WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy
Chapter 195
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195. (Revised)
I quickly rose to my feet and checked my surroundings.
Half-destroyed buildings stood around us, with several corpses scattered among them.
Some of the taller buildings looked like the kind commonly seen in an imperial city.
The others also got up and began letting their magical power flow. What was going on?
The cave scenery had vanished before I knew it. Wondering if this might be a dream or illusion, I quietly examined the area with my magical power. But this was unmistakably reality.
“It’s a battlefield.”
Emery narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue. This place was a battlefield? No wonder I had felt uneasy the moment we arrived. I quietly read the mood and backed away.
The sensation disturbing my senses was pouring in from every direction. To avoid it as much as possible, I hid near Emery, and the air felt a little safer there. That meant this was the safest place.
I sniffed quietly. The smell of blood was leaking from between the half-destroyed buildings. There were probably corpses inside them too.
Judging from the screams that kept ringing out, the ones who had carried out this slaughter seemed to still be nearby. Emery looked down at her wrist and shook her head.
I looked at my wrist as well. The screen from a moment ago appeared again. And I saw Chapter 1. Black Mage highlighted.
Black mage. With only that small piece of information, I still could not judge anything. I was about to examine the screen a little more when I suddenly felt a faint tickle in my chest.
At the same time, Gang made a small gesture toward us. They pointed between the buildings. There was nothing there but a shadow. Was something hidden there?
I focused and stared at it. Soon, I noticed something strange. The shadow was far too clear. I glanced up at the sky. It was completely dark.
It was impossible for such a clear shadow to form in a place without a single light. As I held my breath and watched, several tentacles rose from within it.
They looked unpleasant enough to make my skin crawl just from seeing them. The tentacles gathered the corpses scattered nearby and sucked them into the shadow. Were those things the culprits who had killed these people?
“First, please come this way. We need to grasp the situation.”
Then I heard someone whisper. When I looked toward the voice, Evron had somehow entered one of the buildings and was gesturing to us. When had he gotten all the way there?
I looked at Emery. She was staring at the tentacles dragging away the corpses, slightly lost in thought. My senses were telling me that beside her was the safest place, so for now, I needed to follow her.
Soon, Emery clicked her tongue lightly and headed toward the building Evron had entered. When I followed her inside, warm air greeted me.
Unlike how it had looked from the outside, very comfortable magical power was flowing through the building. Evron had done this. I glanced at him.
Evron was engraving several magic circles into the half-destroyed building. The warm magical power washing away the smell of blood was rising from those magic circles.
Finally, he drew one huge magic circle and nodded. It was magic even I could easily recognize. Simple concealment magic.
I felt the magical power flowing along the magic circle cover our bodies and erase our presence. After dusting off his hands, Evron moved his magical power here and there, then continued neatly cleaning up the inside of the building with his puppet.
His movements were fast enough to admire. He looked extremely practiced. Soon, he restored a broken chair and offered it to us.
Emery sat in the chair with a satisfied expression. She seemed to like his service quite a bit. Evron brewed a cup of tea, offered it to Emery, then looked around at us and smiled.
“For now, let’s observe the situation from here. We don’t know what threats may be out there.”
I nodded. His attitude was very mage-like. And somehow, his movements felt familiar to me. I quietly felt the scroll inside my clothes.
Third maxim, if the situation is unclear, run away first. Surviving is the most important thing.
Could he know about this scroll too? He clearly understood its contents in far greater detail than I did. After all, he was not simply reciting the maxims. He was putting them into practice.
Evron gestured to the puppet beside him. The puppet received his magical power, lost its shape, and melted down like silver liquid.
Then he lightly tapped the liquid. At his touch, it rose again and took the form of a small bird. Watching the bird fly out of the building, Evron nodded.
“Everyone, please rest. If that child discovers anything, it will signal us.”
Evron bowed his head slightly toward us with a clear smile. To organize the situation this quickly, he was extremely capable. Capable enough that even Emery seemed satisfied. Was that also according to the maxims?
