Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 269: After the Monthly Exam

More and more people gathered in Class Seven’s classroom. Of course, with the exception of the acting monitors, most of them were just there to watch the excitement or simply trying to figure out the cause of the matter. Someone added fuel to fire and perhaps even deliberately spread rumors among the crowd that the final monthly exam was forced to end in failure solely because of Xiao Lin’s fault.

The fingers were all slowly being pointed at Xiao Lin. In fact, calling it a rumor was not entirely calling. It was indeed Xiao Lin who forced an early end to the exam, but the reasons could not be explained in merely a few words.

The classroom was getting more and more raucous. Someone then said, “Now that you mention it, it seems the exam evaluation results haven’t been announced yet.”

Everyone was silent for a while. It was really strange, because according to the trend of the previous monthly exams, they would all receive the comprehensive evaluation and rewards from the central computer once it ended. On that occasion however, it had been almost half an hour since they came back but there was still no sign of movement.

“Attention all freshmen, I am issuing an announcement on behalf of the student union. Due to unique reasons, the evaluation of this exam will be announced sometime later. Please return to your dormitories immediately and prepare for class as usual tomorrow.”

There were loudspeakers in every classroom, and although they were rarely used, a pleasant female voice was suddenly put on air at that time. The discussion in the crowd suddenly became livelier, but all the students could do was follow the order since it was the decision of the student union.

Furthermore, everyone seemed to be in a rather tired mental state after the exam. That day was also a weekend, which generally meant that there were no classes. Soon enough, the people inside the classrooms finally began dispersing slowly.

The monitors still wanted to argue. Even if they had enough life span remaining, anyone would be upset to lose 10 years so needlessly like that. Xiao Lin did not want to waste his breath on them. Those who believed in him, like Chen Dao and Cheng Ming, would always believe that he had a reason for doing so, while no amount of explaining could convince the others who did not trust him.

When the crowd was getting lesser, Xiao Lin said goodbye to Gu Xiaoyue before immediately using the Phantom Steps to shuttle through the empty spaces between each person. He left the classroom in the blink of an eye, and those who were not paying attention could only see a blur in front of them. By then, Xiao Lin was already nowhere to be seen.

As of that moment, Xiao Lin was the only one among the freshmen who managed to master the Phantom Step. Even those with much higher agility attributes than Xiao Lin could only stare at his back from behind.

After returning to the dormitory, the first thing Xiao Lin did was to turn on the computer and view his profile. Information such as the score and redemption points of that monthly exam had yet to change, but the column displaying his remaining life showed only 50 years, as opposed to the 60 years he had when he first entered the academy.

“Five more chances?” Xiao Lin murmured. He shook his head and did not really care too much about it. He had enough redemption points, so he really could not care less about that life span.

The first thing he did was take a refreshing hot bath. Although there was sufficient supply of fresh water in the fortress, the orcs did not have the habit of preparing a bathhouse, and going without a bath for more than a month was unbearable even for a man.

After that, he proceeded to take a deep and heavy sleep. It was nearly eight in the evening when he woke up again, and there was hardly anyone present when he went to the top floor cafeteria. There were only cold leftovers, but it was good enough for Xiao Lin. At least he could avoid encountering any strange people who would directly come up and throw a fist at him.

After filling his tummy with food and drink, he opened the forum and saw that it was being refreshed almost constantly. Various new posts appeared almost every second. Xiao Lin clicked on a few to check them and unexpectedly discovered that the monthly exam’s evaluation had just been announced not long ago. Everyone began discussing the same topic.

Curiously, Xiao Lin was still unable to see any comments after clicking on his message again. In his puzzlement, he discovered that he had received an unread text message from the student union. The content was very brief, saying that he would have to show up at the student union’s conference room the following morning for the final evaluation of the monitors. The acting monitors were also exempted from participating in that morning’s class.

Xiao Lin contacted Chen Dao and Cheng Ming again, only to realize that the evaluations of all the acting monitors had been postponed and probably might not be released until the next morning.

Since he had a reasonably good relationship with those two guys, the three of them set up their own separate chat room and started the voice magic video chat. During that conversation, Xiao Lin also retold the specific events of what happened that day, drawing their immense shock. In fact, during that moment, the other monitors were not idiots and it was not like they never considered the possibility that someone might sneak in.

That possibility had actually crossed Chen Dao’s and Cheng Ming’s mind before, but it was only a fleeting thought and they quickly filtered it out. The reason was also very simple—it was impossible for anyone to sneak in due to the heavily guarded situation at the time. The students could easily see the intruder even if they flew in with wings, which was why they quickly filtered out that idea.

“We’re thinking along our habitual line of thoughts again!” Cheng Ming lamented. All of them subconsciously maintained Earth’s mindset and forgot that they were on Planet Norma. It was not at all impossible if the intruder were to become completely invisible.

“More accurately, our level of knowledge and information isn’t equal!” Xiao Lin was also reflecting on it, but in fact, that battle was a trap right from the beginning. First of all, an alliance between the orcs and the elves was not considered at all, and the academy certainly could not be blamed for concealing information before the exam. Since it was a fully simulated exam, it only goes to show that Dawn Academy was similarly in the dark back when the battle happened in real life.

Secondly, it was near fatal for a character that was above Gold-rank to go to war. If their strength was strong enough in the New World, they would completely ignore all rules of war and common sense. Xiao Lin is the first to understand that truth, but he would still remain powerless even if he understood that well in advance.

“Go to the forum and make a post to explain it! I just saw that damn Han Manman trying to fan the flames. She wants to push all the responsibility for the failure of this monthly exam onto you!” Chen Dao was incredibly disgusted with Han Manman.

“I’ll talk to Han Manman.” Cheng Ming was also quite worried about this. He was the stereotypical good guy, but was helpless when it came to private disputes between monitors.

“To tell you the truth, I’m actually really curious about the result of this battle in history. Did the elves really succeed in getting the resurrection tower?” Chen Dao suddenly asked again.

“It’s hard to say. After all, our strength levels are still far too low, and those people in history would definitely be stronger,” Cheng Ming answered prudently.

“No matter how strong they were, they could not possibly be better than that female elf. Didn’t you hear what Xiao Lin said? She was beyond Gold-rank! Damn, I’m surprised the academy would actually give us such a fatal exam! It’s like our lives are worth nothing to them!” Chen Dao appeared to be incensed.

Cheng Ming tried consoling him, “It isn’t so bad this time. At least Xiao Lin managed to end the exam ahead of time. Except for some of the acting monitors and instructors, most of the other people survived.”

All three of them were stunned after Cheng Ming said that. Could activating the self-destructing mode on the resurrection tower to prevent it from being taken away by the elves be the only way to crack that exam?

Were that the case, then Xiao Lin—the only one who made that move—would probably end up with a very high score.