Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Uregor recalled a conversation that he’d had with Professor Garica.

– Yi-han appears to possess a lot of mana.

– Is that so? How much are we talking about?

– Draw a big circle with your arms.

– Woah. That is quite impressive.

– The space outside would represent how much mana he has.

– …

He’d been told that it was crazy high, but he didn’t think it’d be to this extent.

Just the fact that he couldn’t feel his mana recovering after drinking a potion proved how absurd he was.

“My bad, professor.”

“…No, forget it. Good job making the potion. You did well. Attention, everyone! Someone has managed to brew a perfect potion.”

“Wardanaz…!”

“So it’s him again.”

The other students weren’t as surprised anymore.

‘Well, he’s a Wardanaz after all.’

‘We are talking about a genius here.’

Those were the kind of responses they showed, leaving Yi-han puzzled.

‘Why am I being overestimated this much?’

His evaluation of himself wasn’t as high.

Yi-han didn’t think he was a genius.

He simply had more experience slaving away…er, learning in laboratory settings.

Hence, he felt troubled being called a genius. How did things turn out this way?

“As expected of you, Wardanaz. Your talent is out of this world,” Asan exclaimed.

Asan was in the process of putting his potion in a flask, and although it was blue, there were some impurities in it.

Objectively speaking, Asan’s potion wasn’t bad either. However, compared to Yi-han’s, it was somewhat lacking.

“The potion made by Siana of the Immortal Phoenix is also amazing, but I think yours is even better.”

“!”

Yi-han turned around and saw a snake demi-human wearing a priest’s uniform holding a potion that was quite clear.

‘Order of Flameng?’

Yi-han remembered the explanation that he’d heard from Yonaire.

The Order of Flameng was a group that pursued the path of alchemy. Naturally, many of their priests were skilled alchemists.

It was no wonder Siana was able to brew so well.

Siana walked over to Yi-han and Asan to greet them.

“From the Wardanaz Family, right? Nice to meet you. I’m Siana.”

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Yi-han.”

They both shook hands. Her hands were cold and scaly, probably because she was a snake demi-human.

“I didn’t think I’d encounter someone so proficient in alchemy here. Did you learn it at the Wardanaz estate?”

“Hey, enough chit-chatting.”

Uregor cut off their conversation. He had returned to the front of the classroom by now.

“Today, you’ve learned how to brew <Basic Mana Recovery Potion>. Some of you performed well, and some of you didn’t. But don’t dwell on your result too much. You’ve only just stepped into the world of alchemy. It’s only going to become more complicated and wacky from here on out.”

‘I swear, professors have a way with words that suck away all your motivation.’

“This is your assignment for next week. Brew a <Basic Potion of Spirit Affinity>. You’ll be testing out the potions that you made yourself, so don’t be sloppy with it.”

The students quickly jotted down the assignment in their notebooks.

Fortunately, Uregor was kind enough to tell them the recipe for creating <Basic Potion of Spirit Affinity>. He had the conscience not to tell the freshmen to figure it out on their own.

“Um, sir. There aren’t any Spirit Evolution Herbs in here… Are they perhaps on the upper floors?” The students couldn’t find the material needed for the potion in the drawers or the shelves.

Uregor seemed confused by the question.

“What do you mean? You’re supposed to find them yourself.”

“Oh, is that so? Right, of course.”

The students stood up and began looking around.

“No, no, no. Don’t search here.”

“??”

“Search over there.”

Uregor was pointing outside the window, at the lush forest located behind the academy’s main building.

“….”

“….”

“Search for your materials there. I’m sure you all remember what I told you during our first class.”

Anger and despair washed over the students’ faces.

*** 

It wasn’t just Uregor that revealed his true nature.

The other professors of the academy also began assigning ridiculous amounts of assignments, almost as if they were competing who could make the students suffer more.

– Read these books and find at least five logical flaws in each of them.

– Sir, we need more copies of the books. There aren’t enough for each student.

– Huh? Those are for one person. When you take them away, a new stack of books will appear.

– …..

The students freaked out as each stack contained more than ten books.

– Sir, how are we supposed to bring them back…

– Don’t worry, I’ve made them weigh less using magic. Now move it.

Just like that, <Basic Study of the Empire’s Language and Logic> made a couple of students from the White Tigers shed tears.

– This is a magic circle design that I submitted back when I was young. Study it and predict how much it would cost to actually construct it. You don’t have to be exact, but the student that’s furthest from the answer will be punished.

Even Asan, whose family was deeply involved in the Empire’s economy, had to rack his brain over the assignments given in <Basic Understanding of Geometry and Arithmetic>.

You must learn to love and to live in harmony. You don’t want to? Well, sucks to be you. Your opinion doesn’t matter. You guys are lacking in love and harmony, so I shall hand you an assignment. By the next class, each tower must capture the patterned flag of another tower. The flags are in the freshmen’s resting lounge, and I’ll be the one assigning each tower’s target.

At this point, it wasn’t clear whether <Basic Magic Ethics> was meant to teach them morals or to instigate a fight between the towers.

By the end of each lesson, the students would come out of the room looking like their souls had departed.

“How are we meant to capture the White Tiger’s flag?”

“And why is it them of all people? Persuading those bastards is outright impossible.”

The Blue Dragons’ target was the White Tigers.

Had it been the Immortal Phoenix or the Black Tortoise, they would’ve attempted to communicate and ask for their flag.

However, considering their relationship with the White Tigers, they would probably be met with disdain if they were to ask.

“Their target is also us, so how about we trade flags?”

“You trust them to do so? Haven’t you seen all the dirty tricks they come up with? They’re barbarians with no semblance of pride and honor.”

“Yeah, and I’ve already brought that up with them, but they told me to not bother.”

