Su Sang flipped through the documents back and forth for a long time but found nothing.
Finally, he put down the documents in his hands, thought for a moment, and called up the staff member in charge of course scheduling.
"Why has the attendance rate for all the academy’s courses increased so much recently, especially for the basic courses, which have even gone up by forty to fifty percent?" Chairman Susang asked directly. "Did you implement some new measures?"
Under normal circumstances, the attendance rate for all courses within the academy fluctuated within a fixed range. It was rare to see such a massive shift.
In his view, there was a high probability that the staff subordinates had just done an exceptional job.
Fostering a strong academic atmosphere had always been one of the committee’s priorities. Seeing such fruitful results now, as the chairman, he was quite satisfied.
The questioned staff member scratched his head awkwardly. "No... we haven’t implemented any new measures."
"Then what is it?" Su Sang raised an eyebrow, continuing his inquiry.
"It’s just that the new students recruited this time are working too hard..." the staff member replied weakly.
"In the past, because new students came in with credits calculated from their Mage Level, they only needed to choose one or two courses in their first year to scrape together the required ten credits. They had no pressure, and their average number of elective courses was only around three.
"But this year..." The staff member paused, sighing with emotion. "It’s only the third month, and many new students have just finished their enrollment tasks, yet the average number of courses selected has already reached three. That’s equivalent to an entire year for new students in the past.
"The diligence of the new students has also indirectly boosted the older students’ enthusiasm for selecting courses..."
Su Sang was suddenly enlightened. No wonder the basic courses saw the highest increase in attendance among all the classes.
So it was because the main driving force consisted of the freshmen. Freshmen could only take basic courses as electives.
"The new students recruited this time have quite good character," Su Sang praised.
"It’s mainly because there’s a catfish..." the staff member said.
"A catfish? Who?" As the chairman and one of the highest-ranking Mages in the academy, Su Sang actually did not know much about what went on down below. Usually, only major events were reported to him; no one would bring gossip to his desk.
"It’s Gaode..." The staff member then gave a detailed account of the rivalry between Gaode and Yulan. "...His sixteen selected courses caused Yulan to choose seven courses in order to fight for first place in credits. Then, not to be outdone, Jelica also chose seven courses... With these three setting the standard right in front of them, the rest of the new students didn’t want to fall too far behind, so they more or less added one or two courses as well..."
"A Second-Class Mage Apprentice competing with Yulan for first place in credits?" Su Sang smiled, picking up the teacup from his desk and taking a slow sip. "And he’s taking sixteen courses at the same time?"
It wasn’t a smile of satisfaction, but one of sheer exasperation.
He still had some impression of this Gaode—a "country bumpkin" who others said had simply stepped into dumb luck.
Su Sang actually had no issue with Gaode’s "country bumpkin" origins. After all, he himself had entered Cyrus Academy as a commoner, relying entirely on his own hard work step by step to reach his current position. He wasn’t particularly opposed to admission by recommendation letter, either. After all, there were plenty of Nobility students in the academy who had gotten in through their family connections.
But now, Su Sang’s evaluation of Gaode had dropped significantly in his heart.
In his life, he hated two types of students the most. The first type were those who relied on their family background or natural talent to enter the academy, yet failed to cherish its resources, idling away their days and just drifting along.
The other type were those who were purely pretentious, putting on a show of hard work for outsiders to see while actually just acting, without genuinely learning a single thing. Especially the latter—they completely failed to understand that hard work was meant for themselves, not as a spectacle for others!
And right now, Su Sang had categorized Gaode firmly into that second group of students.
After all, by any logical standard, Gaode’s actions looked exactly like cheap grandstanding to please a crowd. He might be stealing the spotlight now, but wouldn’t his true colors be exposed when the final course assessments arrived? All the limelight he was enjoying now would have to be paid back in full by then.
What was the point?
He decided to just let the boy be; after all, Gaode was only sabotaging himself. At the very least, he had indirectly boosted the academy’s academic atmosphere, so his actions weren’t completely meaningless... Su Sang’s brow twitched as he waved his hand. "Alright, I understand."
......
Ice Seal Moon, 8th.
After his Guiding Technique achieved two consecutive breakthroughs, Gaode’s Meditation Technique progress finally saw an improvement as well.
On this day, he successfully manifested the tenth lotus petal.
Logically speaking, even if Gaode’s talent in the Meditation Technique far exceeded his cultivation talent in the Guiding Technique, the progress of the latter should have vastly outpaced the former because the Guiding Technique could be assisted by many external items.
The reason his meditation could barely keep up now was that repeatedly casting [Divine Guidance Skill+] to frequently enter a Flow state also stimulated the growth of his Spiritual Power to a certain extent.
This was an unexpected windfall that Gaode hadn’t anticipated. Although this level of stimulation wasn’t particularly obvious, it was still better than nothing.
Ice Seal Moon, 11th.
With the assistance of [Divine Guidance Skill+], Gaode finished learning all 651 Level-Zero basic Runes.
"Having mastered all the Level-Zero basic Runes, you’ve already reached the assessment criteria for the second stage of the Rune Science course," Jose let out a long breath, telling Gaode the honest truth. "Your current proficiency is on par with senior students who have been studying Runes for two years. And you... you’ve only been exposed to Rune Science for two and a half months."
The older students Jose was referring to were those who had already been screened and proven to possess a natural talent for Rune Science. In fact, if it were an ordinary person, they probably wouldn’t have reached Gaode’s current level even in ten years.
Gaode did not realize just how absurd this achievement was. He knew he had a certain level of talent for Rune Science, but he mostly attributed his success to [Divine Guidance Skill+].
"Next, your learning material will be the combination of Composite Runes," Jose continued.
"I will first teach you thirty-six classic Composite Runes. However, these are merely templates. The composition of Composite Runes is formless. Every Rune Master has their own Composite Runes that they have summarized and excel at.
"And Composite Runes mark the beginning of the widening gap between different Rune Masters.
"A good Rune Master can base their designs on the given requirements, using the minimum number of basic Runes and the most streamlined structures to assemble Composite Runes that are clear and easy to understand.
"At the same time, the Composite Runes they assemble possess excellent maintainability, making them easy to service and convenient for other Rune Masters to maintain in the Late-period.
"They also possess high efficiency. Streamlined structures and designs allow the Composite Runes assembled by good Rune Masters to operate with lower energy consumption. Conversely, Composite Runes drawn by inferior Rune Masters often contain unnecessary basic Runes, which needlessly waste Magic Power.
"High scalability is another factor. A good Composite Rune must have a flexible structure, allowing it to better connect with other Composite Runes to form a Magic Array. Those drawn by poor Rune Masters, however, are often fraught with difficulties when combined with other Composite Runes.
"High safety...
"High performance..."
After Jose eloquently rattled off a barrage of points, he took out a stack of Rune diagrams and handed them to Gaode.
"These thirty-six classic Composite Runes are flawless examples that perfectly meet these conditions," Jose explained.
"The first step of learning is imitation. You must first fully master these thirty-six classic Composite Runes and attempt to deconstruct and comprehend their design principles.
"Once you feel you have more or less mastered them, I will give you a test. At that time, you will design your own Composite Runes based on the requirements I put forward."