Chapter 552

"No. Not all mages think about spirits."

The squirrel spirit nodded its head on Yi-Han's shoulder as if agreeing.

Even if not as extreme as the skull principal, mages who were sincere about spirits were rarer than one might think.

Even if they became friendly with some spirits and made contracts, they wouldn't risk their lives and enter deep into a contaminated forest for the sake of spirits.

"But senior, how did you appear in front of us...?"

"I have a potion that temporarily stops the principal's magic."

"!"

"...!!!"

All three of them, being students with excellent alchemy grades, immediately understood how amazing what senior Ilendil was saying.

To be able to stop the skull principal's magic, even if only for a moment.

The gaze that had been looking at Ilendil as a 'crazy senior' or 'suspicious senior' until just now immediately changed to a respectful gaze looking at an 'amazing senior'.

"That's incredible!"

"Truly...!"

"Huh?"

Ilendil herself was puzzled as to why the juniors were acting like this.

"Why?"

"Senior. I'm sorry, but we need to save the spirits. Right now, time is..."

"I'll help. There's still some potion effect left."

"Uh..."

Yi-Han wondered if he really had to accompany a senior he was meeting for the first time, who was also the culprit of this incident and still suspicious.

Moreover, he had to make contracts with spirits too...

"Wouldn't it be dangerous for you, not knowing when the professor will return?"

"Yeah. The forest and spirits are more important than me."

"So cool..."

"I must have misjudged her. Yi-Han."

When Priestess Siana and Yonaire showed even stronger respect to Ilendil than before, Yi-Han thought to himself.

'Did everyone forget that this person is the culprit behind the contaminants?'

But there was no more time to waste now.

"I understand. Let's go."

Anyway, since she was a senior and an alchemist several times more outstanding than Yi-Han, she would be of help.

...Although it was a bit concerning that she was the root cause of this whole situation...

***

"Why did you try to create an artificial dark spirit?"

While ordinary students would talk about dinner while walking, students excellent in alchemy talked about alchemy even while walking.

In response to Priestess Siana's question, Ilendil answered in her characteristically slow voice.

"Yeah. I wanted to use it as a forest guardian."

"A forest guardian?"

The forests of Einroguard had a powerful force close to that of an ancient forest.

However, not all forests in the empire could be like that.

Especially, one of the elements that forests were vulnerable to was the dark element.

To the point where sometimes a single dark spirit being summoned by mistake could contaminate an entire huge forest.

Ilendil, who was heartbroken by such cases, approached it in reverse.

What if we used dark spirits as forest guardians?

"Wow! Really..."

"Isn't that a crazy idea?"

Priestess Siana, who was about to admire Yi-Han's muttering, became embarrassed.

"Isn't it a good idea?"

"Priestess Siana. Look at the contaminants in front of us now."

At the juniors' conversation, Ilendil became gloomy. The leaves connected to her hair drooped as if wilted.

"It would have been nice if it had succeeded."

'Oops. She's a senior.'

Yi-Han realized his mistake.

He had made a mistake he wouldn't normally make because he was in a hurry due to the spirits.

Wasn't Ilendil a senior after all?

If Yi-Han's bad reputation spread in the community among seniors...

'Can I use the Moradi family? That's too much. I already mentioned her name and family earlier.'

"No. Senior. I think it was a meaningful attempt."

"Huh? You said it was a crazy idea."

"Pioneers are always seen as crazy at first. It was an expression of admiration."

"You're really a kind person."

Ilendil's leaves quickly became happy.

"But for a tricky element like dark element, wouldn't it be better to get help from experts?"

"Will you help me?"

The dryad mixed-blood senior stared at Yi-Han.

Yi-Han answered quickly without even breathing.

"I was referring to the seniors of the dark magic department."

"Hmm. But the dark magic department people are all eccentric and scary."

"Pardon?"

At the senior's words, Yi-Han paused, thinking he might have heard wrong.

