Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 716

Chapter 716

Professor Verduus's 'guards' were notorious among Einroguard students.

Despite looking like wooden dolls or metal figures that seemed to be roughly tied together from wood or bronze chunks, they displayed combat power that was unbelievable for small golems.

Of course, it wasn't transcendental power that defied common sense.

Originally, these guards were artificial summons that Professor Verduus had created by roughly gathering leftover materials or odds and ends and casting enchantment magic on them.

Such summons couldn't exceed the quality limits of materials and reagents.

But Professor Verduus's magic drew out the maximum possible limits within that.

-Fire element! It's a fire element immune guard! I prepared fire magic!!-

-Retreat! Retreat!-

-Another guard has appeared in the rear! The type is... wide-area curse! Curse guard!!-

-This crazy professor bastard, seriously stop it!-

Professor Verduus, knowing the limits of materials and reagents, didn't create all-purpose summons.

Instead, he specialized them in one thing. Other guards could cover for lacking functions.

He made guards immune to fire elements, guards holding magic reflection shields, and finding it fun as he made them, he also made guards that spewed poison mist, and guards that self-destructed when touched to knock students out until they went to the punishment room...

These summoned guards tormented students by creating vicious synergistic effects with each other.

Originally, flexible responses to situations were a mage's weapon, but Professor Verduus's guards reversed that weapon.

The guard Sebius had just seen was the mana absorption guard, which would definitely be in the top ten if choosing the most vicious guards.

An evil enemy with a maw that swallowed most projectile-type magics.

If caught wrongly, it would just absorb magic and mana.

To deal with that thing, they needed to retreat first, engrave magic on the terrain and lure it, but...?

"Swordsmanship?!"

"Is it not allowed?"

"It's not that it's not allowed...!"

Sebius hesitated as he answered, seeing Yi-Han swinging a black-purple sword.

It wasn't that Blue Dragon Tower students couldn't swing swords. They could swing them sufficiently.

...He just didn't know they could bisect a guard with a sword!

"Did you perhaps take swordsmanship lectures too?"

Sebius threw out a joke to ease the awkward atmosphere.

He wasn't confident in jokes, but now was the time to lighten the mood as a senior.

"How did you know?"

"...Let's go!"

Vowing again not to do things he didn't usually do, Sebius moved his feet.

"Professor Verduus's guards are connected to each other, so when one is destroyed, others approach. If a fight breaks out, we need to end it as quickly as possible and move."

"Is that the one coming?"

"Yes. It's coming already."

Sebius narrowed his eyes and glared as he spotted a creaking tin doll revealing itself from among piles of odds and ends in the distance.

"That one is... Ha. We're only running into troublesome ones today. Cutting defense coating, and projectile refraction device too."

It was troublesome at both close and long range, neutralizing more than half of slashing attacks and refracting incoming projectile magic to make them miss their trajectory.

Sebius combined in his head the path they had just passed, the path he had grasped from the map, and the paths he had just confirmed.

'If we slip out to the left and then go east-west...'

"Gather, spin!"

As his junior chanted a spell while he was pondering how to escape, Sebius was greatly surprised.

"It refracts projectiles! Don't waste ma...!"

A mage wasn't someone who freely created something from nothing. Rather, they were closer to economists who had to efficiently distribute the limited resource of mana.

From that perspective, his junior's current action was close to a rampage.

If he wasted mana like that from now...

Water orbs spinned heavily and flew in savagely. The projectile refraction field created by the guard twisted the orbs' trajectory, deflecting them to the side.

However, Yi-Han paid no attention and created the next water orb.

Create and shoot.

Create and shoot.

'Barrage!'

Sebius was shocked as he realized his junior's strategy.

The opponent was currently defending by twisting the trajectory of incoming projectiles.

Then what if projectiles were fired incessantly from all directions?

They would collide with each other and bounce off, creating irregular reflections.

It was such a clever method that it was hard to believe he had just thought of it.

...It was also a brute force method!

Crack!

As one bounced water orb finally shattered the guard, Sebius asked his junior instead of marveling.

"Is your mana alright?!"

"Don't worry. I'm fine."

"...You, surely you didn't defeat the rock drake head-on like this too, did you?"

Until now, he had naturally thought he must have defeated it with strategies and traps, but seeing this now, he suddenly had doubts.

Surely this bastard didn't defeat it in a head-on magic battle?

His junior hesitantly asked.

"If I defeated it head-on, does that mean I'm not qualified to join the club?"

"..."

  *

Whether meeting the guard on the way in had acted as a charm, things got a bit easier after that.

"<Mage, Don't Repay the Gold Coins You Received as Investment>. It's here."

Sebius found a book in the third warehouse and took it.

Perhaps because it was a warehouse storing sticky slime-form reagents, the surroundings were humid and smelled foul.

"Why on earth did Professor Verduus put a book here?"

"We'll never understand what's inside the professor's head in our lifetime. Let's go."

"I didn't think I'd come to think the previous warehouse was better."

Yi-Han said as if he couldn't believe it.

Who would have thought he'd already miss the odds and ends warehouse where guards attacked and the flooded warehouse that was half a lake and required swimming.

"The next warehouse should be fine. As far as I know, it's a relatively normal warehouse with no guards or particular traps."

