NOVPUBUnder Bachel’s guidance, they reentered the teaching area. Traversing spiral staircases layer by layer, their surroundings were filled with inky darkness. Gradually, a dim light illuminated their way. The spiraling stairs disappeared behind them, replaced by an old, stone corridor.
This initial corridor seemed to incubate everything in the teaching area. Limestone solidified on the stone walls, showcasing traces of time. The reflection of candlelight on the stone walls emitted a faint halo, and the air was filled with the scent of ancient rock and a slight dampness.
Each corridor had its unique mark - perhaps a certain carving, a worn-out spot, or even a singular metallic floorboards.
These minute differences were essential for Bachel in recognizing each corridor.
Lanci and Hyperion followed in Bachel’s footsteps, crossing corridor after corridor, slowly delving into the territory’s depths.
Finally, Bachel halted before an exquisite and small wooden door.
On the door, three demon markings were inscribed.
"This is rumored to be a painting classroom, one of the scarce Level 3 difficulties in the art category," Bachel explained to the two.
Upon hearing this, Hyperion instinctively took a step back. It seemed that she was somewhat traumatized.
Now, she saw art from the Demon World as somewhat frightening.
She still had yet to forget the Level 2 Music class from before.
However, in any case, the Music Rhythm Magic matched Lanci’s forte, his fundamental magic card [Great Love Poet] was a musical rhythm magic summon.
And this time, they had encountered a higher difficulty - the painting classroom.
"How are you Lanci... with painting?" Hyperion asked, looking at him.
"I know a thing or two," Lanci replied with a composed smile.
"Hmm," Hyperion let out a sigh of relief.
Although she did not know how confident Lanci was, she trusted him enough.
Leading the way by pushing the door open, Lanci entered the classroom that looked rather refreshing, followed closely by Hyperion.
The interior of the classroom was circular, the walls were made of grey stone and murals. There was no traditional front or back direction, but all the seats were arranged around the central round table forming a complete circular viewing angle.
This design allowed the teacher to interact with each student more easily and the students to discuss more conveniently.
It is the most normal classroom Lanci has seen so far.
[Seminar: Demon World Art Appreciation]
[Location: F17 corridor, Art storage & research room]
The grey stone wall had clear text written on it.
Seemingly, every part of this classroom’s wall could be used as a whiteboard for teaching.
The basic rules of this classroom were also very clear.
[Attacking other students is not allowed]
[Seminar Topic: Determine whether a painting is ’yes’ or ’no’ by a professor of the academy]
[Senior Professor Mogut will randomly select works from the art storage]
[These could be paintings by several art professors from the academy, or perhaps the work of graduating students; there would be discrepancies in the painting levels]
[Students need to discern]
Only five students were seated when Lanci and Hyperion entered.
A senior demon professor stood at one end of the room, checked his pocket watch, and felt that class time was fast approaching.
The demon professor quietly opened the door behind him and brought out a small cart full of paintings from the art storage. He then selected four of them, hung them up on the wall so that all five students could clearly see them.
"I am the senior professor of the Art Department at this academy. I will first show you a few examples. For instance, these two on the left side are works by professors from the academy’s Art Department, and the other two are by students," said Professor Mogut, pointing to the paintings on the wall.
The few students in the classroom immediately turned their eyes to the paintings, observing them with rapt attention.
Because the forms of the paintings varied, containing oil paintings, watercolors, and charcoal drawings among the four pieces, Hyperion found them not strongly comparative. In fact, she could not determine the quality of these four paintings at all.
Lanci, who was beside her, rested his chin on his hand, glanced briefly at the four paintings, and then nodded slightly.
"The rule for the upcoming test is, if you answer correctly you will earn 1 point, and if you answer incorrectly you will lose 1 point. For every five minutes that you do not answer, 1 point will be automatically deducted, and if you are in negative points, the professor can execute a penalty,"
"For the first round, if no one initiates an answer, I will randomly select one person, and then the answering will proceed in a clockwise direction through a round of questions. Starting with the second round, you can enter the free-for-all answer mode,"
"By the end of the class, as long as you don’t have negative points, you will pass. The higher your score, the better your reward. So far, the highest record is 21 points,"
Professor Mogut explained as he looked around at the five pupils.
The nearest students didn’t seem to be anything special, so the hope of breaking the record was not likely.
...
In the Magic Engineering College Laboratory, the yellow lights reflected on a messy workbench covered in a myriad of tools. Despite the late hour, a few students could be seen sitting in front of a large screen, watching a live show of the Demon Shadow World that was as shocking as real life.
All of these students had faces that were tired but satisfied, their eyes firmly fixed on the screen, as if they were watching a competition.
This Demon Shadow World show was just too explosive.
Even though they had all been made to wear masks of pain by Lanci in the music classroom earlier, they had gradually come to realize that Lanci was actually a prankster. They had never seen a Shadow World as fun as this.
"Could the difficulty level 3 classroom be even more terrifying than the difficulty level 2 music classroom we had before?"
A magic artisan echoed Hyperion’s concerns.
"Definitely, but no matter how much torment, I still want to see the Great Love Poet. She is so pretty, I really want to..."
"Cough! One should not, and must not fall in love with a Magic Card! You must read through Professor Bolao’s "Card Maker’s Code of Ethics" again!"
"If you don’t understand how to appreciate art, how on Earth can you tell the difference?"
The magic artisans in front of the screen began to discuss after hearing the rules.
However, on the other side of the room, a young man sitting on a couch pointed and said:
"In addition to the difference in skill level, the ink on the painting should leave a trace of magic power. If you have the ability to precisely identify magic power, you can detect the magic power characteristics of the painter. If you answer a few questions, based on the previous answers, you would gradually remember the magic power characteristics of several professors of the academy, and subsequent identification will become easier and easier."
"The real difficulty of this classroom lies in the first few questions at the beginning of the first round, which undoubtedly poses the greatest risk, because there is no information to act as a basis, one can only rely purely on analyzing painting techniques or taking a chance."
The words of the young man made the second-year students who sat in the front seats come to a realization.
"As expected of Prince Aynor!"
The second-year students turned around and gave the young man sitting on the couch a thumbs-up.
The young man on the sofa, who also happened to be the Second Prince of Hutton Kingdom, Aynor, grinned in response.
He didn’t seem to have any of the typical noble airs about him, looking just like an ordinary member of the upperclassmen.
"Didn’t Princess Vivian say that this guy named Lanci is very good at appreciating paintings? Then won’t he thrive in this classroom?"
A silver-level card maker girl was still accompanying him and asked Aynor.
"No, no, the difficulty is very high. The art style of the Lost era in the Demon World is quite unfamiliar to us humans. Even for those four sample paintings, even if I were to come forward and appreciate them, I wouldn’t be so certain."
Aynor frowned slightly, pondering for a moment.
"If you were to appraise the next painting, what’s the likelihood of answering correctly?"
The girl stared at Aynor’s handsome face, which rivaled that of a hermit from outside the world, and asked.
"Full fifty percent."
Aynor confidently replied.
"?"
The girl was taken aback.
She mused that isn’t it at least a 50% chance of guessing correctly in a multiple-choice question?
She then endured her anger, gritting her teeth, her fists tightly clenched.
