Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 71

Chapter 71

60 minutes had passed so fast.

When Simon solved all 20 Summoning questions and was making every effort on Combat Magic problems with Camibarez, the assistant teacher shouted that there were 5 minutes left in the test.

“Just guess the remaining questions! Write down No.5!”

Shouted Meilyn while finishing a short-response question. Simon also filled in No.5 for the remaining questions and then returned to the original question where he then ran out the clock.

“The exam is over.”

Said Jane.

“Everyone, put down your quills!”

“Hands on your head!”

The assistant teachers went around and retrieved the test papers and answer sheets. The students’ gazes, filled with deep regrets, were headed toward the test papers.

“Good job, everyone.”

The assistant teachers then handed out new test papers and answer sheets with explanations.

“We’ll announce the performance evaluation results after the midterm exams. For the rest of the period, we’ll have time to score your answers and identify wrong answers.”

“Yes!”

Simon decided to start by checking the group’s Summoning score. He firmly grabbed the quill with a pounding heart.

‘Please, go up…!’

He started scoring. Unlike the regular midterm exam, there were only 20 questions, but it was clear that his scores had improved, many problems being correct. Simon started summing up the scores of the correct problems with excitement.

And the result was…

“It went up! 84!”

It increased by 8 points from the previous score, 76. Obviously it didn’t seem like a big improvement compared to the amount of study he had done, but the amount of study required to go up from the 70s to the 80s or even from the 30s to the 40s was at a whole different level. An increase of 8 points was a pretty dramatic improvement, no matter what they say.

“……Uh, mm. Pretty good.”

‘Studying is fun when you get to see your improvements right away like this.’

He couldn’t make a proper comparison because the problems were different, but Meilyn’s score on the previous test was 85. This was enough to show Simon some hope in the midterm exam.

“Hey! Who solved these ones on Defense Against the Holy Arts!”

Meilyn, who was checking, burst into anger. Rick raised his head guiltily.

“I-I did.”

“You got three questions wrong here in a row! I mean, how can you even get this wrong?”

Meilyn poured out her fiery rage, and Rick lowered his head with a trifled face. At that moment, Camibarez, who was checking the paper, exclaimed with a “Whah!”

“89 on Hemomancy! The score went up!”

“Oh, for real? I love you Camiii!”

Meilyn hugged her and rejoiced. 

You could see Rick, who had gotten scolded next to her, stealthily racing his thumb up. Camibarez laughed and raised her thumb too.

And just like that, the checking was over.

“I expect us to be in the upper ranks overall.”

Meilyn folded her arms.

“There were points that left a lot to be desired, but we’d be at an advantage seeing as all of us have a different major. I don’t think our ranks will drop.”

Everyone nodded.

“And as expected from Professor Jane, the questions were nice. I think our overall grades will be alright if we thoroughly study what we got wrong here. Don’t show these questions to the other classes even if it kills you. And I also asked the class president to take control of the questionnaire.”

Her happiness made its way up into her eyes before her gaze shifted.

“And I’m telling you just in case~ I don’t think any of the members in my group will ever sell this questionnaire for money.”

Rick looked guilty, but quickly smiled and said,

“O-Of course! I can bear this much damage for Class A… Ah!”

“What’s wrong, Rick?”

“Come to think of it, there’s another Duel Evaluation tomorrow.”

Ahh…

Camibarez, looking jolly, suddenly turned glum and buried her face into the palms of her hands. Simon, on the other hand, was smiling.

“You gotta do one at least once a week. We’ll be in the upper squad if we win tomorrow, right?”

“Yeap.”

“Whew~ Simon, are you confident?”

Simon crossed his arms in response to Meilyn’s question.

“It’s just like usual.”

“Be very careful about tomorrow’s Duel Eval, Simon.”

Said Rick in a serious tone.

“Because rumors have spread already that you can use Golems, the opponent will probably rush an offensive attack from the beginning.”

“I guess so.”

“Now, now.”

Meilyn clapped her hands.

“The Duel Evaluation is also very important, so I’ll focus only on it tonight. Let’s finish ours quickly and study for the midterm exam.”

“Yes, Meilyn!”

“Ok.”

* * *

The next day, the day of the Duel Evaluation.

The 3rd indoor stadium.

Contrary to last week’s heat, the audience seat was a bit silent. Next week was also the midterm exam, so for the sake of managing the students’ stress during this exam period, scouts from outside were banned from entering the school.

Rick, Meilyn, and Camibarez also had Duel Evaluations, all in different stadiums.

An empty atmosphere like this felt more comfortable. Simon took a note packed with things to memorize and began to study the formulas. He couldn’t waste even a short bit of free time like this.

[Simon Polentia from Class A. Jessica Cananore from Class C. Please proceed to the stadium.]

