Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Yi-Han had returned to the tower, imagining himself as the right hand of His Majesty the Emperor, locking the skull principal in the underground dungeon.

‘Uhm.’

A normal student might have protested, "Even if you beat me to death, I can't study this! Send me to the punishment room instead!" But, unfortunately, Yi-Han had a personality that compelled him to try his best, even with seemingly impossible tasks.

Unbeknownst to him, this was a trait that made him dig his own grave.

‘Uhm…’

Entering his private room, Yi-Han swiftly flipped through the book <Ancient Fundamentals of Necromancy - On True Summoning of the Undead>.

The book, starting with ancient characters and mixed with various languages and codes, was surprisingly standard in its composition, allowing him to vaguely understand its content.

‘...No. Two-thirds of this book is useless to me.’

Slam!

Yi-Han closed the book with a start. The <Ancient Fundamentals of Necromancy - On True Summoning of the Undead> book was specifically about the third method of undead summoning Professor Mortum had mentioned, starting from the basics to the expert level.

Instead of simply summoning the undead, it involved a method of raising corpses with powerful magic.

Being an old-fashioned technique, it was both difficult and consumed a great deal of mana.

As such, one-third of the book covered methods to amplify the mana needed for dark magic, and another third on conserving mana when casting spells.

In essence...

Two-thirds of the book's content was unnecessary.

‘Less quantity is good, at least.’

For Yi-Han, it was a relief. He already had enough to study and didn't want to increase the workload, especially since the methods he had glanced at earlier were not particularly pleasant.

The methods, like drinking a concoction of 17-year-old grave soil and 11-year-old bone dust mixed in Kranten solution thrice daily to enhance mana, seemed to justify why dark magic was unpopular.

Yi-Han was grateful for his abundant mana for the first time in a while.

He was relieved not to have to resort to such methods!

The remaining third of the book contained practical content: details about various types of corpses, their characteristics when used in necromancy, and precautions to take during the process.

The corpse of a knight, for example, was good for raising due to the high purity of mana in its bones. However, since knights were stingy about offering the bodies of their comrades, one had to target the night of the new moon when vigilance was lax...

Yi-Han unconsciously looked around his private room.

...Was anyone there?

"Old books sure have some outrageous methods."

However, it made sense to him.

Necromancy that summoned beings from another world was also heavily influenced by the reagents and materials used. The more powerful and sacred the bones or corpses used, the stronger the beings from the other world that were summoned.

Moreover, necromancy that utilized corpses 100% was even more influenced by the quality of the corpses.

Therefore, a mage should carry minimal bone fragments in various pockets - inside a coat, around the waist, in sleeves, inside boots - to avoid embarrassment in unexpected situations. After all, occasions where one could not acquire a corpse were more common than one might think...

"There are more advantages than I thought."

Old-fashioned necromancy, or classical necromancy, had more definitive benefits than he had initially realized.

Necromancy that summoned undead had limits in enhancing the summoned undead, as it involved beings from another world and the mage's enhancements had their limits.

It would be different if one could summon a stronger being.

However, classical necromancy, which involved directly creating the undead, allowed for endless enhancements, provided one had the skill.

For example, if a pile of bones was enchanted to fight in the form of skeleton warriors, it was possible to strengthen them in various ways, starting from the type of bone used to the various enchantments applied.

Moreover, they were much sturdier.

Summoning-style necromancy faced a limitation: once the summoned undead were struck and reverse-summoned, they couldn't return from the other world until they had recovered.

But in classical necromancy, as long as the mage had enough mana, they could wave their staff, repair, and raise them again.

"I see why the skull principal insisted on me learning this..."

Seeing the advantages, he understood why he was encouraged to learn it.

Of course, this understanding didn't dissipate his anger.

"...But the rest are all disadvantages."

The enormous consumption of mana.

It was a complicated magic structure that had to be handcrafted for each undead (in other words, it was like creating one artifact for each undead).

And the tactical operation requiring the mage to concentrate and issue individual commands.

Of course, as the level of magic increased, there were various ways to reduce mana consumption, simplify spellcasting, and ease command issuance, but...

No matter how he thought about it, the barrier to entry was excessively high.

‘The <Summon Skeleton Warrior> spell that starts in earnest in this book... is a 4th circle spell.’

Although it's termed a 4th circle spell, outside the academy, a 4th circle mage was revered and excessively flattered as a 'great mage.'

It was only because the Einroguard had too many outstanding mage that phrases like 'learn 4th circle spell' were thrown around so casually.

Yi-Han felt a renewed surge of anger.

‘Both Professor Boladi and the skull principal, aren't they being too much?’

He would have played along with a 2nd or 3rd circle spell, pretending to struggle, but the overwhelming number of 4th circle spells left him incredulous.

Yi-Han sighed and took out the bone fragments he had received from Professor Mortum.

"The spells that can be applied to the left arm are as follows... Levitation, Spinning, Binding, Striking..."

What could he do?

It was an assignment, so he had to do it!

"Why isn't Wardanaz coming out?"

Even though it was the weekend, the students of the Blue Dragon were perplexed by Wardanaz not coming out from his private room after having only prepared a simple breakfast.

It didn't matter if Gainando slept in late or became an undead in his room, but if Yi-Han was missing for just a few hours, it was concerning.

