Episode 723
by CristaeBlack Turtle Tower, Renjid looked up at the building with a nervous face.
It was just an old, shabby seven-story building, but to the determined Renjid, it somehow felt classy and traditional.
‘Yeah. I’m joining the Iactus Soup Club.’
He had seriously considered the smuggling club or the outing club due to the suggestions from friends in the same tower, but in the end, Renjid chose the kitchen club.
The history and philosophy of the kitchen club moved Renjid’s heart, who came from a chef’s family.
‘Last year, honestly, there were hardly any ingredients, so I could barely call anything I made cooking. If I join the kitchen club, I’ll be able to use plenty of ingredients. They say there’s mountains of them…’
Never imagining that so many seniors had been duped the same way, Renjid gulped and took a step forward.
-Wahaha! You’ve made up your mind. Welcome, welcome!
Senior Falkrius warmly welcomed Renjid.
As he pulled himself out of the hug, Renjid staggered, moaning in pain.
“Ugh, my ribs…”
“Renjid?”
“W-Wardanaz!”
Renjid recognized Lee Han and brightened.
They were from a different tower, but this friend from House Wardanaz was someone he could trust.
“As expected. You got here first. I’ll be in your care. I decided to join this time, too.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Lee Han looked at Renjid with a complicated expression.
The club’s actual situation was probably very different from what Renjid was expecting…
“So? Wardanaz? How’s the club atmosphere? What about the seniors?”
Before Renjid could finish his question, a shout came from behind.
“Wardanaz! Where’s Wardanaz!?”
“Junior Wardanaz. Let’s think about tomorrow’s dish together! Let’s join forces and make a profit that will go down in club history…”
“Well then. I’ll be on my way.”
Lee Han quickly slipped out.
Renjid stared after him, surprised.
Wha…
What in the world happened!?
The person in charge of the -Staff Materials and Magical Amplification- class was the most wicked and despicable person at Einrogard.
“Hello, Professor.”
Professor Verdus kept his head down, focusing entirely on the staff he was working on, even as Lee Han greeted him.
Lee Han glanced at the staff. The staff sitting on Professor Verdus’s desk gave off a unique magical wave like none he’d seen before.
‘Amazing.’
The more you learned and mastered magic, the more new and awe-inspiring it became as a field of study.
Things that you’d previously passed by in ignorance became visible as your knowledge widened.
Last year, he would have just sensed it and thought ‘there’s dense magic compressed into the staff,’ but after learning spell-shortening and spell-storing from Professor Voladi, he could see other things.
‘That’s a magic to enhance telekinesis control, then one to boost telekinesis output, and then one to broaden the range of telekinesis…’
If a wizard who mainly used telekinesis spells got hold of this staff with its finely linked effects, who knew what kind of firepower they could unleash.
After admiring it, Lee Han approached Professor Verdus. Gathering mana and spreading it through his body, he shouted in the professor’s ear.
“HELLO, PROFESSOR!!!”
Professor Verdus was startled and looked up.
Then, seeing Lee Han, he exclaimed,
“Speak quietly! You’ll shake the staff!”
“I greeted you quietly at first.”
“You just have to greet me quietly enough for me to hear!”
Lee Han simply smiled.
Professor Verdus, never imagining that Lee Han would ever yell in his ear again, gestured for him to sit.
“Anyway, sit. Good that you’re here.”
“You need my mana, don’t you?”
Another professor would have at least pretended to refuse out of courtesy, but Professor Verdus nodded confidently.
“That’s right! Do you know how inconvenient it was when you left campus for the break?”
“Oh dear. It’s such a pity the rules require us to leave during break.”
“If you have special circumstances, you can stay. Just apply.”
‘Special circumstances? What, like plotting a professor’s murder?’
From Lee Han’s perspective, it seemed like no one in Einrogard’s long history had ever stayed during break.
“I’ll consider it. So, where do I use my mana?”
“Here and here.”
Professor Verdus pointed to a jumble of gems on the worktable.
One was an opaque gray gem with wind elements swirling inside, and the other a white gem radiating a subtle light, condensing pure power.
“Just these two?”
“Huh? Everything in between them too!”
“……”
In essence, he was being told to imbue every material on the table with mana.
Lee Han’s smile deepened.
“But professor, today’s lecture is -Staff Materials and Magical Amplification-.”
“Yeah. Charge them with magic.”
“I’d like to ask some questions about the lecture before I do. That’s my fair right.”
“Can’t you ask after charging mana?”
Lee Han pretended not to hear.
Once he finished charging mana, Professor Verdus would disappear into his own world.
“Why am I the only student here?”
“Why ask me? Ask the other students.”
‘Unnecessarily logical. Makes me want to hit him.’
Sure, technically you’d have to ask the students why they weren’t here.
Still, the professor should have some idea…
“What’s this lecture about?”
“A class about charging mana.”
“What else do we do?”
When his tricks didn’t work, Professor Verdus reluctantly explained:
The ultimate purpose of this class, in truth, was for attending students to make their own staff.
“…?”
Lee Han couldn’t believe his ears.
Of course, among outstanding enchantment wizards, those who majored in artifactology could make staves.
