Episode 358

“A mana stone is ultimately just a substitute. To implement the purest mana a mage can create with a mana stone…”

“Is that important right now?”

Lee Han pointed to the penguin beastman mage who was slumped over, addressing Yumidihus.

He wasn’t all that curious about the difficulty of replicating high-quality pure mana with a mana stone.

It was far more important whether a crazy mage was going to shove their research assignment onto him or not.

“Miss Pengerin. Please get a grip. Even if it’s hard to use a mana stone, that’s just a part that can be replaced by other means. Do you know what can’t be replaced? The mind of the mage who designed and constructed this experiment and spell, that’s what.”

“……”

Lee Han could clearly see Alsicle flinch.

Seeing hope, Lee Han grabbed Alsicle’s back skin and began to shake him back and forth.

“Miss Pengerin! If you give up here, what will all the ice element wizards who entered the field because of you do?! Are you going to disappoint all those people?!”

“Ow, ow! That hurts!”

Normally, this was a situation where he should have felt pleased, but Alsicle screamed.

Lee Han’s strength was simply too great.

“Ah. I apologize. Still, failing all those wizards…”

“I-I get it. Calm down. Calm down. I’ll think it over again.”

As Lee Han looked like he was about to grab his back again, Alsicle hurriedly backed down.

Seeing this, Yumidihus thought to himself,

‘Maybe just attacking would have worked.’

• * *

In the end, Alsicle calmed down and regained composure.

In fact, what Lee Han had said was exactly right.

The credit for a successful magical experiment goes to the mage who designed it, not to those who simply helped from the side.

Alsicle, who had implemented such an extreme cold, was surely an extraordinary mage.

…The problem was, the reason the long-ailing experiments had suddenly succeeded was Lee Han’s mana.

Alsicle was no fool, and naturally analyzed the root cause.

Even after using such top-tier rare reagents as Frost Stag’s Horn, Icy Pearl, Frozen Cold Mountain, Eternal Snow, Yellow Snow Pellet, and so on, why did brute improvisation suddenly succeed?

“The answer, of course, lies in the quality of the mana. No matter how you try to sustain mana flow with various reagents and magic circles, the purity and quality can’t match the direct mana of a mage.”

“Indeed…”

As Lee Han listened in front of Alsicle, he frowned slightly and asked a question.

“But why are you telling me this?”

Why did a first-year like himself need to hear this instead of Yumidihus or Voladi?

“Where did that successful mana just come from?”

“It came from me.”

“Then how would you get that mana again?”

“Should I go post a notice at another ice element mage gathering?”

“…No. Not everything can be done with that.”

If every mage’s mana were as pure and high-quality as Lee Han’s, Alsicle wouldn’t have had such a struggle.

“That kind of mana is hard to come by.”

“Ah, what a shame…”

“Help me!”

As Alsicle tried to cling to Lee Han’s hand, Lee Han lightly dodged.

Having suffered so much at the hands of professors, Lee Han had become wary whenever Alsicle opened his mouth.

“Sorry, that’s impossible.”

“Why not!”

“I’ve got a life too—working here 24 hours a day all vacation is a bit…”

“…I wasn’t thinking of that!?”

Alsicle was horrified by Lee Han’s terrifying idea.

He already had to pour in mana; imagine being overworked on top of that—even a great mage would collapse.

And Lee Han was only a first-year.

“I don’t even do experiments that often. Maybe two or three times a year.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“…That’s plenty…”

If it was only that much, Lee Han figured he owed enough to pitch in.

As soon as Lee Han agreed, Alsicle brightened and nodded energetically.

“Thanks! In return, I’ll teach you all my unique ice element spells! Someday you could even inherit my research assignments!”

‘That’s not what I want at all.’

Even now things were rough, and Alsicle was already trying to dump more research tasks on him. Inside, Lee Han cursed.

A truly wicked mage.

“Yeah, well… Thank you.”

“Great. Let’s get started right away.”

