Episode 375
Episode 375
Cough cough. "How peculiar."
While the seniors were struggling to maintain their dignity, Professor Mortum was inspecting the inner passage of the ruins.
Watcher Golems had appeared to block their path, but truthfully, they weren't much of an obstacle.
Considering the ruins they'd seen so far, it wouldn't have been surprising if there were far more dangerous traps lying in wait.
"What's the matter?"
"There's hardly anything inside."
Diret nodded at the professor's words.
Indeed, for ruins this well-preserved, the resistance was unusually weak. Aside from the Watcher Golems stationed at the entrance, there were no other enemies in sight.
Cough. "Darkness, stretch forth and resonate... Still nothing. Cough. Truly strange."
Professor Mortum, having cast various detection spells into the inner passage of the ruins, stared into the darkness, lost in thought.
"Perhaps... No."
"What are you thinking?"
"I wondered if these ruins might have an owner. Cough. If they did, they wouldn't bother with pointless traps."
Most ruins discovered by Imperial mages had long since lost their original owners to the distant past.
But occasionally, ruins with living owners still existed.
In such cases, mages found themselves in a rather awkward situation.
It was practically trespassing on someone else's land...
"If there were an owner, we wouldn't have gotten in this easily, right?"
Diret tilted his head in confusion.
If the ruins were properly maintained by a living owner, there should have been signs before they entered—warnings to deter outsiders, or even servants patrolling the perimeter to block intruders.
But here, the outer ruins were completely empty, and even after entering, there wasn't a single trace of life. The chances of an owner being present were slim.
Cough. "You're right. If there were an owner, the place wouldn't be this neglected. Unless they were trapped somewhere or recovering from severe injuries..."
Squelch!
"!"
Professor Mortum and Lee Han were the first to sense the shift in the mana flow within the palace ruins.
Lee Han glanced around. The walls, floor, and ceiling near the palace entrance had begun to undulate like viscous slime.
Transformation Magic could alter the properties and forms of materials, but he never expected to witness a spell of this scale firsthand.
"Everyone, don't move!"
Sensing the abnormality in the unfolding situation, Professor Mortum immediately took action.
Gone was his usual sickly, coughing demeanor—his eyes glowed as he swung his staff.
"By my command, open the path of Yin! The ropes of darkness shall bind!"
In an instant, a gate connected to the Negative Dimension formed behind the students, and dark-element ropes shot out from within.
Originally, this spell used dark elements to briefly drag enemies into the Negative Dimension, but Professor Mortum repurposed it as a form of Teleportation Magic.
With this adaptation, it became a powerful defensive spell capable of temporarily shielding the students.
The students emerged beside Professor Mortum after passing through the Negative Dimension, dizzy and nauseous from the sudden exposure to dark elements.
Rumble!
But the professor's judgment was quickly proven right.
The once-stable floor beneath them began to undulate and sink, while the walls closed in as if to collide, erasing and reshaping the space.
Had they tried to physically move the students, some would have fallen through the gaps.
"P-Professor!"
Crack!
Professor Mortum stretched out a hand to calm the frightened student and began bringing the surrounding bones under his control.
In the dark void where the solid floor had once been, a massive bone platform formed. The remaining bones wrapped around it like walls.
Only then could the students let out sighs of relief.
"Professor!"
"Calm down. The floor disappearing isn't that dangerous of a trap. Seeing how it reacts like this, this ruin doesn't seem too—"
"No, a junior disappeared!"
"!!!"
When only he was left behind as his seniors were teleported to the Negative Dimension, Lee Han initially thought he must have done something wrong to offend Professor Mortum.
'Did I do something wrong?'
But seeing the dark elements that tried to envelop him get repelled along with the dimensional rift, he realized what had happened.
'Professor...! If you're going to apply attack magic so carelessly...!'
Just as poisons and other curses had been repelled earlier, when Professor Mortum's magic was also deflected, Lee Han felt more dumbfounded than terrified.
Feeling the sensation of the floor disappearing and himself falling, Lee Han immediately activated his iron sphere.
"Move!"
It wasn't originally meant to withstand falls, nor was it powerful enough to support someone of Lee Han's weight, but his brute-force mana pinned the iron sphere in midair as if nailed there.
A strong impact shot up through his shoulders.
Lee Han gritted his teeth and poured mana throughout his body to endure.
"Feet, grasp the earth... Space, be perceived!"
In preparation for any unforeseen circumstances, he cast Enhancement Magic and Spatial Perception. Though everything around him still swayed uncertainly, the magic restored his sense of distance.
'There's ground below!'
Lee Han summoned a sphere of light. Then, adjusting the position of his iron sphere, he began descending downward.
He swore to himself that upon returning to the magic school, he would prioritize learning slow-fall magic first.
'I should've learned it right after hunting the Rock Drake... This suffering is what I get for slacking off.'
Lee Han lamented.
It wasn't for nothing that professors always said, "Studying isn't for others—it's all for your own sake."
He resolved to study more diligently in the second semester.
Thud!
"?!"
As he descended safely, something suddenly plummeted past him, making Lee Han turn his head in alarm.
"What the—"
"My... my arm..."
"Senior!"
Second-year senior Ogoldos was rolling on the ground nearby, groaning in pain.
