WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 166

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166.

I planned to solve at least part of Tiena’s request during this competition. I would show everyone that it was possible and leave them stunned. Then victory would be as good as mine.

Well, thinking that did not make it simple. I scratched my head. I still had not fully grasped the concept for making the puppet.

It felt like I could get there if I pushed just a little further, but crossing that little distance was extremely difficult. I let out a soft sigh and folded my arms.

Making a puppet and a person have a child. I had made countless attempts toward that goal. And I had failed just as many times. For the past three years, I had been stacking up failure after failure.

Creating a new body was easy. As I had done before when experimenting with Mira’s body, I only had to cultivate a new body from that flesh.

Even now, it was quietly growing in my workshop, getting larger by the day. It would surely awaken before long. Awakening its mind would be simple too.

But that was still only a puppet derived from Mira. It was hard to call it a child. Its only connection to her was physical.

Life naturally inherited the traits of its parents. All three elements that formed life. In every case I had attempted so far, those traits had not appeared.

That told me something. Puppets had a different grain from people. That was separate from the simple matter of being a different species.

Even between different species, life was sometimes born. There were cases of magical beasts and people joining together, and cases of humans and nonhuman species doing the same.

That was what the birth of life was. The union of bodies, the exchange of minds, and the division of the soul. At the end of that process, new life was created.

But puppets had nothing one could call a soul. They only had a fake dressed up to look like one. That was why puppets were not classified as a new species. They were simply puppets.

Even placing another being’s soul inside a puppet did not change that. It was only a material that helped the puppet move better. In the end, it could not be called the puppet’s own soul.

Because of that, those puppets could not create life either. Mira was one such case. Her body was ultimately a vessel that held the Fog Heart.

In that sense, the puppets I made were also nothing more than things with a Fake Soul placed inside them. I had dressed up my unique magic to look real, but in the end, it was impossible to create new life with those puppets alone.

And I was not the only one who knew this. Nor was I the only one who had failed like this.

Many puppeteers had stayed by Tiena’s side. There must have been many who received the request before me, and the association heads must have researched it too. Professor On must have done the same as well.

All of them must have tried, but in the end, the request had come to me. That meant they had continued to fail too. Counting by time alone, more than a thousand years of failure must have piled up.

I gave a light shrug. In that sense, it was only natural that I had not succeeded yet. How was I supposed to complete something even Professor On could not?

Even so, I had decided to solve part of the request this time because I had discovered a kind of shortcut. It was something I had realized after feeling my way forward for three years.

I glanced at the puppet behind me. Perhaps because it knew there would be no more fighting for now, it had collapsed its form into silver liquid. Inside its body, I could see the colors of a soul drifting back and forth.

That thing could imitate “life” well enough to function as my body. In that sense, I intended to create a fake that looked just as real.

I clicked my tongue softly. Of course, I still was not certain whether I could make it properly. The plan existed only in my head. It was uncharted territory I had never attempted before.

But there was enough possibility to try. Had Mauro and Aronia not said so before sending us here? Do your best and devote yourselves. I needed to do exactly that.

I quietly looked around. All kinds of tools were piled up inside the sealed room. My eyes lit up as I headed toward the center. I had spotted something very interesting.

There was a workbench filled with dense magical power. It also had various kinds of magic built into it to help with puppet making.

I used its built-in shape transformation magic to alter the workbench. As if it had read my mind, it took the same shape as the workbench I usually used.

I stroked it and nodded. As Mauro had said, there was truly no shortage of tools for puppets. This workbench was so good that I wanted to rip it out and take it back to my workshop.

The others’ rooms were probably the same. And they would surely use these tools to show off the best they could do.

I rubbed my chin. I had decided to create a puppet I had never made before. That was how I would stand above everyone else.

What if I made an ordinary puppet like I usually did? Of course, even that would be enough for me to beat them. Not only the people who took the same class as me, but even old hands like Miorang.

But could I call that my best? No. I quietly shook my head. A puppet like that would not show a clear gap between them and me.

I needed to show them my best. To gain certainty, I had to crush them overwhelmingly. That meant I needed to choose a method that would let me win perfectly.

And this was the method I had chosen. It was both a challenge and a strategic choice. I narrowed my eyes and tapped the workbench.

Professor On had said to make a puppet that would please Professor On. But that did not simply mean pleasing the professor alone.

