Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 471: Before The Monthly Examination

Xiao Lin had first looked at the weapons. The Holy Soul Sword had been destroyed in the New World last semester, and he had not gotten a new weapon to date. That was because he took into consideration the rapid rise of his attributes, on top of his few special skills. Because of that, normal blades were not suitable, and he could only get custom-made ones from Lu Renjia.

Lu Renjia had shown him several weapon blueprints, and they all had their special features compared to what the academy provided. It had to be said that Lu Renjia was quite talented at designing weapons. Xiao Lin looked through everything and quickly eyed the last one.

[Holy Sword, Silver-ranked in quality, possesses high attacking power.]

Lu Renjia only had few words to describe the sword, and it could be seen that the Silver-ranked weapon did not possess any special effects or elemental attributes. For a weapon of that level, that was actually unacceptable.

Xiao Lin immediately voiced that question to Lu Renjia, but Lu Renjia instead revealed a happy expression, immediately flashing a thumbs-up. “Monitor Xiao, you have good eyes. You actually looked right at the coolest weapon in the catalogue. No wonder you’re considered the monitor with the most potential in the first year…”

Lu Renjia was still trying to flatter him, but Xiao Lin interrupted, “The strongest weapon? You didn’t even give that weapon any special effects, such as sharpness, armor piercing, or even any elemental attributes. Don’t forget, the Holy Soul Sword you made me last time could summon a spirit.”

“Ah, compared to the Holy Sword, an undead spirit would be an afterthought. The Holy Sword’s attack attribute at a C-grade. Do you know about the Golden Holy Sword?”

“I’ve heard about it.” Xiao Lin remembered seeing it on the front page of the official merchant store.

“Ah, my Holy Sword is the weaker version of the Golden Holy Sword. After removing various buffs, I made the Holy Sword into something Black Iron-rank students can use, but the attack power did not drop.”

Lowering various other attributes to strengthen one particular one was Lu Renjia’s style of craftsmanship. Xiao Lin grew satisfied with it. What made him happiest was that, even though various effects had been removed, the materials used on the sword were not compromised for it; it still used lesser dragon bones as its primary material.

To Xiao Lin, his power explosively increased under Ruin, and most weapons had a high chance of being destroyed because of it, such as the Holy Soul Sword. That was why he needed a solid and strong weapon, which the Holy Sword fulfilled. Comparatively, additional effects were not that important.

The two of them struck a deal. The Holy Sword was not cheap, costing 10,000 redemption points on top of 20,000 New Dollars. Lu Renjia was quite honest; 20,000 New Dollars was the cost of his materials, although he refused to disclose how he got it. The 10,000 redemption points were basically his manufacturing fees.

“The lesser dragon might be inferior to regular dragons, but they’re not easy to catch. I had managed to get a senior to get this for me, but it did not come cheap.”

Xiao Lin nodded in agreement, transferring the money to Lu Renjia without a second word. Their regular dealings had led him to trust Lu Renjia.

The other monitors were all making their own preparations as well. Before that, each class got their information on the monthly examinations for the regular students. As usual, the information was given on Friday to the monitors. Xiao Lin immediately headed a short meeting in the class group that night.

The respect Xiao Lin commanded within Class Seven had steadily risen during the six months. Of course, it was also due to the two group leaders that he appointed, Gu Xiaoyue and Zhou Feng. Most of the daily tasks were done by Zhou Feng when Xiao Lin was not in the academy. The man did things very strictly. There had been some dissent in the class initially, but all of it had been quelled in half a year.

Gu Xiaoyue maintained her coldness, and Xiao Lin knew as well that it was impossible to change her attitude. He gave her a suggestion toward the end of last semester, asking Gu Xiaoyue to upload some of the class notes she took on the class group chat occasionally.

Gu Xiaoyue’s notes were very well-done and complete, and even contained a lot of her unique insights. It was very valuable stuff to normal students, and quickly caused that arrogant and distant woman to be more widely accepted. Even though she still did not have that many friends, she was at least greeted by quite a few thankful students whenever she went online.

However, Gu Xiaoyue was still a little ways away from Black Iron-rank. After all, other than Intelligence, her other attributes were way too low, which were dragging her down. Xiao Lin had told Gu Xiaoyue a few times, but she did not seem to care about it.

The difference between Black Iron-rank and not was not just those few attribute points, but rather it was a basic change in the laws of the world. For instance, one’s perception of the various elements in the natural world would turn clearer, which was why Xiao Lin’s current Intelligence growth did not lose to Gu Xiaoyue. Before that, even with his SS-rank talent, he still lagged behind Gu Xiaoyue.

“I won’t be participating with all of you during this monthly examination. I trust all of you have seen that in the forums. I’ve looked at the information on the monthly examination, and the difficulty is quite moderate…”

Xiao Lin looked at the contents of the monthly examination, and it would basically be an ambush. The simulation would have them in the first war against the orcs, and they were to ambush the logistics troops of the orcs, destroying all their supplies.

The contents did not look too hard, and the monthly examinations for the new students were always things like ambushes, sneak attacks, and scouting missions. It was not very possible for them to participate in large-scale combat simulations.

What Xiao Lin noticed this time was that, with the last time as well, the academy’s monthly examinations for them had all been set during the war against the orcs. The simulated examinations were fairly repetitive, as if trying to get the students to imagine the orcs as their foes, which caused him to put some thought behind it.

Xiao Lin did not plan on giving them any instructions on strategy. After all, he was also sweating when thinking about an ambush. It did not seem like he knew more than the others, so he decided to just place his trust in them.

“After that, I need to appoint substitute group leaders. It’s not really an appointment, it’s just something internal to the class, and will not be shown to the student union. If the group leaders unexpectedly lose their lives during the monthly examinations, the substitute group leaders will take their place”

Xiao Lin finally discussed a few of his thoughts in the group chat. He did not talk much about combat strategies, but instead talked about the allocation of tasks.

“Let’s have Lu Renyi be the substitute group leader for now. Does anyone have any objections?”

“No!”

“I support your decision!”

“Lu Renyi will need to treat us to lunch.”

…

Naturally, no one objected to Xiao Lin’s suggestion, and the surprised Lu Renyi repeatedly expressed his thanks. Even though he had said that it would not be recorded with the student union, it still meant that Xiao Lin had recognized him.