Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 835

How long had he been walking?

At some point, Lee Han realized he could no longer hear the insane duplicate’s endless nonsense.

What? Did I turn it off?

Wondering whether he had unconsciously shut off the Echo Stone out of sheer irritation, Lee Han reached for his staff.

Only to realize there was no staff in his hand.

“?!”

Before he could properly react, the Black Book fluttered into view above his palm.

Unlike before, now that he had learned how to perceive his own soul, Lee Han could clearly sense the connection tying the Black Book to it.

Ah. So that’s why it could appear in my dreams whenever it wanted.

Lee Han cautiously extended his mana toward the connection.

The Black Book immediately fluttered in alarm.

If the connection were damaged, it would no longer be able to appear before this mage and guide him in the future.

“You’re telling me not to touch it?”

Agreement.

“Fine, fine. I get it… Wait a second. Since when did you ever listen to what I said? Why should I listen to you?”

…

The Black Book trembled faintly at the mage’s rapid growth.

To think the moment he grasped power, he immediately resorted to threats…

“More importantly, you seem to be misunderstanding something. I’m not asleep right now. I was walking through that crazy spirit’s… the Spirit King’s forest.”

Deciding to clear up the misunderstanding before addressing his usual grievances, Lee Han explained patiently.

The Black Book seemed to have gotten the wrong idea.

At the moment, Lee Han was not sleeping. He was still wandering through the forest.

I’m already dying from exhaustion. If you suddenly tell me to start learning magic now, I’m severing the connection.

The Black Book fluttered as if to say it already knew.

“You knew? Then you dragged me here to learn magic while I’m half-dead from curses? You’re just as vicious as your master…”

Before Lee Han—whose tongue had grown sharper than usual under the effects of the curses—could unleash a string of insults, a powerful presence suddenly emerged from the empty horizon ahead.

Lee Han turned.

“…!”

Something else now stood in the wasteland that had previously contained only the Black Book.

The overwhelming presence alone was enough to unsettle him, but its appearance was even stranger.

It was a tree.

A tree that looked as though the very concept of violence had been hammered into wooden form.

Are there seriously trees that look like that?

Most wood spirits Lee Han had encountered so far had possessed gentle, generous, peaceful appearances.

Which made sense. Spirits could never completely escape the nature of their origins.

Fire spirits and lightning spirits tended toward intensity.

Wood spirits and earth spirits tended toward calmness.

But the being before him shattered every preconception he had ever held about wood spirits.

It looked as though someone had taken massive slabs of wood, twisted and carved them together, and forced them into the shape of a gigantic bipedal monster.

CRACK!

Whenever it moved, wood slammed against wood with explosive force.

Even that sound—normally something lively and cheerful—felt aggressive and threatening coming from this creature.

Hey. Thanks. I got out thanks to you.

The wood spirit spoke with all the refinement of a drunken mercenary lurking in an alleyway.

Lee Han blinked in confusion.

“Who are you?”

What? “Who”? This bastard… Ah, forget it. I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll let it slide. I’m Saratán, the Victorious Wooden King. Remember it properly.

What kind of nonsense is this?

As Lee Han stared blankly, realization suddenly struck him.

Embedded in the creature’s head were the Frost Giant King’s blue gemstone, the ore from the teleportation statue, and the Echo Stone.

The staff!

The high-ranking wood spirit sealed inside the staff.

This had to be that spirit.

“How did you get out—”

Before Lee Han could finish, a fist came hurtling toward him.

A gnarled wooden arm shot through space and smashed forward with terrifying speed.

BOOM!

But Lee Han neither coughed blood nor went flying.

After dealing with countless lunatics over the past year, he had been on ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) guard from the instant he saw the thing.

As if predicting the attack in advance, he angled his telekinesis to divert the blow and immediately flung himself backward to dissipate the impact.

The Black Book fluttered approvingly, as though praising him.

What? You didn’t die? You’re tougher than you look.

“…Why are you attacking me?”

For rudely interrupting while I was speaking. Watch your mouth. I won’t overlook it a second time.

“…”

Lee Han was genuinely speechless.

It wasn’t as though he had interrupted mid-sentence. He had listened quietly and only spoken afterward, yet somehow this lunatic was furious anyway.

The Gwangmok King should hand over the “Gwang” part of the title to this bastard instead.

Now he understood perfectly why the other wood spirits had sealed this thing away.

While Lee Han eyed him warily, the wood spirit paid no attention whatsoever and continued rambling excitedly, apparently thrilled to be free again.

You have no idea how frustrating it was. Being stuck in the hands of some weak, stupid human brat, unable to use my authority or resonate properly. I thought I was going to die from sheer frustration.

“Yes. I apologize. I was lacking.”

Good. At least you know your place, human brat.

Lee Han silently resolved to grab the Talking Oak Trees by the collar the moment he got back.

How could they hand something like this to a student?

Professor Willow deserved to get grabbed by the collar too.

—No, seriously. Why would you give me something like this? What grudge do those oak trees have against me?

—Ah, no, there’s a misunderstanding. After spending so long reflecting, its temper should have softened considerably. They probably hoped it would accompany the Young Mage, help you, and atone for its past behavior. And with your abilities, I thought you might even become friends with it. Haha…

If you’re a professor, you should say, “This is an exceptionally violent spirit, so never awaken it even if it means abandoning the authority entirely,” not spout nonsense like that.

To be fair, Professor Willow had also warned him not to rush into awakening it.

But naturally, Lee Han failed to remember that part.

Professor Willow probably had not expected him to release the sealed spirit this quickly either.

But how did it even wake up? I never used its authority.

