WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 53

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The great family group’s retaliation came swiftly.

In the process, Jun lost one room in an instant. It happened in almost the exact same way as what he had done. A spy inside Jun’s group had extracted all the information and handed it over to the great family group.

Jun had prepared for that kind of situation in advance, but the great family group moved even faster than he had expected. They waited until the room’s defenses were at their weakest, then sent in only a small number of people.

They were people from the great families. Before those five, everything fell apart. Unable to overcome the gap in rank, Jun quickly abandoned that room and focused even more on the rest.

This kind of fighting did not break out only on the second floor. After reaching the second floor, the great family group began extending their influence even to the first floor, which they had not so much as glanced at before. It was done solely to weaken Jun’s forces.

That was how they started a war. The sword-wielders profited handsomely while the two sides fought. Both groups also paid careful attention to them and handed over plenty of benefits. If the sword-wielders sided with either one of them, the balance would clearly collapse in an instant.

Time passed, and the war continued. Bribing students to extract information from each other’s boards became extremely common, and false information and fake plans meant to bait the other side made a mess of the boards.

A kind of information war had begun. To gain the upper hand in that information war, they fought fiercely, and many real battles broke out because of it.

I had expected this situation, but I never imagined the heat still would not have died down two months later. Professor found it very entertaining. Just like now.

Professor Irian was leaning against the table, scanning the many mirror bugs floating before her. They were displaying the secret boards owned by each group on their mirrors.

Every day when I visited, she checked their contents like this at least once. I had also told the people in each group that Professor looked through them.

Ah, now that I thought about it, maybe that was why the war kept going like this. It was a chance to draw Professor’s attention, after all.

At any rate, it was good for me. Watching the war had brought Professor’s energy back. Her old listless appearance was nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps because she wanted to see that kind of fight in Treasure Hunt too, she had created an enormous battlefield in the previous lecture.

Only the one group left standing after the fight would be able to challenge the treasure. That was how the twelfth Treasure Hunt began.

The great family group won that war.

But they also suffered huge losses in the process, so in the end, they were easily harvested by this treasure, “Bleeding Fang.”

I watched Professor pick up and eat the last cookie left on the plate. Then she leaned back against her chair. Her face held an extremely satisfied smile.

I approached her and lowered my head. Today’s lunch was over now.

“Then I will take my leave.”

Professor nodded. I carefully left that floor. Today’s hospitality was finished too.

Then should I enjoy a short break myself?

I stretched and headed to the workshop. There, a dark shape had a mirror bug floating in front of it while it made a puppet. Perhaps sensing my presence, it looked back at me.

“No. 0, did anything come up while I was away?”

It shook its head. Then it grabbed the puppet it had been making and started fiddling with it again. I quietly checked the puppet. It had a bizarre appearance with around twenty feet.

Well, it had its own tastes too. Thinking that, I quietly moved away.

“If you need hands, send a message to my mirror bug. I’ll add more shadow puppets to board management.”

No. 0 nodded. Still, things were fairly peaceful these days, so it should be able to handle things alone.

In the early days, when people had flooded in, it had been a complete mess. The three boards were almost like battlefields.

Fights broke out dozens of times a day. They attacked each other in all sorts of ways, slandering posts written by people from other organizations, tricking others to put them in danger, and so on. There were even cases of people entering someone else’s name and impersonating them.

Those actions did not help my growth at all. The reason I had established the boards was to accumulate information and experience, not to have them used as battlefields.

So I made No. 0 the administrator of these boards. It was the only being I could trust to leave them with.

I could not entrust them to anyone else. Other mages would clearly wield that authority for their own benefit, and the egos I had created were not capable enough to manage everything.

That was how No. 0 began cleaning up the boards. First, it left warnings for those who maliciously slandered others. If they kept repeating the same behavior after that, it expelled them from the board.

The same went for people who committed fraud in transactions. They were blocked without even a warning. Fraud like that was the problem that needed the most caution.

Those expelled in this way could only return after making a contract that they would not bring group conflicts onto the boards.

Through this process, several rules were created for the boards. Breaking them resulted in a warning or expulsion.

They were not complicated rules. Register your real name, do not bring group affairs onto the board, do not commit fraud, and so on. They were very small rules to keep the boards from becoming lawless zones.

Only after going that far did the peace we had now finally arrive.

I leaned back on the reclining chair set up in one corner of the workshop. The spells on the chair loosened my body to the fullest. Enjoying that sensation, I released magical power. In response, a mirror bug floated out from my pocket and approached.

“Open the free board.”

Once it found stability, the free board became even more active than I had expected.

In truth, the information board and transaction board were a kind of shop, so there was not that much interaction between people. Whether it was information or transactions, both required points.

