WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 27

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Trees towered high into the sky, pouring out magical power and creating strange currents. For no real reason, I fiddled with the ring on my finger. When I breathed a little magical power into it, my points appeared.

50 points.

Damn it. That only ruined my mood. Irritated, I gave the turtle an order. The turtle knocked down the trees blocking our path in great numbers and carved out a road.

I took out the map and checked my location. A single dot marking me hovered in an area just a little way from the tower. I still had a long, long way to go. I sighed and drank a cup of tea. Its fragrance settled my nerves.

It was the map Professor had tossed to me. Surprisingly, every area inside the university was marked on it in detail. According to Professor, it was the map received upon becoming a professor. In other words, it was not a map given to students.

When Professor tossed it to me and said it was not needed, so I should use it, I was so moved that I nearly gave a deep bow right there on the spot.

Come to think of it, a week had already passed since I entered the university.

I had been pretty busy during that time. I remembered when I first came to the tower. I collapsed after seeing something strange while cleaning the tower, planned lectures in Professor’s place, and after that, spent all my time repairing and stabilizing the tower.

Wait. Did I come to the university to work?

Now that I thought about it, training had not even crossed my mind. I had been so busy with work that whenever I had even a little time to rest, I fell asleep as if collapsing on the spot. Then I woke up and went right back to work.

A full day had already passed since I escaped that routine and left the tower. Sitting inside the turtle, doing nothing, just blankly letting time pass. What a decadent pleasure. It was my reward to myself for all the suffering I had endured while working.

How much farther did I have to go? I checked the map again. My destination was the city closest to Professor’s tower. Its name was Stalactite City. Beneath it, a label reading Arcana General Trading Company was attached as well.

Cities like this existed all over the map. There were twelve in total. Among the labels beneath them, I also saw the name Beast Corporation.

I remembered that man Luo from the entrance ceremony. He had said he belonged to Beast Corporation. Then did these names represent the organizations that ruled those cities?

Arcana General Trading Company, huh. The area represented by Stalactite City was the largest of all the cities. Compared to the smallest area, it was almost twice as big.

I thought of the lecture plan I had carefully placed inside my spatial pouch. It had Professor’s magical power seal engraved on it and was giving off extremely dense magical power. I had to submit it. Since this was the largest city, there had to be a place where I could do that.

But it was too far.

I sighed. It was far. Far too far. When I left the tower, I had not thought much of it, but the scale of this map was a little strange. Well, since the entire university fit on it, I supposed that made sense.

Even after running for a full day, I had not made it halfway. And over the course of that day, I had clearly realized just how dangerous the university was.

The university was wilderness itself. Every region was overflowing with magical beasts. Ah, another one was attacking right now. A giant snake shot out of a tree and bit the turtle’s neck. It wrapped itself around the turtle’s neck in an instant. It was huge, almost ten meters long.

I pulled the turtle’s neck straight into its shell. When the thing it had been wrapped around suddenly disappeared, the snake dropped to the ground. It tried to flee, but the turtle’s foot was already coming down toward it.

With a sound that shook the ground, its body was crushed. The turtle stuck its head out again and checked beneath its foot. The snake had already been flattened until its shape was unrecognizable.

The turtle put it into its mouth and swallowed it whole. It was not a particularly strong magical beast, but I had to collect even things like this bit by bit. Since I barely had any materials, every single creature like this was precious.

Anyway, magical beasts were everywhere. Since the area I was in now was at a very low altitude, weak magical beasts like this popped out, but in the high mountains where magical power had congealed, much stronger magical beasts swarmed.

Professor’s mountain was the same. All over that mountain, magical beasts strong enough to swallow me and the turtle whole in a single bite were lying in wait. If I had not received Professor’s magical power seal, I would not even have been able to leave the mountain and would have fled back to the tower.

That was also why this was taking so long, even though I had thought I would arrive quickly. Since I was moving only through areas where magical beasts were least likely to be, the journey had become slower than expected.

I placed a scroll beside the map and marked all those magical beast territories on it. The map only covered the university’s core areas, so it lacked details like this. Someday, this would probably be useful too.

I kept running like that. Unexpected areas appeared, and some paths were completely blocked, delaying me little by little.

After running and running, I finally reached the city area two days later.

“This should be the place.”

I checked the map and looked around. The red dot that represented me was definitely flashing in the area marked as a city on the map.

But there was nothing around me. There was only a peak slightly lower than the other mountains. As I looked around, I felt a faint trace of magical power. Someone else was approaching.

I quickly made the turtle crouch on the ground and began camouflaging it. The turtle hid its limbs and disguised itself as a single rock. I also lowered my magical power and observed the ones approaching.

