Episode 107

Episode 107

Even with his eyes covered, Lee Han could tell what was happening.

He wanted to deny it, but he felt it with his whole body.

Right now, Professor Voladi was summoning not only lightning elementals, but also other elements.

‘Which means…’

In truth, what Lee Han was doing—dodging lightning with his eyes covered—was already amazing.

He was too busy to realize, but Professor Voladi wasn’t the type to smile over just anything.

They said to read the trajectory before the lightning flew, but even with open eyes, that was difficult to do.

Lee Han’s dynamic vision, trained from fencing.

His innate magical sensing ability.

Without at least one of them, it would have been impossible.

When Lee Han handled that so easily, Professor Voladi, unfazed, simply raised the difficulty.

If Professor Garcia had happened to see this in passing, she’d have freaked out and exclaimed, “What are you doing!?”

Making someone do something so difficult, not just with open eyes but in pitch darkness.

The problem was, Lee Han pulled it off perfectly in that darkness, too.

So Professor Voladi, again without batting an eye, simply raised the difficulty one more time.

A teacher and a student who never hit the brakes.

Thanks to that, Lee Han, on the very first day of element detection training, experienced a ridiculously brutal trial.

In a way, it was self-inflicted.

‘…Are the other elements a trick?’

Not realizing he was digging his own grave, Lee Han simply focused.

He could feel not just the lightning, but also the energies of other elements. This was no time for idle thought.

There was only one reason Professor Voladi would summon other elements in a situation like this.

A trick!

The way Lee Han had dodged the lightning in the unseen space was simple.

When his sight and dynamic vision were blocked, he relied solely on his pure magical sensing ability.

Though the lightning burst forth in a simple straight line, on closer observation of its flow, there were countless changes in a short time.

Lee Han realized that at the moment it launched, its mana briefly condensed to gain explosive power, so he learned to detect that precursor and dodged the bolt.

But now, if different elements with various attributes began to mix in…

He had to distinguish by attribute, sense the individual precursors, and among those, pick out the specific sign of mana condensing for a lightning bolt.

Moreover, considering Professor Voladi’s particular personality, the waiting non-lightning elements could also join the attack as decoys, so he had to be wary of those as well.

‘Can I do it?’

Lee Han raised his head toward the elements radiating their presence in the darkness.

To be honest, it seemed impossible.

If so…

‘I’ll get hit, but make it hurt as little as possible!’

• * *

Lee Han’s prediction was wrong.

Amazingly, he succeeded again.

“……”

Even Professor Voladi, who would normally have jumped right into speaking, was silent for a moment in surprise.

‘He’s a natural.’

What the Wardanaz family boy possessed wasn’t just vast mana.

Thinking about it, being born with such immense magic power, learning to control it and study magic was an incredible feat.

All the more so for a first-year.

The modest Wardanaz heir underestimated his own pace of magic learning.

Of course, even that pace was fast, but compared to the dazzling young magical geniuses of the Empire, he might have seemed a bit behind.

But that was only if you didn’t account for his mana reserves.

To handle such mana and learn magic at that pace was proof of his talent.

Normally, it was hard to notice due to his sheer volume of magic, but in sensing surrounding mana, the story changed.

Where the penalty of high magic didn’t apply, glimpses of his talent shone through.

Snap!

Professor Voladi made the blindfold covering Lee Han’s eyes disappear.

Even after accomplishing such a feat, the Wardanaz family boy was calm. The professor didn’t bother to comment on it further.

“I didn’t expect you to pass everything on the first day.”

“…Perhaps it’s because you had me do it all at once, Professor.”

Lee Han politely offered, “So maybe next time take it easy,” in a roundabout way.

But with professors, indirect politeness rarely got through.

“No need to thank me.”

“?”

Lee Han was momentarily puzzled.

Then he understood.

Professor Voladi thought Lee Han was saying, “Thanks to you giving me all the tasks at once, I was able to pass them all.”

‘…This is crazy.’

While Lee Han was at a loss, Professor Voladi continued.

“Normally I’d have spent more time on elemental detection training. But it seems there’s no need.”

Lee Han felt relieved. From the sound of Professor Voladi’s words, today’s class was over for now.

Professor Voladi handed him a cloth-wrapped bundle.

“You seem tired.”

“…!”

Lee Han was startled.

Of course, dodging lighting with and without sight had left him exhausted.

But he’d never imagined Professor Voladi would show concern for him.

‘What’s going on?’

At first, he wondered if there was a trap in the bundle, but Professor Voladi was not a malicious sort like the skeleton principal.

Cautiously, Lee Han unwrapped it.

‘Is it medicine maybe?’

Inside was a magic book. Professor Voladi nodded.

“It’s a book on basic lightning magic and its applications. Learn it by next time.”

“……”

Professor Voladi was not a person of evil intent like the skeletal principal.

it’s just that he was a bit unhinged.

Lee Han belatedly realized what Professor Voladi really meant by “You seem tired.”

He’d simply voiced his impression of Lee Han.

The words and the bundle were entirely unrelated!

“…Understood.”