Instead, they all flocked to the free board, which they could use for free. They began writing and reading many posts there. Some uploaded small bits of everyday life, while others included information that felt too awkward to put on the information board.

They interacted with one another like that and piled up a lot of information inside it. It held the kind of noisy bustle one could feel in a city tavern. I slowly checked the posts.

- Nadia: We have opened an optimal route from Stalactite City to here that only takes six hours. I posted the details on the information board, so please go check it.

This is an achievement made by our “Safe Climbing Group,” and it is much more comfortable and safe than the eight-hour path we provided last time!

┗ Luka: Even a passing magical beast would laugh at that. Trying to rip people off again?

┗ Nadia: Why are you picking a fight? We have never deceived people.

┗ Luka: Never deceived people, my foot. I nearly died for real last time after taking your path.

┗ Nadia: Did you perhaps fail to read the contract terms carefully? Our paths only last for about a week.

┗ Luka: Wow, and you put 100 points on a path like that? Are you kidding me?

┗ Nadia: If you are unhappy, would you like to fight? Come to the first floor central hall.

┗ Luka: Fine. Let’s put 100 points on it and have a match.

- Cassian: Come look at a cute bear puppet. Day 56.

[A picture of the bear puppet rolling]

[A picture of the bear puppet hanging from a tree]

[A picture of the bear puppet sitting on a chair]

Isn’t it really cute?

┗ Hao: Is this cute?

┗ Cassian: Come to the second floor central hall. I cannot forgive someone who insults my bear puppet.

┗ Hao: No, I was just asking.

┗ Cassian: If you do not come, I will find you myself.

┗ Hao: It’s cute. I said it’s cute. Ah, please, you really came

- Goro: I came across a powerful magical beast on my way here today. It is in a cave halfway up the southern mountain, so everyone should be careful. These are the other magical beasts I encountered on the way.

[A picture of a man laughing while stepping on a fallen bear]

[A picture of a man showing off his upper body muscles]

[A picture of a man holding a sword and focusing]

┗ Omon: Damn, mister, I thought you were the magical beast.

┗ Goro: Aren’t you speaking a little too harshly just because you’re from a great family?

┗ Omon: What am I supposed to do when that’s really how it looked?

┗ Goro: I cannot forgive this. Come to the second floor central hall. It is a duel.

┗ Omon: Well, it should be good for warming up. I’ll be right there.

- Yuna: Yesterday, while I was sleeping, I accidentally absorbed too much magical power and got fined. A whole 100 points too. This is why I didn’t want to sleep outside.

Everyone, be careful not to absorb too much magical power when sleeping on the mountain. But seriously, how did they know when I only absorbed a little?

┗ Marco: Did you perhaps sleep on the western mountain yesterday?

┗ Yuna: Yes. How did you know?

┗ Marco: Ah, thank you.

┗ Yuna: Pardon?

┗ Marco: Thanks to you, I got 50 points as a reward. I reported you.

┗ Yuna: Come to the first floor central hall. I’ll tear you apart 50 times.

┗ Marco: I don’t think you can with that level of skill. Anyway, shall we meet there?

The posts continued below that.

I slowly checked them and laughed. Somehow, many of them ended in fights, but this was still normal enough. Yesterday, around twenty people had a verbal argument and ended up in a group brawl.

The central halls on each floor were now being used often as dueling arenas. Sometimes bets were even placed on those fights. Professor also watched them now and then.

At any rate, information kept piling up like this and made my shadow tree very abundant. It seeped into the incomplete egos and filled them.

But because of that, a problem also appeared.

“Move to the transaction board now.”

The mirror bug changed the screen and displayed the transaction board. I checked the post I had uploaded. There was not a single reply. Even though I had been renewing it every day for almost a month.

A bitter smile formed. In the end, I probably would not be able to find it here. I would have to go to the city. I did not have much spare time left.

Information was piling up too quickly. Far faster than I had expected.

In truth, it was something I had anticipated. Less than a year had passed since I reached the Young Tree realm. Because of that, the capacity of my shadow tree was not very large either.

So I had planned to slowly gather people and expand that domain, but because Jun caused a commotion, the mirror bugs spread far too quickly.

More information was piling up than my tree could digest.

I needed a new storage space to preserve this information. Something that could contain countless amounts of information. For that, I had put up requests and searched for information, but no answer had come back.

It probably meant students who were only on the first and second floors could not know. In the end, I had to head to the city.

[Evron: Starting one week from now, all boards are scheduled to close for about two days. I have business in the city and must be away, so I ask for your understanding.]

I posted that on the free board. I made it an announcement so everyone could see it, so they would all check it. The mirror bug began vibrating rapidly. It seemed comments were being added to my post.

I closed my eyes and sank deeper into the chair. Should I sleep for a bit? There was probably no need to check that.

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