Chapter 38

Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 38

The next day, the weekend.

Simon came down to Rochest for the first time.

“Wow.”

Rochest was a very youthful and lively city.

Buskings and events were held everywhere, and Kizen students were having fun in civilian clothes, dancing, and playing musical instruments.

Of course, it was small compared to the big city, Langerstine, but for Simon, Rochest felt more appealing.

First, Simon opened the map and stopped by the Necromancer shop. Rick personally recommended this store, saying they have the lowest prices.

As soon as he opened the door, a young employee greeted him warmly.

“Welco— Uhh?”

The employee smiled brightly.

“Simon! It’s you, Simon, right?”

‘……Who’s this again?’

Simon was putting his brain to work because of the employee who suddenly pretended to know him, but thankfully, he revealed himself first.

“It’s me, Rowen, the guy you met on the first day of school!”

“Ah……!”

That great, chatty person who rode the Nether Whale along with him. He was the first friend Simon made after coming to Kizen.

“Hi! I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Good to see you again! You’re Class A, right? I’m in Class D! Class D is also super tough! I never thought that the half-giant Chatelle Maerre would be part of my class! But there’s Special Admission No.1 is in Class A… Oh, right! You’re the Special Admission No.1! Woah, right. Yeah! That moment when your identity was revealed at the entrance ceremony, I could feel a shiver go through my entire body……!”

It started again.

Simon quickly changed the topic before it got even more complicated.

“By the way, what are you doing here?”

“As you can see, I’m doing my part-time job.”

Rowen shrugged his shoulders.

“I need to earn some pocket money. Part-time jobs at Rochest are great because their pay is pretty high.”

‘A part-time job, huh? Not bad.’

Simon was also starting to get worried about his wallet. It was too much for him to prepare the materials for classes with the monthly allowance that the school provided.

“Could I get a part-time job too?”

“Mm… To be honest, you’re a little bit late now! I think the vacant part-time jobs were all filled last week because there are so many people who want to do it.”

“Bummer.”

Needless to say, money was important, but he didn’t come here to talk about that.

As Simon told Rowen that he came to buy a skeleton set, Rowen kindly showed him where they were.

‘20 sets of Island Rat Man skeletons.’

A huge sum of money was used from the start, but he had no other choice. He needed a lot of skeletons for next week’s Cyclops performance assessment.

Of course, even if the skeleton’s lifespan expired, he could incorporate them into the Legion’s power, so there was no real loss either.

After buying some other undead materials he wanted for practice, Simon left the Necromancer shop.

‘Now, next is…’

Simon rustled and took out the note on the things he needed.

‘Weapons that skeletons will use.’

This time he headed to the weapon shop.

You could also buy weapons at the Necromancer shop, but Rick had a clever tip that it’d be expensive to buy them there.

“Welcome!”

A middle-aged man who ran the weapon shop greeted Simon with a bright smile. As he quickly glanced over Simon’s uniform, his smile deepened even further.

“What are you looking for? A new model of a jet-black sword made of obsidian was recently released!”

The shop owner handed a sword hanging on the wall in Simon’s hand and told him to remove the scabbard.

When Simon applied a little force, the scabbard opened with a clicking sword, revealing a black and shiny blade.

“Th-This is a great sword, but I don’t need this much—”

“Then what about this! Battle gloves for Combat Magic! Since it’s the latest model, its firepower is—!”

“I came to buy weapons for a skeleton!”

Said Simon quickly. The shop owner’s face quickly cooled, and he sat down and pointed to the corner of the store with a nonchalant face.

There were a lot of cheap swords on the shelf.

“Thank you!”

Regardless of the shop owner, Simon happily ran towards the shelf. Most of them were failures or secondhand products, but it was perfect for the undead to use.

Simon checked the quality by carefully unsheathing the sword, touching the blade, and bouncing it with his fingertips.

So he bought five swords, five spears, and two shields.

“I’ll have all these, please!”

Simon dropped all the weapons on the counter. The shop owner, who was sitting while resting his chin on his hand, asked in surprise,

“Y-You’re going to buy all of these?”

