Surviving at the Magic Academy

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“Well, here’s my tower.”

Professor Ilian spread her arms wide as she spoke. The tower stood atop a mountain. I honestly had no clue where I was. I had just flown here, hanging onto the professor’s hand.

When I first set foot on the mountain peak, I couldn’t contain my surprise. The magical energy emanating from the mountain was immense. And all that magic was flowing toward this tower.

I glanced at the professor, clapping my hands.

“Such an impressive tower, the magic here is amazing.”

I kept throwing out compliments that I could think of to make her feel good, just enough to not overdo it. As I continued my praise, her shoulders gave a slight shrug.

But to be honest, I was a little disappointed.

The tower was gigantic, but it looked quite shabby. Dust was everywhere, and cobwebs clung in various corners. It gave off a vibe that felt like it had been abandoned ages ago.

“When was the last time you visited this place…?”

I asked cautiously. She folded her arms, thought for a moment, and replied nonchalantly.

“It was about a hundred years ago. I haven’t been here in a while.”

She used her magic to float up into the air. In an instant, she flew to the top of the tower. I stood there gaping when her voice rang down from above.

“I have some business to take care of, so you clean up the inside of the tower while you come up.”

Just like that, Professor Ilian disappeared. I let out a sigh. I didn’t even have the energy to protest. Wasn’t I expecting things to go this way?

Now, what I needed to do was follow the professor’s orders perfectly. I looked up at the tower. So, I had to get all the way to the top, huh? I didn’t even know if I could finish that today.

I approached the tower and touched the door. It showed no response. I infused it with magic to take a look, and found that all the embedded spells had lost their power and had broken down.

I lightly fiddled with the structure, infusing the spells with magic again. A few spells were damaged, but the core that made up the door was still alive. The magic-infused door creaked and began to slowly open.

I took out a bunch of dolls and sent them inside first. Once they secured the perimeter and I felt safe, I slipped my body in. This space, void of any signs of use, had piles of dust on the floor, proving that no one had visited in a long time.

I examined the door from the inside.

The door looked even worse up close. The spells engraved all over were shattered and non-functional, and the magic I had just infused was scattering into the air. It seemed as though no one had maintained this for hundreds of years.

I cautiously stepped inside. The dolls quickly sprang into action and began cleaning, sucking up dust and wiping down the walls.

I followed behind them, walking slowly towards the wide hall visible from the entrance.

The various decorations along the way were covered in dust or had been destroyed beyond recognition. Though the dolls tried to restore them, most were completely ruined inside, so it was decided they would be disposed of.

Upon entering the hall, a large space unfolded before me. Nothing particularly special was there. Only a few remains of what looked like chairs or tables scattered about, leaving the place entirely empty.

Standing in the center, it was easy to grasp the layout of the first floor. It was quite simple. A hall at its center branched off into twelve paths, with a staircase leading to the second floor facing the entrance.

The remaining ten paths connected to individual rooms. I slowly checked each room. I had no clue what these rooms were for. But, upon examining the faint remains of furniture, it seemed like this first floor was used as a lounge or some sort of utility space to welcome visitors.

The dolls continued with their cleaning. They collected useless items to break and burn. Also, they used various magic to purify the air and magic, scrubbing away the grime.

Even with hundreds of dolls moving in unison, the cleaning process was painfully slow. No, it wasn’t just slow; this first floor was simply too vast. The central hall alone was spacious enough for three of my turtles to sit comfortably.

The inside felt much larger than what I had seen from the outside. Maybe it was due to the magic. I had picked up some sense of spatial flow while learning shrink magic, but this higher-dimensional, metaphysical flow was beyond my understanding.

While continuing the cleaning, I stumbled upon a few items.

Most were junk, but a gravestone placed in front of the staircase leading to the second floor was quite useful. Most of the text was faded and unreadable, but I could at least tell how many floors this tower had.

It went all the way up to the tenth floor.

“At this rate, I won’t finish today.”

It took about three hours to finish cleaning the first floor. It wasn’t much, but it was just so huge.

Next up was the second floor. I looked at the staircase. I sent the dolls up first to check it out. From the dolls’ perspective, it seemed to have a similar layout to the first floor. One peculiar thing, though, was that the central hall was a duplex.

I slowly made my way up the stairs, holding my turtles tightly in both hands.

If anything jumped out at me, I planned to use them as shields. All thanks to the immense density of magical energy in the area. Since maintaining the shrink magic had used a lot of my original magic, I now had ample energy to spare. At this level, I could keep it shrunk all day.

The duplex hall was so dusty it was hard to make out its form, and the carvings and paintings on the walls were much the same. Thankfully, only a few stone chairs and tables had managed to maintain some semblance of shape.

The dolls quickly cleaned the hall. They had learned from their trial and error on the first floor how to clean very effectively. They connected all cleaning processes organically through thorough division of labor.

Standing on the second floor hall and surveying the surroundings, I counted ten rooms in total.

However, entering those rooms felt uncomfortable. Unlike the first floor, there was a strange magical energy leaking from within.

So, I decided to send one of the dolls into the seemingly most intact room. Thankfully, it began inspecting the room without issue.

Inside was surprisingly spacious. Centered around a podium, desks and chairs were arranged in a semi-circle in a tiered format. I had seen a similar structure before. This appeared to be a classroom. Here, the magic seemed to still be partially functioning without any strange occurrences.

Just then, a doll cleaning the second-floor hall signaled to me. It was an alert saying it had discovered something unusual. Shifting my focus to that doll, I saw a signpost.

The signpost had blurry names for each room written on it. Most of it was too faded to make out, but I could still identify some room names. The room I had entered was labeled as the Theory Lecture Room.