Lee Han, managing his expression, put the magic book away.

Even if he wanted to curse, he’d have to wait until Professor Voladi was far away.

‘Now that I think about it, isn’t this quiz week?’

Thinking about it, the magic Voladi had given him to learn wasn’t the real issue.

Professor Voladi didn’t give quizzes, but the other classes probably would.

—■■■!

Lee Han turned his head at a summoned beast’s roar from the front yard, outside the classroom.

“What’s going on?”

“The professors are dealing with escaped summoned beasts.”

“??”

Lee Han didn’t understand.

Last week, professors hadn’t cared about escaped summoned beasts wandering the school.

Why now?

“Is something wrong? Why all of a sudden?”

“They’re probably dealing with them so they won’t interfere with the exams.”

“……”

Lee Han was speechless and prepared to leave the classroom.

‘Shouldn’t have asked…’

• * *

The book from Professor Voladi, , was better than expected.

‘Wait. Who wrote this?’

Considering most magic books made no allowance for freshmen readers, was really quite kind.

The chapter on 1st Circle magic, , didn’t just explain the spell and gestures.

Unlike other 1st Circle elements, fixing the lightning’s position after generation is quite difficult. The most common mistake new wizards make is losing control after summoning the lightning element and scattering it in random directions. In preparation for this, take the following steps. First, wear thick clothes that are resistant to the lightning element, and make sure no one else is around when you…

Lee Han wanted to see other publications by the wizard who wrote this, so he checked the back. But there was no author.

‘Was this book written in the magic school?’

Many Imperial books weren’t mass produced systematically. Most were handwritten and passed on as a few copies.

The school’s books were even more so.

If you went to the library, not only were books disorganized, but over half were nearly impossible to read.

Basically, wizards only cared if they were satisfied with their own notes, not whether others could understand.

‘If I owned a bookshop, I’d just throw out books like that.’

Apart from his animosity for Professor Voladi, Lee Han still wanted to read more from this book.

It wasn’t the book’s fault, after all.

And next class, Professor Voladi would surely teach as if Lee Han had already mastered this book…

“Nice to see you, Wardanaz!”

A cheerful professor greeted him from behind, making Lee Han jump. That was never a good sign.

Luckily, it was a familiar face: Professor Kirmin Ku, one of Voladi’s rare friends.

“Heading to the lecture? Right?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect! We can go together. I was just going to the classroom too.”

It was hard to believe Professor Kirmin was a friend of Voladi—he was so cheerful.

That raised Lee Han’s hopes a bit.

Young, of good character, on good terms with colleagues—such professors were statistically more likely to treat students well.

Of course, who knew if that rule held in magic school…

“Will you be teaching illusion magic?”

“Yes. Professor Bagrag doesn’t like illusion magic, but it’s useful in many ways.”

Any field of magic, deeply dug into, was almost infinite.

Constructing barriers to prevent intruders in an area or showing illusions to the enemy were only a corner of illusion magic.

Some specialists combined it with spatial magic to create bizarre impossible maze illusions, others mixed it with mind magic to bring down people just by making eye contact.

After hearing the explanation, Lee Han thought inwardly.

‘That would be great for stealing.’

Casting illusions on himself to break people’s lines of sight, or dispelling installed illusions, and so on.

No matter how kindly Professor Kirmin explained, his mind drifted to other uses.

“Wardanaz. Last time I saw you, I noticed you have a talent for illusion magic?”

Lee Han’s face changed.

Hearing ‘You have talent’ from a professor was a sign to be wary.

If you relaxed, you could get dragged in and forced to become their disciple.

But for Lee Han, it was already too late for such worries. From the moment he’d entered magic school, he had no choice but to learn under professors.

What mattered was finding a good and kind professor.

And Professor Kirmin might just be such a professor.

He couldn’t be sure yet, but…

‘Illusion magic isn’t bad. If you master anything, you can make a living anywhere, can’t you?’

“There’s something more important for illusion magic than great magical power, affinity for the elements, or even amazing calculation skills. It’s fine control. From what I see, Wardanaz, you’re a natural at it.”

“…???”

Lee Han was flustered.

With all his magic, Lee Han was the last person who had fine control.

‘Is he mistaken because of that class assignment last time?’

That only happened thanks to Professor Voladi beating it into Lee Han until it stuck, not because of Lee Han’s talent.

“Tha… Thank you.”

“Is there a branch of magic you’re particularly interested in? Talented freshmen like you usually choose several rather than just one.”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

Professor Kirmin changed his question.

“Then… apart from Professor Bagrag, which professors have you met with outside of class?”

This question was more about finding out which professors were interested in Lee Han, not what Lee Han was interested in.

Not only do students choose their teachers—teachers choose their disciples as well.

“Well, Professor Uregeom…”

“Aha. Alchemy.”

“Professor Lightning Step.”

“Zoology.”

“And Professor Willow.”

“Botany.”

“Professor Mortum as well…”

“Necromancy?”

“And Professor Millet.”

“Summoning magic. Wait. Wait.”

Professor Kirmin hesitated.

It was just too many.