Meeting Regarding Problem Student Jia Xiu

By evening, the wind from the sea had finally swept away some of the heat that had built up in the city.

In a grand seaside villa with a rugged style in the southwest corner of Larven, Thomas enjoyed his exquisite dinner beneath the glow of the sunset.

He raised his glass and took a sip of white wine. Its fresh fruity aroma tasted like victory.

For the final round of examinations, victory was already in his grasp.

By tradition, the final round was not primarily meant to eliminate candidates. After the written examination and Phantom World, fewer than six hundred candidates remained, already very close to the final enrollment quota.

The main purpose of this round was to showcase every candidate's traits, allowing mentors unfamiliar with this year's new students to personally observe their abilities.

Thus, it was also the only one of the three entrance examinations open to the public.

Not only was it open for all teachers to watch, but spectators were welcome as well.

It was therefore an annual spectacle in Larven City.

The details of the examination might change, but the general format remained fixed. Candidates formed teams of three; if an academy could not make up three people, it would provide constructs or golems to fill the spots. They would then challenge a mentor.

Of course, expecting new students who had not even enrolled yet to defeat a mentor was unrealistic. Every mentor would limit the number of spell rings they could use and publicly reveal the spells they would use in the examination beforehand. It was essentially setting a question, giving candidates a few days to devise a response.

As long as they held out for ten minutes, they passed.

The mentors would not strike too hard either. Unless a candidate performed exceptionally poorly, they could generally last ten minutes.

Of course, there were always a few attention-seekers every year.

Unlike being eliminated in the first two rounds, candidates who displayed major problems in this round would inevitably become the city's laughingstock for the following year because of the outside spectators.

As a sorcerer who had inherited the power of a red dragon, Thomas naturally did not need to worry about embarrassing himself in public.

What he needed to consider was how to fight beautifully, how to display his brilliance, and how to become someone the academy's finest mentors would compete to claim.

He would become the target that every young spellcaster in the city envied but could never catch up to.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

Just then, the butler knocked on the door.

"Young Master, there is a letter from Mr. Gudrian."

"Oh? Is that so? Bring it in quickly."

Thomas sounded calm, but inwardly, he was already in turmoil. A letter from Gudrian meant there had been another problem with the final rankings of the second examination.

He opened the letter with feigned composure.

"All batches of the second examination were completed today. The record for the fastest time to reach 30 crowns has been broken by a candidate named Ram, while the highest overall score has been broken by Jia Xiu."

At that point, Thomas clenched the letter into a ball.

Gone. It was all gone. Not a single first-place position was left to him.

Mia earned the most, Ram was the fastest, and Jia Xiu was both the most and the fastest.

Jia Xiu. It was Jia Xiu again.

He had ranked first in the written examination, and now he had ranked first in the second round.

Could he be the first archenemy Thomas would face in his life?

Thomas gave a cold laugh.

"Paper and pen."

He wanted to write back. He wanted to make this Jia Xiu into the joke of the final examination...

Saint Delro Academy, Examination Affairs Center conference room.

All personnel responsible for the entrance examinations, including the mentors who would appear in the final round and Headmaster Nico, who normally would not be present, sat here waiting for the golem to produce the team assignments.

Yes, as the rumors claimed, Saint Delro Academy did indeed use a great number of magical creations during its examinations. Constructs were truly used to grade papers, while a specially made golem was used to assign teams for the final round.

This golem had been created to resolve the disagreements caused by manual grouping in the past.

Each group consisted of three candidates. In theory, there should be one candidate each of high, middle, and low ability, preferably with complementary specialties.

However, every professor had a different understanding of such matters, and there were also plenty of personal connections involved. Manual grouping always took considerable time and still left people dissatisfied.

To solve this problem, the academy had created a golem specifically for grouping. It carried not the slightest emotional bias and grouped candidates entirely according to data.

After nearly an hour of work, the grouping golem finally produced its results.

A long list of team assignments was "spat out" by the golem.

The person in charge of the final examination picked up the list to inspect it.

"Huh?"

The person in charge cried out in surprise.

"Why haven't these three been assigned to a group? There are clearly still two incomplete groups."

This was the first time the golem had encountered such a situation.

"Which three weren't assigned?" Headmaster Nico asked.

"Mia..."

"And Ram and Jia Xiu, right?"

As soon as those three names were spoken, scattered laughter arose throughout the conference room.

The "great reputations" of those three had already spread through Saint Delro's faculty circle and had even begun to spread to other academies.

After all, Saint Delro had never produced candidates this outrageous since its founding. Now it had not only produced them, but produced three at once.

"Yes, Headmaster."

"How about having the golem try grouping the three of them again?"

"All right." The person in charge picked up the three files again and stuffed them into the intake slot at the back of the golem.

The moment it received the files, the golem began working. However, the process was highly abnormal.

Arcs of magical electricity that should not have appeared crackled across the golem's head. Then several wisps of blue smoke rose from it, accompanied by a burnt smell.

Seeing that something was wrong, the person in charge hurriedly tried to stop the golem. This thing was not easy to make; if it burned out in his hands, the professors responsible for crafting magical creations would surely be furious with him.

But before he could stop it, the golem, possessing rudimentary intelligence, chose to "save itself."

It directly vomited out the three files, spraying them far away. Though it had no expression, it somehow seemed as though it utterly despised those three files.

Headmaster Nico stroked his noticeably thinning beard.

The golem going on strike was entirely understandable. Who could possibly figure out those three?

The person in charge asked, "Headmaster, then how should we handle these three?"

Smoke began rising from Headmaster Nico's head as well.

The little old man's central processor was running at high speed.

Finally, he said, "Forget it. Put the three of them in one group. Their styles are so uniform that it would be a shame not to group them together. But there is still one problem."

"Please tell us, Headmaster."

"Who will be responsible for the three of them in the final examination? Anyone willing to volunteer?"

The moment he said this, the conference room fell silent.

Candidates feared embarrassing themselves under the spectators' eyes, but mentors feared it even more.

At most, a candidate who embarrassed themselves would be laughed at for a year. A mentor who embarrassed themselves would be laughed at for a lifetime.

Simulated combat with candidates was manageable whether the candidates were strong or weak. What they feared were the ones whose thoughts they could not fathom.

Who knew what Jia Xiu and his little companions might do in the examination arena? If they pulled off another huge stunt, it had not been easy for a mentor to build up a reputation. By then, it would all be over.

"Is no one really volunteering? This is an excellent opportunity. Aren't you tempted by a genius youth like Jia Xiu? Take this chance to get to know him. If no one volunteers, I'll draw lots." Headmaster Nico urged.

"I'll do it."

A voice came from the corner.

Headmaster Nico stood on tiptoe to look over. "Ha, Teacher Gudrian. Thank you, you've been a tremendous help. You'll be in charge of Jia Xiu and the others' examination, then. Good luck."