Episode 277

‘Damn. Unbreakable.’

Lee Han was disappointed.

Well, it wasn’t that surprising.

Imperial officials were famous for being upright and incorruptible, so there was little chance they would be swayed by personal feelings.

Still, since they were from the same tower, he thought something might click…

“If I were to work as an official, what position do you think would suit me?”

Unable to let go of his lingering hope, Lee Han asked outright.

Normally he wouldn’t go this far, but that’s how much he wanted it.

Of course, Iunrade looked as if he’d just heard the world’s most ridiculous joke. Seeing that, Lee Han quickly changed his words.

“I was joking.”

“Haha. I thought so.”

Lee Han clicked his tongue inwardly.

He hadn’t expected such uprightness and integrity.

No wonder they sent him to Einrogard.

“At any rate, Wardanaz student… Thank you for kindly responding to today’s consultation.”

“Not at all. It was my duty.”

“Forgive me for saying so, but as a senior, I worry that you might be shouldering a bit too much.”

Lee Han’s face brightened.

“But don’t worry. I have no intention of stopping you, Wardanaz student. For the talented, trials are a blessing and a gift, don’t you think?”

Lee Han’s face darkened.

‘As expected of a graduate, talking crazy comes so naturally.’

• * *

While Iunrade was worrying about the shock the Emperor and imperial officials would receive, there were others sweating hard elsewhere.

The adventurer, Kilbedek, wiped his sweat with his sleeve and looked at his companion.

“How is it?”

“Still a bit lacking.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! This is more than enough! Even when I went after a rampaging cave troll, I didn’t prepare like this!”

“Don’t get mad. I don’t want to do this either. You know that crazy wizard won’t be satisfied.”

“……”

Kilbedek closed his mouth.

Even with adventurers he’d never seen before, if you set foot together in a perilous mission, you could become close quickly.

That was the case for Kilbedek right now.

Trying to scam an Einrogard wizard and getting caught, then being dragged along!

-If I had known he was from Einrogard, I would never have pulled a scam like this!

Kilbedek and the other adventurers cried out, but it was already too late.

The mad wizard gave the scammers a choice: help with his work, or accept the appropriate punishment according to imperial law…

The adventurers of course said, “We’ll help with the work!”

Punishment according to imperial law meant nothing to high-level wizards.

If you chose the latter, you might end up buried alive in secret.

-What is he trying to make us do?

-They say the grounds of Einrogard are vast; maybe he needs us to gather materials?

-Might be clearing a dungeon…

-Nonsense. Why would a wizard belonging to Einrogard call for adventurers like us?

-T-Then what?

-Vivisection… Maybe he wants to perform experimentation on us?

The captured adventurers trembled in fear.

But fortunately, things went differently than they expected.

-Team up and synchronize.

-Huh?

-Imagine an intruder enters, and work together to subdue him.

-…!

It wasn’t gathering materials, or clearing a dungeon, or offering up their bodies for magic.

The mad wizard wanted the adventurers to team up and subdue a single intruder.

-We could do that right now!

-I know my fame isn’t that great, but I’ve solved dozens of requests in the west!

-Very well. I’ll test you.

Then, the mad wizard took down their united assault without blinking, and then thoroughly beat up the adventurers.

-Again. Prepare properly.

-Ugh… uuugh… uuuuugh…

The mad wizard beat the adventurers, then made them prepare again, then beat them, then made them prepare again.

No pleading, reasoning, persuasion, or bribery worked.

He was the mad wizard that adventurers so feared.

Why did the saying, “Don’t get involved with wizards,” exist among adventurers?

While having a skilled wizard on your party could be extremely useful, it was because of mad wizards like this that the warning lived on.

Once you got tangled with one, you were trapped for life—a wicked being you could never escape!

“…Let’s prepare again.”

Kilbedek let out a long sigh. Though he wanted to spit, he was too scared.

With no way to escape, the only option was to keep preparing until the wizard was satisfied.

“Shooting arrows the moment the basement door opens is good. But the follow-up attack is a bit vague.”

“How about putting a trap right at the door?”

“Good. Let’s add more to that. Someone waits to the side for an attack.”

“Can we time it right?”

“Damn… At this point, we have to try.”

“Alright. Then I’ll cock the crossbow and jump in afterward.”

“What about the potions?”

“They’re strung up. Just pull and they’ll fly.”

The adventurers enthusiastically devised their plan to repel the intruder opening the basement workshop door.

Not just Kilbedek, but none of the adventurers had ever prepared as thoroughly as this.

Adventurers didn’t spend their spare time polishing their skills or preparing for the next mission.

Most were the eating, drinking, and making merry sort.

It was a dangerous job with big pay and big spending, so in a way it was to be expected.

But today was different.

Thanks to the mad wizard, the adventurers were all working together with full force, drawing out 200%, even 300% of their abilities.

“How about changing the spears? Make them longer.”

“Not a bad idea… Sure, maybe reinforce the shields too.”

“If we swing my serrated sword and your mace together, it’ll be really effective. Let’s coordinate.”

Bang!

“!!!!”

At the sound of the door opening, the adventurers instinctively shrank back.

The mad wizard had returned.

“J-just a little more time, please!”

“It’s not done yet!”

Knowing that as soon as the breach began, they’d get beaten by the mad wizard, the adventurers begged desperately.

Professor Voladi asked expressionlessly.

“How long will it take?”

