Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy
chapter-467

The skull principal was genuinely perplexed.

Clearly, among the exams the professors had mentioned, there were no sirens.

“Who was it?”

"It appeared in Professor Bungaegor's exam..."

“Professor Bungaegor wasn't the type to give such an unreasonable exam to 1st-years.”

'Then what about you, principal...'

The students were dumbfounded at the sight of the skull principal confessing to being trash himself.

“Ah!”

The skull principal felt a realization brush past his mind.

-If you haven't decided on the exam content yet, raise the difficulty several times! Avenge my devouring-ship fish's grudge!-

Hadn't he instigated to raise the exam difficulty while passing by?

Moreover, with the exam sites all flooded due to the spirit flood, it wouldn't be strange for Professor Bungaegor to change the exam content while raising the difficulty.

But still, to think it would overlap like this even so.

“Well, mages tend to think alike.”

"?"

"I don't think that's it..."

“It doesn't matter. Sirens are originally difficult to block even if you know.”

-Uh, master. The sirens are running away.-

?!

The skull principal turned his head at the death knight's words.

The sirens were pointing at Yi-Han's face, whispering, then turning around and running away quickly.

“...”

"..."

The master and disciple both watched the backs of the fleeing sirens with distorted faces.

"Qu, quickly."

"Wait... wait a moment. My hands are stiff and won't move."

As the sirens left, the students took a breather and poured boiling hot coffee into tin cups.

No matter how excitedly Yi-Han cast <Latent Heat Enchantment> on all the students, it wasn't easy to repeatedly dive in this cold weather for less than an hour.

Everyone's stamina was rapidly declining, and they were suffering from the cold.

Fortunately, they could start a fire and had brought coffee powder and tea leaves.

As the boiling coffee entered his throat, Gainando felt the warmth spreading through his body and the sensation of his fingers, which had been numb from the cold, loosening.

Gainando unconsciously muttered.

"This might be a picnic..."

"Are you crazy?"

"Do you want to spout nonsense after drinking expensive coffee?"

"Ah, no. That... to find the positive side in any situation..."

While Gainando was being scolded, some students were still preparing to enter the water without giving up.

It was the White Tiger Tower or Black Tortoise Tower students with crazy stamina, and Yi-Han, who was just crazy about grades.

"Heh, heh, Wardanaz... Don't give up. You may not be able to follow us in knightly training, even if you don't know swordsmanship."

'Shouldn't you not gloss over swordsmanship like that?'

The Black Tortoise Tower student listening next to them thought to himself.

If you're from the White Tiger Tower, you should compete in swordsmanship, but to say you don't know swordsmanship...?

Yi-Han answered with a nonchalant face.

"No matter what you say, I'll go in more."

"Goo... Good! Let's have a match!"

The White Tiger Tower students, perhaps understanding it as a stamina match, were fired up.

Of course, Yi-Han had no interest in a match between such students.

'I'll keep finding until time runs out.'

Having suffered this much, he was determined to get 1st place out of spite.

Splash!

The students jumped into the water again. Yi-Han checked the underwater breathing magic and dark vision magic that were still active, then skillfully went down.

How had he become so accustomed to diving in such a short time since the school flooded?

'Is it true that trials make a person grow?'

As Yi-Han was having such useless thoughts, someone approached him.

Tap tap-

"!?"

Yi-Han was startled and pointed his staff. Then the other party was also startled and shouted as if telling him not to shoot magic.

-♩♪! ♩♪♪!-

-Villainously setting a trap... Were you pretending to leave and ambushing?!-

The siren took out a slate with angry eyes and quickly wrote on it.

Youdamnbastard...

-Ah. Wait. Could it be that you stayed to help?-

Looking closely, it was the siren who had taken on the role of pushing the boat when dealing with the tapir.

Moreover, it showed no intention of attacking. Yi-Han was doubtful.

Nod-

The siren nodded its head up and down. Of course, even though it answered, its eyes were filled with resentment and contempt.

It had stayed to help because it had received help related to the tapir last time, but to suspect it like that...

-I'm sorry. Being in Einroguard, I'm starting to have a hard time trusting people.-

At Yi-Han's words, the siren crossed its arms, thought for a moment, then nodded as if acknowledging it.

From the siren's perspective, the students of Einroguard also lived quite harshly.

Click click-

The siren clicked its fingers as if telling him to follow.

Having watched the skull principal's work from the side, it knew where the most valuable treasures were hidden.

'This way.'

As the siren stretched out its finger and pointed in a direction, Yi-Han hesitated and asked.

-Why don't you go first? It's not that I don't trust you.-

-...-

The siren firmly resolved to repay the favor quickly, even if it had to be dirty and underhanded, and never associate with this boy again.

Passing between the submerged tower pillars and avoiding the suddenly spewing deep-sea hot springs, the destination the siren pointed to appeared.

Seeing the palisade fragments scattered in a jumbled mess to make it difficult to approach, Yi-Han was inwardly appalled.

'Did he really put it here for us to find?'

It seemed like the skull principal had put it here just to say later, 'I put it here, but you couldn't find it? How boring.'

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't placed for them to find.

Tap tap tap!

The siren, having been in a bad mood for a while, hit the floor with its fins.

It meant to quickly take what he needed to take and part ways.

'The principal's unreasonableness must have put it in a bad mood.'

Yi-Han thought so and approached the floor. Then he felt a familiar mana.

Woong-

Seeing the skull principal's mana composed in an elaborate structure to protect the treasure, Yi-Han was so dumbfounded that he couldn't even speak.

