High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2178: Chapter 399: A Discussion on Winter Hunting and Spring Hunting

To cultivate the finest young wizards, apart from the annual hunting party in October, First University also hosts two school-wide hunting events.

One is the Winter Hunting in December, and the other is the Spring Hunting around April.

Both hunting events are actually based on the same target, which is the vast Silent Forest surrounding the First University campus.

Every late winter and early spring, hungry magical creatures in the Silent Forest rush out of the forest, impacting school territories including Beta Town, in search of food and other outlets — which is the well-known ’Silent Black Tide’.

First University conducts the Winter Hunting because many magical creatures expand their hunting grounds to store energy before hibernating, encroaching on First University’s territory, and even harming some students during practice. Hence, the school regularly conducts Winter Hunting to thwart those monsters sneaking out from the depths of the forest to forage, focusing mainly on the outskirts of the Silent Forest and the banks of the Silent River that flows around the school.

As for Spring Hunting, the reasoning is similar. After the Silent Black Tide recedes each year, most magical creatures that surged out of the Dark Forest retreat with the ’tide’, but many creatures, for various reasons, remain in the areas once ravaged by the Black Tide. The purpose of First University’s Spring Hunting is to ’clean up’, restoring the forest to facilitate student practice activities.

In summary, whether Winter Hunting or Spring Hunting, they largely focus on the Silent Black Tide — during the 2008-2009 academic year, because an early return of the Silent Tide partially released the pressure before the formal arrival of the Black Tide, coupled with the imminent Battle of Black Prison, there was a tense atmosphere inside and outside the school, so that academic year’s Spring Hunting ended up being cancelled.

Earlier in that academic year (2008-2009), the Winter Hunting took place in the 17th week after school started, which was the fourth to last week before winter break.

It was already the end of December, that Wednesday was Christmas Eve, Thursday was Christmas, followed by the Winter Hunting from Friday to Sunday (December 26th to December 28th). The week after Winter Hunting included New Year’s Day and the Laba Festival, with a day off for New Year’s Day. When that week ended and students returned to school, the semester-end exams began on January 5th.

In total, the two weeks after the winter solstice, legitimate study time was a mere seven days — including Saturday and Sunday — which meant that in the two or three weeks before finals, students couldn’t concentrate on revising, which was a nightmare arrangement for students at Jiuyou Academy.

During last year’s Winter Hunting days, Zheng Qing heard more than one person complain about the schedule set by the Professor Joint Meeting, and more than one person claimed to abandon Winter Hunting and focus entirely on preparing for the finals.

Therefore, this year, under strong student demand, Winter Hunting was moved to the 15th week of the school year, from Friday to Sunday, two weeks earlier than the previous year, giving everyone enough time for revision.

”Changing from three in the morning to four at dusk, a change with no sincerity.”

When evaluating this year’s arrangement for the Winter Hunting, Xin Fat Man’s words were as sharp as ever: ”After Winter Hunting week, Christmas and New Year’s won’t be canceled, they will still be before the exams, wasting a lot of our time...”

”You can just ignore those two holidays!”

Xiao Xiao, while organizing the materials on the table, sarcastically replied to the Fat Wizard without looking up: ”You want to dig up some gossip at the Christmas dance party, yet don’t want it to affect your revision time... is there such a good thing in this world!”

Clatter!

The small backpack Zheng Qing was holding fell to the ground, Poseidon regretfully looked at his backpack, lamenting why there wasn’t a water basin or fire pit beneath it.

The young scholarship student naturally couldn’t understand Little Fox’s feelings at the moment, he raised his head, glanced at the still bowed Doctor, then looked at the Fat Wizard selecting feather pens, his voice a bit stammering: ”Christmas... Christmas dance party? What Christmas dance party?”

Ever since being ’arranged’ by Su Shijun to attend the Moon Council dance party last night, he has been particularly sensitive to similar terms, so it’s inevitable he’s slightly flustered at this moment.

Xin Fat Man raised a bright green feather pen, glanced at the scholarship student somewhat puzzled: ”There are many, you should know... there’s the masquerade dance on Christmas Eve, the Moonlight parade, the Atlas Christmas Mass, blessing and prayer ceremonies, Starry Sky’s Christmas night arena, Jiuyou Academy’s... hmm, doesn’t our academy have any Christmas events?”

He turned to look at Xiao Xiao, his tone somewhat uncertain.

”Does exchanging apples count?”

The Absolution diviner asked seriously, glancing at Zheng Qing as if casually mentioning, ”By the way, I heard that every year, wizards affiliated with the Moon Council at First University hold a moonlight dance party...”

”Ah! It’s already six thirty!”

The young scholarship student hastily pulled out his pocket watch to check the time — half of this flustered manner was real, half was faked — then very rudely interrupted the doctor’s sentence: ”I have to hurry and take Poseidon back... Doctor, you’re heading to the library, right? Well... see you!”

Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, not at all irritated by being interrupted, calmly replied: ”No, I need to go to the Pedestrian Street, Hank said the store is low on frog stock, we need to restock from the Lake Linzhong Fishman Tribe... by the way, do you know what next Sunday is?”

Low frog stock was within Zheng Qing’s understanding.

Since Old Yao mentioned a few words about the ’Please Give Me a Frog’ movement during the class meeting the night before last, and then the Beta Town Post made a big announcement the next day, the calls supporting Northern District Wizards have been on the rise within the school, resulting in a surge in frog sales — many bought frogs not for magic experiments, but simply to donate to Northern District Wizards.

Because D&K has a business relationship with Lake Lingzhong Fishman Tribe, and fishmen like to snack on frogs, raising many in the lake, the small store Absolution opened has become exceptionally prosperous for a time.

But it was Xiao Xiao’s latter remark that Zheng Qing didn’t immediately grasp.

”Next Sunday?”

The young scholarship student furrowed his brows, counted on his fingers, looking somewhat puzzled: ”It’s not anyone’s birthday... nor is it a holiday... the school hasn’t arranged a Hunting Competition or other events either... what’s next Sunday?”

He turned to look at Xin Fat Man beside him.

”D&K’s first anniversary,” the Fat Wizard, full of disdain, looked at the nominal ’store owner’ ahead of him, rudely answered, ”You sure are running this place in a leisurely way.”

After saying that, he didn’t shy away from saying to Xiao Xiao, ”I’ve told you long ago, there’s no problem cooking the books a bit... maybe once we’ve emptied the store’s assets, he’ll remember he has a shop on Pedestrian Street.”