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Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 723

Added 2024-08-05 08:18:35 +0000 UTC

Chapter 723

Renjid from Black Tortoise Tower looked up at the building with a tense face.

Although it was just an old, shabby building on the 7th floor with nothing special about it, to Renjid who had made up his mind, it somehow felt classic and traditional.

'Yes. I'm joining the Saint Eaktus Soup Club.'

Although he had considered the smuggling club or the outing club quite a bit due to suggestions from friends in the same tower, Renjid ended up choosing the kitchen club.

The history and philosophy of the kitchen club had moved the heart of Renjid, who came from a family of chefs.

'To be honest, last year there weren't any special ingredients, so there was nothing that could be called cooking. If I join the kitchen club, I'll be able to use ingredients abundantly. The rumors say they're piled up like mountains...'

Unable to imagine that countless seniors had been deceived in the same way, Renjid swallowed hard and stepped forward.

-Wahaha! You've decided. Welcome, welcome!-

Senior Falcrius welcomed Renjid enthusiastically.

Renjid staggered out of the embrace, groaning in pain.

"Ugh, my ribs..."

"Renjid?"

"W-Wardanaz!"

Renjid recognized Yi-Han and brightened.

Although from a different tower, this friend from the Wardanaz family was a trustworthy friend.

"As expected. You were already here. I'm counting on you. I've decided to join this time too."

"Hmm. I see."

Yi-Han looked at Renjid with a complex expression.

The club's appearance would probably be very different from what Renjid expected...

"How is it, Wardanaz? The club atmosphere? How are the seniors?"

Before Renjid's question ended, shouts were heard from behind.

"Wardanaz! Where's Wardanaz!"

"Junior Wardanaz. Let's think about tomorrow's food together! Let's create an income that will go down in club history by joining forces..."

"Then I'll be going now."

Yi-Han slipped away quickly.

Renjid looked at Yi-Han's retreating figure with a bewildered face.

What...

What on earth had happened!?

The person in charge of the <staff Materials and Magic Amplification> lecture was the most wicked and vile person in Einroguard.

"Hello, Professor."

Professor Verduus kept his head down, focused only on the staff he was working on, even at Yi-Han's greeting.

Yi-Han glanced at the staff. The staff placed on Professor Verduus's workbench emitted a unique mana wave he had never seen before.

'Amazing.'

The study of magic was always a discipline that became newer and more awe-inspiring the more one learned and mastered it.

There were areas that became visible by knowing what one hadn't known before, simply passing over them.

If it had been last year, he would have just grasped it by sense and thought 'high-density magics are compressed on the staff', but after starting to learn incantation shortening and magic storage from Professor Bagrak, he saw other things.

'That's magic to enhance control of telekinesis, the next is magic to enhance the output of telekinesis itself, and the next is magic to increase the range of telekinesis...'

If a mage who mainly used telekinesis-type magics were to grasp that staff, which had magics compressed while delicately aiming for synergistic effects...?

It was beyond imagination what kind of firepower would come out.

Yi-Han approached Professor Verduus after marveling. Then, drawing up mana and spreading it throughout his body, he shouted into Professor Verduus's ear.

"Hello, Professor!!!"

Professor Verduus startled and raised his head.

Then, discovering Yi-Han, he shouted,

"Speak quietly! The staff will shake!"

"I greeted you quietly at first."

"You should greet quietly enough for me to hear!"

Yi-Han just smiled silently.

Professor Verduus gestured, unable to imagine that Yi-Han would shout into his ear next time too.

"Anyway, sit down. You've come at a good time."

"You need my mana, don't you?"

If it had been another professor, they would have pretended otherwise at least once out of courtesy, but Professor Verduus nodded proudly.

"That's right! Do you know how inconvenient it was when you went outside the school during the break?"

"Oh my. It's truly regrettable that going outside the school during breaks is a rule."

"You can stay if there are special circumstances, you know? You just need to apply."

'Special circumstances? Does he mean plotting to assassinate a professor?'

In Yi-Han's view, there probably hadn't been anyone who stayed during breaks throughout Einroguard's long history.

"I'll think about it. So where should I use the mana?"

"Here and here."

Professor Verduus pointed at the gems on the messy workbench while giving instructions.

One was an opaque gray gem with wind elements rippling inside, and the other was a white gem emitting a soft light, condensing pure power.

"Are these two enough?"

"Huh? All the ones in between too!"

"..."

It was essentially an instruction to infuse mana into all the materials on the workbench.

Yi-Han's smile deepened slightly.

"But Professor. Today's lecture is <Staff Materials and Magic Amplification>, isn't it?"

"Yes. Charge the mana."

"I'd like to ask some questions about the lecture first. This is my rightful privilege, isn't it?"

"Can't you do it after charging the mana?"

Yi-Han ignored him, pretending not to hear.

If he finished charging the mana, Professor Verduus would depart to his own world.

"Why am I the only student?"

"Why are you asking me that? You should ask the other students."

'Unnecessarily logical. I want to hit him.'

Certainly, the reason why there were no students was something to ask the students.

Still, he thought the professor should have some idea...

"What kind of lecture is this?"

