Witch Troupe and the Undead

"?" Roach looked at Ms. Elena in surprise. "You really only want to say a couple of sentences?!"

Livia's schedule is very short, basically only 6 classes a week, which are held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and afternoons. The mornings are advanced courses in the Elemental Mystic Realm, and the afternoons are elective courses in the other three Mystic Realms (Death, Otherworld, and Void).

Although these three secret realms are universally reviled, just like Hogwarts has a Defense Against the Dark Arts class, you may not use the arcane rituals of these three realms, but you cannot be ignorant of them.

At the very least, when you're in a ritualistic setting within a deathly secret realm, you should know how to disrupt the necromancer's ritual, right? Or when you're facing a sinful ritual, you should know the necromancer's weaknesses and the purpose of the ritual.

This is why most occultists find it easy to switch to other occult domains; they don't use these forbidden occult rituals and spells not because they don't know how, but because they dare not.

Moreover, Livia had already "inspected" the academy's underground library yesterday. It contained books from all six secret domains, and the quantity was not significantly different. Of course, the magic books from the three forbidden secret domains were generally of average depth, only reaching the normal mid-to-high level, and there were no more advanced ones.

Roach, on the other hand, had a lot of courses. He taught about twenty classes a week, covering all students in the first three years. Everyone in the college was curious whether Professor Roach really enjoyed teaching. The courses he chose were all the type with many students and long class hours.

“Actually, I’m probably a little more relaxed than Livia,” Roach laughed.

“How could that be? You’ve chosen the most difficult courses. I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle it for more than two days!” The alchemist next to him shook his head. Teaching apprentices basic courses is the most time-consuming and laborious.

In other words, what are the simplest lessons for the "apprentices" are the most difficult lessons in the eyes of the "mentors"—because they need to chew up these things that are self-evident to them and feed them to these fledglings without choking them.

"Don't worry, I've prepared enough stuff to keep them busy for a month after school starts," Roach said calmly. He had a lot of experience in the Earth's education system when it came to "how to cram."

Quality education is Livia's business, while he is only responsible for filling these people's brains with knowledge. As for whether they can digest it... what does that have to do with Professor Luo?

Moreover, in this world that truly possesses magic, broken bones can aid their understanding of knowledge—yes, broken bones in both a literal and physical sense.

“Oh? For example…” Then this colleague was handed a test paper. “I think we should give them one when school starts, and then in the second class we can talk about the common mistakes they make, and then give them another one.” Roach didn’t even need to grade them himself; he could just leave the job to Leslie, who was literate, and just give her the correct answers.

After all, math and science exams leave little room for subjective interpretation, and on Earth, there are issues of flexible problem-solving approaches, which are not discussed in alchemy. Even if they were, Roach wouldn't dare let these people "solve problems flexibly"—who would be responsible if the lab exploded?

Therefore, all they need to do is memorize the principles, formulas, recipes, and calculation methods of alchemy and master how to apply them—once they reach this point, they will be more than capable of opening an alchemy workshop or a small shop selling alchemy tools in the countryside.

Anyway, these shops usually sell cheap minor healing potions, hemostatic powder, alchemical fertilizers, and the slightly better ones can make the most basic magic iron alloy, which can be used to forge some of the lowest-level alchemical weapons for novice adventurers in the countryside.

These weapons, crafted from alchemical materials, are unenchanted but possess unique properties. For instance, smelted silver is more effective than pure silver in killing certain monsters, while magic iron can effectively overcome the physical damage resistance of ferocious beasts.

“This is too rigid…” A female alchemist frowned.

“I think it’s good. These freshmen don’t need so many wild ideas. What they need is solid basic skills so they don’t blow up the lab or themselves,” an old alchemist agreed with Roach’s approach. “As for free rein, let’s talk about that after they’re in their third year.”

"That's true..." The female alchemist thought of the things her apprentices had done in her laboratory, and suddenly felt that the test paper, which was full of rigid, rote learning, suddenly became clear and attractive.

“However, in that case…” a general education professor also took the papers and glanced at them, “these young men and women won’t have an easy time for the next few years.”