There was someone more important than Professor On. Tiena. Professor On cared deeply about Tiena, Professor On’s own puppet, so satisfying Tiena would be the same as satisfying Professor On.

That was why I planned to make a puppet that suited her tastes perfectly. This could be called a choice that even accounted for the examiner’s intent. If I could make it, first place would be guaranteed.

Of course, to do that, I first had to make the puppet successfully. I nodded quietly and opened the spatial pouch at my chest. Then I moved my magical power and carefully took out the things inside.

They were broken, split, faded, and cracked puppets. They were the things I had collected during the first round of the competition. They were also the materials for this second round of the competition.

There were roughly ten of them. They had quite a variety of forms. I quietly stroked my chin and observed them. I had chosen them myself, but I could not feel even the slightest unity from these puppets.

I approached the first puppet that caught my eye. It was the white monkey puppet. Since it had been cleanly split open, its inner structure was well exposed.

It was the core puppet of the giant ape that had mass-produced bomb monkey puppets. I had gained an understanding of explosions from this. The knowledge inside it was that special.

And the other puppets had their own special qualities as well. One formed shadows, while another was similar to Mira’s fog.

In that way, I had gathered only the special puppets that stirred my interest. Perhaps because of that, each of these puppets showed off its own individuality. That individuality was also the puppet’s unique trait, one that could not be carelessly violated.

The others had looked at me as if they could not understand my choices. Of course they had. Unlike me, they had settled on a single trait and collected puppets based on that.

During the process of dividing the puppets, everyone had kept the second round of the competition in mind. Because of that, from the moment they first took their materials, they had already been planning what kind of puppet they would make.

For example, Gunda took parts from sturdy, large puppets, likely because he intended to make armor. Biogan took puppets made of minerals. He was clearly planning to make some kind of sword.

In that way, everyone took materials suited to the puppets they could make. That was why their choices had unity. In contrast, these puppets had no common point at all.

Rather than thinking about the puppet I would make, I had focused on gathering unique puppets that stirred my interest. Because of their individuality, they would be difficult to form into a single puppet.

From the others’ perspective, these would certainly be hard to use. In that sense, I had been able to take them very easily. That meant I could examine the knowledge contained inside them more clearly.

Of course, having to make a puppet based on these was a headache even for me. I could not erase their individuality, and if I forcibly combined them, their parts would obviously clash.

But it did not matter. Those individualities were exactly what I wanted. Materials did not mean that much to me anyway. The way I made puppets was a little different from everyone else’s.

One week remained. They said the interim evaluation would take place exactly halfway through. Then should I take a look at these first? Before making the puppet, I needed to understand the materials more deeply.

I set down the monkey puppet. Then I slowly reached out and tapped the most interesting puppet with my finger. This was the one I had been most curious about all along.

There, a woman covered in cracks sat with her eyes quietly closed. Her face looked peaceful, as if she had fallen into a deep sleep. I smiled with satisfaction when I saw it. As expected, this expression suited her better.

Had he said it was made from his master? This was the puppet I had taken from Ugo. For now, I had only fixed her expression a little. Only now could I slowly examine her interior.

I carefully stroked the puppet’s body. The heavily cracked body trembled unsteadily beneath my touch. There was a clear reason the others had handed this over to me so easily. Ugo’s grudge was one thing, but this puppet would also be difficult to use in the competition.

Even fixing her expression earlier had taken a great deal of work. And in that process, I had learned that I could not touch her any further. The puppet was perfectly damaged, both inside and out.

Repairing her was impossible now. Since this was a puppet made from a human body, adding other materials and weaving them in would mean nothing. That made her even harder to use as material.

But there was also an advantage to her being broken like this. It made her structure easier for me to understand. Normally, the defense system made by her original owner would have prevented me from examining the puppet.

I glanced at the other puppets. They still had traces of that. Breaking through them had taken quite a bit of effort.

But there was no need for that with this one. Since it had been overloaded to the limit, its defense system had broken along with it. That made exploring the body very easy.

I slowly extended my magical power and let it flow like thread. It dug into the body of the puppet before me and began to move. Along with it, the puppet’s structure was faintly transmitted to me.

Feeling that, I smiled in satisfaction. It was somewhat broken, but there was no problem examining the puppet’s form. I nodded as I inspected its composition.

The puppet I was examining now was truly excellent. Compared to this, the puppets I made felt crude. Although he had been my enemy, Ugo was an extremely skilled puppeteer.

