Before Luna could answer, Sophia was finally out of the challenge with a minute remaining on the clock.
Unlike most people in the class, her clothes were completely unscratched, 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.
"Ahem, everyone, please get up from the bench. We're going back to class now."
---
"Hye 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.
"Nice, that's a pretty good score. How about you, Alex?" Sophia asked next.
"Just 70, 63, 80, 10."
"Oh..."
Just as Sophia was thinking of a way to comfort Alex, Camille decided to 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 mage. I'm just enjoying my time being in school now."
Seeing Alex so relaxed and chill despite the low score, Evelyn and Chloe were both taken aback a little.
Especially considering how young he was, they were fully expecting him to be upset or throw a fit.
"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 shyly covered Evelyn's mouth, trying to block the truth. 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 in shock, unable to look at Camille or Mary the same way.
Seeing Luna nodding, Camille quickly let go of Evelyn, opting to cover her own face from the nearby classmate looking at her.
Despite her cute bunny ear, Alex and everyone else nodded in agreement as the muscle on her body was just too big to ignore.
"Evelyn! Luna! You dummy! You promised me you were going to keep this a secret!" Camille questioned in anger as her ear rose into the air.
"Too bad. Perhaps you should have been more respectful to others first." Evelyn smirked as she covered her mouth.
---
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 expectation. She had managed to score fifth highest in the class despite only recently learning about magic."
After a short clap, Miss Amy sent the two back down and turned her attention to Alex and Bob.
"Now you two... Bob, you're the only one 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 was 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 that do not put blind faith in your ability. This is a perfect example of overconfidence."
In the video, 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.
When the dust finally settled, the golem's hand was already in the air, smashing right down towards Bob's face.
"Bob, you see your mistake this time?"
"Yes, ma'am..."
Seeing Bob nodding in acknowledgment, Miss Amy took down the video card and turned her attention to the last person standing.
"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.
A sense of despair began to set in as they watched Alex run away, like a mouse running away from a cat.
However, once again, the class was caught off guard by his 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.
"He manages to use perfect strategy and critical thinking skills to defeat this golem. This is, quite frankly, a very smart and 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, considering the score he got.
However, their confusion would be cleared as Miss Amy brought up the next thing.
"Before you all start clapping for him. I want to tell you that what he had done is completely wrong."
The 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 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 magical capability.
It is not to test whether you are smart or not. His failure to beat the golem upfront is a critical error."
As Miss Amy paused for a second, Alex could feel everyone seemingly agreeing with her point.
"Remember, you all are only mage level one. There's no point in having a strategy if you don't focus on raising your mana first. Now, Alex, do you understand why you got such a low point?"
Hearing Miss Amy's explanation, Alex silently nodded as she pointed out the biggest problem he faced.
He just needed to raise mana first and foremost, considering his first few waves of the spells that should have done big damage to the golem.
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, you may go to the Engineering class now."
"Thank you, ma'am."
Justin quickly packed up everything and left the class without saying another word. Seeing an empty seat in the front, Miss Amy decided to move one person from the back.
To Alex's surprise, it was Chloe, who had now become his seatmate.
"Hi, Chloe."
"Hi, Alex."
As the two awkwardly waved at each other, Miss Amy resumed the class back into normal session.
---
For the rest of the week, it was back to Miss Amy explaining the textbook material and showcasing different 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 only one that was interested 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 did not improve 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 when space element was completely off-limit until mage level 5.
Nor did anyone want to write the required paragraphs and essays reflecting on whether a certain historical figure did the right thing or not based on the given information.
----
When the weekend arrived, Katherine's plan to go outside was ruined again as both Alex and Sophia were hit by their period.
The three opted to meditate at home, increasing their mana and reading the advanced 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.
"Our teacher said the most important thing for a mage is to increase its mana by meditating." Sophia pointed out.
"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 back onto the sofa 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?"
"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 grandparent's house in December, by the way."
"Wait, why?" Alex curiously asked as he finally exited his meditation.
"It's winter break... And your grandparents wanted to see you guys." Katherine replied.
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'm planning to meet with Evelyn to study the textbook." 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?"
"Boo!"
As both girls booed her, Katherine ignored it and turned her attention over to Alex.
"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. Me being the tiebreaker, 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.