Chapter 328

Chapter 328

Simon had been tossed in the air five times by the surrounding students.

Then, while the heat of the mission success was still cooling down...

What remained of the boss monster melted into the ground as a light shimmered in the sky and gift boxes fell.

"That's crazy!"

"It must've been a mission with a prize!"

There was one for each of them. A gift box dropped in front of everyone. While this happened, Simon was still gasping for air, sprawled out on the floor from the shock of being tossed in the air.

"What's... inside the gift box?"

Panted Simon.

The crescent-moon-headband girl opened her box and smiled.

"It's a skeleton set!"

Hearing that, Simon immediately regained his senses, hurrying over to open his own box.

What they said was right. Moreover, it wasn't just any kind of skeleton, but a skeleton mage set made by the 'Franc' brand. They were one of Vanilla's strongest rivals.

'They're giving away something this expensive as a prize? The BDMAT this time is really something.'

It looked like they had prepared a gift for summoners since it was a yellow card game.

Simon had a big smile on his face.

"Everyone, good w—"

As he was about to give a congratulatory speech, Simon froze. All the students were smiling at him weirdly.

There was a quick exchange of glances between them, and they nodded one by one.

"Here, Simon."

The students began to put their skeleton mage sets down before him.

When eight skeleton mage sets were stacked in front of him, Simon said in confusion,

"Wh-What's wrong, everyone?"

The girl with the headband smiled awkwardly and waved her hand dismissively to say it was no big deal.

"We have a conscience, too, you know."

"Honestly, you did all the work."

"We're not Summoning aspirants, so we don't really need these that badly."

The Combat Dark Magic aspirant next to her put his hand on Simon's shoulder.

"Just take it. This isn't a request."

Then, he was the first one to leave through the portal. The other students followed after him.

'...Haha.'

Simon's eyes welled with tears.

It was a little touching.

* * *

"Good job, everyone!"

One by one, the students waved each other off as they exited the game. Simon also grabbed the skeleton mage sets and headed out through the portal.

When he left, four hours had already passed, and this round of the BDMAT was already over.

All around, he could see students laughing together as they headed back to their dorms or to the cafeteria.

Simon walked back to his dorm.

He had gotten two more cards this BDMAT.

However, that wasn't what he was most excited by.

In his subspace were two boxes of crystal skeletons and eight skeleton mage sets as prizes. It was such great loot that he wondered if it was fine to leave things like this.

'I can't wait to start assembling them!'

Simon's head was filled with thoughts of building the skeleton mages.

He decided to save the crystal skeleton for now since he didn't know what would happen in the future.

"Oh, you're back, Simon!"

When he got back to room 409, Rick greeted him boisterously.

He was already ready to go to the public bath and was waiting for Simon.

"The siege this time was also super fun! The tactics they're using keep getting better and better!"

Rick never stopped talking as they grabbed towels and made their way to the bathhouse.

He placed his arm around Simon's neck and said,

"Promise me that you'll play the siege theme with me next time, alright?"

"Fine, fine. I promise."

Apparently, the siege theme took place on the Kizen castle walls every time. Of course, the card's location kept changing, but it was certain that it was somewhere on the walls.

Simon promised that next time, he would join Rick in playing the siege theme.

"Ugh, my arms are so oily. Let's get in already!"

Shouted Rick, pulling the doorknob to the public bathhouse.

As the door opened, a shocking scene was revealed. Sweaty men were stripping off their shirts to reveal their muscular upper bodies, sending clouds of steam in all directions.

Behind them, naked male students could be seen rushing into the water. Rick quietly closed the bathhouse door.

"Let's just wash up in our bathroom."

"Y-Yeah."

For a skeleton wielding a weapon like a bow, their past experience before death as a monster was important. Because that was how you created weapons-wielding undead: from using the memories in their bones.

Skeleton mages, however, are undead that use magic. Any skeleton who practiced magic while they were alive fulfilled the basic requirements and can use any spell chosen by the caster, regardless of which spells they practiced.

Simon thought of Meilyn's ice magic, which he was most familiar with.

"Maybe I'll go with an Ice Bolt first."

Simon got absorbed into the formulas.

Then...

He had concentrated a little too much.

Knock knock.

As he heard someone knocking at the door to the common room, Simon looked up. He saw the dorm manager poking her head out.

"Th-That surprised me! Mister! What are you doing here at this time of night?"

"What?"

"Look out the window!"

It was already the early crack of dawn.

The kind of dawn where the darkness was gradually giving way to the rays of light.

Simon blinked with a vacant look, then slowly stood up.

"I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about, but please go and get some sleep! Well, not that you can even get much sleep at this point..."

Time had passed in the blink of an eye.

Simon picked up his precious magic circle sheet, folded it away into the box, and pushed himself up.

* * *

"I'll give you all a heads up."

It was time for the first class of the day, Summoning. Aaron scratched at his disheveled hair.

"Starting next class, we will fully start making skeleton mages."

The class cheered in anticipation at Aaron's announcement.

"We're finally going to make them!"

"An undead that uses magic! This is so interesting!"

But the assistant teachers looking at the scene sighed inwardly. These cheers would soon turn into screams and begs for mercy in the next class.

"You will need to bring a skeleton mage set."

Aaron began scribbling examples on the board.

"I'm not going to ask you to buy the expensive ones like the Vanilla or Franc brands, but at least get one of the models and brands I wrote on the board. Other brands have different systems for making skeleton mages."

Just then, Rick punched Simon in the arm.

"Hey, good for you, Simon! You happen to have the Franc brand, and we're all gonna make skeleton mages in the very next class, so you can just follow along!"

"..."

"Don't stay up till dawn again, man."

Looking serious, Simon locked his fingers together.

"When's our next Summoning class, again?"

"In two days."

"Then I have two more days left to finish it."

"...?"

Rick blinked like he wasn't sure he heard Simon right.

"No, what in the world do you mean you have two more days to finish? That's when you should be starting! Aaron and the assistant teachers will help you through every step!!"

Simon smiled without saying anything.

His goal wasn't to finish a skeleton mage. His final goal this year was to create a lich.

He couldn't let just a skeleton mage hold him back.

'No matter what, I'll finish the skeleton mage before Professor Aaron's next class.'

He had worked on the skeleton mage till dawn and found himself against a wall.

He wanted to break down that wall with his own strength.

"This should be something very obvious and I'm almost embarrassed that I have to mention this, but..."

Aaron slapped the board to get the students' attention once more.

"I want you to master the basics of jet-black elemental magic. You know, spells like Conjure Flame or Frost Bolt. I don't want any idiots who can't cast the spell you're going to have the skeleton mage use."

Rick's head quickly snapped to the side.

"Meilyn! I need some tutoring on jet-black elemental ice magic!"

"Ugh! You dumbassss!"

While Meilyn nagged at Rick, Simon was scribbling in his notebook.

Conjure Flame.

Gust.

Frost Bolt.

Simon was going to make three skeleton mages with three different attributes.

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