Surviving at the Magic Academy

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Yuna: Is anyone planning to participate in the auction happening in the city?

I need something, and if there’s someone interested, I want to gather points for a joint purchase.

Hao: Joint purchase? What are you trying to buy?

Yuna: I heard that a hundred-year-old ice crystal collected from Professor Ilian’s tower is going up for auction.

Hao: Wow, a hundred years old? That must be super expensive.

Yuna: Yeah, so I want to set the ratios according to the points.

Hao: I’m short on points, so good luck with that.

Yuna: Thank you!

Yuna: If anyone needs to contact me, reach out through my Mirror Bug.

What constitutes a perfect doll?

Most of the dolls I make go through nearly identical manufacturing processes.

I start by carving the wood. Wood is what I’m most familiar with, which is why most dolls have wooden bodies.

Creating the body requires quite a bit of effort. It’s the most critical part of the doll, so I always take great care in selecting the materials.

Then I carefully carve the chosen wood, examining its grain to bring out its most optimal form.

Sometimes it becomes the doll’s arms, sometimes its head, or even the organs to fill the inside.

I learned this on the island. It feels like a memory from many years ago now.

The old man must have passed away long ago. After all, he was just a weed that failed to awaken the magic.

I felt sorrow for the fleeting nature of his short life. His skills and talents must have vanished too. Yet somehow, it was passed down to me this way.

The vague knowledge I previously held has blossomed anew, illuminating itself in the shadows. Now, I completely understand what that old man used to say.

So, I follow the grain that the wood fully displays and extract the form held within. It was the method the old man used.

But I didn’t stop there. I guided the flow a bit more, leading it to the direction I wanted. Enhancing the material’s properties and creating a better grain that it should possess.

Thus, I fashioned the doll’s accessories and attached them together. And so, one doll is completed.

Next came the task of filling its insides.

The materials for that could vary. It could be wood or something else. These were like the organs of the doll.

They facilitate the smooth flow of magic and can hold various functions. They complement things that wood alone cannot achieve.

This was the basic structure upon which I built my dolls. And the doll I’m creating now is based on that.

I slowly began to awaken the magic. The doll, responding, connected to my senses.

It slowly drew its sword. Creating a smooth flow, the magic began to gather within.

This one was based on Kashian. To make every part identical, I perfectly captured her appearance and physique.

This was the new doll I was attempting to create. If only I could put a soul into it, it would be perfect. But I lacked the wooden stalks I could use. That was a pity.

The strongest and most perfect doll I had made so far was the Turtle. It served as both my means of transport and defense, and it was my workshop too. It fulfilled its role incredibly well.

I had focused solely on defense when crafting it. That thick shell and body were entirely filled with defensive magic.

Defensive magic suited me well. Since its whole body was lined with it, it boasted the highest defense of all my dolls.

Moreover, the materials used were among the finest I had gathered. It’s not an exaggeration to say that they were all in that shell. Well, I do have the ghost wood now, but excluding that, everything was there.

Through steady layering of that shell, it gained the robustness to endure any lecture. I couldn’t even leave a scratch on its body.

The reason for investing so much in it was solely to endure during lectures. The challenges I faced upon coming to the university revolved around the monsters I encountered in class.

Thus, the Turtle could only endure. It had only one means of attack: to crush with its overwhelming mass.

That was enough when facing small monsters, but it fell short against mages.

To a mage, it was merely a sturdy piece of junk. A bulky target that merely got in the way.

As such, it could not pose a threat to others. I needed a doll solely for attack to confront mages.

I meticulously manipulated the magic. The doll opened its eyes. And the magic contained in the sword began to erupt explosively.

It raised the sword and struck straight.

At the same time, the doll exploded. It all happened in an instant.

I blocked the shards with a defensive barrier I had prepared in advance.

“I guess it didn’t work after all.”

I looked at the shattered doll. It resembled Kashian quite closely. It captured the flow of her magic, the process of wielding the sword, and even her spells.

Yet, it couldn’t withstand a simple swing and shattered.

I rummaged through the remnants. Gathering the traces of the explosion, I examined the circuits contained within.

I smirked. It had undergone quite a bit of transformation, but the output was still lacking.

My dolls operated based on the Magical Heart. And that was based on my wood.

No matter how I transformed them into different shapes, fundamentally, they still resembled my wood. It was inevitable since that was the form I understood best.

