Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 248

There was some dispute, but in the end, Simon was granted the exclusive right to a dungeon.

The queen and the treasurer were somewhat surprised by his choice.

They had been expecting him to ask for one of the kingdom's largest dungeons, potentially even one currently being prepared for raids, but his choice was far from that.

The White Tomb Dungeon.

The dungeon was named so because its gate was found in an underground tomb made of white stone. There had been several raiding parties, but none were even able to enter.

Perhaps some kind of special secret was hidden within. No one had been able to get through the gate, so raids had been withdrawn, and archeologists were investigating it to unlock the mystery of the dungeon entrance.

That search had been ongoing for the last 10 years. And Simon said he'd take that dungeon which was now a pain in the ass.

The treasurer was reluctant because of the dungeon's potential value, but it was an acceptable trade-off.

However, the kingdom insisted that if he took the rights, all archaeologists would be removed and they wouldn't provide any of the information they had gained.

The queen and the officials firmly believed that Simon would never be able to solve this mystery, which had eluded everyone for 10 years. They hoped that he would eventually decide to rely on the kingdom after making some concessions.

[Kuhahahaha! I know how to get in and out, so it doesn't matter!]

Simon had Pier. In fact, he knew the secrets of the dungeon.

After being promised exclusive access to the dungeon and signing the papers, Simon decided to return to Kizen.

There was no time to rush into the dungeon immediately, and the threat of Magnus still lingered. He safely received his 2,000 gold payment as well.

'It was a short but fruitful venture.'

Simon congratulated himself. Not just for the quick bit of wealth, but also surviving being caught in the middle of Serene and Lorain's conflict for the entire day.

That afternoon, he returned to Kizen using a teleportation circle.

Parting ways with the two, he arrived at his dormitory to find no one in room 409.

'Looks like they both haven't finished their missions yet.'

Today was the third day, so he assumed he'd be able to see their faces tomorrow.

Simon noticed a note taped to his desk as he leisurely unpacked his things. The crooked handwriting was unmistakably Rick's.

We're doing an emergency countermeasure meeting! Come to the address below with some clothes as soon as you see it!

Beneath the message was an address in Rochest.

It was getting dark, and street lights utilizing mana bulbs lit up the city.

'There are a lot of people even at night.'

Even the night continued to be full of youths as the curfews and other restrictions were removed during the mission evaluation period.

Also, since they would be busy preparing for the third BDMAT exam once they returned to classes the day after tomorrow, they decided to make the most of their holiday.

"So this is the place."

Simon arrived at the address on Rick's note. It was an ordinary two-story house.

The address indicated the second floor, so he entered and walked up a set of external stairs. He could hear people bustling about inside already.

"Excuse me."

Simon knocked on the wooden door leading to the second floor, but there was no response. The knock seemed to have been lost in the noise coming from inside.

The door was unlocked, so he cautiously pushed it open and stepped inside.

"Ah."

It was a cozy wooden treehouse. He was shivering a little from the piercing nighttime winds outside, so it was nice to be warm inside.

[Myaah!]

Little white and black kittens scampered over to Simon.

"Huh? What are they doing here?

They were kittens that Camibarez had fostered in the girls' dorm.

As the kittens clung to his feet and rubbed against him, he felt all of his fatigue melt away.

He squatted down and scratched the cats under their chins.

"Hey, what are you doing? You're late, come on in!"

That was a now very familiar sound, Meilyn's furious shouting.

"Simon~"

Camibarez poked her head out to see into the doorway and grinned.

"Hello!"

"Hi, Cami! So you were all here."

"Yes! Meilyn and I arrived this morning."

Simon changed into his indoor slippers and walked into the room. The cats meowed and followed him.

"You're here?"

Rick, who was sitting at his desk, smiled and waved.

Logs were crackling in a fireplace beside him, and the dining room table was set with light snacks and wine. There was also a couch overstuffed with various magical drawing tools and books piled up high.

"What's all this?"

Asked Simon, bewildered.

Rick gestured around the place as he boasted,

"I borrowed it for the night for the countermeasure meeting, and we're all going to sleep here tonight!"

"Countermeasures for what?"

"I guess you don't know yet."

Meilyn looked back at Simon.

"The theme for the third BDMAT exam has been revealed."

Simon's eyes widened.

"That, that's already been revealed?"

"Mwahaha! Who do you think I am? I, Rick the Great, gathered the information faster than anyone el—!"

"Don't be so cocky, everyone knows who you are now."

Scolded Meilyn, and Rick lowered his head with his lips pouting.

"Huhu, this isn't the fierce information warfare I hoped for!"

"But are you sure about this information?"

"Yes, I'm certain!"

