WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 84

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Growth is the process of making a better version of oneself. Ascension is surpassing one’s old self and changing into something new. That desire for growth and ascension exists in all things.

It was not limited to mages. The moment something held magical power within itself, it began to move in order to hold even more. That was why the world was overflowing with magical beasts.

Animals accepted magical power into their bodies more easily. Then they instinctively imprinted it upon themselves. The magical beasts that mutated in that way became a kind of new species and passed their blood down to their descendants.

They dreamed of ascension according to that innate instinct. That was why magical beasts went berserk when they saw mages. To them, mages were no different from extremely nourishing food. Because of that, bloody battles against magical beasts never ceased along the Empire’s borders.

Nor was this limited to living creatures. This kind of ascension happened in things that were not alive as well. In land where magical power had settled over time. In rocks where lightning poured down again and again. In shadows that had lingered in one place for a long time. After enough accumulated, they grew and ascended.

They died while ascending, and they broke while ascending. Only a few survived atop the countless piled-up remains and reached the present. That would surely continue in the future.

Mages were the same. Knowledge, and magic itself, was a kind of record. By following the paths left after countless deaths and building them up in a better direction, the system known as magic developed further.

Yes. Everything that possessed magical power had a tendency to grow and ascend like that.

The fact that something originated from me did not make it any different.

It was the seventh day after I returned to the tower. At first, Cassian tried to leave when she saw us entering the tower. To her, the tower was a space she was not allowed to enter. We stopped her.

Bringing Cassian into the tower was not difficult. Professor was asleep right now, so her magical power flowed quietly. As long as Cassian stayed inside Mira’s fog, there was no chance she would grate on Professor’s nerves.

So, as I was seeing now, Cassian wandered around the tower and lazed about wherever she pleased. In the first-floor central hall, she sat quietly and watched the puppets busily moving around. A dreamy light hovered in those blank eyes.

Thinking about it, inviting one or two people into the tower might actually be fairly easy. If I said I needed it, Professor probably would not care much. I had simply never considered it before because there had been no reason to.

Why would I bring someone else into the tower? They would obviously be impossible to trust. In that sense, though, Cassian was fairly reliable. I had a pretty good grasp of her personality, and she was bound by a promise too.

She had no reason to go out of her way to harm us, and even if she did, Mira could control her. Because of that, I was thinking of asking Professor to let her into the tower once Professor woke up.

It would be too much of a waste to use her for only the next five years. If that talent was special, then we needed to tie her to the tower for a long, long time, study her, and make use of her. It would be good for her and good for me. There was no reason not to choose the path where everyone ended up happy.

Come to think of it, Mira had said something. She was sitting beside Cassian and talking with her about something. Had she said the sixth floor was the current limit of what Cassian’s body could handle?

But that was fine. I had no intention of going beyond that right now anyway. Someday, though, I would face that eyeball again. And I would return the pain I had suffered to it as well. I swore that to myself.

The puppets Cassian and Mira were watching were not under my control. I stared blankly at them too. Those shadow puppets were moving very naturally, the two stars that made up their egos shining inside them.

During the two months I had been away, they had undergone an incredible change. And at the center of that change was that one.

I looked at No. 0. It moved around and gave orders to the puppets. The shadow puppets naturally responded to its will and were redecorating the tower. Puppets it had made itself were hung here and there like sculptures.

I quietly looked over those sculptures. They were highly distinctive. Some had dozens of legs, some had dozens of arms, and some had dozens of heads. Perhaps there was still a little magical power inside them, because those heads stared straight at me.

This was the result of letting No. 0 do as it pleased after it said it wanted to decorate the first floor however it liked. I had also been curious how far it could go. It was commanding the shadow puppets excellently, just as it was now.

I slowly looked over No. 0. Since it had been created based on me, it looked exactly like me. Its clothes were the same. The robe made from shadow reflected my tastes perfectly.

But something that had not been there before was embedded in its chest. It was something familiar to me as well. Fake Tree. I gave a bitter smile. It had embedded Fake Tree into its own body.

While I left for Canyon City with Cassian, I had handed Fake Tree to No. 0 and entrusted it with managing the tower. After all, it was the only one I could trust.

Just as I had hoped, it had managed the tower perfectly while I was gone. It handled some of the abnormalities that occurred in the tower and resolved several magical errors on its own. It was a truly astonishing result.

And in that process, Fake Tree had become embedded in its body like that. When I first saw it, I was quite flustered because I had no idea what had happened.

There was good reason for that. Both No. 0 and Fake Tree had a certain individuality. Because of that, I had never thought of combining the two. I had no idea what might happen from the backlash.

Yet after I went to another city and returned two months later, this had happened. When it sent its will to me, it said there had been no other way.

It said the first month had been fine. The problem came after that. Perhaps because I had been gone too long, the shadow egos had stagnated. They could maintain the status quo by clinging to Fake Tree, but further growth had become impossible.

