Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 734

Chapter 734

Unlike when drawing from the surrounding space, the mana filled instantly.

Direth, who was about to spout a curse, had to admit that her junior's judgment was appropriate.

If they had proceeded with Direth's initial plan, they wouldn't have secured mana in time.

The black rippling sphere Direth had taken out from her body was a kind of pseudo-holy object created by infusing a fragment of her soul.

A masterpiece of dark magic inspired by liches trying to deceive the world's laws by containing their souls in reliquaries.

Direth used this essence, which had tremendous mana and mysteries compressed in it, by connecting it to a small world.

She had engraved the true name of the small world Pentagrammaton to make it instantly activatable if needed.

But powerful magic always comes with powerful penalties.

Although she thought it was somewhat complete, this pseudo-holy object became unstable, causing a violent rejection reaction with the outside world the moment it was taken out.

It might have collapsed much faster if not for hurriedly filling it with mana.

"Junior. Don't let go. I'm activating it!"

Direth's incantation began to change into an incomprehensible language at some point.

It was an incantation to summon a world separate from the external world.

For a moment, all the surrounding mana was temporarily absorbed into Direth's sphere, creating a temporary mana vacuum state around them.

Then waves of negative energy and dark elements burst out violently. The golem and bone barrier summoned earlier were instantly nullified due to the mana absorption.

But Direth didn't care at all. She shouted with eyes flickering with black flames.

"Curse!"

At that moment, the huge black, sticky mass flinched.

It was an appearance that didn't match the ferocity that had been charging in without yielding to any fierce attacks until now.

Bang!

One-third of the huge mass flew away as it was. Yi-Han looked at his crow mixed-blood senior with eyes mixed with awe.

The curse just fired wasn't just an ordinary curse. It was one that wove together more curses than Yi-Han's senses could grasp and fired them.

It was truly a curse among curses.

The huge mass that had received a fatal wound tried to recover while writhing its body. However, Direth didn't give it a chance. The black sphere flared up and Direth's pupils flashed likewise.

Whoosh!

The huge mass started to spontaneously combust.

The curse it had just suffered wasn't over with its body flying away. Rather, it was just the beginning.

In the blink of an eye, the enemy with a mountain-like bulk shrank, floundering after being cursed in its essence.

It burned and burned, and when it finally disappeared into dust in the air, the monstrous bird carrying the two cawed and shouted.

-I don't know what kind of great mage it is, but it's terrible! To leave such mana!-

"What do you mean?"

-That's not a natural phenomenon! It's magic left by someone!-

"...!"

Mages didn't often believe in coincidences. Especially someone like Yi-Han who had dealt with several evil mages.

There was only one reason for such a phenomenon to occur in a place where the skull principal's mad doppelganger and a magic criminal had come and gone.

'So it was the mad doppelganger after all!'

Yi-Han gritted his teeth. Even the principal's doppelganger was truly a nuisance.

"Senior. It seems to be because of the principal's doppelganger. Let's go back and confront him right away!"

"Yeah..."

Direth coughed with a pale face. Yi-Han shouted in surprise.

"What's wrong?!"

-Direth! You took out an incomplete small world! Stupid Direth!-

"Shut up..."

At the monstrous bird's shout, Yi-Han realized why Direth was acting like this now.

Although he didn't know what that black sphere was, it was clear that it had become unstable because she had taken out something still incomplete. Direth was now acting like this to stabilize it.

"Junior..."

"Yes. What should I do?"

"I told you to shut up, not you..."

"..."

Yi-Han, realizing Direth's condition wasn't good, asked the monstrous bird.

"Can't we stabilize this by infusing mana like before?"

-Stupid mage! This isn't something that can be solved with mana!-

'Oh no.'

Yi-Han clicked his tongue at the monstrous bird's scolding.

Unlike during the preparation process earlier, stabilization apparently couldn't be solved with mana.

-To stabilize it with mana, it wouldn't be enough even if the stupid mage died several times!-

"Aha."

Yi-Han ignored it and grasped the sphere again to stabilize it.

-?!-

                  *

Direth, who had barely recovered, said with a very troubled expression.

"Thanks, junior. I should scold you for arbitrarily trying to help with someone else's magic, but..."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. It's not something I should say after receiving help. Ugh. My dignity as a senior is in tatters."

"What are you saying? You defeated it almost alone."

-Stupid Direth! Stupid Direth!-

"Shut up already."

Direth firmly grasped the monstrous bird's beak.

"I thought it was complete enough to take out and use, but it was more unstable than I thought. If you hadn't helped, it would have been much more dangerous."

"What on earth was that?"

"Probably some kind of evil thought-form left by a mage. Drawing in elements in the Dark Forest to attack..."

"I asked about the magic you used."

"..."

Direth glared slightly at her junior before answering.

"A pseudo-holy object. One of my research projects. It's about surpassing limits without lichification... After all, things like small worlds take too long to prepare."

Yi-Han inwardly marveled after hearing the detailed explanation.

Wasn't it essentially creating and using an artificial source for a mage?

As expected of a 5th year student, she was conducting research full of madness. They hadn't all moved up to 5th year for nothing.

"But Senior. Has the instability problem from earlier been solved?"

Direth's expression darkened at the question.

The instability problem had worsened due to taking it out in an incomplete state.

