Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy
chapter-449

The atmosphere among disciples studying in a professor's workshop varied from place to place.

Some places were friendly and close-knit, while others had a dry atmosphere where they only did their own work.

And Yi-Han didn't dislike the latter at all.

'Honestly, it's hard to believe Professor Beavle's disciples are seniors.'

Yi-Han vividly remembered Professor Beavle visiting the mansion during the break and looking puzzled.

If there were seniors among Professor Beavle's disciples who resembled their teacher, the number of people looking puzzled during the break would have multiplied several times.

That absolutely couldn't happen.

"Come this way."

Anpagon entered the twelfth lecture hall located on the west side of the 1st floor of the main building and stacked desks to create stairs.

Then he tapped the red sculpture engraved on the ceiling three times.

Swish-

A hidden path appeared. Yi-Han saw it and took diligent notes.

'So there was a place like this.'

"Where is this?"

"My workshop."

Anpagon said with a yawn. The human race was not exceptionally bad in terms of physical strength among the races, but they were not good either.

As such, Anpagon, who was human, couldn't help but feel fatigue from overwork.

Yi-Han took out a thermos containing coffee from his backpack and handed it to him. Anpagon received it with a short thanks.

And he felt something strange.

'...How does a 1st year have coffee?'

"You work in a workshop, not a personal room."

"Yeah."

Even if they were just 2nd or 3rd years, Einroguard students would search all over the school to set up their own workshops.

Because...

"In the 1st year, it's fine to practice in the dormitory room. But."

"After a while, the scale becomes too large to practice in the dormitory room."

"!"

Anpagon looked at Yi-Han with slightly surprised eyes.

He didn't expect a 1st year junior to know this.

"That's right. How did you know?"

"Ah. That's..."

Yi-Han recalled the magic he had practiced.

Numerous skeleton warriors.

Lightning elements, flame elements, and other destructive elements that destroy the surroundings.

And even dangerous reagents and magic from other schools of magic.

Many of them were a bit difficult to practice in the dormitory room.

If he made even a small mistake, the lounge could be in chaos.

"...I also felt inconvenience while practicing magic and had to find a new place."

Anpagon raised his evaluation of his junior a bit more in his mind.

As expected of a junior assigned by the skull principal, he seemed to be progressing quite fast despite being a 1st year.

"Can you handle 2nd circle magic by any chance?"

"Pardon? Oh. Yes."

'He can handle it, but he doesn't seem confident.'

But it didn't matter.

Just being able to handle 2nd circle magic in the 1st year was quite excellent.

In any case, most of the work would have to be done by Anpagon.

Anpagon was not stupid enough to entrust most of the work to a 1st year junior.

"Now. Here."

Anpagon stopped in front of the entrance to the workshop that looked like an attic.

Then he took out a long coat hanging on the wall next to it. It was a cloak that covered the whole body with a hood attached.

"Wear this."

"What is this?"

"Protective gear. It prevents accidents that may occur during artifact work."

"Ah. Do you wear this when attending lectures as a senior?"

When the grade was low, the risk was low, so it was not necessary, but the higher the level of the artifact, the greater the amount of mana and the risk of magic that went into it.

It was not surprising to work wearing such equipment.

"No. We made this ourselves. The professor usually asks why this is necessary."

"..."

In Yi-Han's mind, Professor Beavle's voice was replayed, innocently saying, 'Why is this necessary? You just have to not make mistakes, right?'

"Sit down."

"Yes."

Anpagon took out chests containing reagents and tools and laid them out on the table, then turned on the light in the attic.

A makeshift lantern made by engraving a magic circle on a magic stone flickered and withered.

Anpagon clicked his tongue.

"Its lifespan is up. I'll have to work on this first..."

"I'll do it."

"Can you handle it?"

Considering the work that needed to be done in the future, he had to save mana, but Anpagon was worried whether a 1st year junior could newly engrave a magic circle on a magic stone.

Although the <Light Enchantment> magic had a relatively low difficulty level, it was a different story for a 1st year.

Moreover, the makeshift lantern Anpagon had made now was small, so the size of the magic stone was also that small.

Naturally, engraving a magic circle on this became even more difficult.

"Light!"

"..."

However, instead of grabbing the magic stone and engraving a magic circle, Yi-Han simply summoned a light orb inside the lantern.

Anpagon was dumbfounded.

'No...'

Basically, not only Anpagon but also Professor Beavle's disciples were the least sociable ones at Einroguard.

As such, when a 1st year junior made such a cute mistake, it was hard to think of what to say to him.

If he directly summoned a light orb, it would last only a few minutes at best...

'...It's bothersome to point it out, so I'll just work on it again when it disappears.'

Rather than wasting time now, Anpagon thought he would have to work on it again when the light orb disappeared.

"The exam won't be that difficult."

Although it sounded grand to say they were making an exam, it was not as difficult as they thought.

In the first place, it was not an exam to create something out of nothing.

As a 3rd year student, Anpagon remembered the exams he had experienced in the 1st and 2nd years, and for this exam, he just had to bring those exams.

It was just a bit time-consuming and bothersome to prepare.

"Do you see the artifacts here?"

Anpagon took out a small iron rod artifact.