Deciding to explore the rooms with visible names first, I saw one called the Reading Room. The doll entered the room. Here, it looked like the magic had broken down, as thick layers of dust were everywhere. Old wooden scraps were strewn about amidst the dust.

Other dolls followed it into the room. They cleared all the mysterious debris and wiped everything down, leaving the room completely empty.

What to do next? I couldn’t read the names of the remaining rooms on the signpost. Plus, they all emitted strange magical energy, making it hard to tell which were safe.

In times like this, why not just try them all?

With that thought, I scattered dolls into all the rooms. After all, I wasn’t going in myself. One must always be thorough in preparing for dangers.

Then, five dolls disappeared.

What the…?

Panicking, I sent more dolls, but they vanished again. This happened with all the rooms on the second floor.

The dolls that had entered the rooms on the lower floors were fine, but the spaces I had just checked were all chaotic because the magic had gone haywire. For now, I left the rooms where the dolls went missing and started cleaning the lower rooms.

During this time, I began to ponder the rooms where the dolls had disappeared. They emitted a darkly ominous magical energy. It felt oddly familiar.

Having been ordered to clean, I had to do my best. I wouldn’t allow these challenges to break me. If one group of dolls couldn’t do it, I’d send two. If that didn’t work, then three.

Preparing to throw in all my dolls, I flooded the rooms with dolls. Some of them disappeared the instant they stepped inside, while others left behind only minuscule traces before vanishing. I gathered as many of those traces as I could.

Eventually, I was able to piece together what the room looked like. It took using over a hundred dolls to get there. These rooms were tearing apart, revealing gaps. The dolls had definitely fallen into those spaces.

A chill ran down my spine. It was similar to the rifts in the spaces Professor Ilian often used. That felt strangely familiar. It was tearing the room apart. It was clear that some magic was off, distorting the space.

I couldn’t step into such a dangerous place. I put up a warning sign so that no one else would enter. This was mainly intended for Professor Ilian.

‘Warning: Space is torn apart.’

I didn’t have the ability to fix that. So cleaning it was out of the question. I had a valid excuse now, so I could just skip over it. I’d have to mention it to Professor Ilian later.

Thus, I wrapped up the cleaning of the second floor. There were a few shortcomings, but I finished all I could. The dolls had become so proficient at cleaning that they wrapped up this floor even faster than the first.

Now, it was time to head up to the third floor. If the second floor looked like this, what about the third? I sent the dolls up, feeling nervous.

Surprisingly, the third floor was intact.

The third floor was packed with an enormous number of bookshelves. I climbed up myself. The scent of wood tickled my nose. This was a library. The shelves towered high, forming a sort of staircase. And atop those shelves were tables and chairs.

Every detail was preserved perfectly under magic. There was nothing I felt I could improve upon. It was that clean and tidy. The magical energy flowing through the library cleared my head. Studying here would surely yield great efficiency.

This space was far more expansive than the first and second floors could compare to. And at the summit created by the bookshelves, I could see the staircase leading to the fourth floor. Curious, I approached the shelves, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

All of these bookshelves were empty. Even as I went up to check, they were just filled with nothing but worthless spaces. I could only lick my lips as I made my way to the fourth floor.

And upon reaching the peak of the bookshelves, I discovered a shelf with a few books still placed within it. They were very old, worn-out books. I pulled one out to take a look.

“What is this?”

I blinked in surprise.

There was nothing written on the cover. And the luxuriousness of it. It was a form I had seen somewhere before. I delicately opened it. Indeed, it had the feel of a magic book similar to the one Professor Ilian had passed on to me.

This magic book contained information about fire magic. Even though it wasn’t a field I was familiar with and couldn’t fully comprehend it, just by looking at the magic circle, I could tell they were splendid spells.

I quickly took out other books to examine them. They were all similar. Of course, while the authors varied, the formats or appearances did differ slightly, the levels of magic contained within were quite consistent. It seemed these were treasures collected by Professor Ilian.

I wanted to read them more, but first, I had to proceed with the cleaning. Suppressing my desire to take the books, I sent the dolls up towards the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

The fourth floor had a structure very similar to that of the first. However, each room contained an immense amount of magical energy. Could it have been used as a workshop or laboratory? There was nothing left to deduce that.

I cleaned them carefully. Having gotten quite used to the task, I finished it quickly. Off to the fifth floor.

The fifth floor. I could tell immediately that this was a dormitory. The layout of the rooms and the items remaining revealed it clearly. The magic, though shabby, left behind traces I could identify.

The most peculiar magic in the room was a spatial magic that naturally changed the size of the room. The magic circle I discovered while investigating various parts of the room contained that magic. I didn’t know what kind of magic it was, so I carefully infused it with power to activate the spell, and the room began to expand enormously.

But perhaps that magic was weakening, as the space began distorting midway, creating a tear. I hurriedly pulled my magic out of the circle to cancel it. Only then did the room return to its original size, stabilizing the crack. I vowed never to touch it again. I let out a sigh of relief.

These rooms connected into a communal living space. I imagined what it must have looked like when it was in good condition. People would have dined, shared information, and continued their lives in the tower.

I began to clean. Just as the spatial magic had done, there were many areas here with remaining magic, so I proceeded with caution.

As expected, it was dangerous.

During the cleaning process, several dolls were sucked into the rift of space. Even the absence of any signs suddenly split the air, ripping apart the dolls’ bodies in two. The rooms where such occurrences took place were immediately sealed off.

In this process, dozens of dolls went missing. Of the dolls I brought, only about half remained now. In cleaning half of the tower, that degree of loss had resulted. And I was supposed to go up even further.

Now, it was time to go up to the next floor.

I swallowed hard. There was a suspiciously ominous magical energy swirling just above.

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