Episode 445
by CristaeGainando, who still hadn’t grasped the situation, asked in confusion.
“You said fishing was allowed, right?”
“…You think that’ll work?”
The students weren’t fools.
At Einrogard, where things were difficult even in good weather, there was no way you could fish up an aquatic creature in these conditions.
In fact, most aquatic creatures were hard to catch via fishing even in perfect weather. If you cast a line carelessly, there were monsters that would just pull the angler in.
“If I manage to catch a fish…”
Fish don’t exist… not in this weather.
Tanjuo, resting in the back, responded in disbelief.
Normally, it didn’t like to get involved in the mages’ conversations, but Gainando’s words were just too absurd.
“They expect us to go into the water in this weather? Seriously?”
“I told you, never trust the professors.”
“Still, this is a bit much…”
“Can’t we just claim we caught Tanjuo?”
Tanjuo shot a stream of water at the student who just spoke.
Splash!
The student who got hit fell straight into the sea. Everyone fell silent.
“Phew…”
“What can we do. Let’s get ready.”
Spend enough time at Einrogard, and instead of moving through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance over several days, you learn to speed-run it all in 30 seconds.
The students accepted reality in an instant and sighed deeply, pondering how to enter the water.
“With underwater breathing… what else do we need?”
“You’ll need something to light your way. Waterproofing’s probably not possible, but to keep from freezing you’ll want something heat-generating.”
“Good thing I learned .”
The students who’d successfully mastered proudly gripped their staffs.
Lee Han looked glum. Yoner, listening next to him, hurried to comfort him.
“…L-Lee Han. You’re good at other things.”
“Maybe the rain helps a bit?”
Just in case, Lee Han waved his staff while reciting a spell. Instantly, flames erupted from his cloak.
“Fire!!”
“Wardanaz! Put it in the water!!”
They quickly dunked the cloak in the water, but the flames didn’t go out so easily. The students were aghast to see the fire burning even underwater.
“……”
“……”
Sizzle—
Lee Han pulled out his cloak, looking bitter. The friends around him quickly spoke up.
“W-wait, I’ll cast Heat Imbuement for you. Honestly, it’s not even that important a spell.”
“You can cast the rest! We can just help each other out!”
The students, who usually would’ve fiercely mocked a friend’s magical slip, were united just this once in quick encouragement.
- * *
“Damn!! Me again?!”
“Sorry. Get in there, quickly.”
“Kuh…”
The student who lost the draw tied a rope around himself and jumped in.
‘These first-years are sharp.’
Professor Lightningstep watched the students with satisfaction.
Normally, since it was an individual exam, students would act on their own.
But now the students were grouping up and cooperating, without anyone prompting them.
They already knew wisdom more precious than any complicated magic.
“You scoundrel… YOU RIGGED THE DRAW, DIDN’T YOU!?”
“I-I did not! Stop saying weird stuff!”
“Wardanaz! Come over here! Be the judge! He totally rigged it!”
“Why are you calling Wardanaz! Wardanaz, don’t come! Don’t come!”
Of course, wherever people gather, there are arguments. But this was still more than good enough.
Splash, splash, splash!
All over, students popped in and out of the water. Thanks to the light orbs Lee Han summoned, the dock was as bright as midday.
‘…I’ll let that one go.’
Having a talented first-year as a classmate was an ability all its own. Professor Lightningstep decided to overlook it.
“See anything?”
“I don’t see a thing. Feels like we’ll have to go deeper.”
The students who surfaced exchanged baffled reports.
Given how far they’d gone, they should’ve found something by now—but perhaps the sea was too rough. There was nothing alive in sight.
“My turn.”
Lee Han prepared to enter, reciting an underwater breathing spell.
and too.
And and …
‘How many is he casting?’
Professor Lightningstep was taken aback.
It looked more like an infiltration of a demon duke’s inner sanctum than a swim.
“Here I go!”
“W-wait.”
Gainando, who was also up this round, hesitantly called out.
“What?”
“I need to mentally prepare…”
Splash!
Lee Han kicked Gainando in and then jumped after.
‘Going deep.’
Though tied securely by rope, the current tossed him around once he entered the water. The rampage of spirits still affected the sea below.
The other students were unexpectedly clumsy, tripping up in the swift current.
-Everyone, stay calm.
Lee Han gathered his friends.
They needed to adjust here and descend further together.
-The current’s swifter than expected but can be managed with magic. You learned water element spells in first semester, right? If you’re confident in water element, raise your hand.
Three friends raised their hands. Lee Han nodded.
-You need to control the water. Like this… Move!
Lee Han skillfully adapted his magic.
Ordinarily it would be a spell to manipulate and shape or move water, but underwater, it functioned as a pretty good propulsion device.
Shwaa—
As Lee Han split the current and surged forward, his friends nodded.
They understood how it worked.
-Got it, Wardanaz.
-I’ll try. Move!
-……
-…???
The students looked puzzled when nothing changed.
-Move! Move! I said move?? …Kuh!
One friend’s face suddenly went pale as they chanted.
‘Acute mana depletion!’
