It’s an Academic Fact That Rankers Are Model Students – Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Joint Research with the Elf (1)

As the inheritor of many things from Sever, Kyung-joon had finished what he had to do and found a clue for his air conditioner research.

He even received permission to use Frankel’s lab starting tomorrow.

“Teemo, find a library nearby.”

Guided by Teemo, Kyung-joon headed to the library.

Preliminary research was essential before starting his work in earnest.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

The Fairy-Elven Magic Academy library housed a vast collection of books.

Each floor had different book grades and access restrictions, but with Sever’s professor badge, Kyung-joon could access books up to the Rare grade.

Originally, the professor badge allowed access up to the Unique grade, but since Kyung-joon was currently considered to be ‘borrowing Sever’s badge,’ Rare was his limit.

『Introduction to Scroll Magic – by Royce P. Frankel-』

The book Kyung-joon opened was the textbook Frankel used for his Introduction to Scroll Magic class.

Judging by the author’s name, it seemed to be his own publication.

Rustle, rustle.

He began reading, turning the pages one by one.

What Kyung-joon wanted was to improve the compression magic used in the air conditioner.

More specifically, he aimed to completely revolutionize the way compression magic was engraved into the Magic Memory Stone to make it more economically efficient.

He had a thought while watching Ezeri creating a scroll during Frankel’s class earlier.

‘Maybe I can solve this problem by replacing the Magic Memory Stone with scroll magic?’

Just as TikiTiki mentioned that Hide Casting was the highest level of Spell Delay magic, Kyung-joon speculated that scroll magic must be superior to Magic Memory Stone.

An hour later.

Kyung-joon shared his first impression after reading the book with Teemo.

“…This is similar to programming.”

Programming.

Also known as coding.

About 10 years ago, it was one of the most popular trends alongside the AI boom triggered by AlphaGo.

As usual, the Korean government, always late to the party, jumped on the bandwagon, pushing for a Korean AlphaGo and incorporating software education into the curriculum.

Since then, Scratch, coding, Arduino, and IT academies have sprung up like mushrooms, and the proportion of coding in the curriculum has increased significantly.

Although the boom has subsided somewhat and is not as prevalent as it used to be, coding classes are still part of the formal curriculum.

Therefore, Kyung-joon knew what coding was to some extent.

“The logic of writing magic on a scroll is practically a primitive version of coding, isn’t it?”

<Master’s guess seems to be correct. There are a few unique aspects to magic, but based on what we’ve studied so far, it appears to be an early form of procedural programming.>

“Yeah. The concept of functions is still unclear. It just seems like a series of complex algorithms. So it’s definitely not object-oriented.”

That’s what Kyung-joon felt as he looked at the example of scroll creation in the book.

Scroll magic shares many similarities with programming.

And compared to real-world programming, it is structurally far behind.

“……Should I organize it and try to apply it myself?”

If so, he had to study programming as well.

<I think there was a book from another world on the first floor. I will search to see if there are any books related to programming.>

“Yes. Look for Python instead of C or Java. It’ll be easier for me to understand.”

<Understood.>

‘Python,’ the programming language with the lowest barrier to entry and high utility among various programming languages.

Kyung-joon was thinking of studying it and applying it to scroll magic.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

Ezeri, Frankel’s only Unique graduate student, was busy pulling at her tangled hair in the lab.

“Ugh, seriously! The qualifying exams are just around the corner……!”

Qualifying exams.

A process for graduate students to prove their abilities to continue their master’s or doctoral programs.

Those who fail this process are either kicked out of the lab or, in the case of more lenient schools, given a few more chances.

Fortunately, Fairy-Elven Magic Academy fell into the latter category.

You can try as many times as you need to pass the qualifying exams!

But that’s how difficult it was to pass.

Whether a student passes or fails is decided by the strict wizard professors of Fairy-Elven Magic Academy.

“If I get ink thrown on me again this time, it’s really over.”

In the tradition of qualifying exams at Fairy-Elven Magic Academy, if the wizard professors were not satisfied with a student’s presentation, they would throw ink at them.

Only a handful of graduate students here had never been splattered with ink!

To pass the qualifying exams, you had to avoid getting inked even once.

In other words, you had to get the unanimous consent of all the professors.

One might say it’s too harsh.

But the professors were adamant.

They believed that graduate students at this school, who were pursuing the pinnacle of wizardry, should be able to pass this easily, even if it wasn’t a regular undergraduate course.

A true wizard does not explain but persuades.

Something so captivating that just by looking at it, you’re mesmerized and persuaded.

That was the truth and the ultimate goal of magic that wizards pursued.

“How am I supposed to do that……! If I fail again this time…….”

This was practically Ezeri’s last chance.

She had no more money to pay the expensive tuition here.

She had used up all the money she had saved, and her parents back home told her to give up and be content with her undergraduate degree.

Therefore, if she failed this qualifying exam, she would have no choice but to drop out of graduate school.

That couldn’t happen.

‘In this day and age…… To live comfortably for the next 300 to 400 years, an undergraduate degree won’t cut it. I may not get a doctorate, but I at least need a master’s to teach at some rural magic academy and live comfortably.’

Ezeri was a very worldly elf.

‘If I drop out now with just an undergraduate degree, what else is there besides being a scroll merchant? Or risk my life as an adventurer somewhere! And I definitely don’t want to go to Dragonia and serve dragons……!’

