Episode 843

After some deliberation, Lee Han made his decision.

‘I’ll go with a medium skeleton golem.’

He could score extra points as it would be his first summoning of a medium or larger creature, and since the summoning he’d assembled the most was the skeleton warrior, it seemed like a marginally advantageous choice.

Besides, if he ever needed to assemble a new summon later, there was always the workaround of choosing a large skeleton golem.

“I’ll try for a medium skeleton golem.”

“Good, junior. …Wait a moment.”

‘Gasp. Did he catch on?’

When Direte called him, Lee Han flinched.

Did Direte figure out that Lee Han’s strategy was to appear like he’d chosen something difficult, while in fact it was relatively simple and would also let him cleverly avoid future tests?

“You got a new staff?”

“Oh. Yes. It’s finished.”

“What! You should have told me first! That’s great.”

Direte smiled as if it were his own success.

“Yukveltire, for all the griping, always works pretty hard on spells she finds interesting. She says staff crafting is boring and tedious, but she asked about black magnetite a few times, so I thought she was at least interested.”

“Professor Verdus made it for me…”

“?!”

At his junior’s answer, Direte was so shocked his wings fluttered upward.

“How?!”

No matter how he thought about it, getting Professor Verdus to do a job only made sense if threats were involved.

“Professor Garcia threatened him.”

‘It really was a threat, huh.’

It was the expected answer, but even so, it left Direte a bit dumbfounded. He tried to regain composure by nodding calmly.

“I-I see. Thank goodness Professor Garcia persuaded him.”

Though ‘threatened’ quietly became ‘persuaded,’ Lee Han let it slide.

Frankly, in Einrogard, those two words were often used interchangeably…

“You’re not used to the staff yet, right?”

“No. First, I’m planning to try the wood spirit’s authority.”

“And the black magnetite?”

“I’m being careful with that.”

Assuming the question was about the way the staff’s black magnetite canceled spells, Lee Han answered thus.

However, Direte shook his head slowly.

“I guess Professor Verdus didn’t explain it properly.”

“Senior Yukveltire didn’t exactly give a proper explanation either…”

“Listen up, junior.”

‘Changing the subject.’

Direte began to explain about black magnetite.

It was common sense for wizards to avoid minerals that absorbed magic, but, fundamentally, wizards were a tribe far removed from common sense.

Rather than avoiding poison mushrooms, they’d nibble at them little by little, wondering how such effects could be put to use.

Naturally, there had been research into black magnetite as well.

“A classic is counter-magic. Junior, you probably haven’t learned it yet—”

“I learned it from the principal last year. He said I’d probably run into magical criminals often, so I learned how to dispel their dark arts.”

“Of course I figured you would have learned it.”

Having grown accustomed to juniors of the Wardanaz family, Direte continued without changing expression.

Counter-magic was a highly advanced technique among the various fields of magic.

There wasn’t a specific spell called ‘counter-magic’—it was more an entire methodology for disrupting enemy spells, and therefore very challenging.

It required abundant knowledge to identify the type of spell in advance, keen perception, and reflexes to act a step faster than the opponent.

“I’ve barely used counter-magic myself. I use -Baldororn’s Magic Hammer- a lot, though.”

“Makes sense. That method suits you. But you can’t blast away every spell like that, right? And some spells are far too dangerous unless interrupted before they’re cast. The black magnetite in this staff will help you perform counter-magic.”

When Lee Han cast a spell, if he focused his mind on the black magnetite portion instead of the wooden part, the spell would unravel or be canceled.

So, what if he made contact with someone else’s magic and then focused his mind on the black magnetite part?

“…That would cause major interference and disruption. Of course, making contact with an opponent’s spell also takes a lot of magic and focus, but it’s well worth trying.”

“It seems so.”

Lee Han nodded, surprised.

He’d only considered black magnetite as a reinforcement for using powerful magic.

He hadn’t expected such an advantage in counter-magic.

“Where did you learn that, Senior Direte?”

“Black magicians often deal with demons, so we sometimes use black magnetite.”

“…….”

Now Lee Han regretted asking.

Indeed, when facing upper-ranking demons, it was often impossible for a wizard to overpower them with magic alone.

Deceiving or negotiating, or otherwise binding them and fleeing, was usually more important.

In such cases, metals like black magnetite could be unexpectedly useful.

It restricted the wizard’s magic, true, but also disrupted the magic of the demonic opponent…

“Let’s try something simple, then. Eight curses, all 2nd circle or lower. I’ll pick randomly and cast them, so try to interfere with counter-magic somehow before they land.”

‘Tsk. That’s harsh.’

Lee Han shuddered at his senior’s sternness—not only did he have to make a skeleton golem in a hurry, but Direte was further reducing the available time and ramping up the difficulty.

But he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.

If he did, Direte might think he was an arrogant junior…

‘He would suspect I only work hard in other lectures and just gloss over his…’

No way could he allow that.

Running over in his head how he’d assemble the skeleton golem in the time that was left, Lee Han clutched his new staff.