“Hurry up and pass them on. I was planning to go back to the city for the weekend.”

At Voladi Baegrek and Yumidihus’s urging, Alsicle grumbled.

“Unlike basic spells, my unique spells can’t be learned by just…”

He looked at Lee Han and changed his words.

“…actually, you might be able to pull it off, Wardanaz.”

“That’s not possible.”

Lee Han firmly denied it, but the three mages didn’t seem to hear.

• * *

-Alsicle’s Ice Element Doppelgänger- was a 4th-circle spell.

Unlike other doppelgänger spells, it was visually indistinguishable from the original, shared vision with the caster, and could even use close-range attacks with ice element if necessary.

Given its effectiveness, it was almost odd that it was only a 4th-circle spell.

Of course, the difficulty of the ice element doppelgänger spell ranked high among 4th-circle spells.

The only reason Lee Han wasn’t fazed was because his sense of challenge was skewed after succeeding at several 4th-circle spells.

Normally, no first-year should even attempt something of this difficulty.

“You’ve mastered lower-circle ice element spells well, but I don’t think you’ll learn this one quickly.”

“Thank goodness.”

Instead of being hasty, as before, Alsicle was now calm, and Lee Han was reassured.

“Ah. Of course, I’m not dismissing your skill! You could definitely manage a doppelgänger of the previous level.”

“…? Isn’t that still pretty difficult?”

Lee Han began to worry whether Alsicle had been influenced by Professors Voladi and Yumidihus.

The lowest tier of doppelgänger spells had obvious forms and no movement.

With illusion magic, Lee Han could approximate this effect now.

If he cast -Pahait’s Minor Illusion- and -Ogoning’s Mist-, from the outside, he’d appear as several Lee Hans.

To go higher in difficulty, you needed to control the doppelgänger’s form and add movement, making it even more convincing…

Succeeding at both was what -Alsicle’s Ice Element Doppelgänger- did.

So “previous level” meant having succeeded at least in either form or movement—which was already at least 3rd-circle level.

“This spell uses techniques from many other schools to avoid requiring high circle casting, making it especially difficult…”

‘Did he just ignore what I said?’

“…You’re learning both transformation and enchantment magic, right? You’re very lucky.”

“Yes…”

“One thing—I regret that practicing this doppelgänger spell is especially helped by black magic. Unlike other summoned creatures, undead summoned ones don’t mind if you cast ice element magic on them. They’re perfect for practice.”

Practicing controlling the movements of many doppelgängers was best done with summoned undead.

Undead minions didn’t complain; you could arm them with ice element weapons or surround their bodies with cold with no rejection.

Casting ice element magic on these undead and controlling them however you wanted was good practice.

“I do learn black magic.”

“What!?”

“I told you he was learning black magic, remember?”

Even Yumidihus remarked curiously.

Lee Han had mentioned black magic when discussing his studies.

“Really? Huh? Why don’t I remember?”

“…So you’re saying practicing on summoned undead is especially helpful, right?”

Worried black mages might be unfairly maligned, Lee Han quickly changed the topic.

Alsicle nodded.

“The more magic you use and the harder you try to control them yourself, the better. Can you summon undead?”

“Yes. I can summon skeleton warriors.”

“Good. Skeleton warriors. The more, the better. Can you do three at once?”

“Yes.”

“Oh! Even more? How many?”

“I can’t move them yet, but up to fifteen…”

“…???”

Alsicle was surprised in many ways.

Not moving after being summoned was odd, and being able to summon up to fifteen skeleton warriors was shocking.

Even seasoned summoners would risk suffering spirit-break, mana-exhaustion, or brain-burnout…

“I’m learning black magic the old-fashioned way.”

After Lee Han explained about learning old-school black magic from villainous necromancers, Alsicle was very interested.

“So they’re even harder to control…”

“That’s even better practice! You really are lucky!”

“……”

Lee Han realized why Alsicle was Yumidihus’s student.

