Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy
chapter-520

Yi-Han suddenly fell silent at Yonaire's words.

Is that...

Is that so?

'The other person probably didn't see me as a 1st-year, and probably not as a 2nd-year either. There's a high possibility they saw me as a 3rd-year or 4th-year.'

If it were the skull principal, it wouldn't have been very surprising even if he had prepared a hydra for the 3rd-years and 4th-years.

However, Gainando put forth a negative opinion.

"That principal might have prepared the hydra to use on us. Just because there's a hydra doesn't mean we have to defeat it. What if avoiding it is the trial?"

"That's... true."

At those words, his friends were slightly swayed.

Certainly, defeating a hydra and passing by avoiding the hydra's gaze had different levels of difficulty.

"Even if we have to defeat it, it would probably be Yi-Han alone."

"That's... huh?"

Yi-Han, who was nodding his head, looked at Gainando.

What was shocking was that the other friends also showed a reaction of 'That seems plausible?'

'These guys.'

While vowing to definitely take his friends with him if he had to fight the hydra, a new figure appeared above.

It was Professor Bagrak.

"..."

Yi-Han froze.

He thought it was an exam prepared by the skull principal, but could it be an exam prepared by Professor Bagrak??

'No. That doesn't make sense. The final exam is supposed to be giants? Don't tell me I have to face giants riding hydras??'

"What's wrong?"

"Shh."

Yi-Han poked his staff to cover Gainando's mouth and concentrated.

Professor Bagrak stopped in front of the death knights and looked at the hydra.

"Still rough."

-I apologize. They are such fierce creatures...-

"Is what I requested ready?"

-Yes. We fed it a lot, so you can extract it now.-

A death knight approached the hydra and went deep into its huge mouth, as if it was almost eaten.

After a while, the death knight came out with a glass bottle containing a few drops of thick venom extracted from the hydra's venom sac.

-Here it is. But what are you going to use this for?-

"As food for the basilisk."

-Are you also raising a basilisk?-

The death knights exchanged glances that said, 'As expected of Professor Bagrak, he only chooses crazy things to do.'

Although the professors at Einroguard were generally crazy, among them, the professors without disciples were even more insane.

However, the death knights didn't say anything.

It wasn't their business anyway.

-The basilisk will really like it.-

-I hope the guy eats his fill and happily goes around biting students.-

"I hope so too."

Professor Bagrak bid a simple farewell and left.

Seeing that, Yi-Han let out a sigh of relief.

'He didn't come because of the exam.'

He had just come for a moment to get food for the basilisk, not to prepare for Yi-Han's exam.

Yi-Han felt a deep sense of relief rising within him.

-Kiiit!-

The baby basilisk made a sharp and sensitive hissing sound, showing discomfort.

Yi-Han was puzzled.

"Venom isn't good for you?"

'Of course, it wouldn't be good for him, but...'

The baby basilisk tapped its tail as if it absolutely didn't want to eat it.

No matter how good the medicine was for the body, there was nothing that could be done if one didn't want to eat it.

"I see. Hmm... but if the professor tries to feed you, I won't be able to stop him."

-...-

The baby basilisk became gloomy.

At that moment, Gainando made a sound.

"Ugugugugu."

Gainando, who had his mouth covered by the staff, pointed far away with his hand.

The death knights had finished their work and were leaving in another direction.

If they were to check, it was the perfect opportunity.

"Let's go!"

The students quickly opened the door and crawled out from below.

The hydra seemed to have calmed down after its earlier outburst and was sleeping soundly with its nine heads laid down.

Yi-Han spotted a sign erected in front of it.

Large Hydra

For 4th-years

Next to it was another sign.

Small Hydra

For 3rd-years

It wasn't visible from the underground because it was hidden, but there was one more small hydra next to it. The small hydra spun its heads around and yawned.

Even though they had an invisibility spell cast on them, the students who witnessed the awake hydra froze.

'Even with an invisibility spell, a monster's senses cannot be ignored.'

Yi-Han carefully waved his staff.

Although they had an invisibility spell, if the hydra felt something amiss and just swung its tail, it would be a disaster.

'Gonadaltes. I'm counting on you!'

Among the summons that could be summoned now, the easiest to cast and the most intelligent was the skeleton warrior Gonadaltes.

This skeleton warrior was capable of much more precise movements than the ones Yi-Han made himself.

When the summoned skeleton warrior made a sound behind the small hydra, the small hydra turned all its heads at once and swallowed the skeleton warrior, dividing it among them.

'Thank you. Gonadaltes.'

Yi-Han inwardly expressed his gratitude to the summon and escaped the hydra's territory with his friends.

Ymirg, who was also taking dark magic classes, asked in bewilderment.

"Wo-won't the summon get angry if you treat it like that?"

It wasn't for nothing that dark mages rolled around in cemeteries and smeared rotten mud on their clothes to get friendly with undead summons.

Summons called from other realms could always have complaints, and even if they were bound by a contract, they could somehow backstab if treated carelessly.

As such, it was quite dangerous to openly use an undead summon as bait like Yi-Han just did.

"No. Gonadaltes is loyal and kind, so it's okay."

"..."

Ymirg was surprised to see the skeleton warrior being torn apart by the small hydra's heads and unsummoned.

Was it really okay?

'Maybe such heartlessness is essential to being good at dark magic...'

Originally, even if it was the same action, it felt different when Wardanaz did it compared to when Gainando did it.

