Episode 566

A short while later.

Lee Han drank the -Ahrak’s Red Poison- with a serious expression.

“By the way, senior, what kind of poison is this?”

He hadn’t thought much of it while drinking, but after swallowing it he suddenly grew curious about what sort of poison it was.

The mana flow inside the poison was so violent and complex—it didn’t seem like an ordinary poison.

Direte pointed his index finger and warned.

“Don’t let your mind wander—focus on the poison. If you feel any reaction, speak up immediately.”

No matter how much a black magic student practiced with poison, they could still be poisoned.

No, in fact, the more you handled poison, the more likely you were to get seriously poisoned.

Even if you developed your own resistance and immunity, a small mistake with some new creation could be fatal.

You only had to look at Ahrak’s tragic end as proof.

“How is it? Do you feel anything?”

“Hmm… No. There’s no effect.”

Lee Han closed his eyes and focused on the poison, then shook his head.

Even after some time, there wasn’t even a trace of poison spreading through his body.

The poison had been overwhelmed by Lee Han’s own mana and had disappeared.

“This too? Hm…”

Direte frowned lightly.

He had hoped -Ahrak’s Red Poison- might finally get past this junior’s resistance and cause a reaction, but it hadn’t done a thing.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. What bothers me is that I still need to teach you what to do when you’re poisoned.”

Direte was intent on poisoning his junior for a reason.

It was important even for black magicians who handled poison to experience an actual poisoning.

How to use mana to stop its progress, how to attempt detoxification…

These weren’t just safety steps for black magicians, but also helpful for researching the poison element.

The problem was that this junior wasn’t getting poisoned no matter what.

“Urgh. Guhuk. Kekuk.”

“Kehaak. Kehek. Kehehek.”

By contrast, Gainando and Raphadael had turned pale, wheezing for breath.

Direte warned them up front, calmly.

“If it’s hard to breathe, don’t force it. You can go at least a minute, so stop trying to breathe and figure out how to detoxify it.”

“Gehuhuh, gehuk.”

“Keuruk, kuruk.”

Both of them glared at Direte while clawing at the desk.

Having seen this before, Direte was unmoved.

“You’re all right?”

“Yes, yes! Thank you.”

Imirg was swinging his staff, enduring the pain in his forearm.

It was a good response.

‘Feels a bit lonely though.’

Lee Han felt left out.

He didn’t want to be poisoned, but with his friends all hacking and coughing while he just sat there, it was a little awkward.

“Can we try something stronger?”

“No. Even -Ahrak’s Red Poison- is strong enough to be lethal.”

“Wait… huh? -Ahrak’s Red Poison-?”

Lee Han doubted his ears.

Was it really okay to drink that?

“Well, I’ve at least confirmed your resistance is strong… let’s leave it at that. It’ll take a few more years before you encounter a poison dangerous to you.”

“Yes. I’ll just be careful with poison.”

“Being careful isn’t always enough either. Next year I’ll be in fifth year, so I won’t have much chance to watch over you.”

“My goodness. Why would you make such a choice?”

“……”

“I’m sorry. That just slipped out.”

“No, it’s something anyone might say. Thanks.”

Direte said this, but then a thought struck.

‘Now that I think about it, is this junior even in a position to talk? He’s taking every magic track in his freshman year—who’s he to worry about anyone?’

If he really ended up in fifth year, it would be like some medieval quartering torture…

“Senior?”

“Oh? It’s nothing.”

“?”

Lee Han found Direte’s answer odd.

He was acting a little distracted, not his usual focused self.

‘Is he worried because he’s moving up to fifth year?’

Anyone would be. Lee Han nodded, understanding.

“Senior, look at this.”

“Eggs? I told you, you don’t need to bring me things like this.”

Direte was dubious.

True, this junior’s dessert-making skill had proven his status as top alchemy student.

When he heard the souffle pancakes last time were made right here from locally sourced ingredients, it was nearly enough to make his feathers fall from shock.

But as a senior, he couldn’t go around accepting sweets from juniors.

“Were the souffle pancakes not to your taste last time? Maybe the store-bought snacks were better…”

“No, they were really good, I just felt bad taking them. Koholti bought up every egg in the campus market and just kept making souffle pancakes, trying to replicate what you made.”

“I see. I should have just made them again then. But this is not a snack, it’s for use as a reagent.”

Lee Han carefully took out an egg laid by a ghost chicken from his basket.

He had been raising ghost chickens in the hut where he used to keep the basilisk eggs.

And eggs from ghost chickens were very rare reagents for black magic.

“Ghost chicken?!”

Direte was startled, taking the egg.

“This is… seriously impressive. How did you even get this?”

“Please don’t ask how. Anyway, I’d like to sell these—would that be possible?”

“Of course. But…”

Direte made a troubled face.

Lee Han wondered if there was a problem.

“Is there a problem? Ah. Should I pay you commission for selling…”

“What are you talking about? Nothing like that.”

Direte looked at his junior as if dumbfounded.

“I meant your juniors would want to buy them themselves instead of selling them outside. As you know, rare reagents sell for much higher prices outside.”

When it came to mage reagents, the laws of supply and demand held sway.

Common materials could be easily sourced, but rare ones sparked competition and soaring prices.

Ghost chicken eggs were very hard to obtain, and since black magicians were the main buyers, the supply was even more scarce. So when they appeared, black magicians shrieked.

