Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 843

Chapter 843

After much deliberation, Yi-Han made a decision.

'I'll go with the medium-sized skeleton golem.'

He could get extra points for it being his first medium-sized or larger summon, and since the summon Yi-Han had assembled the most was the skeleton warrior, it seemed it would be at least a little advantageous.

And if he had to assemble a new summon later, there was the trick of choosing a large skeleton golem.

"I'll try a medium-sized skeleton golem."

"Good, junior. ...Wait a moment."

'Gasp. Did she notice?'

Yi-Han flinched when Direth called him.

Could Direth have noticed Yi-Han's strategy of choosing something that seemed difficult but actually had an easy aspect, and could also cleverly escape the next test?

"Your staff has changed?"

"Ah. Yes. It's completed."

"What? You should have told me that first! That's great."

Direth was brightly delighted as if it were her own business.

"That Yukbeltire, despite everything, works quite hard on magic she finds interesting. She says staff creation is simple and boring, but she asked about black purplestone a few times, so I thought she was interested."

"Professor Verduus did it for me, though..."

"?!"

At her junior's answer, Direth was so surprised her wings fluttered upwards.

"How?!"

No matter how she thought about it, the only way to get Professor Verduus to do work was through threats.

"Professor Garcia threatened him for me."

'It really was a threat.'

Although it was within expectations, it was rather more surprising. Direth nodded, trying to stay calm.

"I-I see. It's good that Professor Garcia persuaded him."

Although the threat had subtly changed to persuasion, Yi-Han just let it pass.

In fact, these two words were often used with the same meaning in Einroguard...

"The staff isn't familiar to your hand yet, right?"

"Yes. I'm planning to try using the tree spirit powers first."

"What about the black purplestone?"

"I'm being careful about the black purplestone, but?"

Thinking she was talking about magic being canceled due to the staff's black purplestone when casting, Yi-Han answered.

However, Direth slowly shook her head.

"I guess Professor Verduus didn't explain properly because it was him."

"Senior Yukbeltire didn't really explain properly either..."

"Listen, junior."

'She's changing the subject.'

Direth began explaining about black purplestone.

It's common sense for mages not to use minerals that absorb mana, but originally, mages were a group far from common sense.

When they find poisonous mushrooms, instead of avoiding them, they're the type to nibble a little and think 'How can I use this effect?'

Of course, there were such research cases for black purplestone too.

"The representative one is counter magic. Junior, you probably haven't learned it yet..."

"I learned it from the principal last year. He said I might have many encounters with magic criminals, so I learned how to dispel their secret techniques."

"Of course, I knew you would have learned it, junior."

Having become quite accustomed to the Wardanaz family junior, Direth continued speaking without changing her expression.

Counter magic was one of the higher techniques of magic with quite a high difficulty level.

From the start, there wasn't a separate spell called 'counter magic', but rather, everything about the methodology of breaking the opponent's magic was counter magic, so it couldn't help but be difficult.

One perceives the opponent's magic in advance and interferes with it to break it before it's cast.

It sounds simple, but to make this possible, one needed a sharp sense to perceive the opponent's magic first, vast knowledge to distinguish the identity of that magic, and the reflexes to be one step ahead of the opponent.

"I actually haven't used counter magic much either. I often use <Baldoorn's Mana Hammer>, though."

"I understand. That method suits you well, junior. But you can't blow away all magic like that, right? And for some magic, if you don't block it before it's cast, the damage is too great. The black purplestone in this staff will help you use counter magic."

When Yi-Han himself cast magic, the moment he focused his mind on the black purplestone part instead of the wood part, the magic became disrupted or dispelled.

Then, if he focused his mind on the black purplestone part after contacting the opponent's magic?

"...This strong interference and disruption comes in. Of course, contacting the opponent's magic also requires considerable mana and concentration, but it's worth trying."

"It seems so."

Yi-Han nodded in amazement.

In fact, he had only thought of black purplestone as having the advantage of allowing the staff to withstand powerful magic when cast.

To think it had advantages in counter magic too.

"Where did you learn this, Senior Direth?"

"Dark magic school mages often have contact with demons, so we sometimes use black purplestone."

"..."

Yi-Han regretted asking inwardly.

Well, when it comes to high-level demons, it's often difficult for mages to subdue them by sheer force.

The ability to deceive the opponent, negotiate, or tie them up and escape becomes much more important.

At such times, metals like this black purplestone become unexpectedly useful.

Although one's own magic is bound, the opponent demon's magic is bound too...

"Then shall we practice a bit? Eight curses of 2nd Circle or below. I'll choose randomly from these and cast, so try to interfere somehow with counter magic before they're cast."

'Tsk. She's too much.'

Yi-Han shuddered at his senior's strictness, raising the difficulty by further reducing the already tight time he had to make the skeleton golem.

But Yi-Han couldn't bring himself to refuse.

If he refused and Direth thought he was an arrogant junior...

'She might think I'm listening diligently to other lectures but being careless only in her lecture.'

That absolutely couldn't happen.

Yi-Han grasped his newly made staff while recalling in his mind how to assemble the skeleton golem in the remaining time.

  *

"...Move!"

