Jia Xiu, God of Written Exams

The last day before the exam.

Jia Xiu chose not to go sightseeing around Larven. Though he was confident in the written exam, he still had to show it some respect.

So, he planned to spend this last bit of time reviewing his mistakes and working through two practice papers.

Thus, Jia Xiu brought his mistake notebook and the last two papers to the inn's first-floor lobby.

As for why he had to come to the lobby—

It was not because he enjoyed showing off in public. Rather, the inn provided examinees with free snacks, fruit, and drinks in the lobby.

This city treated examinees exceptionally well.

Larven's entrance written exams lasted for a week. Every day, many different schools held their written exams, making it convenient for apprentices to apply to multiple academies. That way, if they failed one, they would not lose an entire year.

During this week, as long as one was an examinee, they received priority for carriages, lodging discounts, and free food or stationery in quite a few places.

If Jia Xiu had been a child, he would have been too embarrassed to take much from an event giving things away for free.

But now?

He ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate!

Jia Xiu piled two large plates with fruit, took some jerky of unknown meat, candy, and a cup each of coffee, tea, and milk.

What surprised him, however, was that they even provided alcohol.

What kind of savage move was serving alcohol to examinees before an exam?

Larven's local customs were rather fierce.

Jia Xiu returned to his seat, wolfing down food while reviewing his mistakes.

Bubu sat across from him, reading the knight novel Jia Xiu had borrowed for it from the library.

This alone showed the difference between a big city and a small place. Creekwood Town could barely turn up a few popular novels because hardly anyone there could read.

In truth, Bubu did not know many characters either, but knight novels were too tempting for it. It even held a dictionary as it looked up words while reading.

Since everyone staying at this inn was an examinee, quite a few students were seated in the lobby, making their final push in review.

The scratch of pen tips writing across paper rang out without end.

"You're still studying?"

Suddenly, a smug, obnoxious voice rang out.

Jia Xiu looked up. It was a short girl wearing brownish-green leather armor and a distinctive wood-carved pendant.

She was probably a druid.

Her voice was shrill, somewhat like a comedic cartoon character.

"Your purity is far too low!

"True powerhouses never review. They rely only on talent. For powerhouses like me, once I open a book, the knowledge imprints itself in my mind. What difference is there between taking an exam and cheating?

"If I reviewed as well, it would simply be unfair to all of you. So go on, chase after me in panic. This is my mercy toward you talentless weaklings."

With that, she turned and left.

The students throughout the lobby were stunned. Everyone was completely baffled by the scene.

An eerie, awkward silence lingered for a long time.

Bubu was the first to break it.

Others might have been intimidated by that somewhat unhinged speech, but Bubu did not care about any of that.

"Boss, is there something wrong with her?"

"Maybe she really does have a lot of purity."

Jia Xiu thought for a moment before answering...

The day passed quickly. Saint Delro Academy's written exam was held on the first day of Larven's exam week.

The exam was not held within Saint Delro itself, but spread across several schools throughout the city.

That was because there were too many applicants. As one of the best academies in the city, Saint Delro attracted countless apprentices who came by reputation. Even if they could not get in, they still wanted to experience it for themselves.

Moreover, Saint Delro's exam was exceptionally difficult. If one came without expecting to pass and merely treated it as an experience, taking other academy exams afterward would feel much easier.

This had become one of Larven's famous exam strategies.

Thus, although Saint Delro admitted only five or six hundred students each year, it often had more than ten thousand applicants. It could only borrow other schools as examination sites.

"Exam room number 1327..."

Jia Xiu searched through the enormous academy for quite some time before finally finding his exam room.

Along the way, he encountered several people who had gone to the wrong test site, forgotten their identification, or forgotten their exam permits.

He guessed that once the exam began, there would also be a few late arrivals.

It was quite strange. No matter how important the exam, there would always be a few NPCs like that.

Perhaps this was also one of the thresholds exams used to filter people out.

There were no human invigilators in the exam room. Several Eyes of Detection maintained order instead.

