Chapter 16

Necromancer academy’s genius summoner

Chapter 16

When all the students gathered and lined up, the assistant teachers approached. Then, they hung a plain, featureless white bracelet directly on the students’ arms.

It was pretty heavy when Simon moved his arm.

“Please flow the jet-black into your bracelets.”

“Huuff!”

“Wh-What’s this?”

The students’ bodies suddenly bent down.

“You guys are all familiar with the exhaust curse, right?”

Hong Feng smiled, putting her hand on her hips.

“The next course is over there.”

She pointed to the steep hill where the students had come from. At the top of the hill, the assistant teacher waved his hand, a flag fixed on the ground.

“You’re going to the top of the hill with an exhaust curse on you.”

The faces of the students all turned pale.

‘Wow, shit… Wait a minute…’

‘Isn’t this too much?’

But no one dared to protest against the professor of Kizen. Hong Feng gave a radiant look. 

“Please prepare right away. I’ll check who’s dropping out of the line.”

Only then did students grasp the situation and stand at the starting line with serious faces. Simon was already sweating profusely behind them. It was difficult enough to reach the start line with the curse on, and he was worried about whether he’d be able to climb that steep hill.

“Alright. Then, go!”

On cue with Hong Feng’s shout, all the students in Class A rushed out.

At first, everyone stood up and walked for dignity, even though the curse was heavy, but there were no exceptions as the incline got steeper and steeper from the middle part. Both commoners and nobles alike had to crawl while lying on the dirt.

“Huff! Huff!”

“Kuuugh!”

Painful breaths and moans broke loose from everywhere. Their whole bodies were covered in dirt, but they had to keep on moving forward since Hong Feng and her assistants were watching.

‘Phewww…’

Simon touched the ground with his bloody hands torn by the rocks and inched forward.

Every step was heavy. His vision was spinning and the sky turned yellow.

‘I’ll finish, no matter what.’

Studying in advance or whatever. This was the area of pure physical strength and will.

If I fall behind other peers from here, I won’t be able to catch up with them in the future either.

Simon somehow squeezed his strength out and climbed up while others were resting. He made his own pace and didn’t compromise on maintaining it.

Tremble tremble.

His arms trembled beyond the control of his brain, but he moved, trying his best.

He could see the end. The assistant teacher and Hong Feng were standing where the flag marking the end was waving.

‘Just a little bit more!’

Simon was in the lead. Although he wasn’t far from Rick and the other runners below, Simon was definitely ahead of the other Class A students.

But there was someone next to him.

Hector was climbing the hill at about the same pace as Simon.

‘……Dammit. So it’s you again.’

Hector looked at Simon while grinding his teeth.

He was getting sick of Simon. Simon kept on being an eyesore for him since the first class.

What was worse was that Hector was climbing up by reducing the effect of the curse of exhaust in his own way, yet Simon was equal to him while climbing up using his bare body, without using such tricks.

At this point, his pride didn’t let him lose. Hector also exploded his fighting will.

The slope of the hill became steeper as the flag got closer. The two, who’d place 1st and 2nd, increased their pace and distanced themselves from the runners below.

“Hang in there!”

Hong Feng clenched her fists and shouted. The assistant teachers also clapped and cheered.

‘I’ll be the 1st!’

‘I’m going to be the 1st!’

At that moment when Simon and Hector stretched out their arms,

Step.

Above their arms, someone walked, standing straight.

Unlike the two of them, who were all covered in dirt, a girl with light blue hair passed by with her skirt fluttering and walking with a gentle gait.

1st of Class A, Meilyn Vilenne.

She was the first to step to the top of the hill.

“Congratulations. You’re the 1st.”

“Thank you, professor.”

The assistant teacher standing next to her ticked her name on the list. Simon and Hector paused for a moment as they were gawking out.

“How did you do that?”

Meilyn raised her head and answered Hong Feng’s question.

“I climbed up after breaking the curse by calculating the resistance formula.”

Hearing this, Simon felt as if he’d been hit in the head with a hammer.

To think that you could just lift the curse instead of struggling with all your might?!

“Well done. Go ahead and rest.”

Meilyn, who politely received the drink from the assistant teacher, sat in the shade of a tree and leaned back.

This time again, 1st place was hers.

* * *

* * *

“Professor Hong Feng!”

Then an assistant teacher came up from the bottom of the hill.

“There’s an injured person! I think he hurt his ankle a little.”

“I’ll go check it out.”

She gleaned back towards Simon and Hector and followed the assistant down the hill.

“…Hah, I can’t believe this.”

And as soon as Hong Feng had disappeared, Hector, who finally ended up completely lifting the curse, got up. Simon’s eyes widened in surprise.

Tap. Tap.

Hector strode up the hill and reached the top. As he was registered as 2nd place, he took the drink and looked at Meilyn.

“Hey, you.”

She turned her head.

“What do you think you’re doing lifting the curse and climbing in a Combat Magic class? Do you think I’ve been through this because I can’t do that?”

“What are you talking about?”

Meilyn snorted and acted like it wasn’t a big deal.

“But then again, why would a young lady who was caged up inside the Ivory Tower understand the ways of the world?”

“……”

This time, her eyebrows twitched.

“Are you picking a fight with me right now?”

“I’m speaking the truth, not picking a fight. In any case, they can’t evaluate our grades during the student protection period. The key here is to appeal to the professor with a sincere class attitude. The foolish act you just did would never score anything towards her.”

Her eyes turned ferocious.

“You have such a distorted personality. Why are you provoking someone who hasn’t done anything? Was ranking 2nd that frustrating?”

