Episode 113

Episode 113

The Black Tortoise Tower students were genuinely flustered. Even Salko from the Tutanta family was like that.

They had been sure that Wardanaz would be pleased with that forbidden black magic book.

“Uh… Why not, Wardanaz?”

“Ah! Is it because you’ve already read it and don’t like it? No way…!”

The Black Tortoise Tower students questioned and answered among themselves.

Seeing them, Ihan thought to himself.

‘I should lock up all those White Tiger Tower guys who spread rumors in the punishment room.’

Rumors were polluting the sacred place of learning, the magic school.

“Where did you find that book?”

Ihan asked out of curiosity.

He knew the Black Tortoise Tower students were actively searching for useful things, but didn’t think they’d even discover a black magic book exuding curses.

“There’s a bottomless pit area on the 4th floor of the library. We found it there.”

‘Just the name gives me chills.’

The magic school library was far from a peaceful repository of knowledge.

If the 1st and 2nd floors were places where you could still set foot, the upper floors were essentially dungeons or labyrinths.

A bottomless pit area—with a name like that, he could imagine what kind of place it was.

“Anywhere else, maybe, but why the library?”

“We’re trying to complete a map of the school. With a map, things would be much more convenient.”

‘Oh…’

Ihan was impressed.

While the Blue Dragon Tower students were just eating, sleeping, and playing cards, the Black Tortoise Tower students were doing something constructive.

‘I wish I could swap our group for them.’

“We were looking for a book that might have a map of the school, but found this instead. Too bad it’s not up to your standards.”

Ihan was going to try and clear their misunderstanding but gave up.

They wouldn’t believe him anyway.

“Wardanaz. Could you at least read it for us once?”

One of the Black Tortoise Tower students asked with a voice full of regret.

It was disappointing to have worked so hard to get the book, only for it to be treated as useless.

Normally, Ihan would have read it for them…

“Didn’t that book spew a curse when you opened the case just now?”

It was a different story if it was a cursed book.

It didn’t make sense to suffer from a curse just to read an unknown book.

“You could probably block the curse and read it, right?”

“……”

Ihan looked at them with a suspicious gaze for a moment.

‘These guys aren’t trying to assassinate me at the instigation of the White Tiger Tower, right?’

“Sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“So you couldn’t…”

The Black Tortoise Tower students looked disappointed.

They couldn’t mess with it for too long due to the curse, but thought Wardanaz would be fine.

“How do we break a mana draining curse?”

“At our level, it’s probably impossible. If we ask a professor…”

“Would a professor just let this slide?”

“Wait.”

Listening to the conversation, Ihan interjected.

“What kind of curse did you say?”

“A mana absorption curse. The book absorbs mana.”

The blood-red covered book absorbed someone’s mana just by being near it.

A few Black Tortoise Tower students had collapsed from mana exhaustion trying to read it—a rather troublesome curse.

“…Give it to me. I’ll give it a read.”

“As expected of Wardanaz. No need to be modest. We already know your abilities.”

“We have ability, but don’t like pointless modesty.”

Listening to their nonsense, Ihan opened the box.

The blood-red book really did exude a mana absorption curse. Ihan could feel some of his mana being sucked into it.

And nothing happened.

‘As I thought.’

Wearing both the mana-absorbing bracelet and belt, nothing changed now that he was holding another blood-red book.

Ihan wasn’t even surprised.

There’s no need to say more about the importance of reagents in magic. As your level of magic goes up, the importance of reagents—its price—also increases. Among all the complicated and varied reagents, a mage’s blood is the strongest and oldest of all. Blood magic is the technique of using this blood as a reagent to amplify mana and use powerful magic otherwise impossible. Before we begin, let’s first talk about safety precautions. The survival rate of novice mages in blood magic is less than 5%, but following these precautions can increase it to up to 7%. Before practicing blood magic, eat a hearty meat dish and get to sleep early the day before, and drink as much water as possible before casting…

Ihan was surprised for two reasons.

First, this wasn’t a black magic book, but a blood magic book.

Both sounded wicked by name, but there was a difference.

Black magic was a legitimate school of magic in the Empire (though not popular), while blood magic was more of an auxiliary technique.

A skill that amplified mana using blood.

Of course, it was very dangerous—but a legitimate technique nonetheless.

Really dangerous, but…

The second reason Ihan was surprised was the handwriting of this book was identical to .

‘Now that I compare, the titles are similar too.’

Both the he got from Professor Voladi and this were similar in title and handwriting.

‘At first I thought Professor Voladi wrote it, but he’d never write this in such detail. Who wrote it? His student?’

“How is it, Wardanaz? Are you interested?”

The Black Tortoise Tower students asked nervously.

