WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 164

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164.

The magical power Ugo raised wavered unsteadily. It flowed straight toward the woman puppet lying collapsed on the ground. The puppet tried to rise with that magical power inside it, but only for a brief moment.

The puppet’s body was already too damaged to receive magical power. That was the result of burning its soul and drawing its strength out to the limit. Ugo’s magical power bounced straight out through the puppet’s body.

Perhaps because of the backlash from failing to force the puppet up, Ugo spat out a little blood. I stroked my chin while looking at him. Then I let out a small laugh.

The area had gone quiet, so my laugh rang out louder than I expected. Ugo must have heard it too, because he turned his gaze toward me. Beyond those bloodshot eyes, I felt thick killing intent aimed my way.

“Mm, this is the exact opposite of last time. The situation has completely reversed.”

I lightly shrugged. Even if he scattered killing intent like that, it was no threat at all. The situation was already over anyway.

Ugo’s puppet had fallen, and he had suffered internal injuries too. It was fair to call this our perfect victory. Mm, I nodded at the refreshing feeling filling my chest.

I had put in a lot of effort to see this sight. Finally facing the result I had drawn out through betrayal and cooperation felt truly worthwhile. Was this the thrill of revenge?

As I looked at Ugo with satisfaction, I sensed someone approaching beside me. When I glanced over, I saw Miorang.

He took off his helmet beside me and met Ugo’s eyes. Then he quietly scratched his chin and wore a smile similar to mine.

“Mmm, still, facing Ugo was quite difficult. So please have some confidence.”

Ugo ground his teeth at those words. I quietly nodded. Yes, Ugo had every right to be confident. Several hours had already passed since he stepped into this trap.

I had never imagined Ugo would last this long. His power really was impressive. Of course, he had still ended up defeated.

Still, I could understand why he had been so confident. That puppet had truly been powerful. I glanced at the corpse puppet preserved inside the seal.

That was the corpse puppet he had made on the spot. It had been built purely to explode. Yet even a puppet like that was absurdly powerful.

Of course, the fact that he had used a person as material probably played a role too. But that also meant his skill at handling puppets was fundamentally outstanding. If this trap had not been here, stopping him would have been difficult.

In the end, though, he was alone. What would have happened if Ugo had formed a group like us? I imagined it for a moment, then shook my head slightly.

If he had, even two groups joining hands would clearly have had a hard time dealing with him. But he did not move that way. From his perspective, there had probably been no need to gather people.

He only needed to sink into the shadows and move alone. That was how he roamed this competition hall while killing people. And from the moment he killed someone, he had no choice but to be alone.

No one would try to move with him, after all. Even more so after I had already spread plenty of rumors about him.

If this competition had been held as a tournament like last time, his strategy would have been effective. There would have been no puppet that could withstand that power.

But that method did not work in this competition. A method that relied only on strength could not win. As this incident showed, in the end, the one who survived could be called stronger.

Now I needed to finish Ugo off. I looked at my puppet and reached out. The one shaped like Cassian approached me and handed over the sword it held.

This was almost the first time I had held a sword since learning magic. I held it and quietly waved it through the air. Even to me, the movement felt incredibly awkward.

Still, I could handle it somehow. That was because this item came from my puppet’s body. I could feel the sword slowly supporting my movements.

I flowed magical power into the sword. It settled into the blade and melted hazily. It had not been sharpened keenly the way I had imagined.

After seeing that, I shrugged. I had wanted to draw it out a little more impressively. My puppet had imitated Cassian and drawn out magical power well, so I had tried it just in case I had some talent with swords too.

But judging from this, I had no talent for swords. Well, being defeated by a sword like this would be even more humiliating. The important part was tormenting Ugo as much as possible.

Perhaps Ugo thought I would head toward him, because he raised a magical power barrier. I saw that and moved straight toward the woman puppet lying on the ground instead. Then I lightly poked its body.

I felt the puppet’s body twitch as the sword dug in. I shook the sword here and there, examining how that body had been made.