"It's a lecture on charging mana."

"What else do we do?"

As his petty trick didn't work, Professor Verduus grumbled and began explaining.

The ultimate purpose of this lecture was actually for the participating students to make their own staffs.

"...?"

Yi-Han doubted his ears.

Of course, among outstanding enchantment mages, those who majored in artifactology could make staffs.

But conversely, this meant that to make a staff, one needed to build at least that much experience.

Staffs played a central and pivotal role when mages proceeded with the complex and unstable process of changing the world with their will, while also playing roles such as amplification and guidance.

The roles staffs played in magic were so diverse that they couldn't be enumerated one by one.

As such, of course, making a staff was no ordinary difficult task...?

"Can a 2nd year make this?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

'I just want to hit him.'

As Professor Verduus brought up the logic he had used earlier, Yi-Han brought up the excuse he had used before.

"Professor. My mana has suddenly decreased, so it might be difficult to charge. I don't think my mana will rise if I don't get a proper answer."

"You should be able to make it since it's not such a complex staff, right?"

Professor Verduus answered kindly immediately.

Of course, Yi-Han didn't fully believe him.

'Professor Verduus's sense of difficulty tends to be paralyzed.'

If the professor said it was easy, it was difficult, and if he said it was difficult, it should be considered impossible.

"In what sense is it not complex?"

"Can you see this now?"

"Yes."

"Can you see what magic connections there are?"

"Yes."

The two geniuses continued their conversation nonchalantly, having a dialogue that would make other mages weep with despair if they saw it.

The staff Professor Verduus was working on at the workbench was too difficult an item to be used as teaching material for students.

It was an artifact being made on commission from <Malachite Magic Tower>, a gathering of telekinesis-type mages.

Naturally, as it was a commission from an external magic tower, the magics included were high-grade and their security was quite thorough.

Some level of security was essential, as the artifact's weaknesses would become too great if its internal magic could be grasped just by looking from the outside.

With difficult magic and magic cast to keep secrets, it was a situation where even detailed explanations from Professor Verduus would be insufficient, yet he said it was fine to look and understand on one's own.

But neither Professor Verduus nor Yi-Han cared. They were both sufficiently strange mages.

"What you'll do doesn't need any of this at all. You just need to match the materials."

"By materials..."

Instead of weaving various magics into the staff, it meant they just needed to match the ratio of materials for the staff well.

Of course, that wasn't easy either. Not only the components of the staff, but also the balance of its shape could affect magic.

'But it's much better.'

"It might be possible if we do it for a year."

"You have to do it. What if you can't?"

"Professor. Suddenly my mana..."

"It's okay if you can't!"

After teasing Professor Verduus enough, Yi-Han prepared to start work.

Originally, carrots and sticks should go together with carrots, if you just wield the stick, it's just a stick.

"How much mana should I infuse?"

"The maximum."

Crack!

The gem in Yi-Han's hand shattered.

"Did you need a shattered gem?"

"You should only infuse until it doesn't break!"

"..."

Professor Verduus forgot the words he had just carelessly uttered and scolded his disciple.

"You said to infuse the maximum."

"Did I say that? You shouldn't infuse the maximum when your mana is that much."

"Yes..."

Yi-Han infused mana and then extended his senses keenly to detect cracks in the gem.

He had to stop immediately if it seemed like it would crack or break.

As his disciple quickly charged and infused mana beside him, Professor Verduus began working about twice as excitedly as usual.

"Next!"

"Here it is."

"Next!"

"Here."

"Quickly! Next!"

"Professor. As I'm doing it quickly, suddenly my mana..."

"Slowly!"

As the two worked, 3rd year students began entering one by one.

And they looked at Yi-Han and Professor Verduus with perplexed eyes.

...Who is that guy?

"Was there such a... kid in our year?"

"Isn't he a 4th year senior?"

"Was there such a person among the 4th year seniors...?"

Although Einroguard's lectures didn't have specific year restrictions, they might as well have.

There was no reason for a 2nd year to come in and listen to lectures mainly attended by 3rd years.

Sometimes there were cases where higher year students begged and pleaded to attend lower year lectures for truly unavoidable reasons, but it wasn't common.

As such, Yi-Han was a very heterogeneous existence to the 3rd year students who had come to listen to <Staff Materials and Magic Amplification>.

They hadn't seen him in the same year, and seeing him help with Professor Verduus's work made him seem like a 4th year student, but was there such a person among the 4th year seniors?

"Oh. Professor. Other people have come."

"I have eyes and ears too, you know?"

"...Shouldn't you give the lecture? Wait. Oh, isn't this <Staff Materials and Magic Amplification>?"

Yi-Han was flustered as all the students had unfamiliar faces.

Still, he at least vaguely remembered the faces of students in the same year as they had done various work together last year.

"That's right. Are you perhaps a senior?"

"Pardon?"

"Aren't you a 4th year senior? You don't need to worry too much. You can take 3rd year lectures too."

"I'm a 2nd year..."

"..."

As the lecture room atmosphere turned cold, the 3rd year students whispered.

"Is Professor Verduus perhaps holding two lectures in the same classroom because he's lazy?"