"Assume there are several Magisters and single-headed, four-legged Magic Guide Spirits in the same arena. Counting from the top, there are 35 heads. Counting from the bottom, there are 94 feet. How many Magisters and Magic Guide Spirits are there respectively in the arena?"
A simple "chicken and rabbit in the same cage" problem.
But for first-year students who had only been exposed to equations for an hour, it was not that simple.
Professor Lily looked around the classroom for a long time. She felt that if she just picked someone at random to solve the problem, some awkward situations she didn't want to see might occur. So, instead of calling names randomly, she picked Emma Metis from the front row.
As Emma stood up and took the stage, the students in the classroom all breathed a quiet sigh of relief—as long as it wasn't them!
Emma carefully recalled Professor Lily's previous example problems. Although she didn't understand it particularly well yet, the format of this problem was almost identical to the example. Imitating the example to solve it wouldn't be difficult.
She quickly wrote down the answer.
"Correct! Five points to Emma Metis!"
Professor Lily was obviously a bit excited, feeling that she indeed had a talent for teaching. Look, someone learned it after just one lecture! For future questions, she just needed to use exercises to consolidate the knowledge!
Fortunately, she had worked overtime last night to rush out a test paper. Wasn't it coming in handy now?
Perfect!
...
After that, she didn't ask anyone else to come up to the stage to answer questions. Instead, after explaining the problem Emma had solved, she began to distribute the test papers.
The difficulty of the test paper wasn't too high; it was at a level that could be solved by self-studying from the textbook.
The scary thing was, there was no textbook!
...
"Ding-ling-ling!"
The Arithmetic Class came to an end amidst the rustling sound of test papers.
After giving her teaching performance today a score of nine out of ten, Professor Lily left the classroom with satisfaction.
Leaving behind only faces numb with shock.
...
"Ah!"
Unknown who shouted first, the classroom instantly filled with wails of grief.
Susan and Lucy frowned as they looked over the test paper, then immediately looked at Emma with ingratiating expressions, thinking that becoming friends with Classmate Emma was truly the wisest choice they had made last year!
In the back row, Diana and Rose also held their densely packed notebooks, looking at Dark with puppy-dog eyes.
Dark said helplessly, "Library, tonight."
Diana: "Yay!"
Rose: "Phew."
The pressure of staying by the side of honor students was still relatively high. When school first started, neither of them had cared this much about grades. Now, however, they had subconsciously started to care.
...
On the other side, Virt and Robert sat face to face, eye to eye, both looking ashen.
Both were already very bad at this subject, and now they were completely in the dark. Robert, in a rare occurrence for recent times, had almost fallen asleep.
After a long while, Virt whispered, "How about I go ask Senior Betty?"
The only ones he could think of were Betty and Scott. But Scott...
Thankfully, during the secret passage exploration last time, he had gotten somewhat familiar with Senior Betty!
As for things like "Dark" or the "gap" between them, he didn't even want to think about it anymore.
...
Right up until the start of Magic Guide Theory, the students were still distressed about it.
Professor Kazel curiously picked a student and asked, "What happened? Why is everyone wearing such bitter faces?"
The student complained, "Professor, Arithmetic Class is simply too hard. We need tutoring!"
"So that's how it is." Professor Kazel waved his wand to let him sit down, then laughed. "Rest assured, if you can't pass the final assessment, you can take remedial classes next semester."
The classroom instantly became chilly.
Professor Kazel didn't mind the awkward silence. He changed the subject, saying, "Close your textbooks. Today we are going to teach the production of a special type of Magic Card—the Ultimate Move Card!"
"Ultimate Move Card?"
The students couldn't help but look up at the podium.
The content Professor Kazel mentioned obviously piqued the interest of the majority. There were extremely many categories of Magic Cards; Ultimate Move Cards and Spell Cards were just a part of them.
But compared to the more mainstream Spell Cards, Ultimate Move Cards could only be considered a niche category. Whether in actual combat or competition duels, very few people would use Ultimate Move Cards.
This was because Ultimate Move Cards held no advantage in terms of effects or refining, yet the restrictions on their use were greater than those of Magic Cards.
The vast majority of Spell Cards only required the Magister themselves to provide magical energy to be used. Ultimate Move Cards, however, required the summoning of the corresponding Magic Guide Spirit and coordination with that spirit to be used!