Then I let out a small sound of admiration. The structure of the circuits carved inside was very interesting. In those complicatedly tangled circuits, I could naturally feel the years Ugo had invested.

Ugo looked at me and widened his eyes. Then he spat out some kind of curse. I glanced at him and laughed. This puppet seemed quite important to him.

Well, he had cherished it quite a bit. Hadn’t he bragged about it even before entering the competition? That meant he had affection for it. Of course, the direction was a little different from the affection I had in mind.

I lightly stabbed the puppet’s chest with the sword. I kept stabbing it like this to determine where the soul was. Then, beyond that chest, I finally felt a faint trace of the soul.

The Fake Souls forming the sword began to draw out that faint soul’s movement. It slowly began slipping out of the puppet’s body. It had the shape of a red gem.

I carefully lifted it. The badly torn soul would clearly take a long time to fully recover. The soul was contained inside the gem and still screaming.

The magic carved into this gem was designed to make the soul suffer. At the same time, it was structured so the soul could always recover, which made it bizarre beyond words.

Well, tastes deserved respect, did they not? There was probably such a thing as love that sought fulfillment through tormenting someone else. Of course, tearing not just the body but even the soul was a little excessive.

In any case, it was certain that Ugo considered this very important. I quietly touched the gem and nodded. As expected, I should take this away.

I lightly flicked the gem and approached Ugo. Then I smiled brightly at him as he glared at me from beyond the magical power barrier.

“What will you do now? If you want to keep fighting, I will not refuse. An ‘accident’ Ugo likes so much might happen during a fight like that, after all.”

Ugo gave no answer and only glared at the gem in my hand. Feeling the killing intent wavering from him, I shrugged. Judging from that killing intent, he seemed to agree with me.

I put the gem into my chest and raised the sword. Then I filled it with magical power and brought it down on the barrier. My hazy magical power only flowed down along the barrier.

But if it did not work once, I only had to keep trying. With that thought, I kept striking the barrier. Ugo drew up even more magical power, but since he had already lost most of it in the earlier battle, his magical power was weak.

Of course, I was attacking him like this because I knew that was the situation. Like that, the barrier he had made collapsed beneath my sword.

I slowly walked up to Ugo. Then I held the sword upright and lightly shook it. My magical power dripped down along the blade.

“If you keep standing still like this, I will have no choice but to stab this into you. Of course, as you saw earlier, I am truly terrible at handling swords. Perhaps an accident might occur. So please be careful. Well... if you killed people, you must have been prepared to die too.”

I smiled with my eyes and thrust the sword in front of Ugo’s chest. Then I stabbed it in without hesitation. At the pain digging into his chest, Ugo squeezed his eyes shut and shouted, “I surrender.”

Along with that, a cluster of light descended and wrapped around his body. My sword was naturally bounced out by that light as well. It was the same even when I weakly poked him again.

That cluster of light was protecting him absolutely. I shrugged at it. I had meant to torment him a little more, so I had not expected him to shout surrender so easily.

I had only threatened him a little as a joke. It seemed he cherished his own life, at least.

“It is a shame you are leaving like this. Well, then I will take good care of Ugo’s puppet.”

As I said that, I took out the gem again. Then I lightly waved it in front of him as he left. At that, Ugo ground his teeth and shouted something.

But because he was submerged in the cluster of light, I could not properly hear what he was saying. I tilted my head slightly. He was probably talking about revenge.

Ugo turned into light and disappeared. Seeing that, I lightly scratched my head. I had expected Ugo to surrender. A mage valued their own life, after all.

The way Ugo killed people was very precise in that sense. As I had experienced, he dealt with someone in one breath so they could not even say they surrendered. Once wrapped in that stealthy magical power, I had not even been able to speak properly.

If I only thought about revenge, I could have done the same thing to Ugo. But I did not feel any need to go that far. Why would I do something so barbaric?

