Surviving at the Magic Academy

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I think I’m totally screwed. No, I’m definitely screwed.

I brought the beer mug to my lips again. The intense bitterness slid down my throat, yet my stomach felt oddly calm. Maybe it’s because my insides were burning hotter than the beer.

I thought I was a genius but got my head cracked ten years ago.

I thought I was a prodigy, but got my head cracked five years ago.

Even the one who was supposed to be a top student just cracked his head today.

Now there’s nothing left.

Yeah, it’s time to admit it. I’m just an ordinary guy. It took me ten crashes to realize my limits.

“Is it that the university rejected me, or am I the one rejecting the university?”

The words I spat out in a drunken haze returned to me like a lonely laugh. I’ve sunk to the level of rambling nonsense now. Damn, I could never imagine doing this twenty years ago.

Yeah, there was a time I thought I’d become a great mage.

I raised the beer mug and poured it down my throat.

The drink soaked my body gradually. It was a special drink that always led me to happy dreams. I originally wanted to save it for when I passed my exams. Damn.

My body naturally collapsed onto the table. It felt like someone was gently patting my head, slowly leading me into the world of dreams. Dreams, the happiest ones I ever had.

In that moment, a foul smell started to waft in from somewhere. At the same time, something began to tug at my feet.

It felt like I was sinking into the mud; the dream I was heading to with happiness started to drown in that stench.

The dream was approaching. The dream.

Before I became like this, the dreams from those days filled with hopes.

“Let’s go to the continent and attend university. And become a real mage!”

With that damn line I shouted twenty years ago, I plunged back into the past.

It was around the time I turned seven.

By the command of the head, all the young clan members gathered in the open field. I was one of them. The clan surrounded a young man sitting in a circle. He wore a bizarre coat made of crow feathers and was smiling at us.

The young man, introducing himself as Ojo, conjured flames on his fingertip. The moment I saw it, I was captivated by its intensity. That bizarre and grotesque power, a rule that transcended the reality I knew.

“Everyone has the potential for magic. But it’s just potential; it’s hard to blossom. According to the pact, I will teach you magic. If someone excels, they will naturally sprout their seeds. If one person blossoms with magic, the others will learn on their own. I will teach only one.”

From that moment, I began learning magic from the magician along with the other kids.

Ojo’s stories were utterly fascinating.

He said that all mages on the continent grow trees in their hearts. Saying so, Ojo taught us the ‘Rooting Technique,’ rumored to be created by an Archmage.

It’s like believing that human potential lies in the heart, drawing in surrounding mana to form a kind of soil. As Ojo directly guided the mana, I began to feel a strange sensation.

Following Ojo’s lead, as I kept my breath steady, something indescribable began to gather in my chest. Ojo called it mana.

“The mana of this world is filled with impurities. So if you use it directly for magic, the magic can’t endure it. But if the potential contained in your heart can sprout a seed, that sprout will filter the mana to provide pure mana. So, if you want to become a mage, sprout that seed.”

The resonance of the name mage. I did my best. Whether eating or sleeping, I tried to maintain that breath. At first, I struggled to maneuver the bizarre mana, but slowly began to adapt.

I am different.

That was the thought I had while watching the other kids. The kids found it hard to maintain the breath itself. Some easily quit and left.

But unlike these thoughtless ones, I excelled in every aspect. I absorbed the mana easier than Ojo expected, and I easily followed the theoretical lessons he taught.

It was the day I turned thirteen.

That day was just like any other. I sat up and practiced the technique as soon as I opened my eyes. It was something I always did before eating. But then something started to squirm in my chest. A sudden pain came without warning, and I fell to the ground clutching my chest.

It was a seed! A seed I didn’t even know had formed was vibrating inside the foundation I had built with my breath. I couldn’t even breathe properly. Seeing me like that, the caretaker rushed out to call for help.

When Ojo arrived at the commotion, he placed his hand on my chest and poured mana into me. As Ojo’s mana penetrated my body, the seed vibrated harder in surprise. Pain—I could hardly catch my breath because of it.

“It’s trying to root. Focus. No matter how hard it gets, you mustn’t lose your mind. Steady your breath, and gather the mana.”

Ojo said firmly. His words brought me back to calm. I recalled the moment when I first started breathing. How did I breathe back then? How did I manage to do it?

Even though I couldn’t breathe, I puffed my chest as if I were. Then air rushed into my chest, clearing my head just a bit. Keep breathing. Don’t pay attention to the pain.

At last, the seed stopped vibrating. And then, the moment came that I would never forget until my dying day.

The hardened seed sucked in mana endlessly. And it started to grow. It felt as if the foundation was drying out. The seed moved as if it had life. It was like another heart was beating.