When he swung it once, the end of the iron rod turned white-hot and spewed flames. It was a flame generation type artifact.

"Yes."

"Now this..."

Bang!

Anpagon swung the iron rod and stuck it into the wall. Then the middle of the iron rod bent slightly.

"...This is how you break it. Do you know why we break it?"

"For repair?"

Anpagon grinned, showing his teeth.

As a student of the enchantment magic school at Einroguard, there were fewer things to smile about, so it felt like he hadn't smiled in quite a while.

"That's right. Repair is the exam."

An excellent enchantment mage had to know not only how to make artifacts but also how to repair artifacts made by others.

One might think that creation is always more difficult than repair, but repair had a difficulty that direct creation did not have.

Since it was an artifact made by someone else, they had to first figure out how this artifact worked.

This figuring out was unexpectedly difficult.

Even for artifacts with the same effect, each mage made them in their own way.

Some mages prioritized stability and paid attention to the durability of the mana circuit of the magic circle, while others prioritized firepower and paid attention to the limit of the mana output of the magic circle.

Some mages also ignored efficiency and injected a large amount of mana as if protesting that they had a lot of mana...

Since they had to figure out these points and accurately fix what was broken, repair had a difficulty that creation did not have.

"To break it, we first need artifacts."

"I'll make them."

"No. I'll make them."

Anpagon thought once again that this junior was a bit strange.

Who would make a 1st year do this?

"You just check."

"Is it really okay?!"

Yi-Han was startled.

Anpagon answered, dumbfounded.

"Of course it's okay."

"I understand."

"The ones I made in advance are in that chest over there, so check those first."

"Yes."

Yi-Han opened the chest and took out the artifacts one by one.

Meanwhile, Anpagon picked up work tools and started making additional artifacts.

Given the number of students, he might have to stay up all night to finish it today even if he started now.

Chik, chichik, chichichik!

Thud, thud, thud-

For a while, the attic was quiet.

There were no words, only the sound of work echoing.

"Uh. Senior."

"What."

Anpagon turned his head with a slightly irritated voice.

He thought he was a talented junior, but did he call because he couldn't even check one artifact?

'I hope he wasn't bribed by the skull principal.'

"I'm done."

"..."

Anpagon blinked.

At first, he thought the junior was lying, but looking at the mana residue left on the artifact, it was clear that he had used each one once, not joking.

"Alre... already?"

"Yes. Shall I help with the production?"

"...Sure."

Anpagon handed the tools to Yi-Han.

Now he wanted to see his skills.

"Do you see the magic circle pattern here? Complete the mana flow and activate it."

"Yes."

It seemed that the amplification and maintenance parts of the circuit were missing.

Since it was a test artifact, not a permanent artifact anyway, Yi-Han boldly removed the maintenance part.

And he injected excessive mana to operate the magic circle pattern.

"It's done."

"???"

Anpagon, who heard Yi-Han say he had activated it in less than 10 seconds, turned his head in surprise.

"Already?"

"Yes."

Surprisingly, the artifact was indeed operating.

Anpagon was startled to see the pattern Yi-Han had worked on.

Instead of constructing a complex circuit, he removed unnecessary parts and replaced them with mana.

This was a kind of work that professors who were confident in both the quantity and quality of their mana and control would do.

What was even more surprising was that there was no noticeable smudging or cracks around the pattern.

Inexperienced mages often completed the magic circle but damaged the artifact itself because they failed to consider the impact on the surroundings while doing this kind of work, but this junior had none of that.

As if he had repeated this kind of production hundreds or thousands of times.

Anpagon bowed his head several times to check, as if he was going to bury his head in the artifact.

Then he looked around.

"What are you looking for?"

"No. Nothing."

For a moment, Anpagon thought the skull principal was hiding next to him and teasing him.

After taking a large budget for an experiment last time, the skull principal had been scolding Anpagon whenever he saw him.

-Wow. Isn't it Anpagon, the golden extortionist of Einroguard! You took my gold like that last time, and there are still no results?-

-...-

-What? You want to take more? You submitted a research proposal to His Majesty the Emperor behind my back last time, didn't you? Asking to let you use the gold in my secret warehouse!-

-...I'm sorry...-

However, the skull principal was nowhere to be seen.

Anpagon had no choice but to acknowledge that this junior had really made this.

'It's really amazing.'

Students learning enchantment magic were not very interested in each other.

Anpagon also didn't know what his new 2nd year juniors were interested in or what they were making.

What mattered was what he was making, not his juniors or seniors.

However, this junior was enough to forcibly create interest that didn't exist before.

"How is it?"

"It's excellent. But..."

"?"

"We can't use this."

"Oh. Did I make something wrong?"

Anpagon nodded.

"If you make it like this, it won't break."

"..."

The more complex and sophisticated the magic circle pattern and circuit, the more prone it was to breaking.

If it was finished as simply and solidly as possible like Yi-Han did, it was difficult to break it.

Since they needed broken artifacts, they had to make them less sturdy.

"Th, that's right. I missed that. As expected of you, senior."

"...Is this something I should be praised for?"

Anpagon asked back, genuinely not understanding.

It seemed like the praise should be given to what the junior had just made...