Before Luna could answer, Sophia finally came out of the exit with a minute remaining on the clock.
Unlike most people in the class, her clothes were completely unscratched. It was almost as if she had just gone inside for a walk.
"Sophia! What did you get?" Mary excitedly asked as the entire group followed right behind.
"Just 82, 82, 80, 80... What did you all get?" Sophia curiously asked as she gently patted Mary's head.
"40, 40, 40, 90," Camille replied first.
"70, 60, 80, 80," Evelynn replied next.
"78, 78, 40, 70," Luna replied after.
"95, 95, 100, 100," Chloe replied last.
"Two 100? How did you get such a high score?"
Sophia asked as the group looked just as shocked as she did. Even the nearby classmates who overheard the conversation were shocked.
"I'm already at the edge of mage level two," Chloe quietly replied.
"Elves really do just have——"
Before Evelyn could finish talking, Miss Amy's voice interrupted with an announcement as she stood up on a nearby bench.
"Ahem, everyone, please get up from your seats. We're going back to class now."
---
"Hey Mary, I forgot to ask this earlier. What score did you get?" Sophia curiously asked as they returned to the school hallway.
"80, 80, 80.... And 50." Mary shyly replied as she whispered the last part, her face looking a little embarrassed after hearing everyone else's score.
"Nice, that's a pretty good score. How about you, Alex?" Sophia asked next.
"Just 70, 63, 80, 10."
The moment Alex said out his score, he could notice several of his nearby classmates all turning around to look towards him.
"Oh."
Before Sophia could think of a way to comfort Alex, Camille decided to add her own comment on the score.
"10? How did you get so low——"
"Camille, shut the hell up before I smack you in the head." Evelyn threatened as she raised her hand.
"Sorry. My bad. I didn't mean to be rude."
"It's fine. I know I'm not built for a mage. I'm just enjoying my time learning and being in school now."
Seeing Alex so chill about the low score, rather than being upset or throwing a fit, both Evelyn and Luna were taken aback by it.
"That's not bad. It's still better than Camille's atrocious spell score... You wouldn't believe how she beat the golem——"
"Shut up! I don't want to hear it!"
Camille tried to cover Evelyn's mouth, but it was far too late as Luna continued with what her sister had started.
"Sister Camille just flat-out beat the golem with her punches and kicks. Would you believe that?"
"Are you serious?" Sophia asked, with Alex and Mary both unable to look at Camille the same way.
With Luna and Evelyn both nodding their heads, Camille quickly covered her own face in embrassment as their nearby classmate turned around.
No one dared to poke fun at her at all, as the muscle on her body was just too big to ignore, except for her three friends, who couldn't hold in their laughter.
"Evelyn! Luna! You dummy! You promised me you were going to keep this a secret!"
Camille questioned in anger as her bunny ear pointed towards the ceiling, walking forward with her hands still covering her face.
"Too bad... Perhaps you should have been more respectful to others first." Evelyn smirked as everyone's attention shifted away from Alex.
---
When the class finally arrived back in the classroom, Miss Amy wrote out four names on the board.
"Chloe, Sophia, Alex, and Bob, can you please come up to the front?"
All four of them quickly got up and walked in front, with Bob being the only one who looked a little nervous.
"First, let's get a round of applause for Chloe for getting the highest score among all freshmen."
Everyone in the class started clapping until Miss Amy moved on to the next person.
"Next, let's give Sophia a round of applause for performing way above expectations. She had managed to score fifth highest in the class despite recently joining the school."
After a short clap, Miss Amy sent the two of them back down, turning her attention over to Alex and Bob.
"Now you two... Bob, you're the only one in the class who didn't beat the golem. Can you elaborate to the class on what happened?"
Bob stood still, shyly looking at the ground as if he were a little ashamed of himself. It was clear he didn't want to mention the reason why.
"Bob, take a seat."