And then cracks began to appear in the seed. I wriggled in pain, as if my organs were splitting apart. Mana started to seep out through those cracks. The amount of mana gradually increased, and eventually, the seed split completely in two. At that moment, it felt like I was splitting apart too.

Later, the caretaker said I had actually died. I had coughed up blood and stopped breathing. But at that time, I felt more vividly alive than ever. My spirit, having left my flesh, lingered in my heart.

As the seed split, immense mana contained within it burst forth powerfully. Inside that flow, I tamed my breath. The mana seeped into my breath, penetrating the already crumbling foundation. This mana that had almost broken through entirely began to solidify, forming some sort of roots.

With that shock, my whole body trembled, and blood spewed from my mouth. The split I had reassembled into one, and as pain returned to me—a pain I had never experienced before—my consciousness became hazy.

With my mind half lost, I could hear Ojo saying something beside me. His words flowed by me like the wind, failing to stay in my mind, yet some of it remained to rouse me again. I needed to root down. Following that instinct, I started to plant roots.

The roots began to devour the foundation completely. The mana I had gathered over six years seemed too little for this seed. The foundation crumbled completely, and the seed thrashed wildly. Breath, the only thing I can trust is my breath.

I absorbed the external mana and handed it over to the seed. But perhaps that wasn’t enough? The seed began to extract my breath too, using me as a sort of conduit. It was breathing not just through my nose and mouth, but my entire body began to breathe. The mana seeped in through every part of me.

Having absorbed mana to the limit, the seed broke free from the foundation and released mana into the air. The mana quickly solidified, drawing lines in the air.

Mana piled up and piled up, thickening the lines. When those lines finally became thick enough to be called a stem, a few leaves started to sprout. At that moment, it began to devour mana even more fiercely than before. Not just mana, but vital life force began flooding into my heart.

My whole body heated up. The sound of bones cracking and muscles tearing echoed inside me.

“Always stay calm. Slowly, forget the pain in your body. Recollect everything you’ve learned so far.”

Ojo said. The Rooting Technique, a simple breathing technique that piles up nutrients and allows roots to take hold.

What I had previously known was nothing but shallow knowledge. The true technique involved absorbing mana through the entirety of my body. I led my roots to spread deeper and wider through my breath.

First, I must save my body. The roots stretched straight to replace the drained life force. My withering body began to regain some vitality upon meeting the roots. Additionally, the roots that could now directly contact the outside drew in mana vigorously.

Thus, under the guidance of the technique, the roots began to transform my body gradually like a tree. During this process, the seed began to decrease the amount it absorbed. At last, the leaves were completed.

Soon all the pain vanished, replaced by a refreshing feeling as if I were reborn. The weariness of my spirit was immense, yet my body felt like it could soar to the heavens at any moment.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the caretaker looking at me with a worried face. Ojo stood beside her, arms crossed. I smiled weakly, and Ojo nodded. All my senses felt unbelievably sharp. Even with my eyes closed, I could almost sense the entire room.

“I didn’t expect the seed to move this much. You have quite the talent compared to other clans.”

“Do the… others become mages like this?”

Ojo nodded. Is this what being a mage is? I nearly died. Moreover, the pain.

“Becoming a mage signifies a transcendence beyond your kind. The risk of death is common. If I hadn’t been there, you would have died.”

He was right. If Ojo hadn’t kept waking me up in the middle of it all, I wouldn’t have sprouted the seed and would have died on the spot. I bow with gratitude. Ojo waved his hand dismissively.

“From now on, you will endure pain even worse than this. Transcending as a mage means transforming into an entirely different existence.”

Pain worse than this? I couldn’t even imagine it.

“Today, observe your body calmly. Deepen your roots. Rebuild your foundation. You must bind the foundation tightly with your roots. If the foundation shakes, the magic will also fail to take shape.”

Following his words, I focused on feeling the strangeness within my body. It felt like a new organ was formed deep inside me. No, should I even call it an organ? More like I felt I had shed my existing body and had switched to a new one.

Ojo soon left, and the caretaker laid me back down on the bed. I gestured for her to go, as I’d be a distraction if she stayed nearby. I closed my eyes and fully concentrated on my body.

I felt the deeply embedded roots and the mana flowing through them. As I had learned, this mana was different from the surrounding mana. It was filled with comfort and naturalness, as if it were my own limbs.

I gently drew it out to move it around. I tried lifting my body off the ground, and even raising a cup of water. The movements felt as natural as they always had.

Excitedly, I moved the mana around, but I soon had to stop. The mana contained in the roots was nearly depleted. The roots seemed to get restless and rapidly absorbed the surrounding mana. Hmm, just as Ojo said, I should hold back. Today, let’s focus on stabilizing this sprout.

With that, at the age of thirteen, I became a mage. It was the most brilliant time of my life.

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