"I'm already at the edge of mage level two," Chloe quietly replied.
"No wonder. I guess elves really do have a head start compared to us humans——"
Before Evelyn could finish talking, Miss Amy interrupted with an announcement.
"Ahem, everyone, please get up. We're going back to class now."
As the line began to form, the seven of them quickly went back into formation before they began heading back to class.
"Mary, what did you get?" Sophia curiously asked.
"80, 80, 80, 50."
"How about you, Alex?"
"Just 70, 63, 80, 10."
"10? How did you get so low——"
"Camille, shut up before I smack you in the head." Evelyn threatened as she raised her hand.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to ask that."
"Nah, 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, the four of them's view of him changed a little.
"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 her face as if she was extremely embarrassed about what happened.
"She just flat-out beat the golem with her punches and kicks. Would you believe that?"
Looking over to the muscle that Camille had despite her cute bunny ear, Alex and everyone else nodded in agreement.
Even the classmates who listened to their conversation nodded slightly as if they agreed with Evelyn's statement.
"Ah! Evelyn! I thought you promised me you weren't going to say that out loud!"
"Too bad. Perhaps you should have been more respectful to others first."
---
When everyone returned to class, 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 headed to the front, with Bob being the only one who looked a little nervous as he knew the bad score he had.
Meanwhile, Alex was the most calm, as he knew what was coming.
"First, let's get a round of applause for Chloe and Sophia for performing way above expectation."
After a short clap, Miss Amy sent the two back down and turned her attention to Alex and Bob.
"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, looking a little ashamed of himself. 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, 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."
Everyone watches as Bob casts a massive fireball that knocks the golem onto the floor before suddenly lunging over at him.
"Bob, you see your mistake this time?"
"Yes, ma'am..."
With the video keycard taken down, Miss Amy turned her attention over to Alex.
"I don't actually have any criticism of you... Except one small minor thing that I want everyone to learn."
As she pulled out another video keycard, it displayed Alex was in the middle of fighting the golem with his initial fireball failing.
The video began to play, showing Alex trying to use water and ice elements to slow the golem.
With that failing to work, the video showed his last-ditch effort tactic of using mana to shift the dirt below to trap the golem.
"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 except Sophia and the other five girls, who looked a little confused.
However, their confusion would be cleared as Miss Amy brought up the next thing.
"But you might be wondering, is that all? Wrong. Even though he beat the golem faster than most people, he got a score of 10."
The class looked a little shocked until Miss Amy explained why.
"Although he used great strategy. The whole point of this challenge was a test of the user's magical capability.
The fact that he couldn't beat the golem upfront is a critical error that deducted all the points.
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, as everything is irrelevant when someone can just overpower you.
"You can go back to your seat... Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Justin, you may go to the Engineering class now."
"Thank you, ma'am."
Justin packed up everything and immediately left the class without saying another word.
Seeing an empty seat in the front, Miss Amy decided to move one person from the back all the way to the front.
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 almost the entire week, it was back to Miss Amy explaining the textbook material and the occasional showcase of different magic.
Although everyone was a little bored, most people didn't outright complain as they were still learning different kinds of information about magic.
From the merge magic to the history behind it, the class almost felt like the one back on Earth, listening to the teacher talk all day.
But still, Miss Amy could tell people's faces looked a little annoyed by the time the weekday ended.
When the weekend arrived, Sophia and Mary's plan was ruined again as both Alex and Sophia were hit by their period.
All four of them were once again forced to stay at home, as Sophia didn't want to go out except to meditate to distract herself.
Alex, meanwhile, never wanted to go out. When he was out of class, he spent practically constantly in meditation.
With another week coming up, they were finally out of the boring, repetitive class as Miss Amy once again brought them to the Arena.
It was a similar test, albeit with different elements and a much faster golem that ran after you rather than walking.
The entire class failed, except Chloe, who barely passed with a score of 60 overall.
Everyone in the class never showed their annoyed face again as they realized their next challenge was much harder to defeat.
Soon, time quickly flew past as their first month of being 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 as they looked determined to beat the upcoming second try.
"Come on, you guys really want just to meditate all day?' Katherine asked impatiently.
"Our teacher said the most important thing to a mage is reaching a higher mage level." Sophia pointed out.
"That's nonsense. You can't just meditate all day. You're going to get burnt out, and your body 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 turning back to face her.
"Whatever... You three are coming with me to your grandparent's house in December, by the way."
"Wait, why?' Alex curiously asked.
"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 and them to study the textbook." Sophia argued.
"Me too!" 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 last second.
"Then 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, as she had already started talking about where to go.