Episode 767

Episode 767

In fact, there wasn’t anything to loot on the second floor of the tea house, but his friends had a strange faith.

If it was Lee Han, couldn’t he somehow loot something even from a space of nothingness?

“…I didn’t loot the second floor, I made a trade.”

Annoyed by his friends’ stares, Lee Han explained simply.

He got magic goods through a trade with a senior.

“In a magic space?”

“That’s right, Priestess Siana.”

“…If it was that kind of space… you didn’t accidentally bring out other people’s belongings too, did you?”

Because there was so much brought out, Siana made a reasonable suspicion.

Lee Han made an incredulous face at the question.

“What are you talking about? There’s no way I would… wait a second.”

In the middle of speaking, Lee Han double-checked just in case.

He really didn’t want to get on Einrogard Guardian Club’s blacklist.

“No, see! Priestess Siana!”

“S-sorry…”

‘…I’m glad I didn’t bring it up.’

Yoner thought inwardly from nearby.

He himself had actually thought, ‘What if he confusedly brought out more than he should have…?’

“I paid a proper price to get all this. Don’t misunderstand.”

“What did you pay?”

Lee Han glanced at the other school’s black magician sitting there like an innocent skeleton, then changed the subject.

“That’s a secret.”

“……”

Immediately, the friends started murmuring.

“If even Lee Han says it’s a secret, isn’t this a really dangerous deal?”

“He might have found something like the principal’s heart and sold it…”

“I think that Wardanaz guy maybe sold a piece of his own blood or flesh.”

Lee Han waved his staff to telekinetically push his friends’ conversations away, then neatly stacked the goods he received.

“Magician’s yut? Who won?”

“It’s still ongoing, so we can’t say who…”

“Gainando lost.”

“The prince is last.”

As the others sneakily revealed the outcome, Gainando pushed the yut board and shouted.

“Let’s check the goods! The goods!”

“I’ll help. By the way, what kind of deal did you make to get this much?”

Agdung had no idea what Lee Han had been up to while chatting in the tea house and asked.

“I was lucky, Senior Agdung. Oh, I’ll share some with you too, senior.”

“What? No, I can’t. I’m still your senior.”

“No! Since you even came to Einrogard, this is a gift representing the friendship of black magic schools.”

“Still, I have some pride…”

Crack!

While the two chatted, their friends started working.

They cracked open tightly sealed wooden boxes and barrels with small hand axes to check the contents inside.

“Everyone, confirm the quantity and make a note.”

“One box of medium quality Black Tree Leaf.”

“One box of Flamewood Root.”

“Lee Han, this wooden barrel looks like Gravel Tree sap.”

“Is there anything to eat? There’s a whole box of trimmed Whazhak wood here.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Gainando. Magic stones, earth attribute, one box…”

‘Did they smuggle like me?’

As Lee Han sorted the goods received, he was amazed.

It wasn’t just the variety—the amount was much more abundant than expected.

The other person would have to be another Einrogard student, and yet, to have this much?

What was going on?

“Huh. Did they loot a forest or something?”

“!”

At Agdung’s mutter, Lee Han realized.

Most of the reagents were all things that could be gathered in the forest.

‘Of course. But…’

Einrogard’s domain was mountains and forests, but finding usable resources inside wasn’t easy.

Especially for these kinds of reagents, it only worked if someone put professional effort into cultivating and raising them.

The other party clearly had a few hidden secret forests.

‘I’m jealous. As expected of seniors.’

Lee Han marvelled a bit at the wealth of BeaverPenguinFox whom he had never met.

If they met face-to-face in Guardian Club later, he thought he would treat them a bit more kindly.

To have such assets hidden inside Einrogard’s domain…

“Ha, haah. All sorted, Lee Han.”

“Well done, everyone.”

Gainando grumbled that there was nothing to eat and doubted Lee Han had been tricked, but the friends were pretty satisfied.

They’d smuggled in plenty of food at the beginning of the semester anyway, so they could hold out. Reagents like these were far more useful.

Agdung, curious about what the Morningstar Hall’s disciple would do with so many reagents, asked,

“What will you research with this?”

“With the black magic school students, I’ll just go…”

Lee Han was thinking of using the remainder, after setting aside what was needed for classes and research, to make something with the black magic school’s workshop and facilities.

If he enlisted help from other seniors, he might be able to sell what they made, and that would help fill the black magic school’s treasury a bit, wouldn’t it?

But he couldn’t say such things to outsiders.

Saying he was going to make black magic items for gold felt rather shameful.

“For gold?”

“For a bit of forbidden research.”

“!?”

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: You took the goods, right?

Gonadaltes: That’s right. Looks like you’re not all that poor.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Don’t bluff. Not a single person in Einrogard has that many reagents.

Gonadaltes: Hoo-hoo. Are you sure about that?

Lee Han was being arrogant but also worried about what he should pay as compensation when making commissions in the Guardian Club later.

Should he pay real food?

‘But I don’t think seniors would be that obsessed with food.’

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: I’ll give you the rest of the goods when you activate the artifact. Hurry. The forest is crying.

“Senior Agdung.”

“Why?”

“I’d like to go activate the artifact the professor installed.”

Agdung looked at Lee Han with an ‘I knew it’ gaze. Lee Han hastily explained.

“I didn’t plan to wipe out the contaminants from the start, but the situation got more serious as I watched…”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Should we plan it out?”

• * *

If it had been a different situation, he would have tried to talk Lee Han out of it, but thanks to Professor Taswhan’s artifact, Agdung did not.

