Under Bachel's guidance, they re-entered the teaching area. Traversing layer upon layer of spiral staircases, surrounded by pitch-black emptiness. Gradually, a dim light illuminated their path ahead, the rotating stairs disappearing behind them, replaced by an ancient, stone corridor.

This initial corridor seemed to nurture everything in the teaching area. Lime had solidified on the stone walls, showing traces of time. Candlelight reflected off the walls, emitting a faint halo. The air was mixed with the scent of ancient rock and slight dampness.

Each corridor had its unique markers, be it a certain carving, a worn spot, or even a special metal floor tile.

These subtle differences were important references for Bachel to recognize each corridor.

Lanqi and Huberrian followed Bachel's footsteps, passing through corridor after corridor, slowly penetrating deeper.

Finally, Bachel stopped in front of a delicate, small wooden door.

On the door were imprinted three demon seals.

"This is rumored to be a painting classroom, one of the few difficulty level 3 arts classes," Bachel explained to the two.

Hearing this, Huberrian instinctively took half a step back. She seemed to have a bit of psychological trauma.

Now, demon realm art appeared somewhat frightening to her.

She still couldn't forget the previous difficulty level 2 music classroom.

However, musical magic happened to match Lanqi's strongest suit, as his signature magic card [Great Love Poet] was a summoned creature of the musical magic type.

And now, they encountered a higher difficulty painting classroom.

"Lanqi... how's your painting?" Huberrian asked, looking at him.

"I know a thing or two," Lanqi replied with a composed smile.

"Mm." This reassured Huberrian.

Although she didn't know exactly how confident Lanqi was, trusting him wasn't wrong.

Next, Lanqi walked ahead and pushed open the door. Huberrian followed him into this small classroom that looked quite fresh.

The classroom space was circular, with walls made of gray-white stone slabs and murals. There was no traditional front or back, instead all seats were arranged around a central round table, forming a complete 360-degree view.

This design allowed the teacher to interact more easily with each student, and also made it more convenient for students to discuss.

It was also the most normal classroom Lanqi had seen so far.

[Seminar: Appreciation of Demon Realm Fine Arts]

[Location: f17 Corridor, Art Gallery & Seminar Study Room]

Clear text was written on the gray-white stone slabs on the wall.

It seemed that every part of the classroom walls could be used as a whiteboard for teaching.

The basic rules of this classroom were also very clear.

[No attacking other students]

[Content of this seminar: Appreciate whether paintings are "Yes" or "No" created by academy professors]

[Senior Professor Mr. Mogutte will randomly select works from the art gallery—]

[They could be paintings created by several art professors in the academy, or works by former graduated students, with differences in painting skill levels]

[Students need to distinguish]

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

When Lanqi and Huberrian entered and took their seats, there were only five students in total.

An elderly demon professor was standing at one end of the classroom, looking at the pocket watch in his hand, feeling that class time was approaching.

The demon professor silently opened the door behind him, went to the art gallery to push out a small cart loaded with paintings, then selected four from it, hanging them on the wall so that all five students could see them clearly.

"I am a senior professor of fine arts at this academy. I will first show you a few examples. For instance, these two are works by the academy's fine arts professors, while the other two are student works," Professor Mogutte, the demon professor, said unhurriedly, pointing at the paintings on the wall.

The few students in the classroom immediately turned their attention to those paintings, observing intently.

Since the forms of the paintings varied, with oil paintings, watercolors, and charcoal sketches among the four, Huberrian felt the comparison wasn't strong. In fact, she couldn't discern any difference in quality among the four paintings at all.

Meanwhile, Lanqi, resting his chin on his hand, glanced briefly at the four paintings before nodding slightly.

"The rules for the next part are: correct answers earn 1 point, wrong answers lose 1 point, and every five minutes without answering automatically deducts 1 point. If you have negative points, the professor will execute you."

"If no one volunteers to answer first in the first round, I will randomly select one person, then proceed clockwise to complete a round of answers. From the second round onwards, you can enter free-for-all answering mode."

"At the end of this class, not being deducted to negative points is considered passing, and the higher the score, the better the reward you'll receive. Currently, the highest record is 21 points."

Professor Mogutte looked around at the five students, explaining to them.

The recent students didn't seem particularly special, with little hope of breaking the record.

...

In the Magic Engineering Institute's laboratory, bright yellow light illuminated the cluttered workbench and array of tools. Despite it being late at night, several students could be seen sitting in front of a large screen, watching a live broadcast of the Shadow World that was as shocking as reality.

These students' faces looked tired but satisfied, their eyes fixed on the screen as if watching a competition.

The effect of this Shadow World program was truly explosive.

Although earlier in the music classroom, they had all been put through painful experiences by Lanqi, they had gradually discovered that Lanqi was actually quite the prankster. They had never seen such an entertaining Shadow World before.

"Will a difficulty level 3 classroom be even more terrifying than the previous difficulty level 2 music classroom?"

One magic craftsman couldn't help but share the same worry as Huberrian.

"Definitely, but even if I get tortured, I still want to see the Great Love Poet. She's really beautiful, I want to..."

"Ahem! One cannot and should not fall in love with magic cards! You must re-read Professor Polao's 'Ethical Standards for Card Makers'!"

"Speaking of which, if one doesn't understand painting appreciation, how can one distinguish these?"

The magic craftsmen in front of the screen began discussing after hearing the rules.

However, at another workbench nearby, a young man sitting on a sofa raised his hand and pointed out:

"Actually, besides the skill difference in paintings, there should be some traces of magical power left in the brushstrokes. If one has extremely precise magical power identification ability, one can detect the magical characteristics of the painter. By answering several questions and based on previous answers, one can gradually memorize the magical characteristics of several academy professors, making subsequent identifications easier and easier."

"The real difficulty of this classroom lies in the first few questions at the very beginning of the first round, which are undoubtedly the riskiest, because there's no information to build on, and one can only rely on pure analysis of painting technique or luck."

The young man's words made the second-year students in the front seats suddenly understand.

"As expected of Prince Ainor!"

A second-year student turned back and gave a thumbs up to the young man.

And the young man on the sofa was indeed Prince Ainor, the second prince of the Heton Kingdom, who grinned.

He looked completely without noble airs, just like an ordinary senior student.

"Didn't Lady Vivian say that this guy called Lanqi is very good at appreciating paintings? Wouldn't that mean he'd be like a fish in water in this classroom?"

The silver-level card maker girl, still accompanying nearby, asked Ainor.

"No, no, it's extremely difficult. The artistic styles of the demon realm's lost era are very unfamiliar to us humans. Even for me to appreciate those four example paintings, I couldn't be absolutely certain."

Ainor furrowed his brow slightly, pondering.

"Then if you were to appreciate the next painting, what would be your success rate of answering correctly?"

The girl asked, gazing at Ainor's handsome face that seemed otherworldly.

"A full fifty percent," Ainor answered confidently.

"?"

The girl was taken aback.

She thought, isn't a yes-or-no question always at least a 50% chance of guessing correctly?

Then she bit her teeth, holding back her anger, and tightly clenched her fists.