Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 769

After that, Ilendil spent another fifteen minutes raging before finally leaving.

The insult to Ilendil’s pure and innocent affection for beavers had apparently been genuinely infuriating.

“T-that was scary. You were right.”

Once the upperclassman was gone, Gainando spoke with cold sweat running down the back of the neck.

From the outside, Ilendil had looked as peaceful as a tree, but once the anger started, the very air around them had seemed to tremble.

I think that one was Gainando’s fault, though.

Even the kindest upperclassman in Einroguard would probably grab someone by the collar on the spot if they were asked something like, “Do you like Professor Verdus?”

Lee Han himself would have fired off a curse instantly if he were practicing dark magic and someone came up beside him and said, “Let’s see! Since you’re learning dark magic… that means you admire Gonadaltes, right?”

“That’s not what we meant when we said scary.”

“R-right. We meant alchemically scary. I heard Ilendil attacks people a lot if they go into the forest… they mostly leave first-years alone, b-but sometimes even first-years get attacked.”

“……”

“……”

At Imirg’s detailed explanation, the students’ expressions turned solemn.

Agdung, being from Kalarogard, looked baffled and asked,

“You’re joking, right?”

“Uh… yes. A joke. Ha ha. An Einroguard-style joke.”

“Ha ha ha! Right? That’s what I thought. I’ve always found Einroguard jokes kind of hard to understand.”

Quickly smoothing things over, Lee Han realized that other Einroguard students had done the same thing before.

There were some things you just couldn’t explain to outsiders.

“Lee Han. I really think we need to come up with some way to deal with Ilendil.”

Yonair whispered.

The others were troubled too, but for students from the alchemy school, that monster in the forest was an especially real threat.

Their school used the widest variety and largest quantity of reagents and materials, which meant they would inevitably have to roam the forests in the territory from now on. The idea of having to deal with an enemy like that was a serious problem.

Normally, this was the kind of thing they ought to ask an upperclassman from their own school for help with.

But, incredibly enough, Ilendil was one of the alchemy school’s own upperclassmen.

What kind of situation was it when the strongest obstacle interfering with their studies was an upperclassman from the very same school?

“An upperclassman has to have some weakness.”

“Like what?”

“Fire, maybe…”

“…I think something a little more peaceful would be better.”

Siana, who had been listening from the side, quietly nodded.

Something more peaceful than burning an upperclassman with fire did sound preferable.

“What if you tried persuading Ilendil, Wardanaz? You’re well liked by upperclassmen, so maybe it would work.”

“Can you even call that being well liked? By that logic, what Professor Verdus does would count as affection too… I’ll try, at least. I’m not exactly confident.”

Among his friends, Lee Han had become the designated specialist for negotiating with upperclassmen, but the truth was that he was not very confident himself.

It was less that he was close with upperclassmen and more that their interests happened to align well enough for transactions.

Besides, every single upperclassman in Einroguard was eccentric, and there was no telling when any of them might suddenly snap.

Ilendil was a perfect example. Right now, Ilendil thought well of Lee Han because of the artificial dark-element spirit and the contamination-source purification.

But if Lee Han got caught chopping down trees in the forest, there was a very high chance Ilendil would attack immediately.

“Maybe it would be better to avoid Ilendil entirely. The forests of Einroguard are huge, but Ilendil is only one person. It might be better to wait for gaps when Ilendil isn’t there.”

“Wardanaz. Ilendil is a remarkable spiritcraft user. I heard even forest spirits Ilendil hasn’t contracted with still pass information along.”

“Damn it!”

Lee Han burst out in rare fury.

Siana flinched in surprise. That was almost the same level of anger Lee Han showed when catching White Tiger Tower students who had skipped studying and run off.

“Calm down, Lee Han. At least for now, you probably won’t have much reason to go into the forest. We secured all these reagents, didn’t we?”

“That’s true… Ah. I should ask Agdung, then.”

Lee Han approached Agdung, who was sketching while observing the tainted-one purification.

“Agdung. When are you returning to Kalarogard? If it’s all right, I’d like to talk with you a bit more.”

At the proposal from such a talented junior, Agdung smiled warmly.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be staying another week. I still have things to take care of for the juniors too. You want to discuss dark magic, right?”

Whenever different dark mages met, they naturally ended up exchanging their individual attainments.

Even within the same school, the paths they walked were all different, so comparing one path to another was always enjoyable and useful.

“Well, yes. Something like that.”

“Do you already know what you want to discuss? If you do, I’d like to prepare a little.”

“I’d like to discuss dark magic items that might actually sell.”

“……”

The subject was so far from what Agdung had expected that Agdung was left speechless.

*****

The wisdom of Einroguard’s dark magic school. And the wisdom of Kalarogard’s dark magic school. If I combine the two, we can definitely make something that’ll sell.

Lee Han intended to make some marketable items in the workshop of Dark Hall.

Even if he had to drag in upperclassmen like Ogoldos—or even Professor Mortum himself—he meant to improve the dark magic school’s pitiful finances.

Of course, there were probably mages out there who would criticize him and say, You’re gathering talented people from multiple magic schools, plus a professor, and this is what you’re researching? Something to sell for money?

But Lee Han did not care about that criticism in the slightest.

If he could have, he would have gladly dragged in the Skull Principal too and made something together.

I have to… fill the dark magic school’s vault…

Thinking that, Lee Han drifted off to sleep. At some point, he realized a familiar place had appeared before his eyes.

A wasteland where both sky and horizon were utterly empty.

It was the black book’s illusion.

