The Knowledgable
The Knowledgable
"Passing one exam with 100% is already extremely challenging for our best apprentices but passing all three without making a single mistake? Don't turn yourself into a laughing stock with empty words. Learning for a single Artisan exam within one week is already tough...Don't overestimate your abilities!"
Antalia admonished him in a serious voice and she was obviously not pleased with Jason´s words that followed next.
"But, WHAT IF I can do it?" Jason asked resolutely, without listening to her words.
Seron also looked at Jason as if he was asking to get beaten up or punished.
He would not receive any rewards because he wasn't included in the statistics as he had learned about the basic occupations since birth.
Furthermore, he didn't have the ambition to learn a lifestyle occupation as his mana channels gave him enough work to do as it is.
Seron would probably receive a high score for all tests and one or two with a 100% score, but being able to receive full marks for all exams would be hard for even him if a nasty question were to come up.
Jason looked confident on the outside, but nobody knew that he was as confident on his inside as he was on the outside. Had they known that, they would have questioned his sanity.
Even Till looked at Jason as if he was an idiot but Jason didn't mind the stares.
He was only looking at the fair-skinned busty woman who returned his gaze.
She saw ambition, determination, and confidence in his eyes which caused her to gulp down her anger because it was obvious that Jason was serious.
"If you can pass all three exams with a 100% score, I´ll give you a copy of my "book of experiences".
You will find all the recipes I've learned so far written down in the book, including the things I've gone through while brewing."
Jason listened carefully, but he wasn't really sure how much of a reward her book of experience was.
However, everyone sitting inside the assembly hall was shocked as they began to gossip.
This told him that it was definitely nothing cheap and if he had known that reagent recipes were extremely expensive, he would have realised that her reward was worth more than a few billion credits…
Not many Artisans would sell their occupational diary to others and if someone did, the prices would soar to the billions within seconds during an auction.
Receiving first-hand experience was important as the basic lifestyle-occupations could be dangerous, and except grade-1 healing reagents, reagent recipes couldn´t be purchased by everyone.
Jason knew, for example, that the price for paralyzing reagents was not expensive solely because of their ingredients as their selling price would bring in more than 20 times the raw material costs in profit.
These reagents were expensive because of the astronomically high prices for reagent recipes, the unimaginably high rate of failure, and the investment one made while learning the basics.
Antalia looked at Jason with a proud face, but she frowned when she noticed that the youth in front of her wasn't even slightly impressed with her answer.
Never would she know that Jason wasn't aware that the book of experience from Rank 4 was worth a fortune.
His blank face made her think that he ridiculed her indirectly which caused her to fume in anger.
Provoked by his nonexistent reaction, she thoughtlessly blurted out the first thing that popped up in her head.
"In addition, I´ll give you the chance to make a request at the Artisan tower in Cyro-City."
However, when she noticed what she had said, it was already too late and she could barely add,
"Under the condition that you pass all aptitude tests."
Hearing her made the whole assembly hall go wild.
With that being said, Jason´s curiosity was finally piqued up
`Making a request at the Artisan tower could mean almost anything, including crafting a mana gathering platform at home, crafting him mana-, a soul weapon, or even a mysterious potion, if a high-ranked Artisan who was capable to fulfill the requirement was around`.
He knew that the Cyro city Artisan tower had a Rank 5 Blacksmith who was said to be very close to the 6th Rank.
As such, he could craft Mid Grade-3 weapons and also mana and soul weapons but that was not what made Antalias' statement sound so foolish.
If she allowed him to make a request for almost everything, he could also ask for guidance from this Rank 5 blacksmith or even worse, ask him to take him as a disciple and Antalia would only slap herself for being foolish and stupid.
But what was said, was said and it would harm the reputation of the Artisan-tower if she would take back her words, as she was representing the whole Artisan tower at the moment.
`Arghhh I´m so stupid!!` she thought and Jason smiled lightly while asking himself what kind of things he could request at the Artisan tower.
However, it would be extremely difficult to pass all three aptitude exams and Jason was aware of the fact.
Till quieted down everyone with another snap and Antalia tried to not mind Jason anymore.
Turning away she tapped on the holographic screen in front of her as a holographic screen appeared out of their tables, where one had to write down his or her basic details to appear for the exams.
After logging in, the exams immediately started and there was no time to waste.
Almost everyone's credibility and financial status were on the line as nobody would ever want to graduate from school with debts.
A silent pressure wafted through the whole assembly hall and everyone's concentration heightened.
Jason entered his credentials before looking at the first file which was about inscribing and runemasters.
Only a few minutes passed, and Antalia was looking through the rows of students, and she saw many dejected youths.
In her opinion, the questions weren't that hard, only the large section of topics to learn was more difficult including a few in-depth questions.