"Isn't this great? If apprentices are comfortable, how can they be motivated to learn?" Spellcasters who came from the traditional master-apprentice system all think the same thing: if these little brats don't go through the same hardships they went through back then, then all their suffering was for nothing!?

Although this level of torment was quite "civilized" compared to everything they had experienced in their mentor's mage tower, it still somewhat made up for their dissatisfaction.

"But in that case, Master Roach, you'll soon run out of things to teach, won't you?" This doesn't mean Roach's skill level is too low, but rather that Roach will soon run out of things suitable for newcomers to learn and teach them.

"Don't worry, they won't learn as fast as you think, and..." What Luo Qi didn't say was that the tests he was currently setting were at the junior high school level, and there were also high school and university level tests waiting for them!

What would take six years to learn on Earth, it would be perfectly fine to make them learn for six years here as well. Not to mention that this is not just simple mathematical knowledge, but also includes elements of mysticism and metaphysics. The "alchemical calculation array" that is similar to the "matrix" on Earth is enough to keep these people entertained for a while.

When Roach first learned this, it felt a lot like matrices, but the underlying logic of the calculations was completely different. To give an analogy, it's like setting a premise that 1+1 doesn't equal 2, then deriving a whole set of arithmetic rules based on that, and finally connecting these rules with the arithmetic operations derived from the normal 1+1=2 to objectively solve something full of idealism and subjective concepts.

Roach simply couldn't understand the model, so he was only using it at the application level. In terms of theory, he was no different from these alchemists, and might even be much worse—after all, the legacy of the Mystic Sorcerers had left behind a large number of empirical formulas and theorems, which could be applied directly.

[PS]

The most terrifying story happened when I went to the hospital:

After completing routine examinations such as CT scans and color Doppler ultrasounds, no problems were found, but the person still experienced dizziness and fainting.

Well, to be precise, he has a bunch of minor problems. For example, they found some slight brain atrophy, but they couldn't find anything that would lead to serious consequences. He's being kept in the hospital for observation, and I estimate he'll have to stay for at least a few months.

Chapter 230 Only after leaving school did I realize I wasn't mentally challenged.

In the main teaching building, Natalia strode through the corridor covered with a thick layer of plush carpet. As a noble lady and a spellcaster, she was not a first-year student, but rather starting from the second year. This meant that she did not need to learn the basic courses from the beginning, such as literacy, general knowledge, and the basic concepts of mysticism and alchemy.

"Wait for me~" A blonde girl with pigtails chased after us from behind. "Huff~ huff~ How can you run so fast?" The girl was panting heavily, supporting herself on her knees. "It seems like today is alchemy basics class~".

The basic courses consist of four subjects: Alchemy Basics, Arcane Basics, Ritual Basics, and General Basics. Roach is not responsible for the Ritual Basics and Arcane Basics; he is only responsible for Alchemy Basics, General Basics, and Refining courses. He is only responsible for arithmetic courses in the General Studies course.

"Isn't there a need to rush? I heard it's a new professor."

"That's precisely why we need to arrive as soon as possible, otherwise it will be too late." Natalia knew Roach's level of expertise, and she also knew what kind of "gift" he would prepare for everyone during the first class.

It's important to understand that the Imperial Royal Academy is not like the "relaxed teaching" academies on Earth. In fact, even on Earth, the curriculum of these elite academies is very full, and can even be described as rigorous.

A second-year student at the Arcane Academy has to take four compulsory courses in the basics alone. Mysticism is divided into three arcane domains, general theory and concepts, and practice and rituals. In addition, there is a spell class and the history of mysticism, making a total of seven courses. In addition, there are three commonly used elective courses in alchemy: refining, potions, and creation (of course, those with rich families can choose to take courses in constructing and runes). There is also a compulsory course in alchemy runes and the history of rune evolution. Finally, there is the general studies course in identification (identifying magical items and potions, etc.).

In other words, even if they don't take any elective courses, they still have to take 14 different courses, a 797 life that's even more terrifying than the 996 work schedule on Earth. Of course, you don't have to take any of the above courses, since the college diploma doesn't look at credits, or rather, there's no such thing as a diploma in this era. They'll just give you a certificate proving that you've been in the college for a certain number of years.

