Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 822
However, Ragesa had grown careless.
The boy from House Wardanaz, now dragged into the second-year section, was frighteningly quick-witted in situations like this.
“Professor Lagrindes!”
“??!”
The healing magic school students stared at Lee Han in shock.
What kind of guts did that junior have, calling for a professor like that?
Summoning Professor Alcasis in the middle of this chaos took extraordinary courage.
If the junior bothered the professor with something pointless, he might end up laid out on the very sickbeds the patients were using.
Professor Alcasis, who /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ had been pulling organs out of a patient with one hand while casting plague-removal magic with the other, slowly turned his head.
Heavy exhaustion layered the dark elf professor’s face. The murderous look in his eyes clearly said, If this is something useless, I’ll kill you.
“What is it?”
“Professor! Lady Ragesa, daughter of Torgerd, has arrived as a customer!”
“…”
Halfway down the stairs, Ragesa was so dumbfounded she couldn’t even speak.
How could a mere second-year already be this skilled at Einroguard-style tactics?
“Lady Ragesa?”
“…It’s been a while.”
She briefly considered pretending she hadn’t heard him, but picking a fight inside another mage tower would only hurt her in the end.
Ragesa gave up immediately. If she wasted time resisting here, Professor Alcasis would probably charge her for that too.
“Perfect timing. Give me a hand. Come over here.”
“Kid, I came here as a customer…”
Ragesa grumbled, but Professor Alcasis paid no attention.
The professor was the kind of person who would put even the Emperor of the Empire to work if the man happened to visit the tower.
“Well done.”
“Haha. I merely informed you that a customer had arrived.”
It was rare for Professor Alcasis to praise any student.
Lee Han immediately bowed his head with shameless flattery, unwilling to waste the opportunity.
“But why did you skip the last lecture?”
“…Uh, I got kidnapped by an ancient being.”
“…”
Even Professor Alcasis, who normally never tolerated laziness from a disciple, fell silent for a moment at that answer.
“I… see. Good thing you escaped. Have you chosen your pseudonym yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t drag it out. It’s not the kind of thing you should procrastinate on.”
Professor Alcasis spoke in his usual rough, hoarse voice and waved his staff.
Letters materialized in the air and began assembling themselves together.
“This spell will determine an appropriate pseudonym for you.”
-Maybe it’ll give you Basilisk.
I highly doubt that.
Lee Han felt oddly apologetic when the baby basilisk spoke hopefully.
“Basilisk?”
The exhausted dark elf professor narrowed his eyes at Lee Han’s sleeve. Startled, the baby basilisk coiled tighter around Lee Han’s wrist.
“Ah. Yes. I happen to be raising one.”
“…”
“…”
Both the nearby patient and the healing magic school senior turned to stare at Lee Han simultaneously.
Was “happening” to raise a basilisk really something normal people did?
“Basilisk venom is an effective treatment for lava sneeze plague, the Ajaksha curse, and malachite poisoning. An excellent choice.”
“It’s still young, so it can’t produce venom properly yet.”
Afraid the baby basilisk would get dragged away the same way the alchemy school students had once tried to do, Lee Han hurriedly made an excuse.
Professor Alcasis looked genuinely puzzled.
“If it can’t even produce venom, why are you carrying it around?”
“…”
-I-I can make some. Want me to?
-Be quiet.
Meanwhile, the floating letters had fully assembled.
Without even glancing at the result, Alcasis flicked it toward Lee Han.
“Take it. It turned out well.”
“Thank y—”
Osyu.
What part of this turned out well?
Lee Han strongly suspected the professor had not only thrown it without looking, but had cast the spell carelessly too.
***
After the brief exchange with the professor, all the students—including Lee Han—were thrown into actual field practice.
Second-years handled second-year duties, third-years handled third-year duties, and Ragesa suffered through the miserable fate of being treated like free labor.
“Let’s see… blue spots blooming across your back like this means one of two things. Either you ate blue king mushrooms incorrectly, or you’re already dead and someone cast dark magic on your corpse!”
“…Do I look dead to you, mage?”
“Ah. No. Have you eaten mushrooms recently?”
“Yes…”
Avoiding the patient’s suspicious stare, Anglago hurried toward the shelves to fetch a potion.
The massive shelves were packed with labels, bottles, ingredients, and nameplates to the point of making one dizzy.
【Poisonous Mushroom Solution Potion for Already Dead Patients】
【Poisonous Mushroom Solution Potion for Patients Unable to Speak】
【Poisonous Mushroom Solution Potion for Patients Still Capable of Walking】
…
Found it!
Anglago grabbed a potion from the section labeled 【Poisonous Mushroom Solution Potion for Patients Still Capable of Walking】 and hurried back.
It was easy to lose perspective because of Wardanaz, but someone like Wardanaz—frantically stitching together dozens of critical patients by himself—was extremely rare.
Normally, healing magic school mages had at least a little more breathing room.
Most patients who ended up here suffered from strange or difficult illnesses that couldn’t be treated elsewhere, and accurately identifying the condition always took priority for healing mages.
That was why pre-prepared potions and ingredients solved most cases more often than direct magic did.
Of course, the process still involved a certain amount of trial and error.
Like asking whether the patient was already dead.
Anglago uncorked the bottle and tilted it against the patient’s lips.
The moment the patient swallowed it, the blue spots vanished completely.
That’s already the third one!
At this rate, he might actually beat his personal record.
