Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Although his vision was obscured, Yi-Han was acutely aware of what was transpiring around him. He wanted to deny it, but the sensations throughout his body were undeniable. Professor Boladi, he realized, was summoning elements beyond just lightning.

‘It must mean that…’ Yi-Han thought.

Remarkably, even with his sight hindered, Yi-Han's ability to dodge the lightning was an impressive feat. While he was preoccupied with evasion, it was clear that something significant must be happening for Professor Boladi to smile in such circumstances.

Normally, evading lightning by reading its trajectory was challenging even with open eyes, a skill honed through swordsmanship training and innate mana sensing abilities. Without either of these, it would have been impossible.

But when Yi-Han easily mastered this, Professor Boladi nonchalantly escalated the difficulty. If Professor Garcia had witnessed this, he would have been alarmed, exclaiming, "What are you doing!?"

Yi-Han faced a virtually impossible task, navigating in complete darkness. Yet, the problem was that he executed it flawlessly. Seeing this, Professor Boladi again effortlessly raised the difficulty level.

Both mentor and student were relentless in pushing boundaries. Consequently, on his first day of elemental detection training, Yi-Han endured an incredibly challenging ordeal. In a way, it was a situation of his own making.

‘Are the other elements a deception?’

Oblivious to the trap he had set for himself, Yi-Han concentrated solely on the task. He sensed not just lightning but other elemental energies. There was no room for distraction.

Professor Boladi must have had a reason to introduce other elements in such a situation. A trick!

Yi-Han had evaded the lightning in the invisible space by relying solely on his raw mana sensing abilities, as his vision was impeded. The lightning bolts, though seemingly simple in their straight trajectory, underwent numerous changes in a brief moment. Realizing that magic briefly condensed before releasing the bolts, Yi-Han anticipated this and evaded them.

But now, with other elemental energies intermingling, he had to distinguish between them, detecting the precursor signs and identifying the lightning among them. Moreover, considering Professor Boladi's unpredictable nature, other elements prepared as decoys might also join the attack, necessitating vigilance.

‘Can I do it?’

Yi-Han lifted his head towards the elemental energies exuding presence in the darkness. It seemed impossible.

Then he resolved, ‘I'll try to get hurt as little as possible!’

Yi-Han's expectations were proven wrong.

Incredibly, he succeeded once again.

"..."

Even Professor Boladi, who usually had something to say, was momentarily silenced in astonishment.

‘He's truly gifted.’

The boy from the Wardanaz family possessed more than immense mana. In hindsight, being born with such colossal mana, learning to handle and cast spells was a formidable challenge.

Especially for a freshman.

The boy from the Wardanaz family, modest in nature, thought he wasn't particularly adept at learning magic. While he was indeed fast, compared to the prodigious young mages of the empire, he felt slightly inferior.

However, this assessment didn't account for the sheer volume of mana he possessed.

Possessing such immense mana and learning magic at that speed was itself a testament to his talent. Though usually, it was difficult to notice due to the sheer magnitude of his mana, it was a different story when it came to him detecting the mana around him. In areas where there was no penalty due to the amount of mana, the fragments of talent were bound to emerge.

With a snap, Professor Boladi made the blindfold covering Yi-Han's eyes disappear. Despite having accomplished such a remarkable feat, the boy from the Wardanaz family remained calm, and the professor did not comment further.

"I didn't expect you to pass everything on the first day."

"...Maybe it's because you gave me the tasks all at once, Professor."

Yi-Han politely implied, ‘So maybe take it easy from now on.’ But subtlety often went unnoticed by the professors.

"There's no need to thank me."

"?!"

Yi-Han was momentarily puzzled. He then belatedly realized that Professor Boladi had interpreted his words as gratitude for giving him all the tasks at once, which allowed him to pass them.

‘...This is driving me crazy.’

While Yi-Han was grappling with frustration, Professor Boladi continued, "Originally, I planned to take more time with the elemental detection training. But it seems that won't be necessary."

Yi-Han was relieved. From the professor's words, it seemed that today's lecture had concluded. Professor Boladi handed him a cloth-wrapped bundle.

"You look tired."

"!"

Yi-Han was startled. He was indeed tired from dodging lightning with his eyes open and then closed, but he had never imagined that Professor Boladi would show concern.

"What's this?"

Initially, he suspected a trap in the bundle, but Professor Boladi was not a malicious person like the skull principal.

Cautiously, Yi-Han unwrapped the package.

"Is it some kind of medicine?"

Inside was a book on magic. Professor Boladi nodded, saying, "It's a book on basic lightning magic and its applications. Study it before the next class."

"..."

Professor Boladi was not a malicious person like the skull principal. He was just a bit crazy.

Yi-Han belatedly understood the meaning behind Boladi's comment about him looking tired. It was simply an innocent observation.

The comment and the bundle were unrelated!

"...Understood."

Yi-Han managed his expression and took the magic book.

He would have to go somewhere far from the professor to express his frustration.

‘Now that I think about it, isn't this week the paper exam week?’

He realized that the magic Professor Boladi had asked him to learn wasn't the important part. Professor Boladi might not give a test, but the other classes would.

-■■■!

