Episode 174
Episode 174
The reason Lee Han hadn't disclosed his plan to enter the underground dungeon in front of Professor Voladi was simple.
...It was utterly impossible to predict how she would react.
Professor Voladi was the most unpredictable among all professors.
He had no choice but to be extra cautious.
"A picnic? But we're here to conquer the underground dungeon, aren't we?"
However, a tactless White Tiger Tower student asked in obvious confusion.
Lee Han gritted his teeth and muttered under his breath.
"Shut up..."
"Huh? I can't hear you. Wardanaz. What's this about a picnic? And why do we have to turn back?"
Lee Han regretted not knocking the guy unconscious right away.
But by then, Professor Voladi had already climbed the stairs and was standing before the students.
The White Tiger Tower student who had just spoken quickly straightened his posture upon noticing the professor's arrival.
"Good day, Professor."
"What's going on here?"
Lee Han swiftly intercepted the answer.
"We were just heading underground for a group picnic—"
"Wardanaz gathered us to conquer the underground dungeon."
'Should I just kill him?'
Professor Voladi listened expressionlessly before scanning the hallway with her cold gaze.
Her eyes fell upon the students who had finished their preparations and were about to descend into the underground dungeon.
Lee Han could see the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of Professor Voladi's lips.
His anger toward the White Tiger Tower student evaporated instantly, replaced by icy terror.
"Well done."
"...It's really nothing worth mentioning."
Lee Han spoke carefully, trying to gauge what the professor was thinking.
"Consistent training is essential for improvement, yet few mages actually commit to it. Keep up the good work."
"We're only going because we need materials for the midterm exams, Professor."
"There were other dungeons you could have chosen."
"...We didn't have enough time to search for them..."
"I see."
Professor Voladi nodded.
A skilled mage could achieve multiple objectives with a single action.
When materials could be obtained from the underground dungeon, weak and lazy mages would choose the easy route, while promising combat mages deliberately sought out challenges to hone themselves.
Wardanaz was precisely that kind of mage.
"Coincidentally, I just finished managing that dungeon."
"......"
If this were some remote, naturally occurring dungeon, no one would care if monsters burst out or anomalies occurred. But the dungeons within the Magic School were different.
If the monsters inside ran amok, the first things to be destroyed would be the professors' workshops.
Even someone like Professor Voladi periodically inspected the dungeons, checking their internal conditions—the flow of mana, the number of monsters, whether there were signs of them going berserk and breaking out, and so on.
But to Lee Han, her words carried a slightly different implication.
'Last time, wasn't it because she specially prepared things for me that the disaster didn't happen?'
A chilling unease crept down his spine.
Unaware of Lee Han's thoughts, his friends expressed their gratitude.
"Thank you, Professor."
"We'll be careful!"
"Wow, she's way nicer than the rumors say!"
"See? You can't trust gossip."
"......"
"Burn."
A flame the size of two knuckles flickered into existence in midair.
The advantage of fire elementals was that even low-circle spells could pack enough destructive power.
The Hungry Ghost struck by the flames summoned by the Phoenix Tower priest immediately slowed down.
"Burn!"
"Incinerate!"
Even the simplest 1st Circle Magic, <Flame Creation>, became far more potent when layered by multiple students.
The Hungry Ghost was engulfed in flames and collapsed in seconds.
"Impressive."
At Lee Han's praise, the priests nodded lightly.
The White Tiger Tower students following behind scoffed in disdain.
"Using magic with so many people just to take down a single one—what's so great about that?"
"Such a waste of mana. Combat is meant to be done with swords, after all."
The White Tiger Tower students confidently spoke while preparing to enchant their wooden swords with Enhancement Magic.
Lee Han, who still held a grudge from their earlier loose tongues in front of Professor Voladi, replied coldly,
"Go ahead, draw your swords. Let's see if you can block my magic too."
"W-Wardanaz... Why so serious all of a sudden...?"
"W-We were a bit rude to the priests, weren't we...?"
The White Tiger Tower students were startled by Lee Han's expression.
They hadn't expected Wardanaz to glare so harshly just over a few taunts.
'Oops. What am I doing?'
Lee Han quickly snapped out of it.
He needed to work together with these students, yet here he was starting off on the wrong foot...
"My apologies. I spoke too harshly."
"N-No, it's fine. We were the ones being rude to the priests."
Ashan wiped under his nose with a proud expression.
Someone who stood up for another's honor was truly honorable.
He felt proud to have such a person as his friend.
"I'm proud of you, Wardanaz."
"??"
Lee Han stared at Ashan as if he were some strange creature.
"Hold on. Not that way—we're taking this path instead."
"Hungry Ghosts are out. White Tiger Tower, handle them."
"Be careful near that wall. It's a spot where Hungry Ghosts like to hide."
"Watch your step. The mud's deep."
Once refocused, Lee Han issued a rapid series of commands.
At first, the students followed without much thought, but gradually, they began to feel something was off.
'...Huh?'
'How does he know all this?'
Of course, since Wardanaz was the one who discovered this dungeon, it wasn't strange that he knew the entrance well.
But even as they ventured deeper, Wardanaz seemed to have the entire dungeon mapped out.
As if he had been here multiple times.
"Wardanaz knows this dungeon way too well..."
"Wasn't the professor earlier the one who teaches <Repetitive Training in Basic Magic Combat>? I heard that class is weird—did he hold lectures here?"
