Subscriber of the Gods Chapter 380 - Mid-Term Evaluation (2)

Boom!

Following Team 5, other teams also encountered golems. Ethan had intentionally put a lot of effort into the first encounter with the golem.

This first encounter with the golem was the first assessment of how effective Ethan’s Introduction to Practical Studies class had been for them.

That’s why he had definitely raised the difficulty. Any team that couldn’t respond properly here or made even a slight misjudgment essentially meant they hadn’t properly digested the Introduction to Practical Studies class.

Ethan’s earlier joke-like remark had some truth to it.

He planned to conduct additional classes for such students after this midterm evaluation was over.

Ciron calmed his surprised heart and looked at the other teams.

It’s natural for Team 5, composed of Ethan’s favorite disciples, to be impressive. After all, they were the elites among the students taking Ethan’s Introduction to Practical Studies class.

Other teams would be different. If the difficulty level just witnessed persisted, someone would surely get hurt.

He prepared to intervene immediately if a dangerous situation arose, focusing intently.

“Huh?”

However, Ciron couldn’t help but be surprised once again.

“Those kids…”

Ciron knew the names of only a few students in the team he was watching now. He knew them from the first semester, but as far as Ciron knew, these students hadn’t particularly stood out.

Of course, they had the basic skills to enter Ivecar, but they hadn’t shown talent beyond that level.

Yet these students showed the same performance as Team 5 just now.

They dealt with the golem decisively and without hesitation, then moved forward.

“Unbelievable.”

Meanwhile, other teams were showing similar prowess. They, too, encountered golems in the first alley and dealt with them similarly.

Some had to defend because they couldn’t avoid, while some teams passed even more smoothly than Team 5.

“They were even faster than Team 5?”

It was Team 1, which included Max Jurod.

“I didn’t expect the level to be this high.”

Ciron marveled.

Ethan smiled contentedly as he watched them.

The effort put into education had paid off.

But the midterm evaluation had just begun. The real test was about to start.

“It’s amazing! Some of the children I know are there too, and they’ve completely changed!”

Not just Team 5 with Ethan’s favorite disciples, but all teams started moving at a rapid pace.

Although it must be their first time working as a team, they were cooperating remarkably well.

“Golem ahead!”

“I’ll go!”

“I’ll cover you!”

Despite differences in grade and age, they were one team at this moment. Formal speech wasn’t necessary for communication.

Whack!

As Ethan had said, the dungeon’s golems were like real enemies.

The golems attacked, perfectly reading the students’ movements.

“!”

Some students were injured, but they continued to advance without minding.

They were already accustomed to such wounds.

“Great Heal.”

If injured, they just needed to heal.

All 150 students were moving like experienced veterans familiar with real combat.

“No… have these kids become stronger than me?”

Ciron looked at the students in disbelief. The golem hunting by Team 1 he had just witnessed was truly perfect.

“They said he made combat machines, and it’s really true!”

“At this rate… aren’t we just going to win the inter-academy exchange?”

No matter how he thought about it, students from other academies couldn’t even compare.

Could Freya’s five stars move like this if called right now to clear this dungeon?

Iris marveled.

“He’s educated them perfectly, just as the subject name suggests. Who would see them as students? It’s truly amazing.”

She particularly noticed the students from the Magic Department.

Mental concentration is crucial for magicians.

However, this mental concentration requires considerable effort, and it often breaks during intense combat.

They can use magic freely in situations without any interference and tension, but in places like this dungeon, failures are common.

However, the Magic Department students undergoing the midterm evaluation weren’t failing their spells.

It meant they were maintaining perfect mental concentration.

“That’s not easy.”

Even Iris, a Magic Department teacher, wasn’t confident she could maintain perfect mental concentration in such a situation.

“Wow.”

Nadia smiled contentedly as she watched the Magic Department students.

“It’s really amazing how students can change drastically depending on how the teacher teaches! Seeing students who took my class show such performance in Teacher Ethan’s class… it’s truly fascinating.”

While the three teachers were marveling, someone else was watching this scene from the outside.

It was Ghost Sword, the principal of Ivecar Academy.

He was vividly watching the same scene as the teachers through an artifact outside the magic circle.

“Good heavens…!”

Team 5’s first encounter with the golem was surprising enough, but seeing the other students Ethan had nurtured showing such incredible performance made Ghost Sword’s heart race.

It was astonishing.

Ghost Sword’s mouth gaped open unconsciously at the students’ performance, their skills having suddenly skyrocketed.

“Teacher Ethan…!”

His worries were unfounded. No, this could even be seen as an understatement of the rumors.

“They say he turned rookie inquisitors into veteran-like inquisitors in a short time when he was in the Inquisition.”

The rumors were true.

“Are those really our students? I think there are even some new students. To think that students who haven’t even been here for a year could show such performance in a near-real combat evaluation… Hahahaha, to think I’d see such a sight.”

The students Ethan had nurtured, no, created, were so skilled that it was hard to see them as students.

Especially that unhesitating movement.

Ghost Sword particularly focused on the golems. The golems were moving in a truly dangerous manner. If any teacher other than Ethan was moving the golems like that, he would have to intervene immediately to stop it, thinking it was too dangerous.

One wrong move could potentially lead to irreversible injuries.

