WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 66

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- Cassian: Come look at this cute bear puppet. Day 325.

[A picture of the bear puppet fallen over backward]

[A picture of the bear puppet lying on a bed]

[A picture of the bear puppet wearing a small hat]

[A picture of the bear puppet sitting with its legs stretched out]

I can’t upload videos because the old man isn’t here. What a shame.

┗ Hao: I don’t see a bear puppet, though? I only see some pale human face.

┗ Cassian: Are you insulting our bear puppet right now?

┗ Hao: No, I mean there really was a person, ah. It disappeared. Was it a wraith?

┗ Cassian: Come out to the first-floor central hall. If you don’t, I’ll come find you.

┗ Hao: It’s a misunderstanding. A real misunderstan-

“Storehouse keeper, huh.”

I fiddled with the key in my hand. A strange sensation came from it. It was a connection formed by linking directly to my tree.

Maybe that was why touching it sometimes felt like touching a part of my own body. Ever since I received it, stroking the key whenever I sank into thought had become a habit.

The treasure vault I had to guard stretched from the sixth floor to the ninth floor. I had heard the treasures grew stronger the closer one went to the ninth floor. Until now, I had visited the sixth floor and above exactly once. The memory was still vivid.

It was when I first came to the tower and started cleaning. I made it up to the fifth floor without too much trouble. Then, on the sixth floor, I encountered a writhing wall.

At first, I thought it was just an ordinary floor. But it soon squirmed and tried to swallow me whole.

So I ran without looking back and barely escaped. Then, at the end of it all, I came face-to-face with the eyeball on the seventh floor.

I gave a bitter smile. Professor had said the eyeball being there was an accident. Something about it having escaped from the treasure vault.

Usually, accidents like that did not happen only once. In other words, as long as I had to guard the vault, I would probably end up facing one of the things that escaped from it someday.

Could the current me deal with something like that? Absolutely not. And even if I raised my realm in the future, I did not think that would make me confident enough to face them.

If anything, the stronger I became, the more I realized just how powerful the eyeball I had met back then really was.

I felt that bizarre sensation crawl up through my mind again. I quickly shoved the thought into a corner of my head. Thinking about it any more would only make my head hurt.

Should I get moving now?

Even if I did not want to go, I had to. That was the contract. A strange pressure began to flow through my tree. The shackle that began at my wrist was winding around it.

It was a sensation I had not felt recently. Professor had not given me any particular orders. I lightly rubbed my left wrist. When I flowed magical power into it, two contracts surfaced.

The one above was Professor’s, and the one below was Myra and Miryeong’s. I examined the lower contract. After making this contract, I received notice from Professor that I had passed. Then I became the storehouse keeper.

Sixty points. That was the score I had received from Professor back then. I had spent quite a lot of time thinking about it since. What could I have done to receive more points? I had not found a clear answer. Only a few guesses.

The events at the auction house already felt like the distant past. Right now, my worries about the treasure vault were much bigger. Though, since a month had already passed, I supposed it was the past.

I rose from my seat. Carefully, I stroked the spatial pouch hanging from my money belt. I had no idea what would happen in the treasure vault, so I had shoved almost everything I owned inside it.

The key in my hand melted back into my body. Along with it, a powerful vitality began circling through me. It boosted my magical power and filled my body with strength. It was the power contained in the key.

Inside the key were several spells and powers I could not recognize. This vitality boost was one of the minor functions I had figured out. Maybe the key itself could be called a treasure.

Of course, I did not think that would help solve my current problem.

I let out a sigh. I had to bring out one treasure before the next lecture. That was the order.

Yesterday, Professor had told me. It happened after lunch.

“How is the key?”

“It is excellent. Thank you for trusting me with such a precious item.”

I bowed my head as I said that. I meant it, too. There was an extremely powerful force contained inside it. I had learned many things through the sensation of taming it.

Professor looked very satisfied with my flattery. She quietly spooned the seven-colored pudding served as dessert into her mouth. After savoring it for a moment, she spoke.

“Then that settles it. You bring out the next treasure.”

“Yes?”

“It will soon be time to prepare for the lecture, so go to the vault and bring out the treasure I need.”

I blinked. Then I looked down at the key that had appeared in my hand at some point. As if it knew it was being talked about, it was sparkling.

Was that what storehouse keeper meant?

Truthfully, after receiving the key, I had never once gone up to the floors with the treasure vault. I had only sent puppets a few times. There had been no reason for me to go myself.

That eyeball from before had only managed to escape the vault after Professor had been away for about a hundred years. She had also said she had placed even stronger spells on it in preparation for such escapes.

Then that should have meant I would not have to deal with anything for about the next hundred years. So I had been feeling a little relieved. I had not expected this situation. No, I had expected it, but I did not think she would really make me do it.

She said I could just go pick up one treasure, but how was I supposed to go up there? It was obvious the place would be full of things I still could not handle.

“Do you mean by myself?”

At my question, she nodded.

“Even if I encounter a treasure, all I can do is run away. How could I possibly...?”

“I’m making you do it because you have that mindset. How long are you going to keep running? Mm, you won’t die, so do your best.”

She brought the teacup to her lips as if she would say nothing more. I tried to say something else, but I could not move under the magical power that crashed over me.

Then it threw me out of the room. I tumbled all the way down the stairs. As I lay there in a daze, a single sheet of paper drifted down toward me.

“That is the item I need, so check it and bring it without making a mistake.”

