WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 58

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- Hao: Is something wrong today? The connection is a little slow, and this damned thing got into my mirror bug again.

[A picture of a wraith clinging to the mirror, staring intently]

I’m sure you said this was handled. Why did it crawl back out?

┗ Luka: I heard that Evron guy went to take his advancement evaluation.

┗ Hao: Oh, really? But the connection somehow hasn’t cut out this time.

┗ Luka: Check the notices. It said the connection would stay up, though there might be a few minor defects.

┗ Hao: So that’s why wraiths are swarming in like this. Five have already shown up.

┗ Luka: Nothing’s wrong on my end. Same for the others too.

┗ Hao: They’re multiplying over here, though. Now they’re filling the whole screen...

┗ Luka: Why did you stop mid-sentence?

┗ Luka: You gone?

How had things ended up like this?

I sighed without thinking. The heavy air pressed down on my body. Even the magical power around me had sunk deep into the floor beneath that weight.

Carefully, I looked up at the other side. Two people were watching me from a high platform. The pressure was coming from them. Dense, almost suffocating magical power flowed from their bodies.

They were the examiners in charge of my advancement evaluation. And one of them was someone I knew very well.

She opened her mouth.

“Evron-ssi... this is... not a proposal... it is a notice....”

Her distinctive, drawn-out way of speaking reached my ears. A gentle smile still rested on her face. In the past, she had helped me with that same smile.

Right now, though, that smile felt like pressure. I slowly turned her words over in my mind. Not a proposal, but a notice. She was right. I did not have the power to refuse them.

I should have seen this situation coming. Professor Irian had even left me a warning.

I slowly closed my eyes. Then I retraced what Professor had said. Right, it had been about two weeks ago.

That day had been like any other.

Once every two months or so, Cassian would ask for a new function. This time, she wanted a function that would let the bear kick off the air, even if only for a short while.

I combined several spells for it and got a fairly satisfying result. The thing could twist its body in midair no fewer than five times.

“I understand that you advanced to the second floor after one year. How was the evaluation conducted back then?”

I asked her while setting the bear puppet down on the floor. My own advancement evaluation was only two weeks away now.

I had gathered quite a lot of information by then, but the anxiety still refused to leave me. If anything, the more I learned, the more uneasy I became.

The bear puppet on the floor began moving naturally. She sent a mirror bug flying into the air. The bear puppet started chasing it, kicking off the air as it ran around.

The mirror bug fled while recording the bear puppet’s movements inside itself. I could feel dense magical power from the mirror. She was probably going to upload that to the free board again.

“Advancement evaluation?”

A faint light circled in her blank eyes. She began staring vaguely into the distance.

She seemed to be searching through old memories. Soon, she tilted her head slightly and continued.

“Hmm. There were a few people. I swung my sword a few times in front of them, and they said I passed. And, well, I think they asked me to join some strange place too. It was annoying, so I just ran away.”

Her tone was a little rambling, as if her memories were not clear. As though giving an example, she gathered magical power in her finger and playfully swung it through the air.

It looked like an extremely casual motion, but the sharp sword energy released from her finger remained in the air, half-splitting the space. For some reason, she seemed stronger than when I had seen her last time.

“That is truly amazing.”

“But I failed this time.”

She said it with a gloomy look. This time. She seemed to mean her advancement to the third floor.

The fact that she was challenging the third floor was a fairly well-known rumor among the students. Few people grew as quickly as she did.

It was surprising too. She had entered the university only one year before me. Yet she was already taking the third-floor advancement evaluation.

They said advancement was easier for sword-wielders than for other mages, but even among them, her speed was exceptional.

She took a piece of paper from inside her clothes. It was exactly like the one I had received. An advancement evaluation notice. She looked down at it and sighed.

“What was it again? They said my path wasn’t clear yet. They told me not to come for an evaluation for two years.”

“I see. That is unfortunate.”

I grew a little tense. I had heard that things like that happened often during evaluations. It did not simply end with failing. Depending on the examiner’s judgment, you could also be barred from reevaluation for a set period.

She sagged in place. She did not seem to want to talk anymore. I said goodbye to her and left.

When I reached the stairs, I stopped for a moment. Then I took the notice out of my clothes. This strange paper, which had appeared by tearing through the tower’s space, was said to be delivered automatically to those who met the qualifications.

Of course, having the qualifications did not mean everyone passed. In fact, I heard there were more failures than successes. That was why I kept asking others about their experiences.

Her story was not much help. In that case, I would have to go find Jun. He had left a reply to the post I made on the information board.

I sensed the location of his mirror bug. Just as he had written in his post, he was waiting for me in his room. I slowly headed there.

When I opened the door and entered, I saw quite a few people gathered inside. They were all Jun’s people.

I greeted them with a nod and headed to the innermost part of the room. Jun was sitting in front of a table, looking into a mirror bug.

“I am a little late, but congratulations on your advancement, Jun-ssi.”

I said it as I sat across from him. It had not even been a month since he had gone up to the second floor. At my congratulations, his whole face broke into a smile.

“Thank you. It is thanks to you, Evron-ssi.”

“What did I do?”