Within that state, the faint egos inside the shadows had simply begun to harden. They had lost their purpose, and their limits had begun to settle into place. It was a problem I had somewhat expected before leaving. That was why I had left only the bare minimum behind.

No. 0 said it could not just watch those younger siblings like that. When I heard those words, I was a little moved. Younger siblings. It seemed I had raised this one very well. As expected of my eldest.

It told me it had thought about what methods were available. Then it remembered my shadow tree. And Fake Tree too. The egos could grow because my shadow tree served as their center.

Then perhaps it could do the same. With that thought, it had embedded Fake Tree into its own body. Since it resembled me, it thought that if it connected to Fake Tree, it could become that center itself.

It was an extremely dangerous attempt. It did not explain the detailed process. But I could tell well enough how much it had suffered just from the traces left on its body. That process must have been terribly painful, and terribly long as well.

At the end of it, it changed into that form. It communicated with the puppets’ egos flowing through Fake Tree and moved like another tree. In that way, Fake Tree became another tree inside its body.

That tree also connected to my shadow tree through the galaxy formed from stars. My bond with it grew even firmer within that.

Before, it had only possessed a connection to me. But now, with Fake Tree as its foundation, it had been half-incorporated into my shadow tree. It seemed very satisfied with that, and deep satisfaction bloomed from it.

It was the same even now. It moved the puppets around busily and smiled in satisfaction. It seemed the puppets had started moving a little more naturally after I returned.

Yes. Everyone dreamed of growth like that. Even a shadow that originated from me. That one had risked danger and created a new direction for itself.

It was unexpected. But it was also something to be glad about. Fake Tree was no longer fake. It had taken on a new form and changed into something that could be called No. 0’s tree. Of course, its limits clearly existed.

At that moment, No. 0 suddenly began coughing. It coughed roughly, as though trying to spit out something from inside it. At the end of that coughing fit, one wraith was spat out of its mouth. It drifted around nearby, then went straight back into No. 0’s mouth.

No. 0 moved its mouth and swallowed it again. It was a minor side effect created by combining with Fake Tree. Mira watched it and laughed as if she found it amusing.

Other than that, at least, there was nothing particularly strange. I had learned that after several rounds of maintenance and experiments. I looked at the shadow puppets moving under its control. Their egos were now made of two stars, beyond just one.

It was the result of everyone growing together in that crisis. They made my shadow tree a little richer. My method had not been meaningless. I smiled in satisfaction at that thought.

Inside No. 0’s shadow were dozens, even hundreds of stars. And those stars connected to embroider a single ego. That was the direction I was aiming for as well.

The one that had accumulated the most stars so far was the bear puppet. It had six stars. Two originated from me, and four were directed toward Cassian.

Next was Butler. It had five stars. Those originated from Professor’s magical power.

It did not have much interest in the information in the shadow tree. It only filled its body with that magical power. Even that alone let it show extremely noticeable growth.

Next came the turtle. I lightly stroked the turtle hanging from my chest. It gently bit my finger. This one had been born with two stars from the very beginning. Now it had four. That was thanks to the effort I had put into making it.

Like this, egos grew and created constellations of their own. Every form was different. Within those forms, they bloomed with their own individuality. Well, most of them still had only one star.

They needed more communication, more interaction, and more information. And for that, I needed another lecture. I let out a small sigh. The current lecture had limits.

The course reviews proved that. The score had sunk all the way to the bottom. After returning, I thought about many things. What had I done wrong over the past five years? There were three major problems.

The first was that I had no intention of giving out treasures at all. I had written the syllabus saying it was a chance to obtain treasures. Many students applied to our lecture because of that.

But aside from the first bait I had given Jun, no one had obtained a treasure. Did the students really not know our intentions? That was reflected in the score.

The second was connected to the first. We had failed to give them enough benefit. I thought of Professor Heisen’s tower. No. 0, standing before me as my reliable support, had also originated there.

As it was showing me now, its potential was tremendous. It was indeed worthy of Professor Heisen’s work. Other lectures probably had many cases like this too. I should have given at least some benefit to the students, or even just to the successful ones.

But I had not been able to. The only one who had definitely gained something from this lecture was Jun. It was also unavoidable. Professor herself had no intention of giving away treasures, so what could I possibly give them?

The third was my problem. Where exactly had I stood in this class? Was I a student, or was I an assistant? I had occupied an ambiguous position between the two.

Just as they had written in their reviews, I provoked them against one another. Then I made them fight. I even extracted points from them in the process. That was why they had become hostile toward me. That lowered the evaluation even more.

Those three were the problems.

To be honest, I did not know much about lectures. I had only experienced one myself. Thinking about it, applying for Professor Heisen’s lecture had only cost five thousand points. Even though it gave out such a useful shadow.

Of course, the environment was that bad too. Once the top students occupied rooms in the shadow world, the people below them could not improve their abilities.

Those in the lower ranks simply kept feeding magical power to their shadows, then eventually failed. In that way, five years of suffering went completely to waste. So its evaluation must have been fairly bad too. The price clearly reflected that.

