Ch.206206 – The Final Midterm Exam

# 206 – The Last Midterm

Unlike what I had been nervous about, Professor Bronze’s midterm was set up to be easy.

“What part was easy? None of it was easy. I really feel like giving someone a knock on the head today.”

“Ahng. Don’t hit me and then talk.”

I understand why Titosoga is angry.

The midterm for the Developing an Eye lecture required reading hidden information in items and going to the correct place to submit the answer sheet!

The higher your decoding level, the more accurate submission box you could access, and Titosoga succeeded in level 7 decoding, submitting a 70-point answer.

As for me?

Of course I submitted at level 10!

It was quite impressive to see Giselle, who came to submit her answer with me, leave with a bright smile, looking extremely pleased.

-You shouldn’t tell anyone?

-Not even Isabelle?

-Getting scores based on how much you studied. Isn’t that a fair result?

That’s a good point.

Since they don’t give group scores, I should keep this to myself!

“Tsk. 90 points, huh.”

Sing, whom I happened to meet nearby, seemed to notice that we had submitted our answers at different locations, as he frowned and clicked his tongue as he passed by.

Titosoga may not have gotten a high score, but it wasn’t a failing grade either, so he ended up with a B grade.

I wonder what score Isabelle got?

She was still pondering over her answer sheet even when Giselle and I left. I hope she got a good grade.

If her grades drop and she gets demoted from the advanced class, we’ll have less time to hang out together and less time for me to cook for her!

‘Should I cook for Isabelle then?’

Like, “Eat this and quickly regain your strength to return to the advanced class!”

That kind of feeling.

It seems pretty good.

It’s girlish too.

It shows feminine charm.

When doing concept play, it’s important to maintain the concept!

‘If possible, I should make her some codex recipes that are hard to collect. She’d like that, right?’

No matter how much I personally like Isabelle, we can’t stay together this long if her specs are lacking.

Son Ocheon and Giselle.

Isabelle has enough specs to stand shoulder to shoulder with these formidable top contenders.

The secret to those specs is her food codex collection rate.

Isabelle is a chef.

Moreover, she’s an adventurer who has traveled to various places.

Since childhood, she’s probably eaten all kinds of food to the point where it’s hard to find something she hasn’t tried.

Helping her eat unfamiliar foods would greatly contribute to Isabelle’s personal growth, I’m confident.

‘Should I cook something after a long time?’

Cooking isn’t my specialty, but I should try my best.

* *

“Meeeeeh. It tastes bad…”

“…I hate Titosoga.”

“Hehe. Titosoga would have a hard time becoming a good friend. In times like this, you should say it has a taste full of sincerity even if it doesn’t taste good. Or say it tastes healthy.”

Titosoga made a tearful face.

“Zhang is saying that because you haven’t tried it yet.”

“That’s right! Zhang, try it and evaluate. My cooking doesn’t deserve such treatment!”

Zhang looked at the bowl with a smiling face.

Boil boil…

Tok tok tok…

Water making strange fizzing sounds.

Square-cut contents spinning round and round inside.

White, yellow, and blue square chunks colliding with each other, sticking together or bouncing around creating a chaotic shape—the sight was truly Chaos.

It was confusion itself.

“I’m starting to respect Titosoga?”

“Zhaaaaaang~!”

“Hehe. Alright. Just one spoonful.”

Which colored square would be least harmful?

Thinking that I’d regret it no matter what, I just dipped the spoon in and pulled it out.

Three white ones, one purple one.

A square of a color I hadn’t even seen before was added.

It must have been an ingredient hidden at the bottom.

Judging by the fact that none were visible on the surface, I could guess it was a heavy ingredient with high water density.

The taste would probably be deep and long-lasting.

The smile disappeared from Zhang’s eyes as he looked at the ingredients.

Sluuurp

As I brought the spoon to my mouth, an unexpectedly spicy aroma penetrated deep into my nostrils.

Unlike its appearance, it wasn’t bad—it was a fragrance that seemed to restore my previously dropped favorability.

Slurp

After putting it in my mouth with the broth, my mouth, unable to handle the hot liquid, busily moved my tongue and the broth left and right, up and down.

As the heat subsided, what followed was a taste of intense pain.

True to an assassin’s food, it was a taste that stimulated a tactile sensation that made tears well up.

Of course, I couldn’t spit it out.

An assassin has pride.

Giving up eating because of this would prove insufficient endurance training—it would be like declaring that I’m falling short as an assassin.

‘Watch carefully. I can handle this. Your cooking is nothing to me.’

My body, reading the thoughts occurring in my brain, put the brakes on my jaw.