However, academic credits are still important because they are related to whether you can get a degree certificate, or a professional level certificate in this world. For those who have spent five or six years there, they can't even get the most basic badge of a formal alchemist, let alone the title of arcane mage.

This is still the Arcane Academy, where the curriculum is relatively relaxed. If it were the other three academies with more courses, especially the Alchemy Academy with a lot of hands-on practice courses, the intensity of the courses would be even higher.

Especially the Alchemy Academy, which has the most books—Roche even had the same feeling as medical students on Earth—has about 40 textbooks—and most of them have to be copied from the library by the student or paid to have the academy's full-time copyists help copy them.

"I already learned the basics of alchemy at home, so there shouldn't be any problem if I go a little late, right?"

The four basic courses were mostly already learned by the young ladies and gentlemen of aristocratic families who had received some education at home, which was completely different from the children of wealthy urban families.

"If you're late, you won't be getting any sleep tonight!" Natalia said fiercely, but her face wasn't the kind that looked menacing. This only made the blonde girl find her unusually cute, causing her to let out a loud, mischievous laugh.

The classroom was already more than half full. It seemed that even though most people didn't think much of it, they still chose to arrive on time before knowing the new professor's attitude and personality.

"Oh~ Almost everyone's here, so I won't take attendance." Roach placed the roster on the podium, and his assistant, Leslie, brought in a large stack of papers and placed them on one side of the podium. "Those who didn't come are fine. I'll just grade them based on these papers at the end of the semester anyway."

Roach stated that he would not give extra points for asking questions in class or deduct points based on attendance like other professors. He has a better way to measure performance: "Yes, I don't know if you've actually learned anything when you come to class, but I know exactly whether you took the test and what score you got."

You can skip a single class, but you'd better actually know the material for the final exam, otherwise...

"Otherwise, I can guarantee that you won't even be able to get into the alchemy lab next year!"

Other alchemists might not be this strict, but Professor Luo is the one teaching now. Even Professor Luo himself might cause an explosion when he enters the lab. Letting these students, whose faces are still innocent and untouched by knowledge, enter the lab to complete Professor Luo's assignments—although he is not afraid of death, blowing up the academy would still be a big problem.

"Alright, please adjust your seats, with one seat between each person." Since it was a standard large lecture, students from all four colleges were present, including those from the General Education College. After all, as government officials, it wouldn't be acceptable to be completely ignorant of the basics of alchemy.

"Sit separately according to the four colleges, don't mix them up, and then the first row will come over to get the exam papers." Luo Qi very experiencedly divided the students into four rows, and then let the first row come over to get the exam papers for each college. The depth and difficulty of the papers varied from college to college.

The most difficult is the Stargazing Academy. They don't understand divination or stargazing, but they study astronomy and celestial bodies. If you're bad at math, you're doomed. Then comes the Alchemy Academy. Why? Because if you're bad at math, you'll really fail. Arcane Arts and General Knowledge are relatively simple because Arcane Arts involve too much idealism, while in the General Knowledge Academy, they only need a general understanding.

Natalia arrived early, so she was in the first row. Unsurprisingly, she received a stack of test papers, each consisting of four or five pages glued together.

Of course, Roach didn't just test math, but math made up about half of the content. The rest was indeed basic alchemy, the concept of mysticism, occult knowledge, and various content involving occult algorithms.

The questions on basic occult knowledge were set by Livia, since he didn't know much about this area either. As for the little witch, she seemed to have found a way to communicate with the senior apprentices in the future.

Roach glanced at the notes and books she had found, along with the copied questions, and felt a pang of worry for her future students—he hoped they were smart enough and determined enough—and not to doubt that they were monkeys and not humans, and to keep going! Fourth-year students of the Arcane Academy!

"As expected..." After passing the exam papers down one by one, Natalia began to doubt her life, because what was written on them was almost like gibberish. Who came up with such malicious questions? And why are we not allowed to use a ruler to measure? Why do we have to use deduction to calculate a geometry problem?!

