior in.

“So you’re the type that burns brighter the harder it gets?”

“?”

Lee Han tilted his head, because the truth was simply that he had built up too much resentment toward Professor Verdus.

“It’s just that I don’t like the professor—”

“Professor Verdus’s things aren’t easy to touch.”

Sebius said this while opening the window and stepping outside. Lee Han looked back at the White Tiger Tower upperclassmen’s storehouse with regret.

“I’d better remember this place.”

A skilled thief was someone who wisely decided not what to steal, but what not to steal.

In that sense, Sebius really was a skilled thief, since Sebius quietly took only the book originally targeted and came right back out.

But Lee Han was a slightly different type of thief.

If things went wrong, he was closer to the sort who came back, grabbed everything, and ran.

“Professors are hard enough to touch already, but Professor Verdus is especially difficult.”

“Is there some special reason?”

“Professor Verdus has a lot of expensive materials, so students tend to target Verdus first. Because of that, Professor Verdus’s defenses are more thorough than those of the other professors.”

“……”

Hearing how Professor Verdus was treated like a treasure beaver among the upperclassmen, Lee Han felt dumbfounded.

So a person could be this popular in a way like this too!

“Fortunately, what we’re after is the professor’s books, so it’s better than it could be. Professor Verdus has probably forgotten having them in the first place. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s difficult. At minimum, you need to know a few spells before going in. Right. How did you open that window earlier?”

Now that Sebius thought about it, there had been three spells defending the window of that White Tiger Tower storehouse.

<Paldar Luji’s Intermediate Metal Barrier>.

If cast on metal, it was a spell that caused the metal to transform and block attempts at entry whenever a hostile intruder appeared.

<Axen’s Mystic Enhancement>.

A spell that strengthened and amplified the power of magic itself. By itself it did not mean much, but when combined with other spells, it multiplied their effect.

<Zenbaya’s Intermediate Lock>.

It was a defensive spell that most efficiently blocked nonphysical intrusion attempts. The spell Sebius had originally been trying to dispel was this one.

But when the unexpected additional spells had been layered in and produced synergistic effects with one another, breaking through had become impossible…

Sebius could not understand how this junior had opened it.

“If you condense mana and then swing it like a hammer over the widest area possible…”

“Must be a secret spell of House Wardanaz.”

Despite Lee Han’s sincere explanation, Sebius took it in a different way.

So it was a secret spell of House Wardanaz, and because Lee Han could not explain it, he was answering by dressing it up as some absurd method like that.

As expected of someone from the Blue Dragon Tower.

“If it’s a secret family spell, there’s no need to tell me. Keeping secrets is important. That’s something to be praised.”

“……”

The junior glared at Sebius, but Sebius did not notice.

“If you’ve got a spell like that, it’ll definitely help in dangerous situations. But you can’t rely on that alone. You need other spells too.”

“Like what?”

“You already know invisibility magic, so that’s fine. You also need to know how to break walls. Do you know any related spells?”

The method with the lowest difficulty was magic that transformed wood or stone into sawdust or sand, but that took too much time and made it highly likely the surroundings would notice.

Since the lifeblood of relocation lay in speed and secrecy, the faster and more powerful the magic, the better.

In Sebius’s case, Sebius used a combination of the spell <Atuga’s Blade Wind> and a <Rock-Devouring Spirit>.

First cutting the wall, then sending the spirit in between to eat it away.

“I did learn <Tutanta Family’s Rock Disassembly>, but I still haven’t mastered it yet…”

“A family secret spell? Can I see its power?”

Even if two spells produced the same result, there could be infinitely many varieties of them.

For example, if one were talking about a spell that punched a hole in a wall, there were easily hundreds of possible ways to make a hole in a wall.

Transformation magic could do it, enchantment magic could do it, pure elemental magic alone could do it too…

Of course, if all such spells had all remained in use, every mage’s head would have exploded from complexity.

Because they were learning under the Empire’s current magical system, which classified spells by efficiency above all else, not only mages but students as well naturally ended up seeking out the most efficient spells among those possibilities.

But even here, there were a few exceptions. Secret family spells passed down through houses were one of them.

Since they were handed down within a family, there was no reason for them to disappear by competing against other spells.

Instead, the downside was that even experienced mages found it hard to recognize what kind of spell it was before seeing it directly.

“It’ll take a little time.”

“There are spells that take time. I’ll wait, so go ahead.”

Lee Han nodded and took out the wand.

<Tutanta Family’s Rock Disassembly> was a family spell he had learned from Salco last year, and even then it had been difficult enough to give him a headache.

Lee Han was not someone who usually found learning magic difficult, but this spell was a fourth-circle spell, and among those it was on the harder side.

In fact, at the time, Lee Han had seriously suspected that Salco had taught it to him in an attempt to assassinate him.

“Now that I think about it, I’m getting annoyed again. That bastard. Teaching it to me when Salco couldn’t even master it personally.”

Salco had taught it because Salco thought Lee Han would be able to do it, even though Salco personally still had not mastered it because it was too difficult.

Even thinking about it now, it was absurd.

After that, Lee Han had practiced the spell a few times, but the difficulty was so high that he had put it off. There were dozens of spells he needed to learn. He could not master every single one.

He took a handful of fragments from the rock he intended to destroy, prepared the incantation, concentrated, and then…

“In Tutanta’s name, stone, shatter!”

CRACK!

A corner of the empty classroom wall turned to powder as if it had been carved out with a blade, and Sebius’s eyes widened.

