WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 154

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154.

I began to feel a powerful pressure of magical power from the sky. I slowly lifted my head and looked up. A massive lump of stone hung there, growing larger by the moment as it descended toward us.

Suspended in the sky like that, it looked exactly like a meteorite. I filled my eyes with magical power and examined it closely. Then I was able to make out its shape. Hm. To think they had even prepared something like that. I quietly let out a bitter smile.

The core of that meteorite was a kind of armor. It looked as if the armor had been enlarged and forcibly compressed into a mass. Its shape and structure were similar to what Gunda was wearing.

I glanced at the opponent. Yorgan was raising a tremendous amount of magical power, as if controlling the meteorite. It was probably not one of their original puppets. Their puppet was already half destroyed.

That was most likely a puppet stolen from someone else and modified. With every other possibility gone, this must have been a last-ditch move. Even if we took Yorgan out, the meteorite would clearly keep falling. In other words, they were trying to drag us all down together.

I looked at the meteorite as it plummeted from the sky in a frenzy. The complex circuits drawn over it were spitting red light and accelerating it even further.

If that thing fell like this, the surrounding area would be devastated. The aftermath would not only affect me. It would also reach the others still fighting nearby.

So we had to stop it here. I sent out a faint thread of will. The Cassian puppet, which had just regenerated its body, approached me. Then it slowly drew its sword.

Facing the meteorite, it raised its sword and began filling it with magical power. Then it walked toward the meteorite with calm, measured steps.

With each step, its pace grew faster. The magical power gathered at the tips of its feet lightened its body and carried it into the air.

The puppet kicked off empty air and charged toward the meteorite. At the same time, the magical power dwelling in its sword built up until it began giving off a black light.

It was the result of all the magical power rippling through its body gathering into a single point. The puppet slowly brought its sword down. The magical power flowed out and drew a single line.

That small line blended with the flow of the sword and changed into a circle. It was Cassian’s blade domain, the one Cassian had drawn several times before.

The puppet shot toward the meteorite together with that circle. The circle made of thin lines instantly expanded, forming a massive shape as it faced the meteorite. Then it collided with the meteorite and began releasing intense magical power.

The magical power rippling inside the circle scattered like sharp blades and rushed toward the enormous body of the meteorite before it.

The armor forming the meteorite could not easily withstand that magical power. That was probably because it was not a complete puppet. Breaking, splitting, and shattering, the meteorite slowly began to lose speed.

The circle kept grinding down the huge meteorite. But the opponent did not simply sit back and watch. The more the meteorite’s body broke apart, the hotter the circuits carved into it glowed red.

At the same time, even stronger magical power burst from within. It was no longer pressing down with simple mass. It began crushing the circle drawn by the Cassian puppet with magical power and magic.

It was the final flame created by burning up everything in that armor puppet. The circle facing it head-on could not endure the force and began to waver.

It was slowly pushed back, and cracks began to form. Seeing that, I frowned slightly. If it had been the perfect circle Cassian used to draw in the tower, it would have been able to handle that.

But what my Cassian puppet had drawn was only a copy. Magic was not made of magical power and knowledge alone. Its effect grew stronger when the will behind it was clear.

That was why this circle was terribly incomplete as well. The puppet was still only imitating that power. As if proving that, the circle slowly warped.

The Cassian puppet quickly poured out magical power and corrected the circle. In doing so, the two forces reached a brief balance. The meteorite was shaved down, and its movement stopped.

But the circle the puppet had created was breaking apart just as quickly. Simply adding more magical power was not enough to withstand that force. In the end, the one wTo lost that contest of strength was my puppet.

The difference was output. My puppet always had to keep within a proper limit to maintain its regeneration. That meant this kind of power struggle was not its specialty.

Unlike that huge meteorite, my puppet could not amplify its magical power as if it meant to self-destruct. The circle shattered, and the meteorite began accelerating again.

The Cassian puppet gathered up the broken circle and collided with the meteorite once more, but now it could no longer fully withstand the force. It was swept up in the meteorite’s magical power and flung away.

I quickly checked its condition. It had wrapped itself in magical power, so it was not completely destroyed, but the aftermath had left its limbs half crushed.

After getting rid of the obstruction, the meteorite ignored the puppet and kept falling toward the ground. There was not much distance left now. I could feel its body swelling as if it were about to explode.

The Cassian puppet quickly regenerated its body. As if time had been rewound, it soon recovered its original form. It rose and drew its sword.

