High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2282: Chapter 503: An Unexpected Person

Two consecutive lightning bolts greatly dampened the young wizards’ enthusiasm for discussing the ”Magic Wand” list.

Until the alchemy class ended, the three warlocks behaved like diligent chicks, seriously reviewing Professor Tesla’s lecture notes and calculating complex alchemical formulas on scrap paper.

Until after class.

Most people had already left the classroom when Zheng Qing lifted his head and shook his sore neck, just in time to see the witch in the front row leading Li Meng outside.

Feeling a slight stirring, he poked the fat wizard in front with the brush handle.

”Let’s not talk about the Great Arcana,” the young scholarship student first set the tone for the conversation, drawing a red line for everyone: ”Has there been any change in the Small Arcana this year?”

Xin Fat Man turned his body with effort.

”Small Arcana?”

He fished out a crumpled piece of parchment from his pocket, glanced at it, and muttered, ”Hmm, there are two rather interesting ones... One is Andrew Taylor from Alpha, who entered the Starcoin sequence and was directly marked as ’Knight’. I guess this is largely related to his performance during the Winter Hunting. The other one is Nicholas... He entered the Scepter, sequence ten.”

Most of the names that entered ”Magic Wand” can be traced, basically distributed according to the proportion of 1-4 outstanding students per grade. After the school starts every September, after half a year of observation and assessment, ”Magic Wand” selects some first-year freshmen into the Small Arcana at the end of the first semester and removes some soon-to-graduate senior students from the list.

This nearly hereditary cycle of replacement is like precise gears meshing one with another, making it rare for a wizard not to be included in the Arcana list in their first year, only to be suddenly inserted in their second or higher year.

However, this year, the new edition of the Small Arcana list broke the norm twice in a row.

Although it’s slightly surprising for Andrew Taylor to enter the Starcoin sequence, after further thought, it seems reasonable. Just as Fat Man analyzed, the little wolf cub from the Taylor family garnered high praise in Alpha Academy for promptly pulling back his large-scale hunting team to a safe zone during the Winter Hunting, earning him the title ’Cunning Wolf’ and he became the bridge connecting the conservative and radical factions within Alpha due to his aristocratic background and close relations with the new Augustus.

It is easy to understand why ”Magic Wand” elevated its evaluation of him.

But Nicholas’s entry into the ’Scepter’ genuinely surprised Zheng Qing.

In recent years, the teaching results of Jiuyou Academy have soared, improving the quality of students significantly. Some disciples of wizarding families who were originally slated to enter Alpha have been arranged by their families to attend Jiuyou Academy, which consequently intensified the competition for the ’Scepter’ sequence over other academies.

Just like the Astronomy Class 08-1, as Jiuyou Academy’s key class of Level 08, they included all candidates from Jiuyou Academy who entered the Small Arcana last year, and even so, only Liu Fei Fei, Jiang Yu, and Xiao Xiao made it.

Those who failed to enter the ’Scepter’, such as Matthew Karen, Zhang Ji Xin, Tang Dun, and even Xin Fat Man, have comparable backgrounds and abilities to Jiang Yu. It’s just that Jiuyou Academy prioritizes academic performance, giving Jiang Yu the slight advantage in rankings.

By comparison, Nicholas’s more widely known ’achievement’ is having repeated a grade for three consecutive years, nearly breaking the worst record of the First University in the past century. Not to mention, after removing his werewolf bloodline, he became a ’Northern District Wizard’ who had to rely on spell marks to cast spells.

Even though the hunting party he formed during the last school hunting session reached the finals—captains leading their team to the finals are ten people, not all of whom can enter the Small Arcana list—let alone that the fringe hunting team’s performance involved some clever tricks.

From any angle, he seemed unlikely to be included in the ”Magic Wand” list.

”...The development of modern magic theory doesn’t mean classical magic becomes a stale ’leftover’. This was E. B. Taylor’s view in the 1870s, and it’s also a vague consensus among scholars under the theoretical dominance of magic, but this notion does mean classical magic is forced to adapt to the new world view, transforming into a more historically trending ’new’ ’modernized’ form...”

Zhang Ji Xin murmured the soporific content from the thick ”Mysticism Notes” handouts, his voice akin to sleep-talk, and if it weren’t for his wide-open eyes, Zheng Qing would have thought he had fallen asleep.

”Are you sure it’s correct?”

When the young scholarship student said this, he cautiously glanced at another corner of the classroom and, after seeing Nicholas wasn’t there, somewhat eased his mind, speaking with disbelief, ”If you said Tang Dun or the Elders... or even you, entered the ’Magic Wand’ list, I wouldn’t be as surprised!”

The red-faced male wizard studying nearby seemed oblivious to this discussion, but his voice grew quieter.

It was Xin Fat Man who showed dissatisfaction upon hearing Zheng Qing’s comment.

”What do you mean ’even’!”

His chubby cheeks contorted with displeasure: ”My grades are much better than the Elders. He’s the one that should be the ’even’... But you didn’t hear wrong, Nicholas did enter the ’Scepter’, though as the last sequence ten. It startled me too, I compared it many times, and it’s undoubtedly true.”

”Actually, this matter isn’t strange at all.”

Doctor Xiao, who had been buried in the alchemy lecture notes, seemed to have finally overcome the psychological shadow cast by the earlier lightning, raised his head, speaking quickly and in a low voice, ”If you recall, you’ll find that the ’Give Me a Frog’ movement ran through the entire semester... Nicholas actively or passively served as the ’icon’ of this movement, becoming the representative of Northern District Wizards at the First University and even throughout the Alliance. Just being the representative of this large group suffices for entry into the ’Magic Wand’ list.”

”Just being?” Zheng Qing sharply sensed the unfinished implication in the short wizard’s words.

”Yes.”

Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, cautiously glanced at the ceiling, and spoke even lower: ”This time the Great Arcana list has listed Rat Immortal as the ’Sun’, signifying His becoming a member of the First University... You know, Zhu Si served as the guide for the fringe hunting team... What you don’t know, but what I’ve ’heard’, is that Korma the Wise was very close to Rat Immortal, like father and daughter, and they had great friendship in their youth... With these two influential figures standing behind Nicholas, and a greater bigwig standing behind these two, ’Magic Wand’ had no choice but to give him face...”

Sizzle!

A spark briefly flickered in the air, seemingly attempting to form a lightning bolt, but hesitated twixt, sizzling for a moment before slowly disappearing into the air.