WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 2

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“It’s magic power hypertrophy.”

Ojo said that. I barely managed to lift my swollen body, which had puffed up so badly I could hardly breathe. I had gone to sleep and woken up nearly four times bigger.

I could not move at all, so I had Nanny send word to Ojo. When he came to see me, he laughed.

“You absorbed more magic power overnight than everything you had built up until now, so your body expanded to withstand it. It should go down a little with time. Though it will be hard to go back to how you were before.”

A mage’s body type did not change easily. It had already been fixed in its optimal form. Ojo added that and snickered.

What? Did that mean I was stuck with this fat body for the rest of my life? I looked at Ojo with needless suspicion.

“Your flesh hasn’t been fixed yet, so if you want to lose weight, you need to start moving as soon as possible. Exercise, and eat less. Otherwise you’ll be rolling around for life.”

As Ojo said that, he lightly released magic power. A book slipped out of his coat, following the flow of that magic power. Ojo tossed it beside my head, and I raised my own magic power to catch it. When I carefully checked the cover, it said ‘Basic Magic.’

“I’ll be teaching you for the next ten years. This relationship was formed by contract, so you can just call me senior.”

What Ojo spoke about next was the realms of magic.

Every person had a seed inside their chest.

Only those who made it germinate gained the qualifications of a mage. When he said many people failed to endure the pain and died during this process, my chest went cold on its own. Had I not almost died the same way?

“Senior, then why didn’t you tell me this before?”

I asked, with a little resentment in my voice from the memory of almost dying.

“Hmm. Is there any need to explain that to a weed that hasn’t even become a mage?”

Ojo said.

“Someone who can become a mage appears once in a thousand, once in ten thousand. Among countless weeds, only one person earns the right to become a mage and grow a tree. There’s no need to pay attention to all those countless weeds.”

It felt a little unpleasant. But excitement even stronger than that filled my chest. A weed, huh. A weed. Only now did it finally feel real that I had become a mage.

“The realm of Germination you have achieved is the beginning and foundation of a mage. The book I gave you contains the breathing methods and basic magic you must learn from here on. If you polish these basics perfectly and accumulate enough magic power, you’ll gain the chance to move on to the next realm. A sprout grows into a sapling. Many people fail there, then challenge it again.”

Ojo frowned as if recalling that pain.

“A sapling becomes a young tree. A young tree soon becomes a complete tree. It stretches out branches, grows lush with leaves, and forms flower buds. The flowers bloom and bear fruit, and you must melt yourself into that fruit and mature it completely. Then, if you pick and eat that fruit, people commonly say a mage becomes ageless and deathless.”

Ojo said these were the twelve realms of a mage.

Germination, Sapling, Young Tree, Complete Tree, Branching, Lush Leaves, Flower Bud, Full Bloom, Fruiting, Infusion, Maturity, and Harvest.

Were the realms described by comparing them to the way a tree grew? No. This time, I had personally felt the seed split open and put down roots. Those names had likely been given because the tree really did grow that way.

Then what realm was Ojo in? Curiosity rose for a moment, but I held it back. It might be something you should not ask a mage.

“I said earlier that we were distinguished from weeds. I brought that up because it’s connected to these realms as well. Each time you cross into a new realm, your lifespan also increases. We create magic based on trees, so our lifespans follow trees too. I am stretching out branches, and I should be able to live another thousand years.”

A thousand years?

For a moment, I wondered if I had heard wrong.

It was a span of time I could not even imagine.

Was it possible for a person to live that long?

My eyes opened wide on their own.

“But even so, almost no mage fully enjoys that lifespan. A mage is someone who tends a tree, and mages die while struggling to raise that tree’s rank. If there is a chance of raising the tree’s rank, whether it is a rare magical beast, a strange medicinal herb, or a mysterious spirit vein, a mage will fight for it.”

After saying that, Ojo sank deep into thought. Was he remembering his own past? Soon, Ojo woke from his thoughts and let out a small sigh. Then he continued speaking about the magic world.

The day passed in a blur like that. Once Ojo’s lesson ended, I immediately opened the book and checked the new breathing method. ‘Nutrient Accumulation Breathing Method.’ As its dry title suggested, it was a breathing method that efficiently accumulated nutrients in the foundation.