Seeing the conversation going nowhere, Camibarez punched her fists together as she announced,

"The theme of this test is 'sea'!"

According to her, a large magic circle and an underwater testing ground were being built in the ocean not too far from Roke Island.

"The sea…!"

Simon's head was spinning.

He couldn't imagine a test in the ocean.

"I've been digging into the details of Kizen's logistics and human resources, and I'm pretty sure about it."

Rick placed his hands confidently behind his head as he continued,

"But Kizen headquarters is keeping a pretty tight seal on the test site, so we don't know what kind of test is taking place at sea."

"But we do know that the theme is the sea."

"That's right!"

Simon thought about it for a moment, and his head went blank.

'How the hell am I supposed to fight in the ocean?'

He could see why they had an emergency meeting. Simon had no idea how to fight at sea.

At least Simon had one experience fighting at sea. He had fought the traitorous Pinch on the island of 'Blue Harbor' during his second mission. But of course, he was wearing Pier, and it was more of a naval battle on ships than an ocean battle underwater.

"The sea is a necromancer's nightmare."

Explained Meilyn.

"Once underwater, jet-black magic circles have a hard time staying together and are easily scattered. The dark spells you can use are limited, and ranged projectiles like Jet-Black Arrows are slower underwater. Most of a summoner's undead are also vulnerable to the saltiness of the sea, and it's safe to say you can hardly use skeletons, as bones are lighter than water and will float away."

Hearing her explanation, Simon turned serious.

"Besides that, how do you breathe underwater?"

"Yeah. Breathing is the biggest problem."

Camibarez, who was curled up with the cats in her arms, said,

"Wouldn't we be fine if the test was battling on a ship?"

"It's definitely not a battle on a ship."

Rick laughed grimly.

"It's no secret that Kizen HQ is evil. I bet they wouldn't mind teleporting us to the middle of the ocean before handcuffing us to the bottom."

"H-Handcuffs…"

Camibarez's face paled. Meilyn interrupted, flicking Rick in the forehead,

"Enough of that nonsense. We must be prepared for a battle inside the ocean at all costs. Even if we will be on boats as Cami suggested, we must be prepared in case we fall."

"Yeah, that makes sense!"

Simon nodded in agreement, followed by Camibarez. Meilyn clapped her hands together, drawing everyone's attention.

"Then I'll command you guys as the group leader."

She pulled out one of the stacks of books on the couch and opened it.

It was titled [Necromancer, Survive the Sea!]

"Now that you're here, I'll start at the beginning. There's not a whole lot of dark magic for water, but it all utilizes advanced formulas that you only learn in the upper years."

Simon took the book and inspected the drawings for himself. It was a magic circle for making simple gills, but it was filled with formulas he'd never seen before.

A quick scan revealed that to make it, he would need to learn the runic language of 'limping,' and there were other runes he would have to go through before he could learn that.

"Most other books are like this."

"That seems a bit unkind."

"Haha, what do you expect? It's what necromancers do!"

Rick added,

"Necromancers are basically only interested in efficiency, so they develop the best magic circle they can. It's safe to say that you'll be hard-pressed to find a dark magic book outside of our textbooks that'll be considerate of beginners. That's even more true for specialized books like underwater dark magic!"

"So we have to make our own dark spells for the test?"

"That's right! You're quick on the uptake."

* * *

* * *

"Now…"

Meilyn looked around at the group, pausing to draw more interest before continuing,

"The first thing we must create is a dark spell to help us breathe underwater. In addition, we need to create a dark spell to attack underwater so we can intercept enemies at sea, as well as a dark spell that will help us move quickly underwater. Let's hurry, because we might have to take the test this week or next week."

Meilyn assigned the three of them their roles and divvied the work up.

"Then let's get started!"

Simon and Meilyn decided to take charge of the most important spell, the one for breathing.

They opened the books they had borrowed from the library and wrote down the most important formulas.

Once they'd created a possible magic circle, they'd test them briefly before taking them to professors and assistant teachers to check the reliability.

"Other than that, I'm surprised you managed to find so many books with everyone else also fighting for them!"

Meilyn smiled proudly at Simon's comment.

"I ran to the library as soon as I heard the information from that commoner."

The three of them swept through the dark magic books related to the sea. There were even some students who came earlier than them.

"Now, the laggards must be in panic when they get to the library."

"Good work."

Simon looked first at Meilyn's drawings of the circle.

"This is the air reservoir method of storing air in a magic circle."

"Yes."

"But if you want the circle to last longer underwater, shouldn't you add a formula to strengthen the bonds?"

She shrugged.

"There's no room for that. Look at the circle. It's packed as it is."

"Well, let's start with removing the unnecessary structures to free up as much space as possible. Like we can replace the complicated jet-black circuits with straight lines."