Seeing the top student in dark magic act like that, Ymirg also felt strangely tempted.

Come to think of it, had Ymirg himself been treating undead summons too weakly until now?

'I should treat them more heartlessly like Wardanaz...!'

Yi-Han, who was sitting on top, was puzzled by the sight of Ymirg clenching his fist.

'What is it? Is he vowing to catch the hydra next time?'

Yi-Han slightly pondered whether he should stop his friend.

"I think we've escaped. Wardanaz."

"Yeah. Good work, everyone."

Once they were far enough away from the hydra, the students sat down and took a break.

They were quite tired from passing through the secret passage and even encountering a hydra.

Yi-Han passed a bottle of lemonade to his friends.

'At least the fortunate thing is that it was a test for 3rd-years and 4th-years.'

Looking at the sign in front of the hydra, it was truly a great relief that the test had nothing to do with Yi-Han.

In a way, he had only suffered a loss by making a deal with the person on the other side of the mirror, but Yi-Han wasn't angry at all.

He was rather relieved!

'To think the other person really thought I was a 3rd-year or above...'

Although he had tried his best to disguise himself, he hadn't expected it to work this well.

After taking a short break and regaining their energy, his friends looked around a bit.

"Yi-Han. Did you see this?"

Gonadaltes' Garden

No students allowed!

"As expected, it was the principal's exam."

"Look at this too."

Gonadaltes' Garden

Absolutely no students allowed!

"This too."

Gonadaltes' Garden

Absolutely absolutely absolutely no students allowed!!!!

"...I can tell just by looking at one sign, so stop bringing more signs."

Yi-Han stopped Gainando, who was trying to bring a new sign.

He could already sufficiently tell where this place was.

'It must be a place like a dangerous animal stable.'

Ordinary horses or non-dangerous animals could be put in stables throughout the school, but Einroguard had many beasts that were much more dangerous than horses.

Basilisks, hydras, griffins...

Yi-Han suddenly wondered if there were too many dangerous beasts around him.

'Oh. When did they increase so much?'

Anyway, if such dangerous beasts were carelessly released, even in the free Einroguard, the damage to students would be considerable.

Naturally, there had to be a place that specialized in raising such dangerous beasts.

Especially with the skull principal's personality, there was no way such a place wouldn't exist.

"Th-that's a hellhound, isn't it?"

"That's a steamphalos bird! I heard its feathers are so expensive..."

"What? Can't we take one?"

Seeing the rare animals swiftly passing by, Yi-Han deeply regretted not studying magic more in the past.

What Professor Bagrak had said was actually true.

You never know when and how magic will be needed!

'If I could catch them, I would have definitely taken them!'

Seeing them flying away like an arrow above the jungle, there seemed to be no way to catch them.

"Di-did you see that?? It's a ghost chicken! There's a ghost chicken over there!"

"Ymirg. It's okay to speak without shaking."

"Ah, s-sorry."

Ymirg stopped shaking Yi-Han and carefully pointed.

There was a peculiar-looking chicken in a corner of the open space.

It was several times larger than other chickens, had dark eyes, and was constantly pecking at the base of a tree in a fierce manner, throwing a fit.

'Curse?'

As expected of the top student in dark magic, Yi-Han immediately noticed the energy flowing through the ghost chicken's body.

That ominous arrangement of mana was close to a curse. It was clear that it would curse anyone who came into contact with it due to its constitution.

"Th-that ghost chicken is really rare. I-I've never seen it before either."

Ymirg seemed excited and kept swallowing his saliva. Yi-Han spoke without much thought.

"Then why don't you take it?"

"Huh?"

"I'm saying why don't you take it if you can? They put it there for someone to take anyway."

Of course, the skull principal hadn't put it there for someone to take, but Yi-Han respected the principal's teachings.

If you have the skills to take it, you can take it!

"Th-that's a bit... I don't have a place to raise it..."

"You can find a place to raise it if you look. But does that ghost chicken have any other advantages besides being cute?"

As could be seen from how he found the chick cute earlier, Ymirg clearly liked chicken-like creatures.

Perhaps he found that ghost chicken cute too.

"Ad-advantages? The fe-feathers and eggs are expensive...?"

Ymirg spoke in a shrinking manner, wondering if this was an advantage.

Yi-Han answered firmly.

"Let's take it. Seeing how it emits curses, I should be the one to catch it."

"!?"

***

Monday.

Yi-Han, whose muscle pain had somewhat recovered, moved his steps to attend Professor Bungaegor's lecture.

Skeleton warriors supported their master, who still couldn't move freely, from the side.

"..."

"..."

The White Tiger Tower students saw that and avoided them from afar, whispering among themselves.

'What's wrong with that Wardanaz guy?'

'I don't know. Don't make eye contact. It seems like he's trying to pick a fight.'

Yi-Han spotted Professor Bungaegor and bowed his head.

"Hello. Professor."

"Yeah. I'm not doing well though."

"Did something happen?"

"Well, I trusted the principal and left today's lecture material with him, but he said he lost it. I don't know if I can even call that an excuse."

"Oh no. You should firmly protest."

Yi-Han's mood slightly improved with the feeling that today's lecture difficulty would decrease, but he maintained his expression like a pro without revealing it.

"Of course, I'll have to protest more later. I left it because he told me to trust him and leave it! Of course, I did leave it there because it was a picky one..."

"What kind of one was it?"

"Do you know about the ghost chicken? You probably haven't seen it in person since it's rare."

"...!"