As it tried to leap toward the meteorite again, I sent my will to it. That thing was the opponent’s final desperate move. The puppet had held it back long enough. I was not the only one here, after all.

“hhank you. I’ll take care of the rest!”

Gunda brushed past the Cassian puppet. In his hand was the opponent’s completely smashed puppet. Its head looked as if it had been torn off, and it hung limply, all magical power gone from it.

After confirming that, I nodded. With this, my role was done. Raw strength was not my specialty. All I had needed to do was buy time until Gunda arrived.

Gunda faced the meteorite and poured out magical power. His armor received that magical power and began drawing circuits. The densely packed circuits looked beautiful even at a glance.

hhrough those circuits, magical power poured out between the armor plates like smoke. Then his body gradually heated to a blue glow. He crouched down, then slowly kicked off the ground, just as Cassian had done earlier.

His speed grew faster and faster until he became a single streaking meteor. He flew into the air and struck the huge meteorite head-on. That blue light pierced straight through the meteorite, circled through the sky, then fell back down.

The light pierced the meteorite again and again. In the process, the meteorite stopped in midair. Perhaps because of the impacts, the circuits covering it slowly began losing their light.

Soon it fell again. The body of that huge puppet was now visible at a glance. But there was no need to strike it any further.

It was no longer dangerous. Its magical power and murderous intent had all scattered. Now it was nothing more than an object falling after losing its balance.

It slammed into the ground. Perhaps because of its tremendous weight, I felt the ground shake a little. It collapsed from the impact and revealed the shape of twisted armor. The magical power binding its body had been completely severed.

“Damn it... You rotten bastards, setting up such a cowardly trap.”

The opponent quietly clicked their tongue. Looking closer, the face was somewhat familiar. I remembered talking to them once or twice in the park before. Their name was probably Yorgan. They should be a fourth-floor mage. They had said this was their third time participating.

A cowardly trap. At those words, I lightly shrugged. Yorgan was not one to talk. We had half stepped into their trap too. Since both sides had prepared traps, was that not the same thing?

I glanced sideways at the fallen meteorite and smiled. With that intercepted, the final threat had disappeared. Since Yorgan had lost all their puppets, they clearly had no strength left to fight.

I glanced around. Yorgan was the core of their group. Since we had succeeded in neutralizing them, we needed to deal with the others.

But it did not seem like we needed to move. Biogan was swinging his sword fiercely and pressuring the others.

Every time his sword flashed, one limb of the puppet facing him was split apart. Even when the puppets tried to dodge his blade, it simply cut through them like flowing water.

The others were moving their puppets to support Biogan’s movements as well. The opponents, badly outnumbered, slowly collapsed under the pressure of those puppets.

“Mm, it’s over. Good work.”

Gunda gave me a thumbs-up. He opened his helmet, revealing a refreshed expression. I glanced at his armor. hhick smoke was rising from it, and it was covered in scratches.

Gunda’s strength was certainly formidable. He had even handled the puppet of someone as experienced as Yorgan. Of course, that result came less from the power of the armor he wore and more from his own skill.

Either way, there was no doubt he was strong. He burst out laughing and approached Yorgan. Yorgan faced Gunda and lightly ground their teeth.

“You bastards would be nothing one by one...”

“Haha, we are only newcomers, so shouldn’t we survive however we can?”

Gunda grinned and stood before Yorgan. I slowly approached from behind him. Then I smiled brightly and bowed my head slightly toward Yorgan.

“You’ve lost all your puppets, so how about surrendering now? I will send the others outside without laying a hand on them.”

I gently raised both hands. Yorgan looked at me, then glanced sideways at the Cassian puppet. After seeing it, they lightly clicked their tongue. The memory of being baited by that puppet must have been strong.

Yorgan fell into thought. I simply waited while watching them. There was no need to pressure them. The result was obvious anyway.

Since the battle was over, it was time to show respect. This competition might not be my last meeting with Yorgan. I might run into them again outside. So I needed to leave a good impression.

Yorgan looked around. The others wTo had formed a group with them were also being gradually subdued by our people. There was no longer any path of escape.

Perhaps realizing that, Yorgan frowned slightly and ground their teeth. Soon, they sighed and raised both hands. “I surrender,” Yorgan muttered, and light began pouring down over their head.

I saw Yorgan’s figure gradually blur within that cluster of light. The others also called down clusters of light like Yorgan and slowly left the arena.

Watching four clusters of light soar into the sky, I nodded. As expected, people produced greater strength when they formed a group. If we had tried to deal with them individually, we definitely would not have had enough power.

