Chapter 259

Chapter 259

"Thank you for your hard work!"

"Well done!"

It took the three artisans four hours, but they finally succeeded in carving the magic circle into the deimos skeleton.

They congratulated each other without a trace of fatigue.

"Good work, everyone."

Benya, who had been waiting for them, came over to encourage them.

"Of course, young lady. It was fun for us too."

"It's not every day you get to touch a deimos."

Diego looked back at Simon with a soft smile.

"Now, don't you think it's time for the owner to start it up?"

"Yeah!"

Simon closed his eyes and connected to the deimos's mind. The skeleton, reformed and reinforced with jet-black, shifted for a moment before returning to the stillness of the dead.

'As expected, high-level monsters are different. It's resisting my control more than even the Overlord did...'

But Simon was confident in his control of undead and through repetition, he forced his strong will into the skeleton.

'Wake up!'

The deimos's bones, as dormant as fossils, began to pulse with dark-blue energy. Then, it began to twitch.

Within a matter of seconds, the bones were moving with the fluidity of flesh—the ribs were even expanding and contracting as if the corpse was breathing—and the deimos was pushing forward with the power and vigor of a large fish just pulled from the sea.

"Oooh!"

Exclaimed Benya and the artisans, as well as the numerous warehouse workers who were watching on.

'I really did it!!!'

No one's excitement could match Simon's. He had been involved in everything, from sourcing the materials to carving the final magic circle. This was the first undead he had put so much effort into from the very beginning.

"Watch out, it'll knock everything over!"

However, it was a bit too powerful at this stage.

There was no water in the room, but the deimos was flicking its way off the ground and around the room, knocking things off shelves and spilling buckets of dangerous chemicals.

"Th-That's enough!"

It was causing a mess. Simon, sweating profusely from exhaustion and panic, approached the wild beast.

Just as he went to touch it physically in an attempt to solidify the mental connection, it leaped up and smacked Simon across the cheek with its tail.

As Simon collapsed, Benya and the artisans burst into raucous laughter.

"The first time you wake up an undead, it's usually quite startled and moves rather different to how you'd expect. We tend to call it necrofever."

Now that Deigo mentioned it, Simon recalled the first time he'd built a skeleton archer, and more specifically when its skull bit his arm.

"...Maybe you could've told me a little sooner?"

"Sorry, we didn't even think to mention it."

At this rate, it seemed like the deimos would spend the rest of the day wandering around and making a mess of the warehouse. When Simon approached again, the artisans stopped him.

"Let it be so it loses its strength."

"It'll calm down in a few hours."

He couldn't wait for that, and he couldn't let himself be more of a nuisance to the people of Vanilla.

Simon mentally gave the deimos an absolute order.

[Stop!]

Immediately, the uncontrollable flopping around ceased.

But Simon couldn't let his guard down yet. He opened his arms in a gesture of peace and began to inch closer.

As he got within arm's reach of the skeleton, he slowly moved his right hand across and placed it on the boney forehead.

Then, Simon stroked it gently as if caressing a baby, and the deimos gradually calmed down.

The instinctual expanding and contracting of its ribs ceased as it realized it no longer had to breathe, and instead of resisting its new master's touch, it let Simon connect deeper into its thoughts.

Gathering his courage, Simon moved closer. He knelt down, embraced the deimos, and stroked its torso.

Exclamations of admiration came from the entire factory.

"...H-He's good."

"Kids from Kizen are just built different."

When the deimos had visibly calmed down, Diego approached.

"While we're at it, let's try 'that' skill as well. You remember how to do it, right?"

"Yes, I'll try it right away."

Simon sat up and closed his eyes.

He could clearly feel the deimos's thoughts and the presence of the circle, powered by jet-black.

He activated one of the circle's runes, then gave another absolute order.

'Tidal Cannon.'

The skeleton's mouth dropped open as Simon spoke. Within it, the jet-black gathered into a circle, sucking in everything around it like a vortex.

Simon pointed to an empty space.

"There!"

He wanted to ask a million things, but he held back.

Simon stuffed the letter into an envelope, sealed it with practiced perfection, and dropped it in his dorm's mailbox.