When I checked its contents, quite a few parts connected to the existing Root-Taking Breathing Method. It must have been one continuous technique. Once I understood the contents, my breathing changed on its own. I could feel the foundation growing heavier. If this had happened before Germination, the seed would have been crushed inside the foundation.

Then there was basic magic, the methods for lighting fire and creating water. This magic was a little different from what I had imagined. It was not something vague like, if you imagine it, it happens. There were set rules.

The book explained them as circuits. It said the basics of magic involved drawing a magic circle through circuits and changing magic power into the form of magic. I did not understand it at all. Magic was way too hard. Let’s practice again.

That was how one year passed.

As I frantically trained in magic, strange memories began to surface dimly.

On some battlefield I did not recognize, I controlled a flying insect called a drone and killed people beyond a screen.

The moment that memory first surfaced, my understanding of magic advanced greatly. Circuits. Magic circles. Within the traces left in that memory, I found a few pieces of knowledge that helped me understand them.

I told Ojo that these strange memories were coming to mind. Ojo’s eyes widened.

“Hmm, memories. What kind of scenes?”

I searched through my memories and told him several things.

Me on a battlefield, a flying insect called a drone, and huge explosions happening everywhere.

“It’s probably your past life, Evron. From now on, don’t tell anyone about this.”

“May I ask why?”

“Not many people remember their past lives, and most mages covet that kind of specialness.”

Ojo swallowed. Then he closed both eyes and continued.

“The fact that a past life comes to mind means that past life was that special. Though their souls have declined and lost their power, they still carry immense potential inside them. Many mages would risk even death to obtain that potential.”

After hesitating a little, Ojo added, “I’m the same.”

Ojo gave me many examples.

Apparently, someone once combined the body and soul of a reincarnator and made them into a pill. The story had spread widely because that person received confirmation that the pill raised their realm.

Someone else was said to have discarded their own body after reaching its limit and transplanted their tree into the body and soul of a reincarnator. Through that kind of overlaying, they stole the reincarnator’s talent.

There were more stories. In all those stories, the reincarnators died and became materials for realm advancement. Ojo said that a mage was a kind of resource in itself, and because of that, mages always coveted other mages.

Ojo kept both eyes closed. I was so terrified I could not even breathe. Ojo had said he was also one of those mages.

I could die at any moment.

After staying still for a long while, Ojo finally opened his eyes. With a slightly bitter smile, he shook his head.

“If I weren’t bound by a contract, I would have eaten you. Advancement to the next stage can be decided by that single handful of possibility.”

That was confirmation that he saw me as food. When Ojo saw me go beyond terrified and simply turn deathly pale, he burst out laughing. He stroked his chin and pretended to smack his lips. I saw that and rolled backward.

“Right, I should tell you about contracts too.”

Ojo showed me his wrist. It had always been covered by his coat, so I had never seen it before, but something was written there. Those words were made of thick magic power and connected to Ojo’s tree.

‘As repayment for the debt of having my life saved, I will serve the clan for 200 years, and if I am not attacked first, I will never harm them for the rest of my life.’

“It happened 100 years ago. Your father, the master of the island, saved me while I was dying, and I made this contract. Because of this, I cannot lie to your clan or cause you harm.”

Ojo hid his wrist again and let out a hollow sigh.

“If my life hadn’t been held as collateral, I would never have made a contract like this.”

Ojo spoke for a long time about the dangers of such contracts. He went on and on, as if pouring out the resentment inside him.

The more I listened, the more my mind, which had been half-dead from fear, began to wake up. Then there was almost no need to be scared, was there? The tension left me, and I sagged in place.

Did he bring up the contract because I was half dead? Since he revealed his greed and scared me, had that been judged as a kind of harm?

Ojo said that the moment a mage was bound by a contract, they had to fulfill that contract even if they died. If they failed to keep it, their tree would rot.

It sounded plausible.

But I could not believe all of it. From then on, whenever I went to receive Ojo’s lessons, I sometimes felt him looking at me with regretful eyes. How could I relax when he looked at me like that?

That was how five years passed.

Eighteen years old. An age when I liked being suspicious of everything.

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