Feeling more confident, Anglago glanced toward Lee Han.
He was curious how Wardanaz was doing.
“Gonadaltes. Hold the patient still. It’s fine. He’s undead, but he’s one of the good ones. A little cold needle jade sleep will fix this immediately.”
Lee Han waved his staff without even turning around.
A packet of cold needle jade sleep flew from a distant shelf. The Skeleton Warrior caught it instantly, tossed it into a small pot, and began brewing it.
“Done. Next patient! Your arm’s broken, and you hallucinate every time you breathe?”
What?
Anglago blinked in confusion.
He couldn’t think of any illness where a broken arm caused hallucinations while breathing.
“Let me see. Hmm. Mana-mutation curse. I should probably use a potion… ah, forget it. I can brute-force this much with mana. Hold your breath for a second. There. Curse removed. Try breathing now. Better? Good. I’ll fix the arm next. Next patient!”
“…”
Lee Han treated the patients before him at a completely absurd speed.
After spending the entirety of last year helping the healing magic school seniors—and surviving countless real combat situations besides—he was more than prepared.
His knowledge of illnesses was extensive, and his detection and perception abilities were exceptionally sharp.
And whenever he judged that raw mana would solve the problem, he simply overwhelmed it directly.
THWACK!
Spirits, evil entities, and curse-type afflictions generally couldn’t withstand concentrated high-purity mana.
Watching Wardanaz cure ten patients in a single minute using little more than brute-force mana suppression, Anglago felt something strange beyond mere admiration.
Wait a second. Why do only those kinds of patients keep ending up in front of Wardanaz?
A bad feeling crept over him.
Just then, another patient arrived in the third-year section.
“What symptoms are you experiencing?”
“I had night patrol duty near a graveyard, and ever since the next day, every time I close my eyes, I hear this horrible laughter… urgh…”
“A weak evil spirit possessed you. See the second-year section over there? That junior whose line is disappearing ridiculously fast? Go over there and ask him to blast it out with mana.”
“…”
Only then did Anglago realize the truth.
He exploded in outrage.
Not just the third-years—even the fourth-year seniors were doing the same thing!
-Hey. This one’s going to be annoying to treat… How many potions would this take? <Lagrin’s Reverse Flame Potion>, <Dobrooke’s Blood Drop Potion>, <Birch Potion>…
-Let’s just send them to Wardanaz and have him force it out with mana.
-Won’t that drain too much mana?
-It’s fine. Look at that line. He clearly has plenty left.
“Wardanaz! They’re taking advantage of you!”
“What?”
Lee Han looked bewildered.
Taking advantage of him?
Was Anglago talking about enrolling in Einroguard?
“The seniors keep sending patients your way!”
“…No. I already noticed. Anglago, focus.”
“Please focus, Alpha.”
Not only Lee Han, but even Priest Tiziling looked at Anglago reproachfully.
Anglago slowly sat back down in confusion.
Am I the weird one here!? Aren’t the seniors the weird ones!?
***
“Break!”
Once the last wyvern stopped arriving, Senior Palcrius shouted energetically.
The students immediately collapsed wherever they stood.
Experienced Einroguard students could sleep anywhere.
They spread their cloaks over the ground, cast a few simple cushioning and warmth spells, and fell asleep almost instantly.
“Phew. Good work, Wardanaz.”
“Ah, Senior Palcrius. This should be enough to pass the exam, right?”
“You’re getting full marks regardless… Though honestly, grades don’t matter much in the healing magic school. What matters is surviving with your sanity intact.”
“??”
Lee Han looked as horrified as if the sky had just fallen.
Grades didn’t matter? What kind of nonsense was that?
“What do you mean?”
“Hm? There are too few healing mages. Your grades barely matter. Even students who fail end up recruited immediately after graduation.”
“…”
Confronted with this grim reality, Lee Han instinctively tried to reject it.
“But surely higher grades would still help… like getting assigned somewhere better. The capital, maybe…”
“Hahahaha! The capital already has healing mages!”
Comfortable places like the Imperial capital had little need for additional healing mages, and the positions there were already occupied.
New healing mages were usually dispatched to brutal regions where people got injured in droves.
…Well, I’m studying magic from other schools too…
Lee Han hurriedly stabilized his mental state.
One of the few advantages of taking classes from every school was that whenever your own school looked hopeless, you could seek emotional refuge in the others.
“Anyway, if you’re not sleeping, come with me for a moment. I’ll show you something interesting.”
“Oh. Give me a second.”
Lee Han tried to wake his friends and drag them along as well.
But they were already sleeping peacefully.
He almost splashed water on Anglago before stopping himself.
Ever since becoming second-years, even the White Tiger Tower students had started developing dark circles beneath their eyes.
“Let’s go. So what’s this interesting thing?”
Lee Han expected snacks, a method of escaping through outside patients, or some sort of illegal backdoor arrangement.
Honestly, a fourth-year surviving at this school without relying on at least one of those would be even scarier.
That would mean they’d endured purely through goodwill and responsibility.
Senior Palcrius wouldn’t be like that. I trust him.
“See that mage lying over there? He’s from a mage tower in the Bitong Mountains.”
“Yes. So what kind of deal did that mage offer? Letting us leave?”
“What are you talking about? I called you over because the disease that mage caught is rare and fascinating.”
“…”
Lee Han stared at Senior Palcrius with betrayed eyes.
To think he was this kind of person.