"Wait. The spirits are over there."

Ilendil stretched out her finger and corrected the direction.

"Can you sense the spirits' energy?"

"Yeah. I've been friends with spirits since I was young."

"..."

Yonaire shook her head when she saw the veins bulging on her friend's hand holding the staff.

What the hell was so great about spirits...!

***

"We're here. The spirits are gathered over there."

Yi-Han had no choice but to acknowledge the skill of the senior who had temporarily taken on the role of guide in place of Professor Uregor.

Spirit mixed-bloods, in whom a contract from a previous generation manifested by chance in later generations, all had different characteristics.

Some spirit mixed-bloods were so sensitive that they would be startled to see Yi-Han, while others were so indifferent.

Ilendil, who said she was close to spirits, must have been naturally gifted in terms of affinity.

"Wait."

Suddenly, the senior's complexion changed.

"The homunculus is coming this way."

"!"

Yi-Han's eyes changed.

Unlike the other contaminants, the artificial dark spirit that was the cause of the situation was a different story.

"I'll block it. You guys take the spirits and go."

Yi-Han, who was about to nod, hesitated.

If Ilendil showed her dedication in front of the spirits next to them now, wouldn't the story go back to square one?

"No. I'll help block it too."

Ilendil sent a gaze to her junior that said, 'You're really a truly kind person.'

"Hmm. What did you say your name was?"

"Mora..."

"He's Wardanaz."

"Yi-Han of the Wardanaz family."

"Yes. That's right."

"Yi-Han of the Wardanaz family. Yi-Han of the Wardanaz family. Okay. I'll remember that."

The dryad mixed-blood senior swung her staff.

Then, the already dense trees became even more entangled and grew, creating a solid wall.

Thud!

The rushing artificial dark spirit was trapped in the wooden prison.

However, the spirit was not to be taken lightly either. It instantly changed its form freely and began to squeeze its entire body through the gaps in the wooden prison.

"Darkness, gather here!"

Yi-Han responded immediately without the senior's words.

Ilendil, who was trapping the spirit with wood, nodded at Yi-Han. It was exactly what needed to be done right now.

Continuously absorbing dark elements from the artificial dark spirit.

Dark elements gathered at the tip of Yi-Han's staff.

■!

When its own flesh was torn away, the spirit reacted very sensitively.

The spirit, which had been trying to hold onto the dark elements with force, was pushed back by Yi-Han in terms of control and immediately used a different method.

'This is...!'

When the compressed dark elements at the tip of the staff began to flicker and burst out, Yi-Han quickly took out a bone fragment from his reagent pouch and hastily compressed it.

Some bone fragments were burned, but it couldn't be helped.

'<Dark Wave Spread>!'

Yi-Han recalled the magic from the grimoire Professor Bagrak had given him.

A method of magic that compressed dark elements and then burst them in the form of waves to affect the surroundings.

With other elements, it wouldn't have much power, but the characteristics of dark elements made even this wave-type attack fatal.

Mages with living flesh would have their vitality wither away if they were directly hit by this dark element a few times.

The opposing spirit was now instinctively trying to cause a similar phenomenon.

"Absorption, difficult...?"

Ilendil exhaled and uttered words in fragments.

Although he was trapping it while using potions, the magic was so large-scale that the consumption of mana and stamina was no joke.

Yonaire and Priestess Siana were also helping beside her, but they were already sweating cold sweat.

Yi-Han instinctively knew that if he backed down in this situation, things would get even more complicated.

'If it comes to it, I'll have to deal with it with magic.'

<Dark Wave Spread> was something he hadn't even practiced yet and had been putting off, but in a situation like this, he had no choice but to try it with what he had read.

With a recklessness that would have made Direth close her eyes tightly if she were next to him, Yi-Han swung his staff.

"Darkness, gather here!"

Dark elements gathered once again.

This time, the spirit, having experienced it, reacted even faster.

When the dark elements immediately began to flicker and burst out, there was no time to trap them in a reagent.

