Episode 570

“Ah. That’s true.”

‘What do you mean, that’s true…’

The principal glanced sideways at his crazy student and continued.

Being able to hold a lot of mana also means you can inscribe a lot of spells. Besides, you have a rather large number of artifacts right now.

At the principal’s words, Lee Han looked himself over.

Bracelets, rings, belts, necklaces—he really did wear accessories like a jewelry merchant.

“It is a bit much.”

Actually, it’s not ‘a bit’, it’s just a lot. Right now, you rarely deal with high-level spells, but this habit of wearing so many artifacts in such a disorderly way isn’t good.

Artifacts, by their nature, hold their own internal magic and thus create their own magical flows and orders around them.

Of course, for a wizard who must control their own mana flow and create new order, these artifacts can’t help but have an influence.

Especially, the more artifacts you have, the greater the influence.

Even if it doesn’t cause an incident right away…

It can still impact spellcasting.

“Fortunately, I’ve been lucky enough to be okay.”

Lee Han answered, as if relieved.

Maybe because the artifacts were simple and many overlapped, they hadn’t affected his spellcasting.

Yeah. Haha. That’s a relief.

The principal almost said, ‘They probably did affect you, but you just cast without noticing,’ but stopped.

If someone wants to train with sandbags tied, there’s no reason to stop them.

Still, thinking of next year, you’ll need to organize your artifacts. It’s best to consolidate them all into the Behemoth bone this time.

“Understood.”

Lee Han nodded at the principal’s advice.

He was malicious, cunning, and devious, but when it came to magic, the principal had never been wrong.

And veteran wizards always understood exactly the interplay of the artifacts they wore.

How to use them to get a synergistic effect, and how to use them to avoid drawbacks.

‘Wait?’

As Lee Han felt satisfied, a question struck him.

“But principal… I’ll be a second-year next year. Will a second-year really be exposed to such dangerous high-level magic?”

That’s a very good point. Kind of like how a first-year would never meet the king of ghouls, right?

“……”

Lee Han was left speechless, unable to retort.

The principal fashioned the Behemoth bone into a crude necklace.

He made it loosely on purpose, so you can keep adding to it.

Behemoth bone’s large capacity made it easy to inscribe multiple spells within.

The principal wanted Lee Han to directly gain the experience of completing an artifact himself, adding new spells to the bone necklace as needed.

“Principal…”

Lee Han was a bit moved.

He hadn’t expected such thoughtful care from the principal.

Once you gain enough experience, you can help me make artifacts in place of -Bible- someday.

“Principal…”

Lee Han’s face hardened.

Enhancing the student’s skills for selfish reasons!

Vmmmmm—

First, the iron bracelet Professor Garcia had temporarily made was extracted.

The principal rolled up the magic circle inscription on the bracelet into a small spherical core, and fitted it into the bone necklace.

You’re watching how I do this, right? Next time, you’ll do it.

“Wait, just a little slower…”

I know you’re just whining. Next is the belt. This one’s too crude. Isn’t it time you graduated from this?

The principal clicked his tongue at the invisibility magic belt.

It was a belt that let you cast invisibility, but in exchange, it was cursed for mana absorption.

The problem was that the invisibility was crude.

It worked by bending light in a camouflage that confused vision, but the principal preferred one that disrupted conceptual perception entirely.

I’ll change it to a different method before I add it.

The principal extracted the sigil from the belt as well, formed a core, and fixed it into the bone necklace. The newly installed core and the previous one resonated, then settled peacefully.

“Ah!!!”

Why?

As Lee Han screamed, the principal looked at him as if to ask why.

“That belt could have been sold—why did you just wreck it?!”

What kind of lunatic would buy a cursed mana-absorbing item…

The principal was dumbfounded.

Sometimes eccentric black wizards would rant, “Pay for my bones!” when someone stepped on the bones in front of their tower, but this student was even worse than that.

“It could’ve been sold, though…”

Rather than just breaking it, I improved it and put it into the bone necklace for you.

“But you can’t sell the bone necklace.”

So what, I should have left the belt alone and copied the magic from scratch for the necklace?

“Oh! Would you do that?”

When Lee Han looked at him hopefully, the principal ignored him and went on to the next project.

The invisibility magic necklace.

This was made by the tower keeper who worked for the principal.

It was the same spell he just added, but adding duplicate spells to an artifact had meaning.

Sometimes identical spells had amplification effects.

With invisibility magic, for example, the area of effect expanded to those nearby (it originally only protected the wearer), so Lee Han often used it with friends.

As the principal added the core, he said,

You’ll be able to cast invisibility on others, too, right?

“Huh? No.”

What? I gave you a book, didn’t I? Didn’t it teach you?

“…Yes…”

Tsk. Should have made it more brutal and rough…

“……”

Lee Han slightly considered whether to bury the principal’s book deep in the ground after he returned.

Using artifacts isn’t bad, but over-relying on them is no good. Make sure you learn it yourself.

“Ah, yes.”

By the way, why do you carry so many flame-absorbing artifacts? Are you in the fire brigade?