Simon, who had been waiting in advance, got up immediately and went to the stadium. An opponent was walking in from the other side as well. Jessica was a female student with freckles and green hair.

The servants ran out and put protective suits on them. Then, the referee made a gesture.

“Please shake hands.”

Jessica approached near to shake hands. However…

Murmur murmur.

Simon didn’t take his eyes off the notes until the moment she approached. Then, as they got closer, he put down the notebook and held out his hand with a smile.

‘Studying for the midterm in the midst of this? What a weirdo.’

Jessica forced a smile and shook hands with Simon.

The two now slowly went a distance apart. When Jessica glanced back, Simon had buried his face in the notebook again.

‘So you’re ignoring a person in this way because you’re a Special Admission No.1?’

Jessica felt like she was being provoked a little. After a while, the two of them stood facing each other.

“Now then. We’ll begin the Duel Evaluation between Simon Polentia and Jessica Cananore.”

The referee’s arm dropped.

“Begin the match!”

Simon took out three skeletons while covering his face with a notebook, making Jessica’s face stiffen up.

‘There’s a limit to belittling a person!’

She immediately prepared dark magic in the palm of her hand. Simon didn’t show any sudden movements other than advancing the formation, so she successfully completed the spell.

“Poison Fog!”

The green sphere created by Jessica began to spew out Poison Fog in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, the entire stadium was filled with green smoke. The smoke was only thick in the central area Simon was in, and it didn’t reach the audience seat thanks to the magic barrier.

“Oh.”

Simon finally took his eyes off his notes and looked around.

“A Poisonous Alchemy aspirant.”

There was no information about the opponent this time. In order to not put too much pressure on Rick during the midterm, Simon refused him looking for the information in advance.

The protective suit covering Simon’s body repeatedly turned red and blue. It meant that he was continuously taking damage.

[Simon Polentia: 97%]

[Jessica Casanore: 100%]

‘Hmm… So this is how she fights.’

Laying a poison fog and gnawing at the opponent’s stamina, the Venomancer focusing on defending and countering.

Is that her plan? Simon also placed the notebook in his hand into his subspace.

Seeing this, Jessica made a satisfied smile.

* * *

* * *

‘That’s right. You should’ve realized that it’s not time for you to study for the midte—’

But as soon as he put the notebook in, a new notebook popped out.

‘This is lucky!’

This time, it was a notebook for Poisonous alchemy.

‘Poison Fog. A classic problem in Poisonous alchemy. A wide-range spell that can result in various effects to the opponent through the combination of poisons. Vulnerable to wind-based jet-black elemental magic, and the runes and formulas used are……’

As Simon studied for the exam, the first exam he had studied for in his life, he realized one important fact.

There were countless things to memorize in Kizen, but you couldn’t memorize all of them by locking yourself in the study hall all day and putting them in your head.

So, what Simon discovered was the association method. A method of imagining a character in mind by connecting it to a certain event or situation.

The most important point was that the content to be memorized shouldn’t be taken as the language itself! It was really easy to recall if he translated it into something like a living situation and understood it.

Therefore, studying Poisonous Alchemy in the current situation was something that Simon couldn’t afford to miss.

If he revised Poisonous Alchemy here, just recalling the battle with Jessica would remind him of everything.

As Simon began to memorize the words with half of his consciousness distracted, Jessica, the opponent, was dumbfounded.

Now, rather than feeling provoked, she was angry.

‘Ugh, so cheeky! I just wanna run up to him and beat the shit out of—! N-No! Don’t be swayed!’

This was Kizen. Putting your opponent off on their guard and provoking them was definitely a part of psychological warfare.

This should undoubtedly be an act to shake up my composure.

And isn’t it a good thing if the opponent looks down on me and gets careless? Don’t fall for provocations. I just have to put him in his place with my skills.

‘Anyway, his barrier gauge keeps on going down. If I just hold like this, then—!’

Ssshhhk!

Suddenly, an arrow flew in front of her face. Jessica moved her head, narrowly avoiding it.

‘……Th-That startled me.’

Cold sweat dripped down her back. Before she knew it, three skeletons holding bows were standing behind Simon’s back. Her eyes widened dramatically.

‘S-Skeleton archers! He can already use them?’

Looks like the news that he’s a Summoning aspirant who can use golems wasn’t just a baseless rumor.

Then, Simon, who was burying his face in his notes, stretched out his arm.

The archers went blank as the skeletons in the front rushed at Jessica once more.

‘Calm down……!’

She held a magic circle in her right hand and pulled out a poison potion with her left. As soon as she put the potion on top of the magic circle, the bottle shattered, and the poison in it gathered up.

She grabbed it with both her hands and swung it with all her might.

‘Poison Whip!’

A whip made of both jet-black and poison spread out and shattered three skeletons at once. Then, Simon raised his index finger.