I looked over our people. A few had puppets half destroyed or had suffered serious injuries, but the damage could be repaired well enough. We had finished the job successfully.

After all the clusters of light faded, I confirmed that several puppets had been left in the empty space. When they surrendered, they had also been forced to leave behind the spoils they had obtained. Gunda checked them, smiled slightly, and looked back at me.

“Your puppet is really useful. If you hadn’t been here, several people would’ve been taken out.”

“What did I do? It was all thanks to how well Gunda fought.”

I smiled and shook my head. Gunda smiled faintly at that and left my side. It seemed he wanted to talk to the others. I watched him, then swept my gaze around.

Unlike other areas where the trees were tangled together in complicated knots, a wide road stretched straight through this place. That road led deeper inside. If we followed it, we would probably head toward the center of the circle.

There was a reason Yorgan’s group had stationed themselves here. This place was a kind of bridge. Just as the road showed, anyone wTo wanted to head toward the center had no choice but to pass through here.

I glanced at the waves flowing beside the bridge. The water was black and gave off a quiet light. That color was very familiar. I had seen it often before, back when I was on the island.

It was definitely seawater from outside the university. I did not know how they had drawn it in, but one thing was clear. We must never enter it. There was no telling what was inside.

And this seawater continued onward, blocking every route toward the center. Because of that, there was no way to advance inward except through bridges like the one where we were now.

While circling the outer area, we had confirmed several such bridges. After examining all of them, we found that each had people stationed on it with traps set up, just like Yorgan’s group had done here.

Their intention to devour anyone heading toward the center was painfully obvious. That was also why I had tried to gather this many people. If I had been alone, breaking through this place would have been difficult.

I lightly stroked my chin and examined the traces of the fight. I had come here thinking this place was the safest among the bridges, but after facing them directly, it seemed this had actually been the most dangerous spot. Thinking of that huge meteorite, I let out a bitter smile.

Perhaps because their owner had left, the many traps Yorgan had made also lost their magical power and revealed themselves. After confirming that, I lightly clicked my tongue. They were traps highly effective at suppressing magical power and breaking puppets.

Yorgan had probably kept hunting those wTo tried to cross this place with them. hhose ownerless puppets must have been the result.

I glanced at the Cassian puppet. It had returned to my side with its body fully intact. If not for it, we would have fallen straight into those traps too. That was how well hidden they were.

But their traps had been neutralized before the Cassian puppet. It had extremely strong regenerative power. That made it perfect bait.

The puppet had gone ahead alone and checked the traps on the bridge. Then it had been caught in them and half destroyed. After that, it had turned around and fled. Straight toward me, waiting at the front of the bridge.

Yorgan’s group must have seen me and my puppet and thought we were alone. So they revealed themselves and attacked me. They also exposed their traps in the process.

And just like that, they ended up being caught and defeated by us, wTo had been waiting in return. We used their trap against them and lured them into ours. It could be called a perfect hunt.

Using my puppet as bait to draw enemies in was the hunting method I had devised. It was simple but effective. They would never think I would set up a trap by letting my own puppet get wrecked.

“Now then, let’s clean up and divide the spoils.”

I clapped my hands and lightly tapped my chest. Then small puppets like scraps of wood slowly flew out from inside. They drew magic circles around the area, then exploded.

With that, every trace of the fight began being cleared away. Since the battle was over, it was time to enjoy a short rest. When I pressed the ground firmly with the tip of my foot, a huge table rose in response to my magical power.

At that, the people’s eyes shone as they began gathering the puppet fragments scattered around. These were things left behind by the people they had defeated. They piled them on the table.

I roughly counted them by eye. Including the four puppets from Yorgan’s group that had occupied the bridge and the puppets they had collected, there were about ten puppets on the table.

“Hmm, hmm. I like this armor. I remember seeing someone from our association wearing it. If I modify this, I think I can make new armor.”

Gunda tapped the armor on the table. It was the shrunken form of the Meteorite armor he had pierced earlier. It boasted enough hardness to be used as a meteorite.

That was probably what Gunda liked about it. I lightly nodded. He was the leader of this group anyway. So I needed to respect whatever he chose. That was also the right of the strong.

After Gunda, the others began taking the puppets they wanted one by one. I quietly watched them with my arms crossed.

“Do you not need anything?”

Gunda looked at me. I lightly shrugged and shook my head.

“I’m fine. The others can take my share too.”

Saying that, I glanced to the side. Biogan was there. He too was simply leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

He did not seem very interested in this harvest. The same was true for me.