“One hour… n-no. 30 minutes! We’ll be ready in 30 minutes!”

“Alright. We’ll start in 30 minutes. The opponent is a student.”

“Thank you… Wait, who?”

Professor Voladi didn’t answer twice. With a gesture to hurry, he left the underground workshop.

The remaining adventurers, eyes wide, stuck their faces to the workshop window.

…So that young, green student coming down there is the one we’re to attack?

It was better than the mad wizard, but this time, they were worried for different reasons.

Are we really supposed to attack?

“A-aren’t we going to get arrested?”

“We already got arrested.”

• * *

Even after reaching the secluded underground workshop under Professor Voladi’s guidance, Lee Han wasn’t surprised.

‘I was prepared for this.’

Final exam week.

If, after seeing Professor Voladi stick adventurers into coffins and send them to the school, he still hadn’t expected this, Lee Han didn’t deserve to survive in Einrogard.

Voladi gave a slight nod at seeing Lee Han’s unrelenting tension.

That was the attitude of an excellent battle mage.

“The adventurers await inside. Break through.”

“Understood.”

A battle mage needed to be able to adapt flexibly to any situation.

You had to be able to deal with enemies laying in wait inside a building as well.

…Though Lee Han didn’t know why he had to do that as a first-year, he simply gripped his staff tighter instead of complaining.

‘Prepare as much as possible.’

He cast various enhancement spells, confused the enemies’ sight with illusion magic, sent in summons…

From the moment Professor Voladi brought the adventurers, Lee Han knew a day like this was coming, so he wasn’t surprised, but his heart was heavy.

He had to step into a basement where seasoned, experienced adventurers had prepared to their utmost.

No matter how thoroughly Lee Han prepared, he could lose.

‘Let’s just be glad there’s no Phoenix or Cerberus.’

Thinking so, Lee Han steeled his mind.

Suddenly feeling a gaze, he looked to the side and saw the adventurers watching him from the workshop window.

Lee Han stiffened his face.

‘As expected of adventurers.’

You couldn’t look down on the experience accumulated by adventurers. Already, they were observing Lee Han’s strength closely.

If he carelessly revealed his magic, he’d be stabbed in the back immediately.

‘Don’t know if this will work, but…’

“Professor. I’m very scared.”

“?”

“Can I really defeat the adventurers in there?”

“Do you have a headache?”

Professor Voladi showed his confusion briefly and simply.

• * *

Hearing the student’s nervous and anxious voice from outside the window, the adventurers felt uneasy.

Was it really okay to attack like this?

“Aren’t we caught in a plot?”

“What kind of plot?”

“Maybe he wants to kill a disobedient student but didn’t want to get his own hands dirty, so he called us as proxies.”

“……”

It was plausible. The adventurers fell silent.

That momentary lapse of vigilance gave Lee Han precious time.

Bang!

Lee Han immediately kicked open the underground workshop door. Arrows flew at him from inside.

Thud, thud—

Arrows stuck into the water shield he’d raised in advance. Thanks to the multiple enhancement spells he’d cast, including -Spatial Perception-, Lee Han knew even without looking.

“…Light, shine forth!”

Instead of entering, Lee Han released a massive burst of magic power into the workshop, casting -Light Generation- magic.

A ball of brilliant light, reminiscent of a blazing sun, floated in the workshop.

“Light, shine forth! Light, shine forth, light, shine forth…!”

Normally, there was no need to invest so much mana in such a mere first-circle spell.

Mana was a limited resource, and managing it was part of being a mage.

But Lee Han ignored such calculations and flooded the workshop with light. There were some light sources, but for adventurers adjusted to the darkness, they were instantly blinded.

“Arise, warriors of bone! Heat, warp the air!”

Lee Han threw bone shards, summoning skeleton warriors. They still couldn’t move properly yet, but to adventurers who didn’t know that, they seemed plenty threatening.

“Undead! Necromancy!”

“Brace yourselves!”

Even in the chaos, the adventurers’ movements were polished, their coordination perfect. Lee Han could only be impressed.

‘Thought they were scammers, but they do have real skills. Well, if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have dared scam an Einrogard professor.’

The workshop was so bright you could hardly see.

The summoned skeleton warriors, augmented by illusion magic, felt like more than a dozen.

Even so, the adventurers swung their weapons accurately and defeated the skeleton warriors.

That showed just how brutally they had practiced inside this workshop.

“G-got one!”

Kilbedek was surprised even as he defeated a skeleton warrior.

“Bone, seize the enemy!”

Lee Han launched his next attack immediately.

He’d sent in light and skeleton warriors not to attack but to draw attention.

Preventing the enemy from unloading everything they’d prepared at Lee Han was enough.

Using broken skeleton warriors’ bones, Lee Han unleashed bone magic everywhere.

“Bone, seize the enemy!”

With a nerve-grating sound, bone fragments clustered from all directions, forming restraints.

The remaining adventurers hid in blind spots out of Lee Han’s line of sight and shouted.

“He’s no mere kid!!!”

“Hold out! He can’t last long casting spells like that! He’ll be exhausted soon!”

“Ugh…!”

A hapless adventurer was hit by Lee Han’s barrage of bone magic and fell.

The remaining adventurers endured persistently. The mad wizard’s trial had made them stronger.

‘The end is near!’

‘Even a mage’s mana isn’t infinite…’

…But why is it taking so long?