Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Poking one’s nose into other people’s business
“I…” Han Shuo opened his mouth, but didn’t have the time to get a word out before Lisa landed a pilipala wave of hits with her girly fists. She cursed as she hit him, “Damn you Bryan, how dare you kiss me. My first kiss was taken from me by a crazy person! Oh my gosh, this is too scary. I’m going to kill you!”
Han Shuo’s mind was also in a jumble in the heat of the moment, since he’d just kissed Lisa. It was Lisa’s first time, who’s to say it wasn’t also Han Shuo’s first time as well?
Fear showed on Lisa’s face, and her butt was injured, so there was no strength at all behind her girly fists. Han Shuo did not feel any pain, and wasn’t even tickled by her hits. He didn’t resist, and furiously racked his brain for a way to prevent Lisa from further pursuing this matter.
Lisa seemed to grow tired from hitting him after a while. Her eyes were a bit red and puffy, and she glared viciously at Han Shuo. After she’d stared at him for a moment, Lisa frowned and said coldly, “Bryan, I will let you go if you tell me just one thing.”
Momentarily stunned, Han Shuo asked dumbly, “Tell you what?”
“Why has your strength grown during this period? You couldn’t avoid even skeletal warriors before, but now, even zombie warriors can’t catch up to you. Even that idiot Bach suffered a beating at your hands last time. Claude’s fighting aura obviously entered your body this morning, but why didn’t you die immediately? Why is all this?” Lisa stared at Han Shuo closely during her interrogation.
Han Shuo inwardly thought, “uh oh” as his heart lurched. His body had indeed become stronger thanks to training his magical yuan, but who would’ve thought that Lisa would pick up on it so quickly.
He hurriedly considered a few options and then dumbly replied with a silly smile, “I, I don’t know… Just that I’ve eaten a few things recently that have made me feel stronger.”
Lisa’s eyes flashed noticeably after Han Shuo had finished speaking, and she put her face next to his with every bit of interest. She focused her eyes on him and said, “What did you eat? I won’t pursue the matters of today as long as you tell me.”
“In order to perfectly release magic, both incantations and hand seals are key. If the chant is incorrect, or the gesture incorrect, then you will be unable to perform magic. Magic is a mysterious power, the art of borrowing strength from the elements found on earth and in the heavens by employing mental strength, along with mysterious incantations. Magic then finds its target through hand seals…”
The necromancy students were either attentively or lackadaisically listening to Master Gene. A few windows down, Han Shuo listened with all his concentration and unconsciously waved the broom in his hand.
Gene was the same as Fanny, a necromancy adept mage, as well as a teacher for the major. Gene mainly instructed the basics and foundations of magic, and was in charge of helping students through the more difficult parts of the material. Fanny on the other hand, taught students how to supplement attacks with necromancy magics and led the students in experimenting with necromancy magic.
For all the other majors at the academy, not only did they have adept mages for teachers, but they also had even more knowledgeable, more powerful magi (plural of magus) holding down the fort. But due to the lack of students in the necromancy major, Gene and Fanny were the only two teachers, and only adept class at that. On one hand, it was true that there was no need to dedicate too many resources to the tiny necromancy major; but on the other, it was also due to the fact that necromancy had become unpopular, resulting in a corresponding decrease in the number of necromancy magi.
At the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force, students could graduate as long as they passed through a gauntlet of exams. Of course, if students wanted to continue their journey with the academy, they were free to stay and study within the school grounds. Many majors would separate students according to apprentice, novice, and journeyman classes, but because there were too few necromancy students, all the students were lumped into one class.
At this moment, Han Shuo was concentrating with all his might, and a trace of joyous glee could be seen in the smile on his lowered head. It had been just a few moments, but Han Shuo had already thought through some of the theories that had perplexed him endlessly, thanks to Gene’s explanations. His tepid, old-fashioned tone was the soothing music of angels to Han Shuo’s ears, and he lost himself in it.
Bam sounded out as a student, wearing magician’s robes, suddenly fell down in front of Han Shuo. His butt stuck up in the air as his face became intimately acquainted with the white marble floors. He grimaced in pain as he picked himself up, turned to glare at Han Shuo, and said angrily, “Bryan, how dare you trip me with the broom handle.”
“Ah… I was only sweeping!” Han Shuo immediately responded with a panicked, upraised voice when he saw that the person was Fitch.
Fitch was 176 cm tall and had light blue hair. His thin frame combined with a billowy magician’s robe, made him look like a wrapped up wooden stick. He was a journeyman mage in the necromancy major, and had long wanted to pass the tests to be promoted to adept mage. Unfortunately, he had failed multiple times, and rumor had it that he’d made another attempt. It would seem that he’d just returned.
Han Shuo had been enthralled by Gene’s lecture on foundational magic and had paid no heed to the broom in his hand. No wonder Fitch had been tripped.
“Eh? Fitch has come back. Heh heh, did you fail again? Looks like you need to try much harder if you want to become an adept mage. I welcome your return. Bryan must not have done it on purpose just now, don’t mind him!” Gene have a light laugh in the classroom, and spoke with concealed banter.
Han Shuo was not in the least grateful for Gene speaking up for him, but rather cursed him for poking his nose in other people’s business.
Fitch had a bad temper to begin with, but wasn’t really a bad sort. Even though he had failed on countless occasions to pass the adept mage exams, he still experimented tirelessly due to his great love for necromancy. Fitch was the leader of Bach and a few others, but normally wouldn’t pick on Bryan and other errand boys.
However, both Fitch and Gene had a crush on Fanny. Fitch tried so hard to advance to adept class in large part due to something Fanny had said before,“I will only consider you if you become an adept mage.”
Because of this, this teacher and student pair disliked each other intensely. If it wasn’t for Gene’s words, Han Shuo might have escaped further retribution, but now that Gene had spoken, it was bound to have the opposite effect.