I Refuse To Be A Mage - Chapter 3

As soon as the words fell, the classroom first fell into silence, then burst into laughter.

“Did I hear wrong? Transfer divisions? Someone actually wants to transfer divisions, haha!”

“He can’t be thinking that going to other academies would let him level up smoothly, right? No way! Even the stupidest orcs wouldn’t dare have such thoughts!”

“Quiet!” Professor Joseph’s expression became even more gloomy. At this moment, his gaze toward Ji Chi could be described as disgusted, his tone full of sarcasm. “You should focus on how to become a Junior Mage instead!”

The moment Ji Chi opened his mouth, he realized he had been reckless. The unlocking of his alchemist skills had made him momentarily forget himself, almost forgetting the setting of this world.

In this world, changing majors wasn’t as common as on Earth. Due to the limitations of professional talents, changing majors was equivalent to completely denying one’s birth and existence—as absurd and ridiculous as not wanting to be human anymore.

Ji Chi realized his mistake and didn’t argue further, calmly admitting his error. “Sorry, I was thinking wrongly.”

Joseph didn’t pay him any more attention. After briefly mentioning a few precautions about the academy, he dismissed them. “That’s all for today. Tomorrow morning after the bell rings, we’ll still have class here.”

After saying this, he left the classroom without looking back.

Once the professor’s figure disappeared in the corridor, three noble youths in the class who enjoyed watching drama immediately surrounded Ji Chi, their faces showing innocent malice. “Hey, repeater, how do you still have the face to stay at the academy? Didn’t you hear that students from other divisions are all mocking us?”

Ji Chi naturally wouldn’t care about the children’s provocations. “It doesn’t matter. In the future, they’ll envy you instead.”

The youths were stunned for a moment, then glared angrily. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Alright, alright, don’t fight. The God of Light loves peaceful children.” Evan didn’t want to see conflict, so he raised his hand to intervene between them, accidentally blurting out the prayer he usually used to coax children.

The noble youths became even angrier upon hearing this. They pushed Evan and looked him up and down with disdain. “Get lost! What right does a lowly commoner have to speak to us!”

Evan stumbled from the push. Upon hearing such insulting description, he frowned and pressed his lips together without speaking further, but he also showed no intention of backing down.

“Enough!” Brandon couldn’t stand it anymore and spoke up to stop this farce. He looked at Ji Chi with complex emotions, not having expected that this mage who could run so fast was actually the repeater who brought shame to the entire Magic Academy.

Gratitude and frustration clashed in his chest, his favorability rising and falling, finally settling at a positive value.

He crossed his arms and raised his chin. His clear, cold youthful voice carried anger and pride. “What right does a lowly baron’s son have to make noise here?”

The three youths turned back angrily, but the moment they saw the family crest on Brandon’s collar, their expressions changed dramatically.

To someone from the Earl Elliott’s family, barons were indeed no different from commoners.

They didn’t dare continue being arrogant. Suppressing their anger, they walked toward the door unwillingly. “Bah! Easterners are indeed a race abandoned by the God of Light. What kind of mage can they be?”

Regional discrimination was just boring.

Ji Chi didn’t want to bother with it, but that didn’t mean he had no temper. He stared at them for a while, then called out to stop those youths. “To be honest, I only know one type of magic.”

The little mages knew he was weak, but they didn’t expect him to be weak to this extent. Even Evan widened his eyes, looking at him as if asking “Are you joking?”

Before the youths could react and mock him coldly, they saw him raise a slender white finger and continue. “But to deal with you all, one type of magic is enough.”

???

Even someone as proud as Brandon had never made such harsh threats. He glared at Ji Chi in frustration. “Do you know what you’re saying? Even if you can run fast, it can’t make up for…”

“Then try it!” Youths of this age couldn’t resist provocation. They became excited and even interrupted Brandon’s words. “Heh, with your small frame, don’t blame us if you get hurt!”

Small frame… This phrase hit right on Ji Chi’s sore spot. He gradually squinted his eyes, looking at the three youths who were even skinnier than him, his fingers itching to move.

Seeing the situation turning bad, Brandon couldn’t help but stand beside Ji Chi. “Count me in too. I’ll also use only one type of magic!”

“And me!” Evan turned his head to count the number of people on both sides, then decisively raised his hand!

Ji Chi didn’t want to escalate the verbal sparring into a group battle, so he waved his hand. “It’s fine, I alone am enough.”

Brandon felt slighted on his first time personally joining a fight. He looked at Ji Chi in disbelief, angry, “Don’t be too excessive! If it weren’t for you… who cares about you anyway!”

The three youths on the opposite side didn’t idle during the enemy’s internal conflict. They had already taken out their wands and begun chanting lengthy incantations, apparently wanting to use their ultimate moves right from the start.

In the spacious classroom, a whirlwind with a diameter of two to three meters began swirling in the center, mixed with sharp ice cones and lightning.

Seeing this, the other little mages in the class all hid in the corners of the classroom to watch the excitement. Some who couldn’t bear to watch also prepared messaging magic, ready to summon a professor at any time.

Evan and Brandon stood not far away—one worriedly watching Ji Chi, the other pretending not to care while worriedly watching Ji Chi. Both had condensed large amounts of elements at their fingertips, waiting to dispel the attack once it began.

Ji Chi, standing in the center of the whirlwind, was naturally not anxious at all. He even felt somewhat guilty, since his magic resistance was enough to withstand all magic attacks below level 50. Forget about losing health—with just a few level 5 small spells, they couldn’t even scratch his armor.