Yi-Han cast <Dark Wave Spread> as he had read in the grimoire.

"Darkness, sweep away!"

A wave of darkness rippled and passed through the air above his head. Yi-Han had cast it first before the opponent could detonate it, consuming it.

Ilendil asked again in puzzlement.

"Earlier, why...?"

"It was a magic I was using for the first time, so it couldn't be helped!"

"What?"

Yi-Han couldn't explain further to Ilendil.

The spirit, realizing that it couldn't possibly keep up with the opposing mage in terms of dark elements, changed its method once again.

Grass and branches combined with dark elements and rose up like puppets.

At that sight, Ilendil let out a scream filled with pain.

"You bastard!"

"Hand, tear my enemy apart!"

With no time to even draw the Morning Star as the enemy clung to him, Yi-Han barely chanted a spell.

The skull principal's close combat spell, <Gonadaltes' Sharp Hand>.

Unlike other magic, he had wondered when he would use this kind of magic...!

Slash!

"Flash forth!"

He slashed with one hand and swung his staff with the other to chant a spell, but the numbers and momentum were not trivial.

If it turned into a melee like this, the mage would always be at a disadvantage.

"Flash forth!"

The moment lightning formed, another grass puppet rushed in. Yi-Han forcibly fixed the lightning at the end and thrust his staff like a spear.

If he had just a moment's gap, he could mobilize all his summons to buy time, but there was no such gap.

If only he had a moment's gap!

Crackle crackle!

As if responding to Yi-Han's wish, the lightning element condensed at the tip of the staff swelled even more and covered the staff.

Yi-Han himself was too busy dealing with the enemies approaching from the opposite side and staring at the spirit trapped in the wooden prison to notice the change.

He only realized the change when he noticed that all the enemies around the hand holding the staff had collapsed.

"...?"

Yi-Han was startled for a moment when he realized that the staff had transformed into a spear of lightning.

'Wait. How did I do this?'

Apparently, he had used the staff as a wick and fixed the lightning element in the form of a blazing spear.

He could tell at a glance since Professor Bagrak had talked so much about fixing the lightning element form.

However, what was puzzling was that he himself couldn't remember how he did it.

He had done it instinctively in such an urgent situation...

'This is not the time!'

Yi-Han immediately summoned Sharakan and the skeleton warriors.

The summons blocked the grass puppets that had been pushed back by the lightning spear. Yi-Han took that opportunity and ran with the lightning spear.

■!

The spirit trapped between the wooden prisons screamed in terror as if realizing its fate.

Crackle crackle crackle!

Unlike the shock of lightning being fired and penetrating through, the power of lightning condensed and fixed was sharp and fierce.

Moreover, it didn't disappear and continuously burned the spirit.

Yi-Han pulled out the spear and thrust it in again.

Crackle crackle crackle!

Yi-Han intended to keep stabbing the spear until the opponent was unsummoned.

Of course, since it was created by Einroguard's seniors, it wouldn't be unsummoned easily like a typical spirit.

But it didn't matter.

If it was a battle of endurance, Yi-Han's magic would never disappear first.

Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab!

■! ■! ■! ■! ■!

At the end of the chorus of lightning and screams, the artificial spirit gave up all resistance and knelt down.

It made its sigil rise on Yi-Han's hand, entrusting its disposition to the mage.

A signal that it had completely surrendered.

"???"

Of course, Yi-Han was only puzzled since he had no intention of making a contract with the opponent.

Wasn't it a ferocious one that had gone berserk in the first place?

There were hardly any mages who would make a contract with someone without knowing when they might stab their back.

Unless they were crazy about spirits...

"Wardanaz! Make a contract! You wanted to make a contract with a spirit, right?!"

"Is that true? I think it's a good idea. It's a bit of a prankster, but it's originally a good kid!"

"..."

At the shouts of Priestess Siana and senior Ilendil, Yi-Han frowned.