Surviving at the Magic Academy

Chapter 12




In the early dawn, I stepped out into the cold air. Everything I needed was packed into the following Doll’s body.

There stood a gigantic gate in the distance, towering over a hundred meters. This massive door was the entry to the examination hall that opened only once a year. On this day, the colossal city would open all its doors to visitors.

With that, I continued my walk toward the massive gate. After 11 years, today marked my eleventh time walking this path. It felt both awkward and familiar. I walked slowly, knowing that for today, there were no Mages lying around on the ground. They would all be heading toward that gate.

The center of the slum was bustling, despite the early hour.

“Hey, off to the exam again, huh?”

It was a familiar voice. It was Evan, the head Swordsman. I shot a sideways glance at him. He was out to watch people going to the exam, hands full of food. He had a bunch of swords strapped to his back.

What a morning surprise. The smell of iron wafted through the air, mingling with the magical essence from his swords, forcing me to create a wind barrier.

“Get lost.”

“Oh, come on! How about a bite? Freshly roasted lizard!”

I glanced at what he was offering—a skewer of some unidentifiable meat. My Doll swatted it away. Evan pouted as he pulled his hand back.

“Your Doll sure has changed a lot, huh?”

He looked genuinely surprised. After all, it had been 10 months since we last met. Rage flared up inside me. This guy had sacrificed me back then. I held back the curse that was rising in my throat.

Still, looking back, that experience had its benefits. It gave me the chance to learn from the professor. I decided to bury any past animosity. Calculating grudges is always necessary, after all.

Especially since Evan had the right to be surprised. My Doll was different from before. In the past year, I had learned way more than in the previous 20 years combined. My Doll behind me was practically the essence of that knowledge. The only ones to surpass it would be my Butler and my Turtle.

I sneered at him and continued along the path. He trailed behind me, leaving the other members of his group behind.

“You’re really not gonna eat anything?”

My Doll swatted his extended hand away again. Evan, disappointed, withdrew his hand.

“You used to be such a pure young man. Now look at you, all hardened by the world.”

This was almost all your fault, I sulked internally. I lost my cool for a moment, but took a deep breath to regain my composure. My resolve felt pointless now. Yeah, maybe I should just relax and approach the exam comfortably today.

“So, you learned something from the explorer, huh? You seem different from last year.”

Explorer? Oh, he must be talking about Professor Ilian. He didn’t know she was a university professor, did he? Makes sense. Those days learning under her have been the most fruitful of my Mage life.

The outer city walls came into view. They separated the slums from the city, protected by powerful spells to keep any Mage from entering recklessly.

The only passage, the castle gate, was wide open today, different from usual. I walked through the castle gate and headed inside. Evan stayed outside, offering that unidentifiable meat to passersby. I wished good luck to anyone who dared to eat it. It was definitely covered in something strange.

Inside the castle walls was a bustling city. The atmosphere was filled with a culture and civilization you couldn’t find in the slums. However, no one dared to stray from the path, thanks to the soldiers lined up along the way. Each one, a Mage, acted as guards, with their magical powers creating a pressure that dampened the spirits of those moving inward.

Once, I longed to live here, but without a solid identity or a recommendation, it was impossible to enter. Only those who had made it to the university, belonged to prestigious families, or served the empire could claim citizenship here.

Right in the center of the city stood a massive gate. A Transmission Gate, a strange door that transcended space. Only once a year do all those gathering for exams pass through it.

At first, I thought I could head to the university through that gate. But that wasn’t the case.

The door leading to the university was a small, shabby wooden door next to that massive gate. I was quite startled the first time I saw it. Is that really the door to the university? It looked so shabby.

Yet the sheer magical power it emitted was intimidating, enough to deter any approach. They say that door has existed since before this city was founded, even before the empire came into being.

When I first learned about the university, Mage Ojo, who taught me, said that it’s another world created by Archmages. A place where excellent Mages refine and sharpen themselves. That pushed me to come this far.

That gate was the only passage to that world. That’s why this massive university city sprang up around it. To create a world of its own—what kind of heights must that be? I couldn’t even imagine.

A stream of people was being guided by the soldiers toward the gate. I walked along with them toward the massive Transmission Gate. Such gates were found throughout the continent. The empire opens it just once a year, solely for the university exam, gathering Mages from across the continent in one place.

Upon passing through the gate, I felt a sudden dizziness. When I regained my composure, I found myself standing in a purely white space. A gigantic face hovered before me. It was the exam registration officer. I was scared the first time I saw it.

“Please submit your entry fee.”

The face, I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, said. The Doll that followed me pulled a pouch from its robes. One hundred magic stones, which would roughly cost about 100,000 gold coins. I was always broke because of this entry fee. This was also why I hadn’t been able to take the exam for ten years after leaving the isle.

