Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“Summoning mages must necessarily possess broad knowledge and flexibility regarding multiple dimensions…”

As Professor Milei’s explanation began, the eyes of several students wavered.

Once they entered second year and summoning magic began entering a proper domain, the difficulty of every single explanation rose sharply.

And while Professor Milei was not an unkind professor like Professor Verdus, she was also not someone who postponed explanations out of consideration for the students.

As a result…

Did someone cast sleep magic?

Lee Han looked around in astonishment.

Far away, Raphaedel could be seen stabbing a quill into a thigh, trying not to doze off.

Maybe the professor is doing this out of consideration for the students.

Professor Milei’s theory drove fear from the students and summoned drowsiness instead.

Even the students who had wanted to run away earlier could not bring themselves to stand up and were nodding off.

“What did I just say, Student Raphaedel?”

“Yes? Yes!?”

“Focus! Everyone, do not forget to focus. If you cannot focus like this even in a classroom, how are you supposed to focus in another dimension?”

The elderly professor struck the table with her staff and scolded the students firmly.

Mages who reached a certain realm all tended to take an interest in other dimensions, in worlds beyond.

It was only natural, given that they could make use of resources approaching infinity, beyond the resources of the current continent.

And summoning mages were people whose specialty was calling forth the power of such other dimensions.

There were also spells that summoned a mage’s personal creations without using the power of another dimension, like the Skeleton Legion Lee Han commanded. But even then, one could not be entirely indifferent to dealing with other dimensions.

The problem was that these outside worlds were not such convenient and safe spaces.

Since near-infinite worlds could appear before a mage at any time and in any way, summoning mages had to know how to prepare for that.

Especially unlike determinate dimensions, which mages had visited frequently and knew much about, indeterminate dimensions were…

You don’t know what will come out.

Could focusing in a dimension where one did not know what might appear actually save one’s life?

RUSTLE—

While Lee Han was wondering about that, Professor Milei displayed a huge map on the blackboard. The map depicted some nameless dimension.

Red-Heat Realm—Fire and iron found. ?, ??, ????, ???

Ice-Void Realm—Icebergs and sea found. Insufficient food for living creatures. ???, ??

Rainforest Realm—Giant plants. Food is abundant, but monster danger is high. ???

…

The map had many blank spaces, but there was also a great deal of information filled in.

Professor Milei looked at the students and said,

“This is the dimension all of you will visit and investigate this semester.”

All the students woke from their drowsiness and blinked. Gainando muttered with spiteful satisfaction.

“Lee Han, Lee Han.”

“?”

“Salco probably thought it would be enough to avoid just today, but that was a mistake! What a fool!”

Gainando rejoiced as if the semester had already ended.

Clicking his tongue at the sight of Gainando rejoicing in a friend’s tragedy, Lee Han took out <Whispers of Einroguard> and left Salco a message.

-Salco. You had better come back. Apparently we’re not going in only today. We’re going in all semester.

-…D-don’t lie.

But Salco soon returned.

Professor Milei raised her eyebrows slightly but did not point it out.

After all, Salco was likely neither the first nor the last student to attempt an escape from the classroom.

“This dimension is rather wider than expected, and the nature of each area differs. Since you do not know which of these areas you will fall into, you will need to prepare for all of them before entering.”

To the second-year students, Professor Milei’s figure as she adjusted her monocle looked like that of an executioner.

One student asked in a desperate voice,

“Uh, can’t we visit a safe dimension like we did in first year?”

Professor Milei shook her head strictly.

“There is nothing to gain from visiting such dimensions several times. Your skill improves when you visit an unknown dimension and complete its map.”

“…Would the Rainforest Realm be better? Should we pray to draw the Rainforest Realm?”

“Having plenty of food and high monster danger looks way more dangerous. I’d rather pray to enter the Ice-Void Realm.”

While the students whispered among themselves, Lee Han felt puzzled and raised his hand to ask a question.

“Professor. I have a question.”

“Go ahead, Student Lee Han.”

“If there is this much information about the dimension, isn’t it not a complete indeterminate dimension?”

“…Student Lee Han, do you perhaps want to go to a completely indeterminate dimension?”

Professor Milei asked with faint horror.

The friends who had been whispering also looked at Lee Han with eyes full of horror.

“W-Wardanaz. Why are you doing this?”

“Please. We can just take this lecture normally. What did we do wrong??”

“…I just asked because I was curious…”

He had asked, as a matter of scholarly definition, whether a dimension understood to that degree could really be called an indeterminate dimension. Yet this was the reaction he got.

Lee Han felt slightly hurt and muttered inwardly.

But strictly speaking, it still isn’t an indeterminate dimension.

If that much information had already been secured, it could not be called an indeterminate dimension.

“Everyone, prepare signal magic.”

“Bring cold-weather items.”

The second-year students ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) gathered in a swarm and made plans.

Professor Milei watched them with a strict attitude, but inwardly she was pleased.

Unlike other years, these students knew how to join forces in this kind of situation.

Apart from magical achievement or talent, this unity might be their greatest strength.

“Hey, hand over that blanket!”

“Why are you telling us to hand it over when our tower made this?”

“What do you mean your tower made it! Did you forget who brought the materials?! Do you know what we had to do to get this leather?”

