Ch.7571 – Performance Assessment

“You can use magic in games? That’s so cool!”

“Hmm… it could definitely help with studying magic.”

“You have to study in games too? Ugh, I don’t want to play that kind of game… Anyway, I’m heading to my classroom. See you at lunch.”

“Yes! The sleepyhead Ji-hye!”

“I’m not a sleepyhead!”

Ji-hye went to Class B first, while I headed to Class A with Seo-ri and Yu-na.

Since we’d been walking slower than usual, we arrived at school much later than expected.

My desk partner, Yoon Si-hoo, had already arrived and was quietly reading a book. He was truly the model student.

He didn’t even glance my way when I sat down.

Well, everyone has different people they want to befriend, so there was no need to worry about it.

But the moment he noticed Yu-na following behind me, his eyes slowly peeked up from his book.

“Hey, Seo Yu-na!”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Are you okay?”

“Suddenly asking that? I’m fine?”

“Oh, good. That’s a relief.”

Yu-na answered casually, and after confirming she was fine, Si-hoo sat back down with a sullen expression.

It was awkward just listening to them. Why even start a conversation if you’re going to be like that?

After Teacher Jackie’s quick attendance check and morning announcements, we had a short break before first period.

“Is that game really hard?” Yu-na asked, poking my back from behind.

“Yeah, you can’t just get stronger alone. It seems to emphasize cooperation.”

“Cooperation?”

“It means working together.”

“Ohh… I see. So NoName is helping that person?”

“I guess that’s what needs to happen. If they don’t get stronger, they’ll die.”

The game was Nightmare difficulty, so it would be years too early for Yu-na to play, but she was interested in the story of the game I was playing.

“Oh right! I need to get my textbook for first period!”

Suddenly remembering the subject, Yu-na ran off to her locker.

As I was turning my chair back around, I noticed Yoon Si-hoo awkwardly turning his head in the opposite direction.

“Were you listening to our conversation?”

“N-no? I wasn’t listening at all?”

“Come on, you were totally listening.”

“I wasn’t!”

“Why are you getting angry? That’s suspicious.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that…”

“Wait, could it be…?”

Considering that Si-hoo was the only one in our class who looked after Seo Yu-na, and that he didn’t show this much interest in other kids, my guess was pretty solid.

“Do you like Seo Yu-na?”

“What? No way!”

Look at how his lips are drying up and he’s licking them nervously. I was right.

Having hit the nail on the head, Si-hoo pounded on his desk in embarrassment.

Given our age, it might not be romantic attraction, but he definitely had some friendly affection for her.

People who don’t talk much are usually good at reading others’ emotions. I was exactly that type.

Despite Si-hoo’s vehement denial, in my mind, his arrow was already pointing straight at Seo Yu-na.

Come to think of it, there was something I wanted to ask Yoon Si-hoo, but I only just remembered.

“Yoon Si-hoo, do you go to an academy?”

“Why… why do you want to know about my academy?”

So he’s being stingy and not telling me?

“Then I’ll just tell everyone you like Yu-na.”

“I really don’t! Fine… I go to a Taekwondo academy.”

“That’s perfect. Do you know what else they teach at Taekwondo academies?”

“They teach Taekwondo at a Taekwondo academy. What else would they teach, English?”

“Well, yeah, I guess…”

I mean, he’s right…

I was asking because I remembered there were places that taught various other things too.

“Do they teach dagger techniques? Like knife fighting?”

“Dagger techniques? What do you need that for…!”

“I have a friend who needs to learn. Maybe I should look for a dojang instead of an academy.”

“I… I don’t know, so stop asking! And whatever you’re doing, don’t drag Yu-na into it.”

“Look at you already protecting your future girlfriend.”

“@%##@ @!^@##!”

* * *

Si-hoo’s little tantrum was quelled when Yu-na returned to her seat.

The first period was “Magic Infusion” class.

Last year’s subject was “Magic Recording,” which kids called “Magi,” so they shortened this one to just “Maju” time.

I wondered how they came up with such uninspired subject names.

Come to think of it, I remember thinking there was a printing error when I saw the first-grade textbooks named “Fall” and “Winter.”

But Maju time was arguably the most important subject in the Cephiron Academy’s second-year curriculum.

You could tell by how it was scheduled for two hours every single day without exception.

“Let’s start class! Everyone, please open your textbooks to page 23.”

Teacher Jackie’s cheerful voice echoed through the classroom.

The sound of pages turning could be heard from all around.

As expected of magic-powerhouse South Korea, the textbooks themselves were quite systematic.

