WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 80

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Before the duel, I gave Cassian a great deal of information. It was something I had been doing ever since we came out to the city. The association had already given us a rough outline of her opponent, but that alone was not enough for me.

What kind of position they held, what kind of sword they used, what classes they had taken so far, and what their grades had been like.

Even what foods they liked and what habits they had. Every time I saw the Abyss Secret Association’s bizarre information network, which even included things like that, I was amazed. My own information was definitely recorded in great detail by them as well.

In the sixth duel, Cassian faced someone staying on the fourth floor. The longer someone had stayed at the university, the more traces they left behind. From that densely written information, I picked out only the parts that would help her and passed along the core points.

And based on that, she defeated her opponent. Well, of course, that was what I hoped had happened. I wanted it to help her, even a little.

That was how she received 100 points. It was a perfect score. It also meant her movements contained the most beautiful and efficient form I could imagine.

I watched Cassian busily packing her things. When the sixth duel ended, her body had been half in tatters. All sorts of puppets had clung to her to treat the damage, and it had taken quite a bit of work. Thanks to that, she was perfectly fine now.

Before, I had thought that if she received 100 points, she would win every duel easily. That score meant there was no better direction left to pursue. But this duel had not been easy.

The wall of the fourth floor was that high. He was someone preparing to leave the university. For people like us, only in our fifth or sixth year, that was a future too distant to imagine. The next opponent had stayed on the fourth floor even longer than him. They would definitely be tougher.

The bodies of people like that had already half departed from what I had seen in students so far. Compared to mages, they were in the process of growing from a Young Tree into a Complete Tree. It was said that a mage could usually leave the fourth floor once they reached the Complete Tree realm.

“We call that the Shaping stage. I’m in the Forging stage right now. That’s how we build ourselves up.”

That was what Cassian had told me after the duel while we watched the video. Sword-wielders tended to divide themselves into eight stages. She was at the second stage, while her opponent was advancing toward the third.

Through that gradual growth, their bodies were also tempered little by little. But there was something in the video that could not be explained by that alone. If it was only a comparison of bodies, hers was not lacking either.

“Now, shall we go to the city?”

Mira gently wrapped her arm around mine. Cassian nodded, her face carrying a hint of excitement. After the duel, I had applied all kinds of magic to every corner of her body and thoroughly adjusted her condition.

Right now, she was more perfect than ever. Even so, I did not feel reassured. The path ahead was bound to become even harsher. We left the room and headed out.

Following the familiar path and familiar magical power, the training arena soon came into view. Many people were waiting for us. They had come to watch her duel. Some waved to her, while others shouted to draw attention.

Cassian answered their greetings and stepped into the training arena. Normally, those who wanted to participate in the duel would have approached my puppet and drawn a waiting ticket.

But not today. No one easily stepped into the training arena. They only watched the reactions of a few people who had taken their places there. Those people, who were giving off powerful magical power from their swords, confirmed Cassian’s arrival and began warming up.

Until now, the people interested in her had usually been figures from the lower floors of the university. People from the first floor to the third floor, in other words. That was why she had won her duels so easily.

Of course, figures from the fourth floor had occasionally come as well. But they were people who could hardly be called fully adapted to the fourth floor yet. No one as strong as the person she had faced in the sixth duel had appeared.

Those on the fourth floor were preparing for what came next. Graduation, or ascension. Because of that, they were always focused on those things, and most either wandered outside the city or devoted themselves to personal training.

The seventh opponent was also someone like that. So we needed to face people like them in advance. For that reason, we asked for the authority to request duels from those staying on the fourth floor. The Blade Association gladly accepted.

Those people were the result. Their faces were plainly full of annoyance. It was understandable. From their perspective, they had been dragged out by force. And all to face Cassian, who was only on the second floor.

“Now, thank you for waiting. We will begin the duels now, so those who wish to participate, please pay the points. The participation fee is one hundred points, and if you win, you receive one thousand points!”

As I shouted that, I sent my will to the puppet. Mirror bugs flew around and recruited applicants. We collected points from the people we had called over as well. They paid and gave small laughs. Did they think of this as a chance to earn one thousand points?

The puppets scattered bright light, and the mirror bugs flashed. Through it all, the first challenger stepped up. It was someone carrying a massive sword on their back that looked thicker than Cassian’s body.

“I’ve heard some of the rumors. I hope you can live up to at least half of them.”

He crossed his arms as he spoke. His voice, amplified by the magic installed in the training arena, rang through the surroundings. Some heard it and booed, while others clapped wildly and cheered. The atmosphere grew fiercely heated.

Cassian stared at him with her distinctive blank eyes. There was no emotion in them. Over the past month, she had won hundreds of duels. There had not been a single defeat in her record. But would that still be true today?

“Hmm, she should beat that much easily. One arm should be enough, roughly.”

Mira said that while clinging to my arm. When I glanced down, she looked completely relaxed. Beside her, the bear puppet was also holding a mirror bug and recording Cassian.

“One arm, you mean?”

“Yes, so please prepare in advance. It will end quickly. The duels are backed up quite a lot.”

At those words, I opened the spatial pouch. The shadow puppets waiting inside crawled out. They were the ones I had brought from the room.

The puppets raised their magical power, half activating the magic in their bodies, and stared fixedly at Cassian. The moment the signal went up that the duel was over, they would rush out.

