Episode 642

Episode 642

“Wardanaz. How did you break it!?”

“Hehe. It’s something I often use when breaking through installed magic. If you condense your mana and smash it against a large surface like this…”

“Uh, isn’t that a bit too rough?”

“Too rough! Nillia. There are things you can say and things you shouldn’t. This is a high-level magic called -Baldororn’s Mana Hammer-.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know. I didn’t think it was such a high-level spell.”

Nillia was flustered as her friend grew serious.

Who knew it was such impressive magic!

In fact, Baldororn didn’t even know that Lee Han gave it such a name…

-……

The Hekatoncheires watched in disbelief as the students made holes in the de-magic’ed rock.

Had the Skull Headmaster been watching, he would have looked at the Hekatoncheires with pity and said:

-To think that just because you can’t break it, others wouldn’t be able to. You’ll need two hundred years of service to smarten up!

The Hekatoncheires certainly had innate mana and the authority to turn that mana into physical strength.

But that didn’t mean there were no beings greater than the Hekatoncheires.

Sometimes, there would naturally appear a being with more mana than the Hekatoncheires, who also knew how to use it cleverly.

“Ah. The magic bounced off again.”

“Move aside. I’ll break it again.”

Sometimes, a being would appear who had more mana than the Hekatoncheires and also knew how to wield it recklessly.

He should have prepared for the possibility of such a being…

Arsil patted the Hekatoncheires comfortingly.

The Hekatoncheires angrily told him to go away quickly.

• * *

Following behind Lee Han, Gainando almost tripped over a stone.

“Hey. Spirit, could you shine some light here? I can’t see.”

The spirit of light ignored Gainando’s request without a second thought.

“…Spirit. Spirit! I know you can hear me!”

“Gainando. Spirits only listen to my brother. I’ve tried before too. Spirit, could you maybe shine some more…”

The spirit of light immediately distanced itself.

Lee Han wore a wounded expression.

“I don’t think they used to run away like that before.”

“…I’ll just light it up for you.”

Unable to watch any longer, Yoner tossed a glass bottle into the air. The potion inside glowed brightly, illuminating their path.

Gainando was impressed at the sight.

“Alchemy seems pretty good when you look at it this way…”

“What’s going on, Gainando? You used to look down on alchemy.”

Lee Han was surprised.

He thought Gainando’s hobby was saying nonsense about alchemy and incurring Yoner’s wrath.

“When you compare it to black magic, everything seems nice.”

“……”

When Gainando answered dejectedly, Lee Han was lost for words. Nillia whispered from behind.

“Hey, Wardanaz. You should say that black magic is good too.”

“I was going to… but I can’t think of anything good about it right now…”

Thunk, thunk, thunk—

At the end of the corridor, Stone Hekatoncheires shot up at the arrival of intruders.

Gainando shouted in surprise.

“When did it come running?!”

“Hekatoncheires are triplets, you know.”

“Oh. Really?”

The second Hekatoncheires stared at Gainando with a disdainful look.

A wizard being that stupid!

Arsil again explained what had just happened and how he persuaded the first Hekatoncheires.

And how outstanding his younger brother was, and how the first Hekatoncheires had met its downfall through carelessness—the story would spread throughout the spirit world for a long time to come…

“Brother, please…”

Lee Han stopped Arsil in a voice full of shame.

The second Hekatoncheires was glaring at Lee Han with eyes full of hostility.

Yoner patted Lee Han on the shoulder and spoke.

“It’s tough if you have a peculiar sibling, right?”

“…Yoner. Maybe it’s just me, but you’re genuinely having fun with this, aren’t you?”

The second Hekatoncheires began breathing heavily and brought over a huge rock. The four tilted their heads at the sight.

“Is that a different rock from before?”

“…Feels the same? Looks like the same one?”

Arsil explained for them.

“It’s thinking you must be tired from the previous test so you definitely won’t be able to break this. Hmm…”

‘Did these monsters learn nothing from the Headmaster?’

Lee Han wondered.

Einrogard students learned so much after just a year, but these Hekatoncheires were outrageously arrogant.

There’s no such thing as “impossible” in magic…

• * *

The third Hekatoncheires, who was guarding the deep burial chamber entrance, burst out in frustration.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

Beating the floor and wall as if crying out that this was just too unfair, Lee Han’s friends got curious and asked.

“What’s it saying?”

“It thinks we’re too exhausted after doing it twice so we won’t be able to break through the third time.”

“……”

“……”

The students thought they now understood why these Hekatoncheires worked under the Skull Headmaster.

When even the last Hekatoncheires surrendered, Arsil excitedly opened the door.

As the doors of bronze and gold that sealed the ancient underground tomb’s chamber opened, a chorus of darkness flowed out from within.

Woven together with spells whose names were now forgotten, the chorus was majestic and solemn, and above all, it battered the wizards’ minds.

“Uh…uhhh.”

“Uhhh…”

Except for Lee Han, his friends witnessed a grand illusion in the vast, empty chamber.

It was the most prosperous era of the old kingdom.

A time when the order of the heavens was calibrated for the kingdom and the laws of the earth were tuned for the kingdom.

Court wizards in exotic clothes praised the king, baring their upper bodies, and the gathering people raised their goblets in song.

To honor the king’s tomb, wizards had left behind their most beautiful moment here.

Arsil was delighted as the students listened to the tomb’s chorus and witnessed the spectacle.

This experience would become a great treasure for the young wizards.

Scenes from the old kingdom era, never recorded.

There was no greater inspiration for a wizard.

“Uh, brother.”

Lee Han called to Arsil.

He felt a bit awkward, as he alone could neither feel nor see anything.

“Did you bring us here just to let us hear this song?”

“……”

Arsil only then realized.