He spent the rest of the weekend practicing to control the deimos, going alone to a deserted beach so he could avoid standing out and exposing his tactic to the rest of the competition.

The next morning.

A new week had begun, and it was the first class. Jane's announcement jolted the students out of their weekend slumber.

"The third BDMAT exam is scheduled for the end of this week."

Agh...

Everyone knew it was coming up soon, but now it had become a reality. And a rather difficult one at that...

By now, the whole class knew that the theme was the sea, but fighting in the sea itself was quite a challenge.

'I have to wait all the way until the end of the week...?'

On the other hand, Simon, who had successfully obtained a new summon from the Balot fish market, was confident.

Of course, he wasn't looking forward to the test, but rather being able to put the deimos skeleton to work.

"And one more important announcement."

Said Jane, flipping to the next page of her document.

"There will be a Duel Evaluation prior to the BDMAT test."

Aaaaahhhhhhhhh...

There were sighs from all over the room. The BDMAT was bad enough, but a Duel Evaluation, too?

"Wow, I know Kizen is known for their rigorous schedule, but this is too much."

"Just training to get used to the sea is tough enough..."

Everyone seemed to be at a loss, but Meilyn simply scoffed.

"Just use what you've already practiced. You guys are overreacting."

Simon nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. Let's just do our usual."

"As expected from the upper squad! Your level of confidence is just different."

Said Rick, playfully. Simon and Meilyn were currently on the upper squad, and they were both undefeated.

Rick and Camibarez, on the other hand, had slipped a few times and were in the middle of the pack.

"Cami will move up this time, right? Since you improved so much over the vacation."

Said Meilyn, a twinkle in her eye.

Camibarez laughed and gave an uncertain smile.

"I'm not sure yet, but... actually, the middle squad is fine by me! I don't really want to fight Simon and Meilyn!"

"Wait! What's that supposed to mean? The middle squad includes me, grandmaster Rick Hayward, you know?"

"I'd fight ridiculous Rick any day of the week!"

"Fufufu... You know I'm not the type to go easy on girls, right?"

Declared Rick, playfully throwing a jab that ended half-way to Cami's face. Cami returned the favor with a clumsy but adorable fist bump.

Immediately, Meilyn's face lit up and she exclaimed, "Awww..." before bringing Camibarez into a tight hug, causing the poor girl to squeal in surprise.

Jane, who had been letting the students chatter away as she took the next set of papers, spoke up again.

"Ahem."

A hush instantly fell over the room.

"This evening, you will see your opponents on the bulletin board outside your dormitories. I want those in the lowest squads to focus more on their Duel Evaluations, and I want the rest of you to go all in on your BDMATs and do well. That would be all."

"Thank you!"

Jane dismissed the class early today. Everyone was laughing and gathering their things, when...

"Hey, guys, do you have a minute?"

Claudia Menzies and her friends came up to the stage.

"Y'all are sick bastards..."

Muttered Meilyn in pity. Claudia and Meilyn made eye contact, but they looked away before either one could say anything.

"We've been boycotting classes all week, but as you all know, Professor Belya insisted on keeping her insane and barbaric classes going."

The moment the word 'boycotting' left Claudia's mouth, Hector and his faction stood up and left the room.

Once she finished her sentence, Claudia remained silent for a moment as she watched to see if Hector would do anything else, but she spoke up with doubled confidence as soon as he was gone.

"This is not only a disregard of student opinion, but a declaration of war on human rights. If you get to your next class, Professor Belya will poison you again. She quite likely will poison you throughout the whole semester. What makes it worse is that the poison we're eating isn't even properly sourced. Who knows what side effects there could be? Choosing to let her abuse your bodies could lead to life-long issues that make all of your struggles at Kizen useless. I swear, that class is insane..."

Rrrrumble.

As she continued her speech, the door to the lecture room opened, and students from other classes burst in.

They were all part of the movement boycotting Belya's class.

"I'll beg you again, and again, and again."

Said Claudia.

"For the sake of our student rights, we need you to join us in boycotting Professor Belya's class."

——