Time passed, and the midterm exams were just around the corner.
Since the royal invitation was scheduled after the midterms, I had been at ease, only to realize how quickly time had flown by.
There hadn’t been any major events during this time.
Seria still clung to me, unwilling to leave my side, to the point that she even dragged me to the student council building to study for the midterms. Neither of us really needed to study, though.
It seemed that Seria wasn’t even planning to study. She just went to hang out and ended up getting kicked out by Alkine.
Speaking of Alkine, nothing had really changed with the student council.
Midterms? The student council wasn’t the kind of group that would worry about things like that. This was a place where people who couldn’t study could still manage by relying on their physical abilities.
However, when Seria dragged me there, the atmosphere still felt off.
Normally, there would be three or four people hanging out inside the student council building, but this time, Alkine was sitting there alone. She seemed quite lonely and looked relieved to see me and Seria.
It didn’t make sense to leave the place empty, but seeing her always guarding the spot made it seem a bit sad, so I started stopping by to hang out whenever I had the time.
Lilith, on the other hand, had been heading straight to the library or her dorm after classes, so I didn’t run into her much.
I heard she had been studying hard to improve her theory scores, but it didn’t seem like she had much success. I peeked at her recent quiz score, and it was 45 points.
It was definitely better than the 20 points she had gotten before, but… after all that studying, a score of 45 didn’t seem impressive.
“Hey! You saw it, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“You just looked at my score!”
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t see your 45 points.”
“You… You come here!!”
Thanks to that, I ended up having an impromptu game of tag with Lilith, but somehow, she was much faster than before.
Was she secretly training while pretending to study? It didn’t make sense for her to improve so much physically if her score only increased a little.
But I was too afraid of teasing her and causing trouble, so I kept quiet about it.
The main character, Artes, had been consistently training, and it showed in his rapid growth. His strength stats had risen noticeably, and his physique had become visibly sturdier.
He hadn’t expected to grow this quickly, and it seemed like he had taken a liking to training, starting to do various exercises on his own.
Thanks to that, his growth rate, which had already been fast, picked up even more.
It was clear that after the midterms, he would easily be able to move up to the intermediate class. It seemed like I wouldn’t need to help him much anymore.
[Artes: If I finish training today, will you buy me food?]
In terms of money, he still seemed to need help, though.
Still, it felt like the story was returning to its original course, so I felt a little relieved.
So, how much time was left until the midterms? Three… two… one…
“Alright, is everyone in their seats? Passing out the test papers?”
Now is the time.
The exam had started, but the atmosphere wasn’t particularly tense.
At this academy, the midterms didn’t result in demotions, only promotions.
If you messed up the final exam and had poor midterm results, you’d be demoted, but in the midterms, which were more like a status quo, there weren’t many serious cases.
In fact, the midterms for first-year students were done in smaller groups.
From the second year onward, everyone took the exam together since the curriculum was standardized, but for first-year students, the lower, middle, and upper classes each took separate tests, handled by the professors in charge.
So the atmosphere of this test wasn’t much different from the recent quizzes.
“Well then, be sure to manage your time and work hard.”
At the same time as Reina’s remark, the sound of the test papers rustling echoed.
As I mentioned earlier, this exam was for the upper class.
Therefore, the questions for the upper-class exam were entirely Reina’s work… and wow, she really made sure to make the questions tough.
Describe the characteristics and countermeasures of the Blood Sprite.
Did she teach this in class? I would never have missed a name like this.
She probably didn’t directly tell us in class but made it so we could deduce it.
She had probably told us about creatures like the Grim Reaper, Blood Kobold, and Natural Sprite separately, and the test question must have been an application of that knowledge.
I didn’t attend class much, so I wasn’t sure, but that seemed likely.
After all, a death and blood-afflicted murder fairy is a creature that even demons avoid, dwelling in the cursed area of the demonic realm, so it wouldn’t have been something covered in the first-year classes. It was clearly an application question.
Of course, there were plenty of memorization questions as well.
Goblins use the number of high-ranking goblins in their tribe to rank the tribe’s level. Describe the minimum requirements to reach the third-highest rank.
Something like that.
Let me think… For the third-highest rank, it’s 110 Hops, 41 Shamans, and 3 Lords, right? Among them, more than 30% of the Shamans need to be skilled individuals.
If you just memorized these, you’d either get it wrong or score partial points at best.
There were also quite a few memorization questions twisted in a way that would trap you, with trick questions cleverly inserted. Those who just memorized the answers would likely end up with disappointing results.
I don’t remember it being this hard when I was a first-year… I think the fact that Seria and I always scored perfect marks in the quizzes played a big role in this.
Of course, no matter how difficult it got, the difficulty level was still too easy for me. I even finished everything and had enough time left to lie down and take a nap.