But in reverse, that meant you usually needed that level of expertise to make a staff.
A staff played a core role in the wizard’s transformation of the world through will—a complicated and unstable process. It also had various functions like amplification and channeling.
The role a staff played in magic was so varied it was impossible to list them all.
Naturally, staff creation was not an ordinary task…
“Can a second-year make something like that?”
“Why ask me?”
‘I really want to hit him.’
When Professor Verdus used the same logic as earlier, Lee Han used the same excuse he did before.
“Professor. My mana is suddenly running low, and it’s hard to recharge. If you don’t answer properly, I don’t think my mana will rise.”
“Since we’re not making something so complex, you can probably do it, can’t you?”
Professor Verdus answered kindly—immediately.
Of course, Lee Han didn’t trust him at all.
‘Professor Verdus’s sense of difficulty is pretty much broken.’
If the professor said it was easy, it was difficult; if he said it was difficult, it was impossible.
“Why do you say it’s not complex?”
“See this?”
“Yes.”
“See what magical combination it is?”
“Yes.”
The two prodigies carried on a conversation that would have brought tears of despair to other wizards.
The staff Professor Verdus was working on was far too advanced to be used as a teaching aid for students.
It was an artifact made on order from the -Green Jade Magic Tower-, a group of telekinesis wizards.
Naturally, since it was an outside order, the spells inside were high-end and security was tight.
If you could figure out the spells inside just from looking, the artifact’s vulnerabilities would be too obvious, so a certain amount of security was essential.
Not only was it a difficult spell, but extra magic was cast for secrecy—yet Professor Verdus, instead of explaining, declared it was fine to just look and move on.
But neither Professor Verdus nor Lee Han cared. Both were odd wizards themselves.
“What you students will do is nothing like this. You just need to get the materials right.”
“Materials…”
Instead of threading any special spell into the staff, it meant as long as you got the proportions right, it would work.
Of course, that wasn’t easy either. Not only staff components, but their shape and balance could affect the magic as well.
‘But that’s still much better.’
“If I worked at it all year, I might pull it off.”
“You have to. What if you can’t?”
“Professor. My mana’s suddenly…”
“It’s fine if you can’t!”
After teasing Professor Verdus enough, Lee Han prepared to get to work.
Originally, both carrot and stick should be used together—if you only use the stick, it’s just a stick.
“How much mana?”
“As much as possible.”
Crack!
The gem in Lee Han’s hand shattered.
“Was I supposed to break it?”
“Only until it doesn’t break, of course!”
“……”
Professor Verdus immediately forgot his previous careless comment and scolded his student.
“You told me to do it as much as possible.”
“Did I? With all your mana, don’t overdo it.”
“Yes…”
After channeling mana, Lee Han sensitively spread his perception to sense any cracks in the gem.
If he detected any cracks or signs it might break, he had to stop instantly.
With his student quickly channeling and charging mana, Professor Verdus began to work at nearly twice his normal pace, obviously in high spirits.
“Next!”
“Here you go.”
“Next!”
“Here.”
“Hurry! Next!”
“Professor, if I go too fast my mana might suddenly…”
“Slow down!”
While the two worked, third-year students began coming in one by one.
They stared at Lee Han and Professor Verdus with bewildered eyes.
…Who’s that?
“Did we have someone like that in our year?”
“Isn’t he a fourth-year senior?”
“There was someone like that among the fourth-years…?”
Einrogard’s classes didn’t technically have year restrictions, but in practice, they might as well.
A second-year rarely had any reason to take a class mostly listened to by third-years.
Sometimes an upperclassman, for truly unavoidable reasons, would beg to attend a lower-year’s lecture, but that wasn’t common.
So for the third-years coming to -Staff Materials and Magical Amplification-, Lee Han was a truly foreign figure.
He wasn’t in their year; seeing him helping Professor Verdus, he seemed like a fourth-year. But was there such a fourth-year?
“Um. Professor. Other people are here.”
“I have eyes and ears, don’t I?”
“…Shouldn’t you be teaching? Wait, isn’t this -Staff Materials and Magical Amplification-?”
Lee Han was startled that all the faces were unfamiliar.
At least with the other students in his year, they’d worked here and there together, so he vaguely remembered their faces.
“That’s right. Aren’t you a senior?”
“Excuse me?”
“Aren’t you a fourth-year senior? Don’t worry too much. You can take third-year classes.”
“I’m a second-year…”
“……”
“……”
The classroom chilled as the third-years began whispering.
“Did Professor Verdus combine two classes out of laziness?”
“No way… but maybe.”
“But wasn’t he helping out?”
As the atmosphere grew strange, Lee Han hurried to explain.
“Seniors, I’m taking this class, too. Not a different one.”
“This class? Isn’t it too hard? You might want to switch while you can.”
“Wardanaz doesn’t matter.”
Professor Verdus, annoyed at the noise, waved a hand.
“Wardanaz? Is that him?!”
“Looks like him?”
“He really is on another level…!”
That was the end of it. The seniors quickly accepted it and got to work at their stations.
“……”
Only Lee Han was left unconvinced, staring intently at the seniors.