With him sitting back into his original seat at the left center, Miss Amy took out a small video keycard.
As she snapped her finger, the video keycard expanded to the entire board, allowing everyone to see what happened.
"Everyone. Please remember never to put your faith in your spell blindly. This is a perfect example of overconfidence."
In the video, everyone in the class could see Bob casting a massive fireball as the golem approached closer and closer.
Just as it reached within ten steps, the fireball was finally launched, causing a massive explosion along with dust storms as he stood still.
When the dust finally settled, the golem's hand was already in the air, smashing right down towards Bob's face.
"Bob, do you see your mistake this time?"
"Yes, ma'am..."
Seeing Bob nodding in acknowledgment, Miss Amy took down the video card before turning her attention to the last person standing up in the front.
"Alex... Ahem, I want everyone to tell me what Alex did wrong in the upcoming footage."
As she pulled out another video keycard, they could all see Alex on the board, confronting the golem in front of him.
The video started playing as it showed Alex's first few waves of the spell failed, with barely any impact on the golem.
Everyone in the class looked a little confused, but they all remained silent as they watched Alex start to run away.
After creating enough safe distance, the class was caught off guard by his strategy of using water and ice to freeze the golem.
But once again, it fails to work as the golem breaks free. It was almost as if the golem Alex was facing was somehow harder than the one they were facing.
Yet, everyone knew it shouldn't be this hard. It was clear that something about his spell was being cast way too slowly and way too weakly.
A sense of despair began to set in as they watched Alex run away once again, like a mouse running away from a cat.
However, the class was caught off guard by the next strategy. A hole began to appear in front of him, seemingly for no reason.
With the perfect gamble, the golem managed to get perfectly stuck into the hole, slowly being killed by the slow and steady wind-blade.
"Now, does anyone know why he did wrong?"
Everyone fell into silence as they couldn't understand why beating the golem was considered 'wrong.'
"All of you might think Alex was creative with his way of defeating the golem... This is, quite frankly, an appraisal-worthy way that most people here wouldn't think of."
Everyone in the class nodded in agreement, but all four of Sophia's friends and his two sisters were confused, as they all remembered his score.
"Before you all start clapping for him. I want to tell you that what he had done is completely wrong."
The entire class fell into silence, with Alex's face starting to look a little red, as if he already knew what he had done wrong.
"Even though he beat the golem faster than most people, he got a score of 10... The lowest possible other than Bob."
The entire class fell into shock, unable to understand why the low score was given, considering the level of strategy he had used.
"Let me remind you all that the whole point of this first challenge was a test of the user's mana capability and their spell casting.
It is not to test whether you are smart or not. His failure to beat the golem upfront is a critical error he had made."
As Miss Amy paused for a second, Alex could feel everyone seemingly agreeing with her point.
"Remember, you all are only at mage level one. There's no point in having a strategy if you don't focus on raising your mana first.
Creative strategy is irrelevant against a higher-level mage... Now, Alex, do you understand why you got such a low point?"
Hearing Miss Amy's explanation, Alex silently nodded as she had pointed out the biggest problem he faced.
He just needed to raise mana first and foremost, considering his first few waves of spells that should have done big damage to the golem.
But the lack of mana had made him look for an alternative during the combat. Like the ball of fire was a budget fireball with no earth element to serve as a core.
"You can go back to your seat now... Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Justin, a professor had accepted your project, you may go to the Engineering class now."
"Thank you, ma'am."
Justin quickly packed up everything and left the class, leaving an empty seat in the front as Miss Amy looked over to the back.
"Chloe, can you sit in the front with Alex? Justin is not going to come back to this class anymore."
Chloe nodded in agreement as she quickly packed her stuff before moving to the front, sitting next to Alex.
"Hi, Chloe."
"Hi, Alex."
As the two awkwardly waved at each other, Miss Amy resumed the class back into its regular schedule.
---
For the rest of the week, Miss Amy was explaining the textbook material and showcasing different kinds of magic.