His friends, who had devoured sandwiches stuffed with jam, cheese, smoked meat, and eggs between slices of toasted bread, started to grow anxious as Yi-Han still hadn't emerged.

"Did you make Wardanaz angry yesterday?"

"No, no! I mean, yes, Yi-Han suggested it, but I did say I didn't want to go to the undead realm. And I even pestered him to play card games when he had so much to study! But that's something anyone can do!"

"..."

"You jerk. It's definitely your fault!"

"Go apologize now!"

"No... I'm telling you, it wasn't me!"

Gainando grumbled as he knocked on Yi-Han's private room door.

After a moment, Yi-Han's voice was heard.

-The door's open. Come in.-

"Yi-Han. These guys are spreading baseless rumors... Aaaargh! Yi-Han is being attacked by the principal!"

"!!!"

"Everyone, come here! Wardanaz is under attack!"

Students traumatized by undead attacks within the tower rushed over in panic.

Just when things had seemed quiet, the skull principal had infiltrated undead spies into Yi-Han's private room on the weekend.

It was a truly despicable move.

"Let's go up rig..."

Thump!

The princess, with a calm expression, held her staff and restrained her friends.

"Why?!"

"If we rush in recklessly, we will be counterattacked! Stay low and cast spells from behind the staircase!"

A follower conveyed the princess's intentions to her friends.

The suggestion sounded plausible, so the friends prepared their magic while crouching at the bottom of the stairs.

"Wardanaz! We're coming to help now!"

"Right now!"

The princess ran forward from the front and cast Magic Missile.

A flash of blue light burst forth, and a clump of magic energy shot out rapidly.

Clang!

However, the attack was blocked by a water shield. Yi-Han, while pulling one ear of the fallen Gainando, said, "Everyone, stop. I'm not being attacked."

"Wa... Wardanaz!!"

"...No. You are being attacked!!"

His friends were shocked.

Yi-Han's private room was filled with skeleton warriors.

"It's not the principal who sent them; I raised them myself. They're not quite ready to move yet..."

Yi-Han tapped his staff. The skeleton warriors remained motionless.

'I still have a long way to go.'

Having already mastered spells like <Bone Hand Summon> and <Bone Binding Orb>, and being exceptionally skilled in element transformation and control, Yi-Han was quite adept.

"Bones. Be shot forth."

Crack!

"Bones. Form into armor."

Crunch!

"Bones. Become a wall."

Crack-crack-crack!

These were simple necromancy spells involving bones, suggested in the book for basic training.

Yi-Han was familiar with spells that transformed or launched bones in various ways.

'...But isn't this too easy?'

Yi-Han tilted his head in thought.

Compared to the anxious times he handled the fire element, fearing it might spread uncontrollably, bones were indeed much simpler.

'Are bones naturally easier? Or is it because I've already practiced with other elements?'

If Professor Mortum had been there, he would have said, 'Dark magic is never easy, cough. It's just that your talent is exceptional.' But in the private room, it was just Yi-Han.

Dark elements used in dark magic, like dark energy, negative energy, bones, or poisons, were not easy by any means. If someone said, 'Bone element is easier than fire element,' they might be considered half-mad, as befits a dark mage.

"Well then, now... come forth."

Having passed various basic trainings, it was time for Yi-Han to practice proper skeleton summoning.

Before that, Yi-Han summoned a skeleton warrior he had contracted from the undead realm.

-■■■…-

The summoned skeleton warrior prostrated itself before Yi-Han, showing respect.

The disparity in their mana made this a natural response.

Sharakan, who had been summoned earlier, yawned and tapped the ground with its tail, clearly expressing its disdain for summoning such a lowly creature.

"Good. It's nice to meet you. I need a name for you..."

-■■!-

Despite its low intelligence, the skeleton warrior was startled and refused, believing it unworthy of receiving a name.

"No, I need a name to call you. You are... Gonadaltes."

-■■■■...!-

The skeleton warrior seemed overwhelmed by the honor and protested, but Yi-Han was firm.

"Gonadaltes. I summoned you because I need to practice classical necromancy. I have to create undead using bones and corpses, and it would be helpful to have a guide."

Just as learning to make artifacts was easier by observing completed ones, creating autonomously moving skeleton warriors was more effective by emulating a completed one.

Gonadaltes, or rather the skeleton warrior, straightened its posture.

"Thank you. Shall we begin then?"

Three hours later.

Yi-Han sat in a chair, frowning at the pile of bones strewn before him.

'This is no easy task.'

Creating the form of a skeleton warrior wasn't too difficult.

It was a bit more challenging than making shields and armor.

However, making the warrior move flexibly was a completely different issue.

Crack!

Another skeleton warrior shattered itself while attempting to automatically shoot an arrow.

'Raising them up each time they break is not easy either.'

As he thought this, Yi-Han paused.

'Now that I think about it, why not raise several at the start?'

It seemed better to raise several warriors at once rather than one at a time as they broke.

Of course, it would consume a considerable amount of mana, but that was not a concern, and as for the mental and concentration effort...

'I managed to control dozens of water beads at once, so I should be able to raise about a dozen skeleton warriors. If it doesn't work, I can always reduce the number later.'

"You understand, right? They're just failures, nothing extraordinary."

"...Yi-Han. You do know that normal mage don't walk around with fifteen summons at a time, don't you?"