As if they were children, the Imperial Scholar began to explain the very fundamentals of math, down to the existence of numbers. At first, everyone could understand it without even the slightest issue. They barely had to think. However, as the Imperial Scholar went deeper and deeper, people began to focus.
Eventually, nearing the end of the class, he was still talking about addition and subtraction, but the depths he went into made everyone struggle to understand it.
Class was eventually dismissed, and Skymender studied with Miria at the usual restaurant. Occasionally, others would come in. After so much time, twenty points was not rare to have any more.
However, most only came a few times, and nobody really paid attention to each other. That was until a middle aged, nearly old man walked up.
"I'm not surprised to see you again, Miria." He said.
Miria looked over at him coldly. "Luke. What do you want?"
He smiled, though it was clear he was not happy at all. It was more provocative than anything else. "Don't tell me you're still hung up on last time. It's not that serious, don't you know?"
"We're not friends. What do you want?"
Luke moved around and sat on the other side of the circular seating, nearly blocked by fire. "Just eating. Don't think I'm here to see you."
The fire settled down and Master Chef Garb turned his attention to Luke.
"Hello again, Luke. You don't look a day under 40."
Although his words sounded rude, he spoke them merrily.
Luke smiled back at him. "I'm still only 26. Don't count me out yet."
"Haha! What can I get for you?"
Luke and Master Chef Garb began to speak, and so did Skymender and Miria.
"Was he also someone who attended the last Imperial Scholar Camp?" Skymender asked.
Miria nodded. "In addition to that, he was also the winner."
Skymender was surprised. "He doesn't seem like much. He is the one in fourth place, right?"
Miria nodded. "Luke is not someone you should take at face value. He hides in plain sight, unthreatening, but as the end nears, he will attack, and from my experience, he will win."
"Is he more of a threat than Charles?"
"I'm not sure, but we may see after this next test. If he is going to bare his fangs, now would be a good time to start."
After briefly warning him about the hidden threat of Luke, Miria and Skymender once again began to study.
Eventually, their food was ready and they ate.
Skymender returned to his room. He fell asleep and went to class the next day.
The Imperial Scholar moved on from addition and subtraction to multiplication and division. Naturally, this was even more in depth than addition and division were.
It got harder to understand much faster than it had yesterday.
He talked about these two for the entire class before dismissing them. The next day, he went over something more complicated, and the day after that, something even more complicated. Through his teachings and everyone's talent, it was quite easy for the class to move quickly for even the most complicated of subjects.
They went over math for a while, and when they finished, it had been two months since the start of the Imperial Scholar Camp. There was only a single month left to go.
Skymender now had thirty five Intelligence points, and was still at the top of the leaderboard.
The test was nearing, and it was undoubtedly an important one. There would only be a single test for the entire math section, and it would most likely be worth more intelligence points than all of the others so far.
It would be a deciding factor to the overall winner of the Imperial Scholar Camp.
At the end of the last lecture, where everything was wrapped up, the Imperial Scholar announced the test.
"Tomorrow, the math test will be taking place. It is very important and will most likely completely rearrange the standing. Come prepared. This will be the toughest so far."
With this, Skymender left. He did not meet up with Miria like usual, but returned to his room to study alone. They had already talked about everything he was going over, he was just going over it again.
He completely focused himself, not registering anything outside of his mind and what he needed to study.
When he came to, it was time to go to sleep. He woke up the next morning ready.
He walked to the Imperial Scholar Camp, where he sat down until the Imperial Scholar entered the room.
"We will be doing this test differently than a usual test, though that in itself is usual here, I suppose. Everyone follow me."
He walked out of the room, and everyone followed. They were led to a room which was filled with Scholars. The door led to the center of a room, which was lower in level than the seats that surrounded the circular area. It resembled a colosseum from ancient times.
All around the upper area were Scholars, at least twenty, holding paper and writing utensils.
"This test will be held in sections. After each section, your tests will be quickly scored, and the leaderboards shall update. I hope that you all perform well. Take a seat."
In the middle of the circular area were enough seats for all of the students. They were equally spaced apart and gave every student ample room.
Everything was passed out, including loads of paper and writing utensils. Finally, the test paper was given and the first section of the test began.
It felt rather simple, though there were indeed some harder questions later on.
After an hour, the test papers were taken back up and handed out to the Scholars in the room. Some students' papers were handed out to multiple Scholars since there were more Scholars than students.
They naturally had answer keys, and by splitting up into sections, the grading was done relatively fast.
The Imperial Scholar began to write the leaderboards on a large board.