Chapter 255

Chapter 255

The Poisonous Alchemy class had begun.

A pang of empathy hit every student who met the exhausted eyes of the assistant teachers as they passed around the lesson's materials—the poisons.

Surrounded by silence, Simon tossed the first lump of antibodies into his mouth.

'Tastes like hair today.'

They say that humans are creatures of adaptation. Having done this for a few weeks now, their bodies had all gotten used to it. Now, they could tell when the drug had fully entered their blood without having to rely on the rough time estimates.

Simon just chewed lightly before gulping down the powdery mass.

He felt his body rejecting the foreign substance far less than it used to.

At this point, he just wanted the pain to pass quickly.

'Ughhhhh.'

As Simon felt the poison spread, he lifted his quill.

Belya had the students fill out a checklist of simple questions about the poison they just ate. Questions like what does the poison tasted like, what symptoms it caused, what kind of poison it seemed to be, and what poisons it resembled from the ones in the textbooks.

Finally, she asked the students to define the poison they had just swallowed in one word.

Simon wrote 'hair' in there. His thoughts were too foggy, so he just scribbled away without bothering to peer through the fog to find his more illuminating thoughts.

By now, few students vomited after eating the poison, and the pain became far easier to manage.

Someone joked that they felt like they were becoming a monster for getting used to this, and Simon laughed in bitter agreement.

Finishing the first dose quickly, Simon moved on to the next.

'This one tastes like fingernails.'

Of course, he'd never intentionally eaten hair or fingernails before, but something about it just clicked in his head.

Looking to the side, Rick was writing fruits for the taste, Meilyn was going for lipsticks, and Camibarez named colors.

By the start of the third dose, Meilyn had pulled a pre-prepared paper bag over her head in a familiar gesture, and snot dribbled from Cami's nose by the time she finished with the second.

As for Rick, the moment he swallowed the third dose, he stood up and said he was done.

In Group 7, Rick was the most resilient to the poisons.

But not long after, Simon felt the pain and nausea from the third dose subside, and he raised his hand to call over an assistant teacher so he could report that he was fine.

After turning in his checklist, he turned to leave for the next room where students were learning theory.

"Wait."

Called out Belya as she waved Simon over.

She was sprawled out in the back row of seats instead of her designated place at the front. Of course, they were all too busy dealing with the poisons to realize she had moved.

As Simon approached, she yawned lazily and tapped her fist on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, but please give me a massage."

A nearby assistant teacher winced at that and offered to do it instead.

"It's fine."

Simon smiled, standing behind her as he massaged her shoulder.

Belya stiffened momentarily, straightening up, but soon she melted completely at Simon's touch.

It was oddly quiet. Simon ended up laughing, comparing Belya to how a cat would be helpless after being grabbed by the neck.

"Whew, you're good."

Belya sounded genuinely surprised.

"Did you take separate massaging classes or something?"

"No, I just used to massage my mom's shoulders all the time, so I'm used to it."

"Ohoho. You're a dutiful son, huh?"

After massaging her shoulder in silence for some time, Simon whispered,

"Professor Hong will be worried."

Belya snorted.

"The bastard who cut off all ties with me after I was kicked out of the grasslands?"

"Professor Hong Feng has been planting wildlife known for its anti-toxins all over Roke Island and feeding her students a steady diet of drinks made from them, I think."

Simon added in a very small voice,

"She's doing that for you, Professor Belya."

"..."

She was silent for a moment. Simon was standing behind her, so he couldn't see her expression.

Then, suddenly, Belya reached out and grabbed Simon's cheek.

"P-Prrefeshar?"

"You're going too far with what you say. What do you think you know, trying to interfere in grown-ups' affairs?"Reêad latest novels at novelhall.com

She laughed mischievously and pulled harder on Simon's cheek.

'O-Ouch!'

Simon resisted as he squirmed in his seat, the pain bringing tears to his eyes.