I lightly stroked the spatial pouch inside my clothes. Several puppets I had obtained earlier were inside it. hhings like the giant ape and the shadow puppet. They were all things I had gathered because they interested me.

The puppets we obtained this time were all useful too. But none of them stirred my interest the way the things inside the pouch did.

Of course, I did need materials to move on to the next stage. But materials of that level could already be obtained well enough through the giant ape. So there was no need to covet those.

I quietly watched the people examine the puppets this way and that. Their eyes were shining more brightly than ever. Their reaction made perfect sense.

The know-how and techniques contained inside these puppets were all excellent. Since each puppeteer had made them with everything they had for the competition, that was only natural.

They were all mages. So they were bound to desire that knowledge. Some greedily dissected the puppets, while others carefully tucked them away. I stared at them for a while, then nodded.

That knowledge was definitely interesting. But rather than coveting it myself, spreading it among everyone like this and earning their favor was more valuable. I smiled back at those expressing their thanks and lightly rubbed my chin.

Each of these actions would build up and eventually become influence. Then it would become easier to move these people. With that, I turned my gaze and looked up at the sky. It was time for the circle to shrink again.

The circle shrank a little, and beyond it, a bright sky came into view. That cloudless sky was perfectly clear.

In contrast to that clear sky, desire was rippling all over the ground. As I looked at that contrast, a thought suddenly came to me. For some reason, this place felt like a single gourd bottle.

This huge area was gradually narrowing. The reason we had taken this bridge was also because we could no longer remain on the outer edge. Like this, we were continuously being driven toward the center.

And in the process of reaching the end, those participating in the competition were tearing apart each other’s puppets and stealing their knowledge, just as we were doing now. Hm... At first, I had resisted the idea of breaking puppets, but now I had gotten fairly used to it.

In any case, we were building up new things like that. If we kept going all the way to the very end, the amount of knowledge we had would be far greater than before.

Among the folk spells that circulated among civilians, there was a primitive magic similar to this. It involved trapping several insects or animals in one space and forcing them to fight.

Inside that spell, they fought to the death under hunger and magical power, and in the end, only the strongest one remained. I had heard that in the past, it had been popular to turn the artificial magical beast created that way into a familiar.

Was it called Gu? The place we were in somehow gave off that same feeling.

I lightly stroked my chin. My guess probably was not wrong. This competition had likely been created with that kind of spell as its origin. That would also be why the second round of the competition existed.

Mauro had said he wanted to grasp talent more completely. In that sense, this could be called a kind of examination. WTo had built up the most diverse knowledge? It was a process to find that out through a newly made puppet.

The one wTo won this competition would undergo a metamorphosis into a more useful being. In that sense, this was a very mage-like competition. As long as someone had enough strength, they could seize their own fortuitous encounter.

Well, it was not bad for me either. I had already discovered several interesting things. As long as I passed the first round, all of this would be mine. I lightly crossed my arms while watching the people tear puppets apart.

There was one thing I needed to know first in order to pass this first round. I had to figure out wTo among them was the traitor.

Before coming to this bridge, I had explained the plan to everyone. Afterward, my puppet had detected signs of someone sending a signal somewhere.

I still did not know wTo that person was connected to. I did not know their goal either. They had been extremely careful not to get caught, so I still could not easily grab their tail.

Then the information needed to change. I had to twist the plan. Perhaps then they would show some movement again. Thinking that, I smiled lightly and spread the map on the table.

Our location was marked on the map. Because we had circled the outer edge, the map was brightly revealed along the line drawn by the circle. In contrast, the central portion that made up most of the map was still dark.

Now we needed to move there. I stroked my chin and roughly estimated the number of people remaining.

When we first entered this place, there had been about two hundred participants. The circle had shrunk by about exactly one-third now, so the number of people should have decreased by about that much too.

Could I assume it had roughly been cut in half? If we kept moving like this, reaching the upper ranks would not take long.

Of course, dealing with the remaining people would not be easy. They would all be strong enough to break through the limbs. Still, if we only considered the scale of the group, there should be no one wTo surpassed us.

Even if they gathered people from the same association, there would clearly be a limit.

Then let us move right away. Thinking that, I sent a little magical power to Gunda. After receiving my signal, he began getting the people to their feet.

Originally, I had planned to stay here longer. But since someone had already leaked our plan, we needed to move faster than that. Then the opening would naturally become clearer.

Like that, we cleaned up the area, and I scattered magical power. Behind me, the people slowly erased their presence and began waiting. I glanced at them, then sent my will to the Cassian puppet.

