Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Simon smiled awkwardly.

“I was just lucky that it’s similar to a skill I knew.”

After gaining the momentum, Simon immediately started the second Circling. It was a lot easier than when he first started.

As Simon began to roll the jet-black in his palm, it felt like it was asking him something like, ‘Are we doing the same one from earlier?’

Like he was responding to it, Simon kept the jet-black’s rotation strong.

He was able to complete the Circling and insert it into the magic circle in less than half the time the first took.

Whirrrrrrrrrr!

Activating the 2nd corner, a few more runes came to life.

“Now there are two more left! Continue, Simon!”

“Yeah.”

Simon raised his concentration and continued Circling. The second was easier than the first, and the third was easier than the second.

Whirrrr!

Finally, a bright light lit up throughout the magic circle when all four corners were ignited.

Rattle. Rattlllle.

The skull began to come to life. It made a sound by clanging its jaw together, but probably because of the difference in material, it made a clearer sound than the Island Ratman skeletons.

At that moment, the skull jumped by itself.

“Ouch!”

It bit Simon’s arm. Even though it didn’t have any teeth left, its jaw was strong enough to bring tears to Simon's eyes.

“Ah, there’s a caution sign here.”

Said Rick while looking at the assembly drawing.

“Sapiros has a strong habit of biting anything that it sees. After activating the magic circle, step back and throw a dog chew or cushions.”

“Oh, tell me a little bit sooner!”

Said Simon while whimpering to remove the skull.

“I just discovered it. Apparently, if you connect to its thoughts and tame them slowly after a day or two, these aggressive tendencies will decrease a lot.”

“I don’t have time for that.”

Simon opened his eyes and glared at the skull.

“Get down here.”

The skull that had been chewing on Simon’s arm flinched. When Simon kept staring at it, it finally let go of Simon’s arm and backed away.

“You shouldn’t bite anyone from now on. That’s an order.”

The skull drooped and became quiet. It was as if its tail—if it had one—had fallen to the ground. Looking at this, Rick smirked.

“It’s as they say. There’s no such thing as a bad skull, only a bad summoner. They’re all so obedient in front of you.”

Now that he had activated the Summoning magic, it was time for him to assemble the bones. He took the bones out of the box and stroked the skull.

“Hang in there. I’ll make your body soon.”

As though it understood what Simon said, the skull jumped up and down the table as if it was excited. Then, it knocked Pier’s clone on the table, dropping it to the ground.

[Who the hell was that?!]

Pier’s voice echoed through Simon’s head.

[The newcomer this time must be an ignorant bastard! Tell him that he’ll be as good as dead when he comes down to Legion!]

‘……Haha.’

Simon placed Pier’s clone back on the table and started working. He proceeded to assemble the skeleton step by step according to the assembly drawing.

‘After all, this is the most fun part.’

The sensation of the skeleton's bones sticking together like a magnet from the attraction was pleasant.

However, the assembly difficulty was considerably greater than that of the Island Ratman.

‘Banding? How do you do this?’

In some parts, the user had to use a jet-black technique in the assembly stage, and some stages required you to use the chemicals included in the box.

Assembling the arms in particular was the hardest part. As skeletons were undeads with weak strength, you had to do various tasks to form the strength to pull the string.

He made the threads of jet-black pass through the hole between the arm bones and banded it with jet-black as though wrapping the arm with a bandage.

After applying an adhesive agent to the joint area, he waited until it dried, and when it became sufficiently damp, he applied heat to finish.

It was his first time doing this, so he was quite at a loss. Rick, who’d been dozing off for two hours, ended up returning to room 409, and the other students who occasionally stopped by the lounge were now gone.

Simon alone laid out the Summoning and Mechanics of Jet-Black textbooks and persistently concentrated on assembling it.

“Ah……”

Simon, who was insanely absorbed in assembling without realizing the time, looked out the window.

Before he knew it, the sun was rising.

‘It’s the first time in my life that every minute and every second felt so precious.’

Still, he had to see it to the end. Simon connected the last two leg bones he had completed.

“It’s complete……!”

An imposing skeleton with horns on its skull and a smooth, pure-white body moved its limbs.

Rattle! Rattlllle! Then, it ran all over the lounge as if it liked its body.

“Alright. Let’s go outside!”

* * *

* * *

Rattle!

Simon and the Skeleton Archer went out of the dormitory together.

The appearance of the Kizen campus spread out under the cloudless deep blue sky at dawn was just like a piece of painting.

Breathing in the fresh morning air, Simon shouted,

“Grab it!”

He opened the subspace and threw the bow made for the skeleton.

He was going to hand over the 1 gold bow that he uses, but it might’ve been too hard for a skeleton, so he decided to start with the easy one.

Tap.

As soon as the skeleton archer received the bow, its body trembled thinly as if it had foreseen something. It then immediately took a disciplined firing stance.

