WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 55

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The turtle walked carefully.

The road was hemmed in by dense trees. The cries of insects, the intense magical power of the magical beasts watching this place, and the darkness that had fallen with night all mingled together, giving the path a strangely eerie air.

The turtle had not grown its body too large and was moving at about the size of a small carriage. It was the only way to get through this road. Because of that, I could not ride inside it either, so I ended up sitting on its back and looking around.

I leaned back in the chair. The soft cushion gently wrapped around my body. I stroked the spatial pouch in my arms. I had accomplished what I came to the city for. With this, I should be able to store enough information.

I had left the city faster than I expected. I had planned to stay there for at least a day, but the moment I bought this, I had no choice but to leave right away. I wanted to hurry back and test it.

It had better be worth the price. I had bought it by draining every point I had. Not just the points I owned now, but even the points I would earn in the future.

I had not meant to invest this much.

A bitter smile crossed my face. I had been taken in by Hwaryeong’s strange way with words. Had she brought up all that idle talk before getting to the point just to throw me off?

Thinking back on it now, she had made me buy this in the most textbook way possible. At the time, I had not noticed a thing.

The first item she brought out was a picture of an enormous snake.

“This is the juvenile body of the tail-biting snake, Ouroboros.”

I stared at it in awe. Even though it was only a picture, I could feel magical power surging inside it. Its flesh contained more power than any magical beast I had seen so far.

This was only a juvenile? Then I could not even imagine how strong an adult would be.

“It is a magical beast that Beast Corporation raised over a hundred years. They had high hopes for it, but a problem occurred during the breeding process, and it died. We bought it afterward.”

She handed me the manual for it. I accepted it and slowly read through the contents. My eyes widened. It was packed with incredibly appealing functions.

“As you can see, Evron-nim, it has every function you are looking for. It can store information without limit, and some of its ego remains, so it can also think on its own. On top of that, Mookgeumgo’s necromancers cast maintenance magic on it, so it has enough durability to easily last ten thousand years.”

“We will handle its upkeep and repairs as well,” she added with a smile.

“Then shall we look at the next item?”

She retrieved the snake picture and floated another picture into the air. This time, it was a cat with nine heads.

“This is a magical beast created by Beast Corporation. They tried to combine nine types of feline magical beasts into a single magical beast. They called it the Nine-Branched Cat. Unfortunately, contrary to their expectations, it turned out to be incapable of reproduction, so it was eventually disposed of.”

I accepted the manual and read it. It was not as good as the Ouroboros from before, but it still had plenty of excellent functions. What appealed to me most was the fact that it could use its nine heads to carry out multiple streams of information exchange.

She explained that in detail. After that, several more products followed. Most of them had been extracted from magical beast corpses.

If I wanted to collect information, the vessel was important, so I supposed it could not be helped. Rather than products made by mages, the brains of powerful magical beasts like these were the best fit for that function.

But even as I listened to the explanations, I could only smile bitterly. They were excellent items, but they had one major problem.

They were too expensive.

The Ouroboros cost over five million points, and the Nine-Branched Cat cost three million. The other items were the same. Not a single one cost less than one million points.

Meanwhile, I barely had twenty thousand points to my name. A sigh escaped me on its own. Hwaryeong looked at me and smiled brightly. A hint of amusement lingered in her eyes.

“I only introduced those to show you that such items exist. We have many other items prepared as well, so you do not need to worry too much.”

She took out another picture. I looked at the price and shook my head.

Items continued to pass by like that. Their functions grew simpler and simpler, and their prices fell accordingly. What mattered to me was one thing. A massive storage space that could hold information in place of the shadow tree.

Yes, just like this. I swallowed as I looked at the picture.

It was the wraith tree brain and spinal cord.

It glowed translucently. That strange quality, as if it remained in the material world yet might vanish at any moment, felt somehow familiar.

“This was taken from a thousand-year-old wraith tree that was cut down while preserving its original form. So as you can see, the brain and spinal cord are intact as well.”

“How much does it cost?”

I swallowed as I spoke. This was exactly the item I needed. It contained a massive storage space, large enough to hold a thousand years.

“The price is much cheaper than the ones you saw before. It only has one function, after all. Two hundred thousand points.”

Hwaryeong said it with a smile. It was certainly cheaper than the previous items. But my points were still nowhere near enough.

In the end, I smiled bitterly and set the manual down on the table. She looked at me and spoke in a relaxed tone.

“If the price worries you, you do not have to pay it all at once. You can split it over twenty months and pay only ten thousand points each month.”

That was an extremely tempting offer. I thought it over for a moment. Ten thousand points a month. I could cover that entirely with the points I earned from renting out mirror bugs.

“...I’ll buy it.”

Yes. Just like that, I bought it as if I had been bewitched. I handed her every point I had and obtained this item.

Thinking about it now, it had been a very simple sales tactic. This must have been what she intended to sell me from the start.

She already knew the maximum amount she could draw out of me. Since she had grasped everything about the mirror bugs, it made sense.

The items she had shown me earlier had been nothing more than stepping stones to make me buy this. It was a sales tactic meant to lower my sense of what counted as expensive and make this feel cheap.

That was also why I could not stay in the city. What could I do there without any points? In the end, I had no choice but to leave the city like this.

I let out a sigh. Those things called points had vanished like the wind. Calming my troubled heart, I recalled Professor Heisen’s advice. If I gave up on knowing, I could not move forward.

Right. I could not get stingy over mere points. Points were tools in the end. They were nothing more than a means to obtain what I needed.

If anything, now that all my points were gone, I even felt lighter. I could simply start gathering them again from scratch.

On top of that, the points coming in every month were not limited to the income from renting out mirror bugs. Even that much would be enough to continue my research.