I tossed that in its mouth and then pulled out another piece of paper from the inside. A recommendation letter from the professor. How hard I had worked to obtain that recommendation!

No, “worked hard” isn’t the right phrase. It was nothing less than a blessing bestowed by the professor. I could never express how moved I was when I received it.

Once I placed that in its mouth, it swallowed them. After licking its lips a few times, it opened its mouth wide. Darkness surged within.

As I stepped into it, the darkness enveloped my body. I closed my eyes and relinquished myself to it. It felt like my body was flowing somewhere. Then, at one moment, I felt the surroundings lighten.

As I opened my eyes, I found myself inside a droplet of water. Many other people, similarly trapped in droplets, surrounded me. And below, there were even more droplets. I was slowly falling toward those droplets.

I checked the sky. A huge gap had formed in the space, and the darkness I just passed through was contained within it. The moment a person popped out, the droplet surrounded them, floating away. These droplets fell endlessly.

Droplets? Is this exam somehow related to water? I wasn’t sure yet. Every exam seemed to come with a different twist, so it was too early to judge. But no matter the challenge, I felt confident this time.

I had learned so much from the professor that my old preconceptions had crumbled. There would be no competition, no attacks. Just perfect assistance for others. That attitude would surely show during this exam; they would understand and not see me as an enemy.

The droplets kept raining down. I lost count of how many there were. After all, this was where all the Mages who wished to enter the university gathered, so the numbers must be staggering. Suddenly, Evan’s words popped into my head. He once tried counting how many show up and said that over 100,000 passed through this Transmission Gate to the university city.

With such gates spread across the continent, I couldn’t fathom how many entered each year. Not to mention the entry fee—100 magic stones per person. There was a reason the empire put in its best effort to organize the exams. Money seemed to replicate itself, and how could anyone resist that?

Should I take a break? Just as I had that thought, the Doll read my mind and pulled out a chair. Sitting down, I looked around. Among the many droplets floating at a certain distance above the ground, Mages were preparing for the exam in their own ways. The Doll poured me a cup of tea. The aroma that danced to my nose was incredibly sweet.

Inside was a few flowers just for me. Unlike the professor, I wasn’t a big fan of overly sweet flavors. So I focused solely on the texture of the flowers. I enjoyed the tea while savoring the petals. As the petals swam across my tongue, the leaves fell off one by one, settling on my taste buds.

In that instant, the fragrance and texture burst in my mouth. Ah, I was amazed. The layers of petals created a harmonious taste. As something I made, it impressed me nonetheless. Sipping the tea, I scattered my magic to observe how the droplets were formed.

Time passed quickly. When I checked my watch, it showed about six hours had passed. The Transmission Gate would close precisely at noon; the exam would start soon. The number of droplets falling from the sky gradually decreased. Eventually, that rift shrank, and the sky closed.

At that moment, a screen appeared before the droplets. The exam had begun.

Solve the five tasks. (100 points total, 60 points or more to pass.)

1. Use the presented magic to escape the droplet within 30 minutes. (10 points)

(Failure to use the presented magic will result in disqualification.)

2. With a randomly assigned group of 5, arrive at the destination within 24 hours. (20 points)

(If any group member is left behind or dies, 10 points will be deducted.)

3. Build a fortress at the task destination from Task 2. (20 points)

(Individual evaluation.)

4. Utilizing the fortress from Task 3, endure for 2 weeks while protecting important goods. (30 points)

(If a group member dies, 10 points will be deducted. Items that are damaged will result in disqualification.)

5. Select the primary contributor and the fifth contributor of Task 4. (20 points)

(Basic 10 points. The primary contributor gets an additional 10 points, while the fifth contributor incurs a 10-point deduction.)

Hmm, a task exam.

I felt lucky this time. Task exams had shown up pretty often in the ones I had taken before. Out of the eleven I had sat for, five had been tasks. I had prepared extensively for a task exam last year, only for a duel exam to mess up my plans.

No one mentioned turning against fellow group members, so I would be able to utilize my skills to the fullest. Task 5 was a bit bothersome, though. Even if they were called group mates, it felt more like we were being pushed to keep an eye on each other.

But first and foremost, I had to tackle Task 1. If I failed to handle this, it was instant disqualification.

Prodding the first task, another screen popped up. But then I heard the sound of droplets bursting around me. Startled, I looked around and saw others just bursting their droplets to escape. The droplet in front of me did the same. The moment it burst, the person vanished. I scoffed at the sight. What fools, not even reading the tasks properly!

The reason I came early was to grasp the tasks in advance. Though it seemed subtle, the fact that it started in droplets hinted at a connection to the exam. Others must have figured that out too. That’s why I had fully analyzed the properties of the droplets beforehand. They were simply droplets made of magic.

