Episode 260

Episode 260

As the lecture ended, Professor Verdus approached Lee Han with an innocent look on his face.

“Now you have time to learn, right?”

“…Professor. I don’t think I have time because I’m worried about the final exam assignment right now.”

Lee Han pointed at the shield as he spoke.

Professor Verdus asked back with a surprised expression.

“What are you talking about!? There’s so much to fix on this shield!?”

“Of course, but I have to fix it within my skill level.”

“Ah!”

At Lee Han’s words, Professor Verdus exclaimed as if he had just realized.

Lee Han wanted to hit Professor Verdus.

“This is difficult!”

“Right?”

“Hmm… Hmm… Hmmm… What you can do at your level…”

Professor Verdus closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then spoke.

“There is!”

“Oh. What is it?”

“How about adding an attack reflection spell?”

“…How is that something I can do at my level?”

Although Lee Han still didn’t know much about imbuement magic, he could guess that the ‘reflection’ attribute in imbuement magic would never be easy.

The concept of returning the direction of an incoming attack exactly as it came could not possibly be easy.

Compared to attributes like levitation, automatic, or defense, the answer was obvious.

“That’s actually the easiest one, though?”

“Is that so…”

Lee Han began to seriously consider whether he should start studying the reflection attribute or just paint the shield and insist he upgraded it.

‘If my final exam grade goes badly, how much will it impact my overall score…’

Next to the pondering Lee Han, Professor Verdus asked again with innocent curiosity.

“Anyway, since it’s been chosen, now you have time to learn, right?”

“No?”

“?!?!??!”

Professor Verdus stared at Lee Han with an expression like all the bark he had gathered had just burned up.

• * *

‘I’m proud.’

Seated, Lee Han recalled Professor Verdus’s expression and felt pleased.

In fact, this was nothing less than Lee Han’s lifeline.

The moment he said ‘Okay, I’ll learn,’ Professor Verdus would obviously not let go of Lee Han until he was satisfied.

He had to endure and endure again.

‘If possible, it’d be nice to hold out until graduation.’

Lee Han imagined telling Professor Verdus, ‘I’ll learn tomorrow,’ the day before graduation, and then graduating.

Of course, it might be hard to last that long…

“Who’s done the -Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic- assignment?”

“Who would have finished that already? …Wardanaz?”

A student from the Blue Dragon Tower was talking and suddenly looked at Lee Han.

Lee Han replied as if it was ridiculous.

“I haven’t finished it either. I mean, can’t you see the pile of assignments in front of me?”

While his friends each picked one or two magic schools to study, Lee Han was taking extra courses like necromancy, summoning magic, illusion magic, imbuement magic, divination magic, transmutation magic, healing magic, etc.

With several times thicker stacks of books, his friends quietly lowered their eyes.

They were afraid that making eye contact with Lee Han might get them dragged into extra study too.

‘I should start thinking about the -Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic- assignment soon.’

Saturday.

It was the weekend, a time when it wouldn’t be strange for everyone to be lazy, but with finals less than a week away, a tense atmosphere hung over the tower.

Until next week, all the assignments for the hellish finals; by the week after, the hellish finals themselves…

Some lectures even had assignments and finals linked or combined.

The -Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic- assignment was one of those cases.

-Draw up a draft for a simple magic structure and submit it. Once approved, you’ll start making it. Efficiency and thrift will be the evaluation criteria.

-Um… Do we have to get the materials ourselves, too?

-Unfortunately, materials other than the designated ones will not be permitted. Use only the materials provided.

-Thank you!!

-??

It wasn’t an assignment with the absurd difficulty level of imbuement magic.

But it was still a time-consuming assignment.

Choose a structure, pick a suitable magic for it, choose the necessary materials for that magic, make the estimate as tight as possible, and if it’s approved, make it yourself…

‘…The wizard I first imagined was a bit more mysterious than this.’

Ever since entering Einrogard, the mystique of being a wizard seemed to fade day by day for Lee Han.

He glanced out the window. The sun was already overhead.

The moment he took Fongrif out to the Spire Stable that evening, the whole weekend would basically be gone.

He needed to finish as many assignments as possible…

“Yoner. What’s the simplest structure?”

“Hm?”

Yoner, who was sketching a simple potion storage box next to him, looked up.

“A magic lamp or a box? A simple trap?”

“Hmmm.”

Lee Han jotted them down one by one, lost in thought.

Was there something simple, easy to complete, inexpensive in materials, and likely to get a good grade?

“…If there was, I would’ve done it first, don’t you think?”

Yoner worried that his friend might have lost it from studying too much.

But Lee Han was seriously engrossed.

He felt like something was about to come to him.

“…Yoner. I found it!”

“What?”

Yoner was so surprised he nearly broke his quill.

Did he really find something that fit all those conditions?

Is there such a thing??

“Look at this.”

Lee Han drew a long pole-shaped magic lamp.

It was a structure that emitted light by magic, typically installed in cities, castles, fortresses, or main streets in villages.

Because it lit up dark streets, there was nowhere it wasn’t installed, and so it became a mainstay for many apprentice wizards.

But that also meant there had been a lot of research on it.

Brighter, cheaper, longer-lasting, more efficient, more brilliant, with extra features—there were all sorts of improved magic lamps.

Professor Alpen Knighten said efficiency and thrift were the criteria for evaluation, but if your design overlapped too much with existing ones, you’d obviously get points deducted.