I had no intention of killing him. Even if I killed him here, it would only make his pain equal to what I had suffered before. That went against my decision to return it to him tenfold.

It also went against the will of the association, and further than that, the university. In that sense, I could not kill him here.

What I wanted was something more complex than simple death. For that, I needed to make him surrender like now.

I lightly shrugged. This could also be called building a new debt and grudge. For someone like me, who extremely disliked earning other people’s resentment, this was not something I wanted either.

But this had been decided from the moment Ugo tried to kill me. I had come here after even separating from Mira to establish a clear certainty inside myself. So I could not simply run away like usual.

How could I move forward if I handed everything over out of fear of debts and grudges? In that sense, Ugo was like a means to instill certainty in me. The moment I dealt with him, I was sure I would be able to go further.

In that regard, chasing Ugo out felt quite satisfying. The winner of the previous competition had fallen by my hand. I smiled at the sense of fulfillment rising deep in my chest.

Of course, this did not mean everything was over. Chasing him out was only the starting point. I intended to take away the things he hoped for and wanted, one by one.

Just like that. I glanced at the place where Ugo had disappeared. There, the coin fragment he had collected was lying on the ground. Strange magical power wavered from it.

Ugo had killed a fellow association member to gather that. Perhaps not only him, but the association head was involved too. That was the general impression I got.

He must have caused that incident because he was certain Ugo would win. But Ugo had been eliminated quickly like this. Then what exactly would happen outside? I became very curious.

Stopping that unknown plan felt extremely satisfying. As I quietly looked down at the fragment, Miorang approached. Then he stood beside me and lightly flowed magical power.

He was calling me. When I looked at him, he smiled warmly at me.

“Now, what shall we do?”

His face, carrying that bright smile, was endlessly gentle. But I could not smile with him while looking at him. His eyes were giving off a light so cold it stung.

I could clearly feel magical power starting to flow around me. Miorang was wrapping this area in magical power. The others must have sensed that magical power too, because they narrowed their eyes.

We had dealt with Ugo as promised. To us, Ugo had been a common enemy. But after achieving that goal, cooperation naturally came to an end.

I looked at the mark positioned at the center of the circle. Only ten people could enter it. Looking at that mark, which still showed no reaction, I shook my head slightly.

The first round of the competition was not over yet. The mark would not open as a reward just because we had removed Ugo.

They had five, and we had seven... no, remembering that Biogan had betrayed us, it would be better to say both sides had six. That made twelve in total, a number above the qualifying line. So the number needed to be reduced.

As they looked at one another, people began to grow tense. Within that tension, I could feel magical power beginning to flow roughly too.

I stroked my chin while sweeping my eyes over the atmosphere that felt as if it would burst at any moment. Then I laughed lightly. I felt people’s eyes gather on me.

Without hesitation, I bent down and picked up the coin fragment Ugo had left behind. The coin, more than half complete, clearly displayed Professor On’s appearance. Somehow, those eyes seemed to be watching me.

I touched it for a moment, then filled it with magical power and lightly flicked it. It flew through the air straight to Miorang. He reached out, caught it, and narrowed his eyes.

“There was something I promised while discussing cooperation. I said I would hand over the fragments I had after removing Ugo. Mine is included in this, so I will hand it over as is. With this, I have kept my promise.”

I showed both hands and smiled. Miorang had pursued profit a little, but he had not deceived me. So the promise had to be kept.

Miorang fiddled with the coin fragment in his hand. I felt his magical power settle slightly. It seemed he had relaxed now that the coin fragment was in his hand.

Seeing that, I shrugged. This was also a kind of protest toward Mauro. I did not know exactly what that coin fragment was. Mauro had not explained it properly, after all.

Since he had not explained it, there was no need for me to set its value high. Besides, the competition had not completely ended yet. So I did not need to force myself to take it.

“Is there any need for us to fight first?”

I looked up at the sky. The circle surrounding the sky had shrunk greatly during the process of dealing with Ugo. I jerked my chin toward it and smiled at the others.