It was a group of mages who looked a little shabby. They were keeping watch while floating a huge magical beast in the air.

“Are you sure there were traces of magical power here?”

One of them spoke. It was a woman with a slightly stern impression.

“Come on, it must be a mage trying to enter the city. What could be so special?”

A light-looking man said that. A weak search spell swept across the area. After examining the surroundings for a moment, the woman began moving again.

They headed toward the low peak. Then they began entering the ground. There was a path like that?

No wonder I had struggled to find it. The path blended so perfectly with the surrounding environment that it only looked like a natural trail. After they left, I waited for a short while. They might still be there without having gone far.

But even after waiting a long time, there was no movement.

I carefully moved the turtle toward the area where they had disappeared. There was a very deep cave leading underground. As if something existed inside it, a strong wind was leaking out.

I shrank the turtle, fastened it to my chest, and carefully began entering. Was the city beneath the ground? On the cave walls, lamps maintained by magic lit the surroundings and showed the path forward.

After following them down for a long time, I came face to face with an enormous flow of magical power. It was a huge city. Seeing it reminded me of the university city outside. Those buildings that had risen so high.

Buildings like that were hanging upside down from the ceiling. The ground could not be seen. Far below, it was covered by a very thick fog, as if a deep abyss flowed there.

So that was why it was called Stalactite City. I admired it without thinking. Fixing buildings upside down and maintaining them like this was only possible because every member of the city was a mage.

I filled my eyes with magical power and looked closely at the city. Countless buildings descended from the ceiling like stalactites. Bridges swaying in the wind connected those buildings to one another.

The buildings were no different from a giant maze in this underground world. Between them, I could see a few stalls that seemed to be trading, and lamps that lit the darkness were placed here and there, illuminating the area.

Through the many holes in the ceiling of this underground world, mages were coming and going. They floated in the air as they entered and left the city. The path I had entered through was one of those holes as well.

I also lifted my feet off the ground. All the magical power around this area was connected to that city. With only a little magical power, I could easily float into the air and head toward it.

Drunk on the intense magical power and atmosphere the city gave off, I slowly flew forward too. As I approached the city, I felt magical power blocking me. It was a barrier protecting the city.

How was I supposed to pass through this?

I slowly looked around. Far away, in the area forming the lower part of the city, there was something that looked like a checkpoint. All the other mages were flying toward it. I followed them and joined the long line.

Up ahead, I saw the group of mages from earlier. They were sitting on the magical beast corpse and chatting away with laughter. After exchanging a few words with people who looked like guards, they went inside. The others also headed into the city just as quickly.

I blended in with them as naturally as I could and entered the city. The guards did not seem to be paying much attention to the mages coming and going. They were just standing there in name, yawning.

And yet even those guards held stronger magical power than I did. Someone would probably need to be around Hongryeong’s level to be on par with them. I swallowed. People like this were working as mere guards? I could really feel the fact that the university was the cradle of mages.

Most of the mages headed toward the lower part of the city, where the light was dim. Only a tiny few went to the upper levels. The upper levels were full of light, almost like the surface. I had neither the points nor the strength to go there. For now, I needed to properly understand the lower levels and gather information.

Following the people ahead of me, I stepped into a kind of dock. It seemed to be a place everyone entering and leaving the city had to pass through. They scattered in every direction and each went their own way.

Then where should I go? The best method would be to find some kind of information guild that existed somewhere. But I had no points. In the end, I needed a way to gather information about this university and city without spending much money.

And I knew a way. It was something I had learned while wandering the continent. To get common information, I had to visit places full of loose-lipped people.

And that place was, with high probability, a tavern. Once alcohol went in, anyone’s mouth tended to loosen.

There had to be a tavern in this upside-down city too. I looked around. Many people were crossing bridges and heading somewhere.

Among all these people, who was most likely to go to a tavern...? I decided. It was that group of mages from earlier.

They had shown me the way to the city very easily. With that weak level of caution, they might not notice even if I followed them. Perhaps they had sold the magical beast corpse they brought somewhere, because they were walking down the road while chatting loudly.

I carefully followed behind them. While looking around, I kept them in my sight as naturally as possible.

As I moved around like that, I got a general look at the lower levels. Quite a lot of people were walking around. They were all Sapling mages, or even higher. On the bridges, several mages had set up stalls and were selling goods.

Pretending to look at those goods, I followed the group of mages. Before long, they entered a building.

There was a sign that read [Arcana General Tavern]. The prices on the menu board outside were roughly 5 points for a beer and ham set. Damn it, that was one-tenth of my entire fortune.