Rather than diving straight into theory, each chapter began with hands-on activities to spark the children’s interest.

For example, they would compare what happens when little mana is infused into Light magic versus when a lot is infused, allowing the children to discover the differences themselves.

Once all the children clearly understood the theory, they would introduce new experiments with counterexamples to challenge their thinking.

Light magic is very intuitive. Infuse little mana, you get a little light; infuse a lot, you get a flood of light.

However, if some magic follows linearity, there’s bound to be magic that doesn’t.

Some have maximum values at specific points.

Vector (directional) magic, particularly the polar coordinate assignment I frequently use, is a prime example.

Magic that transforms physical quantities to reach values I initially set, centered around the caster, doesn’t benefit from simply infusing more mana.

So if you were to graph mana-efficiency for vector magic, you’d mostly get upward-convex quadratic functions.

Of course, they wouldn’t ask elementary students to draw such complex graphs; they’d just teach them how to infuse mana into magic circles.

“I’m going to tell you about the first performance assessment for Magic Infusion. Everyone listen carefully!”

After about 30 minutes of teaching, Teacher Jackie stood in front of the blackboard to announce the much-anticipated assessment details.

Even the mischievous Seo-ri became serious during this time.

“First, the assessment will be done in pairs. Once you’ve formed your pairs, I’ll give each of you five model magic circles. In case you’ve forgotten how to use the model magic circles, I’ll demonstrate now.”

From a rectangular box, five palm-sized model magic circles appeared.

Teacher Jackie picked one up and held it high for all of us to see. In her other hand dangled an empty box.

“First, press the safety button in the center firmly. Make sure the box lid is positioned to properly face the magic circle. Then, send mana to any part of the magic circle.”

The mana concentrates at the bottom.

Then the magic circle begins to resonate and emit light.

Beep-

A strange sound came from the empty box.

Teacher Jackie reminded us not to forget to press the center button again after using the model magic circle, then showed us the box.

[8.6]

“Can everyone see this number? It indicates how efficiently the magic was cast. It ranges from 0 to 10. What does it mean if you get a 0 or 1?”

“The magic wasn’t cast properly!”

“The mana was infused incorrectly!”

“That’s right. Either the magic wasn’t cast properly, or the mana was infused incorrectly. So from the next class, you’ll spend time experimenting with infusing mana into these five model magic circles in different ways.”

After carefully putting the model set back in the box, Teacher Jackie opened another package and placed several identical products on the desk.

“From today until Friday, you’ll experiment for 20 minutes each day. Class A, you’ll work with your partners to infuse mana into the models and discuss what characteristics each magic circle has. Then on Friday, during the last period, you’ll each submit a written report on the features you’ve discovered about the magic circles on paper that I’ll distribute later. That’s your performance assessment!”

The children exchanged meaningful glances.

It was an assessment that would let them skip 20 minutes of boring magic class every day.

On the other hand, they couldn’t cheer just yet, fearing how difficult it might be if so much time was being allocated to it.

I pondered the model magic circles I’d seen earlier.

It seemed they’d put considerable effort into preventing anyone from completing the assessment outside of school.

They deliberately didn’t reveal what kind of magic it was, providing only the magic circle to prevent children from searching online.

The model magic circles only showed the results of magic casting through light brightness, making them distinctly different from actual magic circles.

And as a performance assessment, there was no definitive answer for the report writing.

Friends who weren’t good at writing seemed to have a bleak future ahead.

Children this age would be especially confused without clear grading criteria, so I was curious to see how they’d overcome this challenge.

“I’ll take questions about the assessment for the remaining time.”

“Teacher! What exactly should we write about?”

“Write about what you’ve learned in the textbook! Like how efficiency was low when you infused a little mana in the center, or how efficiency increased when you infused a lot of mana on both sides of the magic circle. We’ve practiced all this in previous classes, right?

You can also analyze the runes or formulas on the magic circle if you can! Compare with the other four magic circles and note that circles with certain runes have certain characteristics, or formulas with specific features. The content is entirely up to you. Understand?”

“Yes…”

“While you’ll discuss in pairs, the grading will be based solely on the final report you submit, so everyone needs to work hard! Got it?”

This would be challenging. It’s training to identify magic circles through numerous trial and error methods.

Of course, they wouldn’t need to know the exact content here, but this was also a preliminary step toward creating Dispel magic, or what’s known as counterspell formulas.

It’s practical and therefore interesting.

The children already looked gloomy after hearing about the assessment, thinking it was like blind men touching an elephant.

But if you keep touching an elephant for days on end, wouldn’t you eventually get a feel for it?

At least the elephant won’t report us for harassment.