I quietly looked out the window. Since Evron had made us a hiding place, I needed to understand the situation a little more closely. I could not leave everything to him.
The others must have thought the same, because each of them checked the surroundings in their own way. Jaun brought several corpses into the building, while Gang observed the tentacles in the shadow with sharp eyes. Soon, Gang stroked their chin and tilted their head.
“It seems those are not magical beasts. I think there is a human touch mixed in. They show the gloominess unique to mages.”
Gang said that while fiddling with the sword at their waist. Was that the intuition unique to sword-users? If so, it was worth trusting. Sword-users were basically experts at hunting magical beasts and mages.
Jaun also seemed to have found something. He clicked his tongue while touching a corpse, opened up its body, and shook his head.
“This thing has had all its magical power drained. Not even a handful remains.”
Silence fell. I had nothing to say. That kind of analysis was not my specialty. Still, one thing was clear. Somehow, the ominous feeling was slowly growing stronger.
But if I said that without any clear proof, no one would listen. So for now, I planned to settle down in the safest place possible.
I glanced at Emery. After listening to the two of them, she was fanning herself and seemed lost in thought. Beside her was surely the safest place here.
“Hmm, that’s strange. My puppet can’t get out.”
Evron closed his eyes for a moment and frowned. At his words, Emery clicked her tongue softly. She placed a hand on her chest.
Then magical power rose slightly from her and shot toward the sky. But it vanished as if blocked by something. Seeing that, she frowned.
“I thought something was odd because of that stifling feeling. Are we inside a huge barrier? The thing that kept catching on my senses has finally become clear. I understand the situation a little now. You, come here.”
Emery looked displeased and crooked a finger at Evron. He approached her with a puzzled expression. Then Emery took a jewel from her fan and threw it to him.
“I must keep what I said, so I will hand that over to you. You seem good at hiding, so do not leave my side. If my guess is correct, escaping this place will not be easy.”
It seemed she had figured out what was happening. Emery looked around at us. She seemed to be considering whether to tell us what she had discovered.
She was at the edge of Sapling, a realm far higher than mine, beyond any comparison. If someone like her reacted this way, it meant this matter was that dangerous.
“Could you teach me as well?”
I cautiously asked Emery. At that, Emery narrowed her eyes and met mine. I bowed my head deeply to her.
It was a little scary, but I had no choice. Feeling the sense of danger in my chest grow even stronger, I swallowed. For now, we were tied together as one group, so she definitely would not reject me outright.
If I was eliminated, she would lose ten points too. For her to safely pass into the university, she had to keep us alive as well. So asking this kind of question should be fine.
The others also seemed focused on our conversation. Emery seemed to notice and clicked her tongue lightly. She shook her head with a displeased look, then refined her magical power.
“...This is a large-scale offering ritual. Seeing as the barrier is covering the entire city, this was done by people beyond our level.”
She looked at the sky outside the window. The pitch-black darkness I had taken for the night sky held dense magical power. Emery narrowed her eyes and released magical power. It was being sharpened, as if preparing for battle.
“They gave something like this as a test? They may be nothing more than weeds, but massacring people like this is in terrible taste. What do they think the Empire is?”
“Good heavens, an offering ritual?”
My body trembled. An offering ritual. Those horrifying words made it impossible to stay calm. Had we fallen into the kind of offering ritual I had only ever heard about?
“W-what do we do? Shouldn’t we get out of here?”
At the words offering ritual, I felt the ominous feeling in my chest grow even stronger. Emery looked at me and frowned slightly.
“For someone who calls himself a mage, you make such a fuss. Calm down.”
She let a little magical power flow toward me. The sharp magical power moving around me snapped me back to my senses. I checked the others’ reactions.
The others looked worried too, though not as much as I did. Of course they would. It was an offering ritual. People were being used as sacrifices.
I swallowed. One of the greatest taboos in the Empire was using people as sacrifices. Increasing and nurturing humanity was the foundation of the Empire.
But not everyone followed that control. A mage blocked by a wall would try anything. And the first thing such people tried was this kind of offering ritual.