“Good to see you!”

The moment he spotted the black book fluttering in the distance, Lee Han shouted.

The black book flinched slightly at this unusual burst of enthusiasm.

“I know why you called me here, black book! It’s because I’m agonizing over the dark magic school’s finances, isn’t it? Am I right? If so, hand over the secret!”

Ordinarily, Lee Han would have complained about the black book’s high-handed method of refusing to let him leave until he mastered whatever it was showing him, but not today.

He had to come up with new dark magic items, and that meant the call from the black book—which contained the Skull Principal’s secret arts—could only be welcome.

But the black book slowly shook itself side to side.

“…No?”

The black book bobbed up and down in agreement, then opened its pages and pointed ahead.

When it pointed toward a far horizon where there seemed to be absolutely nothing, Lee Han frowned.

“What’s over there?”

Instead of answering, the black book shrugged its body as if telling him to look again.

What is it?

Lee Han narrowed his focus and stared.

He cast enhancement magic, and when even that proved insufficient, he drew mana into the eyes—

And then, on that empty horizon in the far distance, a faint human figure appeared.

Lee Han recognized it instantly.

It was the Skull Principal in human form.

“You treacherous bastard. I trusted you!”

Convinced the black book had tricked him, Lee Han furiously grabbed the book by the collar.

Even if the Skull Principal had made it, the two had spent enough time together by now. And yet it had summoned the Skull Principal without a word?

The black book frantically flapped its pages as if protesting that this was not the case, and pointed for him to look °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° again.

Looking back, Lee Han saw that the Skull Principal was not approaching to kill him. Instead, far away, the figure was slowly vanishing into somewhere else.

Underground… no, is that a dimension gate?

The dimension gate, engraved with a golden-wheel sigil, created the illusion that whoever entered it was being sent underground.

And the Skull Principal out there in the distance was not a mage’s split body with its own will or consciousness, but something closer to a repeating apparition that simply replayed the same image over and over.

The Skull Principal walked into the golden-wheel gate and disappeared, then reappeared, then entered it again, repeating the sequence.

As he watched, Lee Han realized that the apparition’s face looked far younger than the Skull Principal’s usual human form.

Was this from before becoming a lich?

Come to think of it, even if the Skull Principal had become an archmage at a young age, there must naturally have been a time when the Skull Principal had been younger still.

The Skull Principal would have learned magic from someone at some point, and there must have been years spent training in it too.

Hard as that was to imagine…

The black book fluttered its pages and moved its body, as if telling Lee Han that he had to go there too.

“…You’re saying I have to go there?”

The black book bounced up and down happily.

“Why?”

The black book pointed at the Skull Principal’s apparition, then opened a page and drew the image of an archmage, then pointed at Lee Han, and once again at the image of the archmage.

It was a complicated set of gestures, but after thinking it over, Lee Han sorted out the meaning.

“So, when the Skull Principal was young, the Skull Principal entered a dimension like that, and that’s how the Skull Principal became an archmage?”

Agreement.

“And you’re saying I need to enter it too?”

Agreement again.

Is this thing insane?

At the black book’s proposal, Lee Han started wondering whether the moment he woke up, he ought to burn the book.

Was this thing trying to get him killed?

Among the unverified extradimensions that mages could step into were countless worlds that were dangerous, grotesque, and bizarre beyond reason.

And if it was the kind of place where the Skull Principal could walk in and bring back magical enlightenment, then it was probably so dangerous that Einroguard would seem too mild even to deserve mention.

And this thing was recommending it without the slightest hesitation.

“The Skull Principal may have already been an incredible mage even at that age, but I’m still a student. First you lowered my guard by teaching me magic, and now you’re trying to kill me like this!”

Lee Han condemned the book in a voice thick with betrayal.

The book flapped its pages indignantly.

The apparition and the dimension gate in the far distance had appeared because Lee Han’s level had risen high enough for him to perceive them—not because the black book had deliberately shown them to kill him.

“My level rose, so they appeared?”

The book nodded up and down. Lee Han answered in a grave voice.

“You made the wrong judgment.”

-……

“Enough. Pretend I never saw that. Now then. Teach me some magic. Surely you didn’t call me here without magic.”

The black book reluctantly nodded.

Whatever else might be true, there were still plenty of spells the black book had yet to pass on to Lee Han.

Still, shouldn’t a mage set out the instant a dimension gate like that was discovered?

Even if it looked impossibly distant, even if it shimmered like a mirage, shouldn’t the first impulse be to start walking toward it?

*****

That took a little of the anger out of me.

Waking up, Lee Han thought that as he prepared to head for Dark Hall.

The black book had explained the dimension gate first, yes, but it was also unmistakably continuing to gift him magic suited to exactly what he needed.

The suggestion that he enter that suspicious dimension gate was still hard to forgive, though.

What if it’s giving me useful magic so I can’t bring myself to burn it? If that’s the case, then this really is an evil artifact.

Old Imperial fairy tales often featured masters who picked up an evil artifact, became enthralled by it, and met their ruin as a result.

At first glance, it could make you wonder, How did they ever get fooled by that?

But evil artifacts never showed their true nature right away.

At first they pretended to be useful and helpful. Then, once they believed they had earned their master’s trust, they revealed what they really were.

If the black book was that kind of case, then perhaps cutting ties right now was the correct choice.

But it is useful. Damn it. Is this why people ended up falling for evil artifacts too?

Lee Han stared fixedly at the black book, torn.

Sensing that emotion, the black book made its cover vibrate in displeasure.

Its master was unbelievably rude.