Even so, quite a lot of people gathered for his lecture. Students confident in their abilities participated in that lecture in order to obtain a shadow. The reward for passing was very clear.

Every lecture had a distinctive trait like that. I learned that while gathering quite a bit of information to attend other lectures. What distinctive trait did our lecture have? Treasures. The problem happened because we did not hand them out.

I quietly folded my arms. To be honest, it was something I had been a little worried about while looking into other lectures. But there had been no clear solution, so I had simply moved past it, and now it had created a problem like this.

I remembered when I had designed the lecture. It had been when I first arrived at the university. Professor had told me to create a lecture. I thought of Treasure Hunt as a way to somehow find a path forward. It had also been the only method.

But now, that alone had reached its limit. Through the reviews, it had already spread widely that we would not give out treasures. If I held Treasure Hunt again, only people with no motivation would gather in droves. Then my growth would be blocked.

So I needed a better method. Not a simple Treasure Hunt, but a truly excellent and innovative new form of lecture that could fully root my influence throughout the entire tower.

Using treasures as the foundation, I came up with a great many plans. I looked at Mira and Cassian. The previous me had obvious limits. But what about now? I had enough power to work with.

Because of that, the direction of my thoughts expanded greatly. At the end of it, I was able to grasp a small direction. Now I only needed to confirm whether it was possible. Of course, I was strongly convinced that it would be.

I sensed a faint presence approaching me. I glanced at it. It was a wraith with a hazy body. That thing, with its head half-gouged open, was beckoning to me.

It had come from Professor’s doorbell. The wraith approached me, then looked at No. 0. Just then, No. 0 was spitting a wraith out of its mouth. It chewed and swallowed that wraith again.

The approaching wraith saw that, flinched in surprise, and began carefully moving around No. 0. No. 0 looked at the wraith and smiled, showing its teeth. The wraith watched No. 0’s mood, then bowed to me politely.

It seemed the message I had left three days ago had finally reached Professor. Professor had fallen deeply asleep while we were away. For around two months, at that. So I had asked to be contacted whenever Professor woke up, and it seemed she had finally risen.

“I will go meet Professor for a moment.”

I said that to Mira and Cassian. They nodded and waved. The wraith led the way. I followed behind it and headed toward the stairs.

The tenth floor. It had been a long time since I visited Professor’s domain. When I came before, it had been sealed very tightly, but now at least the gap had opened a little.

I moved toward the gap the wraith pointed at. The moment I stepped inside, I felt extremely powerful magical power. It lightly brushed around my body. Along with that, the surroundings began filling with faint ripples.

That magical power contained a very dreamlike flow. It had clearly originated from Professor’s dream. As I stared at it, I felt as though I would fall asleep in no time too.

No, I had already fallen asleep.

I looked around. At some point, I was no longer inside the tower, but standing inside a strange palace. I moved my hand slightly. A water-like ripple spread out.

I felt no sensation from my hand. But even so, my body clearly recognized it. Even that sensation. A strange feeling, as if I existed in both dream and reality at the same time, flowed through my body.

I slowly looked around the palace. It seemed this place was Professor’s dream. The palace alternated between growing clear and turning hazy. It felt like a kind of breathing.

Within that, the dream was slowly scattering. It meant Professor was waking up. That must have been why she had called me here. I headed deeper into the palace.

The palace was very quiet. I checked whether I could go down another path, but there was only one passage leading forward. Every other place was blocked by blurry walls like fog.

After continuing down that path, I found a huge bed. Professor was quietly asleep on top of it. The golden hair scattered across the bed took in the surrounding magical power and sparkled brilliantly.

I carefully approached her side. Perhaps because this was a dream, I could not feel the magical power that usually filled her body either. Her sleeping figure looked almost like an ordinary girl.

“Professor, are you awake?”

I lowered my voice and spoke as if whispering. At the sound, Professor’s eyelids twitched briefly, then she slowly opened her eyes. Emerald eyes, still drunk with sleep, looked at me.

She yawned lightly and rubbed her eyes. After raising herself slightly, she patted the spot beside her. Maybe because she was still half-asleep, the movement was very slow. As she did, she gave me a hazy smile.

It meant I should sit there. My body tensed slightly. Maybe because she was sleepy, she felt different from the usual Professor. Should I call it a little gentle, or kind? It just felt extremely awkward.

I carefully sat beside her. Professor Irian lay back down with my lap as her pillow. Then she looked up at me slightly.

“Mm, this isn’t bad either.”

She smiled in satisfaction and closed her eyes again. I had no choice but to sit there, stiff and frozen.

“So, what is it?”

She asked slowly. I never thought I would end up saying these words myself. But I had to. I swallowed and steadied myself. Then I quietly opened my mouth.

“I will take charge of the lectures from now on.”

At those words, Professor slowly opened her eyes. She blinked as she was. I could see those sleep-drunk eyes gradually waking up.

The surrounding scenery began collapsing along with it. Amid the collapse of the world, Professor quietly stared at me.

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