Moreover, depending on the degree of tacit understanding between the Magister and the Magic Guide Spirit, it was easy for coordination errors to occur... in which case, it would truly be a waste.
However, in the early stages when Magisters hadn't learned the Magic Guide Language and couldn't refine Spell Cards, Ultimate Move Cards—which didn't require learning the Magic Guide Language and had a chance of being successfully refined—had unique advantages.
But this stuff wasn't content found in the textbooks; it was Professor Kazel's personal instruction.
A few minutes later.
Professor Kazel gave a brief introduction to the [Ultimate Move Card], then began to explain the application methods and refining methods of the [Ultimate Move Card] in detail.
Of course, this class was only explaining theoretical knowledge; practical teaching could only be placed in the next week. And the first-year students had to prepare the materials for the experiment before the next Magic Guide Theory class started—they had to buy them themselves.
As for the credits needed to buy materials...
The poor have their ways, and the rich have theirs. If one really couldn't even afford the cheapest materials, then one could only watch!
...
"Ultimate Move Card?"
Dark thought seriously while listening to Professor Kazel's explanation.
A Magic Guide Spirit's Ultimate Moves were generally exclusive, but there were also some systematic Magic Guide Spirits whose certain Ultimate Moves could be universally used. This would allow the application range of Ultimate Move Cards to broaden, approaching Spell Cards in terms of convenience.
"I wonder if Pokémon count as a system?"
"Different Pokémon can learn the same skill. Can the Ultimate Move refined based on this also be universal?"
"For example, the skill [Round]. Whether it's Sylveon or Popplio, both can learn it."
"Moreover, [Round] also has a combo effect."
"It's just that the refining of this Ultimate Move Card requires the consideration of very many elements, and the refining difficulty is also very high."
"Also, it's not like you can refine a skill just because you want to..."
Listening to the end, Dark gradually came to a realization.
No wonder the refining method for [Ultimate Move Cards] wasn't recorded in the textbooks. It turned out that it wasn't a mature system itself; it belonged to new technology still under development.
It was only because their professor was Kazel that they had the chance to learn related knowledge. This part of knowledge could completely be regarded as Professor Kazel's exclusive technique, possessing very great value.
Thus, he became even more serious when copying down notes.
...
Magic Guide Theory ended quickly. Students who understood the value of knowledge only regretted that time passed too fast. Students who listened until they were drowsy wished they could fly out immediately.
Lunchtime.
The students gradually threw the Arithmetic Class homework and the purchase of experimental materials to the back of their minds. They talked about the afternoon's History of Magic class, about the interpretation of prophecies, and about Saturday's Rookie Tournament.
After eating and drinking their fill, and taking a short nap, it was unknowingly afternoon.
The students hurriedly shouldered their schoolbags, ran towards the classrooms, and rushed into the lecture hall for History of Magic before two o'clock.
After experiencing the emotional outburst of the last class, Professor Ryan Hacks seemed to have reflected to a certain extent. This afternoon's History of Magic class was dedicated to telling some interesting anecdotes from the war journey, which actually brought some laughter.
At the end of the History of Magic class, he collected the homework regarding "Traitors" assigned in the last class, then assigned new homework. This class was considered over.
"I hope Professor Hacks can answer my doubts," Dark couldn't help but think as he handed in his homework.
...
That night, a large number of first-year students flooded into the library. Everyone chewed on their pen caps, attempting to conquer the difficult problems of Arithmetic Class.
But for them, who had never been exposed to this aspect of knowledge, that test paper was simply too difficult!
In order to seek answers, they had to stand up and ask around, and the sound of discussions between them gradually became uncontrollable.
The quiet of the reading room was broken, finally drawing Ms. Bella's scolding! The angry Ms. Bella directly drove all the first-year students out of the library!
The upperclassmen watched the disheveled first-years, each emitting gloating laughter. As a result, they were also fiercely scolded.
Dark, who was also driven out of the library, had a bitter smile. But when an avalanche occurs, no snowflake is innocent. He had also been whispering in the reading room just now, contributing a part to the destruction of the environment.
Heh heh heh.
...
Dark waved to Diana and Rose. "Let's go, back to the Common Room. Changing places will allow us to be more open."