Learning for the most basic exam like this would at most take 1 month, but considering the time-span of one week, she hoped that, at least, a few good seedlings would be able to catch her eyes.
Among the frowning youths, she saw one in particular who caused her to almost laugh in joy.
Jason, the handsome youth who had been so full of himself, was frowning when only a few minutes had passed.
She almost couldn't contain her laughter and it took her a while to calm down.
Upon inspecting Jason closer with mana amplified eyes, she noticed that Jason was neither sweating nor showing signs of being afraid to amass a huge amount of debts which surprised her.
Seeing Jason writing down answers consistently, she thought that he was merely guessing the answers without thinking hard about the right answer.
His answering speed was way too fast for someone who had only a single week to memorize everything and she lost interest in Jason after a short amount of time.
One could say Antalia was disappointed because she had somehow hoped to find a hidden gem.
Considering that she was forced to join as a lecturer for the weakest affiliated Vanguard-school, she was in an unpleasant mood from the beginning and Jason had caused her to feel slightly better.
She wouldn't really lose anything if she had to send Jason a copy of her book of experience.
Furthermore, sending such a file to a genius who had learned for all three basic exams and could pass them with flying colors within a week wouldn't be a bad trade to gain some trust.
If his mana-mastery was extremely good and he could pass the alchemy aptitude test, she would immediately try to lure him as her disciple.
With this, she might even be able to gain a decent amount of fame and reputation as a prodigy´s teacher.
She had been harboring the dream for a decent amount of years already, like many other artisans, but the truth was that it had never really worked out and if it did, higher-ranked artisans would lure their prodigious disciples over, saying that they would nurture them.
Antalia had seen many cases like that and it was always sad to see gentle and innocent children drawn into the scheming of others.
Six hours had passed in a blur and more than half of the students were still sitting in front of their holographic screens with most of them showing desperate expressions.
Some of them even began crying, because they couldn't answer most of the questions.
After figuring out that there was no way for them to pass the theoretical exam, their mind was devastated.
This meant they had to pay back the costs of all the recommended books, which would require them to amass a huge fortune.
Would they be able to pay everything back before they graduated from school by completing school missions? Probably not!
Most students who had only picked a single lecture to attend had left the hall hours ago and it was not difficult to figure out if they passed or not due to their joyous mood, as most hadn't fallen to the schools´ scheming.
Jason was still writing his answers at a fast pace and it looked like his writing speed hadn't changed since the beginning.
Only a few minutes after the 6th hour passed, Jason submitted the files consisting of his answers to the AI.
The AI would complete checking the answers and awarding the marks within 5 minutes. Meanwhile, he decided to lift his head in order to watch the Rank 4 Alchemist's reaction.
After five minutes, Jason got a notification and the three exams' results were sent to him. However, he didn't look at his score and kept his eye trained on the busty woman, who had also received a notification.
Every file that had passed the exam would be sent to the head lecturer, who in this case, was Antalia.
Previously Ms.Sharon hadn't looked at even a single notification she had received which left a few students feeling wronged as they had tried to show off their knowledge in front of the three Artisans.
However, nobody cared about that at all.
But right after she got the last notification, she felt weird as if someone wanted something from her.
It was uncomfortable and she felt naked in front of the unknown gaze.
Turning around she saw Jason staring at her and when both looked into each other's eyes, Jason smiled, while pointing at his own quantum watch.
Antalia had a premonition rising up inside her as she immediately opened up the last notification she had received, only to see something pleasant and unpleasant at the same time.
[Jason Stela: Grade-1 Class:54 Rank:224
Basic-Alchemy apprentice Exam→ 100%
Basic-Blacksmithing apprentice Exam→ 100%
Basic-Runemaster apprentice Exam→ 100%]
Her jaw hit the ground and a "What?!!" echoed through the wide hall, making all students lose their focus.
Jason liked her reaction and knew that he had passed the exams with 100%, so he stood up and left the assembly hall, without minding Ms.Sharon's eyes burning into the back of his head following each step he took.
Goosebumps spread over his skin and if Jason hadn't known better he would think that Antalia wanted him to take off his clothes and do something to him, as her eyes burned with desire.
Her eyes followed the black-haired youth, who looked no older than 14 as she questioned herself how it was possible for him to simultaneously learn for three basic apprentice exams within a week.
To add on, Jason had only taken two hours to answer every exam which was one hour less than allotted for every exam.
Previously, she had scanned Jason's mana core and now, this information combined with everything else was more shocking to her than seeing a Rank 5 Artisan.
But never would she have known that Jason´s memory was so good because he had refined his brain in order to split his mind.
Without that, it would have been impossible for Jason to score 100% in every exam.
Rather, it would have been difficult for him to pass even a single exam, as the required knowledge was too exhaustive to remember.
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