They offered sacrifices and built up magical power. Of course, compared to hunting other magical beasts, using people as sacrifices was quite inefficient. But humans were easy enough prey to capture that the inefficiency could be ignored.
That was why cases where an entire city was used as a sacrifice happened from time to time. And those who used people as sacrifices were called by many names. Black mage was one of those insults.
And we had now fallen right into the middle of such an offering ritual. As Emery said, this was beyond our level.
I had no idea what this test wanted from us. Did we just have to escape this place? If so, we had to move quickly.
Then Jaun gave a small dry cough. He lightly touched the organs of the corpse placed before him and shook his head. I could see blood flowing down from his hands.
“These things don’t seem to be real people. They don’t react to my magical power.”
Jaun dipped his finger in the blood flowing from the corpse and tasted it, then smacked his lips softly. Ominous magical power poured from his mouth. It clumped together, seeped into the corpse, then was bounced out.
“Since my magic for controlling corpses keeps failing like this, it would be more accurate to view them as creations rather than people. We should say they were made to look as close to people as possible.”
“To disguise them this perfectly, how impressive,” Jaun muttered in admiration, then examined the corpse’s organs further. Evron quietly approached his side and wiped some bloodstains with his hand.
“It would be correct to view this as a puppet. To make a puppet like this, how interesting.”
Even after hearing the words offering ritual, they seemed to have a bit of room to spare. Did they have something to rely on? Somehow, I felt a little relieved too.
I glanced at the corpse. That was not human? From the outside, I could not tell the difference at all. Jaun continued touching the corpse and clicked his tongue softly.
“Still, this alone would be enough to hold an offering ritual. It is certain the magical power was drained. If anything, they must have gathered more magical power than they would have by offering weeds.”
“Is that so? Then everyone, prepare yourselves. Guests will arrive soon.”
Emery filled her fan with magical power and shook her head. Guests? I had no idea what she meant. Then Evron’s face stiffened slightly, and he grabbed his chest.
“...My puppet was taken down. Something is approaching this place.”
I quietly checked the surrounding magic circles. The concealment magic was still hiding our presence. Then how were they finding us? Emery looked down at the magic circle and let out a small sigh.
“This magic circle was revealing our location instead. Since it hid our presence, it left the flow of the ritual empty. From the perspective of the ones maintaining the ritual, such a blank space would stand out clearly.”
“Then we need to run quickly....”
I stopped speaking and swallowed. The prickling feeling in my chest had suddenly grown sharp. “We noticed too late,” Emery muttered, then clicked her tongue.
Evron quickly released the magic circle, but as Emery had said, everything was already too late.
“Everyone, watch your feet!”
I shouted and quickly rolled away. The ominous feeling was rising from beneath my feet. The instant I left the spot, a tentacle shot up from my shadow.
After hearing my warning, the others also blocked the tentacles in their own ways. I filled my foot with magical power and kicked away the tentacle stretching toward me again. It shattered and melted into the shadow.
Facing one tentacle like this was very easy. But this shadow was not only beneath my feet. I looked around with a frown.
It was covering the entire building we had hidden in. Before we knew it, we had been surrounded by shadows. Damn it, I had failed to notice the shadows growing this thick. It was my mistake.
I could see tentacles rising in droves from the shadows. They approached us, writhing grotesquely. I backed away and headed for the safest place, beside Emery.
But even there, it did not feel very safe. When I glanced at Emery, she was staring beyond the tentacles as if wary of something. From the direction she was watching, I felt what seemed to be the movement of a huge mass of magical power.
At the same time, the tentacles that had risen from the shadows opened a path as if worshiping something. And between them, I saw two people appear.
The first thing that caught my eye was a girl with violet eyes. She was looking at us with an indifferent expression. Above her head floated a brilliant ring, giving off light.
The powerful magical power we had felt was coming from that. But I could not keep my gaze on her for long. There was someone who stood out even more than her.
The girl lightly tugged the chain in her hand. Then the person she had been riding received the signal and stopped. He raised his head, looked around, and met our eyes.