Still, if it was for gathering information, that much bleeding was worth enduring. When I opened the door and stepped inside, lively noise filled the place. Every one of the many tables inside the shop was packed with people.

I read the mood and copied the people who had just entered. I grabbed a table more or less at random and ordered ham and beer. I deliberately chose a table near the group of mages.

More importantly, ham. It had been quite a while since I had eaten it. During my stay in the tower, I had not seen anything that could be called food. I could not help looking forward to it.

At the table beside me, those mages began stretching this way and that while chatting.

“You worked hard today too, leader!”

“We’ll settle the accounts a little later when we get to the lodging.”

“Hehe. Once I get this settlement, I’ll be able to do course registration.”

Course registration. An interesting topic came up right away. I took out a scroll, roughly scribbled a puppet design on it, and pricked up my ears.

“Hmph. If you want to secure a seat, you’ll need to save at least twice as much.”

The woman called leader snorted.

“Still, wouldn’t eight thousand points be enough to grab one decent class seat?”

Eight thousand points. I drew in a breath at that enormous number. It was not the unit I had been imagining. I had only been thinking in the hundreds, but this was more than ten times that amount.

This would mess up my plan too. I chewed my lip. I had come out this time to submit the lecture plan, but also because I wanted to somehow register for Professor Heisen’s lecture.

But eight thousand points. At that level, it meant this year’s freshmen should not even think about taking lectures. No, judging by what they were saying, maybe it would take years of hard work just to register for one class.

“When did you save that much?”

“I saved it over the last two years without spending a single coin.”

The easygoing man scratched his head and gulped down the alcohol placed in front of him.

Mm, my food came out too. And the moment I smelled the aroma and magical power rising from it, I was amazed. It was the cheapest item on the menu, and since it was called ham and beer, I had imagined ordinary food from outside the university, but it was nothing like that.

I slowly lifted the glass. Golden beer sloshed inside the transparent glass, giving off cool magical power. When I brought the glass close to my mouth, the bitter scent of beer brushed the tip of my nose.

When I took the first sip, it slid softly down my throat and cooled my tired insides.

Beer could taste this good? The magical power added to it brought out the beer’s first taste and aftertaste, smoothly soaking into my body. At that refreshing feeling, my body trembled.

Then what about the ham? There were five slices of ham in total. I carefully picked one up and put it in my mouth.

Perhaps it used magical beast meat, because every time I chewed, the magical power mixed into the meat juices filled my mouth with the aroma of meat.

The salty taste of the ham met the bitterness of the beer still lingering in my mouth and created a new harmony. Even eaten separately, both were excellent, but once they came together, they made the perfect pairing.

I took another sip of beer and chewed the ham. The thick texture of the oil-rich ham met the bite of the beer and delighted my tongue.

A smile spread across my mouth, and for this moment, I could forget all about information and everything else.

I savored the beer once more and let out a deep breath. This was ham and beer. Was this the happiness that could be obtained for only 5 points? All the food I had eaten until now had turned into garbage before this simple menu.

I finally understood why there were so many people in this tavern. Even mages who did not need to eat would definitely be unable to quit after tasting this once.

I kept sipping beer while using the voices of the mages chattering beside me as another side dish.

Quite a lot of useful stories came out. Stories about the city’s buildings, the reason the city had been built underground, and so on. I pieced together the tiny bits of information they let slip between those stories and filled the gaps in my knowledge.

The stories about the city were interesting. Apparently, one building was often a kind of huge shop. The lower floors were lower grade, and the higher one went, the higher grade they became. I was able to infer that from their conversation about this tavern.

More importantly, did this tavern have more space above? This was the lowest floor. And yet it sold something this delicious. How much better would the food served up there be? Curiosity rose in me.

I also roughly learned why the city had been built underground. It was because the surface was damn expensive. The underground was the same. They said the closer an area was to the surface, the more its price multiplied.

“Here, one more ham and beer!”

Unable to resist temptation, I shouted. A server quickly brought me a fresh set.

Damn it, this was not how I had planned to spend my points. I also had to hurry and earn points to register for lectures. But this was too delicious. I poured the ham and beer straight into my mouth.

The people chattering beside me were already half drunk and spouting meaningless words at random. But even those sounds were precious information to me, since I knew nothing about the university.

The countless noises ringing through the tavern, those crumb-like bits of information that mages casually let slip, I gathered them and sorted them one by one in my head.

“Here, one more of the same.”

But I could not resist. I would order just one more time and stop eating.

And so, only after spending half my entire fortune was I able to leave the tavern.

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