‘Restore’

However, the shattered bones only flinched, and there was no reaction.

Simon put down his notebook a little and looked ahead. Every part of the skeletons’ bodies were dyed purple.

“Kabara’s Poison drastically reduces the jet-black sensitivity.”

Jessica grinned.

“Especially when it comes into contact with a skeleton. It neutralizes the remaining jet-black in the bones, making it impossible to restore for a short period of time. You didn’t know this, didn’t you?”

It was a move that Jessica had been preparing to deal with Summoning aspirants. Seeing that cheeky Special Admission No.1 with that stunned face, she felt refreshed and snobbish.

“Oh, I see.”

Simon took out a quill from the subspace with pure admiration.

“Kabara’s Poison…… Reduces jet-black sensitivity……”

Then, he started taking notes. Seeing this, Jessica’s forehead wrinkled.

“I’m… not… your…”

Three jet-black arrow magic circles began to form in front of her at a tremendous speed.

“Midterm exam teacher!”

The moment she was about to command the magic circles to eject…

Phew! Whoosh! Whiish!

The skeleton archer arrows passed through her magic circles. Her eyes widened sharply. The magic circles started to crumble and collapse as though broken.

“The important points of the jet-black arrow.”

Muttered Simon.

“Quick casting. Easy multicasting. Excellent penetrating power. The core rune language is projection. When writing the ejection formula, beware of confusing it with the elasticity formula, and……”

Simon’s cold gaze turned towards the magic circle.

“Be careful of damage to the uniting formula on the left side.”

“……You!”

Simon took out new skeletons from the subspace and made them run. This time, all three were armed with spears and shields.

Jessica bit her lip and pulled out a potion again to prepare for Poison Whip.

“The important points of Poison Whip.”

The three skeletons threw the spears held in their hands.

“It has a fixed magic circle that collapses when the coordinates of the magic circle are shifted.”

Jessica threw herself away in fright. The spear’s tip brushed against her body, and another one hit her thigh. Her barrier gauge was deducted, and the magic circle she was preparing was also destroyed.

“Kugh!”

Jessica, who had been staggered, was trying to re-ready herself, but a spear from out of the blue flew into her back.

“Kyagh!”

[Simon Polentia: 85%]

[Jessica Cananore: 52%]

She went down to a knee and looked back quickly. Before she knew it, a skeleton’s arms and shoulders had formed on the floor.

‘Don’t tell me…! Did he restore the parts that didn’t get hit by the Poison Whip so it could pick up a spear that fell on the floor and throw it?’

The offense had only just begun.

Simon’s command was so dazzling that anyone would be left wide-eyed.

“When deploying a jet-black arrow targeting an opponent running at 6%………”

“If one third of the arm and torso are judged to be impossible to restore, what’ll happen if you choose all the correct countermeasures for the caster?”

“If you change the jet-black composition of the skeletons……”

Simon murmured formulas and composed problems, predicting and figuring out all of Jessica’s movements and attacks.

Simon himself was also surprised.

Study and real fight were never separate things. As the theory was applied to practice, it helped him to make rational decisions.

The effort during this exam period made Simon’s movement more sophisticated.

[Simon Polentia: 76%]

[Jessica Cananore: 37%]

‘At this rate……!’

Jessica clenched her teeth. She’d be knocked out before Poison Fog could knock Simon down.

All of the dark magic she was using was fully seen through by Simon, and now she had to make a decision.

‘I heard that you’re strong at combat magic, but……!’

She ran to Simon, fists clasped with jet-black.

‘This is the only way I have left!’

Arrows from the skeleton archers flew from behind Simon, who was still covering his face with the notebook. She took the arrows with her body and rushed in.

“Hryaaaaaaaaah!”

Gathering all her strength, her fist rushed toward the notebook-covered Simon.

“……!”

At that moment, she lost Simon. She thought he had disappeared, and her fist flung through the air in vain.

Simon’s body moved like lightning and went down close to the ground before rotating as if sweeping around him. Soon, his leg rose like a pole and kicked up into her stomach.

Poooooooow!

With great force, her body flew straight into the air. Simon stood up, straightening his stance, and raised his arm over his head.

Rattle. Ratttllle.

The skeleton bones scattered on the ground floated as though alive.

With Simon clenching his fist as a signal…

<Simon Polentia Original – Bone Nail>

Pssssshhhhhk!

It flew toward her from all directions at a frightening speed.

‘Ah………’

She couldn’t dodge them in the air.

Jessica closed her eyes in resignation as she looked at the bones flying toward her.

Thuthuthuthuthuthud!

[Simon Polentia: 72%]

[Jessica Cananore: 0%]

“The match is over!”

Jessica fell helplessly to the floor, and the referee shouted,

“The winner is Simon Polentia from Class A!”

——