Free Web Novel"I'm a little nervous..."
On the day of the final exams, Paqina and Loren were walking to the academy, and she looked extremely flustered.
"Aren't you always first place? What's there to be nervous about?"
"That's exactly why I'm nervous. If I do badly, it'll be a disaster... And besides, you're here this time..."
Paqina had always been the typical East Asian bookworm type, taking grades very seriously. Even meeting Loren hadn't changed that about her; in fact, it might have made it worse.
She was terrified that if she had one bad exam, Loren would stop liking her.
"Don't be nervous."
Loren placed his hand on Paqina's head, stroking her hair:
"It's just an exam. It doesn't determine anything."
Many parents cared about their children's grades precisely because they knew they couldn't provide a safety net for them, but Loren didn't need to worry about that.
With a single word from him, the child could secure a position as Bishop, a position that even many great nobles couldn't touch.
So, Loren could confidently say that exams didn't determine anything.
Among the group, only Paqina took exam results seriously. The others went to school purely for entertainment.
"If you need it, I can arrange a perfect score for you right now. You wouldn't even need to take the exam."
Loren had recently saved the country again, and this event, fueled by a group of nobles led by the Chailros family, had been widely publicized. People's admiration for Loren had risen yet another notch.
Forget arranging a perfect score for Paqina — even if Loren blew up the academy, no one would utter a single complaint.
After all, without Loren, this place might have been caught in the Abyssal Sea Collapse.
Hearing Loren say this, Paqina felt much more at ease. She shook her head:
"Forget it. I think with my abilities, I can still score a perfect score on my own."
"Alright."
Loren didn't press the matter. He thought to himself that if this were in the world before his transmigration, someone like Paqina would easily become the "other people's child" that parents always talked about.
"We're at the school. You have the written exam in the morning and the practical in the afternoon, right?"
"Yes, I thought you would only come in the afternoon."
"I want to experience what it's like to be an exam proctor."
Back when Loren used to take exams, he had always envied the proctors. Now, Loren wanted to try it out himself:
"Besides, I can keep you company, so you won't be so nervous."
"Is that so..."
Paqina felt a wave of warmth and continued walking toward the classroom. Loren followed her into the exam room. The moment Loren showed up, every single student turned to look at him.
Loren raised his hand and made a pressing-down motion, signaling the students to ignore him. Only then did they look away.
"Let me see the exam papers."
"Yes... Master Mentor..."
Loren didn't know the proctor, but the proctor knew Loren.
Bountiful Magic Academy valued exam fairness, so according to regulations, the exam papers were supposed to be kept confidential before the exam. But Loren's word trumped the rules.
Loren tore open the kraft paper sealing the exam papers. Inside was the history exam.
Bountiful Magic Academy truly cared about its students — the exam papers were printed using a printer imported from the domain of the God of Night and Thunder. In most places within the God of Bountiful Harvest's territory, they still used mimeograph copies.
The level of technology in this world was quite fragmented. After all, electricity was monopolized, so the fragmentation was to be expected.
"Master Mentor, it's time..."
"Oh, alright. Distribute the papers."
Before handing out the papers, the proctor first sought Loren's approval. Only after Loren nodded did he begin distributing them.
Technically, there was no need to consult Loren about such a trivial matter, but the proctor wanted to make sure Loren knew how much he valued him.
The exam began. Loren sat on the podium, watching the students. Yvonne was also taking the exam here, and upon discovering that Loren was proctoring, she became exceptionally meticulous.
Loren stood up and began pacing through the classroom, starting his proctoring duties.
When he came to Paqina's side, she immediately tensed up, and even her handwriting changed, becoming stiffer.
So Loren stopped disturbing Paqina. After circling the classroom twice, Loren yawned. Once the novelty wore off, proctoring was indeed a bit boring.
Bored, Loren simply closed his eyes and began looking through other perspectives.
The Abyssal Gaze Eyes on the Witches, the perspectives of the two puppets, and the mermaid he had refined earlier.
Normally, corpses controlled by a necromancer didn't share senses with the necromancer, and many corpses had no senses to share at all. But the undead Loren had refined were different.
Not only could Loren share their vision, but he also had the mermaid's eyesight. Even in the deep sea, he could see everything clearly.
"Fishing line..."
After all this time, Loren had finally spotted traces of the Angler.
A fishing line was connected to an undead — the wandering soul of a pirate. Subconsciously, it used water magic to grab fish, corralling them in a certain spot. The fish kept accumulating there, more and more.
The Angler moved slowly through the sea, and usually, the wandering souls it controlled would pile up food along its path of movement.
Since the wandering soul had started gathering food for it, it meant the Angler wasn't far away.
Loren controlled the mermaid, swimming along the direction of the fishing line. Her speed was much faster than that of an ordinary mermaid.
By the time the exam ended, the mermaid had finally reached the end of the fishing line. In that instant, the mermaid's vision went dark.
Because the mermaid had already entered the Angler's mouth.
This wasn't a big deal. The Angler's mouth couldn't close. Forget the mouth — even if it accidentally swallowed her into its stomach, she could crawl out.
Its mouth wasn't much different from a cave.
The mermaid swam a long distance before finally seeing the Angler's true form.
Its mouth was a full thirty meters wide. A normal person would never realize this was a mouth.
From a distance, it looked like a mountain. One couldn't possibly associate it with a living creature.
Given its size, it could swallow a blue whale sideways.
Most importantly, its body was covered in densely packed fishing lines. These lines were chaotic, yet they never tangled together.
Each fishing line connected to a wandering soul. These lost spirits each used their own methods to find food for the Angler.
The souls it controlled weren't just humans — there were also many deep-sea leviathans.
It was a cylindrical shape, with nothing that could be called a tail. Even moving depended on ocean currents.
...
"How do you think you did?"
After the exam ended, Loren walked with Paqina on their way home.
"I feel pretty good..."
Paqina was being conservative.
Loren had checked — these exam papers had been significantly revised. Many questions were ambiguous, allowing answers using textbook knowledge or the concepts Loren had taught. So Loren didn't have to worry that what he had taught might mislead the students.
"It's good that you're confident."
"I've already decided — we're going to the sea for summer vacation. Do you want to come?"