“I’m just telling you not to ruin the class of Class A. And let me make this clear. I don’t give a shit about someone like you.”

Hector said so and turned his head. Simon was just climbing up to the high ground while whimpering. The assistant teacher smiled and handed him the drink.

“Simon Polentia, you ranked 3rd.”

“T-Thank you.”

Simon staggered and sat down in front of the shade of a tree out of his extreme exhaustion. He then gulped down the drink.

“……”

“……”

Meilyn and Hector’s attention lingered on him for a moment.

The three of them held their breath together in the shade of a tree, not saying a word for a while.

* * *

As time passed, the students came up to the high ground one by one.

Even those students who had difficulty in climbing hills due to lack of stamina were able to climb up slowly since the effectiveness of the curse began to decrease as time went by.

“I-I think I’m going to die, Simon.”

Rick also got pretty high results, but after a while, he joined the group of students vomiting from afar. Simon also went and patted him on the back.

Most of the students made it to the top except for those few people who showed signs of exhaustion, but the fatigue accumulated from this class was enormous.

When all the students were lying down, unable to lift a finger, Simon felt at a loss as to how to get back to Kizen. Half of Class A would likely fall behind if they had to ride the hippos again.

But fortunately, Hong Feng contacted Kizen and was given permission to use the simple teleportation magic circle.

“Woaaah!”

A magic circle spread out in the area where they had the class, and all you had to do was step on the magic circle to arrive at Kizen. The minions who brought the meal also came using this method.

The students were greatly relieved and headed to Kizen with the magic circle. Simon, waiting in line with Rick, also walked through the magic circle.

Whirrr!

The brilliant ink emitted from the magic circle wrapped around Simon’s body.

The moment when the teleportation was about to happen and he felt the sensation of both legs rising…

There was a huge thud!

He felt like something was blocked. Simon fell to the ground in pain, like he had hit a wall.

“……Huh?”

When he looked up, the surrounding environment around him had also changed.

Simon was alone in a small hut, while Rick, who had walked through the magic circle together with him, was nowhere to be seen.

‘This isn’t Kizen…… right?’

Simon stood up.

It had a familiar atmosphere, similar to the house he had previously lived in at Les Hill. It’s just that the hut was smaller and had a wilder feeling here.

The walls and the floors had unprocessed rough wood grains. There were also hammocks instead of beds and animal skins instead of carpets. And on one side of the wall, you could see salted meat being dried in the sun.

Click.

The door of the hut opened, and a tall woman entered.

“I’m sorry to startle you, Simon.”

“Professor Hong Feng!”

She smiled and offered Simon a seat.

Simon sat down on the chair with a puzzled look, and she brought out some tea. She then briefly explained the whole story.

There was some suspicious formula in the teleport magic circle, so she assigned the assistants to investigate it. There was a formula that sent a person to another place by resonating with their unique jet black. And the target of that formula…

Was Simon.

“Do you have any idea who would do this?”

Simon, who had no clue at all, shook his head. 

Hong Feng folded her arms.

“Hmm.”

Unlike Simon, it looked like she had a guess.

“So, I interfered with the magic circle and turned the coordinates towards my house.”

“Ah…”

“It’s also my role to protect the students from unknown threats. And…”

Her eyes sparkled.

“Actually, I also wanted to talk with just the two of us, Simon.”

“……Me?”

“Originally, it’s against the rules to have contact with students during the protection period, but it seems like there are people who already violated the rules, judging by the circumstances.”

Her expression, which was always smiling, became a little serious.

“Simon Polentia, why don’t you major in Combat Magic?”

Simon’s eyes widened rapidly, and she continued speaking.

“I’m willing to accept you as my disciple if you want to.”

“……Ah!”

A direct disciple.

It referred to students who were directly raised by the professors of Kizen, not anyone else.

A professor could have three direct disciples in one student year, and a student could only be directly taught by only one professor.

In fact, the benefits that Kizen students received from becoming direct disciples were innumerable. Above all, since the professors themselves had the absolute responsibility and guided the students 1:1, everyone wanted to become a direct disciple.

Professors also approached the selection of direct disciples very carefully, as they were directly related to their performance level, and there was a limit on how many disciples they could have.

However, Hong Feng said that she would make Simon her direct disciple from the first day of class.

“I…… don’t really get it.”

Simon was a bit confused.

Of course, he was grateful and appreciative towards Hong Feng’s direct disciple recommendation, but Simon thought that he didn’t show much in this first class.

He was merely following the class like other students, and even on the hill-climbing, he lost against Meilyn and Hector.

Besides, it was only the second day of school. Hong Feng chose him even though she could meet more students in the future.

Regardless of whether he liked it or not, he didn’t quite understand this situation.

“You guys may look at the rankings, but I look at the talent.”

Hong Feng continued with a sip of tea.

“The operation where you bounced off the jet black when jumping over the valley a while ago. That was your first time, right?”

“Nevertheless, your jumping power was the best in Class A. This was no longer a matter of talent or coincidence. And you also proved your stamina and patience by climbing the hill this time. Do you need any other compliments?”

Simon held his breath and swallowed his saliva.

In fact, it was still hard to believe, but it was hard to deny it when a professor from Kizen was putting it like that.

“That stamina, that mentality, and above all, a tremendous talent for jet-black. If you major in Combat Magic, you’ll show and develop your best talent.”

Hong Feng became terribly serious while locking her fingers. Her pronunciation in the continental language had also become more accurate.

“In a few years, I’ll make you stronger than me. No. Stronger than anyone.”

——