“What’s wrong? Too scared to even remember your incantations?” Seeing Ji Chi motionless, the opponents immediately let out classic cannon fodder laughter.

Ji Chi’s slight guilt immediately disappeared. He was used to living peacefully, taking a step back to see the vast sky and sea. This was his first time slapping someone in the face—it felt damn good!

He curved his eyebrows and opened his palm. “Fireball.”

Unlike the holographic game, in the real world, the magic power consumed by Fireball was no longer fixed. Ji Chi could freely adjust his magic power output according to his thoughts.

Let’s go with 50 points then—that should be somewhat impressive.

This was what Ji Chi, who was obsessed with leveling other professions and had no concept of his main magic profession, thought.

Soon, a tiny section disappeared from the blue bar on Ji Chi’s status panel. The next second, a sun slowly rose in the center of the classroom.

In the arched classroom shaped like an amphitheater, a bright enormous fireball slowly rotated in mid-air. The dazzling firelight flowed like lava, and these lights reflected on the semi-transparent rose windows, refracting various colored light rays back and illuminating the entire space in brilliant colors.

This fireball, which occupied most of the classroom, immediately wilted the small whirlwind upon its appearance, leaving only the slender little mages swaying dazedly in the aftermath of the heat wave. A few religious ones even faintly heard the call from the God of Light.

Ji Chi himself was also startled by such a large fireball. Realizing something was wrong, he hurriedly withdrew his skill, trying to salvage the situation from his mistake.

The fireball disappeared instantly, but the lingering steaming temperature still reminded the little mages that what they had just witnessed was not an illusion spell.

“How is this possible…” Brandon looked completely confused. He was also a fire mage, and the most talented fire mage in his entire family and even the entire continent. How could he not know that the most basic Fireball could have such power?

Brandon refused to believe it. He also chanted a Fireball spell. Soon, a basketball-sized round and bright fireball floated in his palm, harmlessly staring at its master.

Brandon looked up at Ji Chi in confusion, and they stared at each other.

Ji Chi was silent for a long while, then said calmly, “You might not know… in the East, there’s a saying called ‘turning fragments into a whole…”

“You mean combining all magic into one?” Evan, the little angel, was very zen-like and accepted this explanation without much struggle.

Only Brandon felt something was off. He was still staring at the fireball in his palm, hoping it would show some promise and grow larger.

“…” Ji Chi hadn’t expected them to be so easily fooled. Worried about actually misleading these little mages, he answered honestly, “No, actually I just have more magic power.”

The little mages looked at each other, all thinking this excuse was too far-fetched. How could anyone have such enormous magic power at age 17?

In comparison, the little mages accepted the previous explanation without hesitation and began discussing the possibility of combining all magic into one.

Ji Chi: “…”

As for the three youths who had originally provoked him, they were also convinced.

They hadn’t had much malicious intent to begin with—they were just angry that Ji Chi was too useless and brought a bad reputation to the Magic Academy. Now that they suddenly discovered this person was somewhat impressive, not only did they not hold grudges, but they also found this Eastern youth mysterious and interesting.

Mysterious and interesting—these were the two great weapons of teenage social circles!

For a moment, they even ignored Ji Chi’s commoner status and came over to put their arms around his shoulders like buddies. “Is this the legendary Eastern witchcraft? You Easterners are really amazing.”

Ji Chi smiled without saying anything.

****

On the other side, the first thing Professor Joseph did after leaving the classroom was to angrily push open the headmaster’s office.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Joseph? Who made you so angry? Oh, let me guess—is it that repeater?” Headmaster Harvey was taking off his heavy silver wig, trying to put it on the owl perched on his shoulder.

The owl twisted and turned, not letting him succeed, screeching miserably. When Joseph entered, it flew toward him like seeing a savior.

“No, it’s you, Headmaster.” Joseph habitually raised his arm to catch the owl. He was so angry that he didn’t even use Harvey’s name. He faced Harvey with a stern expression. “Class S has always been the most excellent class in the Magic Academy and represents the academy’s strength. What reason could there be for you to arrange a repeater in it?”

“Oh, and a repeater who wanted to transfer divisions on his first day,” Joseph added.

“Hmm? He actually wanted to transfer divisions? How interesting…” Headmaster Harvey touched his shiny bald head and laughed heartily. Seeing Joseph’s increasingly dark expression, he coughed to stop laughing and asked Joseph in return. “So what kind of student do you think qualifies to enter Class S?”

Joseph answered without hesitation. “Evan, who sensed light elements at age 5; Brandon, who became a Junior Fire Mage at age 10; Vito, who learned ten types of wind magic at age 13…”

He enthusiastically gave several examples, including both commoners and nobles, without any favoritism based on status.

Headmaster Harvey listened to him with a smile, then turned to pick up a feather to tease the sulking owl. “Then let me ask you—can they compare to a student with all-element magic?”

“All-element magic?” Joseph was shocked. “How could anyone sense so many magic elements?”

Their academy had once had students who could sense two types of magic elements, and they had all become the top mages on this continent. The last child with light and lightning dual elements was that repeater from ten years ago.

“You mean—Ji Chi?” In a flash of inspiration, Joseph thought of this possibility and exclaimed. “But that’s all elements! A full ten elements…”

Harvey scooped the constantly dodging owl back into his arms and chuckled. “So, give him some time.”

A dazzling light suddenly reflected from the direction of the classroom into the headmaster’s office. Harvey squinted until the light disappeared, then said softly, “One day, he will become the variable of this world.”