Chapter 284: The MidTerm Exams

Vlad grabbed the question paper and began reading its content. His name, section, and ID number were already written at the top of the question paper.

It contained twelve questions of five marks each: two marks for marking the correct option out of the four given ones, and three marks for writing the actual solution in the answer sheet. Both the question paper and the answer sheet would be submitted once the exam ended.

Vlad’s eyes narrowed. Even if he were to solve all twelve questions, he would only receive 60 marks, but the paper clearly mentioned at the top right that the maximum marks were 100.

Below the last question, a strange instruction was written that caught Vlad’s attention.

To unlock the last question, at least six questions must already be attempted.

’So there is one hidden question which is worth forty marks?’ Vlad gasped, his brows rising in surprise. He could pass this exam directly by solving that question alone. But since it alone carried 40 marks, Vlad decided to attempt it last.

He began by writing down the reasoning on the answer sheet while also marking his answer on the question paper.

It took him half an hour to solve the twelve questions, never looking below, where the last question had already appeared.

Now that he had a whole hour remaining before the deadline, he could spend this time carefully devouring this whopping forty-mark fat meat.

The moment his eyes fell on the last question, the paper glowed with a blinding white light, forcing Vlad to close his eyes.

When he opened them, he found himself inside a blank white space.

"Huh? What just happened?" Vlad wondered, looking around. He was trapped inside a transparent glass box on all sides.

In front of him, a faceless humanoid figure materialised in the empty space. Above its head, some information about the mannequin was written.

-Four Ring Lumine Mage.

-Talent: A Ranked.

-Mastery of the spell: 95%

-Resonance: Mortal Grade

-Objective: Neutralise the spell with the minimum required Umbra mana and find the mana consumption of the Mage.

When the mannequin mage began casting a magic circle, Vlad already had a vague idea of what he needed to do.

"Three Ring Lumine Spell: Lance of light."

A sharp lance materialised before the mannequin. With a sway of its hand, the spear shot forward, rotating like a drill and leaving coiling trails of golden light behind it.

Just as the lance reached Vlad’s face, the shield around him vanished. The corner of Vlad’s lips curled upward as he unsheathed his sword, manifesting a dark coating of Aura along its blade.

"Four Ring spells have a base value of seven hundred to eight hundred. Using the fourth application of Lirien’s Law and considering the ninety-five percent mastery, this much should be enough to stop this attack."

Vlad thrust the tip of his own blade towards the lance. As the two clashed, bright light erupted on one side while a flame of darkness rose from the other.

The lance of light slowly vanished. So did the Aura from Vlad’s blade.

"The mana consumption of the mage is in the range of eight to ten percent."

The space brightened with blinding light, forcing Vlad to close his eyes again. When he opened them this time, he was sitting at his desk, the pen in his hand already marking option c: 8-10%

"Th-that was so cool!" Vlad exclaimed, his loud voice echoing through the completely silent exam hall.

All eyes shifted to him in an instant. The invigilator almost fell off his chair from the sudden shout.

"S-sorry, sorry," Vlad grinned awkwardly before turning his focus back to the question paper.

"So it has finally started," the invigilator snickered inwardly. ’The innocent reaction of the freshers when they attempt the academy exam for the first time.’

He stared at Vlad in confusion. ’But what was with his strange reaction? Normally, students cry out in horror or completely pass out. Did I hear it correctly, or did he actually find that cool? Maybe the students this time are different.’

He straightened his back, his brown eyes scanning the students sitting at their desks across the inclined hall.

"Aghh! Save me!" A student shouted from a distant desk before falling forward, unconscious.

"I-I have been ambushed!" Another shouted, rising from his chair, breaking into a sweat.

"Someone just attacked me!"

"Professor, someone is attacking us mentally."

The exam hall erupted into chaos, with some students even running towards the invigilator for protection.

"This is the more natural reaction," the invigilator sighed inwardly, realising Vlad was the abnormality.

"Everyone be seated," his firm voice moved through the hall, even reaching the farthest wall. "The last question checks your application of the theory in a real-life scenario. Only attempt it if you are confident in your arithmetic. Otherwise..."

A devilish grin appeared on his face, causing the students to flinch. "You will suffer mental damage if you get attacked and might not be able to take your next exam."

Most students lost the colour from their faces, glancing between their unconscious peers and this monstrous invigilator who hadn’t provided that information sooner.

Nearly a dozen of them had already hidden the last page of the question paper beneath their answer sheets to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally look at it.

’Hmm, so I would have faced consequences if I hadn’t stopped that lance inside the space,’ Vlad murmured inwardly, rubbing his chin. ’And if I had overpowered it with a superior attack, I might have survived the damage, but the test would have failed. I can’t enter that space again either. No wonder it’s a forty-mark question.’

At first glance, failing the test even after stopping the attack with superior power seemed stupid. The end goal was to defeat the opponent, after all. But Vlad had already understood the reasoning behind it.

Stopping the attack with the minimum required mana would allow him to conserve more mana. The question was testing the student’s ability to fight a battle effectively. And as someone whose biggest weakness before evolving into A-Rank had been mana shortage, there was no one among his peers who could conserve mana more effectively than Vlad.

He raised his arm, drawing the invigilator’s attention. "Sir, I’ve finished. May I leave?"