"Stop with the ridiculous jokes. What kind of insane class would take place in a dungeon like this?"
Listening to the White Tiger Tower students chatter, Nilia closed her eyes.
Wardanaz wasn't the type to easily earn others' sympathy, but this time, she genuinely pitied him.
To have gone through such a class...
The narrow passage ended, opening into a wide plaza-like terrain spacious enough for all the students to gather in one place.
Lee Han spoke gravely.
"Alright. From here on out, you really need to be careful."
"Wardanaz, you can stop worrying so much now."
The White Tiger Tower students' confidence had grown considerably after handling the Hungry Ghosts on the way down.
In fact, not just them—students from other towers also looked noticeably more relaxed.
Compared to how tense they had been at the start, the descent had gone smoothly.
"From here on, Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts appear."
"......"
"......"
"...Stop lying."
"I'm not lying. Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts appear from this point onward, so we'll move while avoiding their territory."
The structure of Professor Voladi's underground dungeon, which Lee Han had been forced to learn, was as follows:
First, narrow passages leading underground from the entrance.
Here, Hungry Ghosts lurked, jumping out to startle the mages.
Further down, the terrain opened into wide plaza-like areas.
These open spaces rarely had Hungry Ghosts—unless some madman deliberately gathered monsters there.
And beyond that lay the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost zones.
The terrain widened significantly to accommodate their massive size, but it also became more complex.
A vast rocky valley with natural caves scattered throughout.
If this weren't an underground dungeon, Lee Han might have even found it picturesque.
"There are caves all along the descending path. Some of them house Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts. They're gluttonous monsters that sleep inside their caves until they detect prey. So as long as we steer clear of those caves, we won't have to fight them."
"How can we tell which ones have them?"
"I'll give the signal."
"How can we trust your signal, Wardanaz? How would you even know?"
"If you don't trust me, go in and check for yourself."
"N-no, I was just asking..."
The student who had pressed the question unnecessarily shrank back as Lee Han's expression darkened.
One of the Black Turtle Tower students tilted his head and muttered,
"Wardanaz seems unusually sharp about this."
"It's probably because this place is dangerous. He's the responsible type, after all."
None of the students could have guessed that Lee Han had risked his life scouting these caves in the underground dungeon valley first.
How much farther had they descended?
Avoiding the caves as much as possible, the students brightened at the sight of clustered plants.
Priestess Siana's eyes gleamed as she whispered excitedly,
"It really is the Bone-Reviving Flower!"
"We found it."
Two or three students from each tower stepped forward and began carefully harvesting the flowers.
The rest stood guard, keeping watch in all directions. Though they had avoided the caves with Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts, there was always the possibility of the unexpected.
"Wait. Is that a light?"
One of the White Tiger Tower students on guard pointed toward a spot behind a rock on the steep slope below.
Though some distance away, a faint bluish glow was emanating from it.
"That is a light, right? Could it be an artifact?"
Derqu cautiously spoke up.
"We shouldn't move recklessly."
"But Wardanaz said there were no Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts in that cave. It should be fine."
"That may be, but just in case—"
Before Derqu could finish, the White Tiger Tower student grabbed a torch and carefully made his way down the steep slope.
Then he checked behind the rock. There it was—a helmet emitting a soft blue glow.
"An artifact! It's an artifact! Derqu, look at this!"
"I see it! Just hurry back!"
"Alright, I'm coming now!"
The White Tiger Tower student turned to climb back up the slope.
—■■■...
Before he realized it, a Rakshasa Hungry Ghost had emerged from behind the rock, growling as it fixed its gaze on him.
"...!"
The sudden appearance of the monster stiffened the student's muscles. His hand slipped, his weight shifted, and the rocks beneath him gave way.
In an instant, the path crumbled, leaving him trapped below with the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost.
Derqu panicked and called out to Lee Han.
"Lee Han!"
"!"
Lee Han reacted immediately, sensing the urgency in Derqu's voice.
"What's—"
He didn't even need to ask. The situation was clear.
A White Tiger Tower student stranded at the bottom of the steep slope with a Rakshasa Hungry Ghost.
'Wait. That cave was definitely empty earlier.'
Lee Han couldn't understand it.
Sure, the White Tiger Tower student had carelessly gone down, but how had the Rakshasa Hungry Ghost appeared when there were none nearby?
For a brief moment, Professor Voladi's face flashed through Lee Han's mind.
—I just finished maintaining the dungeon.
"......"
Was it possible that Professor Voladi had deliberately placed a roaming Rakshasa Hungry Ghost to give Lee Han a proper challenge the next time he entered?
"Hold on! I'm coming to help!"
Realizing his mistake, Lee Han spoke firmly to cover it up.
If he left things as they were, the blame could easily shift to him—"Huh? Lee Han said there were no Rakshasa Hungry Ghosts here, so why did one appear?"
The White Tiger Tower student who had fallen below was even more shocked.
He had fully expected the Wardanaz bastard to abandon him, muttering "You brought this on yourself."
Derqu, as if he had anticipated this, shouted,
"Just hold on! Lee Han's coming to help!"
"What's going on?"
"A White Tiger Tower idiot fell down!"
"Why?"
"No idea! Probably went to pick something up!"
"What an idiot!"
Lee Han cut off the complaints from his friends.
"Anyone can make a mistake. That's enough."
"Wardanaz...!"