Legendary Hero is an Academy Honors Student - Chapter 406
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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406.
It was when the freshmen in the large lecture hall were excitedly chatting amongst themselves.
Creak-
The front door of the large lecture hall opened.
At the same time, the chattering freshmen all shut their mouths in unison.
Thud- Thud-
The one who entered through the lecture hall door was Mel.
With Mel’s appearance, the freshmen began to open their mouths and start talking again.
“What could the assignment possibly be?”
“Maybe it’s something survival-related like the seniors last year?”
“It might even be the Inter-Department Competition.”
“Oh? Then you and I would become enemies, wouldn’t we?”
“You can look forward to it. I’ll mercilessly take you down.”
“That’s what I should be saying?”
They were busy having heated discussions predicting the assignment.
The reason all the freshmen stopped their chatter when the large lecture hall door opened was simple.
They thought the freshmen’s greatest terror professors, Hallind and Artion, were entering and got scared in advance.
Hallind was naturally the wall of lament that all grades feared, and Artion would simply have you punished by other heroic spirits if you chatted or fooled around during class.
Compared to those two professors, Mel was a gentle and benevolent professor.
In other words, to put it nicely, she was a comfortable professor among the freshmen, and to put it badly, she was an easy professor.
Normally one might feel offended by such an attitude, but Mel just smiled gently.
It would be strange for her, being a Dragon Lord, to get angry at young students still for such a trivial reason.
“Everyone, please pay attention.”
At Mel’s words, the students looked at her.
Especially the Magic Studies Department students all focused on Mel.
Setting everything else aside, from the perspective of freshman magic students, Mel was the best magic professor.
It was natural to listen to her words.
However, the Knight Department and Summoning Department students weren’t completely focused.
But such chatter among the freshmen didn’t last long either.
“Huh? What are those chattering ones doing? Are you saying Professor Mel’s words don’t sound like words?”
Artion, who suddenly appeared, spoke in a fierce voice.
Even his entrance was with another heroic spirit dwelling in his body.
In other words, he appeared in berserk mode.
‘Kyaaaaaaaaaah!’
All the students who had been chattering let out screams.
When Artion’s menacing and murderous gaze turned toward them, the freshmen averted their eyes.
“Hehe, I’m fine. Professor Artion.”
When Mel smiled gently and restrained such Artion, Artion growled.
“You should know how lucky you are.”
When all the freshmen became quiet like that, Hallind revealed himself afterward.
“Those who ignored Professor Mel’s words and chattered get 10 points deducted.”
At those words, the freshmen who got points deducted couldn’t even make a peep.
“Pathetic.”
Shasha clicked her tongue quietly.
Meanwhile, Hallind stepped up onto the platform.
“The reason I gathered you today is none other than to inform you of the final exam assignment.”
At those words, the dejected freshmen’s eyes sparkled.
The long-awaited final exam assignment announcement.
Looking at such freshmen, Hallind spoke.
“It seems you’re harboring some useless expectations.”
Hallind curled up the corners of his mouth.
Hallind, wearing a cynical smile, said.
“It seems there are some who are enjoying this situation where the World Summit and final exams overlap.”
Hallind’s eyes turned coldly.
“Listen well. Originally, nearly half of you would have been expelled before even taking the final exam.”
At Hallind’s sudden words, the freshmen’s faces hardened.
“It means many of you survived until now because the school’s operational policy luckily changed this year. Surely there aren’t any who think they survived because of their ‘skills,’ are there?”
At Hallind’s cruel words, many students even began to tear up.
“And then there are some who have gained mediocre skills.”
But Hallind’s words weren’t over.
“It’s true that numerous power holders and heroes will visit Lumern for the World Summit. It’s also true that you freshmen will present a year’s worth of achievements through final exams in front of those visitors. But remember this.”
Hallind narrowed his eyes.
“Rather than purely evaluating your skills, the audience will use your mentors—that is, your seniors who are second-years—as comparison targets.”
The freshmen’s faces hardened.
“The current second-years achieved results close to legendary feats during their first semester final exam last year. A massive invasion of demons and monster forces that occurred in complete isolation from the outside. Despite being immature freshmen, they overcame that great crisis. On top of that, they succeeded in subjugating Gigantes. It was the decisive event that led to the current second-years being called the Golden Generation.”
Hallind, who glanced around at the freshmen, said.
“The whole world knows you’re the second-years’ mentees. In such a situation, can you make your worth known by being compared to the second-years? The mentor system certainly provided you with great opportunities, but conversely, it also created the side effect of having you and the second-years compared by the same standards. Will outsiders give the evaluation ‘The freshmen are impressive’? Or will they give the evaluation ‘The second-years are impressive, but the freshmen are only this much’?”
Hallind’s eyes turned cold.
“You’re so full of dreams in a situation where you might become a laughingstock for life. Even more than half of you will be expelled after the final exams end. Did you forget that fact too?”
After Hallind’s words ended, the freshmen’s faces turned pale.
They had overlooked it.
The fact that their class this year was somewhat special.
They had been intoxicated only by their improved skills.
But hearing that their comparison target would be the second-year seniors called the Golden Generation naturally deflated their spirits.
Seeing the freshmen hanging their heads and staying silent, Artion, who had returned to his original personality, showed a flustered expression.
“I-Is it necessary to deflate the freshmen’s spirits this much?”
“I think it’s necessary work. It’s also true that there was a lack of tension among the freshmen.”
Mel smiled gently.
Indeed, the freshmen’s atmosphere had completely changed.
‘We’re being compared to the second-year seniors?’
‘If we make a mistake, we’ll be expelled.’
‘Ugh. Suddenly my stomach hurts.’
‘What kind of assignment could it be?’
