<206 - The Last Midterm Exam>
Contrary to my anxiety, Professor Bronze’s midterm exam was surprisingly easy.
“Where’s it easy? It was nothing but hard! Today, I’m really itching for a smack.”
“Ahh, don’t say that after hitting me.”
I could understand Tito’s anger. The midterm for Developing Insight was all about reading hidden information from items and submitting the answer sheet at the correct location!
The higher your decoding level, the more accurately you could place your answer in the right submission box. Tito managed to succeed in level 7 decoding and submitted an answer worth 70 points.
As for me?
Naturally, I submitted at level 10!
Seeing Jezel, who came to submit her answer sheet with me, smiling brightly and looking really happy left a strong impression.
-Don’t tell anyone, okay?
-You mean not even Isabel?
-You get the score you earn. Isn’t that a fair outcome?
That’s some good advice. Since we’re not awarding group points, I should keep this to myself!
“Tsk. It’s like 90 points.”
By chance, the sound of Sing, who I bumped into nearby, submitting her answer from a different place caught my attention, and she grimaced and clicked her tongue as she passed by.
Even if Tito didn’t score high, she didn’t fail either, just barely managing to score a B.
I wonder how many points Isabel received? She was lost in thought, clutching her answer sheet even later when Jezel and I were leaving, so I really hope she gets a good grade.
If she drops to a lower class because of low scores, we won’t have as much time to hang out or to cook for her!
‘Should I cook for Isabel then?’
Like that, to lift her spirits and help her return to the upper class! It feels kind of nice.
It’s somewhat feminine.
There’s a hint of womanly charm.
If you want to play a character, it’s important to stick to that concept!
‘If I could make her a dish from the cooking handbook that’s hard to collect normally, I bet she’d like it?’
No matter how much I personally like Isabel, if my specs aren’t enough, I can’t stick around for too long.
Son Ohchun and Jezel.
Isabel has specifications that put her shoulder to shoulder with some serious top-tier contenders.
The key to that spec is her cooking handbook collection rate.
Isabel is a chef.
Moreover, she’s an adventurer with experience from various places.
Since she was young, she probably had all kinds of food, making it hard to find something she hasn’t tried.
Helping her taste unfamiliar foods will certainly contribute to her personal growth as well.
‘Should I try cooking after a long time?’
Cooking isn’t my specialty, but I’ll give it a shot!
*
“Muuu. Tastes bad…”
“…I hate Tito.”
“Hehe. Tito is not going to be a good friend this way. At times like this, you should say it’s the thought that counts or that it tastes healthy.”
Tito looked like she was about to cry.
“Jiang hasn’t tried it, that’s why she’s saying that.”
“Exactly! Jiang, come eat and critique it. My dish doesn’t deserve that treatment!”
Jiang looked at the bowl with a smile.
Bubble bubble…
Drip drop drop…
A strange sound like something sizzling wafted through the air as it boiled.
Inside, cubes chopped into neat squares spun around.
The white, yellow, and blue chunky blocks collided and stuck together, bouncing around chaotically, creating a scene that can only be described as chaos.
It was pure pandemonium.
“Tito is starting to seem respectable.”
“Jiaaaang~!”
“Hehe. Alright, just one spoonful.”
Which color block would be the least harmful?
Thinking about it only made me regret, so I dunked my spoon deep and pulled it out.
Three whites, one purple.
A color I hadn’t even seen seemed to have added itself in.
Probably an ingredient that I couldn’t see, buried at the bottom.
Given that nothing was visible on the surface, I could guess that it was heavy with a high specific gravity.
The flavor would be deep, lasting a while too.
The laughter in Jiang’s eyes disappeared as she focused on the ingredients.
Swish
As the spoon approached my mouth, an unexpected spicy aroma seeped deeply into my nostrils.
Despite the look, it wasn’t bad, almost like the favorability that had just been restored.
Slurp
As I put it in my mouth along with the soup, my tongue hurriedly moved around left and right, up and down as it couldn’t handle the hot soup.
As the heat dissipated, a strong taste of pain came in.
Just like an assassin’s food, it was the kind of flavor that pushed those tears right out.
Of course, I couldn’t spit it out.
An assassin has pride.
Giving up at this point would announce a lack of training endurance, a sign of falling short as an assassin.
‘Watch closely. I can handle this. Your dish is nothing to me.’
My body, reading the thoughts swirling in my head, threw my jaw into a stop.
Don’t do that.
