High School of Demon Hunting

”Here, you fill in the team you’ve chosen.”

”Over here, select a few time slots, including your guess of the duration of the hunt, your prediction of the prey’s escape time, and the time you fill out the lottery ticket.....Each time slot has a different weightage in the final formula, so be careful in making your selection.”

”Lastly, there’s this,” Half-Face flipped over the parchment in Zheng Qing’s hand, pointing to a blank space on the back, and prompted, ”Here, fill in your stake... uh, you just handed me five Silver Horns, eighteen bronze coins. Do you only intend to invest this much?”

Zheng Qing glanced at other people’s stakes.

Zhang Ji Xin, coming from a distinguished clan, easily threw in five jade coins; Xin Fat man was a bit more cautious and wrote down two jade coins; even Doctor Xiao, normally known for his thrifty lifestyle, filled in five gold beans.

”Cough, ahem,” the young scholarship student’s ears turned red, he coughed softly and stated somewhat subconsciously, ”I didn’t bring much cash today...”

”Anything goes, it’s not limited to money.” Half Face cheerfully added another sentence.

”Anything?” Zheng Qing raised his eyebrows, slightly curious, ”Any stake is OK? Do you also take souls here, hahaha...”

Feeling that his own idea was somewhat exaggerated, the young wizard couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Half-Face didn’t seem to find Zheng Qing’s comment funny.

He tilted his head, his chin slightly wrinkled, as if he was pondering over something.

When the scholarship student’s laughter died down, the duly attentive businessman raised three fingers, and slowly said, ”Firstly, it’s a lotto pool, not a stake... this must be remembered, we don’t gamble.”

Zheng Qing looked at him with a beaming smile and nodded repeatedly.

He could understand the taboo and the desire to make it sound better. Like in the way Taoists call saliva ’Jade Fluid’ or ’Sweet Spring’, nose as ’Hermitage’ or ’Central Peak’; monks refer to patched robes as ’Meritorious Clothes’ or ’Robes’; Confucians like to refer Confucius’ chitchat as ’Profoundly Rational Sayings’ — whatever sounds good.

”Secondly, the Wandering Wizard has no restrictions on whether these contracts can be filled with ’souls’.” Half-Face sincerely said to Zheng Qing, ”So, theoretically, you can put your soul in... but considering the ’Wizard’s Code’, I suggest that you don’t randomly fill in such lotto, which can easily cause trouble for everyone...”

Zheng Qing was shocked as he looked at Half-Face, yet it seemed that there wasn’t a hint of joking in his tone.

”Lastly, the Wandering Wizard has stated that he can accept any form of lotto, and swore on the name of Satan. The Heaven and Earth are witnesses.” In order to strengthen the persuasiveness of his words, Half-Face also slightly lowered his head and tugged at the brim of his hat as a sign of earnestness.

”That’s really quite magical.” The young scholarship student muttered softly, his hand rummaging blindly in the grey cloth bag. A sudden spark of inspiration lit up his face, he looked up at Half-Face, ”Can I stake three university credits?”

”Heh!” Half-Face raised his head in surprise.

Unintentionally, Zheng Qing caught a glimpse of a pair of strikingly blue-green eyes, like a bewitching Persian cat.

These were a pair of eyes that seemed familiar to him.

Suddenly, he recalled the memory.

It was when he had turned into a cat for the first time, sneaked out of his dormitory from the balcony, and had encountered these guys around the hazelnut tree downstairs. At that time, he was being provoked by a twin-tailed squirrel, while a few young wizards standing under the tree, excitedly placing bets on whether the black cat or the squirrel would win under the encouragement of ’Lǜèyǎnér’.

Well, they were indeed professionals, Zheng Qing muttered to himself.

”University Credits? Do you know what that entails?” Half-Face emphasized while pressing onto the heavy notebook.

The question was too naive.

Zheng Qing waggled his student card in front of Half-Face, clipped between his fingers.

The bright red number thirty-three on the card was incredibly eye-catching under the sunlight.

These were all the academic credits Zheng Qing had accumulated over the course of a month and half since matriculation.

After being at the school for such a time, the importance of academic credits was quite clear to the freshman students.

An academic credit could be directly exchanged for a jade coin—if on the black market, this exchange rate could be even higher; ten academic credits would open access to most of the public facilities of the university to these young wizards; and if one could accumulate a hundred academic credits, then the fresh-faced freshmens could smoothly advance into sophomore year without any risk of being held back.

In addition, the intangible glory, respect, and convenience brought about by high academic credits could be seen everywhere on campus. For example, if you have a question about magic studies, you could get priority appointments with professors. Higher-level magic books in the Book Mountain Library would be incrementally open to you. Even in the laboratory, free herbs and alchemical goods, those wizards with high academic credits would have a higher allocation.

All of these benefits made every student consider accumulating academic credits extremely important.

Zheng Qing was awarded multiple times by the professors because of his excellent performance in Talisman and Magic Text classes. Along with the ten academic credits he exchanged for the hundreds of invitation letters he received at the beginning of the school year from Old Yao, and the rewards he got for his night patrol near Lin Zhong Lake, especially his performance in the ’Sand Hour Worm Incident’—all in all, even though he had been enrolled for less than two months, Zheng Qing had already earned the academic credits which most students would take half a semester to accrue.

According to Xiao Xiao’s calculations, if Zheng Qing maintains this momentum, then by the end of the semester, Zheng Qing could likely occupy a prominent place on the academic rankings for the first year based on his advantage in academic credits

However, compared with most other freshmen, academic credits are always a scarce resource.

Every single academic credit is exceedingly valuable.

Therefore, it is not difficult to understand Half-Face’s surprise at Zheng Qing’s bet of three academic credits as a stake.

”There are few freshmen who make stakes like you.” Half-Face tipped his hat, his strange eye disappearing, with only the lower half of his face remaining. He flipped his notebook with great interest, nodding continuously, ”Freshmen are always trying to accumulate academic credits for fear of failing their exams at the end of the semester and getting retained... Very few people use academic credits as stakes like you do.”

Zheng Qing didn’t care about Half-Face’s endless reminiscing.

He held his breath and listened very carefully to distinguish the voice of ’Lǜèyǎnér’.

”Sure enough...I knew this voice sounded familiar.” The scholarship student murmured, nodding, talking to himself.

”What?” Half-Face noticed his unfinished words and looked at him in surprise, ”My voice? Do you know me?”

”No, not at all.” Zheng Qing swayed his head vehemently, denying Half-Face’s assumption.

He would not let a stranger know about his secret that he could turn into a cat.

After a pause, the scholarship student forcefully explained, ”I just said the voice in the Speaker Flowers sounded a bit familiar...”

In the Speaker Flowers, the commentator’s voice, against the background music of ”Go to Hunting Ground”, described the brilliant records of each hunting team in that small world with excitement, even explaining the tactics and magical characteristics currently used by those hunting teams from time to time.

Half-Face glanced suspiciously at the Speaker Flower, and eventually, shook his head, lifted the peacock feathered pen in his hand, and said, ”Well, Zheng Qing from Jiuyou Academy, your final stake is three academic credits, five silver horns, and eighteen bronze coins... Do you want to add anything else?”

Zheng Qing shook his head.

”Although the stake isn’t much, it’s quite interesting... finally, I wish you all good luck.”

After saying that, Half-Face tilted his head, tipped his hat at the other Jiuyou Academy wizards, who had been chatting quietly nearby, turned around and left. In the blink of an eye, he had disappeared into the bustling crowd.