Don’t do it.

You know you’ll regret it.

Even just the broth is this much.

Do you really need to chew those square things to be satisfied?

Along with the weak whispers, the ingredients crunched.

“!”

A crisp and soft texture.

The former was the purple chunk, and the latter was the white chunk.

It’s really not bad.

After chewing thoroughly until the last fragment, I even felt my face brighten.

“What did you make this with?”

“White fish meat, cabbage, potatoes, blueberries, with red pepper powder and salt for seasoning!”

“Hmm. Surprisingly good. What’s it called?”

“Spicy soup!”

“Not bad. I don’t dislike this assassin-like food. I also like that there are no fish bones.”

“I used a magic spell to remove the fish bones.”

“Did Isabelle teach you that magic too?”

“It’s a secret!”

She wasn’t taught.

Well, she probably learned it from the kitchen chefs.

Regardless of the source, as long as it tastes good, that’s all that matters.

Seeing Zhang empty the bowl in one go, Titosoga showed betrayal with an unbelieving face.

“Do assassins eat this kind of food…?”

“If the spiciness is too much, would you like some candy?”

“No… I’ll just prepare mentally for the exam that’s right around the corner.”

When Titosoga brought up the exam, the conversation at the table suddenly stopped.

Even the sound of spoons and busy hands paused!

Haaa.

Following an initial sigh from someone, two more sighs stretched out.

Oknodie’s food tasting session suddenly turned into a last supper.

It couldn’t be helped, especially since the exam waiting after this was Professor Sadaco’s <Adventurer’s Night Activities> lecture exam.

* *

Professor EveningShooter’s <Ranged Weapon Mastery> lecture didn’t have a midterm.

Instead, there would be an exam worth 70% of the grade in the final exam.

This was welcome news for students who were mentally stressed about taking their first midterm.

“It would be nice if Professor Sadaco’s lecture also only had a final exam!”

“Oknodie. Could you handle it? An exam that’s twice as scary.”

“I’m not that worried? Are you?”

“…Not really?”

“What about Titosoga?”

“I’m terrified.”

We arrived at the exam site, relieving tension with small talk.

But then we heard a sound we shouldn’t have heard.

Rattle rattle.

The sound of bones shaking.

Instinctively raising our weapons and glaring, we saw the <Skeleton Instructor> standing there.

“Instructor, what brings you here?”

“I came at the professor’s request.”

The incredible instructor who made kids climb trees and then scattered bait under the trees to gather Giant King Crabs to attack them.

In the end, he boldly revealed his intention to make students realize how weak the physical body is and turn them into Skeleton race.

It was natural for us to be tense at the appearance of this eccentric instructor with whom we had no good memories.

“Zhang, if you run away, you’ll fail the exam.”

“Let go. I swore that if I ever saw that skull bucket instead of Professor Sadaco again, I’d run away immediately.”

“If you fail the exam, you’ll have to meet an instructor like that again next semester, you know? Can you be sure there won’t be such instructors in other lectures?”

Zhang, who had been mumbling, reluctantly relaxed his body.

It’s good that I caught him first by reading his muscle movements; he really was planning to run away from the exam.

“So how will our exam be conducted?”

“Don’t worry. I heard that the exam will be set within the range of what you’ve learned.”

That’s somewhat reassuring.

The Responding Wall had said it knew about Professor Platton’s exam but not about Professor Sadaco’s exam.

The lower the difficulty, the better.

Professor Sadaco’s exams tend to have extreme variations.

When she lacks motivation, it’s sloppily done.

When she’s overflowing with enthusiasm, it’s terrifyingly difficult.

She’s a truly formidable professor, for better or worse.

“Skeleton Instructor? Didn’t you just say the exam would be within the scope of what we’ve learned?”

“I did.”

“Then what’s with this dungeon?”

A grotesque abandoned house, built who knows when, creaks as its main gate opens and closes, causing a commotion.

“Oh, this? It’s the dungeon you’ll be entering. It’s nothing special. Go in, retrieve a red flag, sleep for a few hours, and come out. Then you’ll get full marks.”

“Waaah! What kind of exam is this? It’s too scary! It looks like ghosts will come out just by looking at it.”

The mansion, deserving to be called a dungeon.

Titosoga cried at the ominous atmosphere of terror.

“Avoiding monsters in a maze to escape, quietly falling asleep in the darkness without being detected by monsters, and safely returning alive. Aren’t these all within the scope of what you’ve learned?”

The Skeleton Instructor laughed with a “geh-geh-geh.”

Our steps entering the mansion were very heavy.