Chapter 15: 15

Although he had the SS-Level Academic Genius talent, Xiao Lin had actually been slacker since he was a child, especially with humanities subjects that required lots of repetition. He thought that he would never have to touch it again in his life after graduating, but the curricula in front of him dealt him a severe blow.

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The discussion group created by sophomore year leader Chen Yu once again popped up with countless rows of posts. It appeared that other monitors were also rather speechless with regard to the last three compulsory courses.

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Chen Yu said, “Planet Norma isn’t a deserted place. If you want to be a qualified colonist, a necessary prerequisite is that you know yourself and the enemy. When you take courses in Orcish, Mermish, Dragish1, and the like, you’ll soon discover that the freshmen course is really easy!”

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“Also, I’d like to add another point. The course schedule you received is only basic-level courses for the freshman semester, but it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to graduate freshman year after simply passing your exams for these courses,” Chen Yu continued.

“What do you mean?”

“The requirement to graduate freshman year is three hundred credits, along with an individual strength of Black Iron Level. You can’t meet this requirement by relying on these courses alone. Oh, turn to the last page of the form; it contains the corresponding credits for each course, and the corresponding amount of credits you get by passing the exams.”

Xiao Lin quickly turned to the last page and found that there was indeed a corresponding credit table. Each basic course was 10 credits, and each compulsory course was 15 credits. Among them, getting 15 credits in Common Language of Planet Norma was only achievable by obtaining a Band Four certificate.

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Band Four in a foreign language test! What the hell!

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Xiao Lin felt as though he could only see darkness in front of him. After thinking of the Band Four exam in university that he had to retake four times in a row before passing, he had the strong impulse to leave the damned Dawn Academy immediately.

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Each freshman was required to take at least 7 courses out of those listed in the course, but they added up to only 85 credits in total. Even if a student passed them all in the exam, it was still impossible to graduate freshman year.

Someone raised that question in the discussion group.

Chen Yu’s explanation came quickly, “Dawn Academy is an open school. You’ve probably noticed that the class hours of these courses are very short. The basic courses are only one month, and the compulsory courses are only three months. Those who pass their courses will get an advanced class schedule. Those who fail their exam will have to proceed with resits. Those who fail an entire semester must retake the entire course. Oh, and just a reminder, retaking exams are free, but redemption points are required for retaking the entire course.”

Xiao Lin also raised a question: “What’s the deal with that Black Iron Level for individual strength?”

“Dawn Academy categorizes a person’s level of individual strength into several levels: Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Lore, Epic, and Legend. We’ll set aside all those latter levels for the time being. The academy’s definition of Black Iron Level is when one’s total attribute points exceeds 100 in addition to passing the qualification exams. The specifics will be explained by your teacher during class.”

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“Who’s our teacher?”

“Can’t say for sure. The basic courses are usually taught by sophomores and third-years, but if any graduates have spare time on their hands, they may also give you substitute lessons. Although the chances of that happening are relatively low, consider yourself extremely lucky if it happens. The experience that graduates have is certainly incomparable to that of students still in the academy!”

Although Chen Yu only gave answers with regard to their courses, other things—such as the New World that formed the subject of many people’s interest—were addressed only in passing. However, that was enough to elicit significant surprise from acting monitors.

For example, they knew that the instructors were actually repeaters who failed to graduate from the preceding freshmen year. To put it bluntly, apart from having one year of learning experience, they were nowhere near as bad as instructors in terms of talent or ability.

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Another example was credits. Most of the time, normal students could only take as many courses as they could and spend more time studying in exchange for sufficient credits.

More talented students, however, had faster ways to get credits, such as monthly examinations that were of the same vein as admission tests. It allowed them to perform various tasks in a completely simulated environment, and those who meet the conditions could get credits, as well as redemption points. Of course, the difficulty of monthly tests was much higher than the admission test.

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In terms of course selection, Chen Yu also gave a lot of very useful suggestions. For example, the elective courses should be related to each other. Courses like Basic Swordsmanship and Basic Saber Techniques must be selected concurrent to secondary courses that tempered one’s body and strength. If one elected to master heavy weapons, like axes and hammers, physique courses were indispensable.

Although the academy did not prohibit dual-cultivation or multi-cultivation, Chen Yu recommended that freshmen should focus on a certain type of weapon course. Even if they wanted to take more courses, they should focus on the same type, such as daggers and short sabers that focused on physical techniques, or epees, axes, and hammers for strength-based cultivation.