“Yes.”

The shop owner started adding up the weapon’s price with a much more loosened-up face. Still, he asked as though he was worried,

“Where are you going to use all this? Aren’t you a first-year? Even if it’s for a skeleton, operating two or three simultaneously would be the maximum.”

“Just preparing in advance, since the blade gets damaged very easily.”

A smile appeared on the lips of the shop owner, who was examining the weapons Simon had chosen.

“You still picked the ones that are in good condition at least. Looks like you’ve been handling a sword quite often before coming to Kizen.”

“It’s nothing like that. My father just taught me how to pick good weapons.”

“Woah, you have a great father!”

The shop owner let out a hearty laugh.

“Even though it’s the era of Necromancers and Priests these days, there’s something called fundamentals, you see. Fundamentals! If you’re a man, you should carry a good-looking sword on your waist and, you know? Be able to protect yourself with that!”

“Absolutely.”

Apparently, this old man had a great sense of duty in his job.

As Simon chimed in with him, the shop owner kept on bursting into laughter as though he felt great.

“250 silver on five swords of skeleton-exclusive weapon set, 200 silver on five spears, and 100 silver on wooden shields. It’s 550 silver in total, but I’ll just have 500 silver.”

“Thank you so much!”

“I should be the one to thank you. A young noble is trying to please commoners like us. Ah! Please wait here a moment.”

The equipment merchant went to the back and brought out a bow, arrows, and quivers after a while.

“It’s a bow and arrow set with high jet-black efficiency because it’s made of ebony wood. Originally, I should get 1 gold for this, but this time, I’ll just give it to you.”

Simon’s eyes widened rapidly.

“F-For free? I can’t receive expensive things like this!”

“Oh! This isn’t my first time doing business in Rochest. Even though I’m a commoner, I have a good judge of character. Just by looking at people, I can figure out if they’re going home soon, or if they’ll survive through to the third year.”

Said the shop owner while putting the bow on Simon’s pile of weapons.

“I’m giving it in a sense for you to be a regular at our store if you’re going to come to buy weapons for 3 years. Even better if you introduce our store to your friends.”

“But still, 1 gold is too—”

“Bows don’t even sell well in Kizen anyway. Don’t be too pressured to take them. You know how it is, right?”

“Yeah. I know, but……”

It would be rude not to receive it if he went this far. Simon bowed his head in gratitude.

“Please come again!”

* * *

* * *

Simon headed to the next place in a cheery mood as he finished his thrifty shopping.

He also purchased some materials needed for other classes, like Poisonous Alchemy, and placed them in the subspace.

‘Pier, I’ll be on my way now.’

[Got it!]

Then, he headed to the ruins to train with Pier.

He was a little afraid to go back to the Forbidden Forest, but Pier was kind enough to pick him up in the forest. As Simon rode on Pier’s back, they reached the ruins in minutes.

Click!

Clack!

“Were you doing well?”

As Simon entered, the conscripted skeletons approached him like puppies greeting their owner. Simon smiled and patted their heads.

“Pier, here. Skeletons for conscription.”

Simon took out the broken skeletons from the subspace.

Pier clicked his tongue.

[There are a lot of injured ones, huh?]

“A lot shattered from the last simulation battle, you see.”

As Pier put his hands on the skulls of the broken skeletons, dark blue flames burned like torches in their eye sockets. Now, the Legion had eight skeletons.

[Now it feels a lot more boisterous!]

“Nice.”

After the conscription of the damaged skeletons was finished, the two sat down facing each other. 

[As I said before, training this time will be pretty tough! Are you ready for it?]

“Yes, of course!”

There was not much time left until the Cyclops performance assessment. Simon was planning on maximizing his skeleton-operating abilities.

First, Simon assembled the skeletons he had bought from the Necromancer shop.

Soon enough, six skeletons stood in front of Simon with their weapons, and six conscripted skeletons stood on the other side.

Simon’s summoned type and Pier’s natural type each formed a team. The skeletons also started a war of nerves with each other, making a rattling sound as though they were aware of it.