“Was it you who interfered with us?”
When he opened his mouth, powerful magical power leaked out. I swallowed. Were they the black mages after all? The fact that the tentacles worshiped them like this meant they were the masters of the ritual magic covering this city.
I never thought the black mages themselves would come to find us. The girl pulled the man’s collar even harder. Then he looked at the girl with shining eyes and bowed his head.
“I apologize. I was focused on the ritual and failed to notice these people crawling in. Please punish me!”
At that, the girl pulled the man’s collar even harder. The man looked slightly pleased and smacked his lips. Evron stared at them, then quietly stepped forward.
“We had no intention of interfering with you two. We have only just arrived here as well. We only learned just now that you were making offerings.”
Fourth maxim, avoid making enemies. It was advice from the scroll. To think he would put it on display like this. The man met Evron’s eyes and blinked.
For some reason, I could see a hint of confusion. When he paused, the girl pulled the chain again. Then the man seemed to come to his senses and opened his mouth.
“...The ritual is now being completed successfully. So I will give you a chance. If you promise to leave the city without interfering with us, I will let you go. There are many things besides you that require my attention.”
My eyes quietly sparkled. This might be a test, but at a glance, they were people we could not defeat. If they were giving us a chance to run away, there was no reason to refuse.
And the moment he said that, I felt something wrap around the surroundings. It was a thick curtain. Not knowing what was going on, I blinked.
Then a screen suddenly appeared before my eyes. Unlike before, new contents were written on that screen.
--
Chapter 1. Black Mage
You have encountered black mages proceeding with a ritual. Discuss how you will act and submit your opinion. (This choice will be reflected in the later story.)
--
After confirming that, I swallowed. Was this the test this time? Choosing the right direction for us to move forward? It was definitely a new type I had not seen even in the scroll.
I had not expected this kind of situation. Feeling my confidence suddenly plummet, I looked around. The others had already finished judging the situation and were looking at one another.
The first among them to speak was Jaun. He looked around at us with cold eyes.
“This ritual is already half complete. It would be impossible to defeat them inside it.”
Jaun jerked their chin beyond the curtain, toward where the black mages were. Jaun stroked their chin and continued.
“So I think it would be best to escape. Fortunately, they seem to be wary of us, so it would be right for us to leave while we have this chance.”
His opinion was very reasonable. I wanted to support it too. I glanced at where the man and girl had been. Even though we had only faced them briefly, the magical power flowing from them had pressed down on me heavily.
There was no need to fight people like that. As I nodded, I heard someone snort. It came from Gang. Gang fiddled with their scabbard and shook their head.
“To show your backs when there is an enemy you must face. It seems a mage’s nature cannot be hidden after all.”
Gang narrowed their eyes, showing a hint of contempt. At that, Jaun also rippled with magical power and showed displeasure. Seeing their magical powers clash as if they might fight at any moment, I swallowed.
A fight might break out at this rate. As I worried, Evron smoothly slipped between them. He gave them both a light smile and scattered his magical power.
“Now, now. We have been grouped as one team in this test, so what need is there for us to fight among ourselves? Perhaps we might even receive penalty points for failing to cooperate. So let’s get along.”
Evron calmly soothed the two. He was very skilled. Seeing the two refine their magical power, Evron nodded in satisfaction. Then he glanced at Gang.
“Judging from those words, Gang seems to think differently. Do you have something to say?”
“An offering ritual is the taboo among taboos. Running away while leaving such a situation alone would be abandoning one’s duty as a human. Of course we should fight that thing. Well, if one is a mage, I suppose one would naturally think of running first.”
Gang and Jaun gently let magical power flow toward each other. But unlike before, it only created a slight check. It seemed they had no intention of wasting their strength either.
Then three remained. Emery, me, and Evron. Our gazes naturally turned to Evron, who stood at the center of the conversation. He smiled and quietly stepped back beside Emery.
“I will follow Emery. That is my choice.”