I looked around. Before I knew it, the strange road had begun to shift into a somewhat familiar sight. The tower was close.

It had only been six hours since we left the city. I could hardly believe we had arrived this early.

“How was it? Were you satisfied with the route?”

Someone slowly descended from the air as he spoke. I met his eyes. The faint scar beneath his eye left a strong impression. He climbed onto the turtle’s back and bowed his head slightly.

“It was very comfortable, Nadia-ssi.”

I bowed my head as well. Around the turtle, two or three people were floating in the air and moving along with us. They were the ones who had joined me after I left the city.

They belonged to an organization called the Safe Climbing Group. I had seen them a few times on the message board, and as soon as I left the city, they caught me and ended up traveling with me like this.

They said they would escort me to the tower with all their effort. After hearing the story, it seemed a few people at the tower had pooled their points and placed a request. They wanted me delivered as quickly as possible.

“I didn’t know something like this was possible. We didn’t run into a single magical beast on the way.”

“Haha! As you must have felt on the way here, we pass between the territories of magical beasts. While the magical beasts keep each other in check, we move quickly like this.”

That was certainly true. I had felt the intense gazes of magical beasts throughout the trip, but nothing had attacked us. It was fascinating.

“Is it all right for you to tell me that?”

At those words, he gave a confident smile. He looked around with his chest proudly puffed out and spoke.

“Even this simple-looking path hides countless trials, errors, and secret methods we have built up over time. These are techniques that cannot be easily copied just because someone understands the principle.”

“I see.”

I nodded with a little admiration. It was an impressive statement. A technique that could not be carelessly imitated even if one knew the principle. Those words quietly resonated in my chest.

“Since we’ve arrived, could you leave a comment on our post? If Evron-ssi vouches for us, our business’s credibility will rise even more.”

He took a mirror bug from his chest as he spoke.

“Of course. I should do that much. What should I write?”

“Just something short.”

I raised my magical power. The mirror bug that received it flew out of my pouch. When I entered the free board, I saw a post Nadia had made.

- Nadia : We accepted everyone’s request and safely escorted Evron-ssi to the tower. It only took six hours from Stalactite City to here.

We have posted this optimal route on the information board, so please go check it out.

It is a newly pioneered route by our ‘Safe Climbing Group,’ and you can travel comfortably without encountering a single magical beast!

┗ Evron : I arrived comfortably thanks to you. Thank you.

The others also wrote a few posts with their mirror bugs. As I replied to those as well, the tower came into view.

At the same time, my mind connected to other things one by one. They were the many puppets and mirror bugs around the tower. The stars embedded in the shadow tree twinkled as they welcomed me.

The mirror bug floating in the air began to vibrate. The vibration was so violent that it could barely keep itself steady. Posts seemed to be going up. A lot of them.

I checked what was happening.

- Yuna : The long time of sorrow has ended.... Chatting on this board at night was my joy, but these past two days were so lonely because I could not do anything.

Now that the board has opened again, I can spend the night warmly.

┗ Nadia : Oh dear, if you had followed us to the city, you could have kept looking at the board!

┗ Yuna : Oh, there was a way like that.

┗ Nadia : In case something like this happens again, how about learning the route in advance? We have posted the optimal route on the information board. We will escort you for the low price of 100 points.

┗ Yuna : Uh, um. I’ll check it out.

┗ Luka : You’re actually falling for that?

- Cassian : Come see our cute bear puppet that you haven’t seen all this time. Days 63 to 65.

[A picture of the bear puppet spreading its arms]

[A picture of the bear puppet sitting with both hands gathered together]

[A picture of the bear puppet raising one hand in greeting]

[A picture of the bear puppet tilting its head slightly]

[A picture of the bear puppet patting its belly]

...

...

...

[A picture of the bear puppet putting both arms on its waist]

Isn’t it really cute?

┗ Hao : No, just how many pictures are you flooding the board with?

┗ Cassian : Are you saying our bear puppet is not cute?

┗ Hao : No, that’s not what I meant.

┗ Cassian : I’ll see you at the tower tomorrow. I’ll be waiting in the central hall on the first floor.

┗ Hao : I said it’s cute, okay? The bear puppet is cute!

┗ Omon : This guy is seriously stupid. You should have just not replied from the start.

┗ Hao : I didn’t know it would turn out like this. Cassian-nim, are you there? Cassian-nim.

┗ Hao : Ah, damn it.

- Eli : We escorted Evron-ssi along the route we pioneered.

[A picture of the turtle walking]

Everyone, please check the information board!

┗ Evron : I arrived comfortably thanks to you.

┗ Isamael : Oh, you really came. No wonder the mirror bug was vibrating.

┗ Darien : Finally... I can use the board....

As the message board came back to life, many people poured out posts. I gave a faint laugh. I had made it for my own benefit, but it seemed creating this message board had not been a mistake after all. As I watched it, I arrived at the tower.

“Then we will be going now.”

In front of the closed door, Nadia bowed his head as he spoke. It was late at night, and the tower’s opening hours had already passed.

“Yes, thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“We are the ones who should thank you. See you tomorrow.”

He left, and I stepped inside the tower.

Because of the vibrations, the mirror bug had settled on my shoulder for a moment. I stroked it briefly and headed for the stairs.

My heart began to pound. Excitement I could not hide spread through my whole body with each beat.

It cost a full two hundred thousand points.

It was the most expensive material I had ever used. No, to begin with, I had never even touched a material worth more than a thousand points.

I could not imagine what kind of power this thing held. I had read the manual, but it would feel different once I touched it myself. What would it feel like to handle an item worth two hundred thousand points?

At the thought, a smile formed on my face all by itself.

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