"You idiot! What kind of offensive spell is this? Turning the circuits into straight lines is just an airgun fire spell!"

"We can disperse the circuits at the end. Wait a minute."

Simon flipped through the book for the relevant article.

"Cami, can you find an example of how to disperse a circuit?"

"Yes, Simon!"

Camibarez was in charge of research and offensive magic.

She sat in a circle of books, flipping through them eagerly.

"What do you think of this one?"

"Oh, you found it so quickly! Thank you!"

Simon took the book, opened it, and corrected their blueprint with a quill pen.

"I'll try making it right away."

Meilyn created a magic circle in the air according to the blueprint, and when she let the jet-black flow, she found a leak in the middle.

"Failure, the jet-black is leaking."

"There's resistance on this side of the line, so the damage keeps piling up. Wait."

The four frantically worked on the underwater magic circles.

While Meilyn reviewed the runes, Simon took a break and picked up an unopened bottle of wine from the table.

"Can I drink this?"

"Uh-huh, feel free!"

Rick nodded.

Simon poured himself a little wine, just little enough to keep him from getting drunk, and picked up some appetizers. He hadn't had dinner, and he was hungry.

"Hey, Simon, check this out!"

"Sure."

Before they knew it, two hours had passed, and night had fallen. The development of the magic circle continued as they talked freely.

"Puh-ha-ha! Look at them!"

Rick pointed. Both the kittens had crawled into a single pot, snuggled together as they slept soundly.

Both Meilyn and Camibarez clasped their hands together as they squealed with delight.

"So cute!"

"Ughh, it's gonna give me a heart attack."

"Why don't we take a break?"

At Simon's suggestion, the two girls hurried over to the cats.

Rick sprawled out on the couch and closed his eyes, but Meilyn woke him up a moment later with a slap on the back.

"Simon, I want you to look at the attack spell I made!"

"Okay."

Camibarez had created a modified version of the Jet-Black Arrow, and he had already named it the Jet-Black Torpedo.

Rick walked up to the design, then let out an exclamation of admiration.

"Oh, it's got a lot going for it! Let's try it out."

"Uh, where?"

Rick ran to the bathroom and filled the tub with water.

"Hey!!!"

Meilyn shouted when she saw him.

"Don't do that! You're gonna cause trouble!"

"Dwont dooo thaaat!"

Rick's mocking was quickly met with a pepper shaker thrown by Meilyn. Rick quickly ducked and said,

"Hey now, it's not dangerous. It's just a dark spell about the strength of a jet-black arrow. It's okay, I'll take responsibility!"

Camibarez got into the bathtub a moment later and performed the spell under the water's surface.

At first, she was unsuccessful because the jet-black kept scattering in the water, but as she got used to the skill, the cohesion strengthened, and she could create a magic circle underwater.

"Alright! Shoot it over here!"

On the other side, Rick was waiting with a defensive magic circle spread out. Simon had been watching, and Meilyn, ignoring them, had finally gotten curious and was tip-toeing behind Simon.

"Jet-Black Torpedo!"

Boom!

Camibarez's projectile splashed through the water in the tub. Everyone cheered.

"?!"

Suddenly, the torpedo headed straight for them and hit Rick's defensive magic circle.

But instead of slowing from the impact, it bounced off the thick shield and was sent flying upward.

Both Simon and Meilyn saw where it was headed to but was too unprepared to do anything about it.

It hit the mana bulb above the toilet.

"Whoooooaaaaa!"

"Kyah!"

Rick and Camibarez stumbled out of the tub, frightened.

The mana bulb shattered and fell to the floor, and Rick tripped over the bathtub.

"Gosh! I told you not to do it, you troublemakers!"

Meilyn was angry, but her mouth was grinning in amusement. It was the same for Simon.

Camibarez bowed her head deeply.

"I-I'm sorry."

Meilyn lightly stroked Camibarez on the head, then glanced at Rick.

"It's all Rick's fault for making the shield too thick when it's for testing purposes."

"…Wow, look at you discriminating against commoners. You make me sick to my stomach."

As Rick said this, he climbed into the tub and looked at the light bulb.

"Oh, thank goodness! No hole in the ceiling, just a broken bulb."

Rick cleared away the shards and got a new bulb from his subspace.

He activated the magic circle in the ceiling, and the light came back.

"I replaced it with a better one, not a store-bought one! I don't think the owner will have any complaints, will she?"

Simon said with a smile,

"Make sure to tell the owner, though."

"Ah~ Of course, since I changed the light bulb, I'll beg her to reduce the room's price even more."

Everyone burst into laughter.

The emergency meeting continued deep into the night.

——