Evron bowed his head to Emery. His manner as he paid respect to her was endlessly polite. Emery nodded in satisfaction.
To satisfy her even in this kind of situation. I had thought I had learned all the maxims from the scroll, but looking at him made me feel terribly lacking.
The situation was one to one. We were split between running away and fighting. I could not think of any other option either. Then what choice would Emery make?
In this situation, my choice probably would not have much meaning anyway. The side Emery chose would immediately take the majority.
No matter how much the other side refused, if more people argued for it, the opinion would surely flow that way. Feeling our gazes gather on her, Emery snorted lightly.
“To agonize over something like this, you really are pathetic fellows. As that one said, you will simply follow me. To pass the test, it seems I must protect you first.”
She gently fanned herself and slowly moved. I could not help but be flustered when I saw where she headed. Contrary to my expectations, she stood beside Gang.
The black mages outside held very strong power. If it was her, she must have recognized the difference in strength more clearly than I did. Even so, she chose to fight.
I could not understand why she had made that choice. Running away was the most reasonable choice right now. But she gave no explanation. She merely fanned herself and waited for the others’ choices.
“Mm, then as I said, I will follow Emery.”
Evron smiled slightly and stood beside Emery. One to three. The majority had already been exceeded. I quietly read the mood, then headed to where Gang was. At that, Jaun, who was facing us, showed a slightly uncomfortable expression.
Seeing that, I quietly scratched my head. No matter what I chose, it already had no meaning. Then would it not be better to follow the others? Besides, for some reason, my instincts also felt that this place was safer.
“...Hmph, I’ll let it pass for now. Do as you like.”
Jaun shook his head. He had withdrawn his opinion. And the moment the result was decided, I felt the curtain surrounding us vanish. At the same time, the screen before us displayed new words.
--
Chapter 1. Black Mage
You have encountered black mages proceeding with a ritual. And you have decided to fight them. Survive the battle against them.
--
Survive. I swallowed at those bloody words and saw the man give a sinister laugh. He poured out magical power, dyeing the surroundings with it.
“I see. To think you would make that choice. Then I have no choice but to erase you here.”
The magical power rippling from him held all sorts of colors, as if countless things had been mixed together. Was that the magical power gained through offerings? It was so powerful I would not dare to handle it.
At the sensation shaking my chest, I backed away. I could not imagine how many things he had sucked in to possess that kind of magical power. And that magical power headed straight toward the girl riding on his back.
At that, I felt the ring of light floating above the girl’s head release dazzling magical power and resonate with the man’s magical power. Within that resonance, the building we were staying in collapsed in an instant from the shock wave.
Only the barrier Evron had built barely held its place within the magical power. But even that soon began giving off faint light, as if it would collapse at any moment.
We were supposed to survive in this situation? I swallowed and let my magical power flow. The others did the same. Emery looked around at us and quickly waved her fan.
“I will face those two, so you, assist me from my side with your puppets. The other three, clean up the things around us as much as possible.”
Emery’s eyes flashed as she stepped forward. The way she assigned roles to us made her seem extremely experienced in battle. Evron approached her side with a slight smile.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I headed toward Jaun and Gang. It was fortunate, at least. It would have been hard for me to face those two.
I saw magical power ripple from the fan Emery waved. At the same time, the jewels set into the fan took in magical power and began drawing separate magic circles. The magic blooming from them had an utterly vicious structure.
Seeing that, my eyes sparkled. Such incredible magic. Had she chosen option two because she was confident she could deal with them?
Like that, we also followed Emery’s instructions and drew magic while blocking the tentacles rushing toward us from the surroundings. Perhaps with Emery’s power alone, we might be able to overcome this crisis well enough. Thinking that, I moved forward.
And soon, I was made to painfully realize that my thoughts were wrong. I looked around. Another tentacle was crushed at the tip of Gang’s sword.
Jaun was the same, taking strange things out from inside his body and corroding the things around him. The area those two protected was very stable. And the same was true for the area I handled.