“Dude, why’d you even try? It’s a waste of time to persuade them.”

The students of the Blue Dragons heaved a collective sigh.

Since the assignment was nigh impossible to achieve, they felt demotivated and couldn’t be bothered to even attempt it.

Why was their target the White Tigers!!

‘This isn’t good.’

Yi-han was troubled by his friends’ attitude.

Those that gave up on class this easily would never achieve anything great.

Not to mention, they were in a magic academy where classes were insane. God knows what kind of grade their professors normally gave.

It was too early to give up.

He wouldn’t have cared if this was an individual assignment, but since it wasn’t, he wasn’t going to allow them to give up and negatively affect his grade.

“We mustn’t give up, everyone!”

“!”

“Wardanaz!”

“You have an idea?”

“I knew you’d think of one.”

It only took them three seconds to transition from surprise, to curiosity, to certainty, then to trust.

Yi-han was at a loss for words seeing how easily people in his tower were influenced.

“What’s the plan, Wardanaz?”

“Huhu, I know what he’s thinking,” Asan confidently stated with a smile.

“What is it, Dargard?”

“He’s probably thinking of invading the White Tigers. I’m 95% sure that that’s his plan.”

“Dayuuum….!”

“Makes sense! I’m in!”

“Me too! Let’s teach those bastards at the White Tigers a lesson!”

“Wait, what’s going on here?”

“Instead of begging the White Tigers for the flag, Wardanaz has suggested that we invade them and take the flag ourselves.”

“I like that idea!”

The Blue Dragons formulated a plan in an instant and called out to Yi-han.

“Wardanaz, we’d like you to lead us!”

“After all, you were the one who came up with the ins and outs of the plan!”

“……”

Yi-han gave up on explaining. It was just too much work at this point.

‘Oh, well. It’s true that we’re going to have to enter their tower.’

If he was in their shoes, he wouldn’t hand over the flag either.

After all, they had been sent to the Punishment Room thanks to yours truly…

At the end of the day, the Blue Dragons would have to resort to force.

“Let’s go with that then.”

“Wardanaz! Wardanaz!”

“Just you wait and see! We’re gonna crush ’em!”

‘How is this meant to teach us about morals?’

Yi-han was seriously starting to question the point of the principal’s class.

If anything, wouldn’t activities like this only deepen the hatred?

***

Eventually, dinnertime rolled around, and just like last time, Yi-han called over Tijiling and tricked her into eating food.

Tijiling was drinking the soup served to her when she noticed the smug look on Yi-han’s face as he watched her eat.

“Is something the matter?”

“Fufu. Don’t worry about it.”

For a moment, Tijiling suspected that the boy in front of her was proud of himself for using his flowery rhetoric and misleading her into eating dinner.

‘Or not.’

Yi-han was from the renowned Wardanaz Family. He was probably giving her food out of a sense of responsibility as a member of a prestigious household. Priest Mehrid’s request likely played a role in it as well.

There was no way that such an honorable person would grin like a villain for succeeding in his scheme.

“What a coincidence to see you here, Wardanaz. I was just about to look for you.”

“!”

The one that greeted them was Siana, the follower of the Order of Flameng whom Yi-han had met during alchemy class.

It wasn’t just her. There were students from other towers around her.

“What’s the occasion?”

“As you already know, our assignment is to brew a <Basic Potion of Spirit Affinity>. There’s a limit to what we can do alone, so we’re planning on gathering the materials together.”

“That’s a great idea.”

Yi-han welcomed this sort of cooperation as he had once thought of doing something similar.

…Unfortunately, his plans fell through as students of the other towers feared him.

‘Damn it. Do they think she’s more approachable because of her priest uniform? If so, I have one as well.’

“Then would you mind calling on the students of the Blue Dragons? Let’s gather the materials as a team.”

“Sure, I’ll notify them about it.”

After their conversation was over, Yi-han waved her goodbye.

The students beside her talked amongst themselves as they left.

“Phew, we lived to tell the tale.”

“Did you see the glint in his eyes? My heart was about to drop.”

“But he wasn’t as scary as the rumors say.”

Just like always, Yi-han felt wronged hearing this.

Yi-han returned to his seat soon after, in time to see Tijiling tilt her head.

“What’s wrong?”

“Umm…was that Priestess Siana from the Order of Flameng?”

“Yeah, we have alchemy class together.”

“…I see.”

She was about to say something, but in the end, she kept her mouth shut.

There were two ways of making someone frustrated, and one of them was stopping midway through a conversation…

‘She knows how to make people curious, I’ll give her that.’

Yi-han understood what a stiff bunch priests and priestesses were.

Tijiling was probably uncomfortable speaking about people behind their backs, which was why she chose to remain silent.

However, Yi-han wasn’t the type to care about something like that.

‘Who cares. I’m curious.’

Instead of asking her straight-up, he decided to go the roundabout way.

He took out the cross that members of the Order of Presinga used to pray.

“?”

Tijiling failed to understand what Yi-han was doing.

“T’is a sin to speak behind one’s back, but none shall blame those that speaks honestly during prayer.”

“…Are you telling me to play dumb…?”

“T’is a voice I hear, but of whose I know not, for I am in the midst of prayer.”

“…..”

“Previously, the White Tigers ambushed me, and I was almost beaten to death. Alas, if Priestess Siana were the type to scheme, my fate shall be sealed in the forest. I can only seek the gods’ protection.”

“…..”

Tijiling stood up after letting out a sigh.

Then, she took out a cross and knelt down next to Yi-han, lowering her head.

“Lady Presinga, please forgive me, for I am not trying to cast accusations on others.”

“Thanks.”

“T’is a voice I hear, but of whose I know not, for I am in the midst of prayer.”

“…..”

Apparently, Tijiling was someone who remembered her grudges.