The papers had already been placed on the desks, sealed with protective spells that would unlock at a set time.

The academy was not worried that anyone might undo the spells and obtain the papers early.

Even if an examinee truly managed to unlock them, that would be even better. At that level, they would be qualified for special admission.

Second by second, time passed. Finally, the official exam time arrived.

The papers were unsealed. Following his usual habit, Jia Xiu first flipped through them to see what kinds of questions there were. Nothing seemed particularly strange.

He picked up his pen and began answering.

Half an hour later, only one-sixth of the exam time had passed, yet Jia Xiu had already completed most of the paper.

He felt something strange now.

It was not that he could not answer the questions. Rather, the questions themselves were odd. They differed from the material he had prepared for. The farther he went, the greater the proportion of mathematical calculations became.

Though he did not know why Saint Delro had suddenly changed its questions this year, it was absolutely good news for Jia Xiu.

He had only studied magic for a little over two years.

But mathematics had truly accompanied him throughout his entire academic career.

"Given the definition, when the independent variable x of the function y=f(x) undergoes an increment at a point x0..."

Jia Xiu read through an extremely long problem statement.

There were even questions involving new definitions. Was this... derivatives?

The mathematical difficulty of this paper had already reached the peak of the high school realm, approaching the higher mathematics realm?

As a former PhD in the sciences, the closer it got to higher mathematics, the closer it came to Jia Xiu's familiar territory. Those elementary-school olympiad-style brain teasers, on the other hand, were more likely to stump him.

The more Jia Xiu wrote, the smoother it became. He even smiled as he answered.

Meanwhile, in Saint Delro's examination affairs office.

Margaret anxiously picked at her fingers. As one of the invigilators, she had already received the exam paper for this session.

Their invigilation duties were not particularly demanding. The Eyes of Detection would track unusual behavior from examinees, and whenever an alert appeared, they only needed to verify it manually. They did not even need to go to the exam rooms; all their work could be done from the office.

Thus, Margaret had time to look over the paper.

It would have been better if she had not looked. Once she did, she could not help worrying for Jia Xiu.

Why were there so many math problems this time? Although studying magic required some mathematical ability, was this not asking for a bit too much?

Not only were there many, they were difficult. She did not even understand the final question.

The preparatory materials she had sent Jia Xiu did not place much emphasis on mathematics. And Jia Xiu was a warlock from some small place—where would he have found the means to study mathematics?

She had finally found a promising prospect. What if he failed the exam?

While she fretted, the door to the invigilation room was abruptly pushed open.

The newcomer was Piyede, the head of the question-setting team: a grand mage who specialized in divination magic, minored in enchanting, and loved mathematics.

"How are the examinees doing?"

His tone carried obvious smugness.

Clearly, he knew exactly how difficult the questions he had created were, and he was more than happy to watch the examinees suffer.

He looked toward the images provided by the Eyes of Detection.

"Tsk, tsk, things aren't going very smoothly, are they? What a shame."

Though he said that, there was not the slightest hint of regret in his voice.

"Team leader, weren't this time's questions a little too difficult?"

Margaret asked softly.

"Wasn't this the dean's intention? Several people got perfect scores on the last entrance written exam, and there were quite a few high scores as well. It could not serve to select the most outstanding talents, so this time I added a great deal of mathematical content. After all, the relationship between mathematics and magic is destined to grow ever closer."

Margaret's doubts about the difficulty made Piyede feel like a chef who had finally encountered a diner who appreciated his cooking.

The more he spoke, the more excited he became.

"Especially the last few questions. They incorporate my latest findings on the rate at which functions change near a certain point. Absolutely cutting-edge. No one could have predicted them. The most special of them all is the final question. Ah, the pinnacle of my current research—I call it Piyede's Lemma. It is so beautiful. There is no way anyone can prove it in just three hours. If someone does prove it, then I'll..."

Before he could finish, one of the invigilator mages said, "Team leader, an examinee has handed in his paper. His name is Jia Xiu."