“If you like, I’ll just sell them to my seniors instead.”

“What? No way. Why would you make that kind of concession?”

“We’re in the same magic track.”

‘I’d better not tell the others.’

Direte resolved inwardly, hearing his junior’s earnest words.

Better to quietly contact outside merchants without telling anyone else.

“I’ll take care of it, so don’t worry. Let’s move on to poison element practice, since you can’t be poisoned… As you practice with the poison element, you’ll notice: it’s actually tricky to hit opponents with it.”

Even if the poison was magically made with unnatural properties, it was still hard to apply it to a target.

Poison didn’t fly like lightning or spread like fire.

Because it was usually a small quantity of liquid, successfully poisoning someone was often a big challenge.

“Once you get good, you can do it just by looking. But that’s not easy. Before that, use your brain.”

Methods like using the environment—poison mist or poison cloud.

Or, a slightly weaker option: combining with water element to launch poison arrows.

Or, using a bone element as a poison-friendly carrier and compressing the poison into it.

“The first method I want you to try is…”

“Poison mist or poison cloud, right?”

“…I mean compressing the poison into a bone element. It should be easier than when you did it with the dark element. Wait, what did you say?”

Direte belatedly caught Lee Han’s reply and looked puzzled.

“Why did you assume mist or cloud?”

“Well, since I have strong resistance, I figured it’d be better to just accept it myself and cover the whole area.”

“…That’s creative and all, but let’s learn to use the bone element first. That’s much more stable.”

Five minutes later.

Lee Han successfully compressed the poison into the bone element perfectly.

After checking the time, Direte asked,

“So, you do want to try summoning poison mist?”

• * *

Throughout the semester, students from each tower had taken turns with chores.

Since this was part of Einrogard life, it wasn’t an easy task, and everyone was understandably feeling low-level fatigue.

Now, with finals coming up, students’ movements were inevitably sluggish.

Even Phoenix Tower priests, usually the most diligent and strict among the towers…

‘It’s a bit worrying.’

Lee Han was less worried about finals and more about being ambushed by the skeleton headmaster.

Finals were based on regular studies, so that was inevitable—but the headmaster’s attacks always came at a student’s weakest, most off-guard moments.

Moreover, the skeleton headmaster was likely more menacing than ever lately.

First-years had set a new record for outings and had brought in a big batch of supplies, living in luxury.

-Look! This coat has a pocket! I bought it outside.

-Hey, isn’t that a bit too luxurious?

-And you’re wearing real leather gloves!

-Haha, that’s right! We deserve this!

Lee Han wanted to curb it to avoid provoking the skeleton headmaster, but this was one thing he couldn’t stop.

Could kids who’d gone hungry all year long restrain themselves just because you told them to?

“Wardanaz-nim. We’ve finished up over here.”

“I’m coming.”

Lee Han swung his staff and cast a spell, then moved on.

Currently, he and the Phoenix Tower priests were out wiping out bloodsuckers in the nearby brush.

One on its own was weak enough to be dispatched without magic, but if dozens swarmed out from the brush at once, they could become a real threat.

So you had to check the area in advance and cast magic at likely bloodsucker hideouts to clear them.

It was a task that required endurance more than advanced magic.

“Burn, burn, burn…”

And even if you lacked endurance, having immense mana made it much easier.

Lee Han kept advancing, burning any likely patches along the way.

The Phoenix Tower priests were pouring prepared repellent potions into pools or thickets.

That was also a good method, to weaken the bloodsuckers indirectly.

“Wardanaz-nim. Have you seen this?”

“?”

At Siana’s call, Lee Han looked over.

A huge footprint was behind the brush.

It wasn’t quite giant class, but far exceeded an ordinary person’s size.

‘What is this?’

Lee Han illuminated the area.

Whatever monster it was, it had left quite the threatening traces. Not just footprints—there were also deep claw marks on nearby rocks and trees.

-■■■■■■…

Lee Han’s light was much brighter and broader than the other students’ magic.

Thanks to that, a bipedal monster standing between the trees was revealed.

It glared at Lee Han with red eyes.

It resembled a berserk lycanthrope, but it was no werewolf. Having devoured all the nearby bloodsuckers, a pool of blood had formed at its feet.

The murderous aura and intimidation caused several of the priests to stumble, but Lee Han remained unfazed.

“Hah. Did the headmaster send you again?”

-■■■!

“It changes nothing. Darkness, sweep forth!”

Darkness element magic turned into a wave and shot forward.

The blood fiend dodged the spell at an entirely unexpected angle.

‘Fast!’

But Lee Han immediately readied his next spell.

Every time he pulled a chore shift, he had stayed alert, preparing for ambushes from the headmaster.

-Baegrek’s Instant Foresight- and -Gonadaltes’s Nimble Step- kept Lee Han’s senses sharp and keen.

-What’s going on!

One of the priests must have called over a patrolling death knight, who came running.

Lee Han eyed the death knight warily, gripping his staff.

‘You’re not an accomplice, are you?’

-What is that creature?! First-years, get back!

The death knight blew a horn to call his comrades.

Bwoooot—

“Isn’t that one of the headmaster’s minions?”

-What a ridiculous accusation!?

The death knights were startled and denied it.

That monster was not one of their own.