A magic circle appeared on the raised screen. Upon seeing it, my jaw dropped. Under Professor Ilian’s tutelage, I had learned many spells and seen plenty of magic circles, but I hadn’t seen one as beautiful as this one before.

Moreover, the intricacy of the circuits within the magic circle was phenomenal. Each thread of magical flow was filled with beauty surpassing my own standards.

Still, it was simple enough that I could recognize its workings. To create such simple yet amazing magic—my respect for the Mage who presented this grew.

To understand the magic, I decided to use the magic stone my Doll offered. Magic stones are great for absorbing magical energy, making them compatible with any magic. As I channeled magic into it, a brilliant light began to glow intensely on the once dull stone.

Analyzing the effect of this magic, I started to guess its name. “Shining Magic”? I suppose “Glossy Magic” would fit too? The light was so vivid it even radiated heat.

How could I utilize this within a droplet? While some were already bursting free the moment they saw the magic, others created beams of light or teleported away. Had they already finished analyzing?

I couldn’t keep up with those genius types. I didn’t plan to either. I just needed to focus on my own goals.

Nevertheless, their methods were impressive. Quite feasible. Beam—no doubt that they modified the magic for their use. That’s why such easy and simple magic showed up as a task. I needed to analyze its properties more deeply.

The Doll pulled a scroll and laid it out in front of me. It quickly jotted down the effects from this magic.

Light, heat, persistence, strong luminescence, temperature increase, simple structure, quick reaction rate, high magical efficiency, excellent compatibility, easy to modify.

What’s the core and most significant feature among these? Light. The magic circle that forms this spell pursued light in every aspect. That strong intent was clear from the circuits. Hmm, then if I gather this magic repeatedly, it should form a beam like that one.

As I realized this, I also came to the realization that I couldn’t do that. It would require immense magical strength—a feat impossible for someone like me.

Yet, I liked the idea of a beam. A beam was a form of condensed light. If I gathered light, I could attain enough destructive power. All I needed to do was concentrate the light into a single point. It might not be the size of their beams, but if I managed to condense it—

I gently adjusted the magic flow. Instead of removing the element of persistence, I made it generate stronger light and heat, even if just for a moment. Editing magic and imbuing it into the Doll; that was a skill the professor had seen potential in during my tutelage.

I started sketching a design onto the scroll. Which Doll should I imbue this magic into? The magic emits light. I had to make it converge into a single point through several layers. So a perfect spherical shape should work best.

The sketch was quickly completed. Rather than wood, paper suited this Doll better. The Doll pulled a few sheets of paper from within. I inscribed the magic circles just as I sketched. Even without activating the magic yet, a soft light glowed.

I folded those papers into a round sphere shape.

Done. I thrust my magical energy into it. All the magic circles were snug within that sphere. As the magical energy ebbed, it began to heat up those magic circles. Light burst forth brilliantly. It was even visible past the paper.

Light stacked upon itself within the sphere, causing it to glow intensely red. I threw it into the air and quickly hid behind my Doll. The Doll activated several layers of protection magic, enveloping me.

Yeah, it’s a bomb. I inscribed explosive magic on that paper. The only attack spell I was permitted to use. It delivered a shock to the inner sphere. Inside the sphere, at the light’s core, the concentrated light radiated shockwaves outwards. This created tremendous pressure, crushing the paper sphere and engulfing the surroundings. It was an intense burst of light and heat.

This shattered the entire droplet. Although I had hidden behind the Doll, a strong shockwave hit me. Phew, still, I managed to succeed. I checked the Doll; despite the protective magic, it had been singed in several places. The impact was stronger than I expected.

I used my magic to repair the Doll. It quickly regained its previous form and stood back behind me. Checking the time, I noted I had about 26 minutes left; nearly 30 minutes had passed. As I landed, I looked up at the droplets overhead. Many were yet to be burst.

27 minutes, 28 minutes, 29 minutes, 30 minutes.

The time was up. The droplets burst instantly. And all the people within them vanished. Disqualified. A massive number of participants had disappeared in an instant.

What if I hadn’t trained with the professor? I would’ve probably been clueless about the magic and floundering around. The Mages who touched down began to steal cautious glances at one another. Then, the surroundings darkened unexpectedly, just like when I moved through the space before.

However, unlike before, there were streaks of light in that darkness. The distant beams converged with others. Were they suggesting I follow those lights? Complying, I moved along the light, starting to notice intersections ahead. People approaching those intersections too.

Five people, the ones I’d be completing the tasks with. They each boasted distinct personalities. Smiling as I glanced around, I thought, “Nice, seems I got chosen with some good team members”.

 

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