Episode 170

Lee Han pondered how to convey that this week was midterm week and that he wasn’t only taking Professor Voladi’s class.

“It’s midterm week. Is it okay to go to the dungeon?”

“Yes.”

“……”

Lee Han gave up.

‘Well, of course not.’

Even if the magic school were to be destroyed tomorrow, Professor Voladi would surely still hold his class.

Would such a person show any consideration just because it was midterm week?

“Yes. Let’s go!”

“Don’t be overly cheerful. It can lead to mistakes.”

“……”

Should I kill him?

• * *

Last time, Professor Voladi failed to properly control the dungeon and let a Demon Ghoul appear in the Ghoul area.

And Lee Han defeated it again.

At this point, even the imperial courts would have a hard time deciding whether it was the teacher’s fault or the student’s.

Of course, Lee Han had a firm opinion.

‘Professor Voladi is the crazy one.’

“Aren’t we going to the Demon Ghoul area?”

When Professor Voladi stopped walking, Lee Han was puzzled.

They’d have to go further down to reach the Demon Ghoul area…

At Lee Han’s question, Professor Voladi gave a very faint smile.

Lee Han got goosebumps.

“As I said, don’t be overly cheerful. Emotional agitation leads to magical mistakes.”

“……”

Seeing Professor Voladi interpret a single question as Lee Han being excited to see a Demon Ghoul, Lee Han sighed.

“I understand. You must want to go and practice as soon as possible.”

“That’s not it.”

“No need to be modest.”

“……”

“I stopped here because of illusion magic.”

“Illusion magic?”

Lee Han was puzzled.

Of course, Professor Voladi didn’t really care about specializing in any particular field of magic—he used whatever was needed for magical combat.

But with Professor Kirmin Ku around, why bother?

“I originally planned to teach how to deal with illusion magic later.”

Professor Voladi judged that freshmen like Lee Han would rarely have to deal with illusion magic.

He thought it would be enough to train other practical combat skills first and then teach how to deal with illusions.

That’s what he thought.

‘Isn’t that right?’

Lee Han agreed with that.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

“It’s wrong.”

“Excuse me?”

“You faced Ogonin, didn’t you?”

“No, but…”

“Thinking ahead, you’ll need to know how to deal with illusion magic.”

‘He needs to study logic and statistics.’

Lee Han thought to himself.

Facing Ogonin was more of an accident than because Lee Han had any ambition like ‘I’m going to hunt down imperial illusionists!’

Regardless, Professor Voladi raised his staff. Lee Han tensed up.

Fortunately, Professor Voladi didn’t attack Lee Han. He swung his staff and conjured an illusion.

Doppelgangers identical to Professor Voladi appeared.

‘It’s several times more horrifying.’

“If you broadly classify illusion magic, there are spells cast directly on the opponent, and spells cast on the external environment.”

Illusions cast directly on the opponent were so difficult that they were classified as mental magic.

A properly cast mental spell could control the opponent like a puppet…

In comparison, illusions cast on the outside were relatively less difficult.

Since there was no need to directly attack the opponent’s mind, you just had to conjure the illusion.

But that didn’t mean they were useless. Depending on the situation and location, the latter could be more useful.

‘Is that why the wizard Ogonin failed?’

Lee Han thought Ogonin would clutch his neck and collapse if he heard this.

The fact that he tried several times and it was all useless left a strong impression.

“You have a high resistance to the former by constitution.”

A wizard’s mana itself created resistance to external magic.

Of course, that resistance wasn’t all that great. If just having mana meant you could resist magic, half the empire’s wizards would be out of a job.

But if your mana was unimaginably high, it was a different story.

At that level, the resistance created couldn’t be ignored.

‘Not bad.’

Given all the trouble his high mana caused, this kind of advantage was a joy.

“How much can I defend against?”

“That I can’t say. Great mana resistance due to mana quantity is so rare, and there are many other variables. You’ll have to figure it out yourself.”

“Understood.”

‘I hope that wizard Ogonin was at least fairly skilled.’

Lee Han thought to himself.

If Ogonin was fairly skilled, that meant Lee Han could defend against a considerable number of mental spells.

Though it didn’t seem likely…

““But illusions cast on the outside are different from the former.””

Professor Voladi’s doppelgangers all spoke at once. Their voices echoed.

“Your great mana resistance has less effect, so you need to learn how to distinguish them. How would you tell?”

Lee Han immediately created a water orb and shot it at one of the doppelgangers. The doppelganger ducked to avoid it.

‘Too bad.’

He wanted to hit at least one, even if it was an illusion…

“Not bad. Illusions are vulnerable to external attacks. But in combat, you can’t check one by one like that. You need to learn to check by sense.”

“By sense?”

“That’s right. No matter how elaborate an illusion is, there will always be differences from reality.”

Keen observation.

It was an essential condition for dealing with illusion magic.

‘It’s like a spot-the-difference game.’

“Try to find it.”

Professor Voladi’s doppelgangers lined up on both sides. Lee Han resisted the urge to throw a water orb and focused.

“The one on the far left is fake.”

“Correct.”

One doppelganger disappeared.

“The color of the shoes was different. Good observation.”

“…Yes.”

Actually, Lee Han had just thought the expression was too gentle for Professor Voladi, so he called it fake…

“The one on the far right is also fake.”