Although she had temporarily stabilized it by excessively infusing mana, this was merely first aid.

There would be many problems until she completed it again.

"It's solved."

"...Is it really solved?"

Yi-Han whispered to the monstrous bird after seeing his senior's expression. The monstrous bird, which had been subtly released, whispered back.

-It's not solved! It'll take a year to complete it again!-

"When I infused mana earlier it stabilized, was that meaningless?"

-It'll become unstable again as time passes! Because mana is consumed!-

Direth raised her staff with an expressionless face and smacked the monstrous bird. The monstrous bird was immediately unsummoned.

"It talks too much."

"Senior. It seems like it would work if we periodically infuse mana. I'll do it."

"It's fine. You don't have to."

"Do you have another method?"

"I do."

"What is it?"

"Well... There's a secret method of the great mage Retibellyuk that would work if used."

"...You're not trying to deceive me by reversing Senior Yukbeltire's name and roughly attaching 'great mage' in front, are you?"

Direth clicked her tongue overtly.

As expected of the top student of the year, it was difficult to deceive him.

"You're so quick-witted."

"Infusing mana isn't that difficult. You just saw it, didn't you? And if I don't periodically consume mana, all the meridians in my body will burst and I'll die."

"What?!?! Really?!?!?"

"That's a lie, but if it makes you feel better to think it's true, let's say it is."

"..."

Direth glared fiercely at her junior. Yi-Han felt sorry and made excuses.

"I didn't think you'd believe such words."

"How could I not believe when you say it so seriously!"

Direth, who had gotten angry, sighed and said,

"Alright. I'll be honest. It would be a great help if you did that. But..."

"But?"

"Then you'd have to come to my workshop periodically to help. You'd essentially be helping with my research."

"Is that a problem?"

"...Have you perhaps forgotten that Yukbeltire tried to kidnap you?"

"Ah."

Yi-Han finally realized what his senior was trying to say.

Now that several students were trying to take Yi-Han and (forcibly) make him participate in their research, Yi-Han participating in Direth's research could be a kind of signal.

-No! That junior indeed wanted to participate in research!-

-Of course. How could someone taking all schools not be interested in research!-

At Direth's explanation, Yi-Han smiled and said,

"Senior. You don't need to worry about that."

"Why? It seems like something to worry about."

"Because we can keep it secret!"

"..."

Direth looked at her junior with narrowed eyes.

Somehow, she could guess why this junior had ended up taking all schools.

                  *

-Master. The Wardanaz boy…-

-He finally made contact with a 1st year! Catch him!-

-Pardon? What do you mean?-

-I told you to monitor him making contact with 1st years, didn't I?-

-Ah. That!-

-…-

Seeing the death knight's reaction clearly showing he had forgotten, the skull principal flickered his eyes as a sign of displeasure.

-To forget my order!-

-I'm sorry, Master. I didn't forget. But if I may speak frankly...

-Don't.-

-As there are many other important orders, we can't help but pay less attention to relatively less important orders.-

In fact, among the death knights, few were monitoring Yi-Han making contact with 1st year students.

Rather, they might say 'A 1st year is coming' at most.

At the death knights' rebellion, the skull principal grumbled about them being ungrateful, forgetting his grace, and being backstabbers.

After listening to all the grumbling with knightly patience, the death knight could finally open his mouth.

-The Wardanaz boy is requesting an audience.-

-Is that so? Tell him to come in.-

-I wonder what it's about?-

-Probably a magic question.-

-But it's not even the weekend yet?-

In fact, ordinary students didn't come to ask about magic even on weekends.

-That boy is just like that.-

-True. I'll tell him to come in.-

The skull principal looked satisfactorily again at the magazine he was holding.

And as soon as Yi-Han entered, he boasted.

-Look at this!-

"??"

[...One day, a master had too much to teach his disciple, so he said this.

-I need to teach you quickly, so I'll teach you four in the morning and three in the evening…]

-Ha! I thought it was quite a masterpiece, and sure enough, it was published! It's all thanks to you!-

"..."

Yi-Han was dumbfounded but endured it. His opponent was a staff-wielding tyrant after all.

-So what magic did you come to ask about? Command magic? Small world? 6th Circle? Ask someone else about 6th Circle.-

"None of those, but."

-I trust it's not some trash magic.-

When he said it was none of those, the skull principal's eyes immediately became indifferent.

"Principal."

-When you speak with such a serious expression, you usually talked nonsense…-

"Your doppelganger and a magic criminal have entered Einroguard territory!"

-How do you know that?-

"!"

Yi-Han was shocked when the skull principal calmly asked back without being surprised.

He immediately shouted to the death knights.

"Everyone! The principal has finally gone mad! Someone please send an anonymous letter to His Majesty the Emperor!"

Yi-Han tried to quickly jump out the window.

The skull principal shook his head and twisted the space in the room to change Yi-Han's direction.

But Yi-Han had expected that too. The moment space twisted, he immediately exploded mana from his toes to jump backwards.

-Hey!-

The skull principal was dumbfounded and changed the window into a wall.

It was a blessing as a teacher that his disciple was unnecessarily clever, but it was also an annoying drawback at the same time.

-It's fine to jump out, but listen before you jump.-

Yi-Han paused. The skull principal said irritably.

-Don't pretend to stop and try to break the wall!-

'Tch. I've been caught.'