Even the ancient tomb’s magic didn’t work on this little brother!

Arsil, flustered, began to explain instead.

So this used to be the tomb of a certain kingdom…

“…I’m fine… Really, I’m fine.”

Lee Han quietly withdrew so as not to spoil his friends’ excitement.

Arsil, truly frustrated, complained to the Hekatoncheires outside.

-Ah, no. I’m not even the one who made this tomb, so why do you…

• * *

Waking from the illusion, the friends exclaimed in unison.

“So… so amazing. I didn’t think it’d look like this!”

“Right! Did you see the magic they used for the parade? What spell was that?”

“The palace looked so cool! Maybe I should ask my mom to renovate our mansion like that?”

The friends chattered happily, but, noticing Lee Han was silent, asked him.

“You didn’t like the illusion?”

“No, no, I enjoyed it. That… the palace looked really cool.”

“Right?! What part did you like especially?”

“I liked the sparkly stuff.”

“It was sparkling and dazzling!”

“The dazzling part was good too.”

“Yeah, yeah! Lee Han’s got taste!”

While Gainando was having a blast, Yoner tilted his head.

Lee Han’s vocabulary for describing magic was as simplistic as Gainando’s.

Clunk!

From the relief carved into the wall next to them, suddenly the sculpture seemed to come alive and began walking out.

Excited Gainando hadn’t noticed yet and continued chattering.

“When I finish remodeling the mansion, you absolutely have to come, Lee Han.”

“Okay. I’ll go with you.”

“…Uh, Yoner and Nillia too?”

“Hey.”

Nillia said incredulously.

“I don’t even want to go to your mansion, okay? The Meikin family’s mansion is way better, okay?”

“Ah, no. You guys are welcome too… Actually, no…”

Caught out, Gainando quickly tried to placate Nillia.

Because if Nillia and Yoner didn’t come, somehow Lee Han probably wouldn’t come either.

“I’ll let deer roam in the garden, so come. How about it?”

“Do I look like some hunter who gets all excited and runs over just because there are deer?”

“You don’t like deer?”

“I do, actually.”

“What…?”

As Gainando wondered, Lee Han quickly grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him back.

“Gak!”

“It’s an ambush!”

Lee Han now realized that enemies emerging from the wide wall had surrounded his friends.

Gainando, sprawled on the ground, shouted between coughs.

“P, Principal?!”

“No. Tomb guardians! Everyone, move!”

After being shamefully beaten by Giselle’s older sister last time, Lee Han had become aware of his own complacency.

This time, he vowed not to let himself act so carelessly, and began casting spells.

As many spells as possible before the enemies could draw near!

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pang!

The vast and dark chamber became as bright as day. The orbs of light Lee Han cast shone brilliantly on the shadowy forms crawling out of the reliefs.

After confirming the form of the guardians, Lee Han immediately summoned undead to block their path.

“Arise, warriors made of bone!”

Bone fragments hurled in midair twisted with magic and transformed into warriors.

Seeing this, Gainando attempted black magic to aid his friend.

“Bones, become armor and swords!”

Trying to strengthen the undead with bone elemental magic, Gainando lost focus for a moment.

The spell twisted, and became bone sweaters and bone flags.

“…Hey, you didn’t study properly, did you!”

“I-I studied! It was just a slipup because the situation is tense!”

Gainando hurriedly prepared another spell, enduring Nillia’s scolding.

Meanwhile, Lee Han, undisturbed, continued to cast spells in quick succession.

Once battle preparations were more or less complete, Lee Han surveyed the tomb guardians.

‘Dark element magic?’

Thinking back, that chorus they’d heard earlier was indeed a special kind of magic.

It was, after all, a song form spell.

As the Skull Headmaster had said, a word spell was a word spell, and if not, it was not. Musical magic, which straddled the line, was inefficient and outdated, so its transmission had long been cut off.

He hadn’t expected to see traces of such magic here.

Given this was an ancient tomb, maybe it wasn’t so surprising…

‘Dark element, music, illusion. About three schools at work. That means, don’t use dark element spells…’

It seemed clear the chamber was brimming with dark element, considering how Lee Han’s undead and Gainando’s black magic were manifesting so powerfully.

Crackle!

Lee Han’s staff transformed into a lightning-condensed spear and struck the approaching guardian.

The shadow-clustered guardian could not hold its form and dispersed.

“Gainando, get inside!”

“P-Principal! The Principal’s over there! Lee Han!”

“What nonsense are you babbling about…”

“No, no! That’s not the Principal, it’s a yeti marauder!”

“!”

When even Nillia began seeing things, Lee Han realized the situation was abnormal.

“Yoner, get behind me! They’re using illusion magic! Gainando, Nillia! Over here!”

Lee Han pulled on Gainando’s cloak and slapped him hard on the cheek, beckoning to Yoner.

Yoner immediately gave Nillia a potion. After drinking the strong shock potion, Nillia snapped out of her terror.

‘That’s a way to do it?!’

Lee Han, feeling a bit sorry for Gainando, summoned fire.

“Burn… in the name of Afha!”

A spark of holy white flame flickered in midair.

For some reason, the enemies didn’t charge in physically, but instead attacked with illusion magic.

‘I need to sense the mana flow. There must be signs!’

As he focused, the flow of mana around him became even clearer.

Lee Han found the place where mana quavered and sprouted.

‘Found it!’

Fwoosh!

The fire burned away the guardian that was about to unleash terror. But even so, the guardian managed to complete its spell.

Lee Han took the incoming spell head-on, shoving Gainando aside.

“Dodge, Gainando!”

“C-couldn’t I just get hit…?”

Gainando, crumpled to the side, murmured weakly.

He almost thought it’d be better just to be frightened by the spell.