“I’m worried about runaway fire magic…”

……

The unexpectedly pitiful answer just made the principal click his tongue instead of getting mad.

‘Wait. No, that’s not right.’

Now that he thought about it, wasn’t he wearing so many artifacts to make things harder—but then also carried the fire-absorption items for fear of fire spells running wild?

Truly a ridiculous guy.

The principal tossed away his sympathy and compressed the fire-absorbing artifact cores into the bone necklace.

Underwater breathing… well, not bad. Can always remove it if space runs short. Suppressing mana emission? Why do you carry a cursed artifact like that? Collecting curses?

“I use it now and then because it makes fine manipulation easier.”

The principal just smashed it. Lee Han let out a heartfelt scream.

“No!”

No what? That flimsy restriction’s not going to help you. It’s just a mental issue. Overcome it with willpower.

With ruthless skill, the principal finished consolidating the remaining artifacts into the bone necklace.

All that was left were things like the Ten Thousand Demons bracelet, the principal’s signal ring, and the poison-detecting silver spoon—non-wearable artifacts.

You don’t need antidote artifacts like these. Why not just smash them?

“Absolutely not. I’ll sell them if I have to.”

Lee Han answered seriously.

The principal, not really planning to smash them, brushed away the scraps and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, a deep red core, unlike anything Lee Han had seen before, materialized in the air. Like with the artifacts earlier, it was clearly a magic-compressed core.

Creak!

The principal fitted the core in cleanly.

“What’s this?”

It’s a secret. I put it in for you to figure out. Normally, I shouldn’t give out such perks. Haha.

“You could just leave it out, then…”

The principal pretended not to hear this.

He found it annoying that a student was so contrary even when given treasure, but talented students always were. Broad-mindedness was a teacher’s role.

For the next spell, think and decide for yourself—then add it in. Personally, I’d advise a defense spell.

Most of the magic in the bone necklace right now was support type.

And since the Wardanaz boy had more offensive means than he could possibly need, defense was the best fit.

If you had to categorize artifacts, defense types were always the most in demand.

Attack and support, a wizard could handle themselves, but surprise attacks that broke through defenses were hard to block.

As such, the high demand for defensive artifacts was natural since they so easily covered those gaps.

“Like a water shield?”

Not bad. But it’ll be a bit tough to make it activate automatically when attacked. Ask Professor Verdus about that.

“Um, don’t think I’ll need defensive magic…”

I completely understand not wanting to talk to Professor Verdus, but no matter how brilliant your talent, this isn’t easy to make alone.

“…Alright, I’ll ask…”

Come to think of it, you sure did mostly learn offensive magic.

The principal looked at his student anew.

Most wizards learned defensive magic first.

Unless they were battle mages on the battlefield, there usually wasn’t much fighting, so defense came first.

You’d have an escort in the future anyway, so why bother fighting yourself?

“Because you keep sending enemies at me, Principal.”

I don’t really get what you mean. Besides, your seniors still learned their defensive magic well, even in those circumstances. You really are an aggressive one.

“Didn’t you send the vampiric monster too?”

I have taste, you know. If I’d sent that, I swear on my true name I’d give up the principal’s seat to you.

“No… I don’t want that.”

You don’t need to be humble. You’ll get used to it. Anyway, learned any other defensive magic?

“Ah. I mastered the lightning cloak.”

……

The principal gave Lee Han the same look Professor Voladi did.

Does he intentionally choose only the hard spells?

• * *

A member of the Greenbell family, master of dance.

Lee Han’s face brightened as he spotted Professor Crinbal down the corridor.

There weren’t many professors who made you feel at ease when running into them in the hall.

Maybe Professor Garcia?

The principal and Professor Voladi were very dangerous types, and Professor Verdus was, if not dangerous, extremely exhausting.

By contrast, Professor Crinbal had never been a dangerous or tiring professor.

If Lee Han was lucky, Professor Crinbal might someday be classed as a safe and kind professor, like Professor Garcia.

“Hello, Professor.”

“……”

“??”

Lee Han was flustered to see Professor Crinbal, who was normally the brightest and most cheerful of all the professors, looking so grave.

“Professor?”

“Ah! Student Wardanaz! Sorry! I was lost in thought for a moment!”

“Is it because of finals?”

“How did you know?!”

“…?”

Lee Han felt even more confused.

‘Does Professor really have something to worry about for finals?’

Professor Crinbal had long ago (by Lee Han’s standard) declared he’d just breeze through finals.

-Everyone dances! Everyone enjoys themselves! Then everyone is the winner!

-Long live the Professor!!

Lee Han wondered if maybe the principal had objected to that teaching style.

“Is there some problem, Professor?”

“Ugh! Student Wardanaz! It’s not proper for a professor to say this, but I have no choice!”

Professor Crinbal beckoned Lee Han into an empty classroom.

Lee Han carefully checked his escape routes before entering.

“Student Wardanaz! You know about the giants of the mountain range, right? The giants know you well!”

“I know a little. But why…?”

“Sometimes I teach the giants to dance, but they said something weird! That they have to fight Student Wardanaz at finals!”

“……”