I had felt that earlier too, when I saw the corpse puppets in the competition area. The explosions they created had been powerful enough to sweep away our entire group.

Even if I used the same material, I could not create the same result as him. I would probably make an explosion strong enough to take out one person at most. That showed just how talented Ugo was at handling people.

I lightly tapped the puppet’s head. And this was the crystallization of Ugo’s knowledge. I gently licked my lips and smiled.

Now that I had taken that knowledge, I needed to drain as much out of it as I could. My magical power flowed on and on, delicately soaking into the body. Within it, the puppet’s structure also began to reveal itself clearly.

The circuits and magic carved inside were incredibly intricate. They were very difficult for me to understand. It was not simply because the puppet was damaged. Rather, they were at a level beyond my own knowledge.

Feeling that, my eyes quietly lit up. As I dissected it piece by piece, I could sense it. The deeper I dug into this, the more deeply I would come to understand people, and puppetry as well.

I quietly traced the circuits. It was the part carved into the wrist that formed the magic. The circuits flowing there overlapped in several layers, creating a shape like tendons.

I could grasp only three layers. But many more things were hidden inside. Was this how the puppet had been able to pour out so much magic despite being a corpse?

I had never considered this approach. Could a human body truly be handled so freely and used to form a puppet like this? I admired it again and again.

When I took one step forward, new knowledge appeared. After I understood and digested it, another step revealed something else I had not known. Within that puzzle-like structure, I came to realize many things.

In that way, I dug endlessly into the puppet. I even forgot that this place was a competition area.

This was not a simple process of learning. All the knowledge carved into this puppet was like the crystallization of Ugo’s experiences and insights. And I was stealing it.

I felt that sense of fulfillment take deep root in my chest. It was not simply an emotion, but a clear token of growth. A kind of insight flowed like rain and slowly began to soak my tree.

As my tree accepted it, it grew a little more. And that analysis did not end after just one pass. There were still layers upon layers inside this puppet that I did not understand.

In the thrill of that insight, I dissected the puppet and analyzed it with magical power. Then I focused my mind and slowly absorbed the magical power gathering toward my tree and me.

At the end of it, I gasped for breath. I placed a hand on my chest. My tree was giving off magical power that was a little purer than before. I slowly gathered up the insight and opened my eyes.

I looked down at the half-split woman puppet and nodded. To think she had even provided a foothold for my growth. She really was an excellent puppet.

I also gave thanks to Ugo, her former owner. He certainly seemed to have treasured her dearly. There were still things inside her that I could not understand. In that sense, Ugo could truly be called a generous giver.

As I looked down at the puppet with a satisfied smile, I suddenly heard a tick. I turned my head and saw a clock. My puppet had taken the form of a clock and was showing the remaining time.

I blinked at it. Ah, right. This place was the competition area. I was in the middle of making a puppet. I had forgotten for a while because I was examining this one.

The reason I had touched this puppet in the first place was to understand the source of the material. But its structure was far more fascinating than expected. As a result, almost two days had passed while I organized those insights.

I could not believe so much time had gone by. While the others had been steadily making their puppets, I had just been sitting still. The inside of this room was probably visible outside, just like during the first round of the competition. In that sense, I could imagine what the situation outside looked like.

It must seem as though I still had no direction. I smiled slightly as I imagined Mauro fretting. Then should I start moving now?

I had learned everything I wanted to know. Of course, it had taken quite a lot of time, but thanks to that, I had also gained some sense of how I should make the puppet.

I let my magical power flow like thread and slowly restored the split puppet’s body. I still had not learned everything, but through the dissection, I had at least understood the basic structure of the body. Sealing it was possible.

I folded my arms and stared at the clock. There was not much time left until the interim evaluation. That meant I needed to make at least a simple puppet. I needed something to show the association heads.

I glanced at the woman puppet on the workbench. Though I had sealed her, the cracks carved into her body had deepened even more during the dissection and cleanup.

Now she had reached the point where touching her at all was impossible. I clicked my tongue softly as I looked at her. It seemed I had gotten too excited.

I shrugged. The puppet had ended up in this state, but it did not really matter. This puppet’s body was useless to me anyway. I could tend to that shattered flesh later.

I placed the puppet into the spatial pouch as she was. Then a single jewel left in the empty space caught my eye. What I would use to make this puppet was not that body. It was that jewel.

I picked up the red jewel. I could feel the faint presence of a soul inside it. The woman’s soul was contained within.

