High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1017: Chapter 79: Final Exam Results

The ”rumors” Xin Fat Man mentioned were soon proven not to be mere rumors.

On the first day of the new semester, February sixteenth, he encountered two members of different clubs drawing their law books during a quarrel on their way to class, and they were taken away on the spot by members of the student council, making him acutely aware of how badly the rivalry between the two major school clubs had deteriorated.

Meanwhile, as the leader of the Absolution club, he too received a recruitment letter.

However, unlike other club leaders who received just one recruitment letter, Zheng Qing received letters signed by both bigwigs, Lei Zhe and Augustus.

”You’ve been staring at those two cards for nearly an hour!” Xiao Xiao’s lips moved slightly, her soft voice rustling in Zheng Qing’s ear, ”You’re eventually going to have to choose a side. It won’t be too late to look at them after class... Old Yao glanced at you several times just now.”

Upon hearing the last warning, Zheng Qing abruptly looked up towards the podium.

Unfortunately, his gaze met with Old Yao’s on the podium. The professor’s eyebrows lifted slightly, and though his mouth still held a smile, his eyes had a scrutinous and somewhat disapproving look.

Zheng Qing suspected this was the legendary expression of a ”cold smile on the face.”

This made the young publicly funded student tense up and immediately straighten his back even more.

Today was the first day of the new semester, and this was the first class of the new term. Professor Yao wasn’t introducing new spells, but rather, leading everyone to review a few spell formulas learned the previous semester, and to explain the final exam paper from that semester.

Even though there was no new content, this didn’t mean that it was acceptable to be absent-minded in such a class.

Especially since Zheng Qing’s marks from the previous semester were not as extraordinary as everyone had anticipated.

The grading system in university differed from that during the secondary school period, not based on a hundred-point scale but a new term called GPA, the famed grade point average.

The basic formula for GPA is the score divided by ten, then subtracted by five. In other words, with a hundred-point scale exam paper, if you score a hundred, the highest GPA you can achieve is 5; score sixty, and the passing GPA is 1.

For the students of Jiuyou Academy, the GPA only ranged from 1 to 5, with scores below 1 recorded as zero, requiring a retake of the exam.

Of course, Zheng Qing’s marks, although not in the top two, were not so low as to necessitate a retake.

Out of ten courses, Zheng Qing achieved the highest score of 5 in Talisman Studies, while in curse, Astronomy, Practice, Daily Life, and Philosophy of Magic, he gained a GPA above 4 for each; the remaining History, Divination, and Potion were all a little over 3, and in Alchemy, he only obtained a GPA of 2.9. According to class rankings, he was the fifth from the bottom in Astronomy Class 08-1.

Average GPA of 4.15, this mark is considered excellent for most students at First University, even by Jiuyou Academy’s standards, this GPA would warrant an A grade, making one eligible to apply for most of the school’s scholarships.

But when comparisons are made, they can be hurtful.

As a key class at Jiuyou Academy, the average GPA of Astronomy Class 08-1 is 4.05, meaning Zheng Qing’s average score was only 0.1 above the class average. Although this didn’t mean his performance was average in his class, it clearly indicated that he was not part of the top echelon of students.

To Zheng Qing’s knowledge, the witches in his class, especially those seated in the front row, all had an average GPA above 4.5. Even Li Meng had obtained an average GPA of 4.

This is simply unbearable.

In particular, when Zheng Qing entered the school, he did so as one of the only two publicly-funded students.

Especially since at the beginning of this year, Zheng Qing had just received the title of Great Arcana ’World’.

Not to mention, he was also a recipient of the Merlin Medal, and his organized Hunting team had taken first place in the school hunting competition, among other things.

The more honors one has, the more pressure this result brings to him.

So much so that when other people in his class asked him about his scores, all he could do was laugh it off and say in a very reluctant tone, ”Did poorly, did poorly, just barely above an A on average.”

This was a very skill-testing way to answer.

Because you could neither tell the other person your actual exam scores nor let them look down on you; you needed to reveal a bit of your level, yet give the other person enough room to imagine—the size of this space depended on the expression you wore while answering.

You needed to have a trace of regret on your face, a slight downward tilt at the corners of your mouth to show disdain, and it was best to shrug your shoulders and squeeze out a bit of a smile. If the other person’s evaluation happened to be below an A, and they showed a bit of envy and annoyance after hearing your answer, then congratulations, your performance was a success. They wouldn’t care about your specific score, but they would look down on your pretense.

But anyhow, looking down on pretense is a bit better than looking down on not living up to one’s name, right?

”I heard that after the final exam scores are out each year, a lot of Jiuyou Academy students apply to transfer to Alpha Academy,” Zheng Qing murmured without taking his eyes off Professor Yao’s back on the podium. ”I wonder what the requirements are for transferring... Do you think if I accept Augustus’s invitation, he could help me get into Alpha Academy?”

”Augustus is just the president of the student council, and the leader of the Blood Comrades... Alpha Academy isn’t his to offer,” Xiao Xiao, sitting next to him, rolled her eyes and comforted him in an annoyed tone, ”Besides, isn’t your credit point average very high? Just don’t mind the simple final exam GPA.”

Zheng Qing felt somewhat relieved by this answer.

The so-called credit point average was based on the final exam GPA, which took into account mid-term scores and daily performance, calculated with different weights to arrive at the final GPA—this GPA, in addition to being weighted against the daily credits on the credit card, was also a principal reference for advancing from lower to higher grades.

Because Zheng Qing had a high daily credit score, after all the calculations, he just barely ranked third in his class, right behind Xiao Xiao and Liu Feifei, and just a little bit higher than Jiang Yu.

Indeed, in this final exam, the top student of Jiuyou Academy was Doctor Xiao, who scored nearly perfect marks in all subjects except for Alchemy, Philosophy and Life Lesson, with an average GPA of a mind-numbing 4.91, becoming the student with the highest average GPA at Jiuyou Academy in nearly twenty years.

Without a close second.

So, facing Xiao Xiao’s consolation, Zheng Qing had nothing but a poker face—his performance was good, so whatever he said was right.

”Zheng Qing, it looks like you have a lot to say to your classmates, don’t you?” On the podium, Old Yao hooked his finger, beckoning the warlock sitting at the back of the classroom to stand up, ”Come on, tell everyone about the Spell Formula of the Chaos Spell and the key points of execution... And also tell everyone why you only got half the score on this spell in the final exam!”

Xin Fat Man, sitting in front of Zheng Qing, turned his Half-Face with difficulty and squeezed out a grin that begged for a beating.

Zheng Qing, with a look of utter misery, dutifully picked up his Law book.