Unlike Lee Han, Ogoldos hadn't been composed enough to chant spells while falling through midair.
Had he not cushioned his fall with pre-summoned undead, it wouldn't just be his arm—his entire body would have been shattered.
"Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine. It's nothing."
Ogoldos waved him off with a pale face, sweating cold sweat, unwilling to show weakness in front of a junior.
As a senior by a year, he didn't want to appear vulnerable.
Moreover, hadn't Ogoldos once suspected that Lee Han and other top juniors like Gainando weren't truly serious about Black Magic?
He couldn't possibly accept help from a junior he'd said such things about.
"Your arm is broken."
"I said I'm fine. I'll just splint—"
By their second year at Einrogard, students could handle emergency treatment for most non-fatal injuries.
Ogoldos tried to raise his staff and chant a spell, but the pain made it difficult. His incantations kept misfiring, and his mana scattered.
"Senior. Let me handle it."
"I said—"
Growing impatient, Lee Han hesitated briefly before grabbing Ogoldos' shoulder and pinning him down forcefully.
Sure, getting on the Skeleton Principal's bad side would make his years at the magic school miserable, but what real consequences could there be for angering just another second-year top senior?
"What are you— Aaaagh!"
"Stay still!"
To Ogoldos' shock, instead of applying a splint for first aid, the junior swung his staff and cast a spell.
The sudden Healing Magic made Ogoldos scream.
"Stop! What are you doing?! No!"
Memories of a second-year priest botching Healing Magic and twisting a friend's slightly sprained finger 360 degrees flashed through Ogoldos' mind as he desperately protested.
A sprained finger was dangerous enough, but a broken wound was even worse...
"Try moving it."
"...???"
Ogoldos was so dumbfounded that he moved his arm.
Surprisingly, there was no pain.
Lee Han silently nodded before speaking.
"It was an urgent situation, so I had no choice but to cast it first."
"......"
Ogoldos hesitated and hesitated before finally trying to speak.
"Tha... Than..."
-Grrrr.
"Sharkan. You said there's a path over there? Thank you, senior. You said there's a path over ther... What were you trying to say?"
"It... It hurts."
"Oh dear. Your injuries must be quite severe."
-Grr.
"Sharkan. You shouldn't treat him like that. The senior didn't get hurt because he wanted to."
"......"
Ogoldos had never sat on a bed of nails before.
One third-year senior had claimed to have sat on a bed of nails in the high-grade punishment room beneath the disciplinary hall (Ogoldos still wasn't sure if that was a boast or not), but fortunately, he himself had never experienced such a thing.
Yet right now, Ogoldos felt like he was sitting on a bed of nails.
"...Damn it. The magic..."
Mages were delicate creatures.
Not only could the shock of a failed spell disrupt their mana, but even the shock of walls dancing around them or the floor disappearing beneath their feet could throw their mana into chaos, leaving them unable to cast spells for a period of time.
No matter how hard Ogoldos tried to focus, the mana flow inside his body was tangled, refusing to move.
"Senior, it's fine. I can cast the spells."
"...I said I'll do it. Just wait... Guh."
"Gonadaltes. Help support the senior."
"It's fi... What? What did you say?"
"Huh? What about?"
"No... It's... Never mind. Forget it."
Ogoldos almost said something about the Skeleton Warrior's name but stopped himself.
A mage was free to name their summons however they wanted, but...
...Wasn't that too free?!
-■ ■■■■■.
"......"
Lee Han walked ahead.
He had already dismissed all the other Skeleton Warriors except for Sharkan and Gonadaltes. They were simply too slow and got in the way when moving.
Of course, Ogoldos interpreted this differently.
'Because of me...!'
The thought that his junior had canceled his other undead summons just to support him made his face burn with embarrassment.
"That's..."
Lee Han stopped in his tracks.
A chilling sight had come into view at the far end of the underground passage.
Ogoldos, whose darkvision spell was still active, blinked before speaking.
"A prison..."
"The disciplinary hall... Ah, a prison, right. Force of habit."
"......"
Surprisingly, the passage led to an underground prison. Lee Han was astonished that such a place existed beneath the ruins.
'I thought ruins were just broken, ruined places.'
Walking further down the passage, they arrived at a circular area lined with cells on all sides.
One peculiar detail stood out—there were no iron bars. Normally, there should have been walls blocking prisoners from escaping, but not a single one was visible.
For a moment, Lee Han wondered if someone had come before them and torn the bars away.
-Who goes there? What fool dares to wander the King's prison?
"!"
Lee Han was startled that he hadn't noticed the presence of someone so close.
Unless the other party was a far superior mage, he should have sensed their mana first.
-You'd best hide. If you're caught, you won't leave unscathed.
The one who spoke was an undead mage inside a nearby cell. Lee Han finally realized why he hadn't noticed them—only after the figure removed their cloak did their mana become detectable.
Seeing no hostility typical of monsters, Lee Han cautiously asked,
"Who are you?"
-Who am I? A sinner who failed to obey the King's command.
"Then who is this King?"
-...What nonsense... How did you even get here? Did you enter without knowing this is the palace where the Ghoul King reigns? What of the soldiers outside?
"...?!"
Lee Han froze at the strangely familiar name.
It couldn't be... could it?