• * *

“…Move!”

“Junior… It’s not a summons from another dimension; you assembled it yourself, so shouting won’t do any good…”

“Grrr.”

The counter-magic practice, as designed by Direte, went fairly well.

Of course, Direte had gone easy on his junior to help him get used to the new staff, but all the same, the results were pretty good.

—I think I’m getting the hang of it, senior. It’s hard to disrupt spells from a distance, but up close…

—You should start by blocking spells whose structure you understand and which are easy to interfere with.

By contrast, assembling the skeleton golem proved quite challenging.

‘Damn. There’s not much time left.’

Lee Han checked the time, his face full of anxiety.

First, in archaic, or rather ancient orthodox black magic, the basic process of summoning an undead familiar went like this:

Take out the key reagent where the familiar’s physical form is compressed, imbue it with magic to assemble the body, then imbue it with commands so it could move independently, without direct control for every action.

The first stage—the reagent—proved unproblematic.

Direte had provided -Bones of a Giant Beast-, and Lee Han himself habitually carried bone fragment reagents reinforced with dark or blood elements.

Thanks to that, even ordinary bone fragments were enough for Lee Han to summon a medium skeleton golem.

The second stage—assembly—was also an immediate success.

Since he’d summoned skeleton warriors so often, and even combined them for emergency reinforced skeletons, his understanding of form was much deeper than he realized.

The problem was the final stage: imbuing commands.

This required embedding and linking each command, which would exhaust a wizard’s mind—doing it all at once was difficult.

The skeleton golem he’d just summoned had tried to break through the classroom wall, and the previous one had tried to dance in three-quarter time. (Direte had been amazed and wanted to preserve that choreography, though Lee Han himself failed to replicate it…)

And the current skeleton golem wasn’t moving at all. Having been too careful after the previous skeletons went wild, Lee Han had gotten the movements tangled up.

‘Tsk. This wretched skeleton golem…’

“By the way, junior.”

Oblivious to Lee Han’s inner thoughts, Direte spoke up.

The interruption was maddening, but Lee Han answered nonetheless. How could he ignore a senior as important as the sky itself?

“Yes.”

“I forgot to mention before, but about your staff—it’ll be best to say that Professor Verdus made it for you under duress.”

“…Pardon? Why would I lie about that?”

Leaving aside the matter of why he should lie, nobody but first-year Einrogard students would ever believe such a thing.

That Professor Verdus would voluntarily help a student with a project?

‘That’s got to be the most ridiculous lie I’ve heard all year.’

“No, listen here, junior. Professor Verdus will sometimes help with student spells, if the topic interests him.”

Direte’s tone was cautious.

As a member of the enchantment magic school, Direte had a decent understanding of Professor Verdus.

The professor had a nasty habit of secretly completing only the most interesting or exciting portions of student projects, then vanishing.

Yukveltire even locked the door during her own research to keep Professor Verdus out.

“I suppose… but why even tell that kind of lie?”

“So Yukveltire doesn’t feel left out. She was kinda interested in the staff.”

“Nah, you’ve misunderstood, senior. Senior Yukveltire’s heart is made of steel—she’d never be disappointed.”

“……”

Direte felt a bit sorry for his friend, who was being so confidently defamed by a fellow tower junior.

But what could you do.

It was entirely his own fault!

“Junior, I’ve known Yukveltire longer, so just do as I say.”

“Understood. So, I’ll say Professor Verdus made me do it, right?”

Since it was nothing difficult, Lee Han agreed without complaint.

“But if you’re right, won’t that make the professor resentful?”

“Yup.”

“……”

Lee Han nodded quietly in silence.

And focused back on his skeleton golem.

“Oh, by the way, you know Duke Ikaldoren.”

‘Ugh.’

Still oblivious to his junior’s inner turmoil, Direte started talking about the duke they’d recently ‘kidnapped,’ or rather, brought.

“At first, she was too scared to talk, but recently she’s gotten better. She even speaks with Yukveltire.”

“Really? What are those conversations like?”

“Yukveltire mostly asks how much she’s willing to pay, and the duke asks for prosciutto ham with truffle, salad of chicory picked within two days, and imperial southern-style mushroom consommé for meals.”

‘Has the principal not starved her enough?’

Lee Han was surprised the duke had enough energy left to focus on gastronomy.

If she had lived like the students, she wouldn’t recall fancy menus like that, but would probably be asking for whole roasted meats, hot fruit pies, cake, or chocolate instead.

“But is that really getting along? It sounds like they’re just talking past each other.”

“The duke’s at a disadvantage. I bet she’ll compromise. This is fine.”

‘Sometimes the seniors’ positivity is scary.’

Was that really “getting along”?

Pop!

“…Senior! It’s moving! The skeleton golem is moving properly!”

“What? Really?! I didn’t think you’d finish today.”

“Thank goodness… wait, Senior. What do you mean you didn’t think I’d finish today?”

Lee Han was about to celebrate with his senior, then stopped and frowned seriously.