Had Lee Han come up with a design that differentiated itself from the existing ones?

“…?!”

Yoner was surprised as he looked at the magic lamp Lee Han pointed to.

It was just a long pole shape and nothing else.

‘No way?’

Yoner recalled the duration of the light orb his friend conjured.

And the duration of the levitating shield.

“Don’t tell me… you’re planning to throw out all the design and just solve it with magic?!”

A trick only Lee Han could pull off.

It was to throw out the magic circuit, distribution, and everything else, and just cast the spell himself.

If others heard, they’d say, ‘How is that a design?’ but it made some sense.

As long as the magic lasted for days, even without a design, it could be called a magic structure!

Of course, no one knew how Professor Knighten would take that kind of stretch, but it was definitely a novel idea.

“…What are you even talking about, Yoner? I just haven’t drawn it yet.”

Lee Han looked at Yoner as if he was absurd. Yoner, embarrassed, blushed a little.

“No?”

“No. There’s no way the professor would accept such a stretch.”

“He might accept it…”

Yoner trailed off, lacking confidence.

“What I was thinking was this. Yoner, I’d layer an amplification magic circle here to increase efficiency. There’d be some trial and error, but it would use much less material.”

Lee Han’s explanation was certainly sound.

It would raise the difficulty of making it, but if you had the skill, it was a plan that could save on materials.

But Yoner, feeling a little regretful, asked,

“…Are you really not going to try what you said earlier?”

“I’m not.”

• * *

Paaat!

Lee Han put the invisibility artifact on Fongrif.

“Fongrif. Good boy. You have to stay quiet until we get there. Understand?”

-Phoof…?

Fongrif looked at Lee Han with anxious eyes, wondering what on earth he was doing.

Compared to other students, Fongrif’s master was a bit unusual.

“There, there. Good boy.”

Fongrif tilted his head repeatedly, following behind Lee Han.

The Death Knights waved as they watched Lee Han walk to the main building’s front gate.

-Don’t stay out too late, Wardanaz.

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

-Why are you nagging like that? He could be late. If someone heard, they’d think you’ve never taken a night walk!

-Shh, shh! Wardanaz can hear you!

‘How heartwarming.’

Thanks to having already spoken with the Death Knights near the main gate, Lee Han was able to move without any particular suspicion.

Luckily, the shortcut to the Spire Stable was still open.

‘It’s going so smoothly it’s making me uneasy.’

It hadn’t even been 30 minutes before Lee Han arrived near the Spire Stable, but he felt uneasy for no reason.

After being at Einrogard for a while, he’d developed the habit of feeling nervous even when things went well.

‘Cover my face with the cloak…’

Lee Han pulled his cloak deep over his head, like someone just going out.

If Amur visited from outside, he’d just act like a friend and go out with him.

‘There’s a chance.’

He’d been a bit worried at first, but seeing the number of people coming and going from the stable, it looked promising.

Surprisingly, it was bustling with guests.

From professors to staff from outside, merchants, errand boys, and more.

Because it was so crowded, people bumped shoulders as they moved around.

No one paid any attention to Lee Han.

“Aren’t the wizards being too much!? Asking for a Phoenix Bird egg within a week! How are we supposed to get that in a week!?”

“Hey! Be careful putting that box down! If that breaks, we could all die!”

“Is there a demon inside or something?”

“No. It’s a glass statue the headmaster ordered.”

“……”

While listening to these heartwarming conversations, a familiar face flew in from afar.

‘Amur!’

Amur landed skillfully and filled out the entry log.

Then he looked around.

“Over here.”

“…At last!”

Amur, who hadn’t really expected it, was overjoyed to see Lee Han.

“Truly amazing. I didn’t expect it! I didn’t think you’d pull it off.”

“It’s too soon to celebrate.”

“No need to worry. Now that we’re here, it’s as good as a success. Once those merchants depart, we’ll go out with them.”

Lee Han nodded.

He kept his expression calm, but his heart was pounding.

If this worked, Lee Han would secure a method to regularly go outside the school.

While Amur unloaded the cargo he’d brought, Lee Han gave Fongrif a -Potion of Curse Removal-.

Pop!

Fongrif returned to his original form and scratched the floor in delight.

“…I thought it was a joke, but it’s really true.”

Amur was surprised again, watching the griffon yawning contentedly in the corner of the Spire Stable.

No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t a monster a first-year student could tame.

“Isn’t it risky to get caught because the griffon is unusual?”

“Don’t worry about that. There are plenty of beasts here more unusual than griffons.”

Just as Amur said, the nearby beasts were overflowing with uniqueness.

Lee Han tried to avoid the gaze of a bird with a human face staring at him.

“Our turn is coming up. Get ready.”

“Yes.”

The Spire Stable was so wide that you couldn’t see from one end to the other, but when the big mounts tried to go in and out, that didn’t matter.

Of course, there was an order in these situations.

Those waiting outside by the entrance, and those sitting and waiting by the exit to go out.

Lee Han glanced around. Maybe because of the cold weather up high, many people had their cloaks pulled deep over their heads.

-Next group, depart! Depart!

The stable manager didn’t stop Lee Han. Lee Han walked slowly with the griffon.

Thud!

The griffon kicked off the bricks and soared into the sky. Lee Han felt a huge sense of freedom.

“You’ve tamed a griffon.”

“…?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?”

At the calm voice of Professor Voladi coming from beside him, Lee Han almost dropped the griffon’s reins and fell to the ground.