Chapter 66: The Midterm Begins!

As the morning sun dawned, students urgently walked toward the academy. Some were still cramming their noses into their notes while walking, while others strolled in empty-handed, confident they didn’t need to study at all.

So, what was the big occasion today? Today was the start of their very first mid-term examinations! Since there are various departments and classes in the first year, students have to take exams daily. They get only a limited time to study, and most students prefer pulling late-night study sessions rather than preparing days in advance.

Why is that mindset so common? It is simple. Nobody enjoys learning only theory. Most students prefer learning magic practically. Since they ultimately have to use the practical demonstration of a skill on the battlefield, why not just learn the practical side? Why do they have to go through the boring theories behind spell creations, their origins, who invented them, their failures, and their successes, when they just want to focus on casting the spell?

Well, for most students, that is a correct viewpoint. There is no need to learn such stuff when they don’t see any immediate benefits from it.

But there are always a few students out there who don’t just focus on the basics. They want to modify the magic and spell according to their own desires. By learning from the failures of past historical figures, they get the basic knowledge of how to avoid repeating those same mistakes. Casually speaking, such students are quite rare. Only someone with a twisted mindset, who genuinely enjoys doing research to develop new technologies and show the world what is actually possible, will be able to do that.

So, coming to the main point. Today was the first exam, and the course was ’Summoning Magic’.

The atmosphere in the hall was tense. The students lined up at their designated seats, leaving their notes outside to avoid getting caught cheating. Just like any other prestigious school, the Arcane Academy stood among the top ten academies in the world, well known for its elite education and prestige. So cheating is strictly not allowed. If found out, a student would be expelled immediately.

But does that stop students from trying to sneak in cheats? Nah. The daring students would still bring them, not because they wanted to challenge the instructors, but because if they didn’t, their chances of failing and getting expelled were basically confirmed anyway. So why not just try it and leave everything else to fate?

In the very last row, in the corner seat, a student sat quietly. His crimson eyes looked distantly out the window, and his dark hair was messy, as if he didn’t get enough time to arrange it this morning. His academic standing was famous for being the absolute last, sitting comfortably at rank 1184. Well, since no student had been expelled yet, his rank remained the same. If anyone else got expelled, his number might finally decrease.

Alden sat there calmly, waiting for the exam to begin. He had come prepared. Fortunately, he was an average person in his past life when it came to studying. He wasn’t exactly a genius who could remember and understand everything just by reading it once, but he still got the hang of things after reviewing the material a few times.

As the bell finally rang, the academic staff provided the exam papers to every student.

The room fell silent as students began to focus on writing. Some clutched their heads in nervousness, unable to remember their answers. Some stared cluelessly at the paper, while others wrote with rocket-fast speed!

In the very back, Alden looked at his question sheet. Before he began to write, a idea popped into his mind.

’Hey system, can you tell me the answers to the paper?’

Alden asked this not because he knew nothing, but because he genuinely wanted to find out if his system could actually do it.

[Ding! Of course, host! I can tell you the answers. Just in exchange, you will lose a significant amount of stats, and your skill mastery will significantly plummet. Nothing more.]

[Ding! Do you want to exchange the information by trading your power?]

[Y/N]

Alden pursed his lips and immediately dismissed the window. Why would he sacrifice his hard-earned days of grueling work just to get a few cheats? It would be better to fail the exam than to get his precious stats decreased.

He shook his head and focused on his question sheet.

The test contained a total of 5 questions, with a large answer sheet provided separately. Without wasting any time, he read the first question.

[What is the Fundamental of Summoning magic?]

It was a simple question that he easily understood. Even though he hadn’t gotten his own summon for some unknown reason, it didn’t mean he lacked the knowledge. He had attended every single class. He was already clueless about most things in this world, so if he bunked his classes, his growth would eventually plummet, even with the ’Growth-Acceleration’ skill.

He pulled the answer sheet closer and started writing in a point format. He could explain it more easily and correctly this way rather than writing a huge paragraph. Plus, his ultimate goal was to take up more space on the sheet so he wouldn’t have to write in too much detail!

’So the first point is the "affinity", as without the affinity, or lack of affinity, any caster of the spell will face problems to summon...’

He wrote the point in a little more detail so that it would be highlighted for the grader.

’The second point is "connection", as without the connection of the caster with the being he was performing to summon, the summoning process will become unsuccessful, that’s where the spell works, the spell was nothing but a source of making the connection with the summon...’

’The third point is "bridge", it is a space from which the summon could be summoned, it could be the normal from the other side of the world, or from the different planets, or it could be also possible to summon the beast or spirits from different realm or dimensions...’

’The fourth point is "Manifestation", as in order to bring that summon in the actual world, the summoner have to use a large part of their mana to call it...’

’The fifth and last point is "Contract", in order to bind the summon to the summoners, a contract should be set in order to share their link with that being, so that nobody will able to seal their summon, or the summon could not actually start controlling the summoner...’

There were many historical cases where trickster spirits tried to outsmart the summoner and possess their body. To maintain dominance, the primary contract must be set properly to prevent that.

After finishing the first question, Alden looked down at the next one.

[Define Contract. Explain the Types of Contract.]

This was also a topic Alden had recently learned. He didn’t have any deep, practical knowledge regarding this since he had no summon of his own, but he could definitely make up the answers. That was one of his secret skills: making up answers through sheer logic, even if he didn’t know much about the actual practical application. Without wasting time, he began to write.

’A contract is an ’agreement’ between a summoner and another being. Both sides accept certain rules, responsibilities, and benefits. Once the contract is formed, neither side can easily break it unless the contract allows it or if both the summoner and summoned being agree to dissolve it.’

’Let’s go for the second part of the answer... So types... I know the enlisting at the very least...’

There are 3 types of contracts that can be formed between the being and the summoner:

1) The Absolute Pact: This pact is traditionally utilized with entities deemed highly untrustworthy in the long term. It establishes absolute, unquestionable command over the Summon. The relationship parameters are defined as Master and Servant respectively. Free will is suppressed to maximum.

2) The Committed Pact: This pact is initiated when a Summon willingly commits their ownership to the summoner. It requires subservience, but allows for mutual respect and communication. The relationship between the summoner and the Summon remains Master and Servant, it heavily dependent on how the summoner chooses to treat the creature.

3) The Equal Pact: A rare pact forged between beings possessing absolute, unwavering trust. The beings are bonded equally by the mana and soul. Their life force, mana capacities, and growth will permanently synchronize with each other. If one person dies among them, then the other one will face a heavy damage to his soul, or might also result in death.

Now that the second question was finished, Alden dove right into the three remaining questions. Fortunately, all of them covered topics that were easy for him to logically figure out. He just hoped to avoid a failing mark at the very least. His academic ranking and his image among the students didn’t matter to him. What truly mattered was not getting expelled from the academy!

When the exam time was finally up and the staff collected the answer sheets, the students groaned in unison. They leaned back and exhaled, relieved that this huge source of tension was finally over. Looking around, most of the students didn’t look enthusiastic about discussing their answers. They didn’t even know what they had actually written, so they wanted to avoid the embarrassment of being wrong. Only a few nerds discussed the test among themselves, checking if their conclusions were correct.

Alden finally stood up and started to leave the class behind him. He felt mentally exhausted, even though he had only sat there for two hours writing a paper.

’Sigh, it seems exams will be the exact same wherever we go in the universe. Ultimately, they are going to drain us anyway.’

As he headed back to his dorm room after grabbing a quick lunch in the cafeteria, he planned out his day. He was going to cultivate his mana for the whole afternoon and open his textbooks at night, perfectly staying true to his nature as a late-night reader!