The reactions after the theory exam were quite something.
No matter how much they studied, the application questions must have drained everyone’s energy.
Even if someone did well on the application questions, the twisted memorization and trick questions must have exhausted their mental stamina throughout the exam.
And given the high basic difficulty, it was hard to expect good results.
As I watched my classmates suffering, Seria came over and asked me.
“Rudion, do you think you did well?”
“Eh, I think I did okay. How about you? It seemed like the questions were different from what we learned in class.”
“It was a bit confusing, but I managed. Ah, but there was one question I’m not sure about… Do you remember question 17?”
“What was it?”
“The one with various monsters listed, and you had to pick the one that was different and explain why.”
“Ah, that was the Ice Golem, right? I remember the ice component being different from the rest.”
“That’s right! Phew, thank goodness.”
While Seria and I were checking our answers, Lilith interrupted.
“…Oh no. I chose something else.”
“What did you choose?”
“The Frozen Hound.”
“You picked that because you thought it was a beast, didn’t you?”
“…Ugh, that’s so spot on, it’s annoying.”
There were only three or four traps in that question, and it seemed like Lilith had fallen for the one that only the real idiots would fall for.
I didn’t think Lilith’s score would be anything to brag about.
And so, multiple rounds of the theory exam took place, starting with Understanding Monsters, followed by basic Magic Theory, Magic History, Survival Geography, and other foundational subjects.
Even though it wasn’t a class meant to dive deep, thanks to Professor Reina’s full effort, quite a few difficult questions came up.
Because of that, students were dropping out in real time, and by the look on their faces, it seemed like they had all given up on getting good scores.
“Sigh…”
From the back, I could hear Lilith’s sigh. She was already getting excited about teasing people with their scores.
After the unexpectedly difficult exam ended, Reina checked the test papers and muttered to herself.
“Looks like everyone’s not studying as much as I thought…”
No, Professor, that’s what the average student looks like.
But now that she had seen the reality, I guess the difficulty level would return to normal for the final exam.
In the end, except for Seria and me, everyone had messed up the theory exam, and now, the exam would move on to practicals.
Everyone seemed full of energy, knowing they had to make up for the points they lost in the theory exam with the practical exam.
“I’m not good with using my head. My strength is in using my body.”
The one with the most enthusiasm among them was Lilith. It was only natural since she was finally going to be able to show the results of her training.
Anyway, everyone moved to the sparring arena for the practical exam.
As soon as we arrived, Professor Reina stepped forward and gave a brief explanation of the exam once more.
The practical exam was divided into two parts… one was a test prepared by the professor, and the other was a sparring match… I was getting a bit tired of hearing the instructions I’d already heard a thousand times before, and as I was listening, I began to lose interest.
Maybe Professor Reina realized this, because she abruptly stopped talking and just started the exam.
“Alright, enough talk. You all know the drill. Let’s get started.”
Flash!
Something popped out of the magic stone Reina had pulled from her pocket and stood there.
It was the Lich Knight we had captured before.
However, unlike the chaotic movements from before, it was completely still now. Nobody thought it was strange, though.
Everyone knew that monsters became nothing more than puppets during the capture process.
After many casualties in experiments to prevent them from turning into puppets, the development of capture techniques had come to a halt.
But even if they did turn into puppets, once a monster was caught, it could be freely stored and released as long as the magic stone’s power was intact. That was why these creatures were used in various tests and training.
“Alright, come forward one by one and try attacking it.”
This was one of those cases.
“Wow, what’s that?”
“Death Knight?”
The students’ reactions varied as the Lich Knight appeared.
The appearance of the Lich Knight was no different from that of a Death Knight.
Death Knights are strong against physical attacks but weak against magic. Wizards, recalling this, began to feel excited, thinking that this exam would be in their favor.
But don’t worry. This Lich Knight was a creature that would hit both wizards and warriors equally!
“Can I go first?”
“Sure, you can go in any order.”
Not knowing that, one of the wizards confidently stepped forward and cast a spell.
A wizard’s Fireball!
It seemed pretty ineffective…
“01…?”
“Hmm, looks like you couldn’t even tell the difference between a Death Knight and a Lich Knight, and you went ahead with it. Deduction, I’m afraid.”
Professor Reina’s grading just took a hit!
The effect was huge!
“What the…?”
“…It wasn’t a Death Knight after all.”
“Wow, if you had gone first, you would have been in big trouble.”
With the sound of someone’s score plummeting, the practical exam finally began properly.
Ah, Seria, Lilith, and I were pushed to the last order. The reason was to avoid any major damage to the scarecrow we had prepared.
And then I realized.
I had no means of causing any damage to that thing.
…Looks like this practical exam is going to be a failure for me.
All I could do was fiddle with the hilt of the short sword at my waist, waiting for my turn.