Thus, that output was also weak, mirroring me. But its advantage lay in its diversity. It spread widely, able to contain many magics.

But now that I was trying to head in one direction, that weakness was glaring.

I had to somehow solve this problem.

In fact, there was a clear solution.

To make the doll a direct copy of the body of the target I wanted to emulate. The corpses of mages always made for good materials.

If I used another mage’s corpse, tamed their embedded wood to become the doll’s heart, then this problem would be solved.

I could fully utilize the output that mage originally possessed. I had done that a few times before. Back when I was in the slums.

There, many mages drifted about. Aspiring mages gathered with hope for the university. In such a place, mage corpses were accessible if you could pay for them.

Dolls made from those corpses boasted better outputs than those simply crafted from wood. But there was a problem.

Each one consumed too much of my magic, and at that time, their usefulness was ambiguous. What good was higher output when my attack magic was useless?

I didn’t have the spells to imbue within them. I didn’t even know the spells originally used by those corpses.

But things have changed now. For me today, mage corpses were as precious as treasure.

I just needed to infuse a different person’s magic into them. I had even found a way around the magical deficit.

But this was the university. I had no means to obtain corpses.

If I could acquire a strong mage’s corpse and tame it for my doll, it would solve my current troubles. Such a pity.

Thus, I had to use a secondary option. Using the corpses of monsters.

Using the brain of the ghost wood last time made me realize. The core parts of strong monsters could serve the same purpose as a mage’s wood.

The doll made from ghost wood, though it lacked a soul, had fully contained the properties and powers of the original material.

I watched the Turtle play with a sphere that Unit 0 had thrown to it. The Turtle rolled it around with its mouth.

It seemed to appreciate that fake wood. By keeping it in its mouth, it could absorb information from both reality and the Shadow Tree.

The sphere held up quite well even in that creature’s mouth. I thought about that and tried adding the heart of a monster, but it couldn’t endure and burst apart.

It seemed cheap materials wouldn’t cut it. I needed the corpse of a stronger monster.

And, I knew where to find it.

I checked on the Mirror Bug. It was time to move.

“Well then, I’ll be off. Please tidy up here.”

I told Unit 0. It nodded in response. I stepped out of the workshop.

My eyes sparkled. This time, I would succeed.

With that firm resolution, I headed upstairs.

And just like that, I was beaten up and chased away.

“Bug off!”

Ugh, I held my head and tumbled down the stairs. My whole body throbbed painfully.

This was my thirtieth failure. I got up, putting myself together.

Hmm, I thought I’d succeed this time.

This lunchtime, I prepared the best meal for Professor Ilian. I especially focused on the meat.

I used three storm squirrels that cost five hundred points each. I had requested their capture to maximize their freshness.

After processing it beforehand into optimal condition, I cooked it using all sorts of methods. Professor Ilian ate it with a very satisfied expression, one never seen before.

Seizing the moment, I timidly asked if I could take just one treasure from the treasure vault.

And now, I was rolling on the floor like this. Today, it became clear. I need to give up on that. If I continued, I might really end up dead.

Professor Ilian’s obsession with her treasures was stronger and deeper than I had expected. I started thinking that maybe it would be easier to ask her to fix the last issue instead.

I swallowed my disappointment.

The treasures Professor Ilian had shown during lectures were often essences extracted from monster corpses. They held powers far stronger than anything ghost wood could compare to.

If I crafted a doll based on those, surely, an extraordinary creature would be born. I had been pestering Professor Ilian for a month, yearning for that power, but to no avail.

“In the end, do I have to visit this place?”

I pulled out a piece of paper from my pocket. The words ‘Upper Auction Entrance Ticket’ were glowing with magic.

It was sent by Miryeong. She offered to lend me points if I wanted something and added that she looked forward to our future cooperation.

After some checking, I learned that this auction was a unique event in the stalactite city held once every twenty years. Various items gathered by the Arcana General Meeting would be displayed.

And I was told that without this entrance ticket, even if one had points, entering the upper auction was impossible.

I swallowed a bitter smile. I hadn’t originally planned on participating in this auction. Honestly, I didn’t want to confront them yet.

But now, I had no other option. This could be where I might find the materials for my doll.

I slowly examined the entrance ticket. It stated that the auction would begin two weeks from now.

Should I just go take a look? After all, it wouldn’t hurt just to watch. The thought of facing Miryeong again made my stomach churn.

 

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