The two in the training arena slowly drew their swords. Then they lightly touched their swords together and bowed to each other. After putting some distance between them, they stared at one another.

Tension bloomed in the silence. Cassian moved first. She leisurely took a slow step forward, as if she were out for a walk. The tip of her sword swayed softly, almost as if it were dancing.

Her opponent also moved slowly, as though responding to her attitude. But in the next instant, he kicked off the ground, and his massive sword swung down toward her.

That sword showed an astonishing speed that did not suit its size and weight. Cassian twisted her body away by a hair’s breadth and avoided it. But even the wind pressure it created left a shallow line across her arm.

His attacks did not stop. They continued one after another. Amid those heavy yet nimble strikes, Cassian moved slowly and created a kind of flow.

What came next was too fast for the eye to follow. The opponent’s sword swept deep toward her. She could not avoid it. Her left arm was deeply cut by the sword. Bone showed through the torn flesh, and red blood sprayed out.

But she used even that moment. Using that pain as a foundation, she stabbed into her opponent’s opening. The tip of her sword pierced the target with precision. A single hole was carved into his neck.

He looked down at it while coughing blood from his mouth. Her sword pulled free. Just as his life was about to leave with that blood, the magic built into the training arena activated and forcibly separated the two of them.

The magic immediately began emergency treatment. Magical power covered Cassian’s cut left arm and the fatal wound in her opponent’s neck to restore them. But that alone was not enough.

The shadow puppets ran up into the training arena. They began treating the two of them. With the assistance of the magic in the training arena, both recovered quickly.

Just as Mira had said, the duel ended that way. Cassian easily defeated that opponent. No, should I really call that easy?

I watched Cassian’s arm fill in as if time had been rewound. Soon, the arm was fully restored. She was using her own arm as a tool.

“I was right, wasn’t I? That was probably the fastest and most certain method.”

Mira said that with a smile. I nodded and checked the video of the duel. 100 points. A perfect score. In combat using only the body, she had already reached the realm of a master.

But after that, she lost.

The man who received one thousand points bowed his head slightly to Cassian. Cassian smiled with her face covered in blood. The next one was the same. She lost again.

Even in defeat, she was perfect. The mirror bug recorded one hundred points. And still, she could not win.

Even while watching the process with my own eyes, I could not understand it. Cassian’s movements were faster than theirs and more efficient. But she could not avoid their swords. Mira called it a difference in depth.

Their depth pressed down on the various changes Cassian held. There was something in it that could not be captured by the efficiency I had achieved.

I could not tell what that depth was. I thought back to what Aldric had said. He had talked about will. Had he said Cassian’s will had not grown at all?

In the next duel, Cassian won. She received 98 points. In the parts that were not perfect, she seized victory.

None of that process made much sense to me. I watched the sword-wielders stepping into the duels.

I did not know how their swords developed. I had never been especially interested in knowing either. In the tower, I had only intended to use their strength. Their magic was very simple, after all.

I had only thought about putting that power into my puppets, and putting that magic into my puppets as well. Something easy to understand and easy to use. That was my perception of the sword.

It was the same here. The body was something easy to understand. I thought that if I simply kept adding everything I knew to it, perfection would be waiting at the end.

But that alone could not reach them. I did not know the source of their depth.

If I did not properly understand them, I could not help Cassian. So first, I needed to properly recognize what the life of such a sword-user was like.

Cassian brought down another opponent and smiled. Her body was covered in wounds. The puppets hurried over and poured recovery magic onto her, while the magic of the training arena assisted them.

Amid that, she raised her sword again. At some point, the faces of those who had been called out had become full of seriousness. They raised their magical power and looked at Cassian.

The duels continued like that. Some were fierce, and some were very simple. A single duel sometimes went on for a long time. In them, she won and lost.

Seven wins and eight losses. That was her record for the day. It was also the day her undefeated record was broken.

The next day, her duels were even more desperate. More blood flowed across the training arena, and treating those wounds took a long time as well.

But she claimed more victories than the day before. The day after that was the same. I replayed the videos that had piled up and stared at the Score Sheet.

Eighty points. That was the score she showed in the final duel of the day. She won that duel easily. The more she fought, the more the score dropped like this.

Why was the score falling so much? I checked the deductions shown by the mirror bug. When looking at each movement by itself, the deductions were very reasonable.

Her movements were not efficient. They were far from the perfection I imagined.

But those movements were beautiful. Somewhere beyond my understanding, they were creating a certain transformation.

“Hmm, I can see parts that need fixing in this combat analysis system. It’ll need bonus points too, not just deductions.”

Mira said that with a smile. “It’s the Score Sheet,” I muttered, then quietly nodded. Cassian in the video wore a very clear smile.

Right. At some point, Cassian had begun containing their forms in her sword. It was something I could not understand.

It was something beyond technical perfection. The Score Sheet could not measure that depth. I stared at those beautiful, flowing movements.

Several days passed like that.

The Score Sheet I had made was the result of addition. It contained many changes, and it optimized all those movements so they could go anywhere. After adding more and more in that way, we reached one hundred points.

I checked the Score Sheet. The duels continued, and through them, the score shown by the Score Sheet kept falling lower and lower. Cassian now barely cared about the score I made.

She simply moved however she wanted, and from that, she began taking victories. The day before the seventh duel, she suffered only a single defeat.

And the next day, the seventh duel ended. It was Cassian’s victory. She received fifty points.

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