[You said that the number of skeletons you can control simultaneously is two, right?]

“Yes.”

If he tried to control more than three units simultaneously, the thoughts in his head got entangled, and the command system fell into disarray.

Most of all, he couldn’t bear it as his mental strength rapidly went down, and a bad headache occurred.

[Hehehe, there’s no need to rush things! What matters isn’t how many units you can control simultaneously, but how well you can handle them, even if it’s just one or two!]

“Understood.”

[I’ll also control up to two units at the same time! Come at me, Boy!]

“Yes!”

Simon stretched out his right arm.

‘Charge!’

Two skeletons with swords jumped off the floor. Pier also made his two sword-wielding skeletons charge in.

Clang!

Kang!

A continuous clash. The harsh sound of iron hitting iron resounded as the swords collided.

As Simon was contemplating on what move to make next, Pier’s two skeletons with spears thrust their weapons from behind.

‘……Ugh, step back!’

Simon’s skeletons withdrew by a whisker. Then, Pier’s skeletons with swords in front pushed back the skeletons who lost their balance.

Clang! Clash!

Simon’s skeletons took the sword strikes in a precarious position with their backs bent.

Then, as if they were waiting, the skeletons with spears returned and hit the legs with their spears, and Simon’s skeletons fell to the floor, suppressed.

‘……I lost.’

Swallowing his frustration, Simon lowered his arms and turned his head.

“You’re cheating, Pier! You said you’ll only use two units at once!”

There’s no way he could win since it was 4:2. Pier chuckled at Simon’s complaint.

[What are you saying! I also controlled only two units, just like you!]

“Huh? What do you m— Ah!”

He did, actually.

Pier first moved the skeletons with the swords, then the skeletons with the spears.

He then returned to the skeletons with the swords again, crossed to the spears, and repeated the movement.

[Well, it’s not much of a big deal. It’s called cross-operation! It’s to expand the scope of limited control by quickly moving the control of the skeletons.]

“……Ah.”

[If you can’t connect to multiple skeletons simultaneously, the key is to operate two at a time and make all the skeletons move! Did you understand that?]

Step step.

No sooner said than done, two skeletons with spears came forward among Simon’s skeletons.

‘Concentrate.’

He made the skeletons with swords spread their palms. Then, he went to the skeletons with the spears and high-fived the spread palms.

“Like this, right?”

[……]

The corners of Pier’s lips, who had stood still for a moment, rose up.

[Bwehehehe! You’re certainly fun to teach!]

“What?”

[It’s nothing. Let’s move on to the real deal if you got the hang of it!”

“Ah, yes! Please come!”

* * *

On the first day of the weekend, Simon practiced undead control and cross-operation with Pier. As his skills had improved, Simon could now control up to 3 units.

The next afternoon, he returned to Kizen. He kept in tune alongside Meilyn, Camibarez, and Rick to practice for the actual fight.

Simon would try to buy some time with the undeads and the battle would start after striking the Cyclops with four Exhausts and one Dark Flare at the same time.

They’d gradually weaken the Cyclops, and the battle will end in victory after giving it two additional Dark Flares.

In order to reduce mistakes, they’d only practiced the same pattern repeatedly.

It wasn’t an Avalon simulation, and it was nothing but an imaginary battle fought in empty air, but that alone was exhausting. Everyone was sitting on the floor, chugging down some freshwater.

“Simon! That tutor you had in Rochest on the weekend… Who was it?”

Simon felt a sting at Camibarez’s question.

“I-It’s just someone I met through my father’s help. Why?”

“I think Simon’s undead control has improved by a lot!”

“Yeah. That’s actually true.”

Rick, who was lying on his back in the vacant lot, sat up.

“Now he’s using three skeletons at the same time. Is it even possible to improve your skill in such a short time?”

Meilyn also pushed her head in as if she was interested.

“What kind of person are they? A professional Necromancer? From Kizen?”

All of a sudden, the eyes of the three people were focused at once. Simon smiled awkwardly.

‘……What kind of excuse should I make?’

——