I fired the crossbow I was holding and hit a tentacle shooting toward me. At the same time, the strengthening magic engraved into the arrowhead pierced straight through the tentacle and drove into the ground. It pierced even the shadow and disappeared deep underground.
I quickly used retrieval magic and attached the arrow back onto the crossbow. There was a small crack on the arrowhead. Because I had fired it too many times, the magic was overloading.
Seeing that, I had no choice but to sigh. One of these arrows cost five mana stones. To think I would have to use such a precious thing here. It was wasteful, but it could not be helped. I had to survive first.
I clicked my tongue while shooting down another tentacle. We were cleaning up the surroundings well for now, but this was nothing more than maintaining the situation. The tentacles rose endlessly from within the shadows.
Of course, if we were given time, we would definitely be able to escape. Gang and Jaun were each doing their jobs properly. At this rate, the shadow would be consumed first. We could take that chance to slip out.
But we were not the problem. The problem was Emery, who had stepped forward first. When I glanced toward the direction of the fight, I saw Emery swing her fan.
At the same time, the powerful flames rippling from her fan embroidered the air and shot out like a beam. It was an incredibly powerful blow.
But the magic stretching out from her scattered helplessly beneath the ring of light the girl held out. When the girl waved her hand, the ring of light devoured the flames and shot back toward Emery.
Evron’s puppets quickly blocked the ring of light. They only endured for a brief moment before melting down, but still, they bought enough time for Emery to dodge.
Emery hurriedly avoided the ring, but she could not stop a wound from being carved into her body. Emery clicked her tongue and once again built magical power into her fan.
It was only because she was Emery that she could hold on even a little like this. If I had stood in front of them, I would have collapsed right away.
But it was becoming harder and harder for Emery to endure. Evron would not be able to keep sending puppets either. Emery was strong, but at this rate, she would eventually collapse helplessly.
Then should we not run away before that happened? At the ominous feeling rippling in my chest, I looked around. If I left, this delicate balance would collapse too.
But what did that matter? What mattered was that I survived first. I thought back to the maxim written in the scroll.
Third maxim, if the situation is unclear, run away first. Surviving is the most important thing. This was exactly the situation those words described. Had the screen just now not told us to survive too?
But even while thinking that, I could not easily move my feet. Every time I tried to run away, my chest trembled violently for some reason. It meant this place was the safest.
It was hard to defy my instincts. But I simply could not understand. How was this place safe? Emery looked like she might collapse at any moment.
And as if to match my thoughts, Emery’s struggle soon came to an end. With a powerful shock wave, I saw her get hit by the ring of light and thrown back. She rose from the debris of the building and raised her magical power even more strongly.
It was terribly unstable. She had clearly suffered internal injuries. As if assisting her, Evron sent several puppets to block the ring of light. But the puppets quickly collapsed within the magical power.
“Why did you have to attack us? If you had run away quietly, I would have let you go. Of course, I would have eaten about two of you.”
The man smacked his lips and let his magical power flow even more strongly. The girl who received that magical power fired the ring of light again. Emery raised her magical power and tried to block the ring, but her magical power was unstable.
Ignoring my trembling chest, I squeezed my eyes shut. Now we just had to escape. The instant I took one step, I felt a sharp energy fall from the sky.
It knocked away the ring of light and struck the ground. It was a long sword. The man clicked his tongue at the sight of it. Then a woman appeared from the sky.
The woman picked up the sword and faced the girl and the man. Beside her stood a huge bear. The woman aimed her sword at them with a calm expression.
She waited quietly without saying anything. Because of her silence, the man instead seemed even more flustered. Soon, the woman glanced at the bear beside her.
For some reason, I could sense awkwardness in her eyes. At that, the bear rummaged through its chest, took out a piece of paper, and handed it to her. After checking it, the woman’s eyes sparkled.
“Y-you wicked man. I shall, condemn you.”
Her tone was so awkward it sounded as if she were reading from a book. At that awkwardness, which did not fit the situation at all, I could only quietly blink. After finishing her line, she rolled her eyes. She seemed to be watching someone’s reaction.
---
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