Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 377: Preparing For The Tests

Xiao Lin’s mood was obviously bad after reading the news. He even had an urge to go confront the dean for information. However, he quickly composed himself. The dean was in the New World. Whether he would meet Xiao Lin or if he even could was something Xiao Lin did not know.

Just like what Yu Mei had said to Xiao Lin, with Xiao Lin’s current level, stepping into the conflict between the upper levels of the academy was still too early. He did not have the strength to do so.

Yu Mei sending him back like that was to protect him. Xiao Lin finally sighed, composing himself as he continued to read the news.

The Dawn Academy Evening News was always split into two sections: the New World section and the Academy section. The New World was undoubtedly filled with news about the attempt on the dean, while the internal academy section’s biggest topic behind the dean was the Inter-academy Tournament.

Xiao Lin was familiar with that. He had already heard about the tournament held by all the academies from An Fumin and Song Junlang; it was considered a clash of power between all the academies.

The Inter-academy Tournament was only half a year away, so Dawn Academy had naturally already started their selection process. The selection process was different in every academy, and Dawn Academy used voluntary sign-ups, nominations by teachers, and achievements in battle as the three primary selection criteria.

There would be six representatives chosen from the first years. Even though monitors were normally considered stronger than other students, they would still have to eliminate half of the twelve monitors. The academy also hoped that everyone would get an equal opportunity, which was why they also put voluntary sign-ups and achievements in battle into consideration.

Xiao Lin looked at the deadline for signing up and realized that the deadline was in three days. He was shocked, and silently thankful that he returned right on time. If he had any doubts about it when Song Junlang and An Fumin brought it up, he was currently certain that he needed to sign up for the tournament now.

Returning to his room and switching on his computer, he filled up his information for the sign-ups, but the moment he tried to submit it the system told him he had already been nominated and therefore did not need to register. Xiao Lin was shocked. He now understood what it meant by nominations by teachers. He had not been in the academy recently, and the academy obviously did not wish for their overall strength to drop just because he failed to register.

In truth, all twelve of the class monitors were automatically nominated, and none of them could reject it. The academy took a firm stance with that, signifying how important the Inter-academy Tournament was.

After resolving it, he then used his privilege as a monitor to look at his class information. The first thing he did was look at Gu Xiaoyue. Just as he expected, the girl had also reached Black Iron-rank. She was also nominated for the Inter-academy Tournament, making her the only one who was nominated that was not a class monitor.

Even though he missed the last monthly examination, Xiao Lin still checked everyone else’s results. From the forth examination onward, the monthly examinations were usually on a moderate difficulty–not too difficult, but not too easy. The fourth examination saw Class Seven’s results in the middle of the pack. Other than Gu Xiaoyue, Zhou Feng and a few others obtaining A-grades, most of them maintained Bs or Cs.

Glancing over the forum discussions about the monthly examination was sparse. Everyone had already turned their attention to the Inter-academy tournament. It was obvious that almost everyone was very interested in it. Other than the monitors, those who wanted to participate all registered themselves, even though a lot of them knew their chances were miniscule.

The Inter-academy Tournament was an honor in the academy. The rewards were naturally never skimped on. Although the academies had yet to announce the prizes, it was without a doubt that it would be generous. It would also be extremely beneficial to have such a tournament within their personal profiles in the future. That was what everyone was going for.

Xiao Lin then looked through the current course schedules. It was already the fifth month since they stepped into the academy. All basic courses had already been concluded. There would be tests for various subjects at the end of the month, and the tests would be used to calculate their credits. Those who failed would not be able to gain any credits, and those without sufficient credits would not be able to advance their years.

Basically every year had students that were held back, and the numbers were not small, especially among the first years. Even if the school had quite relaxed criterias for advancing grades, there would still be a group held back every year. Those that were held back would not be treated as regular students.

They would not need to attend classes on the same schedule as regular classes, so they could be said to have a great degree of freedom, which was why Xiao Lin rarely met any of them. However, they also faced a lot of pressure, since those who were held back needed to pay certain fees in compensation. If they still could not pass after a period of time, they would possibly be expelled back to Earth or be assigned to the branches on Earth, never able to head to the New World.

What surprised Xiao Lin was that there were even repeat students who registered for the Inter-academy tournaments. Even though they had low potential, they still had an extra year of study under their belts, giving them more combat experience. To a certain degree, it showed that the twelve monitors were not a shoe-in to be selected.

“It looks like I’ll need to make sure I pass my tests first.” Since graduating from university, tests had been a foreign concept to him. Xiao Lin had never been very good at tests either. He was originally not too worried, but thinking about it, he might be absolutely confident in anything to do with combat. Things like Normese history, the Normese language and Normese geography all needed to be tested on paper, which were still a problem for Xiao Lin.

Thinking about it, Xiao Lin immediately gave Gu Xiaoyue a call. He believed that the girl who diligently took down notes every class would be able to help him. Regretfully, his call was hung up on before it even went through. He called a few more times in disbelief, but was hung up on every time.

After a few minutes, Xiao Lin received a message. ‘I’m studying in a classroom. It’s not convenient for me to answer the phone.’

The corner of Xiao Lin’s mouth twitched. It was the weekend, so there were no classes. A good student like Gu Xiaoyue would naturally not waste any time and study by herself. He understood that much, but the girl could absolutely have gone out of the classroom to answer the phone. She obviously just did not want to answer his call.

Xiao Lin was speechless for a moment before replying her message with ‘Which classroom are you in? I’ll look for you.’

‘…’ Gu Xiaoyue replied with some ellipses.

Xiao Lin continued to reply. ‘Hurry and tell me! Otherwise, I’ll look for you in every classroom!’

‘…’ She replied with ellipses once again.

After a few minutes, Gu Xiaoyue finally replied with a few words. ‘Classroom Four, Area A.’

Xiao Lin replied with a smiley face, but Gu Xiaoyue ignored him.