Yi-Han turned his head towards the eerie howls of summoned creatures coming from outside the classroom, in the front yard of the main building.

"What's going on out there?"

"The professors are dealing with escaped summons."

"??"

Yi-Han was perplexed. Weren't the professors the ones who ignored the escaped summons roaming the academy just last week?

"Why all of a sudden?"

"Probably to prevent them from interfering with the exams."

"..."

Yi-Han, at a loss for words, politely excused himself and left the classroom.

"I shouldn't have asked..."

The book Professor Boladi gave him, <Basic Lightning Element Magic and Its Applications>, turned out to be better than he had expected.

‘Wait. Who wrote this?’

When considering that most spellbooks paid little heed to the fact that they were being read by freshmen, <Basic Lightning Element Magic and Its Applications> was indeed remarkably user-friendly.

It didn't merely describe the incantations and motions for the 1st circle spell <Lightning Creation>. Unlike other 1st circle elemental spells, maintaining the position of the lightning element after its creation was notably challenging. The most common mistake novice mages made was losing control of the summoned lightning element and scattering it in random directions. To prevent this, the book advised certain preparations: wear thick clothing that doesn't conduct lightning well and practice when no one else is around...

Yi-Han, intrigued by the author's approach, checked the back of the book for other works by the same mage, only to find no author's name listed.

"A book written within the magic academy?"

Most books in the empire were not systematically mass-produced. Many were hand-written by individuals and passed down.

This was even more true for books within the magic academy.

In the library, the books were often haphazardly categorized, with more than half being so indecipherable that it was impossible to understand what was written.

Mages typically only cared about their own satisfaction, rarely considering others!

"If I were a bookstore owner, I would clear out such books."

Despite his animosity towards Professor Boladi, Yi-Han thought he should read more of this book.

After all, it wasn't the book's fault.

And in the next class, Professor Boladi would surely proceed with the assumption that Yi-Han had mastered this book...

"Hello, Wardanaz!"

Startled by the cheerful voice of a professor approaching from behind, Yi-Han realized this was never a good sign.

Fortunately, the professor was a familiar face. It was Professor Kirmin Ku, one of the few friends of Professor Boladi.

"Are you off to the <Basic Magic Understanding> class? Right?"

"Yes."

"Great! I'm headed to the lecture hall myself. We can go together."

Professor Kirmin, unlike Boladi, was incredibly cheerful, almost unbelievably so for being friends with him.

Yi-Han felt a glimmer of hope at this.

Young, amiable professors with good social skills often meant a higher likelihood of treating students well.

Of course, whether this rule applied in a magic academy was another matter...

"Do you teach illusion magic?"

"Yes. Professor Bagrak doesn't like illusion magic, but it has many practical uses."

Each field of magic, when delved into deeply, revealed an almost infinite expanse of possibilities.

From casting barrier spells to prevent intruders into a territory to creating hallucinations for enemies, these were just aspects of illusion magic.

There were mages who combined it with space magic to create bizarre labyrinths of illusion that couldn't exist in reality, and others who merged it with mental magic to incapacitate foes with a mere glance.

Hearing this, Yi-Han thought to himself.

‘Perfect for thievery.’

Using illusions to evade detection or to dismantle existing illusion spells.

No matter how kindly Kirmin explained, it was hard not to think of other uses.

"Wardanaz, last time I saw you, I could tell you have a talent for illusion magic."

Yi-Han was delighted at Kirmin's words.

Usually, when a professor said something like, "You have talent," caution was warranted.

Letting your guard down could mean being pulled under a professor's wing and becoming their forced apprentice.

But for Yi-Han, such worries were already too late. From the moment he entered the magic academy, he was destined to learn under the professors.

Finding a kind and decent professor was crucial.

And Professor Kirmin might just be that kind and decent professor, although Yi-Han couldn't be certain yet...

‘Illusion magic isn't bad. If you master anything well, can't you make a living anywhere?’

"Illusion magic requires something more important than abundant mana, exceptional elemental affinity, or extraordinary calculation skills. It's about precise control. From what I see, Wardanaz, you have a natural talent for it."

"...???"

Yi-Han was taken aback.

What did he mean? Yi-Han, whose immense mana often meant a lack of fine control?

‘Could he be mistaken because of the assignment submission last time?’

That was more about what he had practiced to exhaustion under Professor Boladi, not about any exceptional talent of his own.

"Th... Thank you."

"I'm curious if you have any particular field of magic you're interested in. Often, talented freshmen like you don't settle on just one area but explore several."

"I haven't decided yet."

Professor Kirmin then changed his question.

"So... besides Professor Bagrak, have you met any other professors outside of class time?"

This wasn't about what areas Yi-Han was interested in, but rather, which professors were interested in Yi-Han.

Choosing a mentor was not just a student's prerogative; teachers also chose their students.

"So far, Professor Uregor..."

"Aha. Alchemy."

"Professor Bungaegor."

"Zoology."

"And Professor Willow."

"Botany."

"Professor Mortum as well..."

"Dark Magic, is it?"

"And Professor Millei."

"Summoning magic. Wait. Hold on."

Professor Kirmin paused.

It was an overwhelming list.