"Junior... It's meaningless to shout since you assembled it yourself, not summoned it from another realm..."

"Ugh."

The counter magic practice Direth mentioned was quite successful.

Of course, Direth had been considerate to let her junior's staff become familiar to his hand, but the results were quite good.

-I think I understand what kind of sense it is, Senior. It's hard to interfere when the distance is far, but when it's close, it's certainly...-

-It's good to practice blocking magic you know the structure of and is easy to interfere with first.-

In contrast, assembling the skeleton golem was quite tricky.

'Damn. There's not much time left.'

Yi-Han checked the time with an anxious expression.

First, in the old-fashioned, no, ancient orthodox dark magic, summoning undead summons proceeded in the following way:

Take out the core reagent in which the summon's flesh is compressed, breathe magic into that reagent to form the summon's shape, then breathe in commands so it can move without the mage having to control each part.

The first process, the reagent, wasn't much of a problem.

Not only had Direth prepared the <Bone of a Giant Monster>, but Yi-Han had also enhanced the bone fragment reagents he usually carried around by adding dark elements or blood elements.

Thanks to this, even ordinary bone fragments could sufficiently withstand summoning a medium-sized skeleton golem.

And the second process, shape formation, succeeded right away.

Because he had summoned skeleton warriors so many times usually, and in emergencies, he had even combined these skeletons to make enhanced skeletons, his understanding of the shape was much higher than expected.

The problem was the last command.

This was difficult to do in a short time as one had to breathe in commands one by one, link them, and overwork the mage's brain.

The skeleton golem he had just summoned had tried to break the classroom wall and escape, and the one summoned before that had tried to dance in 3/4 time (Direth had been amazed and wanted to leave the composition, but Yi-Han himself failed to reproduce it)...

And now the skeleton golem reversely didn't move. Because the previous skeleton golems had moved arbitrarily, he had been a bit careful, and it seemed the movement had gotten tangled somehow.

'Tsk. This annoying skeleton golem...'

"Come to think of it, junior."

Unaware of Yi-Han's inner thoughts, Direth spoke up.

Although it was painful to have his concentration disrupted, Yi-Han answered. How could he ignore his heaven-like senior calling?

"Yes."

"I forgot to mention earlier, but you know your staff? I think it would be better to say Professor Verduus made it forcibly."

"...What? Why such a lie?"

Apart from why he should lie, it was a lie that no one except Einroguard freshmen would believe.

Professor Verduus voluntarily came forward to help a student's work?

'This is really the biggest nonsense among the lies I've heard this year.'

"No. Listen carefully, junior. Professor Verduus sometimes helps with student magic if it's a topic he's interested in."

Direth opened her mouth with a careful attitude.

As Yukbeltire was from the enchantment magic school, Direth knew Professor Verduus quite well.

Professor Verduus had the bad habit of sometimes secretly completing only the most fun and exciting parts of enchantment magic school students' research and then leaving.

To the point where Yukbeltire would lock the door and prevent Professor Verduus from entering at all when conducting her research.

"That... seems likely, but why do I have to tell such a lie?"

"So Yukbeltire won't be disappointed. She was somewhat interested in the staff."

"Come on. You're misunderstanding, Senior. Senior Yukbeltire has a heart made of steel, so she absolutely won't be disappointed."

"..."

Direth felt slightly sorry for the friend who was receiving such confident slander from a junior of the same tower.

But what could she do?

It was all self-inflicted!

"Junior. I've known Yukbeltire longer. Do as I say."

"Alright. I should say Professor Verduus ordered it, right?"

As it wasn't particularly difficult, Yi-Han readily agreed.

"But if what you say is true, won't the professor receive resentment?"

"Yes."

"..."

Yi-Han nodded his head gently without saying anything.

Then he focused on the skeleton golem again.

"By the way. Remember Duke Icaldoren?"

'Ugh.'

Unaware of her suffering junior's inner thoughts, Direth talked about the duke she had kidnapped, no, brought last time.

"When I first brought him, he was so afraid that conversation was difficult, but these days he seems to have improved a bit. He talks well with Yukbeltire too."

"Is that true? What kind of conversations do they have?"

"Yukbeltire mainly asks how much he can pay, and the duke asks for prosciutto ham topped with truffles, chicory salad harvested no more than two days ago, and southern imperial style mushroom consommé for meals."

'Did the principal perhaps not starve him properly?'

Yi-Han was surprised that the duke still had energy left to focus on fine dining more than expected.

If he had been eating like the students, instead of such hard-to-remember menus, he would have immediately asked for whole roasted and fried meats, hot fruit pies, cakes or chocolates, and so on.

"But is this really talking well? It seems like they're running parallel lines."

"Since the duke is in a disadvantageous position, he'll compromise appropriately. This much is talking well."

'Sometimes the positive aspects seniors show are scary.'

To say this is talking well?

Pop!

"...Senior! It's moving! The skeleton golem is moving properly!"

"What? Really?! I didn't think you'd complete it today."

"I'm so glad... Wait a moment. Senior. What do you mean you didn't think I'd complete it today?"

Yi-Han, who was about to rejoice with his senior, paused and became serious.