The spell’s power was far stronger than expected.

And then…

“You said you hadn’t mastered it?”

Sebius asked in a tone of complete disbelief.

The junior had clearly said just moments earlier that it had not been mastered.

But looking at that casting just now, it did not seem unmastered at all.

The moment Lee Han gripped the reagent and chanted the incantation, the spell had gone off almost immediately.

At that point, it was fair to say the spell had been mastered.

“That’s what I thought too. I thought I hadn’t mastered it yet, but after not doing it for a while, it worked surprisingly well.”

Lee Han said this with an awkward expression.

He himself had not expected it to go this smoothly either.

Maybe not practicing it for a while had unexpectedly helped.

Or maybe all the miserable hardships in the meantime had secretly helped without him realizing it…

“Is this bastard insane?”

Of course, from Sebius’s point of view, not knowing Lee Han’s circumstances, the junior looked a little unhinged.

“Is this a brag?”

Judging by the result, it was a spell with power approaching the fifth circle.

To reduce a wall to powder in one go like that, without extra preparation or a long casting time.

If someone could use a spell like that, Sebius could understand wanting to brag a little, but…

…Did the junior really have to go this «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» far?

“I’m glad it worked well.”

“Thank you.”

Like the seasoned relocator Sebius was, Sebius did not reveal any of these thoughts.

Unaware of what the upperclassman was thinking, Lee Han was genuinely touched.

“Sebius really believes what people say.”

“The last kind of magic you’ll need is combat magic. Professor Verdus is notorious for using artificial summons as sentries. We’ll avoid them as much as possible, but we’ll still need a certain amount of force. Are you confident in combat?”

“Hmm.”

Lee Han thought for a moment about where to begin and how to phrase it.

After thinking it over, Lee Han made a decision.

It seemed like a bad idea to bring up Professor Voladi. The upperclassman might give him a strange look.

It also seemed like a bad idea to mention the enemies he had beaten. It would sound too obviously like bragging.

“I think I can at least protect myself.”

At that carefully selected answer, Sebius nodded.

Since Lee Han had only just become a second-year, and was from the Blue Dragon Tower on top of that, Sebius had not expected much in the way of combat strength anyway.

That answer was better. It meant Lee Han was less likely to make a pointless mistake out of sheer competitiveness.

“That should be enough. Let’s go.”

*****

Sebius led Lee Han outside the main building.

The instant he stepped outside, Lee Han cast invisibility magic on himself. At that waste of mana, Sebius whispered,

“Why are you using it already? What about your mana?”

“There are circumstances. My mana is fine, so please let it go.”

“……”

Sebius still looked unconvinced by the junior’s words, but did not say anything more.

Once Sebius had decided to carry out a relocation together with someone, even if that person was a junior, the other’s judgment had to be respected.

“If you say so, I’ll let it pass, but remember this. If you collapse, I can’t carry you out. I’ll escape on my own.”

“I know.”

As he answered, Lee Han looked around to see whether any first-year students were nearby. Fortunately, it seemed there were no freshmen out wandering at night.

“I need to come up with a countermeasure soon.”

“You know Professor Verdus’s Hall of Sacred Engravings?”

“Yes.”

Sebius recalled that the junior was also attending enchantment magic.

If that was the case, then naturally Lee Han would know the Hall of Sacred Engravings as well.

“There are several storehouses near the Hall of Sacred Engravings. Most of them can’t even be approached, but a few were enchanted so long ago that their defenses have grown loose.”

“Why doesn’t the professor maintain them?”

“Professor Verdus made so many storehouses that Verdus doesn’t remember them all very well. That’s one more reason students keep targeting them.”

“……”

Listening to the story of Professor Verdus, who was treated like a treasure beaver among the upperclassmen, Lee Han felt newly astonished.

The professor’s own disciples were going outside to take commissions because they lacked reagents and materials, while Professor Verdus had piled up so many materials in storage that Verdus had forgotten the inventory entirely.

No wonder the students gnashed their teeth and focused so heavily on targeting Professor Verdus’s storehouses.

“That’s good fortune for us. We’ll get close through one of those storehouses and enter from there.”

“What are the names of the books we need to recover?”

“<Introduction to Imperial Investment Methods>, <Mage, Do Not Repay the Gold You Received as Investment>, <Introduction to Imperial Artifact Trends>, <The Genius Enchanter Who Secured One Hundred Investments>, <Encyclopedia of Imperial Materials>, <General Gemology>…”

“…N-no. Isn’t that way too many? Just how long has the professor—”

“Verdus took them all at once.”

Killing intent flickered in Sebius’s voice.

Lee Han could keenly feel once more that Professor Verdus was an excellent mage.

If not for being an excellent mage, how could someone stay alive while making not only personal disciples but even unrelated students want to bury them all?

“Fairy tale, turn into silver coins. Silver coins, turn into gold coins. Gold coins, turn into jewels.”

As Sebius recited the password, a thick oak tree rippled and transformed into a door.

The two students quickly ran inside. Within, all sorts of odds and ends lay scattered in disorder. Sebius focused in order to grasp the path.

Professor Verdus’s storehouses were all naturally formed labyrinths, and if someone lost concentration for even a moment, it was easy to get lost.

CREEAK—

“Damn it, a sentry! Right from the entrance…”

Sebius was about to signal Lee Han to retreat.

Who would have thought a sentry would be patrolling right from the entrance?

BANG!

“I got it!”

“……”