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Finally, Chen Yu repeatedly emphasized that the dual-cultivation of magic and martial arts was forbidden!

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Of course, being in that world was unlike being in a game. If someone chose a warrior profession, it did not mean that one would never be able to use spells. Furthermore, there were none of the so-called barriers to magic or martial arts that were seen in some novels. Anyone could learn them as long as they met the sufficient conditions, be they spells or martial arts

The advantages of magic-martial art dual-cultivation were self-evident. Versatility and multi-faceted attack methods allowed one to adapt oneself when facing various enemies, but the disadvantages were also very obvious—the lack of time!

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“The advantage of magic-martial art dual-cultivation is obvious to a freshman, so much so that it could even crush any other single-cultivation students of the same level and talent. By the second year however, the advantage has basically disappeared, and from the third year onward, more and more powerful martial arts and magic courses will be available. By then, magic-martial art dual cultivation will practically be reduced to something of little value.”

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Chen Yu seemed very serious on that issue. “The reason for that is there isn’t enough time. If you compare your courses to a tree, then the further you go, the more branches the tree will grow. Each branch will extend even more, producing more bifurcations. Magic-martial art dual-cultivation often means that you’ll have to spend two, three, or even six or seven times as much time and energy. Even the best graduates dare not say that they are able to learn all the courses.”

“In the two hundred years since the establishment of Dawn Academy, many of our seniors have left behind painful lessons, so keep this in mind: magic-martial art dual-cultivation is a big taboo!”

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As the chat continued to discuss deeper topics, the monitors showed greater expectations and excitement. Most of the time, Xiao Lin silently watched the chat’s contents, but then he suddenly realized something.

Chen Yu appeared to be instilling a sense of elitism in them. As acting monitors and talented students who stood out from thousands of their peers, they stood at a much higher starting point than ordinary students. They were destined to achieve greater heights and honor in the future, which was why Chen Yu encouraged them to never be satisfied with the minimum advancement standard of 300 credits and Black Iron Level.

Without a doubt, those conditions were only the minimum standard for promotion from freshman to sophomore. It was something that many would probably be able to accomplish, but as elites and monitors, they ought to have a higher standard. That standard determined which one of them would become the leader of their year, whether they could enter the student union in the future, and possibly even determine their status in the New World.

An instructor might not necessarily reveal all that to them. Instructors were nothing more than ordinary repeaters in the midst of a struggle to get into their second year, but Chen Yu was different. He was a sophomore year leader, which meant that he was formerly also a monitor—a similarly talented student with a bright future.

Empathy, or so it was called, allowed Chen Yu to have better knowledge of what those monitors needed and what they wanted to pursue. He most certainly succeeded in provoking everyone’s competitive spirit.

Among the twelve monitors however, Xiao Lin was the only one who felt the highest pressure.

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From the contents of the chat, it was known that although the total attribute value of other acting monitors were not as high as that of Gu Xiaoyue’s 46, they were basically around the 30-point mark. The highest reached 38 points, which was only slightly inferior to that of Gu Xiaoyue.

In contrast, Xiao Lin’s total attribute points did not exceed 10. At a stretch, the help of his LV2 Basic Dagger Mastery was barely able to push his total attribute value to 10 points.

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It was getting late, and under Chen Yu’s repeated urging, everyone reluctantly ended the chat and filled out the course selection form in a very short time.

Xiao Lin thought about it for only a few minutes. After giving it some thought, he realized he had no other choices. In the first table, he chose Basic Swordsmanship, because he was a novice at using the dagger. If he chose another course, he had to first consider exchanging the dagger for another weapon with someone else, or perhaps directly using his redemption points to buy new weapons.

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That was something he learned from Chen Yu. Although the academy was very generous in providing for one’s daily life, including luxurious five-star hotels serving as dormitories and a full range of living facilities, the purchase of various equipment would require him to come up with enough redemption points.

As for the second course selection table, there was nothing much for him to consider. According to Chen Yu’s explanation, the first selected course corresponded to the second option. For example, if one took up Basic Swordsmanship with the intention to excel in it, then due consideration must be given to Basic Physical Skills, Basic Strength, and Basic Body Techniques, and Basic Evasion. Xiao Lin picked Basic Physical Skills, Basic Strength, and Basic Body Techniques.

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