If you're going to place it here, do you really need to put up a barrier magic in good conscience?

'He's really a crazy person.'

Yi-Han clicked his tongue and concentrated his mana.

Cursing aside, he had to dispel it first...

The charged mana became a breaking hammer and strongly struck the barrier, as Baldoorn had taught him.

Bang!

The siren looked at Yi-Han as if asking what he was doing.

Although not a professional mage, the siren was also a being that inherited the blood of spirits and possessed high intelligence. Having stayed in Einroguard for a long time, it knew enough about magic.

And what Yi-Han was doing now was not the common method used when dispelling barrier magic.

What kind of crude...

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

However, when he swung that hammer of mana several times, the siren's expression changed.

It was an absurdly crude method, but if he could repeat that method like that...

-Hmm. As expected, it doesn't work.-

Yi-Han gave up regretfully.

It was clear that the skull principal had intricately designed it to withstand external shocks.

-Why are you looking at me like that?-

Yi-Han looked at the siren, puzzled.

The siren had been watching with a blank expression as if enchanted.

-♪♬♩! ♪♬!-

'...Could it be trying to subtly enchant me?'

Yi-Han thought something that would anger the siren if it heard and turned his gaze.

Meanwhile, the siren came to its senses from the shock of the crude method and gave proper advice.

Dontjustcrudelyforceitbuttheweaklinkbelow...

'My, my. It doesn't know how amazing the method I just showed is because it's not a mage.'

Yi-Han newly felt that the siren was not a mage.

To disparage the breaking method taught by Baldoorn as crude.

'But the direction it taught is correct.'

Yi-Han carefully explored the direction the siren pointed and realized that the point was correct.

The mana of the lower link was slightly weaker, although the difference was very subtle.

In magic, such parts were usually structural weaknesses.

-Certainly, the mana here does feel a bit weak.-

-?-

The siren looked at Yi-Han as if asking what kind of nonsense he was saying.

Theoretically, all magic had weaknesses, but the magic cast by a great mage was bound to have even those weaknesses concealed.

Right now, the siren knew the weakness because it had directly seen the skull principal casting it, but it couldn't feel the difference in mana at all.

-It was reinforced inside with wood elements.-

Yi-Han felt branches intertwined throughout the barrier magic. It seemed to be an arrangement to disperse and absorb the force applied to the weaknesses.

The siren nodded, agreeing that Yi-Han's analysis was correct. And then it diligently drew a picture on the slate.

It was also an explanation of the order in which to connect the mana starting from the weak link to dispel it.

However, Yi-Han immediately ignited flames and set fire to the structure.

-!!!!!-

The siren threw the slate with a silent scream and raised a water spray to extinguish the fire.

But the flames that had bloomed underwater were not easily extinguished. The siren was barely able to put out the fire before it spread by drawing out the power of the spirits.

-♪↘♪♪↗♪!-

Although he didn't know what it meant, Yi-Han could tell that the siren was angry. Yi-Han apologized.

-Since it was made of wood elements, I thought I could break it right away if I set fire to it well inside.-

Howcanthatwork!!!

-It worked...-

-...-

The siren looked at the barrier that had burned and disappeared.

Originally, the flood caused by the spirits was still a flood, and the barrier had its own resistance, so it shouldn't have been easily burned and should have died down...

But the flames summoned by this mage had such good firepower that they completely burned the barrier.

If the siren hadn't hurriedly extinguished it, even the treasure inside would have been burned together.

Tap tap tap!

The siren left a long message on the slate to explain how clumsy Yi-Han's actions were.

Yi-Han showed a repentant attitude as the other party seemed very angry.

'I think I could have controlled it even if it was alone.'

He had such thoughts inwardly, but Yi-Han held back.

Honestly, unlike other magic, he was still not confident in flame element magic.

Swish-

As Yi-Han came out last, his friends ran over with curious expressions.

"Did you find anything?"

"Ah. Wait a moment."

He had come up without even checking what the treasure was while bickering with the siren.

Yi-Han opened the box and checked the note inside.

<Leave pass.>

"Nothing special."

"...!!!!"

"!!!!!!"

-!!!!!!-

Even the death knight next to them was appalled.

To be so nonchalant about a leave pass...

Was this really a 1st-year student?!

'How can this be??'

The skull principal, who had been tormenting the other students, turned his head at the murmuring sound and flew over.

“What's going on?”

-Master. The student who found the leave pass...-

“What? Someone found that?”

The skull principal was startled.

He was going to tease the students, saying, 'You couldn't find it even though it was here?' if they couldn't find it, but they found it.

“Why did you find that again?”

"..."

"..."

The students were silent at the sight of the skull principal rebuking Yi-Han without even asking who it was.

"I didn't say I found it."

“So you didn't find it?”

"I did find it, but..."

“Of course.”

The skull principal grumbled and snatched the box from Yi-Han's hand.

-Aren't you curious about how he found it?-

“I decided not to be curious because I felt like it would only scratch my insides if I asked. He probably threatened the siren to find it.”

The skull principal answered curtly, not realizing that he had unintentionally guessed the correct answer.

-That seems a bit unreasonable...-

“Can't you take a joke? Can't you?”

-I, I'm sorry.-

“Anyway, it seems like you found everything, so let's move on to the next event.”

"There's more?!"

"When will it end??"

The skull principal silenced the students and said,

“It's a talent show. Each of you show one magic that suits a picnic.”

"Hmm."

“Wardanaz, you get a perfect score. Go sit over there.”

"No..."

Feeling a bit left out as if this wasn't really a picnic, he felt slightly disappointed.