Since education should fundamentally be based on safety, such education couldn’t be allowed from the principal’s standpoint.

But the teacher of this class was Ethan.

“Without golems moving like that, training close to real combat wouldn’t be possible. And without such training close to real combat, they couldn’t show such unhesitating movements.”

It was a result that couldn’t be achieved without taking risks.

“When he named it Introduction to Practical Studies, I thought he’d just give them a moderate amount of practical experience.”

Everyone knows. That what students need is practical experience.

But it’s quite difficult to easily educate students on that.

That’s because practical experience comes with risks.

If by any chance a student gets seriously injured, it would cause an uproar in the academy. After all, all the students studying here are children of noble families.

But Ethan had erased all those seemingly inviolable reasons.

“If Teacher Ethan says he’ll do it like that, we all trust him now… Huh, so that’s it. So he raised them even more harshly?”

Whether Ethan’s education had seeped into them completely, there was not a hint of hesitation in the students’ movements.

“You’re going in like that there!?”

For a moment, a golem thrust its sword towards a student’s nape. And the student barely avoided it and charged in.

Seeing that scene, Ghost Sword was greatly surprised.

“This inter-academy exchange… we have no choice but to win. How could other academies possibly beat these students?”

There was no need to worry anymore.

While the fellow teachers and even the principal were surprised by the students’ level, Ethan was checking on them, pushing his Eye of Horus to the extreme.

“Hmm.”

The results of three months were clearly showing.

‘Each student has different characteristics and achievements.’

Among them, the highest achiever was Oz Lazarus.

‘Using Oz as the standard.’

Ethan raised the level of the students as much as possible according to that standard.

But when pushing hard to raise students’ levels, there are bound to be students who can’t keep up.

Especially when there are so many students like this.

But what’s the characteristic of Ethan’s classes?

Isn’t it the characteristic of taking care of each and every student thoroughly? That’s what the students were hoping for when they applied for the class.

‘It was really tough because of that.’

Ethan adjusted the intensity just enough for each individual student to surpass their own limits.

In simple terms, it meant he assigned appropriate class intensity to each of the 150 students.

‘Because the limits that 150 people can achieve are all different.’

And this absurd teaching method became an incredible experience for Ethan as well.

‘I broke through my own limits too.’

Right now, Ethan was in a state where he could perfectly teach any student and draw out their potential.

Ethan’s original skills had greatly grown through this grueling class.

That’s why Ethan was simultaneously checking on 150 students without much difficulty.

“Serazen, you couldn’t fix that habit. As expected, there’s nothing that can’t be overcome with repeated effort.”

The biggest chronic problem students had was habits.

These 150 students had learned from different teachers since childhood and developed their own unique habits.

There were good habits and bad habits, so Ethan tried to overlay good habits on top of bad ones.

Habits formed over more than a decade weren’t easily corrected, but at this moment of the midterm evaluation, there wasn’t a single student left with bad habits.

“No hesitation either.”

Ethan particularly focused on teaching students about mistakes made in real combat situations.

Among them, what probably troubled the students the most was hesitation.

-Gasp!

-Cut it! Remove the remaining joints!

-Confirmed!

Ethan particularly closely observed Team 5, which included his favorite disciples. The students had never actually cut a person or received an attack with real intent.

‘Because they’ve never experienced an enemy coming to kill them in earnest, they can’t do the opposite either.’

They can’t have the mindset and determination to kill the opponent in earnest.

When that happens, they hesitate when such a situation actually occurs.

Rather, because of that hesitation, they end up getting caught off guard.

‘That’s why noble children who learned in academies like this die when they graduate and go out into the world.’

Ethan had perfectly compensated for that weakness.

The students no longer hesitate. When a sudden attack comes, they definitely avoid, defend, and respond.

“If you don’t kill, you’ll be killed.”

It was quite a rough education to teach the high-ranking noble children in the academy, but there was nothing quite like it.

Slash!

The students who had passed the initial part and become somewhat accustomed began to advance quickly.

“Team 1’s momentum is good.”

Team 1, which Max belonged to, was advancing at a speed similar to Team 5. Especially with Max at the center, the command delivery was incredibly fast.

“Max Jurod, his situation judgment is very good. Where to attack, which direction to go. He makes the optimal decision in that situation.”

He understood why Claudie had made Max his favorite disciple.

“And Teacher Duty’s favorite disciple.”

Originally, Duty’s favorite disciple was Roanna, but since Roanna went to Ethan, Duty had firmly led the existing students and accepted a new favorite disciple.

“Harpie, quite excellent.”

Although she was a student of the Magic Department, she dreamed of becoming a magic swordsman. Because of that, it was much easier for her to accept Ethan’s teaching method, and it was also easier for Ethan to teach her.

Ethan checked and evaluated various students. So far, all the evaluations were good. They were doing exactly what Ethan had taught them.

There might be some who were lacking, but there was no one who couldn’t keep up.

But just one person.

There was a student who was just watching the situation quietly and pretending to respond.

“Roanna.”

Roanna Prochet.

She was part of Team 5 but wasn’t moving actively.

However, this was Ethan’s instruction. Ethan had intentionally told Roanna to move like that.

“The rumor that I’m nurturing combat machines spread because of Roanna.”