It held the bow with its left hand and moved its right hand behind its back. There was nothing there, but it whipped through the air like a broken machine.

‘……Don’t tell me, is it looking for the arrow from the quiver on its back?’

Skeletons were a kind of undead that retained the habits from back when they were still alive.

That was why the bones of monsters that used bows back then were used as materials for skeleton archers. The sapiros was also a half-human half-beast monster that lived in the forest and used bows as its main weapon.

“Here’s the arrow.”

Simon took out an arrow from the subspace and held it out. Looking at this, the skeleton archer approached with his back showing. His right hand was still scanning for nothing behind his back.

Simon let out a small laugh and put the arrow in its hand.

Tap.

It loaded the arrow with a lightning-like speed and—

Sssr!

It finished aiming by pulling the string with a skillful posture. Simon accessed its thoughts and appointed its target.

‘You’re going to shoot that tree.’

Things were getting nerve-wracking. Finally, it was the moment to see the results of his night-long work.

Simon gave orders with a pounding heart.

‘Now!’

Shhhhhk!

The arrow that flew through the morning wind got stuck on the tree with a tung! Simon clenched his fists and let out a cheer.

It was Simon’s first skeleton archer.

* * *

At the same time, Rochest.

An old building located a bit far from the center of the city. Under the stairs here, there was an unidentified underground operating room.

A man lying on the operating bed slowly got up in this space scattered with bloody tools. His lower body wore only underwear, and his upper body was covered in jet-black tattoos.

“Ugh.”

Due to the severe headache he felt upon waking up, the man rubbed his forehead and frowned.

“You’re awake, Harek Cork?”

His gaze moved. The door to the operating room opened, and a man with an exhausted face walked in.

“Ah, Professor Bahil!”

Bahil leaned his back against the wall and folded his arms.

“The operation was successful. How do you feel?”

“……”

Haren scanned his body covered in jet-black tattoos. Then, he clenched his right fist.

Jet-black was flowing like a spring and dripping down to the floor.

“……The power is overwhelming! It feels like I can do anything.”

“That’s a relief.”

Bahil smiled and continued his words.

“Now, go back to Kizen and take the class as usual. Never, never show your body to anyone. And refrain from taking a shower until the Duel Evaluation. Washing your hair or face would be fine.”

While saying so, Bahil threw the school uniform hanging from the hanger at Haren.

“The day after tomorrow, when the Duel Evaluation begins, the tattoo will naturally disappear from your body. It won’t get caught by Kizen’s doping test either. However, your Power, which has been strengthened by the curse, will last for about two months.”

Haren looked at Bahil as though he was touched.

“Professor, why in the world are you giving me this kind of help……?”

“Reason doesn’t matter, does it? You just have to do what I asked you to.”

Hearing that, Haren’s expression changed seriously.

“You mean defeating the Special Admission No.1 in Class A, Simon Polentia, in the Duel Evaluation? I see.”

“Exactly. Even if he’s a Special Admission No.1, there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re now far beyond his level.”

Haren clenched and opened his fists before checking his body. Then, he pulled out his own special skill, ‘Black Hand’, from his back.

Swaaaaaah!

A black hand was pulled out of his back, and Haren couldn’t help but be astonished.

Its size and strength were way different from before. As he spread out the black hand in front of him, it was large enough to cover the whole body. You could hear a savage sonic wave whooshing past as he stretched it out and swung it like a whip.

“Thank you, Professor Bahil! I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me!”

This insane sense of enhancement! For Haren, Bahil felt like a god for granting him such Power. So, he added one more sentence.

“If it’s that Simon Polentia is bothering you, shall I disguise it as an accident in the Duel Evaluation and kill him?”

That moment. Bahil’s smile hardened coldly. 

Kigigigigigigigigigi!

You could hear something like a cry of a ghost from behind Bahil’s back. Haren’s whole body trembled with pure fear.

“Don’t do anything stupid. You only have to do what I told you to do.”

Haren felt himself slowly suffocating. Eventually, he grabbed at his own throat.

“If something goes wrong and he dies,”

A creepy glare flashed in Bahil’s eyes.

“you and your family won’t be able to die peacefully. I’ll make all of you suffer forever, even after your deaths.”

“Kuhugh! Cough! I-I’ll keep that in my mind!”

As Bahil took back his aura, Haren gasped and breathed again.

‘How dare a bastard like you who can’t even be used as a sub-plan……’

Bahil turned his back and left the operating room. He wore a coat and a hat.

‘Simon, I’m sorry to use this kind of method, but I can’t help it.’

It felt like he was burning himself for success, but what Simon needed right now was a defeat.

If you fell into a terrible sense of defeat, you’d look back on yourself and ponder what went wrong. And then, you’d come to realize that the cause is Summoning.

The corners of Bahil’s lips, which went up to the tip of his ears, were completely twisted.

‘Someday, I’ll apologize for this. But in the future, you too will be grateful for the decisions I made. Without a doubt!’

——