“Haha! If I hadn’t come to this tower, I would still be down there, barely scraping by each day. I should thank you for choosing me, Evron-ssi.”

“What are you talking about? What power do I have? You should say that to our Professor.”

I waved my hand as I spoke. He simply nodded with a thin smile on his lips. He did not seem to believe me.

Well, by now he must have gotten a rough sense of Professor’s personality too. That was probably why he said it.

I cleared my throat briefly and cut through the strange mood. Then I brought up another topic. It was also the reason I had come here.

“As I wrote in my post, I came to ask about the advancement evaluation. You are the most recent person to advance to the second floor, Jun-ssi.”

“Ah, I suspected as much when I saw the post. Did you receive a notice too, Evron-ssi?”

“Yes, fortunately.”

“Oh, congratulations!”

He said it with a laugh. That bright laugh carried the ease of someone who had already passed.

“Then of course I should tell you everything. Let’s see. You must have already looked into the basic stories, so I’ll only talk about my evaluation.”

He showed me the mirror bug. Inside it was a picture he had briefly organized. I took it and looked it over while listening closely to his story.

“The people who came to evaluate me were staying on the fifth floor. They said they were from the Throne Society. They said they had watched what I did in this tower with interest.”

The Throne Society. It was a name I had heard quite often. It was the organization that ruled one of the university’s twelve cities. People like that had come looking for him?

I vaguely remembered hearing that several organizations had shown interest in him before. Had Hwaryeong said that?

“It wasn’t much of an evaluation. Going up to the second floor is just a matter of meeting the standard. I released magical power a few times and showed them the treasure I had. We just talked comfortably while doing that.”

As he said that, he shrugged. Every small movement of his body was full of confidence.

“That was how I was able to join the Throne Society, even if only as a temporary member. If I wear the temporary tag for the next few years, I might get a chance to become an official member.”

“Oh, congratulations.”

I sincerely congratulated him. After all, I had seen with my own eyes what kind of hardship he had gone through.

Now that he had seized an opportunity, he would never let it go. I was a little curious how far he would go.

“It’s nothing. Still, well, it isn’t common for a specific organization to come looking for someone like this. I heard they have to spend quite a lot of points to interfere in the advancement evaluation process. Doesn’t that mean I’m worth that much?”

He said it in a boastful tone. There was plenty of playfulness mixed in. I also nodded in a slightly exaggerated way.

“Haha, you are impressive.”

I had heard that selecting people during the second-floor advancement evaluation like that was a kind of tradition passed down in the university. Touching the mages on the first floor was considered taboo, apparently. It was an unspoken rule created through several incidents in the past.

“I’m sure remarkable people will attach themselves to you too, Evron-ssi.”

“No way. I’m nothing special.”

I shook my head. He only laughed. After that, we kept talking about all sorts of things. What the atmosphere in the advancement evaluation hall was like, how many people had come, and so on.

Afterward, we moved on to light everyday talk. I did not know how much time had passed like that when my mirror bug suddenly began vibrating.

The mirror was giving off a vivid red light. Jun saw it and opened his eyes wide. I hurriedly rose from my seat.

“What is it?”

“I think I need to leave first. It is Professor’s summons.”

“Ah, then I can’t stop you. Hurry up and go.”

I bowed my head slightly to him and left the room. Then I quickly climbed the stairs. When I reached the top floor, the first thing I saw was Professor sitting in front of the table.

I quickly approached her. Professor had one cheek puffed out. Her expression was full of dissatisfaction.

I did not know the reason, but she looked to be in a bad mood. I tensed slightly and bowed my head before her.

“Did you call me?”

She began staring intently at me. Her magical power rippled along with her gaze. Was she going to hit me? I lightly wrapped magical power around my body, preparing just in case.

But the movement of her magical power lasted only a moment. After calming it down, she looked at me and opened her mouth.

“You’re going to take the advancement evaluation?”

“Yes. I received a notice.”

She clicked her tongue briefly. Then she looked me up and down for a while. After a few seconds passed, she slowly shook her head.

“Fine. Go suffer a little. Still, I left a warning, so they should act with some sense over there too.”

It was a strange thing to say. I could not tell what she meant by warning them. She continued without caring about my reaction.

“You brought this on yourself, so handle the rest on your own. Now go.”

“Yes, understood.”

I answered while still confused. I had no idea what she meant. It was clearly about the advancement evaluation, at least.

Back then, I had not understood exactly what Professor meant. I should have listened to those words more carefully.

I opened my eyes again.

“Have you finished sorting out your thoughts?”

The young man sitting beside the familiar woman, Myra, said it with a smile. The shape of that smile was quite familiar. It was the kind I had glimpsed from Hongryeong or Hwaryeong.

He was someone from Arcana General Trading Company. Had he said he was on the eighth floor? That was far too high a position to be handling a mere second-floor advancement evaluation. Myra sitting beside him was even more so.

“There is only one thing we want. That interesting thing you made, Evron-ssi. We have taken an interest in it too.”

He said it gently, but those gentle words pressed down on me with a force I could not refuse.

Suddenly, the words Hwaryeong had whispered brushed past my ears. Had she known this situation would come too?

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