The plan was simple and clear.

“I’ll cast a protection spell, so everyone moves as quietly and covertly as possible.”

Once Agdung casted a protection spell to shield the group from contaminants, they would move as fast as possible through the safe mushroom field toward the artifact’s location.

Once they arrived, they just needed to activate it. That was all.

Imirg, who was listening nearby, muttered.

“H-how are you going to cast protection spells while moving…?”

‘Right?’

Lee Han also felt puzzled by Imirg’s point.

Unlike protection magic for a fixed area, protection magic that moved with you was on a different level of difficulty.

To cast protection spells on everyone here, it would require massive magical power and mental focus.

“Senior Agdung, what kind of spell will you use? I’d like to help.”

“Oh. Wardanaz! This time, you really don’t need to.”

Agdung smiled and waved his staff.

A summoning spell was cast and, with it, extremely foul-smelling cloaks appeared in midair.

It was as if clothing were woven from the weft and warp of compressed contaminants.

When the Einrogard students saw the most horrid cloak they’d ever seen, their faces stiffened.

Even when their cloaks had been torn apart and patched with leaves after enrolling, they thought those had been better than this.

“…Do we have to wear these?”

“Yeah. It’s the -Contaminant Cloak- developed at Kalarogard after much research. What do you think?”

Agdung said with pride.

In Kalarogard, which often faced contaminants, they’d thought deeply about finding a more efficient way than repeatedly casting costly extermination magic.

And after that, the result was this -Contaminant Cloak-.

Instead of creating repelling or exterminating waves, it caused contaminants to recognize the wearer as one of their own.

Thinking they were the same kind of being, the contaminants did not attack magicians wearing this cloak.

“Uh…”

“Uh…”

“Mm…”

No one among the friends could really speak, hesitating.

In their hearts, they wanted someone to shout, ‘I absolutely refuse to wear this!’ but nobody did.

“Do you not like it?”

When Agdung saw the Einrogard students’ reactions were more subdued than expected, he became flustered. The students then hurriedly exclaimed,

“It’s great!”

“What an amazing idea!”

“If this is featured in the empire’s newspaper, investors will want to make it into commercial business!”

Lee Han shouted that and signaled to his still-quiet friends with his eyes. At this, his friends reluctantly squeezed out compliments.

“That’s a relief. For a moment, I thought you all weren’t interested.”

“……”

“Isn’t it sneaky, saying it was made at Kalarogard?”

Gainando grumbled quietly from behind.

If it had been made under the name of Baldrogard, he would have flat-out refused to wear it!

‘Come to think of it, I think I know why the black magic school is poor.’

Lee Han thought as he put on the cloak.

The effect of this cloak was outstanding.

It let them fool contaminants without any extra spell or magical charge, making it incredibly useful in dangerous regions.

But a single downside devoured all the other merits.

Ordinary people simply wouldn’t wear something this bizarre and disgusting!

They’d rather buy a cloak several times more expensive…

‘No matter how good the performance, this isn’t the way to make them. Another thing I’ve learned.’

With faces as gloomy as a rainy season, Lee Han’s group quickly traversed the mushroom field in their cloaks.

The contaminants, which appeared periodically, treated Lee Han’s group like stones, showing not a bit of interest.

It worked spectacularly, but instead of marveling, the students checked the magic on their noses.

“The smell paralysis curse is about to wear off—is that okay?”

“Shh. If you make noise, the contaminants will get suspicious. Just hold on a little longer.”

While they spoke, Lee Han and Agdung searched with their staves at the front.

When they found the peachwood staff artifact stuck by a murky, bubbling pond, Agdung gestured.

“Found it. There!”

“Can I just bring it over?”

“Wait. We need to deactivate the defensive magics…”

Bang!

Lee Han shot it over with telekinesis and brought the artifact to him.

Agdung, feeling he should keep up appearances as a senior, kept his composure and nodded without showing surprise.

“Hmm. Thank you. You… jawbone’s out, by the way.”

“Senior Agdung, your jawbone fell out.”

• * *

Ellendil anxiously waited, cursing all the professors, teachers, and students of Einrogard.

“Calm down, everyone… just endure a bit longer, okay?”

The spirits who had taken refuge nearby looked about to choke at the rampage of the contaminants.

If the contaminants kept wandering through the forest, the spirits wouldn’t hold out long and would have to return to their own dimension.

“I already hired a magician… soon… it’ll…”

Usually speaking slowly, Ellendil’s voice was twice as fast today.

That’s how important the seventh floor’s forest was.

Baquantalana: I think it’s a lie. I’m not sure. I don’t recommend making too big a deal.

Iactus: Oh! You absolutely should. I’ve trusted Gonadaltes since the beginning!

Lee Han thought Baquantalana was siding with him, but actually other Guardian Club members advised Ellendil not to trust him.

No matter how you thought about it, there was no way that much contaminant could be absorbed in such a short time.

Iactus, for his part, was blatantly obvious about his motives…

But Ellendil, driven to desperation, accepted the suspicious proposal.

‘But what if it was a lie?’

Ellendil barely refrained from fantasizing about which hitman to hire to inflict pain as payback.

At that moment, the seventh-floor forest began to shake with an earth-shattering roar.

Kwa-rrr-rrng!

As the ground and water switched places and dragged out all the contaminants, the Guardian Club members screamed.

Iactus: No way! How could—!

Gonadaltes: What do you mean, no way?

Iactus: …I mean the level of magic happening right now on the seventh floor just doesn’t make any sense!

Gonadaltes: That’s not how it sounded to me?