Chapter 7: Another Exam Begins
Chapter 7:
Another Exam Begins
THE NEXT MORNING, I hugged my mother and Alice like I always did and my father pouted, whining that it was misandry not to include him. It wasn’t much, but I did earn some LP from these daily habits. Unfortunately, repeating actions didn’t earn additional LP; I had to wait a bit for them to be effective again. It seemed to vary depending on the action, but hugs appeared to work about once a day.
<Noir, do you think it would work across species barriers?> Tigerson asked.
“I kinda doubt it. Plus, you’re a male, aren’t you?”
<Indeed. Although, I am unsure whether my species has females. I have been alone as long as I can remember.>
If he’d been alone for hundreds of years, it was no wonder he was so eager to make friends.
“That reminds me,” I said. “Do you have any special skills? I can see other people’s abilities with my Discerning Eye, but it doesn’t seem to work on you.”
<I would not know myself.>
“Huh.”
I decided to call upon the Great Sage. In days past, using the skill would unerringly give me an unbearable headache, but I’d given myself Headache Immunity, so a few questions weren’t an issue. Of course, I had to take care not to ask too many, or anything especially complicated.
Oh, Great Sage, is there a skill that blocks Discerning Eye?
<There is a Conceal skill.>
Well, that was annoying. Without Discerning Eye, I couldn’t use my Editor skill, either. I probably needed to train in case I ever encountered an enemy with a similar feature.
Emma was at the front door to walk with me to the academy, so I wolfed down my breakfast and headed out to meet her.
“Good morning, Noir!”
“Morning, Emma! You look as powerful as ever today.”
“What do you think you’re looking at, perv boy?”
Sorry, Emma. Despite my misbehavior, she immediately greeted me with a hug. She understood that it would help me earn LP, so I was grateful. But…there were a lot of people walking by that morning.
“I appreciate it, Emma, but I got the LP, so you can let go.”
“Oh? Are you sure you don’t need a little more?”
“Look, I’m a little embarrassed. Everyone’s looking at us.”
“Fine, then. Let’s get going.”
With that, we walked to the academy together as always. At the entrance, we met the duke’s daughter, Maria, and her retainer, Amane.
“How do you do, Mr. Noir.”
“Good morning,” I replied. “The two of you certainly stand out when you’re together.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, you’re both so beautiful, you naturally attract attention.”
Emma jabbed me with her elbow. “Isn’t it a little early to be trying to pick up chicks? Not a great look, Noir.”
“Oh come on, I wasn’t trying to do that…”
“He he, I see the two of you are close as ever,” said Maria.
She didn’t mean anything mean by that remark, so I forced a smile. I wasn’t entirely sure why I felt so embarrassed. Anyway, the next thing she said blew all of that away.
“Exams start today. I’m sure the two of you will have no trouble.”
It hadn’t been long since we were accepted into the academy, but apparently it was already time for exams. According to Maria, these were long-term tests. We’d be getting details from our homeroom teacher, Ms. Elena.
“Oh, I just remembered! Ms. Elena needs me for something! Talk to you later!” I rushed to the teacher’s lounge.
When I got there, Ms. Elena was sitting in a chair, cracking her stiff shoulders. “You’re late, Noir. How long did you intend to keep me waiting?”
“Sorry, it just totally slipped my mind.”
“I’ll forgive you, since you admitted it. Now hurry it up.”
“Is this good?” I started rubbing her shoulders. I had a Shoulder Rub skill now, and I knew just which spots to hit. As I got to work, her mood steadily improved and she relaxed under my hands. “By the way, Ms. Elena, I heard we have exams?”
“You do. But I can’t tell you what’s on them yet.”
“Oh…”
No matter how many shoulder rubs I gave her, she refused to give me preferential treatment. That said, I wasn’t exactly doing this for free.
“Ms. Elena, I think you owe me a hug about now.”
“Oh, right. C’mere.”
We ducked into a more private room, where she gave me a hug. There wasn’t anything indecent about it, per se, but it seemed a little inappropriate for a teacher and student to do something like that too brazenly. I got my LP from the encounter and we headed to the classroom separately.
In homeroom, everyone was chattering about the upcoming exam. The students were filled with dread, though some were excited for it, too. Apparently, there was some kind of special prize for the people with the best scores.
“All right, quiet down. Before class starts, I’m gonna explain the exam,” Ms. Elena said. “This’ll be your first exam since entering the academy. We conduct these tests in a variety of formats, but this one will be similar to your entrance exam. It’ll have a big impact on your first trimester grades.”
The school year at the Hero Academy was split into three trimesters, the first from spring to summer, the second from fall to winter, and the third from winter to spring.
“The exam starts today and ends in one month. You must submit monster materials at the end of it. However, the required materials have been predetermined by the academy.”
Ms. Elena went on to explain the details. There were three types of applicable materials:
1. Red Lizardman Tail (3,500 points per tail)
2. Unicorn Horn (50,000 points per horn)
3. Any Dragon Fang (300,000 points per fang, up to two per student)
Like the entrance exam, there were no restrictions on how the materials were obtained. Teams were permissible, but each member would be scored individually and points would be evenly split.
The grading scale was as follows:
0–4,999 Points: Fail out of S-Class
5,000–9,999 Points: Required to attend full days at summer school
10,000–99,999 Points: Required to attend half days at summer school
100,000+ Points: No summer school required
The top scorer would also get a special prize from the school.
“The path to becoming a hero isn’t easy. You must remain steadfast, but you mustn’t overextend yourself. If I’m being honest, option three is out of the question for you lot, but I wish you all good luck.”
Everyone wore a look of quiet determination. After all, you needed at least two lizardman tails to stay in S-Class. But me? I was going to do my damnedest to try for the 100,000 points.
***
After class, Emma and I headed for the guild hall to meet up with Luna. The three of us were going adventuring together.
“Hey, Noir, let’s team up to earn points for the exam!” said Emma.
“Yeah, I was just about to suggest that.”
“I wonder if Luna will help. All the items are pretty valuable. They’re infamous for selling out the second they come on the market.”
So in other words, unlike in the entrance exam, no one was going to be able to buy their way to passing. Plus, even the low-scoring red lizardmen were pretty rare.
“How much are you going for, Emma?”
“We should both try for 100,000. That way we can do whatever we want over summer break!”
“That’d be ideal. But I think there’s a bit of a problem…”
We’d need to take out monsters like dragons and unicorns to pull that off, and that was going to be difficult with our current abilities.
All thoughts of exams poofed out of our heads once we set foot inside the Odin guild hall.
“Let me go! Let me go, Luna!”
“Calm down, Lola! Violence is not the answer!”
“Oh yeah? Then maybe that idiot shouldn’t have asked for a punch in the teeth!”
We were met with an extremely provocative sight. Lola was red in the face as Luna desperately attempted to restrain her. It looked like she was ready to throw down with another receptionist.
Emma and I exchanged looks and dashed over.