You know you’ll regret it.
Just the soup is already this tough.
Do you really need to chew on those cubes to feel good about yourself?
With the soft whispers combined with the crunch of ingredients, I experienced the dual textures.
“!”
Crunchy and soft.
The former was the purple cube, and the latter was the white cube.
It wasn’t bad at all.
As I chewed every last fragment, I felt my face brighten up.
“What did you make this from?”
“Fish white meat, cabbage, potatoes, blueberries, with some chili powder and salt for seasoning!”
“Huh. Surprisingly good. What’s the name?”
“Spicy Stew!”
“Not bad. I don’t dislike this assassin-like food at all. I even like that there are no bones in the fish.”
“I used a spell to remove the fish bones.”
“Did Isabel teach you that kind of magic?”
“It’s a secret!”
Well, she didn’t teach me then.
Well, I guess she learned it from the chefs in the kitchen.
Regardless of the source, as long as it tastes good, that’s what matters.
Seeing Jiang finish her bowl in one go, Tito displayed a face of disbelief and betrayal.
“Assassins eat food like this…?”
“If the spice is too much, should I give you candy instead?”
“No, thanks… with the exam coming up, I’d rather prepare my mind.”
As Tito brought up the exam, suddenly the conversation at the dining table froze.
The sound of spoons moved and hands that had been busy stopped!
Hah.
I couldn’t tell who sighed first, but two sighs followed one after another.
Suddenly, the food tasting session with Oknodie turned into the last supper.
Waiting ahead was the test for Sadako’s [Night-time Activities for Adventurers], making it all the more daunting.
*
Professor Evening Shooter’s [Ranged Weapon Mastery] class had no midterm exam.
Instead, there was a significant exam at the end of the term with a weighting of 70%.
It was quite welcome news to students who were already mentally drained from taking their first midterms.
“If only Sadako’s class only had a final exam, that would be great!”
“Oknodie, do you think you could handle that? Twice as frightening of an exam.”
“Not really, Jiang, are you scared?”
“…Not really?”
“How about Tito?”
“Very scary.”
Relieving the tension with small talk, we finally arrived at the exam venue.
But then, we heard a sound we shouldn’t have.
Clank clank.
The sound of bones shaking.
Instinctively grabbing my weapon, I glared at the source where the famous [Skeleton Instructor] stood.
“What brings you here, Instructor?”
“I came at the professor’s request.”
The instructor, who had set up students to climb trees while scattering bait under them to gather the Giant King Crab for an ambush – a ridiculous instructor.
In the end, he had openly declared his intention to teach students how weak a physical body can be and to make them into skeletons.
Naturally, it was expected that we would be nervous with the appearance of the instructor, who had no good memories.
“Jiang, if you run away, you’ll fail your exam.”
“Let go of this. I promised to immediately run if I see that skull again instead of Professor Sadako.”
“If you fail, you’ll have to meet that instructor again next semester. Can you really be sure that there won’t be another instructor like that in other classes?”
Jiang, who was mumbling, reluctantly started to relax her body.
In case I had grabbed first, I would’ve hoped she wouldn’t genuinely think about running away during the exam.
“So how are we going to take our exam?”
“Don’t worry. I heard they’re preparing the exam within the scope of what you learned.”
That was a bit reassuring.
Although they mentioned they wouldn’t disclose the scope of the exam for Professor Plato, they just said they wouldn’t know for Professor Sadako’s exam.
The lower the difficulty, the better.
Sadako’s key exams are usually pretty erratic.
When there’s no motivation, it’s poorly thrown together.
When motivation runs high, it’s downright deadly.
She’s a fearsome professor, in a good sense, or bad.
“Instructor? Didn’t you just say the exam would be in the scope of what we studied?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“But what’s with this dungeon?”
A shabby ruin, built who knows when, creaked as the main entrance opened and closed with a ruckus.
“What do you mean dungeon? This is a dungeon for you all. It’s nothing big. Just go retrieve the red flag and sleep a few hours. Then you’ll get full marks.”
“Huh! What kind of exam is this? It’s so scary. It looks like a ghost is going to pop out at any moment.”
This mansion could easily pass for a dungeon.
The unsettling atmosphere struck fear into Tito, and she began to cry.
“Escape from the monsters in the maze, quietly sleep so the monsters won’t find you in the darkness, and return safely. All of this is within the scope, right?”
The skeleton instructor chuckled with delight.
The weight of our footsteps as we entered the mansion was truly heavy.