“Let us clean up the surroundings first. There should still be a few people left. We can discuss who advances after that. There is no need to do something that will make the others happy, is there?”

At my words, Miorang stroked his chin, then carefully placed the coin fragment into his chest. Then he smiled with his eyes at me and nodded.

“Haha, we are thinking alike. I was just about to do the same.”

The magical power he had been giving off had vanished without a trace at some point. He fiddled with the now combined coin and showed a pleased smile.

For now, I had managed to calm the mood. I lightly nodded and gathered our group. Miorang did the same. Then he went off to search for people.

I glanced at Biogan. Unexpectedly, he had not joined that side and had remained with us. From the moment we had come this far, he no longer needed to remain by our side.

I did not bother asking him why. It had no great meaning anyway. I took out the map and checked the surroundings. Then I traced the marks of the magic circle we had formed.

The huge magic circle we had created to target Ugo was still active. And it did not only affect Ugo.

That magic had been made to track life. And it targeted all living things. Just like the traces floating up on our bodies right now.

That meant the same applied to the others still wandering here. I saw the traces left on their bodies flow like a kind of light.

They must know about the traces left on their bodies too. So they were surely moving to break that magic circle. Or perhaps they were doing the opposite and using it to reduce the number of people.

So we too needed to move quickly and hunt them down. As before, I wandered inside the magic circle while taking the form of a fugitive again. Those who took the bait attacked me and were then eaten.

Like that, the number of people slowly decreased. Even before we set the trap, only an extremely small number of people had remained. Now that even Ugo had fallen, no clear danger to us could exist.

The circle’s shrinking speed grew faster and faster. And the faster it shrank, the more often we hunted people. At the end of it, the circle shrank very tightly.

Only enough remained to barely cover the hill where we had hunted Ugo. As if showing this was the end, the magical power barrier surrounding all sides wavered thickly.

Following the guidance of that circle, our group and Miorang’s group had no choice but to gather in the center again. We gathered in one place and looked at one another. I, who had moved my soul back to my main body, did the same.

There was now truly no one in this competition hall except us. There were ten seats, and there were twelve people. A faint tension lingered around us.

That tension flowed between each individual rather than between the groups. They must have already realized it. There was no need to start a group fight.

Having all twelve fight just to remove two people was very inefficient. No one knew what might happen in the middle of that fight either. Looking at them, I quietly stroked my chin.

The reason I had tried to clean up the others first was because I wanted this atmosphere. Right after dealing with Ugo, of course we had no choice but to recognize each other as the most threatening enemies.

But if time passed like this, I thought they would certainly start thinking of their own interests rather than the group’s interests. That was what a creature called a mage was like. My thought was exactly right.

I could feel the other side’s organization weakening. Even if they were members of the same association, individual desires were bound to be hard to control. Of course, we were in an even bigger mess than they were.

There was no longer any recognition of being in the same group among us. Everyone was scattering sharp magical power while considering each other competitors. Looking at them, I lightly clapped my hands. At that, people’s gazes gathered on me.

“Now, let us divide the spoils first.”

I lightly tapped the table. On top of it were the byproducts left after dealing with Ugo. Two corpse puppets, and the woman puppet Ugo had left behind.

“Shall we decide the owner of this puppet first?”

I tapped the woman puppet and smiled. The others looked at the woman puppet, following my hand. I could feel strong greed in their gazes. As Ugo had shown, its power was outstanding, so everyone had no choice but to covet it.

But everyone only watched the mood, and no one stepped forward first. At that, I lightly raised my hand.

“If no one wants it, I will take it. I will pay the price in points or coins. Of course, if someone else says they will take it, I am willing to yield as well. Well... Ugo will not leave you alone, though.”

I shrugged and laughed. This puppet was something Ugo cherished. So if someone took it, they would clearly earn his resentment.

Ugo’s danger did not lie only in his puppets. His strange stealth magic was not something these people could easily notice. So if they earned his resentment once, handling it would not be easy.