“Did you notice by the color of the staff?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well done.”

Actually, Lee Han had just thought the look in the eyes was too kind for Professor Voladi, but it was correct anyway.

‘Maybe this is what he means by checking with your senses.’

Sense is sense, after all.

“Now we’re going to face the Demon Ghoul. Be mindful of illusions.”

Professor Voladi began conjuring illusions of the Demon Ghoul.

It was hard enough just to face a Demon Ghoul, but he had to add illusions on top to increase the difficulty.

Lee Han was impressed.

‘So this is why he explained how to deal with illusion magic.’

He really wanted to hit him.

• * *

After spending the morning with the Demon Ghoul in the dungeon, Lee Han returned to the lounge, where the Blue Dragon Tower students sprawled everywhere welcomed him.

“That’s why you should have drunk in moderation.”

Lee Han said coldly.

No matter how little the school fed them, to eat and drink whatever was given the night before exams…

It was no wonder they were all collapsed with hangovers.

Almost all the Blue Dragon Tower students had drunk.

Starting with Gainando, who was groaning and holding his head, to Yoner, who sat pale-faced drinking only water. Even the princess couldn’t lift her head, apparently having drunk as well.

“Uuugh…”

“You okay?”

“I thought it was suspicious…”

Yoner stood up with a pale face.

A skilled alchemist usually liked alcohol.

The temptation was too strong to refuse the overflowing drinks in the banquet hall.

“Wait, I’ll cook something up for you all.”

“Thanks, Wardanaz…”

“You’re the only one…”

‘Is soup really something to be this grateful for?’

Thinking that, Lee Han put a pot on the fire.

He peeled potatoes dug from the garden and boiled them.

Then he mashed them, mixed in milk and cheese, and put them in the pot to simmer gently.

Even though they’d restocked supplies over the weekend, there was no need to waste. Potato soup would be enough.

‘Guess I can add some mushrooms.’

Lee Han stirred the soup with a ladle and served a bowl to each friend.

“In an hour we have alchemy class. Will everyone be okay?”

“O… of course. There’s a 90% chance I’ll make it, Wardanaz.”

“Me too… of course…”

‘No way these guys will make it.’

Judging by their state, he worried they wouldn’t be able to attend other classes either.

How much had the skull principal circulated the drinks…

“The alchemy midterm isn’t due until Friday, so don’t worry too much. I’ll tell you what you missed after class.”

“No, Wardanaz. Let’s… ugh.”

“The world… is spinning…”

“…Just stay put, all of you.”

• * *

“??”

Arriving at alchemy class, Lee Han looked around without realizing it.

The number of students…

Wasn’t it too few?

“It’s not even surprising.”

Professor Thunderstep said calmly.

Even though only a few of the many students came to class, he didn’t seem surprised at all.

“Does this happen every year?”

“Good guess.”

“……”

Lee Han was dumbfounded.

Well, given the skull principal’s personality, it wasn’t strange if this happened every midterm…

But the fact that freshmen fell for it every year was also ridiculous.

“Now. Those who came today, tell the ones who didn’t. Of course, you don’t have to tell them.”

Professor Thunderstep tapped the blackboard, where the midterm assignment was written in detail.

Required—birch branch, dendrobium leaf, thistle flower, bone-healing flower…

Method—first, stir water with the birch branch clockwise…

‘What? He’s telling us everything?’

Lee Han was surprised.

Since he was giving plenty of time, Lee Han had expected the assignment to be unreasonable.

Like, “Find the method yourself,” or “Find out which ingredients are needed,” and so on.

But to give such detailed instructions.

‘The birch is over there, I know where the dendrobium is, the thistle too… hmm?’

As Lee Han was jotting down the ingredients, he suddenly felt something was off and paused.

Nillia, who was next to him, seemed to feel the same and raised her hand.

“Professor?”

“What is it?”

“As far as I know, the bone-healing flower grows deep underground in dungeons.”

“So?”

“Uh… yes? I mean, isn’t it hard to get inside the school?”

“What nonsense.”

Thunderstep smiled with satisfaction.

“There are plenty of dungeons in this school, so just go down and find it.”

“Ah…”

Lee Han could feel the emotion in Nillia’s “Ah.”

‘Ah, this is really too much,’ it must have meant.

“So we just have to go down to the dungeon and get it?”

“You don’t have to go all the way underground. If you can get it another way, that’s fine too.”

‘Is this why the upperclassmen rob the professors’ workshops?’

Lee Han thought he understood why upperclassmen he’d never met resorted to theft.

With classes like this, how could you not?

Nillia grumbled in disbelief.

“When are we supposed to go into the dungeon again? Even if it’s due Friday, it’s still exam week for other classes.”

“Right.”

Lee Han agreed wholeheartedly.

Other classes had midterms too, so what kind of dungeon nonsense was this?

“Finding the dungeon is a problem too. Do dungeons just appear when you look for them? We don’t even know where underground they are. Wardanaz, do you know any dungeons?”

Nillia asked, not really expecting Lee Han to know.

He was a freshman too—how would he know about dungeons underground?

She was just venting.

“I do know one.”

“…?!?!”

Nillia stared at Lee Han in disbelief.

How on earth?