The freshmen who had been looking only at good things now clearly recognized the bad things too.
Surely some students among them would enjoy glory.
But that would be a minority.
More students would taste bitter defeat.
On top of that, there was even the pressure of potentially being expelled from school.
Their entire attitude toward the final exam changed.
The previously relaxed atmosphere began to be filled with taut tension.
Hallind looked at such freshmen with cold eyes and said.
“Then I’ll now announce the final exam practical test assignment.”
At those words, the freshmen focused on the blackboard with tense faces.
Tap tap- Clack-
He picked up chalk and wrote the test assignment largely on the blackboard.
The students began to murmur.
Thud-
Hallind, who put down the chalk, looked at the students.
“This year’s final exam practical test for you is a 1:1 tournament battle.”
***
“A 1:1 tournament? Wow, that’s brutal?”
Cal stuck out his tongue after hearing the news about the freshmen’s practical exam announcement in the library’s private space.
Juwen, who had come to deliver the news, looked puzzled at Cal’s words.
“What do you mean?”
“It literally means they’re going to judge purely on skill alone. You can’t coast by on others’ efforts or rely on luck.”
“Isn’t that natural?”
“I survived my entire school life by coasting along with others.”
Cal clicked his tongue.
“My plan to sell know-how just went down the drain.”
“…You were thinking of selling something like that?”
“Of course.”
Juwen sighed deeply while watching Cal shrug his shoulders.
In the midst of this, Cal spoke up.
“Well then, shall we get started?”
“With what?”
“Data analysis.”
Cal used an item to open an extradimensional space.
Along with it, an enormous amount of paper bundles came tumbling out.
Thud-!
Juwen’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Why do you think I went through the trouble of renting a private room?”
Cal grinned wickedly.
“It’s because of these classified materials.”
At Cal’s words, Juwen reached out to check the materials Cal had prepared.
What was written there was none other than data on Aina Beidna.
He slowly read through the materials.
In addition to that, there were even orbs that had recorded videos with magic.
“Where did you get all of this?”
“I’m pretty friendly with the faculty and staff, you know?”
Cal chuckled.
Apart from the professors who taught students, there were many staff members including the Academy’s janitors and those who repaired the Academy’s interior.
Cal, who was thick-skinned and sociable, had been close friends with them since his freshman year.
“I asked them to film the other freshmen during their training.”
Cal’s most outstanding ability was precisely his information gathering skills.
He had fully utilized that ability in the situation leading up to the freshmen’s final exams.
“Mages have weaker adaptability to unexpected situations compared to knights or summoners.”
Cal wore a serious expression.
“In Chelsea’s case, well, she’s specialized in that area so she doesn’t show that weakness. But even Avad and Chloe lack adaptability to unexpected situations compared to the top students from other departments.”
That was an unavoidable characteristic of mages.
Mages fundamentally had poor mobility.
To produce powerful effects, they had to stay in one place for a long time and concentrate mentally.
As such, they could create tremendous variables on the battlefield, but ironically, because of that advantage, the mages themselves were extremely vulnerable to unexpected situations and variables.
What Cal wanted to help Juwen with was to thoroughly analyze data on persons of interest to eliminate unexpected situations as much as possible.
“When did you prepare all these materials? If it wasn’t a tournament, this data wouldn’t be very necessary.”
Looking at Juwen’s bewildered expression, Cal grinned wickedly.
“Juwen, you’re an amazing mage. Honestly, you could aim for class representative in most exam assignments. But if there’s one assignment that would be disadvantageous for you, I thought it would be 1:1 battles. Mobility is important in 1:1 battles, but you definitely lack mobility compared to Aina, Havedon, and Shasha. You can handle that mobility issue with stealth magic, but stealth magic would be tricky to utilize in 1:1 tournament duels.”
Cal crossed his arms.
“So I prepared these materials in case of the worst-case scenario that would be most disadvantageous for you.”
“Was it necessary to go this far?”
“I’m not much help to you as a mentor.”
To put it coldly, Cal was behind Juwen not only in magical power but also in his ability to handle magical formulas.
Juwen was also the owner of tremendous talent worthy of being called a genius.
Compared to such a Juwen, Cal was at an average level.
“But you chose me as your mentor because you thought there was something you could learn from me.”
Cal looked at Juwen with a serious face.
“Since you went that far, I’ll do my best to help you become class representative. I’ll become what you call a kingmaker.”
“Senior Cal…”
Juwen wore a moved expression.
“Senior Cal is truly the best mentor!”
Watching Juwen run toward him with a bright smile and hug him, Cal said,
“Right. Make sure to promote me as the best mentor, Senior Cal. If I’m still at the Academy next semester, make sure to use my products a lot.”
Having said that, Cal continued,
“Now then, shall we check the persons of interest? I’ll tell you in advance. Fritz, who is Avad’s mentee, and Jane, who is Chen Xia’s mentee, are persons of interest on the same level as Aina, Havedon, and Shasha.”
Their Academy grades were lacking compared to the class tops, but their combat abilities were not to be taken lightly.
Moreover, there was insufficient data on these two.
‘These guys must be Shadow candidates.’
Cal also knew from Leo that there were Shadow candidates among this year’s freshmen.
Shadow candidates.
Honestly speaking, they were unknown entities even to Cal.
“It’s true that those two are troublesome, but we can put them as lower priority for now.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because the first-round opponent has already been decided.”
“It’s been decided?”
“Yes. We drew lots during the announcement.”
“Who’s your first-round opponent?”
Cal wore a slightly flustered expression.
At Cal’s question, Juwen took a deep breath and showed him the subject of the materials he was holding.
“Don’t tell me… Aina Beidna?”
Looking at Cal’s dismayed expression, Juwen nodded his head.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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