“Thank you for your time.”
Sylvie said as she stood up. At this point, the library had already been emptied to the point where only a handful of people were left.
“No problem.” Hearing his curt reply, Sylvie was once again reminded of the fact of what kind of a person this guy was.
“T-then, I will take my leave.”
With those words, she returned to her own table. However, when she glanced back at her table, she noticed something amiss.
Jasmine was sound asleep, her head resting on her arms, which were spread out on the table. Papers and notes were scattered around her in a haphazard manner.
“Jasmine?” Sylvie whispered, gently shaking her friend’s shoulder.
Jasmine stirred, her eyes fluttering open as she groggily looked around. “Huh? What? How long was I out?”
Sylvie couldn’t help but smile. “It looks like you needed a break more than any of us.”
Jasmine yawned and stretched. “You’re right about that. Thanks for studying with me, Sylvie.”
“No problem,” Sylvie said, her gaze shifting briefly to Astron, who was still deep in his studies.
‘I guess he won’t be leaving here for a while.’ She thought, looking at his concentrated face. ‘ But, he is quite good at teaching.’
She never thought he would be this good at explaining things, especially when it came to her mistakes.
The surprising thing wasn’t the fact that he was able to solve the questions; the difference was that he was able to dissolve and analyze her own thought process when she was solving on her own.
It was as if he was able to understand her better than herself. Truly weird.
Hmm?” Sylvie noticed Jasmine looking at her with squinting eyes as if she were suspicious of something.
Sylvie couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy under her friend’s scrutiny. “Jasmine, why are you looking at me like that?”
Jasmine blinked and then shrugged. “It’s nothing….” She said, her eyes going back and forth between Astro and Sylvie as if she was implying something.
Sylvie chuckled nervously. “An interesting conversation? Well, we did discuss a challenging problem from ‘Dungeon Theory,’ and Astron helped me understand it better.”
“Is that so?” Jasmine still seemed unconvinced, but she didn’t press the matter further.
“Yep. It was really helpful. He’s more knowledgeable than I thought,” Sylvie admitted.
Jasmine yawned again. “Well, it sounds like you had quite a productive evening. I’m just glad we took that break; I really needed it. Shall we call it a night? Mid-terms are going to be a handful.”
Sylvie nodded, and the two friends gathered their belongings. They quietly left the library, leaving Astron to his studies, and headed back to their dorms to rest up for the upcoming exams.
********
Different from what one would expect, the mid-term period of the academy didn’t have any events related to demons or demon contractors.
This was mostly because they needed to lay low after the recent incident they had caused. Of course, there were those individual demon contractors working for their own cause inside the academy, but at this period, nothing big would happen.
Though, that didn’t mean the game missed this part.
In the Arcadia Hunter Academy, the exams were separated into two parts. One was a written and theoretical exam, and the other one was a practical exam.
The theoretical exams were mostly skipped in the game since no player wanted to look at a bunch of papers while playing. After all, the target audience of this game mostly played it in order to distract themselves from the stress of school.
However, this is not the case in the real world. You can not skip the theoretical exams like you did in the game, and there was a certain score average requirement not to get expelled from the academy.
When it comes to prestigious schools where the supposed ‘manpower’ of humanity attended, they were very strict with their examinations and student performances.
Therefore, I needed to meet at least the basic requirements. That was the reason why I went to the library that day.
Though I wasn’t expecting to meet Sylvie at that time, even then, the encounter still helped me.
While teaching her, I was also learning and grasping things a lot faster than usual, and in the end, when my study session met its end, I was able to finish all the subjects I needed to study.
Of course, there was also a practical exam as well, and that was the thing I needed to pay the most attention to. After all, it was one of the game events where Ethan would start showing the world his talents as well as gathering the attention of some groups on himself.
To showcase his talent, he needed to overcome difficulties, and the difficulty of the second act was [Mid-Term Dungeons].
And just like that, the week had passed in a second, and now it was the mid-terms.
********
<On Mid-Terms Day>
In the hushed halls of Arcadia Hunter Academy, students began to gather for their mid-term exams. It was a day of tension and anxiety, a moment of reckoning for all their efforts throughout the semester.