Professor Verduus's warehouses were connected to each other.

Students used these connections to open the door of a warehouse with weak defenses and move to other warehouses, and the strategy Yi-Han and Sebius had chosen now corresponded to this strategy.

Of course, this strategy wasn't perfect either. If you wanted to go to warehouse A, you had to go through warehouses B, C, D, but there was no guarantee these warehouses would be fine.

The warehouses they had just crossed were prime examples of strange warehouses.

'Is there really a normal warehouse?'

Yi-Han looked at Sebius with slight suspicion.

To think there was a normal warehouse among Professor Verduus's warehouses.

Could that really...

Creak-

The door opened and a new warehouse revealed itself.

The inside reminded one of a cafe or coffee house located in a big city.

There were several chairs and tables, well-organized items, and no particular enemies...

"Isn't this a trap?"

"...I had the same reaction when I first came here too. This is a warehouse Professor Verduus forgot about but students often come to. That's why it's somewhat normal. Let's rest for a moment."

Sebius pulled up a chair, sat down, drank a mana recovery potion and gave it to his junior, and then spread out a map.

There were still many warehouses they had to go through to recover the remaining books.

"Don't you need a recovery potion?"

"I'm fine. You drink it, senior."

Yi-Han refused while feeling pleased inwardly.

From the senior's perspective, wouldn't Yi-Han look like a thoughtful junior taking care of him?

'Is this bastard a monster?'

Sebius looked at Yi-Han with disgusted eyes.

To not need a recovery potion after using that much mana.

Indeed, it seemed not just anyone could take all schools.

"We'll enter the poison mushroom warehouse, then just borrow the path of the hell swamp warehouse, then to the 2nd basement floor of the Spirit Festival Hall. We won't enter the metal warehouse because it's too dangerous."

"What are these places marked with X?"

"Places where we couldn't find the entry method. There are many warehouses Professor Verduus has forgotten, but there are also several he hasn't forgotten."

It was a bitter story, but students weren't properly raiding Professor Verduus's assets.

They could only raid things Professor Verduus had forgotten and neglected to manage, while places Professor Verduus had deliberately blocked off were nearly impossible to break through.

As such, students were always burning with ambition.

-I swear I'll raid a warehouse Professor Verduus has blocked off before I graduate! I'll find out what's inside!-

-Wait, if you can't raid it, does that mean you'll do another year?-

-...Do you want to die?-

"These places have no meaning as passages. In fact, although there seem to be many warehouses on this map, they're just a fraction compared to all the warehouses."

"..."

Watching Sebius feeling regretful, Yi-Han was bewildered.

It was ridiculous that the senior was feeling regretful after finding this many, but he couldn't guess just how many warehouses Professor Verduus had built.

'This person... Just how many warehouses did he build and forget about?'

"If you later find out how to enter here, try raiding it with the club members."

"You should come too, senior!"

"...I'm going to graduate. You bastard."

'It was about this year though.'

Yi-Han grumbled inwardly.

Sebius seemed to have a slightly sensitive part, perhaps because he was a 4th year too.

  *

"<Mage, Don't Repay the Gold Coins You Received as Investment>, <Introduction to Imperial Investment Law>, <Genius Enchantment Mage Who Secured a Hundred Investments>, <Introduction to Imperial Artifact Trends>, <Imperial Materials Encyclopedia>..."

Sebius muttered with a worried face.

Thanks to their forced march, they had secured all the other books, but only <General Treatise on Gemology> was nowhere to be seen.

When he took out a silver bookmark artifact, it spun and pointed in a direction. It was the direction of a warehouse Sebius had never entered.

"...It seems to be in another warehouse."

"What will you do?"

"Let's give up and retreat. We've gotten plenty today."

There was no enemy as dangerous as greed in relocation.

Although he desperately wanted to get that last one, Sebius decided to retreat rather than challenge unnecessarily and send his junior to the punishment room too.

"Can't we try to find a way once?"

"I'm telling you, it's not something we can solve by racking our brains now. If you don't believe me, go and check."

The direction the bookmark artifact pointing to the book's location had indicated was a warehouse Sebius had tried to enter several times but failed.

The door's defense was so solid and complex that it couldn't be easily broken through.

Not only did the magic writhe and change as if alive, but it was also likely defended to recover immediately even if any impact came from outside.

It was frustrating, but Sebius wasn't confident he could break through this.

Bang bang bang-

The junior stood in front of the warehouse and swung his staff and knocked on the door several times. But the door didn't budge.

Seeing this, Sebius unknowingly smiled slightly.

Originally, such obstacles made thieves frustrated and helped them grow.

This junior from the Wardanaz family had several times more outstanding talent than Sebius himself.

Given that he was already at this level in 2nd year, when this junior became a 3rd or 4th year, he might really be able to break into Professor Verduus's treasure trove.

'I'll have graduated so I won't see it. It's a bit regretful.'

"Senior!"

"What is it?"

"I've opened it!"

"...What?! How?! Surely not by force...?!"

As Sebius shouted in a shocked voice as if he couldn't believe it, the junior answered with a slightly embarrassed face.

"I just remembered I had the key to this warehouse."

"..."

'What is this bastard's true identity???'