Of course, she didn't ask why mages needed to learn geometry, because mages who didn't know geometry or how to construct with a ruler and compass would have been carried off long ago for drawing the wrong ritual array.

You know, even those wild mages in the village can draw a perfect circle and a regular pentagon in the shortest amount of time using only the simplest tools! What would happen if the regular pentagon were drawn incorrectly, or if the magic circle were drawn incorrectly? Even a witch like Livia couldn't guess what would happen. After all, correct magic circles are all the same, while incorrect magic circles are all different and varied.

"Let's do a basic test so I can get a general idea of ​​your level and plan your lessons accordingly." Although the class time seems long, it's actually quite easy if you spend half of it sitting in a chair watching students diligently writing.

"What kind of devilish question is this..."

"A hallucination, it's all a hallucination~"

"Did I go to the wrong classroom? This is a second-grade classroom, right? Hey, answer me!"

"I'm already dead, I can't answer you!"

Roach didn't forbid them from whispering to each other, or even from flipping through books, provided they could actually find the answer.

Reality has shown that the students at Imperial College have a really bad foundation, or perhaps it's because the other professors didn't really put in the effort. There's no education major in this world, so while these professors may be quite good themselves, their teaching skills might not be as good as Roach's.

Although he wasn't considered an outstanding teacher on Earth, surely he could have figured out and copied the achievements of hundreds of years of educational development on Earth?

The students at the Alchemy Academy racked their brains and resorted to a very traditional method to solve their problem: rolling dice. However, after finishing the first page of multiple-choice questions, they were met with a ton of increasingly difficult math problems, which only highlighted their despair and resignation to the thought that "I just don't know!"

The students at the Stargazing Academy are a bit special. First of all, even the slackers are a level above the others in math. At least after finishing the second page, they only start sweating profusely when they get to the third page, which is a strange mix of questions from the Little Witch and high-difficulty math problems from Roach.

But it doesn't matter. In a world where magic and supernatural spiritual power truly exist, the students of the Stargazing Academy chose to "do the work" over cheating, with many pulling out various simple and easy-to-understand divination tools.

Roach didn't care, because the methods in this world really worked. If they could get the answers from the spirit world or somewhere else, it would mean they had truly learned something. These basic knowledge wouldn't be of much help to them anymore.

The reality is that, putting aside the fact that these guys haven't even started practical courses in divination, it's questionable whether they can communicate with the spirit world or the astral realm using simple pendulums and crystal balls. The very existence of the spirits they're asking is also a problem.

Moreover, even if the spirit or some other being you consult can solve the problem, whether you can teach them how to do it is another matter entirely.

The Mystic Academy also employed various methods, including cheating. However, when everyone's skill level was roughly the same, such cheating methods served no purpose other than spreading a message of despair throughout the academy.

The only calm and collected group was the General Education College. They had a "you either know it or you don't" attitude, since most of them were just there to get a degree and didn't care about grades. Also, their exams were the easiest, so even someone who wasn't completely clueless could answer a few questions.

Before entering the classroom, those who were still trying to save face for the professor while getting through the long class time in a course they had already studied on their own all felt that time was urging them on like an invisible evil spirit.

Trying to kill time? Don't be ridiculous! These questions, composed of arithmetic symbols and "what seems like human language," have completely killed time and transformed it into a deadly demon!

Some students looked solemn and enlightened, others looked anxious as if a malevolent spirit was urging them to die, and still others looked confused as if they were wondering if they were even human. There were even those who performed rituals, prayed, or rolled dice as if they were about to start a gambling game – a true "hundred faces of people in the examination hall".

This did not affect Roach on stage at all. He took out a book of information about arcane sorcerers that he had just picked up from the library and was flipping through it. There was a cup of hot coffee and a stack of newspapers next to him. He sat cross-legged on the wooden recliner he had brought in, looking as relaxed as if he were enjoying morning tea.

After handing out the test papers, Leslie seemed to be bored out of her mind, except for occasionally providing scratch paper and ink bottles. She even suggested to Roach that she should bring her harp in next time to practice properly.

Then Roach looked at her like she was looking at a demon, "Are you going to play the harp to entertain a group of people who are already on the verge of going crazy? Aren't you really afraid of eating fireballs?"