Teaching people knowledge in the library required keeping voices down, which was indeed a bit constraining. It wasn't as good as being in the Common Room.
Diana and Rose nodded one after another.
The three left the library without a hint of dejection. They were the first batch to return to the Noble House Common Room, quickly occupying a good spot. Then, the lecture continued!
Although it was called a lecture, the content Dark taught wasn't actually different from Professor Lily's. It was just more detailed by comparison, using language that was simpler, more straightforward, and easier to understand.
Moreover, one-on-two tutoring could be more targeted. Combined with the test paper distributed by Professor Lily, achieving a combination of memory and application made it easier to master.
Under Dark's patient teaching, even Diana gradually mastered the basics and could answer questions herself. Watching her bury her head in hard work, Dark couldn't help but reveal a trace of a gratified smile.
Teaching and educating people was actually a matter that gave a great sense of accomplishment. As a regulator for campus life, it wasn't bad.
But when he wanted to stand up, he suddenly discovered pairs of small eyes filled with "thirst for knowledge." The first-year students of Noble House looked at him eagerly, like little lambs waiting to be fed.
Thus, in the Noble House Common Room that night, a scene appeared that hadn't been seen in St. Marian for many years.
Almost all the Noble House first-years sat in a circle, seriously listening to Teacher Demon's secondary instruction.
Upperclassmen came and went, looking at that group of first-years huddled together with strange expressions. Especially the golden-haired youth standing in the middle; he made them feel a special significance.
A few upperclassmen couldn't resist auditing for a bit, only to suddenly discover that the "equations" and "unknowns" Dark was teaching were things they had never even heard of! Thus, behind the first-year students, a few more upper-grade auditors were added.
...
It wasn't until ten o'clock at night that Dark ended this lecture.
He took a sip of the apple juice brought by DemiDevimon, still wanting more, and clapped his hands. "Then today's lesson ends here. If there is anything else you don't understand, verify with each other and try to think more for yourselves. The thing about Arithmetic is mainly not to harbor fear. If you can maintain a calm heart to treat it while studying, they will be at your mercy."
The Noble House first-years nodded, finding it very useful. Someone even wrote his words down, taking them as a motto.
Favorability between people always increases amidst giving and receiving.
If Dark also had a [Forbidden Love] card, he would definitely be able to see that their favorability towards him had skyrocketed by a large chunk. The benefits of these changes couldn't be seen now, but as time passed and fermented, they would always change something.
After doing his best, he returned to the dormitory, checked the Magic Guide Spirits' homework, and then washed up and slept.
This day was terribly fulfilling!
...
The next day, Friday.
The first class in the morning was Dueling Class, and the second was Magical Beast Studies.
In Dueling Class, Professor Jones reiterated this week's assignment once again. She required the seven students who had joined the Dueling Club to apply for the Rookie Tournament on Saturday morning, participate in at least one match, and then write a short analytical essay on it.
The remaining students had to select a participant as a subject and write a short analytical essay centering on their duel from the perspective of a spectator.
But actually, she didn't need to reiterate it multiple times. This batch of first-year students was even more enthusiastic about it than she imagined, having long looked forward to the start of the duels.
In the following Magical Beast Studies class.
Professor Nini actually went and caught another Soul-Sucker!
When she pulled that familiar jar out of her "little satchel," the students who had luckily escaped disaster in the last class instantly turned green in the face!
But Professor Nini was still a little smug: "Everyone completed the homework left last week very well. In order to make up for the opportunity missed by some students last week, I... I specially went to the dungeon to catch another Soul-Sucker. The individual size of this one is a bit larger, so it can definitely last a bit longer!"
Then, without waiting for the students to "applaud and celebrate," she opened a crack in the jar's lid, slipped in two fingers, and pinched out a live Soul-Sucker!
As soon as this Soul-Sucker came out, it inhaled sharply. Its body instantly expanded to two meters high. Its ghost-like body emitted gray smoke, and the three black holes on its twisted face were pitch-black and profound.
Compared to the previous Soul-Sucker that was about a meter high, it was far more than just "a bit larger."
"Woo!"
The Soul-Sucker revealed its ferocity, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, emitting a howling sound like a ghost weeping.
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