Lee Han quickly grabbed the friend and headed back up. As he emerged, the waiting students asked,
“What happened?!”
“Help him rest!”
“???”
Without explaining, Lee Han tossed his fallen friend on the dock and dove down again.
-Gonna try again…
-Huff…
‘Damn.’
When another friend collapsed, Lee Han brought him back up.
“Take care of this one too!”
Splash!
“……”
“…What the heck is going on down there?”
As Lee Han kept going down and tossing friends up, the waiting students began to get nervous.
Is he mad about earlier?
“I told you not to show off your magic!”
“Showing magic in front of Wardanaz isn’t boasting…! Would you really call that boasting, in front of Wardanaz!?”
“Wait, is he mad because I rigged the draw?”
While the others speculated above, Lee Han was analyzing the situation.
‘Casting magic underwater is no joke.’
Even if magic looked easy, it was a highly concentrated mental process.
A mage without battle training would find it hard to cast spells in a deadly environment, just like they’d freeze up on a real battlefield.
The cold, dark, raging water here was more than enough to trip up a mage.
‘…Wait. But I managed to cast just fine?’
Lee Han thought this but decided not to say it out loud.
-I think spell failure rates rise underwater. Be careful.
-But you’ve been casting just… never mind. Forget I asked, Wardanaz.
The friend about to ask something quickly gave up.
After all, even if you hung Wardanaz upside down over lava, he’d probably still pull off a spell.
-I’ll push you all instead, so let’s head down again.
Lee Han floated a light orb and began to descend slowly.
How far had he gone?
He began to see the muddy ground at the bottom of the sea. The spot was familiar.
‘…It’s the racetrack we built…’
It was absurd, but Lee Han kept his focus.
He needed to find something alive.
-Wardanaz. Here. Here.
A friend tapped Lee Han’s shoulder and pointed below.
Astonishingly, symbols marking directions were engraved on the bottom.
‘What? Did the professor engrave them?’
-Let’s go. Follow me.
-Got it.
Lee Han followed the signs carved on the seabed, swimming in.
The path led to an underwater cave.
-……
No matter how he looked, it was a cave that screamed “don’t go in.”
‘Must’ve been set up by the professor, huh?’
He had wondered how they’d keep the aquatic creatures from scattering all over Einrogard, but this made sense—a cave serving as a pen.
So like Professor Lightningstep. Lee Han nearly sighed.
‘There’s bound to be more ridiculous stuff inside…’
-♪♬♩♩♩♬
‘?’
Lee Han paused.
From far away, a clear, beautiful song drifted toward him.
‘…This is underwater…?’
Suddenly, Gainando’s eyes next to him grew clouded and he wore an entranced, blissful expression.
Appalled, Lee Han slapped Gainando’s cheek.
- * *
“Professor!!!!”
A Black Turtle Tower student who had entered from another way burst out, terrified.
He was so shaken he forgot to even dry himself.
“What IS that!! That… that thing in front of the cave!!”
“Oh. So you’ve found it?”
Seated, Professor Lightningstep replied cheerfully.
“You have to let us into the cave!!”
“No matter how rough the sea, it can’t just be about diving into a cave to nab something and come back. Of course you have to overcome obstacles.”
Professor Lightningstep acted as if he didn’t understand what the big deal was.
For this test, he’d stocked the underwater cave with all sorts of hard-to-catch aquatic creatures.
And the swifter, stealthier, and more evasive a creature you caught, the higher your score.
Of course, it couldn’t be that easy. There were obstacles set up specifically to hinder the students.
“If… if I hadn’t hung back a bit, I could’ve…!”
The Black Turtle Tower student, thrilled at finding the cave ahead of the others, was still reeling.
A siren!
Friends who found the underwater cave and tried entering were too entranced by the siren’s song to do anything. If they hadn’t tied the rope, they would’ve been lost.
“Wait. Calm down. You only got caught off guard because you didn’t know—once we know what it is, we can handle it. If it’s a siren…”
Sirens, a cross between mermaids and spirits, had an ancient magic carried in their voices.
Mages, as those who wielded mana, had some resistance to monsters’ special powers…
But a siren’s song was powerful enough to pierce through that.
Still, once you knew what you were facing, there was always a strategy.
“Let’s try plugging our ears.”
“Y-yeah! That should work.”
Professor Lightningstep grinned. That smile filled the students with a sudden anxiety.
…Or maybe not?
“A siren’s song isn’t blocked just by plugging your ears. You feel it through your whole body.”
Angrago, who hailed from the coast, said this.
Everyone was astonished by such intelligence from a White Tiger Tower student.
“T-then? Alpha, what do we do? How do we get past it?”
“Huh?”
Angrago was flustered.
“Uh… Sailors tie themselves to the ship’s rails…”
“…But we have to go inside.”
“Is it a being that can’t be reasoned or bargained with? What do sirens like?”
“I heard they enjoy messing with people…”
Splash!
Meanwhile, there was the sound of someone surfacing. Angrago and his friends turned.
Lee Han was coming up, dragging a siren behind him.
“……”
“……”