"Let's use music to help them relax, otherwise what if they get a brain injury?"

Are you sure your harp skills are up to that level?

"Of course not, that's why I need to bring it to practice. You have to keep practicing, how can you learn without doing it?"

"..." Roach felt that if you were creating noise interference next to a group of people whose heads were about to explode from all sorts of strange questions, you could at least lower their average score by about 5 points. On Earth, the students' parents would probably be thinking about whether there was any word more aggressive than "beast".

"I wonder how Miss Livia is doing?"

"Hopefully everyone's alright~" We all know who's alright without you saying.

Classroom of the Life Science Department, Academy of Mystic Arts.

"Is the professor late?" Several students, already wearing the lowest-level arcane badges, whispered among themselves. They knew, of course, that the new professor was a genuine witch, and quite beautiful at that, completely different from the middle-aged women in the academy who averaged over forty.

A few minutes later, Livia rubbed her eyes and walked into the classroom. No one dared to rush her to class, and it didn't matter if she was late.

"Oh, is this the witch princess? She looks so cute~" Underneath the black cloak, she was still wearing a bathrobe and hadn't had time to change. She wore fluffy slippers on her little feet and dragged a long staff in her hand as she walked into the classroom.

"Ah..." Livia was stunned when she looked at the dozens of people sitting below the podium. There were too many people, which made her a little nervous, especially when everyone was staring at her.

After a while, she lowered her head and used her hat to block her vision, remembering that she was supposed to be in class. But when she opened her mouth, she didn't know what to say, so the atmosphere became awkward again. Fortunately, Livia quickly found a solution.

She raised her staff and tapped the blackboard, and a large number of words and pictures appeared on the blackboard, as if countless giant hands were writing something on the blackboard.

For those who were daydreaming, they had only briefly noticed the strange clothes and old-looking big hat of the new, beautiful female professor, and when they looked up, the blackboard was already a completely different world.

After writing what Livia considered to be "a few basic points of knowledge," she realized she should introduce herself. However, when she stood behind the podium, she found that the table was too high, so she had to run out and bring over a few books to stand on before she could show half of her body from the podium.

"Livia," the little witch's voice was soft, like a stream flowing over pebbles, clear and gentle. "It's a name." Then she didn't know what else to say, so she turned to look at the blackboard, which was now filled with dense words and pictures.

So she could only choose the simplest solution: to read the lesson plan aloud. This lesson plan was written under Luo Qi's guidance. However, the content was indeed not much and consisted of "small knowledge points," which was not at all the level of difficulty and depth that a fourth-grade student should be learning.

The expressions of the people below the stage became even more dazed and confused. Where were they? Was this still the academy? Why couldn't they understand a single word? Why did the ritual diagram on the blackboard look like something they had seen in a professor's research lab?

"Hmm... We've finished the theory of life evolution, and then..." Livia flipped through her notes, thinking about what to cover for the remaining half of the class.

"Mentor Livia!"

"Huh!?" The little witch shuddered, staring blankly at the guy who had suddenly called her name.

Can I ask you a question?

"Hmm... okay~" The little witch thought for a few seconds and nodded. Of course she could ask questions. She didn't really care if others asked her questions. In fact, she liked it. But... the premise was that she knew the answer to the question or knew how to explain it to others.

"I don't quite understand this ritual diagram..."

"Hmm?" Livia turned her head and looked at what she had written again. Was there anything she didn't understand? Wasn't there a step-by-step explanation and annotations right next to it? It was already very detailed!

"Why can this method extract life force from intelligent beings, but not from animals? And how exactly is life force differentiated?"

"..." Livia looked at what she had written for the third time. "Didn't you write it here?"

"But..." But I can't understand a single word. For the students, it's all just "input" and "output." As for the intermediate process and theory? They don't understand.

"where?"

"what?"

"Where?" Livia repeated earnestly, wanting to know what she didn't understand.

"Uh...all of them? Ah, I mean, except for the initial ceremony setup..."

"..." Livia looked at her lesson plan, then looked at the blackboard for the fourth time, and fell into deep thought. The classroom fell into a deathly silence.