Lee Han thought for a moment before arriving at the only possible conclusion.

The Gwangmok King’s Forest.

But the seal shouldn’t be weak enough to break just from entering the forest… Wait. This isn’t reality. It’s the world of souls. Did I receive the branch in reality already?

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became.

There was no other explanation.

Who would have imagined that receiving a branch from the forest would release the seal on a homicidal spirit?

Lee Han almost laughed bitterly at the absurdity.

What kind of gift transformed into a disaster the moment you received it?

Anyway, get lost. Don’t let me catch you going around bragging that you used me as a staff. I’ll rip your tongue out.

Far from showing gratitude toward the mere second-year student who had freed him, the wood spirit responded only with threats and curses.

Lee Han cursed internally while maintaining a polite expression outwardly.

“Understood.”

Yeah. Now get lost!

I already have enough lunatics around me. I don’t need another one.

Losing the authority of a high-ranking spirit was unfortunate, but Lee Han would gladly give it up if it meant avoiding this personality-defective maniac.

But at that moment, the Black Book fluttered sharply and shook itself in warning.

“?”

It rose above Lee Han’s hand as though urging him to prepare for battle.

Immediately, Lee Han heightened his vigilance.

…What? Why isn’t it working? Damn those spirit bastards. The seal isn’t completely broken?

The wood spirit attempted to leave in a blur, only to find himself unable to move properly, as though bound in place.

Instantly, furious curses erupted from him.

He had regained consciousness and assumed the seal had shattered entirely.

Only now did he realize it had merely weakened.

If it had been another spirit, it might have been grateful even for partial freedom and encouraged the mage, hoping the seal would loosen further over time.

But Saratán, the Victorious Wooden King, operated on a completely different line of thought.

Yeah. This won’t do. I’ll just crush you instead.

“Why?!”

At minimum, I should at least be able to move wherever I want.

Attacking the mage would not restore his power or destroy the seal.

But at the very least, it might let him escape elsewhere.

As things stood now, his true form remained bound to Lee Han, making escape impossible.

The tree spirit swaggered forward confidently.

He intended to crush this terrified young mage in an instant.

“Your Majesty the Victorious Wooden King! Please, just hear me out for a moment!”

What? Fine. Go ahead.

The spirit actually paused.

At that exact instant, Lee Han borrowed the Black Book’s power and unleashed maximum-output telekinesis straight at him.

!!!

The tree spirit was hurled backward in shock.

The mage was far stronger than expected, yes—but more humiliating was the fact that he had been deceived by a mere human child.

How could he possibly be tricked by some young human whose blood had barely dried?

I’ll kill you…!

FLUTTER!

The Black Book moved with more urgency than Lee Han had ever seen before.

That alone told him how dangerous this opponent truly was.

“…Kugh!”

The tree spirit had not even attacked yet, but blood was already pouring from Lee Han’s eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

The Black Book had forcibly cast high-level magic through him, overloading his mind in the process.

It was only thanks to his near-bottomless mana that his body remained intact at all. Otherwise, the backlash might have blown him apart.

Even though this place was a world of consciousness and souls, damage inflicted here was no joke. Severe injuries to the soul would affect the real body as well.

This bastard…

Lee Han cursed the Black Book internally.

Unfortunately, the Black Book had had no choice.

…That’s <Gonadaltes’s Downfall>…!

Using Lee Han’s body as a medium, the Black Book cast <Gonadaltes’s Downfall> and transferred the mental overload Lee Han had just suffered directly onto the opponent.

Saratán grimaced at the deeply unpleasant sensation—something spirits rarely experienced.

Hey! Remove this! If I catch you, I’ll kill you!

Meanwhile, Lee Han felt his condition improve considerably and finally managed to catch his breath.

Then the true spell the Black Book had completed by brutally overloading his mind revealed itself.

Miniature World, Dendrobium!

!!!

Saratán recoiled instinctively.

Miniature World-level magic distorted reality itself. Even beings from other dimensions could not treat such spells lightly.

CRAAACK!

A colossal tree burst upward in midair, taking root in nothingness as it expanded.

Seeing tree-based magic used against him—a wood spirit—the furious Saratán barked out a scornful laugh.

Are you insane?

He conjured a gigantic wooden club.

Clearly intending to crush both the spell and the mage in a single strike.

Then die!

With a roar, the tree spirit swung downward violently.

At that exact moment, black flowers bloomed at the tips of the giant tree’s branches.

?!

Saratán froze in shock.

There had been no impact.

His strike should have obliterated both the mage and the spell instantly.

…It’s erasing nearby physical attacks!

Lee Han understood first.

Miniature World magic altered the laws of reality within a localized space.

And inside this domain, physical attacks simply ceased to exist.

Ordinarily, since Saratán was still partially sealed and lacked enough power to forcibly break the spell, he should have calmly determined the spell’s range and dragged Lee Han outside of it.

Instead, enraged at the idea of being challenged by a novice mage, he kept swinging his club wildly.

Each strike vanished into nothing.

THUD!

It’s over! You’re dead now, human bastard!

The moment the wooden club slammed into the ground instead of empty air, Saratán burst into delighted laughter.

The strange spell must finally have collapsed.

But in his excitement, he failed to notice the flowers blooming at the ends of the branches.

They had turned red.

…GRAAAAHHHHHH!!

A horrifying scream erupted from the tree spirit as his essence began to drain away violently.

Lee Han watched while breathing heavily.

Then, suddenly remembering something, he spoke.

“…Wait. Wasn’t this the spell the Skull Principal used back in his younger days?”

The Black Book fluttered as though it hadn’t heard a thing.