Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 275: Gambling

After the third monthly examination ended, everyone once again threw themselves into their studies. The final appointment of the class monitors did not cause too much shock, since everyone had been the acting class monitors beforehand. The only exception was Han Manman, who was still stuck as an acting class monitor.

Xiao Lin’s appointment being official was a matter of course. Right now, no one treated him like the trash that had the lowest attribute scores in the entrance exams anymore. Even as he walked around, strangers would often greet Xiao Lin as ‘Monitor Xiao.’

The few monitors that had seldom interacted with him now sought him out for conversation frequently as well, acting like old friends. Within Class Seven, any voices of opposition to him had been crushed. Even the ever antagonistic Wang Dalin had resigned himself to his own devices, avoiding Xiao Lin every time they met.

This led to Xiao Lin feeling the real weight behind having actual power. Now, everyone viewed him as an official monitor, with the appropriate power to back it.

However, to Xiao Lin his skill was still far from enough. His current goal was to reach the Black Iron-rank as soon as possible. Commander Yu Mei from the sixth regiment’s sudden visit with the dean’s letter of appointment caused Xiao Lin a great level of nervousness.

The dean knew he had an SS-rank talent, on par with Ivan and Lilith who the Judge Academy threw their complete support behind. Naturally, the dean would emphasize Xiao Lin’s growth.

However, no matter what, giving Xiao Lin the rank of a captain should not be part of that growth. The only explanation was that the dean was under an immense amount of pressure which led him to make that decision.

What kind of pressure was that?

After the conclusion of the examination evaluation, Xiao Lin went back to the dormitories and thought for a long time. He felt it could only mean war–a war with Planet Norma. The dean possibly had this possibility in mind the moment he heard about the high priest’s return to Planet Norma.

Xiao Lin’s attributes were currently at 14 Strength, 16 Agility, 15 Intelligence, and 16 Physique. Compared to before the examination, it was a huge boost.

Black Iron-rank needed his total attribute score to be at 100 points. Xiao Lin’s attribute scores totalled to 61, which meant he was not far away from that rank. The other monitors were also around that level.

Even if the academy only required the students to reach Black Iron-rank to get to the second year, as monitors, they could not afford to have that minimum requirement as their goal.

As for the selection for the year leader, the student union had yet to release any information regarding that. It seemed like it would not be released in the short time either, leading to some competitive thoughts from the class monitors.

The discussions regarding the monthly examination on the new student forums started to fade. Most of the students were quite satisfied with the results, the ones who lived to the end having earned at least over a thousand redemption points, which meant the topic was not brought up too much.

During that time period, more and more threads regarding reaching the Black Iron-rank started to surface. When the discussions started to get more and more intense, someone actually opened a gambling pool with the twelve class monitors, including Han Manman, who was still an acting class monitor in it. The gambling pool was on who would get to the Black Iron-rank first.

In just a short two- to three-day span, more and more people joined in on the thread. The new students only numbered in the hundreds, but the replies on the thread had exceeded two thousand. Xiao Lin spared the thread a few glances. Various replies dissected everything to the most detailed of points, leading him to believe those students had too much free time on their hands.

However, the matter did not end there. It might have been because of the lack of entertainment in the academy, but many students were way too engaged in the topic during their free time, which led to the gambling being increasingly higher stakes, even escalating to putting redemption points on the line.

The academy was quite generous in that aspect, not placing any restrictions on the students. There were even functions on the forums that assisted that, allowing the students to deposit the redemption points they were gambling within the academy before allocating it accordingly after, but no one had noticed that function before the gamble started.

The students everyone focused on numbered to 20. Other than the 12 class monitors, Class Seven’s Gu Xiaoyue and various other students with high attributes were thrown into the mix. As for the stakes, after a large amount of discussion, the person who started the gamble determined it.

The lowest returns were Chen Dao, who had only a 1.5 rate of return. That meant that every 1 redemption point a student gambled on him, they would only get 1.5 in return. Chen Dao was considered the freshman with the highest total attributes, which meant he was the hot favourite to win, leading to lower returns. Quite a lot of students had put their money on him, occupying a third of the freshmen.

Cheng Ming followed closely behind, having a payoff of double, while Gu Xiaoyue’s was triple. Even if her intelligence score was incomparable, her other attributes were way too average, or even weak. However, she was still one of the favourites, and those that followed behind had greater and greater odds, but fewer and fewer students who gambled on them.

There might have been twenty students in the running, but everyone was very clear that there were no shortcuts to increasing their attributes. It was only through hard work and continuous training that they could accomplish it. Any difference in their basic foundations was enough to be insurmountable odds, which led everyone to believe that the final victor could only be from the few with the lowest returns.

However, some monitors were not willing to disclose their current attribute scores, including Xiao Lin. Those monitors had odds that were only based on speculation by everyone, which was why Xiao Lin was among those with the highest payouts, even if he was not the highest.

Everyone had recognized that Xiao Lin had the capabilities to be a monitor, but they still felt that Xiao Lin lost out to Cheng Ming, Chen Dao, and the others. Other than a few of the loyal Class Seven supporters, no one really felt like he could be the first to reach the Black Iron-rank.

In one short week, a large gambling pool had formed among the freshmen. Xiao Lin did not have too much interest in it, since he was not lacking in redemption points. The gambling pool did not offer much to gain either, since it was opened up by a few students working together. It was not possible that they had that many redemption points to spare.

However, the night after a week, Song Junlang suddenly gave him a call, earnestly asking him what his total attribute score was.

Xiao Lin trusted Song Junlang quite a bit, and so did not want to hide much from him. However, as he was about to answer, he seemed to have recalled something and asked curiously, “Department Head Song, don’t tell me you’ve decided to enter our year’s gambling pool.”

Song Junlang nodded immediately, saying excitedly, “It’s not just your year who’s in the pool now. Don’t you know? After the academy magazine published the news two days ago, a lot of higher year students, even the research students, have started to participate.”