They finally moved on to the second chapter, where they learned about advanced elemental formations or sub-elements.
There were hundreds of thousands of sub-elements, from forming ice with water and wind to forming metal with earth and fire.
Most of them were locked behind mage level three as they required much more mana to form than basic spells.
Other than magic, the second chapter also introduced literature and languages. Or, in other words, the English and history lessons of this world.
Within a day, everyone was already bored. The person who was interested in the lesson was Alex, who wanted to learn more about this world.
Unfortunately, Miss Amy soon noticed how bored everyone looked, so she quickly shifted to add more about the history of magic instead.
Still, she couldn't improve people's interest in the lesson that much since she still had to follow the curriculum from the textbook.
Everyone couldn't care less about how the formation of the Empire of Exia led to the creation of space as a sub-element.
Space element was completely off-limits until mage level 5. In other words, they were learning things that had no use other than for the sake of knowing them.
What's worse is the fact that Miss Amy was making people write essays reflecting on whether a certain historical figure did the right thing or not.
Everyone was just bored out of their mind as they couldn't wait for the weekend to arrive and end the torture lessons.
----
When the weekend finally arrived, Katherine's plan to go outside was ruined again as both Alex and Sophia were hit hard by their period.
The three of them opted to meditate at home, increasing their mana and reading the third chapter in the textbook.
Soon, with the weekend gone, they were finally out of the boring, repetitive class as Miss Amy once again brought them to the Arena.
The class was put into another similar test, albeit with a light and dark elements test, and a much faster golem that ran after you.
Everyone failed just as Miss Amy predicted. The only exception was Chloe, who barely passed with a score of 60.
It sent an alarm down everyone's mind, making them realize the class wasn't just as easy as they imagined, as they redoubled their effort in the class.
Even in the boring literature and History class, they were still paying attention to Miss Amy's lecture.
Soon, time flew by as Alex and his two sisters' first month at school came to a close.
---
"Next week is the three-day weekend. Where do you guys want to go?" Katherine curiously asked as she checked the calendar.
"Stay home." All three of them replied at the same time.
"Come on, you guys really want just to meditate all day?' Katherine asked impatiently, her face looking a little bored as she sat down on the sofa.
"Our teacher said the most important thing for a mage is to increase their mana by meditating," Sophia argued.
"That's nonsense. You can't just meditate all day. You're going to get burnt out, and your brain is going to be drained of energy."
Seeing that none of them wanted to listen to her, Katherine rolled over to the side as she looked over to her daughters in frustration.
"Come on, is it that hard to go out with your mother? Sophia and Mary, weren't you the two who always wanted to explore the capital?"
"After this test, we'll go, Mom... We just need to focus on this test first." Sophia replied without even looking back.
"Whatever... You three are coming with me to your grandparents' house in December, by the way."
"Wait, why?" Alex curiously asked as he put down his textbook to look back at Katherine.
"It's winter break... And your grandparents wanted to see you guys back home in their hometown."
The three of them didn't argue back and accepted it peacefully, which made her a little more annoyed.
"Next week, you all are coming with me to go camping. I don't care what your excuses are."
"What? I was planning to meet with Evelyn to study." Sophia argued.
"Me too! I was planning to go play——I mean study with Luna!" Mary added.
"Too bad. Am I your mom or not?" Katherine questioned as she didn't give them any room to negotiate.
"Boo!"
As both girls booed her, Katherine ignored it and turned her attention over to Alex, who resumed reading the textbook in silence again.
"Hey Alex, you don't mind going camping, right?"
"Um, I mean, I don't mind it... Yeah."
Alex wanted to say no, but seeing Katherine's threatening face, he backed down at the very last second.
"Two against two. I'm the tiebreaker, so it's decided. We're going to camp for a day next weekend."
As Katherine marked it on the calendar, all three of the kids let out a sigh of disappointment.