That was how I received this mission.

Standing where I had rolled down yesterday, I looked up the stairs.

At least it was fortunate that I only had to go to the sixth floor. Compared to the seventh floor, the treasures on the sixth floor were probably easier to deal with. Though that did not change the fact that I could not dare oppose them.

The space above the stairs was wavering slightly. It was because I had not set the destination yet. I chose the sixth floor and waited for the space to stabilize.

Soon, the stairs began connecting to another floor. I slowly stepped up them. With each step, the tension built higher. And at the end, I saw an extremely familiar sight.

It looked almost identical to the many floors below. That peaceful scene eased my tension. A long hallway and a wide hall at the end. It was exactly the same as what I had checked several times through the puppets.

I walked down the hallway and looked around. The sixth floor was also used as a lecture venue. It changed into a different landscape every time. How could it be decorated as a different place each time? That was something I had always wondered.

When I reached the hall, an incredible sight unfolded before me. The feeling was completely different from seeing it through a puppet. Looking at it finally made me feel that this place truly was a treasure vault.

Doors filled every kind of place. Some were attached to the floor, some to the walls, and some even floated in midair.

Immense magical power flowed through the doors. Layers of magic circles formed shapes so complex that even looking at them made my head hurt. They were spells meant to seal whatever was contained inside.

I headed to the closest door. Then I slowly studied the magic cast on it. Those strange circuits, flowing to somewhere unknown, were built in forms I could not understand.

But I could feel that I was able to touch them. The key appeared in my hand again. If I inserted it there, the door would open.

But I did not need to touch this door. What Professor had ordered me to bring was not inside. When I stood close to the door, what it contained briefly appeared in my mind.

Room 13 - Stuff that’s roughly sturdy gathered together

- Stone picked up from under the sea, connected to another continent

- Skull of a goat that ate mountains, cannot be chewed

- Meteorite armor? Weird guy inside

- Strange ball torn from the Mountain Clan, very sturdy

- ...

A list I could not understand continued like that. Professor seemed to have roughly organized them according to the traits of the treasures. There seemed to be about ten treasures beyond this door.

Then what about the other rooms? I headed to the door beside it. A list like this appeared there too. There were seven things inside. It was still full of scribbles I could not make sense of.

I looked around. There were roughly dozens of doors, so the treasures here alone easily numbered over a hundred.

I gave a bitter smile. Now I understood why most of the treasures Professor had shown in lectures had no proper names. With this many things, she must have found it annoying to name each one.

Then which door did I need to enter? I took out the paper Professor had given me.

- Sixth floor, Eye That Hung on a Star

That was what was written on the paper. It had to be inside one of these countless doors.

Looking at the paper made me picture Professor smiling wickedly. An eyeball. It made me remember the thing I had encountered on the seventh floor. She also knew I was still afraid of it.

So she must have deliberately told me to bring something similar. I could feel a bit of malice in the paper. Of course, it was definitely weaker than that thing. Otherwise, there was no way it would be on the sixth floor.

I slowly examined the doors. I also found a few treasures with somewhat familiar descriptions. They were probably things that had appeared in past lectures.

After checking the doors like that, I found the one containing the item I sought. I checked the paper and compared it to the list floating on the door. The same thing was written there. This was the right door.

I swallowed lightly. Compared to the others, the writing floating on this door had a more intense description.

Room 2 - Stuff that roughly eats people gathered together

- Lump of fingers, eats only mage fingers

- Eye That Hung on a Star, I didn’t like it so I tore it off

- Mind-Eating Heart, slightly alive

- Tongue of unknown origin, a bit tasty if cooked

- ...

Things that ate people. Around ten such things were inside this door. It was very ominous. But Professor had said I would not die. Then I had to trust those words.

I took a deep breath and brought the key to the door. Magical power rose from the key and slowly began undoing the seals placed on the door.

The entire process happened very naturally. Those powerful magic circles I had not been able to recognize faded in an instant, and along with them, the door opened smoothly, revealing what lay inside.

There was no storehouse like the one I had imagined. No wide room with treasures neatly organized inside. Instead, only a rift that seemed to lead to another space existed there.

That meant the treasure was inside. I stared at it blankly for a moment. I had no idea what would be beyond it if I crossed over.

But hesitating here had no meaning. I could feel the door’s magical power gradually returning. I had to enter before the door closed again.

I squeezed my eyes shut and threw myself toward the rift. I felt my body flow somewhere. Behind me, I heard the door close.

Three days passed like that.

The storehouse was very wide.

And I was still wandering through it.

I had found a few treasures. The problem was that they were not what I was looking for. The thing beside me tapped my shoulder.

“It seems this isn’t the place. Which way next?”

“If you have a place you wish to go, I will follow.”

“Then shall we try this way?”

Should I call it she? No, it would be more accurate to call it a thing. It slowly walked forward. I carefully followed behind it.

I stared at it. It was a puppet shaped like a woman. It was also something extremely familiar.

Of course it was. It was the masterpiece I had spent the past month creating, pouring in everything I had obtained from the auction house and everything I already had.

Though it had not fully stabilized yet, so I had not been able to give it a shadow.

Maybe it noticed my gaze, because it looked back at me and smiled. I smiled back and kept walking. Cold sweat ran down my back.

It had happened yesterday. My connection to that thing suddenly broke. Then it started moving on its own.

With something hanging in its chest that had not been there before.

A bitter smile came to my lips. I had not expected this sort of situation.

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