They were quite concerned about whether the magic book interested Ihan.

“It’s not bad.”

“!”

“Knew it…!”

One Black Tortoise Tower student nodded happily.

They were sure Wardanaz wouldn’t dislike such a black magic book.

‘They’re thinking pointless things again.’

The reason Ihan was interested in the book was simple.

Because he got excited to challenge the risky secret art of blood magic that even imperial mages avoided…

Of course not.

Ihan had no interest in blood magic. He already had enough mana—why bother using blood to amplify it?

His interest was in a different part.

Here, several spells difficult to use due to high mana costs but possible if blood magic was used were introduced. Most had fallen out of use in the Empire due to high mana costs, but their effects were definitely not weak…

Magic also had fads and popularity.

Magic that wasn’t used by other mages would fade away and disappear.

And spells needing a lot of mana naturally wouldn’t be popular. Who would like spells that drained their mana?

But Ihan was different.

‘Spells with high mana cost might be a perfect fit for me.’

A spell with high mana consumption was likely to require less precise control.

He wasn’t interested in blood magic, but in spells that could only be cast by using blood magic.

“All right. I’ll go with you.”

Ihan tucked the book away. The Black Tortoise Tower students were secretly impressed at how he casually pocketed a cursed book.

A real Wardanaz family member is just amazing!

‘Was the rumor of them being trained through curses from childhood true?’

“But there are a few conditions.”

“Speak. We’ll listen to what we can.”

“I’m also exploring the school and need the help of skilled thieves… no, skilled friends.”

“Did you just say thieves…?”

“Wait. Wardanaz.”

Salko cut off his colleague and stepped in.

“Don’t you have Blue Dragon Tower students as friends? Why do you need our help?”

Ihan was dumbfounded.

‘Because you can’t even compare…’

Black Tortoise Tower students, seasoned in all sorts of crimes outside school, vs. Blue Dragon Tower students who spent their lives lazing about making servants do everything for them!

No matter how you looked at it, the former were obviously more capable.

But for the sake of his friends’ pride, he couldn’t say that.

“It could be dangerous.”

Hearing Ihan’s answer, Salko nodded as if he expected it.

“You’re not calling your friends because problems might arise. I respect that.”

If you were caught wandering the school at night, it was straight to the punishment room.

Wardanaz knew that—so he wasn’t calling the Blue Dragon Tower students.

‘But that’s not it.’

“If you need help exploring, I’ll help.”

“Second, I want to share the map information you’re compiling.”

“……”

After some thought, Salko nodded.

It was a shame to give another tower student info on the map, but Wardanaz deserved to share it.

And right now, serving Priest Muhadin was most important.

“And finally…”

When Ihan hesitated a bit, the Black Tortoise Tower students grew tense.

They wondered just what kind of demand the Wardanaz boy would make to hesitate like that.

“…I get a share of any ingredients found in the kitchen.”

“……”

“……”

Was that all he hesitated for??

• * *

When evening came the thieves, no—the students—gathered in front of the main building.

Everyone here had roamed the night school at least once.

They were relaxed, from clothes to movements.

“Pleased to be working with you, Lord Wardanaz.”

Ratford, the most professional thief among them, greeted Ihan cheerfully.

There was no way Black Tortoise Tower students wouldn’t call Ratford for this kind of thing.

Ihan greeted back, just as cheerfully, then hesitated.

“Nilia didn’t come?”

“No one called her, right?”

Ratford looked at Ihan as if wondering what nonsense this was. Ihan thought he’d have to explain himself later.

“Let’s go.”

He didn’t want to inflate the Black Tortoise Tower students’ fantasies more, but here, only Ihan and Ratford had actually been to the basement kitchen.

Naturally, Ihan ended up explaining. Even the toughest-looking Black Tortoise Tower student watched him in faint admiration.

How had he checked out so much of the school in such a short time?

“There’s a storeroom and various facilities in the basement, guarded by a storekeeper.”

“Storekeeper?”

“He’s a blind man with a covered face, but his detection ability is excellent. Once you’re detected, there’s no escaping or hiding.”

Salko nodded, focusing on Ihan’s words.

Then suddenly a question struck him.

‘…But how did Wardanaz get out?’

It should have been impossible—but how…?

“When you got caught in the library or elsewhere, how did you shake them off?”

Ihan asked out of curiosity.

He had various ways, like his invisibility belt, but the Black Tortoise Tower students didn’t.

Did they have some special method?

“One person would draw them away, get caught, and the rest would avoid attention.”

“……”

Ihan was impressed by their brute force method.

Crude, but you had to admit—it worked.

‘I should try it with White Tiger Tower students sometime.’