She studied hard to live a comfortable life, but she hit a wall.

If she stopped here, she would have nothing.

“Sigh.”

Ezeri picked up a new scroll parchment and resumed her research.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just as she was about to focus, someone knocked on the lab door.

‘Oh, come on…! I’m swamped!’

“Who is it?”

Ezeri asked, forcing a cheerful tone despite her annoyance, and opened the lab door.

“Hello.”

“Oh? You are…….”

It was the black-haired human who had come to the classroom yesterday, saying he had something to discuss with Professor Frankel.

“Ah, right. Come to think of it, Professor Frankel did mention something like that yesterday……”

Upon hearing Kyung-joon’s reason for visiting, Ezeri barely recalled Frankel’s passing remark.

Naturally, her expression wasn’t so welcoming.

As if the upcoming master’s qualifying presentation wasn’t stressful enough, she had to babysit the professor’s acquaintance!

Kyung-joon immediately caught on to Ezeri’s feelings from her expression.

“I apologize if this is inconvenient.”

“Huh, uh? Hahaha! As if! You’re Professor Frankel’s acquaintance, which makes you my acquaintance too! Hahahaha!”

Ezeri, who was laughing awkwardly, suddenly stopped and slumped her shoulders.

Then, in a dying voice, she said,

“……Actually, my qualifying exams, you know, the master’s presentation, is just around the corner. If I fail this time, I’m doomed…… Sob!”

She seemed genuine.

Instead of the beauty of a youthful elf, she exuded the aura of a haggard student from the Shillim-dong cram school district.

Moreover, her lab desk was littered with snack crumbs and wrappers, as if she had been stress-eating.

Studying or researching in such an environment was impossible.

“This is garbage, right? Let’s clean this up first.”

“Oh, you don’t have to…… I’ll clean it up later!”

“Isn’t that how it got this bad in the first place?”

“Ugh! W, Well, you’re not wrong……”

“Let’s just clean it up.”

Finally, blushing with embarrassment, Ezeri joined in on the cleaning.

As she cleaned, she began to offer unsolicited explanations to Kyung-joon.

“Um, I’m not usually like this, you know……?”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It’s just that I’m so stressed out lately. About 15 years ago, I was a beautiful freshman…… Like other elves, I was very slender and good at dressing up……”

“I see.”

“I wouldn’t even touch snacks back then. I only drank dew like a fairy. And also……”

Kyung-joon responded appropriately to Ezeri’s sad excuses as he finished cleaning the lab.

He found an empty desk, sat down, and said to her,

“Well, I’ll be doing my research here. And you don’t have to look after me like Professor Frankel said, especially since you’re busy.”

“Oh? Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yes. I borrowed a scroll book from the library yesterday and took a look. It seems like I can manage on my own for a while. So, please excuse me.”

“Oh…… Okay.”

Ezeri looked a little troubled, wondering if it was okay to neglect Professor Frankel’s request like this.

But then she thought about her own situation and decided that this was better.

“Yeah, let’s do that. If there’s anything you don’t understand, don’t hesitate to ask.”

By the time she finished speaking, Kyung-joon was already engrossed in his studies.

‘Wow…… Look at his concentration.’

She used to be like that when she studied.

The black-haired human’s pure concentration stimulated something within Ezeri’s heart.

‘Right. I should study too.’

Being aware of someone studying next to her motivated her to focus even more.

And so, Ezeri also began to concentrate on her research.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

It had already been three days since Kyung-joon started working in Frankel’s lab with Ezeri.

“Could you spare a scroll parchment?”

“Huh? You’re already writing a scroll?”

“Yes, I want to try something out.”

Ezeri was a little surprised by Kyung-joon’s words.

To start writing after only three days of studying scroll magic……

It took her well over a month when she was an undergraduate.

‘He’s amazing for a human…… Well, that’s probably why he’s Professor Sever’s acquaintance.’

Ezeri thought Kyung-joon was an incredibly talented human.

She wasn’t wrong.

Kyung-joon, who possessed the Mythical Job ‘Infinite Knowledge Seeker.’

Thanks to his job bonus, the speed at which he learned about the game was practically beyond race and class.

After all, Kyung-joon’s job was literally ‘studying.’

“Here’s a scroll.”

“Thank you.”

“No need for any questions?”

“No, I’m good for now.”

Kyung-joon had genuinely not asked a single question in three days!

Ezeri had been subtly emphasizing how busy she was, but she was willing to answer any questions he might have.

She even asked him directly if he had any.

However, she felt a little disappointed when he said he didn’t have any.

Was this how professors felt when they asked students if they had any questions, but no one raised their hand?

‘……Let me see how he’s doing.’

About an hour after Kyung-joon started writing the scroll.

Ezeri adjusted her glasses and quietly stood up.

Then, she stealthily approached Kyung-joon from behind and watched him work on the scroll.

‘Oh? He’s really doing it?’

Kyung-joon’s mana-infused fingers moved slowly and delicately.

Immediately, rune letters began to be engraved beneath them.

Rune letters, the language of magic.

Naturally, Ezeri, an elf and a wizard, could read them.

‘The first line is about containing mana in the air. And the second line is about manipulating the mana contained in the air and gathering it in one place…… Aha, compression magic?’

She continued to observe Kyung-joon as he wrote the rune letters.

Then, soon, her expression morphed into one of astonishment.

‘What?! You can’t do that!’

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