‘Am I crazy for expecting anything?’

• * *

Amazingly (to Yumidihus, Voladi, and Alsicle’s surprise), Lee Han failed to master -Alsicle’s Ice Element Doppelgänger- in the remaining time.

But Lee Han himself was not surprised.

In fact, only the three magicians were surprised.

“Did I teach wrong…?”

For the first time, Alsicle developed a healthy skepticism about his own teaching. Seeing this, Yumidihus was impressed.

‘I didn’t think it would go this far!’

“Sorry for teaching wrong.”

“It’s fine.”

“Good.”

“……”

Lee Han glanced at Professor Voladi and spoke again.

“I won’t forget everything you taught me. I’ll practice when I get back.”

“It’ll be great if you master it quickly. I’ll prepare the next spell. It’ll be a bit harder, but you should manage.”

“…Yes.”

Lee Han considered putting off practicing ice element magic for a while.

“By the way, is it alright if I come visit this fall?”

“It’s the middle of the Einrogard semester during fall, Alsicle.”

“Uh… When does the semester end?”

Alsicle tried counting on his fingers after Yumidihus’s reply.

If he stayed at school to the end of the year…

“I can’t leave, can I?!”

“So you thought a first-year could just leave school whenever he wanted?”

At Yumidihus’s exasperated rebuke, Lee Han flinched.

‘How did he know?’

“Can’t I visit instead?”

“If an outsider wants to visit, you’ll need permission from Lord Gonadaltes. That won’t be so easy.”

“Come on… Would a great mage like Lord Gonadaltes really make a fuss over that kind of thing? I’m sure he’ll graciously permit it.”

“?”

“?”

Lee Han and Yumidihus both looked puzzled.

“Well…”

“Anyway… do your best. If you ask nicely, maybe you’ll get permission.”

“Yes. I look forward to your visit.”

At Lee Han’s reply, Alsicle smiled brightly.

“Yeah! I’ll visit you in the fall!”

“Yes.”

As they got into the carriage and left the mage tower, Lee Han looked back. Alsicle’s waving figure lingered in his mind.

“…We’re not going to get dragged off to the punishment room after meeting the Headmaster, are we?”

“We should be fine. …Probably.”

• * *

Direte made his way to the Wardanaz Family residence with his friends.

“Senior, I heard a weird rumor… Apparently the professors got into a street brawl during vacation over trying to take the first-year from the Wardanaz Family—is that true?”

“How could that possibly be true?”

“Be more sensible, will you?”

Direte’s juniors in black magic chastised their friend.

“By the way, why does the Wardanaz heir want to learn black magic?”

“Are you ashamed of black magic?”

“A bit…?”

“…Actually, me too…”

“Everyone, quiet.”

Direte hushed his juniors.

Unlike other schools with many disciples, Einrogard’s black magic school was so small that all upper and lower classmates knew each other’s faces and names.

That wasn’t a bad thing.

Black mages already had it tough enough. If they didn’t stick together, it would get even harder.

So Direte made sure that, when possible, juniors met each other and had time to talk.

“I’m just worried the Wardanaz kid will take black magic lightly. I hear he’s a genius and learning other types of magic, but what if he’s just using black magic to pad his reputation?”

“I told you, he’s not that kind of person.”

Chided by Direte, the grumbling junior closed his mouth.

But the dissatisfaction didn’t go away.

‘Hmph. How do you know he’s not looking down on black magic…’

“!!!”

When the black mages arrived at the Wardanaz Family’s residence, they were astonished.

In the front yard, skeleton warriors holding ice-coated bone swords were lined up.

“…See. What did I tell you.”

“He’s really serious about black magic, huh.”

“I’ve never seen undead summoned in a mansion like this.”

“Is he crazy? What about the cleaning…?”

The juniors quickly admitted that the Wardanaz freshman really was sincere.

But whether the freshman was completely sane… they weren’t quite sure.