As they waited for the exams to begin, clusters of students could be heard discussing their preparations. Some expressed nervousness about the challenging curriculum, while others were anxious about not having covered all the material.
“I can’t believe how hard [Advanced Mana Control] was. I couldn’t get through half the textbook in time,” one student complained to their friend.
He was a senior of the academy, taking an advanced course in terms of mana manipulation. [Advanced Mana Control] was one of the continuing courses of the [Introduction to Mana for Hunters] for freshmen.
Another student chimed in, “I know what you mean. [Demonology and Dark Arts] was no joke either. There was so much to learn, and I feel like I barely scratched the surface.”
Both of them were seniors, but even those who had been in this school for a long time were still finding it hard to cover all the curriculum.
But, as one progressed in the corridors and reached the freshmen classes, they would see a slightly different atmosphere.
Even if the seniors were complaining about the exams, they were veterans who had already survived this hellish exam period at least thrice.
But that wasn’t the case for the freshmen.
In the freshmen classes, the atmosphere was notably more nervous. These students were facing their first mid-term exams, and they were feeling the pressure keenly. While they talked amongst themselves, many couldn’t help but anxiously review their notes one last time.
“Guys, I’m so nervous about [Introduction to Mana for Hunters],” a wide-eyed freshman exclaimed. “I stayed up all night trying to cover everything, but there’s just so much!”
Another student nodded in agreement, their hands trembling slightly as they held their notes. “Tell me about it! [Dungeon Theory] is the bane of my existence. I’m not even sure if I remember what I ate for breakfast, let alone these complicated diagrams.”
As the clock ticked closer to the exam time, a few students were still flipping through their textbooks and hurriedly scribbling down last-minute notes.
“I just can’t believe we have to take the exam so early in the morning,” one student muttered, rubbing their eyes as if trying to ward off fatigue. “My brain’s not even fully awake yet!”
The anxiety in the air was palpable as the freshmen grappled with the intensity of their first mid-term exams, desperately reviewing their notes and praying they’d remember everything when the tests began.
All of them knew the importance of the theoretical exams, not because of their implication in real life but because of their implication on their notes.
‘Why are we learning this even though we will never calculate the mana of dungeons?’
Even though every one of them had this thought in the corner of their heads, they didn’t voice it loud because they knew nothing would change anyway.
Of course, not every student was like them. There were some of those who had already studied enough from the start. Those were composed, sitting on their seats and waiting for the papers to arrive.
And one of them was….
“Irina.”
The girl with blazing red hair was sitting at the front desk.
“What?”
As her desk mate, the white-haired girl, sat beside her, she threw her an annoyed gaze before closing her eyes again.
“What are you doing?”
“I am sorting the information.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
“You don’t need to know.”
Even though most people didn’t know, mages of high-ranking families had access to certain special magic skills that enabled them to sort their information in an organized manner using mana.
‘Mind Storage.’
And, now, Irina was sorting all the information that she had stored there.
“Yo, Ethan. How are you doing?”
Seeing Irina was not going to entertain her as she wished, Julia turned her attention to the boys sitting behind her.
“I am checking my notes.” Ethan was a serious type to study, but he had one little weakness. He was bad at solving analytical questions and calculative topics.
That was why he was still trying to study.
“I am sleepy,” Lucas added as he leaned on his left arm.
“Tch….” Seeing this, Julia clicked her tongue. Because she knew this twin of hers was good at exams and he was smart.
“Why are you clicking your tongue? Mad at you got the short end of genes?”
“Shut up, bastard. At least I don’t have a small stick.”
“HA! You bitch, what are you saying?”
The bickering between Julia and Lucas continued to escalate as they exchanged insults and jabs at each other.
Lucas couldn’t resist the opportunity to provoke Julia further. “Maybe if you didn’t look like a boy, you’d actually have a boyfriend by now.”
Julia’s eyes blazed with anger. “You’ve really crossed the line now, Lucas. You’re such an arrogant know-it-all.”
TOK!
But, before she could even say anything more, suddenly, the door opened wide open, and the instructor entered the room.
“Get rid of your notes; we are starting with the bell.”
SILENCE!
Everyone fell silent, and a palpable tension hung in the air as they turned their attention to the instructor, the same stern woman who guided them.
The mid-terms were about to start.