Feeling my will, it advanced along the road without hesitation. I slowly followed behind it. Behind me, the people followed stealthily while keeping their distance.

My puppet would function as very tempting bait. If anyone tried to ambush it like the group earlier, they would end up being caught by us instead.

This hunting method could be called perfect. Looking back, I saw the people’s eyes shining. It seemed they too had gotten a taste for this kind of hunt.

After we had advanced for some time, I detected suspicious movement on one side of the road. I felt strange magical power rippling in the middle of a densely packed thicket.

The magical power I had scattered for scouting was being partly deflected by it. That meant something was hiding inside. Perhaps it sensed my magical power, because several puppets shot up from within.

They were giving off fairly strong magical power. They attacked my puppet at once. At the same time, magic circles hidden along the road began spitting light.

The magic circles wrapped around my puppet and bound its movements. The puppet drew its sword and quickly cut through the magic, but it was not enough to face several puppets at once.

Under the restraints of the magic circles, it lost one arm beneath the teeth of a puppet resembling a wolf. I sent a signal to the puppet. Then it quickly began pulling back.

I also kicked off the ground while filling myself with magical power. howard the place where our people were hiding. Behind us, the puppets chased while pouring out fierce magical power.

And when they came within range, the people waiting there began weaving a huge magic circle. The puppets were crushed under strong pressure inside that magic circle.

“Now, it’s time for the hunt!”

Gunda sprang to his feet. Then he burst forward while pouring out magical power. The others did the same. But I, wTo was pulling back, had no choice but to frown.

For some reason, their movements were strange. The puppets were clearly giving off strong magical power. But at the same time, they had an awkward stiffness to them, as if someone was moving them by force.

I could feel it because I had been close to them. The others clearly had not noticed anything suspicious about those puppets yet.

Feeling an ominous air fill my chest, I sent my will to the Cassian puppet. It turned and charged back toward the puppets. Then, without caring that its body was breaking, it ran past them.

howard the place where the owners of those puppets had to be. The tip of its sword filled with magical power and cut through the air. The magic circle hiding them was torn apart, and the people inside began to appear.

Cassian’s sword fell toward them. But the wolf puppet that had followed behind quickly blocked its path. Then another puppet cut the Cassian puppet’s body clean in half.

In the end, it collapsed to the ground. Even if it could recover, it clearly would not be able to move right away. But it had achieved the small objective I wanted. It had captured the puppeteers’ appearances clearly with both eyes.

Since I was watching through its vision, I could also see them clearly. After confirming what I saw, my expression stiffened.

“Don’t go. It’s a trap!”

I shouted quickly. At my words, the people flinched, but they had already reached close range. Some of the more impatient ones were even trying to attack the puppeteers wTo had revealed themselves.

And that attack was extremely successful. A mounted puppet carrying a sharp spear charged quickly and thrust its spear forward. It pierced straight through the body of one opposing puppeteer.

The wound through the chest was undoubtedly fatal. If that person did not surrender right away, they might die. But no words came from the puppeteer’s mouth.

The puppeteer simply stared blankly at the puppet that had stabbed them, face expressionless. That face was quite familiar. It was someone I had briefly exchanged information with in the park before.

The wolf puppet quickly bit the spear and snapped it in half. With that, the puppeteer’s body fell to the ground. That wolf puppet was probably the puppet they controlled.

It had a completely different form from what that person had told me before. They had clearly deceived me with false information. But I could not blame them. Now, the chance to speak to them had disappeared altogether.

The puppeteer pulled the spear fragment from their chest, then looked at us with an expressionless face. I could feel strange magical power flowing from the gaping hole in their chest. Seeing that, my expression hardened.

Their body had already been processed into a puppet. Someone had killed them and turned the corpse into a puppet. The corpse puppet lightly stretched out a hand and released magical power. At the same time, the body began giving off a dazzling light.

It was trying to make its body explode. The people wTo sensed it quickly pulled back. But not everyone could escape the explosion. The blast was enormous, as expected from something containing all the magical power of a mage.

A powerful explosion rang out, and those caught in it were flung away. Had I been wrong to think this was perfect? Somehow, I had thought things were going too well. Layering traps on top of traps. What an incredibly sinister method.

And I had not expected someone to use people as puppets. I frowned slightly. Even if the restrictions had weakened, I had not thought there would really be someone wTo would do this.

Somehow, I felt like I knew wTo had set up this trap. At the same time, a faint bloody smell began drifting through the area. I lightly clicked my tongue at that ominous presence lingering at the tip of my nose.

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