Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 770
I’ll think about it again later.
After wrapping the black book up tight and sealing it at the bottom of his bag—the black book vibrating as if to say that would accomplish absolutely nothing—Lee Han headed for Dark Hall.
Ogoldos, whom he had not seen in a while, waved cheerfully when Ogoldos spotted him.
“Wardanaz. Good to see you.”
“It’s been a while, Senior. You look tired. Did something happen?”
“Nothing major. I’ve just been thinking about dark magic items that might actually sell.”
Lee Han’s eyes widened.
Ogoldos’s eyes were sunken, as if Ogoldos had been up all night thinking.
After hesitating over whether to say it or not, Ogoldos finally spoke.
“Wardanaz. I respect how you feel, but…”
“?”
“Dark magic just doesn’t make money. Don’t push yourself for no reason.”
“……”
Lee Han was dumbfounded by the way this upperclassman opened with such brutal encouragement.
“Don’t you only know after you try?”
“Sometimes there are things you know without trying. Which way the sun rises, how evil the Skull Principal is… dark magic feels like one of those things too.”
After saying that, Ogoldos went inside Dark Hall. From behind, Ogoldos’s drooping shoulders looked especially narrow and small.
“Ahem. Young Wardanaz.”
This time, Professor Mortum approached. Lee Han bowed politely.
“Good day, Professor. Thank you for granting my request.”
“A request…”
Professor Mortum fell into thought.
This student in front of Mortum had gathered not only the upperclassmen of the dark magic school, but even a professor, and petitioned them all to sit down and think about magic together.
Professor Mortum had been tired and annoyed enough to refuse, but the student had not stopped persuading.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Never mind.”
Diret had not started blackmailing Professor Mortum until the fourth year, but this boy of House Wardanaz was only a second-year and had already learned how to threaten professors.
A chill suddenly ran down Professor Mortum’s spine.
Maybe Professor Mortum was raising a dragon hatchling.
“Right. Ahem. Young Wardanaz.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“I respect how you feel, but dark magic just doesn’t make money. Don’t push yourself for no reason.”
“……”
Lee Han stared in disbelief at Professor Mortum’s retreating back as Mortum turned and went into Dark Hall.
What kind of opening was this…?!
*****
It was not as if Einroguard’s dark magic school had never tried to secure some financial breathing room before.
Flesh Golem
Agdung pulled out the materials Agdung had painstakingly prepared and began presenting.
“In my opinion, the path forward is stronger, high-grade dark magic. Unlike people outside, Einroguard students can implement most ordinary things themselves anyway. We need to sell rarer, more powerful magic.”
“Oh…”
“What I’ve researched is <Ahrak’s Azure Poison>. There’s no way this poison wouldn’t be popular with mages. Just think about how potent it is!”
At the words of the upperclassman from Kalarogard, the students perked up with interest.
It was true that, as befitted a mage from the Empire’s past dark-magic tradition who had made a name with poison, Ahrak’s deadly poison series had been fairly popular even among Einroguard students.
And if they made and sold <Ahrak’s Azure Poison>, the one poison that always came up whenever people talked about the strongest among them?
“Since we couldn’t make the Azure Poison last time because of the ingredient shortage, maybe things really would be different if we made it now.”
“This one really might be popular…”
“Ahem. Wrong.”
Professor Mortum cut in.
Agdung looked slightly flustered and asked back,
“Wrong?”
“It just wasn’t written down, but back then we tried making and selling the Azure Poison too. Ahem. It took so many ingredients that we tried finding buyers first.”
“Really? How many did we get?”
“Zero.”
“…How many?”
“Ahem. Zero. You’re all mistaken, you fools! No matter how good a poison is, only dark mages are going to be impressed by it… other students just think it’s too expensive and don’t buy it.”
The students of the dark magic school had assumed that if they made better poison, other students would recognize its value, but ordinary students did not really understand how great the difference between one poison and another was.
They might buy it once out of curiosity, but even that vanished when the price went up.
“Why wasn’t that recorded?!”
“Ahem. Apparently it was too embarrassing to write down.”
“Well, it… it was a long time ago, so maybe things might be a little different now…”
Even Agdung sounded shaky saying that, as if Agdung did not have much confidence in it either.
“It’s fine, Senior. The ones who don’t understand good poison are the ones in the wrong!”
“That’s right. Selling Azure Poison at this price, and those bastards still don’t appreciate it!”
The students of the dark magic school grumbled and tried to encourage Agdung.
Agdung was so moved by the encouragement from these juniors at another magic school that Agdung almost teared up.
“Th-thank you, everyone. Actually… with the <Tainted-One Cloak> selling and all, I’d started to think that even students outside the dark magic school at Einroguard really did understand how great dark magic was.”
“That sold?!”
Professor Mortum stopped coughing and shouted in shock.
That the <Tainted-One Cloak> had sold.
That «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» was more surprising than the idea of finding a dark magic item that might sell.
“Ahem, how in the world?!”
“Lee Han sold it, Professor.”