“……”

Of course, there were minor disputes, but the students reconciled quickly.

Once Lee Han started smacking the backs of the students, the arguing students immediately shut their mouths and began yielding to each other.

“Check the food.”

“Everyone secured some, right?”

“!”

Professor Milei was surprised to see that the students’ food supplies were far more abundant than expected.

That was an amount second-year students could never have secured.

Could it have been then…

At the start of this semester, she had pretended not to see several students loitering around the underground storehouse disguised as workers…

…No. That alone would make it difficult for all of them to have this much.

That amount was impossible to explain unless they had brought several carriages from behind.

After pondering it, Professor Milei lightly shrugged. Was it not a good thing if the students ate their fill?

Of course, the Skull Principal would grumble, but that could not be helped.

“My food bag feels a bit lighter?”

“Stop talking nonsense and move your hand.”

“We should have made heat-resistant items.”

“That would’ve been too much.”

Because of the Frost Giant’s blizzard last year, they had cold-weather items they had made in advance, but unfortunately, they had no heat-resistant items.

The students tried to resolve it as much as possible with spells they could cast on the spot.

“People who can cast <Low-Grade Flame Resistance> and <Low-Grade Cold Resistance>, gather here.”

“Leather, blankets, cloth, or cloaks are fine too. Put as many as possible on items with wide surface area and take them in.”

“It’s best if Wardanaz casts them because they last a long time…”

“Don’t talk like you’re spoiled. Just take what you can get!”

After preparing firmly enough to endure no matter which area they fell into, the students finished their plan.

-Once we land, we check our surroundings and identify which area it is.

-After that, we complete the map while approaching the central area and heading toward the highest place.

-On the way, we use signal magic or markings to regroup as much as possible.

“Everyone, don’t forget that the faster we regroup, the easier it will be to complete the map.”

“It seems everyone is ready.”

Professor Milei, who had been waiting, gestured.

The students walked out with resigned faces.

The dimensional magic circle installed in the center was emitting even more violent and irregular mana than before.

“Then… depart!”

At the professor’s instruction, the students began stepping forward.

Watching the students flash one by one as they visited another dimension, Professor Milei nodded.

At this rate, they may complete it far faster than other years.

Not only the students’ level, but the way they prepared together raised the professor’s expectations.

Thinking that, Professor Milei reverse-summoned the summoned creature she had placed at the back of the classroom.

It was a summoned creature that emitted colorless and odorless smoke that made students drowsy.

Starting from second-year lectures, she placed these small obstacles in the classroom to train the students’ concentration.

Hmm. Considering Student Lee Han, I may need to prepare something stronger…

*****

Gainando, who landed on the ice, discovered a Blue Dragon Tower student ahead and nearly jumped for joy.

“Lee Han!”

“……”

“…Wait, that’s Adenart!”

Gainando and Adenart looked at each other with contempt.

Given the nature of the dimension, where no one knew where they would irregularly land, immediately meeting a student from the same tower like this was tremendous luck, but…

…Why did it have to be these two?

Hmph. Still, I should be the first to show kindness.

After grumbling inwardly for a bit, Gainando decided to be good-hearted.

As the far superior imperial, should he not behave more maturely?

“Let’s move together, Adenart.”

“…Let’s do that.”

“Take this.”

Gainando took out a sandwich, cut it cleanly in half, and held it out. It meant he wanted them to get along from now on.

The sandwich, packed generously with ham, cheese, lettuce, crushed egg, and mayonnaise, looked appetizing at a glance.

Adenart glanced at Gainando as if surprised, then accepted it.

“Thank you.”

“Of course you should be thankful. Do you know how good this is?”

“……”

Adenart briefly considered taking back the thanks, but held it in because she did not want to fall to a level similar to Gainando’s.

“How did you make it?”

“Lee Han gave it to me earlier. Oh. Right. You know?”

“?”

Once the topic of the friend came up, Gainando chattered excitedly.

“I originally asked for a snack, you know? But Lee Han said he couldn’t give me a separate snack. So I said I’d get the filling separately, and asked him to just give me two pieces of bread.”

Unlike what other friends misunderstood, Lee Han was not someone who gave Gainando food unconditionally just because Gainando whined for it.

Unless he accomplished something truly amazing, no separate reward came out.

It was the strictness one naturally had to possess as the person managing the food for the four towers, not only Blue Dragon Tower.

“You asked for two pieces of bread just like that?”

“I-I took on some chores in exchange, okay??”

At the cold gaze from his half-sister, Gainando found himself making excuses without meaning to.

“It was a fair trade.”

“I see.”

Adenart was about to say, “To buy two pieces of white bread with chores in Einroguard, you would have to work all half-year,” but she held back once again because her foolish younger brother would get angry.

“So earlier, before departure, I asked if I could receive the two pieces of bread, and Lee Han gave me this. But when I opened the paper wrapping, this came out! Do you get it? Adenart. This is friendship! Secretly putting food inside an Einroguard sandwich…”

“!”

Adenart, who had been quietly listening, let out a sharp cry filled with anger and began firing attack spells at Gainando.

Even as he ran away, Gainando screamed without knowing why.

“What?! What is it?!”