"Bastard~"

She let go of her hand, revealing her sharp teeth as if in warning.

Simon nervously stepped on the magic circle. His body felt weightless for a moment before he landed on a different place.

"Welcome to the harbor city of Balot, my comrade!"

Simon opened his eyes to see a vast, endless sea.

Countless fishing boats were pouring in and out of the harbor. He had never seen a harbor this large before.

"To have good undead, we must first get good ingredients."

Benya pointed toward a large fish market that was mostly obscured by a swarm of people crowded around it.

"The fish market of Balot Harbor is the largest in the Dresden Kingdom! Shall we go conquer it and see if they have anything good?"

"Yes!"

The two walked briskly into the fish market where they were greeted by the distinctive stench of salt water and fish.

Simon's eyes darted around as he took in the brand new sights.

'Fish everywhere!'

He was overwhelmed by the number and size of the stalls. It seemed like every fish in the continent was on display here.

Behind the colorful stalls, fishermen and merchants shouted with booming voices that the fish were good today. He felt like he was amid a fierce battle, with fishermen and merchants calling out over each other about them having the best quality fish.

And it wasn't just fish. There were sea monster corpses, too.

Buried in ice, a fish with teeth too long to be a fish was still twitching like it was alive.

A sign above it read: Gerontos, level 4 monster, caught yesterday.

"Welcome! How fortunate for you to find my place here! The gerontos are good today! Do you want a taste?"

The roughly bearded vendor whipped out a fish knife and quickly sliced open the gerontos's flesh, filletted it into sashimi, and placed a piece on a cutting board.

'Poor fish, it's still alive!'

What was happening in this fish market was enough to even frighten a necromancer, someone who handled corpses on a daily basis.

"Go ahead, try it!"

"N-No thank you!"

Simon backed away with his hands raised in front of him, but Benya swooped in and grabbed a slice of the raw meat, popped it into her mouth.

"Mmm~"

Benya nodded as she chewed.

"Delicious! How long ago did you catch it?"

"It just came in last night. It's fresh."

Against Simon's disapproval, Benya pointed to the more mundane board of sashimi next to him, this board also from the flesh of a monster.

"Isn't this your first time eating monster sashimi? Try it."

'...'

Simon squeezed his eyes shut and took a taste. The sashimi slid into his mouth, and he chewed on the thick flesh.

"!"

It was thick and slightly acidic. But the acid cut cleanly through the heavy levels of fat—it was closer to red meat than fish in that regard—and it went down quite smoothly.

Growing up in the mountains, he rarely had the chance to taste sashimi, but this was the most delicious sashimi he had ever eaten.

"It's known that the meat of land monsters is not good, but interestingly enough, most of the fish monsters have high-quality flesh."

"...That's the first I've heard of it."

Benya turned to look back at the vendor.

"We're necromancers. Do you have any stuff we can use as undead?"

"Oh, your young looks hid that fact well. You two are necromancers, huh? And no, I'm out of today's supply because I used all of them for meat."

"Then we'll come back later!"

"Of course, of course. Feel free to stop by anytime!"

With that, the two walked deeper into the fish market. Benya explained,

"Balot is right in the middle of the home of necromancers, Kizen, and the royal city of Langerstine. Because of its location, there are many sea monsters along with the fish, making it a popular place for necromancers to gather ingredients."

"Ah, that's the first I've heard of it."

Somehow, he had a feeling that he would come here often for ingredients.

And so the two made their way to the depths of the fish market.

"There!"

They came upon an alleyway decorated with the cartilage of a deadly shark monster. Just looking at it sent a chill down Simon's spine.

Most of the people in the fish market didn't even look that way. When they had something to do nearby, they quickened their steps and stared intently in the opposite direction of the place.

"Hehe! That was just the normal fish market. Now, we're entering the real world of necromancers. Are you ready?"

Simon nervously gulped before nodding.

"I'm ready."

New undead!

Determined to find a way to fight underwater here, Simon walked inside.

——