“Gainando. Ahem. You can’t call it selling if you threatened people…”
“……”
Lee Han looked at Professor Mortum as if Professor Mortum were being absurd and said,
“I didn’t threaten anyone. I sold it properly.”
“Really? How?”
“There was a tainted-one outbreak on the seventh floor…”
Lee Han briefly explained the situation.
Of course, Lee Han left out the part about the tainted swarm just happening to come over.
When the explanation was over, Professor Mortum sounded impressed.
“Ahem, I see! So you used the situation. But something is odd. They should have been able to use magic themselves, so why… why were there that many tainted ones?”
“…That’s true. Strange, isn’t it.”
“In any case, well done. Young Wardanaz.”
Professor Mortum praised Lee Han sincerely. Professor Mortum had thought Lee Han might have forced people into buying it through threats, but wit on that level deserved praise.
Maybe this young genius really might come up with an ingenious method.
“Ahem. So then… what did you bring?”
“Hmm. What I thought of was a protective item.”
Lee Han brought out a new spell the black book had taught him.
A third-circle spell, <Gonadaltes’s Dark Magic Cloak>.
It was dark magic, but one with a considerable enchantment-magic aspect mixed into it—a spell for artifact creation.
The finished effect was protection and defense against the kinds of magical hazards the dark magic school dealt in: undead, poison, curses, and the like.
This is a genuinely stable and useful artifact.
Lee Han had been suspicious that the black book might be trying to get him killed, but even so, Lee Han could not deny the usefulness of this spell.
When you wandered around Einroguard, you ran into undead, poison, and curses more often than expected.
If it was a cloak that could offer stable protection against those things…
…even students with little interest in dark magic were likely to find that tempting.
“Ahem. That’s all?”
“Wardanaz. Isn’t this a little… too plain?”
Not only Professor Mortum, but Agdung and Ogoldos as well, stared at Lee Han with slightly baffled expressions.
It was too plain.
“Pardon? That’s all.”
“Isn’t it too plain? Would students really buy this?”
“Does an artifact have to be exciting? I think a safe, reliable artifact like this would sell very well…”
Lee Han, who faithfully read the business section of the Imperial newspaper, had confidence in this idea, but the lukewarm response from the dark magic upperclassmen was making Lee Han waver a little.
Was there something Lee Han had missed?
“I get it!”
Ogoldos cried out as if understanding everything.
“Wardanaz is planning to spread poison all over the school before selling this cloak. That has to be it!”
“I see. Ahem. Curses and undead too?”
Professor Mortum finally looked a little convinced. Lee Han answered firmly.
“I never thought of doing that.”
“Ahem. You didn’t??”
“Wardanaz. Then this seems a little risky…”
Is it really that risky??
While Lee Han was still thinking, Agdung stepped in to back him up.
“Wait a moment, Professor. Trial and error is a mage’s right. You shouldn’t stop him before he even tries.”
“Ahem. True enough. Since Young Wardanaz is using Young Wardanaz’s own materials, there’s nothing wrong with letting Young Wardanaz try it as Young Wardanaz sees fit. Mages learn through mistakes in the first place.”
“Ahem. Then shall we move to the workshop and watch Young Wardanaz work?”
Ogoldos leaned in and said quietly to Lee Han,
“Wardanaz. Even if it doesn’t sell, don’t be too disappointed. The <Bone Bearing Al Azif’s Curse> I made before didn’t sell a single one.”
That obviously wasn’t going to sell.
*****
“……”
“……”
After bringing out the first batch and starting sales in the market district on the seventh floor, Lee Han made a vow.
Never again would Lee Han ask dark magic school mages for economic advice!
“Wh-why did this all sell out??”
“Why would something this plain sell??”
I was pathetic for wavering.
Lee Han looked at the horrified upperclassmen beside him with contempt.
Just because something seemed plain by their standards, they had assumed it would not sell.
To their shock, <Gonadaltes’s Dark Magic Cloak>—sold under the name <Dark Magic School’s Protective Cloak>—vanished almost instantly in the seventh-floor market district.
“But the defensive spell isn’t that strong, is it? At this level, it wouldn’t be able to stop a high-ranking undead.”
“Same with poison. This can only block so much poiso—”
“Seniors.”
Lee Han, deciding to get revenge for all the negative commentary from earlier, spoke in a serious tone.
“My magical skill may be inferior to yours…”
“?”
Agdung looked puzzled, but waited without interrupting.
“But I know a little more than you do about what sells and what doesn’t. It’s not dark magic that only you seniors can appreciate that sells. What sells are useful items people can use comfortably.”
“Th-that…”
“An item that plain…”
Agdung and Ogoldos both looked shocked by Lee Han’s words.
Stronger golems, stronger curses, stronger poison—those were not what sold, and something this ordinary was?
It was hard to believe, but with reality right in front of them, maybe Lee Han really was right…
At that moment, students who had come up from the lower floors started urgently spreading the news.
“Just as expected…”
“…What do you mean, ‘ah,’ and what do you mean, ‘just as expected’?”
Lee Han glared at the upperclassmen.