It had been torn to pieces inside the jewel and left suffering. Perhaps because of that, it felt like a pure white soul with neither reason nor will.

Of course, given time, this soul would recover too. But it had already been heavily modified. Because of that, regaining its original soul form would surely be difficult.

After confirming that, I smiled bitterly. Ugo must have made it this way on purpose. People said personal tastes should be respected, but this was truly foul taste.

I lightly tapped the jewel. Yet because it was in this state, it was also something I could use. I knew very well how to handle unstable souls.

I would use this soul to make a puppet. A valuable puppet I could present to Tiena. That was the thought that came to me as I looked at this jewel. I quietly focused my mind on my chest.

The tree that had grown plump resonated with me and shook its branches. Since it had put on so much mass, shouldn’t I trim it down? I laughed lightly at the thought. As if it had sensed what was coming, the tree drooped.

Through my resonance with the tree, I slowly drew out magical power. I felt it flow out according to my will.

What dwelled inside it was not only magical power. I could also feel the presence of my soul fragments. Holding that within it, I slowly drew a magic circle on the floor.

I lifted one of the other puppets and placed it inside the magic circle. Why would I need to prepare a body myself? There was already such an individual body right here.

I only needed to prepare what would go inside it. Feeling the presence of soul and magical power flowing along the magic circle, I quietly smiled. In that way, a day passed, and inside the magic circle, a small puppet raised itself up.

Looking at it, I nodded. It was the monkey puppet I had obtained from Jugang. I had obtained it first, and I also understood its composition best, so I had used it as the base body.

Fortunately, it rose to its feet just fine. This could be called a simple draft puppet. It had failed a little, but my intent was still present in it, if only faintly.

I could send this one to the interim evaluation. I reached out while fiddling with the jewel. Perhaps sensing my will, it carefully climbed onto my hand.

I made a small mirror out of magical power in front of it. It quietly touched its own body, then met my eyes through the mirror and began to blink.

I could feel faint confusion in its eyes. Its connection to me was only very faint, but I could still read that emotion well enough. I smiled slightly and scratched its head.

As I spent time like that, the clock rang. That meant the third day had ended. And that also meant it was time to face the association heads.

I felt a steady flow of magical power begin from the sealed wall. That magical power gradually grew stronger, then created a path. Lights flickered along it as if telling me to follow.

I slowly walked along that path. Then I entered a huge cavern. It was the same area I had visited before.

I quietly bowed my head toward the platform. The twelve association heads were seated there just as they had been before. However, perhaps because this was the interim evaluation, Professor On and Tiena were nowhere to be seen. It seemed they would appear later.

I stood before them. Then I met their eyes. Many emotions rippled in those gazes. There was disbelief, interest, and even some shock mixed in.

Meeting those gazes, I quietly scratched my head. Why were they making those faces? I could not understand.

Mauro looked at the monkey puppet in my hand and gave a dry cough. Then he began looking me over. His gaze was somewhat cautious.

“Is your tree all right?”

My tree? I placed a hand on my chest for a moment. My tree was showing plenty of pain. It could not be helped. I had torn away roughly one-tenth of its body.

All the tree stems I had torn away had seeped into this small puppet sitting on my hand. This level of pain was familiar. It was the same for my tree.

I smiled lightly and nodded.

“Yes, it is perfectly fine.”

“...You’re insane. I thought you were one of the more normal ones under Mauro, but I was wrong. To think you were the craziest one instead.”

Aronia muttered with a disgusted look. The others showed signs of agreeing with her. Even Gaon, who had poured killing intent at me before, did the same.

Only then did I realize why they were acting like that. It was because they had all watched the way I made puppets. They must have seen the entire process, including me cutting my tree and putting it inside.

I lightly rubbed my chin. Thinking about it, this was the first time I had shown others how I made puppets. Mm, was it really that shocking? I had simply thought of it as one possible direction for puppetry.

Of course, there was a slight difference between how I made puppets and how others did. Before making a puppet, I first tore off part of my tree. There probably were not many people who made puppets using their own tree as material.

No, perhaps I was the only one. Seeing how surprised they were made me think so. But this was the direction I had chosen for creating puppets. Each and every one of these puppets became my foundation.

I scratched my head again. I had not even properly started making the puppet yet. To create the puppet I had planned, I would need far more sacrifices. So they really should not be this surprised already.

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