At my words, everyone sank into thought. Soon, they clicked their tongues and shook their heads. It seemed they were reluctant to engrave such a deep debt and grudge with Ugo just to gain one puppet.

Well, it did not matter to me. I had already earned his resentment. Miorang was the same. I glanced at him. He did not seem like he would step forward to take this puppet.

That was also the promise I had made with him earlier. Miorang looked at me and smiled lightly. Since I had handed over the coin fragment, he seemed to be handing this over to me too.

Of course, more than that, his goal was probably to focus Ugo’s resentment even more on me. Still, I was grateful enough that he yielded like this.

Like that, the puppet entered my hands. I placed it into my spatial pouch and smiled quietly. Of course, it would be hard to use this in the current competition. It had been greatly damaged because its soul had been burned to amplify its power.

I had no idea how long repairing it would take. That was why they had handed it over so readily. It was full of danger, with no great profit.

But it did not matter even if I could not use it in this competition. I had taken this to give Ugo even deeper despair. In that sense, this could be called far more valuable than what I had paid.

Smiling like that, I took out the next things. They were the two corpse puppets. Interest and greed flowed together in the eyes of the people who saw them.

If they had these, they would clearly be able to take an advantageous position in the next competition. Besides, unlike the woman puppet that had appeared before, these could be called items with no problems. So they had no choice but to show even more interest now.

“I know why everyone wants these. So I will make one good proposal.”

“A good proposal. What is it?”

Gunda blinked and asked. I bowed my head slightly toward him and looked around at the others.

“Of course, whoever obtains them will be happy. But unlike that person, the others will inevitably suffer a relative loss. In that sense, these may eventually become seeds of conflict.”

I lightly tapped the table. Then I glanced at Miorang. I saw him stroke his chin and nod. This was also something I had agreed on with him before preparing this situation.

“Two people among us need to leave, and there just happen to be two of these. So how about sending them outside altogether? We give them to those who step forward and surrender first. We will add some of the coins we will obtain as well.”

Once I finished speaking, everyone showed their own reactions. Some looked positive, and some frowned and fell into thought.

But they would agree in the end. Thinking that, I quietly waited. I believed in mages. In how they could not be trusted, that was. They were incredibly selfish.

If they could not obtain something, their basic nature was to make sure others could not obtain it either. Going even further, someone who surrendered after making a reasonable judgment would soon appear too.

Coins were paid differently depending on ranking in the competition. In that sense, even if someone placed tenth, what they could obtain was very little.

But what if they could obtain greater profit than that by surrendering? People who chose certain profit over an uncertain future would definitely appear. And they would probably come from our group.

There was no other reason Miorang had agreed with me. The level of our group was far lower compared to his. So if the situation was arranged this way, the eliminated people would naturally have to come from among us.

I knew that well too. That was also why I had deliberately created this structure. It could be called a kind of consideration for those who had followed me until now.

I looked over the people in our group. There was someone like Biogan, who had tried to betray me, and someone like Gunda, who had trusted me until the end. They were all surely holding their own thoughts.

Even so, they had followed my opinion this far. Even if that had come from their individual desires in pursuit of profit, favor needed to be repaid with favor.

Even if we fought them anyway, our side had a higher chance of being eliminated. Then would it not be better to make sure everyone could gain profit without fighting? That was my way of achieving harmony with mages.

Just as I thought, two people from our group declared surrender. This promise was also being watched from outside. So breaking it carelessly was impossible. They believed that and left their places.

Only after they disappeared inside the clusters of light did the mark placed in the center finally begin giving off magical power. Ten circles shone brightly and made paths toward us.

It meant we should step onto them. I naturally got up and headed there. Then I carefully stepped beyond that circle.

Along with a slightly nauseating sensation, I felt my body blur. It was the same sensation as when I entered this competition hall. It must mean I had finally passed the first round of the competition. I nodded in satisfaction.

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